[0.10.4b] Bow Marauder (The Shocker (tm)) [**TO BE UPDATED SOON 1.0.0**]

This build changes a lot with the new updates. It is definitely still viable, though.

Some things to consider are...

The new changes to auras - making them reserve 60% instead of a rather small flat amount - basically you cannot rely on grabbing Blood Magic keystone anymore, you -have- to use the blood magic support gem. As a marauder it would be too wasteful and pointless to try and solve the mana cost any other way.

Damage - shock stacks have been nerfed; and those were one of the core mechanics of how to deal good DPS. However, the new Wrath and Anger are *insane*, and IMO the damage with this kind of a build will be overall much higher even with the nerfs to shock stacks. If you didn't have quite awesome gear before, you were pretty reliant on most of your DPS coming from Wrath+Anger, and now even with really great gear Wrath+Anger should provide most of your DPS. You can't really count on having several awesome auras on anymore anyway. I'm not sure how viable going for Iron Reflexes and Grace is anymore; but it would seem like that could work too. You could run three auras on the mana pool without too much effort (but that would mean having to pop BM support on everything; so that's one less support gem for something more useful...).


In conclusion I believe the patch has made this build much easier to achieve proper clear speed with; and the buffs to HP nodes and generally the survivability nodes in the tree make it much more resilient. Must not forget to mention the nerf to reflect aura - now it only reflects 15% (right?), which is a welcome change.

An update would be great.. I haven't played in quite some time. Thanks!

How does this look to you guys? I'm still wondering if it can be done some other way and if I'm overlooking something important.

linkishly linky link

Waiting for the update.
I was using the build before the reset and it was super great and fun to play.

So you went for the extra frenzy charge and the opening into Iron Reflexes? Mind sharing your current build?

I just went ingame on one of my old marauders with 93 passive points; and built this just without a couple of the HP nodes. I put on some terrible gear; and I'm amazed at how high the HP goes (jewellery without HP, helm without stats, and I had 4.5k HP! wth!). Most of the damage is coming from auras, but it's not quite as high as I've expected. The nerfs to WED support gem and shock stacks were quite considerable. On the other hand, the only item with some flat ED was the bow I used, the other items had some % weapon elemental damage mods on them, and I was reaching over 2.5k tooltip DPS with a 4L test setup of LA+WED+BM+LMP. With some proper items it should be shining like a diamond.

I don't think going after frenzy charges is worth it anymore; I would much rather invest four points and get the new Berserking ring below Scion (21% iAS total there). Randomly popping a few frenzy shots around to get the extra 15% attack speed is alright, but I don't find it making a considerable difference.

As for the defensive side of things; due to the insane life pool, I would feel comfortable enough skipping Unwavering Stance. Iron Reflexes... For solo play; I would skip it, for group play, it would be really nice - you would probably get both Determination and Grace from other people, which would boost your armour quite nicely, making it a very good investment.

I've more thoughts rolling around, but lets keep it at this for now.

bump

You may read up above; on this page we've had a short discussion about how the build would look for 1.0.0, though not many actually commented on it.



For 1.0.0 I've been mostly interested in creating a build that suits my current gaming needs - the build has to be as complete as possible with as little points as possible, next, due to my crappy connection it doesn't have to be HC reliable, and that allows for some less min/maxed choices, and it needs to be cheap and independent of very rare and expensive uniques (talking about Lioneyes and Kaoms for example, even Alpha's Howl). I've theorycrafted a potential build to satisfy all of those needs - the only item it is reliant on is Malachais Simula, which is quite easily attainable compared to other uniques. However it is based on Ranger. It is a crit LA build, which can work with 4L items and no auras, and upon reaching endgame can easily be modified to be much tankier and allowing for use of three auras, therefore making it an ideal candidate for casual players' needs even if they get more time to invest in their character. The basic skill setups would be: 4L LA, LMP, WED, Life Leech, and single target 4L Frenzy, Crit Strikes, Faster Attacks, Power Charge on Crit. Bandit rewards would be point-iAS/point-power charge. Passive tree (95 points used).

Considering I find the majority of players actually being similar in needs to mine (casual or semi-casual without the time/will to put in the effort to get rare, expensive items), I will try this build out and maybe make a guide about it.

bump :(