Struggling to progress in act 3 normal

^^ That build is pretty good imo. Those gems will be Marauder only quest rewards. Decoy totem rules.

Yours is mostly a gear issue OP.

I hate to tell you this, but with those stats you should be able to ROFLSTOMP normal difficulty. It seems that the issue is you, not the character.

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Skywalkerfx wrote:

verteran D3 player

Thanks for your input.

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Shamanics wrote:

I hate to tell you this, but with those stats you should be able to ROFLSTOMP normal difficulty. It seems that the issue is you, not the character.

Well I was struggling earlier before I received some of the gear that was linked in the thread, and I was able to walk through the temple with no issues and beat Piety down. The issue is not me, a ground slam marauder is not complicated.

When following a pre-made build sometimes you have to deviate a little because of your gear. If you don't have the same gear where you put your points can hurt more than help sometimes. For example, the build says to put all of your points into DPS but your gear has no resists.

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fazlez1 wrote:

When following a pre-made build sometimes you have to deviate a little because of your gear. If you don't have the same gear where you put your points can hurt more than help sometimes. For example, the build says to put all of your points into DPS but your gear has no resists.

What? I have 75% resists across the board (except chaos). The build almost immediately provides you with 42% all elemental resists.

You should get some sort of Aura running, also link your life on hit with Sweep instead of leap slam. I have a marauder going something like that build and it's level 50 now, I've worn nothing but blue items with strength and life on them, typically around 40-50% resistances only 75% where I know I'm coming up to a boss, like Piety in Crematorium, where I wear additional lightning resist.

Definitely get some better boots! And, if not doing so already, always fill your bags before going back to town, prioritise belts, gloves and boots over picking up weapons/chests (especially 2-handers) when taking things to vendor. They take up less space and give the same amount of alteration shards.

Use wisdom scrolls on everything, Alterations are much more useful than Transmutation, even to the point of spending an alteration to buy 4 wisdom scrolls to further identify items. In the long run it will pay off.

Every time you level up, check the current vendor, and the last 1-2 vendors for new items, you never know what you'll find. Often you will get a 3-colour-link for a transmutation orb, that sells back to the vendor for a chromatic. I found my first 5L item on a vendor at level 47, and it wasn't the vendor for the current act. It only takes a moment to check if there's any new gear on them, but it can be so worthwhile.

I know you don't want to trade, but you should at least consider playing in a public party. Things run a lot smoother when there is someone else there with you, at the very least the boss isn't focussing on you 100% of the time, you get a chance to pause and regroup, reflask and go back in again.

Also, find a guild. Guilds are great, and there's lots out there who take new players and will help you out.

Playing a melee as your first character is somewhat punishing, if you are experienced with ARPGs you should know this. You don't have Cast on Damage Taken gems, you don't have Molten Shell or Life Leech. My advice for any new player is to play ranged. My first character was a summoner, and with all that meatshielding running about with me, it was very easy (slow, but easy) and you get the benefit of having one of the most powerful classes for end game.

If you are determined to continue as the Typical 2-hander marauder, then I'd suggest grinding out a few levels in an area 2-3 levels below your current, get a handful of alteration shards again and making a pure strength and life set of gear. At the start of Cruel on my marauder I had over 2000 health and it was so easy. But then, it was not my first character and I had plenty of level appropriate loot handy, not to mention a wealth of Alteration orbs.

I have a ranger, level 37, starting out in Cruel which I'm going to play to get the new projectile attack support gem, I'd be happy to team up with you and get you through the end of normal and act 1 of Cruel. Send me a PM if you are interested in grouping up!

Heyo, thanks for the thread. I thought it was just me but I had the exact same problem with the exact same build at the same place (Lunaris). I still haven't solved it but have that character on hold.

Up to Lunaris I could facetank anything, including bosses, because I had tons of life, life-gain-on-hit / life-leach on my gear and a slightly lower dps but faster mace. However sometime after Piety things went rapidly downhill. It was my first time partying (and PoE is my first ARPG really) and I kept getting left behind / missing quest items / quest conversations. We killed Dominus but I missed the quest completion b/c I hadn't talked to who-she-whatty. So I went back in solo to Lunaris and just bit it over and over again.

Had little trouble killing Dominus (well, relatively) with a fire-ball/trap witch a few days before so I was pretty shocked how poor the tanky marauder was.

I don't know if this build comes into it's own later or what, but I can see now how melee is just horrible in some situations. You get way too exposed and trapped by your own need to keep attacking to regain life. If this build had some decent crowd control or ranged options built in I think maybe it would be a bit better, at least for a nub like me.

Good luck OP and please please, if you do get things going for the marauder let us know how you did it?

LOL at everyone saying his gear is shit. It's supposed to be. That said, some good advice has already been mentioned. Be on the lookout for white items that are roughly around your required level, and have the sockets/links you already need. Don't be too picky about resists (they matter, but not all that much right now). Then if you have armor scraps and blacksmith stones, bump the quality up to 20%, and then use an alch (or a chance orb) on them. Chances are you'll get an upgrade (if you haven't been trading for gear). Also pick up rings and use chance orbs on them too. Once in a while you'll get a boss-ass piece out of it.

Take the advice here for what it's worth. I have a 68 Ranger* and 64 Witch in standard, and a bunch of other low-level chars in other leagues (I race semi-frequently). Failing that, party up. The game supports party play pretty well, with multiple auras, curses, and sources for DPS, tanks and ranged. This makes for pretty quick clears of otherwise long and tedious areas.

*She RIPed in Nemesis on cruel when I bit off more than I could chew in The Blackwood

Also, do not use any orbs other than alteration, transmutation & augmentation. Everything else you have, fusing, chaos and so on, are much more valuable late-game. Do not go wasting them on levelling gear.