Think I'm Done With This

Let me try and help you here. I am running a marauder with more or less identical spec as yours. I did not take blood magic and i took base 2h damage from the start of mara tree.

Cruel was difficult, yes. What you need in order to be really effective is the following.

Determination, grace and clarity auras. You do not need to level up clarity much, or you can skip it altogether if you find decent mana leech on equipment. If you want more damage, go for hatred aura as well.

Determination and grace combined with iron reflexes work wonders for your phys reduction.

The trick is to put percentage auras(determination,hatred) on mana bar and numerical(clarity, grace) on your life bar via blood magic support gem. Also, reduced mana gem is more or less a must. That is why blood magic is really a waste. You lose one whole resource. Not worth it at all.

Also, what you need aside from your life nodes is the actual life on gear. I was neglecting that completely and that is why i found cruel A LOT more difficult than merciless.

So, to sum it up :

You need maximum life on gear, you need auras(determination and grace at least) and as you might well know, resistances and a big 2h mace :)


Just to say this, do not give up on marauder. It is quite easily the most OP class in the game atm, judging from my experience. I am really enjoying smashing skulls :)

I don't understand...

You are done with this game because you cannot overcome some challenges in it?

From the sounds of it, it seems like you aren't trying and just want the game to be a cakewalk where you don't have to think about your links, build, weapon and other items

You have something like 60% armor and 10% all resist available in 5 skill points.