[1.2] Oldschool, cheap and noobfriendly "Sword&Board" Marauder

You should use the spell block if and only if you got 75% block chances.
In that way, common stuff is Lazhwar amulet / Rainbowstrides boots.

With that you get 65% of spell block.

Bad news is that stuff improve your survivability against high damaging spells - Btw, Peterlerock is right : without these items you already got your resistances against spells - at growing risk to have more difficulties to maintain your main stats / resistances as high as possible.

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nacho_119 wrote:

I'm kinda wondering where do I go at this point in terms of gear - better sword or maybe BoR?

The sword looks fine, your 5link chest should also do for the moment.
I'd switch the helmet and some of the jewelry for life+resist stuff (maybe without physical damage, as that gets expensive), 3,5k life is a little low.

Ignore that if you havent skilled most of the life nodes yet. ;)

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Concerning "spellblock":

If you have BoR and a 36% Block shield, it's pretty easy to achieve 75% block.
Adding in Stone of Lazhwar and Rainbowstrides, you get 75% of that as spellblock, which gets you a 56% Spellblock. Not 65% like it was said above (0,75*0,75=0,56).

Main issue with that idea is:

BoR + Rainbowstrides + Stone of Lazhwar + proposed skilltree = ~40% elemental resists.
So your Shield, rings, belt and gloves need to get you 95% elemental resists. That's a total of 7-9 35% affixes on five items (depending on type of rings, about two per item), which is not impossible, but gets very expensive if you also want physical damage, life, intelligence.

You can do it, but it is costly. It's not just "wear these 2 additional items and you'll be fine".

Thank you very much for your guide, I'm pretty new in this game and I've tried many builds labeled "tanky for newbie" (RoA Ranger, GroundSlam, etc.) but this one is definitely "the one" =)). Other builds I often have big trouble with dominus cruel but with this I can run straight to merciless without any problem, with just 5 chaos to buy a good dps sword and self found stuff
I've just bought a 5L chest yesterday for 11c



I found that without the concentrated gem I still got about 3k dps and I prefer the large aoe and item rarity, which in turn give me this holy jumping jesus boots after a few hours :



So just to show off a little bit and great thanks to this guide, I have so much fun with it :))

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kkkkkyrinos wrote:

Thank you very much for your guide, I'm pretty new in this game and I've tried many builds labeled "tanky for newbie" (RoA Ranger, GroundSlam, etc.) but this one is definitely "the one" =)). Other builds I often have big trouble with dominus cruel but with this I can run straight to merciless without any problem, with just 5 chaos to buy a good dps sword and self found stuff

Thank you Sir!

That's exactly the same thought process and experience I went through, and the main reason I wrote this guide.

All these Groundslam/Lightning Arrow/whatever builds take a lot of life nodes and stuff, but that's either not tanky enough for me (like 2h Groundslam) or sacrifices all damage (like ZiggyDs Rangerbuild).

I don't know if this build will hold up to the highest of maps and craziest map mods, but once you are there, I'm pretty sure you can adapt it yourself.

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I found that without the concentrated gem I still got about 3k dps and I prefer the large aoe and item rarity

I wrote it in the Guide:
"I sometimes swap the blue gem around for farming easy zones, increased AoE or Item rarity."

As long as your progress and killspeed isn't crippled by this, there's nothing wrong with it.

Took a good look at this guide and may use a free respec for this. Never tried reave before.
Looks solid and beginner friendly just like the ground slammer.

Got a 293 pdps sword in the stash no one wants to buy even though it's been in the shop for half a year now or so. Should be decent enough i suppose?



Got a legacy bor too. I like bor a lot because you don't need to buy a chest. Just have to make up for the lost resistances on other equipment pieces.

What is the worst mods on maps for this build? I am guessing p.reflect only?

Yes, this sword should do.

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kompaniet wrote:

What is the worst mods on maps for this build? I am guessing p.reflect only?

I didn't even notice physical reflect. Even with physical reflect mobs in physical reflect maps.

This is not a crit build, you leech right through that stuff and block your own reflected attacks. Your health won't move because of this. ;)

Shitty map mods/situations:
*Cursed with annoying stuff like chains, enfeeble.
*minus max resists can get tough with the "right" monsters
*no regen is annoying
*certain combinations of affixes like "museum + double bosses + extra damage" or whatever
*certain buffed up chaos damage monsters

Just try it out. You can play most stuff, but some maps are really brutal.

I'm currently lvl 71 and I do most maps fine (of course avoid -max resist and nasty curses)
I don't even care about avoid and def and I run 2 auras Haste and Hatred for maximum dps and mobility. With a 5 link chest using item rarity and a 230 dps sword, I have 6k4 dps with 3.2 atk/sec and everything is just as easy as cheese =))
For info , I have around 15% physical dmg reduction and 20% avoid, but I never even care, just drink some pot and back out a little if hp drops, that's all.
I'm now saving money for a BoR, even though I don't think it's really that necessary, I don't even need to use my last uber weapon which is the concentrated effect gem yet !

BoR is worth it if you can keep up your resists (no helmet or chest resists).

I actually dropped in DpS after equipping it because I had to swap some sexy DpS jewelry for resist stuff... ;)

I followed so far and it is really great...I can do maps up to 70 or maybe 71 with really bad gear. But I have one nemesis modifier I fear: corrupting blood. How to deal with that? This build has a very high attack rate, so the bleeding stacks very fast. Should I attack with leap slam? That would too less damaga, I think. (more) Staunching flasks? I doubt would be enough, because the bleeding would stack again very fast.

Since Nemesis mods (Storm herald and Corrupting Blood, you can ignore the rest) are introduced to Softcore, it is pretty much mandatory to carry Dispells Shocked and Removes Blleding flasks.
One of each should be enough, on whatever pot you like (iE Health flask or Quicksilver).
Take a sip when the stacks get dangerous, another one after the fight.

If it gets really dangerous and you can't handle it with Flasks for whatever reason, you always have the option to Alt+F4, log out or at least TP to town.