Melee-ing after the changes to damage and health.

[shoju]

I figured, I would just go ahead, and make myself another thread about my observations of a class, that way I wasn't cluttering up the "main" thread, and it's not really about my ranger.

My first char in PoE was a 2h'd Marauder. Pretty Standard stuff, with lots of life leech. I died. A lot. I had a bad build.

My second char in PoE was a 1h'd + Shield Templar. I had a better build. I died. A Lot.

After that, I sort of said "F*** MELEE". I was frustrated. I'm a melee guy at heart. In WoW, I played a Rogue, and then a Paladin, and then a Death Knight. I had a few ranged Alts, and while they were fun, it wasn't the same as SMASHING THINGS IN THE FACE WITH THIS STICK I HOLD IN MY HAND

The same has held true in PoE. I have a low 70's summoner witch. She's fun to play, and I "Map" with her, and all, but it's still not the same. I have a high 60's Ranger. I've mapped with her, and it's fun, but it's a little more.... "OH NOES RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! DON'T HIT ME!" than I'm in to.

So, in my free time, I've been working on going through Builds, seeing what works, seeing what I like, seeing how I can adapt. The changeover to Monster Damage and Health values, really had me itching to make another Melee'er. I wanted something that was the closest thing I could get to my Death Knight in WoW, which in the end was my favorite class to play. Don't get me wrong fellow "WoW'ers", I still love paladins, but they just weren't that much fun to play in the end.

So, I spent a lot of time looking at what works, and what I could do. First, you should know, I'm not a huge fan of Avoidance. It's probably the one fatal flaw my ranger has for me, and what drew me to the Paladin and DK in WoW. I like steady, predictable, damage intake. I'm an Armor / mitigation Junkie. As a tank in WoW, I wanted to find the way that my healer didn't have to go "OH HOLY S***!" because of my damage intake. Not surprisingly, my favorite time to be a tank was ICC in WotLK.

So, in all the work I've done, I decided that I wanted to do Armor. Lots of Armor. Stupid Amounts of Armor. I watched a Youtube Video of a high end marauder running a Map with Vaal Oversoul as the boss, and he NEVER MOVED from the smash. He hit the Granite Flask, and stood there and took it.

I wanted that much armor. And I started Tailoring the build towards that.

I also remembered my original Marauder had DPS problems. Sometimes, I wasn't taking much damage, but I wasn't really dealing that much either. Part of that, was that I had locked myself into one weapon type pretty early on, and went through long periods of time where I just wasn't getting weapon upgrades that were a DPS upgrade.

So. Weapon flexibility, was also something that I wanted to address. No More using the "Mace" or "Axe" or "Swords" etc... nodes. I'm going 2h'er, and so any DPS nodes that I pick up will be weapon neutral. I can live with that.

Always Hitting. I despise hit / miss. I like PoE's system a lot more than what WoW had when I left. You have accuracy. That's it. No Need for Expertise, and soft and hard caps. You just have to hit. I can live with that. Well, I don't like not hitting, so Resolute Technique was a must.

Resists. I'm not a huge fan of Resists. This is probably the WoW Player in me, but I just don't find it to be compelling gameplay choices. Now, I know the opposite of that, is that there is no Risk to defensive stats, and resists in a game like this are somewhat necessary. So, let's say I'm not a "huge" fan of the resist system in PoE. I wanted to be able to get a lot of resists that felt "Worth it" from Passives.

So, I started working up some builds, and I realized something early on. If I wanted to go Armor, Marauder or Duelist had the best / quickest access to Armor, Templar has some good choices, but I felt that Marauder / Duelists had "better" Armor nodes, while the templar Nodes were more all encompassing.

Well, I have never really played a duelist, so I started working up builds in that area. And I realized something as I was going along. I always ended up in the Marauder tree to get more of what I wanted, and I was getting things (Res Tech, and a few other things) later than I wanted. So, I started working it back up as a Marauder. I ended up with the same build that I had before, just... working in reverse. And then I started tweaking the build. Working things in, and out, and finding what was worth it, and what wasn't.

So my Marauder Build is now "pretty" set in stone. I say "pretty", because I'm not sure what I'll decide as I actually implement it into gameplay.

How it plays:
I'm blowing through content far better than I ever did before. I settled on the Skills Heavy Strike, Sweep, and Leap Slam, as my main offense. I'm going to integrate a totem in when I can (devouring totem most likely), Warlord's Mark, and we'll see what else.

from my previous marauder, I realized that taking the Blood Magic Keystone is a mistake. Auras make your life so much easier. I'll just end up using Blood Magic Supports. Yes, the skills cost more than they do with the keystone, but I'm pretty sure that I'll be ok. Right now, I'm running a couple of DPS Auras, but that's mainly because I don't need the Defense yet. As I need the Defense, I'll start running more defensive Auras.

For the first time, I made it through Normal without dying. I'm in town in A1 Cruel, no deaths. That's huge for me. My Previous best was Vaal. But, I destroyed Vaal, and Piety rather quickly. So I'm feeling pretty good about that.

The Builds.
This is where I'm at, right now, at 37

During A1, with the passives / levels I get in A1, I will be immediately changing it to this.

Revised

My next "Stopping Point" is level 49. So we'll say that the revision above is level 38, plus the 2 passives in A1. So, from here to 49, I have 11 points.

Level 49 This gets me the Dex to use the super awesome Axe of Death in the Stash, and helps shore up some of my resists that are a little low. Normally, I hit the end of A3 Cruel at about 55. So I'll have 8 points between 49 and 55. (levels, killing piety, and the busts).

Level 55 Some Resists, and some Armor, and a DPS Node.

Now, I know that between 55, and my next break point (66) I will pick up 16 Passive. 11 from levels, and 5 from quests. This will be the first time that I kill all the bandits (Previously, I helped Oak, but I'm not building for Endurance Charges.)

66

Here is where it gets fun. Lots of armor. Lots and lots and lots of armor. 102% increased to be exact. Also, I'll be picking up the "Can't Be Stunned" Keystone, a lot of DPS, and rounding out the rest of the 'rauder resistance cluster. At this point, I'm HOPING I'm mapping. Everything past here, is just icing on the cake.

This is the "Final" version

As in, this is if I'm in the 80's, and I'm cruising around, and I've killed Piety in Merc, and I'm just having a grand old time.

Things that I'm not sure about.

1.) I wish I could figure out a way to improve the auras I'm looking to run, but I just haven't found a way to work out a trade off that makes me feel "ok" about losing something.

2.) THere are still 2 Armor Nodes that I didn't pick up. another 100% increase total, + 10% resists. I'm not sure if it's a big deal. I'm wanting the build to actually work as well.

3.) Is this a good enough balance of Offense and Defense spent in passives. I think so? I'm not sure, only time will tell.

4.) Will my lack of "this is the type of weapon I'm going to use" in my dps choice end up hurting more than it helps?

I have to say, so far? I love this marauder more than my first. I am moving along well, I'm making progress, I'm not dying. I'm not even really... in situations where I could die. I've had a few close calls, but nothing outright killed me, so I'm getting better.

I'd love to get to a point where I'm mapping on this guy. Running Maps on my Ranger is "fun", but there is a little lack of satisfaction in it, because it's really just a lot of kiting, and running, and general silliness like that. I'll keep you informed on what I see, and what I find as I go along.

[Frag]

The 100 spec looks fine with me. I can see jostling some points around to change paths so you have a bit more base dex/int, or trimming a couple of weak points for Mana Flows, but well done imo.

[MonTy]

The build is very similar to my first 80+, good 2H damage and decent defenses. Without top tier gear I had about 10k dps and 8k armor. Those stats will let you run maps up to 72. But then on tougher 72 maps or maps higher leveled, you'll be taking too much damage and not quite dishing out enough damage on harder packs.

Eventually I switched to Infernal Blow, because Heavy Strike's pushback was a pain in the arse, and it stopped Necros from respawning mobs. I also had some nice talents to supplement IB, such as Lava Lash and Amplify. The highest damage late game two-handers I found to be Maces, so I went with that spec anyway, and ended up with this very sturdy build. While in Hardcore I ended up trading for the number one 2H DPS Maul, it's even the highest in Softcore as well. I ended up getting to 14k DPS and above 10K armor, but it still wasn't enough to get past 72 maps comfortably.

While I was having fun, I wanted to experience more of the true end game in PoE. After doing research, I learned that Physical Cleave combined with Bringer of the Rain allowed for a very practical and relatively inexpensive way to reach end-game PoE while playing Melee. When I say inexpensive, I mean about 4 exalts worth of currency. But that is cheap compared to other builds that run all maps. The best part of running Physical Cleave with BoR, is that it Blinds the enemies you hit. Also Cleave acts as your Single Target and AoE, which frees up more skill slots. So I found it very easy to cast Enduring Cry with just using one attack skill.

With the Physical Cleave build I've been able to solo double Vaal in the Maze map and run through 75's without dying. This is mainly thanks to Blinding everything, while having endurance charges up, 10k armor, 50% chance to block, and more defenses from my Auras. It's a build to keep your eye on once you get enough wealth to trade for a Bringer of Rain. Here's my current build at level 85.

[shoju]

Well, I knew it would happen. I died. Lvl45, a2 cruel chamber of sins level 2, in a large chest room. Spark skelles, a summoner and a rare with the faster attack / casting aura.

Oh well. Still going well. Still smashing faces. Will probably slow my speed a little, and get a few extra levels before heading to the spider cave and then the pyramid. Still having a blast. The death was my fault. U thought I could keep myself up sweeping the mobs and the rare. I should have been more tactical.

[shoju]

lvl49, and 3 deaths. I've put on my 2h'd axe, and was able to get it to 4L rather easily. I'm now sitting at 3700 DPS with Heavy Strike. My resists are still a little low, but I'm thinking I'm going to start working my way up the pyramid, and heading for vaal. I'm not sure if I will be killing Vaal soon or not, It will depend on my play time.

But, I'm feeling pretty awesome.

And the new Weaver Fight, and Spider Lair in general, is very nice. I didn't think the fight was "As hard" as they said it was going to be, but it was interesting, and I'm glad they made the changes.

I'm rather curious how well this char will fare as I keep climbing in levels.

[MonTy]

But, I'm feeling pretty awesome.

Good to hear, yea, I enjoy melee a lot in this game. As punishing as it may be. I hit a pretty big milestone today, found some 76 and 77 maps and ran them. Didn't die on the 77 piety map, but the Crematorium boss got me right as I was about to kill it. I got impatient with no flasks left and figured I could just burn him out. Rookie mistake :P

I had two 76 maps drop so hopefully I can keep those going!

[shoju]

I'm hoping to find a way to 5L a piece soon. Not because I want to trick out one ability, but I'd love to reduce my supports so I'm using the same leech, melee phys, and blood magic on leap slam and heavy strike.

[shoju]

Cruel Vaal was not so kind to me. I rushed to get through it though, as I wanted to hit A3 Cruel, which has always been my "end of the road" for melee. My only Merc Characters have been ranged or Summoner.

I died 3 times. But, once was a stupid I zoned in, and vaal was sitting on my face at the portal. I had time to leap slam, drop a new portal, and die. The First one was a "Hey dummy, you hit the wrong flask". The second was the aforementioned face sitting. The third was a "I'm out of Pots, and he has no health bar visible! I can KILL Hi.... eats pavement.

I'm ok with that though. That is a vast improvement for me, over the constant failing that I normally am as melee on the fight. I always either focus too much on adds, or not enough on adds. This was just me making bad decisions with flasks. I'm ok with that.

[shoju]

So, let's check off a few things since I've been back:

Piety (Cruel): Dead
Merciless Difficulty: Achieved
4K DPS: Achieved

And, I had the absolute pleasure of meeting someone that was super freaking cool in game. Guy posts in General

#Have a 5L 2h'd Rare mace, Don't want, PST

So I whisper him, and he links it. It's got GREAT Damage Rolls, and Attack Speed Rolls. It's 5 Link. The rest of the stats aren't just terrible, but they are troll rolls at best (+3 Accuracy Rating) It reqs 61, and it's a Direct upgrade in any manageable way to my current 2her. I'm interested I tell him. how much?

He asks me to link my current weapon.
I do.
He says Nothing. Just meet me in A1 N.

Wait... What?

So I figure I'm going to get trolled or something, so I cruise over to A1 Norm, and There he is. Level 80 Templar. He opens trade with me, Drops in the Mace, and something else. I didn't realize what the something else was, as it moused over that on my way to mouse over the mace.

He had tossed in a portal gem.

I ask him if he meant to do that, and if he really didn't want anything for the mace. He said he was sure, and that he was happy to help someone else out.

I'm very pleased, and a little more "optimistic" after my interaction with him.

I have died a little more than I had hoped. But not on bosses. Rare Mobs with terrible mods are destroying me. Melee Reflect being the biggest so far. Coupled with "Extra Damage" Voidbearers.

[LennyLen]

He had tossed in a portal gem.

Nice. I haven't seen one of those in over a year of playing.

[shoju]

Super Cool guy. Was very happy to have run across him. Now, I'm trying to find a way to make myself "happy" with my current gear for the next two weeks, until Anarchy merges with Standard, and I can strap on the shinies I have in Standard on my Anarchy Chars.

I have a 1k armor chest for my marauder
I have a 975 Evasion Chest for my ranger
I have scores of ammies and rings

I would like to just "get" my Marauder into a 66 map before that happens. I have 2 weeks, and 11 levels to go, I should be able to do it. I've just about given up hope on my ranger, after seeing the DPS difference between it, and my marauder. All wound up, my ranger is at 2k dps, at level 66, with some pretty spectacular items. My level 55 1/2 'rauder is pumping out 4k. Somewhere, I screwed the pooch on the ranger

[shoju]

I changed my build a little, removing some "not good" DPS nodes, for a more efficient path, which saved me a point in the process, so that I could get to other things faster. I lost about ~300 DPS from it, But, I'm going to be able to get back to better DPS nodes faster, as it allowed me to pick up unwavering stance. 2 more Points into the armor node by that, and then I'm back working on DPS nodes.

Though... I'm beginning to wonder if I have enough health nodes, of if my gear just sucks that bad. I'm still not at 2k HP at 57. I've only died once recently, though I just sped through the beginning of A1 Merc to get to ledge to get some "farming" in, so that I could pick up some levels, and hopefully some resist gear, so that I can go back and get the medicine chest, and the Fetid Pool. I'm underlevel and undergeared to try and deal with either of those areas right now, so I figured farming ledge would give me a shot at some gear, and some levels before I went back there.

SO far, I'm getting plenty of levels, but I haven't even seen a piece of gear that I would hold on to to try and maybe, possibly, sell.

It's getting a little discouraging.

EDIT:
Here is a link To my current gear, and a couple of goodies I have waiting on me.

[shoju]

A2 merc is beating the hell out of me. I'm going to lock myself in the church for a few levels, re-distribute points in my passives, and see if I can make this work. Big problem is: Gear (SHOCKER!). I just am not seeing upgrades to get my resists up, so I'm trying to walk a REALLY fine line.

[shoju]

Hit 61, tossed on my spiffy new 5L Mace, and changed up my build a little. I removed some DPS passives, to get further into Defensive Passives.

I'm also able to run
Vitality
Determination
Hatred
at the same time, and have enough mana to curse freely.

My DPS is up to almost 5K even after dropping some DPS Passives. This mace is a BEAST.

In the second post of that thread, I've listed some goodies I've picked up along the way, if anyone is interested in them. They will be in Standard in a week, or they are available in Anarchy now.

[shoju]

I went into the Church, and did some work in there. Unfortunately, I'm going to need to find some better gear. My resists are making farming up levels... Slow. If I go full out, packs of Casters will eat me alive. If I go slow... well... then it's just a crawl really.

And the biggest problem, is that I'm running with REALLY low resists. As in... 10-20% each on the elementals, and -20% on Chaos (not a big deal while farming).

So, I've been cruising around looking for better gear. The big problem I'm finding is that people want just... ridiculous prices for gear. I found an Astral Plate. 1 Socket. Life, 2 Resists, and a very "meh" armor roll (sub 50%, as the piece didn't even have 1k armor), and they wanted an exalt for it. I found a piece with 2 resists, life, and a better roll, and they still wanted 20 chaos for it.

I just don't have that kind of currency, and the pieces that I have that should be worth... "Something" just don't seem to garner any interest. a 5L Staff, a 5L Axe, a 5L ES/EVA chest, a Killer ES ring (ES, Dex, Int, 70+ Life, IIR, IIQ), a Tri Ele 1h'd Mace with IAS, just... sit. I advertise them, and nothing pops. No one is interested.

[MonTy]

1 Socket. Life, 2 Resists, and a very "meh" armor roll (sub 50%, as the piece didn't even have 1k armor), and they wanted an exalt for it.

Yea, that's ridiculous. Lots of people fishing to rip others off- in today's market it's worth maybe 5 to 10 chaos at most. Hell, most people I map with vendor items like that.

I hit my goal of level 90 with my melee'er, so I'm taking a long break from that character. It's not feasible to level past 90 without a huge surplus of currency to roll maps or join a very good map group that steadily runs 73+. Hell, I had to sell everything I owned just to afford to get to 90. Was tough selling all the items I had saved for alts.

I decided to make a non-map character, the standard Spork MF'er and she's running docks/lunaris smoothly with around 450% iir and 100 iiq. Tons of rares and uniques drop!

But alas, once you get to standard give me a ring. I might have some stuff left over to help you out.

[CelticHound]

What level are you at? (This is still Anarchy, right?)

I've been running catacombs for experience, because that's fractionally easier than docks for my summoner.
If you don't mind playing along with a slow-ass summoner, we could do a couple gear runs. I see Astral Plates drop fairly regularly, and I'd be happy to give you a couple Alchs for luck.

[shoju]

I will be calling MonTy

@Celtichound

I'm level 62 now. I hit 62 last night, spent about an hour just in felshrine, and leveled (ugh... it felt slow), and picked up some new gear. I got a nice Chest (5s/4L that I was able to roll into something respectable), new gloves (4L that I rolled into a nice set of Life +% Armor Double Res), and Boots (4s 0L that I rolled into movement speed and Life). So, After I toss on the Right Ring (I grabbed the wrong one out of the bank by mistake), I can put on the new unique neck I picked up while running (Daresso's Courage dropped), and that should make my resist problem go away.

From there, I'm probably going to start making my way into the pyramid (I've killed Oak and have that WP), and set about figuring out how in the Eff I'm going to deal with Vaal.

Once I get to A3, I'd be glad to run with a summoner for sure. MonTy seemed to have an enjoyable time running around with my minions. Who knows, Maybe you might even be interested in one of the 4 +Minion Helms that I have

[shoju]

Since hitting Standard, I've put a ton of work into my gearing on my Marauder. I'm pretty pleased with him, even though I'm currently trying to upgrade his helm.

I need ~20 more Lightning resist before I feel "comfortable" in the Barracks, and I figure my helm is a good place to find it. The problem is, I need a 4L, with Life and Lightning Resist, with comparable armor.

I found one in a shop, but they wanted 5 Ex for it.... I thought it was a nice helm, but I didn't think it was 5 Ex nice.

If you want to see my current setup, gear and build wise, Have at it