Marauders are one of the most popular classes in Path of Exile. They are very versatile and can be built in a variety of ways, although most players prefer a combination of tanky and DPS stats. Fortunately the Marauder can easily access great tanking stats like resistances, armor and health, all the while having plenty of damage dealing options.
Below I’ll go over a few proven builds that players have found to be effective. Most of them are equally good for leveling and at end-game, but some are more gear dependent than others. Be sure to take a good look at the skill tree builds listed and I’m sure you’ll find one that fits your play style.
Newbie-Friendly Melee Build
This is one of the best builds for beginners in Path of Exile as it allows for very easy and quick leveling and is very efficient in late game, even maps. It’s basically a cookie-cutter build built around Ground Slam gem, which doesn’t depend on great equipment to be effective. The build uses a 2-hand Mace weapon to mow down your enemies and extremely high life leech for sustain, also taking advantage of Blood Magic (abilities use health not mana), Unwavering Stance (can’t be stunned) and Resolute Technique (never miss attacks) skill nodes.
- Link to forum topic (contains a lot of explanations, gear examples, etc.)
- Full build (97 points)
Hardcore Endgame Rain of Arrows Marauder Build
As the build author explains, Rain of Arrows allows you to deal huge AoE damage and doesn’t require accuracy of expensive +Quality gems. It works better with Elemental bows, but can work with Physical ones as well. This build can also be used by Rangers or Duelists. It does require extremely valuable equipment if you want to get 20k DPS, but it’s well worth it!
Alternatively, you can take a look at Gh0un’s Point Blank Rain of Arrows build.
Immortal Call + Cyclone Build
This build attempts to imitate the famed Diablo II Whirlwind Barbarian, by using Cyclone as its main skill paired with Immortal Call when it hits the fan. The weapon it uses is a 2-handed mace which also consistently stuns monsters allowing you to spin through mob packs and live to tell about it.
The biggest upside to this build is that it’s not gear dependent. As you can see from this gameplay video the author has only 3000 HP, 850 armor and 420 evasion rating, with 82% all resist and 3% chaos resist.
- Forum topic
- Gameplay video (shows killing Kole and farming Lunaris Temple in Merciless)
- Full skill tree build
Explosive Arrow Elemental Equilibrium Tank Marauder
The main idea behind this build is to clear packs of monsters effectively by using burn damage from the explosion. Explosive Arrow doesn’t scale off of weapon elemental damage but only from projectile, fire and area damage, meaning it requires very little skill points into damage, and the rest can be put into defensive nodes. The build also requires using Quill Rain, a unique bow dealing three attacks per second.
This build is extremely efficient at AoE damage and is decent at single target as well, all the while having high health pool, resistances and armor. It’s a bit weaker early game and more dependent on life on hit due to Blood Magic which is taken very early.
- Forum topic
- Exilepro build (more detailed explanations of the same build)
- Skill tree builds: 30 points, 50 points, 70 points, 91 points
Lightning Arrow Bow Marauder Build
Most bow builds currently are focused around Lightning Arrow, and of course Marauders are no exception. This build named “The Shocker” deals a ton of damage, shocks monsters consistently and since you’re starting in the Marauder tree you have access to a lot of defensive skills. It does require better than average equipment, but then again almost every build does.
The best part about this build is you can easily adapt it to your wishes and play style, and you can (and should) take a few more defensive nodes if you plan on playing this in Hardcore.
- Forum topic
- HC tree – tanky, Purity, Blood Magic support gem.
- HC tree – Blood Magic keystone, Grace, tanky.
- SC tree – Purity and more damage, less HP, Blood Magic support gem.
- SC tree – Grace and more damage, less HP, Blood Magic keystone.
Dual-Wield Elemental Ground Slam Marauder
This build basically takes the concepts of Elemental Bow Marauder and applies it to Ground Slam, the goal of which is to deal as much elemental damage as fast as possible, and to as many enemies as possible. With Ground Slam your aim is to walk up to or leap in a bunch of monsters and blast them with chain-stuns before they get the chance to fire off a shot at you.
The build also takes advantage of many defensive nodes in the skill tree, thus having high resistances, armor and life.
- Forum topic
- Skill tree build progression – Resolute Technique, Blood Magic, Amplify, Unwavering Stance, End-game (87 points)
Dual Wielding Dual Strike+Cleave Physical Build
This is the build I’m using myself after several unsuccessful attempts to have fun playing rangers, witches, tanks and whatnot. It features high damage with even higher durability and is extremely gear independent. Great for beginners or anyone else who want a dual-wielding powerhouse without spending any currency whatsoever to make it viable.
The builds listed are of course just some of the more popular and by no means the only viable ones. I encourage you to go explore the forums or other sites and see if you can find something else that fits your play style better. And of course if you do find a good build, be sure to contact me and I’ll add it to the list (or just post a comment below).
