Bandit quest rewards with tank

When playing a good old tank, what would your choices be? I would say that helping a bandit is better than going for the passive point, at least on normal and cruel. On merciless I guess you'd have to consider if you are using charges (or if you perhaps should) but I haven't got that far anyway.

Even so, opting out the passive and Alira who will never be much help to a classical Marauder it is not an obvious choice.

Normal:
+40 life vs +8% all resist. Both are valuable and would be a quick pick if they appeared on a reachable passive node but which one? I went with life, maybe a little bit because of the fact that with high end gear you might have capped out the resistances anyway while you can infinitely increase the life pool. That +40 life will probably become a little bit over +100 with all the percentage bonuses in the passive tree (depending on build). Honestly though I think the resists might have helped better so far in the game so I am not sure I made the right choice.

Cruel:
+4% attack speed vs +12% physical dmg. My first thought is to take the attack speed because in contrast to +dmg I cannot easily reach any of those in the passive tree (some weapon specific bonuses are reachable however). But the question is pretty simple, which one would give you most dmg output and under which circumstances? Has anyone tested this to see the difference?

Merciless:
Simple, how valuable are the charges? There are several nodes in the passive tree with +1 charge but I haven't played the game very far (didn't play closed beta at all) so I'm unsure. It is however a bit up the road for my character so I'll have time to think about it.

what are your thoughts? Am I on the right track? Which rewards have you chosen, and with what type of builds?

I think the 40+ health is more beneficial later in game as you will find many pieces of good gear for resists. I am level 66 on a tank marauder with only one Diamond Skin

I know Kripparian said he would of rather picked the health due to the % bonuses you gain later on. Don't take me as a fan boy, I am the complete opposite.

I picked the 8% as I thought it was a good idea, but now that I have some decent gear I am capped in all my resists. I am over capped on cold and lightning I believe due to having some pieces of gear with 30-40% resist.

I went with 40 life, 12% physical, and endurance charge for 7 total charges.

Next time I will go 2 passive points and endurance charge. I know the life will give me way more that another 8% node but i'd rather progress faster in the skill tree and get certain keystones or nodes quicker than having an extra 75-150 life end game.

Thanks for your input.

Immortalxlegacy: Just my thought. If you cap out resists anyway later on it is a waste but those 8% is helpful until then. I'd say life reward on "normal" bandits is generally better for most builds.

F1aws: So endurance charges are that useful huh? The only case I see the passive is beneficial on earlier difficulties however is like you describe when you have a specific build which needs many points or just want to get key nodes quickly. Generally though I think it is better to help a bandit.

I still haven't decided on the "cruel" bandits (I don't play much). Attack speed or plain dmg, it would be great if anyone have tried which one would give you most dmg output and under which circumstances.

Will attack speed be a problem for a Marauder without such nodes later on?

I play a very tanky Marauder and i took HP, passive, and now I'm at the checkpoint before Oak on merciless and just can't decide what is better(haven't played for days because of this :D). Endurance charge or skill point?

I think that in cruel, damage is better than attack speed. I took a passive, because it helps me being tanky, but those 12% would come in handy.

40 HP
passive point
Endurance Charge

I havn't played far into end game content, but it seems to me that to be tanky, endurance charges are absolutely ridiculous!

I am not sure if everyone knows this, but the physical resist you get from armor is mitigated when a monster hits hard - this means that what appears on your defence-tab as 5% resist from armor could be far, far less. But the 5% you get from an endurance charge is always 5%.
Basically, there could be situations when 7 endurance charges offer you more protection than any amount of realistically obtainable armor ever would.

I have no clear idea how hard monsters hit, but if the initial hit is 2000 damage, 7 charges will give the same protection as 12-13,000 armor - if the monster hits for 4000 you need 26,000 armor to equal charges. Obviously this would be very big hits that may not occur in the game.
But it means that theoretically you cannot cap armor, even if it appears to be capped at 90%.

As for the rewards:

40 HP is better than any node with HPs - the nodes offer 30 HP and are very attractive to pick up. 8% resist is fine, but less than what you get from a number of nodes. Also, you can cap resistances. Thus, 40 HP seems to be easily the best choice for someone who pick up %HP nodes.

12% damage is very good, but isn't better than some nodes.
4% AS can be good, but there are several nodes that provide a similar or better boost (15% is the best).
I guess the 12% is the most obvious candidate, but I've seen many builds that does not pick up the initial 12% damage node in the very beginning of the marauder tree. If you avoid that one, picking up a passive point from the quest is obviously best.

1 endurance charge gives you more protection than any passive point could give you (apart from the endurance charge passives.) The only drawback is you have to keep them up, and having them run out at a critical stage is a genuine concern - an extra charge wouldnt protect you then. But unless you dont want to incoporate endurance charges into your gameplay, picking up the charge seems the best option here.

First of all im kinda bad at math.

Anyways did some calculations and:

1040 hp x 200% = 2080 hp >>>>> hp node from Oak
1000 hp x 208% = 2080 hp >>>>> 8% hp node


3040 hp x 200% = 6080 hp >>>>> hp node from Oak
3000 hp x 208% = 6240 hp >>>>> 8% hp node

So imo for marau its better to get:

1skill
1skill (12%physical for EK user)
1skill (endru charge for 7 total)

Maybe i missed something but you gain more from 8% node.

If i plan to have 100 hp on every piece of gear, and get as many str/hp/hp% nodes Iron Grip/Iron Will users its better go get skill not to mention more flexibility when new patch arravies.

Taking into account that I am often wrong, I believe the following is true:

You get a 200% increase in health, meaning 40 HP translates to:

40 + 40*200% = 120 HPs.

Obviously you may have more or less %HP and this affects what is better.

I believe it is percent increase in health. For example, a typical Marauder who takes the life nodes in the beginning Marauder area, the ones in the Duelists area, and finally the ones in the Templer area would have about 120% increase in health (i.e. 220% of base life), meaning the 40 HP translate to 40*2.2=88 HP. The below calculation shows that the difference is minimal in the grand scheme of things when your HP is in the thousands, plus it may not be very feasible to reach an additional life % node when the typical ones are already taken.

Some quick calculations:

At base HP of 1000:
1000 * 2.28 = 2280 (took skill point)
1040 * 2.2 = 2288 (took 40 HP)

At base HP of 1500:
1500 * 2.28 = 3420 (took skill point)
1540 * 2.2 = 3388 (took 40 HP)

At base HP of 2000:
2000 * 2.28 = 4560 (took skill point)
2040 * 2.2 = 4488 (took 40 HP)

I have no idea what is normal, but my character has 219% increased HP.
At level 72 he has 1240 base health with quite a heavy focus on HP on gear, but obviously not capped in any way.

With 40 HP reward: 1240 * 3,19 = 3956
With 8% HP node: 1200 * 3,27 = 3924

There is no doubt the difference is negligible, but I would need 1600 base HP to make a 8% node better with my current HP% - I am sure that is possible, but it is not happening any time soon for me.

Besides, there are no HP-nodes within reach for me, but that is another matter.