Can anyone offer advice: level 41 not doing well...melee

I pretty much got through normal, even solo Vaal Oversoul but once again cruel finds me taking a beating from monkeys rocks, it's a kiting thing. I haven't died yet but it's getting to that point. I was trying to follow a sweep style build but I seem to be relying on double-strike because it's the only single opponent skill I have and it was two-shot now it's 4 or 6 on rock guys in Old Woods area. I'm having issues with sockets too of course.

Here is my build, I have 6 points to spend.
Life is at 980, dps on Molten Shell 450 double strike (no faster attacks) is a measly 400.
I have other skills there just as back up. Use warlords mark and power on critical just because I found it. I'm still using my early twink gear amulet and helmet which I guess needs to go.



Here is my gear. I thought the armor would hold but it isn't doing much at 32% reduced.
I want to play two-handed but staff not critical it just seemed fun earlier. I have the axe below but wasted several fusings on it to go nowhere.





Any ideas on how to turn this around? I was trying not to do some crazy CI build because I don't have the gear for it nor can afford. Oh if i take off that attribute boost ring I lose 2 pieces of gear because of dex and int I think.

Grab resolute technique, and then the rest of the health nodes at the marauder starting area.

Don't waste fusings on the axe. By the time you get a 5L on that thing you will have spent 100 times what its worth in fusings.

I would personally stick with staves unless you plan on doing a stun build. Better survivability with staves. Start looking for something with a bit more damage, that would be a start. After that, start stacking +life on armor based gear.

Your passive tree is a little messed up but you have 6 points to spend
and some respec points from quests waiting for you.

You have to decide which skills are you going to use.Double strike isn't
good for a staff char.Get Heavy strike or Infernal Blow.
Have one or two max AoE skills.
Try and link them also.
Single target + melee physical damage + weapon elemental damage (as you've taken the
3 elemental nodes) + life leech or whatever.

A pure physical melee build with 48 points spent is something like this


With the rest marauder life nodes ready for the taking.

Your main priority should be to choose skills and auras that you'll use.
You won't be able to use all the skills/auras in the game.No one does.
Just experiment and see what fits you best.
Try to link your auras with a reduced mana gem also.

Thanks for your tips.
I don't know what happened but I picked up that axe since I was running too many skills anyway, and borrowed a faster attacks from another toon and doublestrike, despite its limitations was tearing it up at 950dps. So it was doing really well solo and then got my first death in Western Forest when joined a party with big lag. I was getting a bit cocky I guess. So switched out ring and amulet with some elemental and a faster attcks and dps went way up over the staff. Just can't ground strike now. I even decided to pick up some shield I had laying around that has 95 life on it and some armor with an even nicer axe just in case for other hand. I will try to find a better staff as I do like the stun but so far it's improved. Just filled in my points in marauder life.



Oh and I find 4 Scourings and this in like 20 minutes. Weird night I think.



and I wasted an alc on these but the sockets were calling.



Now to get find some big resist helm to replace my crutch.

as post before you need a decent upgrade for the weapont something like this should work in cruel



and try to use one single target skill with 1-2 aoe skill, one curse if you need (ex warlord mark give you some surv) and aura.


i will try a build similar to this as pure physical with staff.

The issue is simple - you are using a normal weapon when you need a cruel version. The cruel version of the Iron Staff would be a Military Staff. Get one with decent damage and attack speed bonuses and you will be mowing them down again. :)

A Quarterstaff if you can't wait until level 44..... should be able to find one even in Cavern of Wrath/Anger or from a vendor. Might have to spend an alchemy and a couple chaos to craft something decent - or, if you are not self-found exclusively, head to the trading forums, you can find something decent for a low price you can afford I'm sure.


... also, the staff block nodes might be worth looking at. Blocking helps with projectiles too.

Well I felt pretty weak getting through cruel and really needed armor in Sarn so had to switch to a shield and axe using double-strike, which did bump to about 1500 dps once I took inner force. I wasted 3 alcs trying to get a staff going and all I got was crap. I have a staff waiting for Merciless but I don't know if I'll bother yet. So I didn't commit but one point to Staff damage so far.

So yeah, had this shield laying around that no one wanted and this trusted axe from my duelist.
Without the shield my armor was just terrible, like 25% reduction by Act 3.





So I wound up here with a handful of points to spend at level 52. I just having a feeling merciless is going to be really bad unless I can get sweep back.

Crap staff I made yay...I could find any at my level for sale, now I'll just wait until I can use one good one I saved.


This one is kinda lame with no elemental base.

want to know the trick for melee? Besides all the 'normal stuff' ? (note:normal stuff still good also)

Here it is, just imagine that 'discharge' is like... anything else. Just... ignore discharge. The point is the other 3 gems combo:


6K AoE pop with 9% life steal..... very nice.


Also, pm me in game sometime @ ThyRabidMonk

I have a ton of old marauder gear/weapons/gems/etc that will serve you very well.

Oh I found an Iron Will but it's only base and level 2.
I gave it a shot and it added about 220 dps to Molten.
I did get to merciless to ledge but lacking a few resists with staff equipped, cold is actually at 15% lightning once I switched out gloves for more life, is at 20%. Cold is 80 so good until warden I guess.
Put in an offer on high dps mace, I think sometimes weak on one thing means one has to be better on at least cutting the monsters down which with my one staff is ok but not good enough for what I know is ahead and chaos in act 2 is another story. CI is not possible for me though, no idea how people get the gear for it.
So still going and even managed the Tidal Island with only 35 cold res no deaths to Hailstrike. Well I do have this armor saved, found gear not working too well. I am still using the same armor from level 32 normal until I can use this!