1h mace+shield tank build

I'm planning on running a 1h mace+shield tank marauder, and was looking for tips on how to build my character. So far I planned out a build that looks like this:

Any changes I should make? I'm worried that my build will do no damage later levels, but I'm hoping that using Blood magic with a large life pool will enable me to just spam skills.

Hi b_d, hope you get some responses.

I'm currently feeling my way with a 1H weapon + Shield marauder (only level 11 right now) but I've limited myself to axes and swords to make use of the Cleave skill gem. Given it's my first character in OB and I have hardly any inventory, I'm beginning to think it was silly to limit myself to a certain type of one-handed weapon: if RNG doesn't bring me a better axe/sword + shield as I progress, my build is largely screwed!

Anyhoo, good luck! Watching this topic with interest. Two-handed or dual-wielding builds seem more popular so are perhaps easier to play. You may have set yourself a challenge playing 1H+Shield!

I, myself, have also been trying to muscle my way through the game with 1H+Shield. I'm at level 28 now and managed to defeat the last boss in Act 2 solo without much trouble. You will just need to be on the lookout for decent weapons, in some cases it might be worth using a few whetstones if you have extras to make a decent enough 1h weapon.

Also, make sure to use the trade channel! Many people have dozens and dozens of rares just sitting in their stashes. You might be able to trade a couple basic crafting items like orbs of chance for an amazing sword or axe that some level 35 no longer has use for.

I also think you are taking Armor nodes that aren't necessary. Later in the game your armor will not matter anywhere near as much as your health. Focus on health nodes over armor ALWAYS. I've posted a slightly altered build below that takes advantage of a few health passives you missed, and removing some of the armor points you grabbed allows you to get a bit more life in the center.

It's arguable you could drop a bit of the life in the center to grab a few damage bonuses to your weapon of choice down the road. Remember that Lightning Strike is a decent AoE ability, though it doesn't life leech nearly as well as cleave. But, by going mace you can use Ground Slam instead.

The build picks up on the most important parts of health tanking, after grabbing all of these items you can begin to head over to Iron Reflexes, grabbing Diamond skin along the way for a bit of extra elemental resistance.

Build:


Edit: Granted, everything I'm saying is mostly from reading just about every marauder build on the forums and piecing together the tank build from it. In my build I don't get any of the health in the center you reach out for and rather get some +% block from various parts of the skill tree.

Here is more or less the build I've been working on, not sure how it will be for a few more weeks:

This is a type of build that I have been looking at for a long time, and I believe that after farming HC with my witch for a while i will be taking a similar build path that I will outline for you.

First 26 skill points

Pretty straight forward here, going through the tree to get Resolute Technique(this is OP on tanks, with no accuracy and all), then follow up by getting the shield nodes a bit up the tree, 30% free resists with a shield is godlike (also quite possibly the best reason to use a shield), now yes you can itemize resists but taking this combined with endurance charges and maybe purity will give you 100-130% resists for practically nothing(depends on how much resists/endurance charges you take later in the tree)and will ease itemization a bit.

52 Points into the tree

Getting a bit tankier, alot of bonus health nodes and some bonuses to your shield, along with two endurance charge nodes and some percent life regen is making your enemies lives miserable trying to get any significant damage on to you, Gem and skill wise you should be running a couple of abilities on blood magic with % life leech (suggestions would be Leap slam and your choice of single target nuke) Along with Enduring cry and Molten shell, aura wise you want Tempest shield, with some combination of useful auras (suggestions are purity, Anger, Determination, and Wrath (just note that it is not a bad idea to have all of these available, then choose 1-2 based on what your party needs) and maybe one curse of your choice (suggestions are Punishment, warlords, and enfeeblement).

86 points in

The real meat and bones of the build has all come together, lots of endurance charges, passive life regen is hovering around 3.9 %. Running Unwavering Stance removes block animation because you cannot be stunned, and grace(with Iron Reflexes) + Determination + Tempest shield + reduced mana cost is granting you a huge defensive buff.

gonna sign off on that note, going farther in the build has a couple choices but not anything super significant, because this is the core of the build. I intend to add an items section later (which will include uniques to look out for) but i want to give a specieal mention to three uniques that are truly outstanding.

Kaoms heart synergyzes amazingly with % health increases and if you have it I very highly suggest taking more health and possibly some regen nodes, as this is an enormous increase to your survivability (and it does not detract from your skills, as the 6L is not important on a tank and you can run 8 skills with 6 supports and get full use of your build).

Kaoms Sign, these godly rings grant an extra endurance change, and because you are not reliant on gear for resists it does not detract from the option of prismatic rings.

Aegis Aurora, 4% of armor returned to energy shield on block? yes yes and yes.

Alright im done for now, will update some more later.