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

@shrinweck
I use large intelligence bonus on my jewelry to get past 110 (lvl 20 concentrated effect).
I'm not sure if a shield is the place to look for +int.

@hectrix
BoR or 6L Chest ist not "mandatory", but it is the logical gear progression.

Gathering the currency for one of those is a big obstacle to overcome, I'm fully aware of this. But it is what you should aim for, as getting extra linked sockets is the easiest way to improve in terms of DpS.

And once you reach Lvl60+ regions, there's nothing stopping you from gathering Chaos Orbs through the vendor recipe.

I have the 4 and 5 Link alternatives in the guide, but they are - of course - inferior.

just got nerfed
and i was about to try this

You think the whole build is gone?
Don't see why you would think that.

Apart from passive tree changes I don't know yet, the only problem is the (non mandatory) BoR, right?
On BoR, you lose a little life and attackspeed, I guess that can be compensated (or even ignored).

I will play another marauder like this in the new league, so the skilltree will be updated.

no offense
nah wasnt talking about the build nerfed its just that BOR ,thats all
still looking forward to the update of this build

Using new BoR instead of old, you loose 6% Attackspeed, 3% Chance to blind and about 100(+200%)= 300 Life.

That's not really the end of the world... ;-)

what do you think wich one is better for the new invasion league? this guy or the GS marauder?

gearing this build seems to be harder but i can deal with that if this build is better against bosses

The amount of tank and damage that you can achieve is usually only determined by:
How good is the gear you get your fingers on?
That's true for both this build and GS.

I see no reason why this should be more difficult to gear up than GS.
It may be misleading that I only show my Endgame Gear in the guide, while the "GS Noob guide" shows vendor equipment and trash rares and says "you can play with this too".
Of course you can play with items like this, you can also play this build with items like this, but if you have the chance to gear up, I'd highly recommend not sticking to vendor items... ;-)

A Groundslam Marauder has the advantage of being "ranged". You're not playing true melee, you can kite a little more, and you are most likely able to shoot from safer positions.

However, this "sword and board" build has 4-times more effective hitpoints (with 75% block). If you reach 5k hitpoints, a GS marauder would need 20k (!!!) to sustain the same amount of physical damage.
Block is just crazy. It is by far the best defensive mechanic in this game, and you can combine it with every other line of defense (life, armor, evasion, energy shield, resists, life leech, regen,...) basically for free (look at the tree, it's only a couple of skillpoints in block nodes).

I even find it easier to gear up with a shield (extra resists, extra armor) than with a twohanded weapon, it is one more piece of defensive equipment, helping you to cap on resist and get good damage mitigation.

The damage output is more than enough with a ~200-250 pDpS weapon (which everybody should be able to find, craft or trade at some point in merciless or early maps), I'm overkilling most content with my ~300 pDpS weapon. Can't imagine how easy it would be with a GG 400-500 pDpS sword... ;-)

So, when comparing the builds:

Sword&Board:
*way more effective hitpoints (even if life total is lower)
*easier to cap resists and stuff
*ok DpS
*needs couple of skillpoints in shieldblock

Groundslammer:
*less damage mitigation, but doesn't need as much as ranged hero
*most likely has to invest (more) skillpoints in armor and resists (unless very good gear involved)
*I guess a little more DpS with comparable gear quality, bigger AoE

It's totally up to you what you prefer. I played both and I am 100% on the shield side, as I wrote in the introduction of the guide: I want to stand in the middle of endless hordes of enemies and say "Fuck you, you can't do shit to me!" ;-)

Just a quick try to recreate my sword&board marauder at ~lvl 87:
click me

Old build (was on the way to life wheel, link will be outdated soon):
click me

Feels roughly equal.

Sword+Armor near templar nodes feel less attractive with new path, but this is over-compensated with 40% damage and armor nodes in starting zone.


Pro:
I get way more armor because of the new starting area.
I get more life.
I can grab the 20% onehand damage ("Raw Power" before, now "Strong Arm") on the way to RT.
"Born to fight" is another really cool damage node.
Combined Axe/Sword node "By the Blade" is pretty sweet.

Con:
Elemental Adaptation is too far off to be attractive.
The 12% life nodes next to Bloodless are 8% now.

I think the build is doing just fine with the changes.

And the starting zone of Marauder feels way more rewarding now, it's not "walk top until you can leave area" any more.

Peterlerock - could you update your passive tree?
I see that yesterday you show us your tree on PoE Builder, but whether in practice work?
regards

Sure, I will check it ingame later today and take some pictures... ;)