Best Spec for leveling Marauder?

[Mondavian]

I'm currently level 27 and using the Annihilation spec. I've read several web sites, but they all seem to recommend different skill trees for the most effective way to level. I'm primarily doing regular quests, but occasionally add in a heroic if I can handle it. I'm not doing much grouping (at least until I reach 50). Any suggestions for the best marauder spec for leveling would be appreciated. Thanks to all for your help and advice!

[Ankhdad]

lol..thanks for doing the 'footwork' on this post...I was just about to ask the same thing.

[fahza]

Stay with what you have, it really starts to shine at 30 and now I am 32 5 person mobs are nothing at all, elites are nothing. But feel free to reset them and play around, thats what its all about, no cookie cutter builds, you want that go play WOW since they really screwed that game up.

[Snafuzzle]

Go Carnage and use Quinn if you want the easiest lvling experience.

[AldrikG]

I am level 30 and I have been playing around with the specs for a few days (respec costs are not TOO bad so far ).

 

So far my favorite has been Rage, with Vette. I feel like a lightsabre wielding dervish of Sith "justice".

 

Fun, fun, fun!

[NagaJolokia]

I am level 30 and I have been playing around with the specs for a few days (respec costs are not TOO bad so far ).

 

So far my favorite has been Rage, with Vette. I feel like a lightsabre wielding dervish of Sith "justice".

 

Fun, fun, fun!

 

 

Agreed, Rage is by far my favourite as well and I tried all 3 too. (level 48)

Edited January 13, 2012 by NagaJolokia

[direborne]

I listened to the overwhelming 'use Annihilation' and have regretted it. At 28 my Marauder with Anni was so un-fun to play I actually rerolled a Jag. It's not that it's hard to level as Anni, it's that it's like pulling teeth. Single-target on elites is nice, sure, but it takes forever to take down a pack of regular mob (relatively speaking) because you hardly have any burst and zero AoE (whoever decided warriors don't need AoE until 32 when every other class in the game gets it pretty much from the get go?). So basically you're killing things at tank pace without a tank's survivability. Doable? Sure. Fun? Hardly.

 

So I re-rolled a Jag and went Rage and had a ton of fun. And then thought, let me try Rage on Mara. And you know what? Much, much better. It offers a really good ratio of DPS to survivability (if you use Quinn) and it's just a more fun spec to play, seeing as how you're much better suited to mopping up groups of mobs which is mostly what you're up against while leveling. Mind you, you do fine on single-target. I have finised Act 1 at 29 I suspect Anni would win hands down end-game, I can totally see its usefulness in raids and the such, where sustained damage is king. But for leveling - unless you're a masochist and like killing groups of weak mobs at a snail's pace - do yourself a favor and give Rage a try. Hope it helps.

[Memorii]

I listened to the overwhelming 'use Annihilation' and have regretted it.

 

Huh. I've never had that problem. Level 24 Annihilation Marauder, on Tatooine. I'm regularly taking down groups of normals 1-3 levels higher than me, 1-2 strongs at around the same level, and elites 1-2 levels higher. Only times I've really died was to a pack of womp rats when ability lag screwed me over, and while trying to chain pull at half health.

 

@OP. I haven't tried Carnage or Rage too much (Only tried them before level 20, so I didn't have any of the good abilities, just barely had Ataru Form in Carnage), but Anni works well for me. The DoTs and the heals from the talents let you kills mobs faster with minimal downtime, and, at your level, you can build Fury pretty fast (4 Fury per rage-consuming ability, from Short Fuse.) and keep Berserk up a lot (100% crit on bleeds and an extra %1 heal for group ftw! )

 

I say try them all out at least once. Respec costs aren't very expensive to start with, so you can toy around with it a little. Find the one that fits your playstyle, then find a guide on how to play it. I recommend Kiba's Mach 5 Marauder guide for Carnage or Anni (Since the Rage part isn't up at the moment.)

[Sykopathik]

I listened to the overwhelming 'use Annihilation' and have regretted it. At 28 my Marauder with Anni was so un-fun to play I actually rerolled a Jag. It's not that it's hard to level as Anni, it's that it's like pulling teeth. Single-target on elites is nice, sure, but it takes forever to take down a pack of regular mob (relatively speaking) because you hardly have any burst and zero AoE (whoever decided warriors don't need AoE until 32 when every other class in the game gets it pretty much from the get go?). So basically you're killing things at tank pace without a tank's survivability. Doable? Sure. Fun? Hardly.

 

So I re-rolled a Jag and went Rage and had a ton of fun. And then thought, let me try Rage on Mara. And you know what? Much, much better. It offers a really good ratio of DPS to survivability (if you use Quinn) and it's just a more fun spec to play, seeing as how you're much better suited to mopping up groups of mobs which is mostly what you're up against while leveling. Mind you, you do fine on single-target. I have finised Act 1 at 29 I suspect Anni would win hands down end-game, I can totally see its usefulness in raids and the such, where sustained damage is king. But for leveling - unless you're a masochist and like killing groups of weak mobs at a snail's pace - do yourself a favor and give Rage a try. Hope it helps.

 

I avoid Quinn when ever I can unless Im fighting multiple elites or champ mobs solo his dps is horrible. I geared both Quinn and Vette as well as I could at 40 and things die so much faster using Vette. There may be a small amount of downtime requiring channel hatred for 5 seconds between fights but the faster killing speed makes up for it. When I get to 50 I'm gonna get Jaesa geared again because I still think she was the best. Does anyone actually use Broonmark for anything at all ugggh I hate him. Might give Pierce a try also.

 

Ive tried Carnage and Annihilation and honestly even at at 46 I dont see much if any appeal to use carnage...I may just be playing it wrong but the damage seems very lacking compared to Annihilation and it seems like more of a button masher Battering Assault, Force Scream, Gore, Massacre, Ravage, Massacre, Massacre, Massacre, Massacre, Massacre, did I say Massacre...I do however love all of the roots carnage gives for PVP Ravage 3 second root every 30 seconds(or Less), and Deadly Throw 3 seconds every 15 seconds, add in Force Choke for another 3 seconds.

 

Have yet to try rage but have seen people pull really good numbers with it and have been out dps'd by a lesser geared Marauder same level, fighting the same Elite mobs. He was using Jaesa and I was using my newly geared Vette(43-45 blues). On 2 Elites he would kill them about 5-10 seconds faster than me and singles still about 5 seconds faster. Maybe it was an issue of skill but I think it was the rage tree.

Edited January 13, 2012 by Sykopathik

[Thisisxonaz]

I swapped to rage at around level 15 and have been using it till now (mid 30's) and won't be swapping back, the damage you get on smash is incredible, PvE is easy I use Jette for the most part because I just don't need the heals.

 

Even in PvP Rage rocks because of the buffs for smash.

[Lxkane]

I play a lvl 35 marauder, my guild has level 50 marauders none of them use annihilation. After one of our lvl 50 marauders went carnage from annihilation he said "annihilation shouldn't even be in the game it's **** compared to carnage."

 

Go rage.

 

Annihilation is ****, it should be removed from the game and replaced with either an evade tank tree or absorb tank tree. Annihilation works in pve, in pvp it's useless doesn't do damage fast enough and healers will heal through the bleeds. In pve it's fine but doesn't have the straight up damage of carnage and doesn't have the burst aoe of rage.

 

Carnage is good for leveling but it is work and it has not made playing marauder fun (it's actually making me want to shelve marauder for Jugg or Asin tank haven't choosen yet). The damage is there it's just to get it is so much work. It is literally damage per second there is nearly no burst to the class with carnage and you will almost never one shot anything not 15-20+ levels under you.

 

My general rotation goes something like this: force Charge ->battering assault -> gore -> ravage -> vicious slashes -> assault -> force scream.

 

handling 4 normal or 2 strong or 1 elite and 3 normals is easy with smash and sweeping strikes (we should get sweeping strikes before lvl 10 I have no idea why it takes 30 levels for us to get a second aoe) gore -> smash -> sweeping strikes ->sweeping strikes normals are dead and only the elite is left.

 

So why rage? Simple really it has what is arguably the best burst for marauder and shii-cho boost both damage and defense and when fully specced will always ignore 20% of armor (no 15 sec gore cool down). It also turns unleash into a 10% instant heal. Rage is the go to dmg for jugg but it has double lightsaber attacks for marauder and is really the only way to get good burst damage out of the class.

Edited January 13, 2012 by Lxkane

[TraceurRayne]

im lvl 23 and im having troubles getting up, and i'm on the last quest for tattoine for the main quest so i need to at least get up another 6 lvls fast, i mostly have been doin PvP in rest mode(when ur exp bar is blue from exiting out of a rest zone/cantina) and so far its going up slowly, btw whats rage? idk what it is but from what you guys are saying it helps alot.

[SodaOfYoda]

Up until Lv43 I was using Carnage. It was a straightforward build and was extremely fun. I alternated between Jaesa and Quinn throughout, depending upon the situation.

 

Then came my class mission on Dromund Kaas. I had a PITA time with one elite encounter during the Power Play mission, and switched to Rage. It's been slow getting used to this new build, but I have seen an improvement in my survivability especially in larger groups (and that's still not being on top of my CD/GCD).

 

I'm already itching to go back to Carnage, but I do like the kiting ability of force crush and the interrupting ability of force choke. Nothing is cooler than unleashing Smash after a 4 stack buildup of shockwave.

[BlownSi]

I started on repub with a Jedi Sent and got him to lvl 43 before I re-rolled to imp on a different server. (Found some old SWG and WoW friends). I went straight up the Combat (Carnage) tree and loved it. The only thing I will say is that it takes some time before you really start seeing the benefits from the tree. I started really "feeling" the tree around the low 30's. Not that I really had any problems before that.

 

I did go Watchman (Annihilation) at this time to check it out and see what all the fuss was about. Though the DoT damage would burn through elites really quickly when used right, I actually felt like it was more work that Combat (Carnage). Stack Str of course first and foremost, but once you start getting the other secondary stats, go for a balance of power and surge.

[maxalexbuck]

i keep hearing people talk about switching between rage, carn, and anni

where do you go to do that?

ppl said near the commendation vendor, but i did not see anyone there

HELP! PLEASE!

[PenoNation]

Just go to the fleet. The guy is in the same kiosk as the guild registrar. I believe he is called the "skills mentor"

[ArcadesSabboth]

Rage probably levels faster than Annihilation because packs of 3 normal mobs outnumber the strong/elite variety and nothing compares to a Shockwave/Smash on the 3 mob camps. That said, Annihilation is by far the best for single targets and the self healing helps minimize downtime (even if you run with Quinn).

 

I played most of the game as Carnage because it's what I use at 50 for PvP (and a little PvE on the side), but I dabbled in Rage for awhile around 45-49 and it was great. I switched to Annihilation at 49 to finish off my story quest because the last few encounters are single target boss fights.

[Abiza]

I started with carnage because it seems like it was my play style but I finally gave into the whole "You must go ani to level!" crap and I'm really regretting it. Sure, your survivability is great and it shines on elites. Guess what, you don't face elites that often while leveling. It's standards and strongs galore and they die faster than your dots can tick. I'm gonna try rage out now and see if it's any better than carnage, but one thing is clear. Ani is slow as hell. Screw that spec till 50 imo.

[Voblat]

Annihilation all the way to 50 for me, never changed once.

 

Never had any trouble, and really enjoyed the way it plays in combat too.

[RawlsRorty]

I started with carnage because it seems like it was my play style but I finally gave into the whole "You must go ani to level!" crap and I'm really regretting it. Sure, your survivability is great and it shines on elites. Guess what, you don't face elites that often while leveling. It's standards and strongs galore and they die faster than your dots can tick. I'm gonna try rage out now and see if it's any better than carnage, but one thing is clear. Ani is slow as hell. Screw that spec till 50 imo.

 

You kill strongs in under 6 seconds?!

 

I don't understand how anyone can stand to play Carnage without Massacare. I tried to around lvl 32. I didn't even last s level before going back to Anni. Without Massacare, infrequent Ataru procs make the spec garbage imo. I really really want to like Carnage because Force Scream is awesome. But so far st least, I do FAR more damage as Anni.

Edited January 14, 2012 by RawlsRorty

[Gasht]

Standard mobs die blindly fast in any build.. and you often can't hit whole pack with smash. And anyway it does not really matter because normal content is easy and you can do it perfectly fine in any build.

For example Carnage is garbage at early lvls but it has +15% move speed, and you run ALOT when lvling. With anni you killing strongs and elites somewhat easier than rage, but kill packs more slowly.

 

I choose anni, because it's fun to do heroic's solo.

[Abiza]

You kill strongs in under 6 seconds?!

 

I don't understand how anyone can stand to play Carnage without Massacare. I tried to around lvl 32. I didn't even last s level before going back to Anni. Without Massacare, infrequent Ataru procs make the spec garbage imo. I really really want to like Carnage because Force Scream is awesome. But so far st least, I do FAR more damage as Anni.

 

5.9 to be exact

[RawlsRorty]

Standard mobs die blindly fast in any build.. and you often can't hit whole pack with smash. And anyway it does not really matter because normal content is easy and you can do it perfectly fine in any build.

For example Carnage is garbage at early lvls but it has +15% move speed, and you run ALOT when lvling. With anni you killing strongs and elites somewhat easier than rage, but kill packs more slowly.

 

I choose anni, because it's fun to do heroic's solo.

 

Ataru form's run speed increase is garbage while leveling because, as far as I can tell, it doesn't stack with Sprint.

[AGoldCrayon]

Leveled as Carnage with Vette till I got Jaesa, then went with Jaesa all the way. Can't say anything about the other two specs yet, though I will be testing them out for pvp viability soon. For leveling though, I really can't understand the ammount of QQ I've seen about leveling outside of Anni. Leveling in this game has proven to be pretty much idiot proof, the only fight I can ever remember giving me a hard time was the Avatar of Sel Makor. Smashed it on my second attempt though once I realized 'hey, I should interupt all that crap he's throwing at me'. Derp derp.

[tomtenils]

Hi

I am level 28 and have tried all 3. So far I like rage best but since it's power is in AOE it is not suitable when in instances where other players uses crowd control and the AOE breaks that. Anni is the best single target dps so I am going with that

Edited January 14, 2012 by tomtenils