Marauder vs Shadow EK builds (w/ comparison)

I have been comparing Etup's Marauder EK to Invalesco's Shadow EK. I am trying to choose between them as a base. A big question is how big of a deal it is not to get crit?

Here are the major differences between the two.

Marauder:

Shadow:

As you can see the Marauder build is a a moderate amount tankier, the big numbers being 110% more Increased Life, 4.4% more Life Regenerated per Second, 30% more Elemental Resists, 5% Maximum Elemental Resists, 100% more Armor, Iron Reflexes.

However the Shadow build offers an insane amount more damage in the form of 47% more (combined) Attack/Cast Speed, 365% increased Critical Strike chance, 100% more Critical Strike multiplier, 24% Projectile damage, 52% spell damage, Eldritch Battery.

Update: Auras and BM
Another big difference between the two builds, the Marauder build uses the Blood Magic keystone, or in end-game the Blood Magic gem. This allows the Marauder to run more auras such as Vitality/Determination/Hatred/Haste/Grace/Purity

The Shadow build does not use BM gem and typically runs along the lines of Vitality/Determination/Hatred/Discipline. Shadow also has to worry about using mana leech (although with good regen/EB your pool might be big enough to not need a Mana leech gem.)

I will be creating my own build but need to decide which class to start as. I have read that critical strike is bad because of reflect, but lots of people seem to have success with the Shadow build. If it is manageable the extra damage offered by going Shadow is insane compared to the moderate amount of extra tankiness from the Marauder one.

Thoughts?!

Edit: Updated with BM/Aura info

The shadow version is great fun, you do indeed have to be very careful with reflect mobs when you aren't so well geared.

One other thing, with Marauder you get 1 less gem slot, because you pretty much are forced to use Iron Will.

However, you only have to use LL and not ML, so I guess it balances out a bit.

I think its important to mention that if you stack more %hp at mara EK you open the option to run three 40% auras on your mana pool and BM your EK. Granted its one less gem slot i would gladly trade the benefit of vitality, determination purity for it.

This is ofc assuming you build on the premise that you do not have people to run with that carry those auras ((such as myself))

Good point OmgWargasm, I actually meant to mention BM in the post, I'll update it.

What are you mentioning the attack speed for?

Be a man, and roll an EK duelist.

Maruder EK seems to be the *better* (safer) option. Way more life and armor, ability to run with EK linked to BM and lower chance to kill yourself to reflect mob.

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andybmcc wrote:

Be a man, and roll an EK duelist.

Getting the projectile nodes from the duelist and ranger area should work quite well with EK IMHO, so it might not be a bad idea at all...