First time building/character, making a lightning marauder, help?

Here's the build I have right now: http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEAAdwB5wUtBqIQ8BQgF9wbqhv6IQIl3yi1KS4wGTIJNug6UjpxPfxAoE3jUEdQUFPfValVtVYEWGNY210AXz9gS2CIYVJtSnA-dO14DXrve4x8uIE6hNmE74ZgiO2Mz5B0l7Sbg57Nn8ugtKQZpzCpbqxZrK-suq-ivorDhsbY37_kUeeR567qGO9O8wb2SPcr-6r-jw==

I'm only around level 30 (close to getting Blood Magic right now) and before I get to into it I was wondering if anyone had any critique on the build? I know I'm probably going to fail at the later levels but it's all about learning after all, this is my first character. I'm going 1h/Shield if you hadn't seen and the purpose of this is to try to be able to dish out some damage and a little aoe damage while still being relatively tanky. I'm considering making a whole new build as the lightning strike does scale off of weapon damage so I'd probably increase my damage a ton by going 2h. Thanks guys sorry for the wall of text.

I'll just start with the first thing I've noticed: You've completely ignored Resistance nodes this will lead to some serious issues as you progress through the game, you really need to pick some of these up.

The few nodes you've taken to increase your accuracy won't do the job later on in the game you should definitely take a look at Resolute Technique, would help you out a lot and allows you to focus more on important nodes.

Furthermore you've taken a bit of a strange path over the skill tree and I'm kinda wondering why you didn't head up to the templar area of the tree especially since you want to make a lightning based character.
The templar area would provide both good survivability and a significant increase in your weapon elemental damage something I personally would always prefer over nodes limiting you to a certain weapon type.

/2 cents

I really wanted to get blood magic so that's why I started heading down, lightning damage from it is based off of physical damage but not from melee physical damage (strength) so the melee physical damage benefits the lightning strike's damage I believe. I did look at the templar and I just didn't want to go all of the elemental damage and maneuver around all the intelligence nodes. Sorry if it doesn't really make since this is my first character, I'm still a scrub. Thanks for the help.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEAAnEEsw48FE0UcRkuHOcg8CECJIsn7SkuMBkyiTpSOtg9Dz38ROdQUFcNV-JYY18_ah5qO3A-cql3Ynfle4x8uHy7fNmEY4zPkHSezaC0ogCnMKgYrKq0-cT2xYrG2NIh2WHfv-RR5PHnruw48B_yL_ZI9yv7qg==

Is this any better? I feel like it's really sloppy and bad but I'm really being stubborn on the blood magic.

You've got me wrong on the Blood Magic thing, thats actually a great keystone you should definitely take, what i critisized was the Sword damage nodes and life nodes in the middle of the tree that kinda made your build derail a little bit.

When it comes to increased physical damage Lightning Strike does indeed profit from that since it takes a percentage of your physical damage into consideration however with the elemental weapon damage nodes you get the better dps with less passive points used.


Your reworked version of the build looks really good from your position in the templar area now you can either get survivability or more damage, whatever fits your needs well, something I've got to mention is the Static Blows Keystone wich you could consider heading for I'm personally a great fan of this skill in any LS build.

Yeah I got what you said I just phrased it really poorly as I was in a rush to get out for work as you can see in my build I ignored the ranger part of the tree and didn't derail as bad. Thanks for the help, I'm a lot more satisfied with my build. I may drop some of the melee damage nodes for more resistance and then just get a bit more melee elemental damage, thanks dude.

Glad i was able to help :)