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

Daresso's has no life roll, but is otherwise pretty good.

Your shield has great defenses, life and resists, but very low and no additional block chance.

So you'd have some troubles reaching 75% block with this.

I'd say: both are fine, but ideally you'd want Aegis Aurora or a rare shield 34%+ block, life and resists.

I'm going to give this one a try. Is it HC viable, I wanted to try it in the new hc league?

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Dazzo88 wrote:

I'm going to give this one a try. Is it HC viable, I wanted to try it in the new hc league?

this maibe not the most noob friendly low buget build out there but get's the job done very easily, smart upgrades and smart play and youll do fine


i tried this as my first char on ambush and only died at lunaris cruel because of a unid /bad roll box that got me frozen in the middle whit 3 rares around me and haste/crit/phys damage auras going xD... mostly self found and self craft gear... i maybe trade like 3 pieces of gear for lol currency (alts and alchs) to that point, one of them was a 35 sword that got me to 58 xD

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Towers00 wrote:

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Dazzo88 wrote:

I'm going to give this one a try. Is it HC viable, I wanted to try it in the new hc league?

this maibe not the most noob friendly low buget build out there but get's the job done very easily, smart upgrades and smart play and youll do fine


i tried this as my first char on ambush and only died at lunaris cruel because of a unid /bad roll box that got me frozen in the middle whit 3 rares around me and haste/crit/phys damage auras going xD... mostly self found and self craft gear... i maybe trade like 3 pieces of gear for lol currency (alts and alchs) to that point, one of them was a 35 sword that got me to 58 xD

I tried it on the ambush league last night and found it quite strong early game. I'll keep testing it but looks like I'll run the new league with this and play as cautious as possible. Well when they release the details of the new league.

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Dazzo88 wrote:

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Towers00 wrote:

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Dazzo88 wrote:

I'm going to give this one a try. Is it HC viable, I wanted to try it in the new hc league?

this maibe not the most noob friendly low buget build out there but get's the job done very easily, smart upgrades and smart play and youll do fine


i tried this as my first char on ambush and only died at lunaris cruel because of a unid /bad roll box that got me frozen in the middle whit 3 rares around me and haste/crit/phys damage auras going xD... mostly self found and self craft gear... i maybe trade like 3 pieces of gear for lol currency (alts and alchs) to that point, one of them was a 35 sword that got me to 58 xD

I tried it on the ambush league last night and found it quite strong early game. I'll keep testing it but looks like I'll run the new league with this and play as cautious as possible. Well when they release the details of the new league.

is not a bad idea try to get an early multistrike gem... but until that, dualsplash is the way to go... just work on a 3-4 link (Life gain on hit/life leech for leveling is very good on hardcore) and switch to melee phys damage or added fire to single target.

when you get decent gear, a good weapon and 2-4% phys life leech from pasives/gear you can drop the life leech gem, i dont use it on ambush because of high phys damage of the build (even on 1 target) from reave works very good whit that, maibe if i take a gmp something at shotgun range whit half of my life (it happen once, on ochard map =(, i put 1 step to far and eat a full voley whit 30% of hp left) you cant leech out, but resistance flask/granites should take care of that problem.

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Towers00 wrote:

when you get decent gear, a good weapon and 2-4% phys life leech from pasives/gear you can drop the life leech gem, i dont use it on ambush because of high phys damage of the build (even on 1 target) from reave works very good whit that, maibe if i take a gmp something at shotgun range whit half of my life (it happen once, on ochard map =(, i put 1 step to far and eat a full voley whit 30% of hp left) you cant leech out, but resistance flask/granites should take care of that problem.

You don't need a lot of leech, 2% from passives is fine.

The only thing that will kill you quickly (besides desync, obviously) is not noticing Corrupting Blood quick enough, but that's easy to overcome if you're paying attention - just land a few hits with Reave (don't build up all your stacks) and allow life regen / normal health potion to heal, kite, rinse and repeat, pop emergency staunching flask if you need to.

Also great thing with Resolute Technique here is that you don't even notice phys reflect, especially when popping a granite "just in case" (as you should when encountering a potentially hard-hitting mob).

I will definitely run this build in new league HC.

If I get a Stone of Lazhwar fairly cheaply it'll be the only "must have" item for me. Rainbowstrides if can afford. Everything else will just be high armour / life / resists and the biggest DPS one-hander I can get my hands on.

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Towers00 wrote:

this maibe not the most noob friendly low buget build out there but get's the job done very easily, smart upgrades and smart play and youll do fine

I don't know, I think it's incredibly noob-friendly. You have ONE attack skill. If you can hold shift and click a mouse button at the same time, you can facetank just about anything.

I can't really think of many builds that have a lower budget, honestly. Only end-game expense is 5L (cheap anyway - and almost every build needs a 5L to shine so it's at least on par with the others in that respect).

I also like the fact that all Uniques are optional. Sure, without spell block from Lazhwar and/or Rainbowstrides some zones will be difficult, but smart and patient play (and capped resists at all times) can get around that. Those 2 uniques only make play easy to the point you can go "AFK mode" while facetanking everything at your leisure.

About noobfriendliness:
One skill, straightforward to gear, no "tricks" involved. The Skilltree is super-simple, and with all those damage nodes, you can do serious damage even without highend gear.

About hardcore:
I'm playing too "yolo", but this build is - if properly geared - easily strong enough to beat the content in the three difficulties. Some corrupted zones and map bosses must be approached with care and/or skipped, but a hardcore player should be able to judge this.

About gear:
It has very easy gear progression.
*4L -> 5L -> 6L /BoR
*Rare Sword with 100 -> 200 -> 250+ DpS
*Rares with life, resists, plus damage on jewelry, shield with some additional block or just a Crest of Perandus.
*Luxury Uniques: BoR, Lazwhar, Rainbowstrides (none of those is crazy expensive)
Not all of these steps are "cheap" or "affordable" right away, but every character should be able to accumulate some kind of wealth and finally afford this stuff via trade, if so desired.
*Gems are all quest-rewards, the only ones one should consider buying to get to the point of maximum efficiency a bit earlier: multistrike, conc effect, cast when damage taken.

Downsides:
This is not 75% block without BoR.
This is not 300% life.
This is a melee build.
...but those problems only come to life in late-lategame.

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Peterlerock wrote:

Downsides:
This is not 75% block without BoR.
This is not 300% life.
This is a melee build.
...but those problems only come to life in late-lategame.

Some good points in your reply, thanks.

Even 50% block feels tanky so I don't know that not having BoR is a big downside (depends on your play style and tolerances of course). Also chest gives you 5L (or 6L), extra resists by virtue of having a working chest and non-BoR helm. I'd need some beastly jewellery to cover all resists I'd lose by using BoR but if using BoR one can probably afford the complimentary gear as well!

I'm finding that 3.8k - 4k health is fine. I haven't got up to level 75 maps though - max 68/69 - so I can't comment on whether this is still sufficient in "late-lategame" but I don't see why, with careful play that you mention, it shouldn't be possible.

EDIT: Also on the hardcore / "yolo" thing - I haven't died since Cruel Dominus. That was me being too "yolo" and not capping resists / gearing appropriately so I can totally see that this would work as a HC build.

Only 28 due to limited time to play but it is really strong early game.

Haven't come close to low health even on some of the difficult boxes and corrupted zones.
Will use it for the new league and try see how far I can take it.