Kudos to all the Marauders out there.

[Count_Midnite]

Well okay. Let me start off by saying this is not a QQ thread and that I seriously commend Marauders for taking the UNBEARABLE Leveling stage and simply having the patience for melee DPS. I am an experienced player who has a Level 50 Gunslinger, Level 50 Operative Healer, Level 50 Shadow Tank, and a Level 40 Powertech. Still working on my Scoundrel, who will be a DPS.

 

Anyways back on topic.... I thought it would be a good idea to see what the fuss about the Marauder class was.... So I rolled one to thirty.... You guys could say I suck with a Melee DPS I will agree. Here are my points I throw that the ways I commend you....

 

1. Yes you guys have 4 ********lol buttons Cloak of Pain, Saber Ward, Undying Rage, and Force Camo, but holy crud? How do you guys close the gap with Gunslingers?? PVP I try to take on everyone else and Usually succeed on taking out you know, Sages, Vanguards, Commandos, Shadows, Healing Scoundrels. Just by using my Force Charge. When I see a Gunslinger Hunkered Down though..... Its a lot cause for me.... Just don't even want to describe the experience with one.

 

2. Wow yeah you get your healer Malavai Quinn on Balmorra yes.... But even then Marauders are pretty squishy. Relying on just DPS and of course the long Defensive CDs, but still this class has a form of squishy-ness.

 

3. Here's my big one. Assault Vanguards and Other classes with a slow.... Say these units keep you in the rage of 6-9m. And they are DPSing and smartly kiting you at the same time..... Just how the hell do you put up with that?? I mean seriously while the damn Vanguard is making me a human lightning rod and the Sage is Constantly hitting me with the Sever Force Combo and thinking he is all hard cause he is throwing rocks at me. I have to walk my slow self there!

 

Anyways I am currently level 31 with this build http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc/#100bZhGMRMZG.2

Lastly as leaving. Kudos to all you damn people who have the patience to take the raged and kiters. It does take a hell of amount of skill to play this class and master your own rotation, well done. Anyways now let the "L2P Sayers" and "Lul u suk unsub!" People begin their assault on me.

[BiggDirty]

Marauder is underpowered until level 40. Snipers are overpowered in the sub-50 bracket. That explains your experience against gunslingers.

 

At level 50, the matchup between Mara/Gunslinger becomes a 50/50. Although admittedly it is our toughest 1v1 matchup.

 

There is no such thing as kiting in this game. Maras have so many gap closers, that the best you can hope for us to kite them for a few seconds, which will not be enough, because once they get on you, they are going to hit you for 10-15k in only a few seconds.

 

In theory, you should be able to keep a mara at 6-8 meters, but in reality it does not work, because this game engine is too laggy, and melee can hit you even though they are 10 meters away on your screen.

[Count_Midnite]

Yeah. I agree with the statement of 40 is underpowered for melee. It might be just me though. Then again I played Swtor using just Ranged DPS and Heals. Only time I had to get in someones face to do damage was when i was my Shadow Tank. So I mean I don't have the most experience with it, but I do now strongly believe only the truly skilled could make this class REALLY shine. As a Gunslinger I have seen terribad players rock the class in Sub-50 PVP, and a Gunslinger was my first class I played on swtor and I remember doing about 200k in WZs just sitting there with Aimed Shot and Charged Burst.

[AngusFTW]

gunslingers are ridiculous in lowbie bracket they scale really well and hit hardest.

with gunslingers camo and pacify(obfuscate imp side?) are your friends.

[DarthOvertone]

I thought it would be a good idea to see what the fuss about the Marauder class was....

 

Good on ya for giving the class a roll rather than adding to the QQ.

 

How do you guys close the gap with Gunslingers??

 

Force Camo is my Marauder's bread and butter gap closer against Sniper/Slingers. He goes with Predation when possible if FC is on cd.

 

But even then Marauders are pretty squishy. Relying on just DPS and of course the long Defensive CDs, but still this class has a form of squishy-ness.

 

Yes, Marauders are pretty squishy and without their defensive cooldowns would be easy meat. However, my Marauder doesn't even use a healing companion, except when soloing Heroics. The rest of the time he just rolls with Vette and DPS races all other mobs.

 

Assault Vanguards and Other classes with a slow.... Say these units keep you in the rage of 6-9m. And they are DPSing and smartly kiting you at the same time..... Just how the hell do you put up with that??

 

My Marauder specs Annihilation. Whenever he encounters Vans/Pyros, he opens up with his bleeds, mainly Rupture which applies a slow. Then it's a matter of mixing in Obfuscate, CoP and SW depending on when they are setting up to pump you with HiB or Rail Shot.

 

One thing I like to do is fire Ravage to get them to blow their CC options. If they continue kiting after CCing you, you can even get in a leap for some Rage building. That sets the table for a free and clear Undying Rage should it be necessary down the road of the fight. In all honesty, UR usually isn't necessary unless some big crits landed. Marauders are pretty squishy, but so are Vans/Pyros, but it's a nice card to have in the deck.

 

If you are really struggling with keeping up with their kiting, you always have the option of Predation as well.

 

Kudos to all you damn people who have the patience to take the raged and kiters. It does take a hell of amount of skill to play this class and master your own rotation, well done.

 

Good luck to you sir and enjoy the class.

[Vhaegrant]

Can't really add comment to all the points as I've just started entering into the PvP aspect at level 50 so all the abilities are there to use.

 

All I can really say with my current style in PvP is not to go 1 on 1, stay on the fringe look for a weakened opponent then jump in to take him down. But then I'm in recruit gear and walking around with about 30% fewer HPs than every body else so I have to be picky

 

On 2. though I would say your build is particulalry PvE unfriendly. Having levelled my marauder from 1-50 pre-legacy (so no multiple buffs or presence bonus) in a Carnage build I struggled with some of the end of chapter boss fights and most fights needed the use of med packs to keep me on my feet.

Changed to Anihilation build (http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#100rIbRroMfsZhMMZh.2) when I started doing the Belsavis dailies and haven't looked back. Berserk followed by Deadly Sabres and Rupture is a good self heal and most combats I walk out at full health. I just wish I'd changed to Anihilation earlier so I could see if the boss fights would have been any easier.

[Xerain]

 

There is no such thing as kiting in this game. Maras have so many gap closers, that the best you can hope for us to kite them for a few seconds, which will not be enough, because once they get on you, they are going to hit you for 10-15k in only a few seconds.

 

What are you going on about? I'm confused with this whole statement.

 

 

Oh how to deal with pt/vg's in that 5-9m range... stop and let them keep running then charge them when they break 10m. Stop chasing and letting them stay in that deadzone.

[Caeliux]

Well okay. Let me start off by saying this is not a QQ thread

 

I stopped right there cause I don't believe you, plus I see a giant wall of text.

[PoliteAssasin]

The only easy Mara spec is rage. Annihilation requires skill. Carnage too somewhat, but isn't as hard to master as annihilation for many people. Glad you see both sides though, far too few can look from both perspectives as you have. So kudos to you OP.

[warultima]

When I leveled my gunslinger I can tell you this at around level 20 I was already hitting like a truck.

And after I got trick shot its not even fair almost.

Especially with all the baddie rerollers they literally do NOT know how to play at all if they couldnt open with their force charge.

 

I play sharpshooter.

It usually goes like this... I take cover and do my stuff (ep, cb, trickshot, aimed) all I see is marauder standing still for a few panking why he couldnt charge me, and after a few second he will start running towards me (while getting beat on) then get leg shot rooted and take another charged burst, trickshot in the face then just as they *almost* get to be I just knock them back (or use aimed shot which also KB for a good distance).

 

Most of these reroll bads dont try to LoS, dont camo, dont predation and all they do is running straight at where their "pains" are coming from. Unless he has a healer or is guarded I can kill them before they can connect me with their glowbats ONCE. Then next thing you know is they drop everything they are doing and try to get revenge on you because you hurt their feeling by wtfpwning them without taking 1 damage 1v1.

 

As a full WH marauder myself as well I can tell you this, marauder matures around level 40-44 where you get all the goodies. And its not that marauders are, according to OP, underpowered... its because you have no clue what you are doing especially fighting the only AC that's anti-force charge. Anni and Carnage specs arent as easy (or faceroll) as many people think. While its really not THAT hard to play it correctly I will face slap you over and over and over and over until you know what to do in what situation and not FORCE CHARGE SLASH SLASH SLASH SPAMMMM ASSAULT SPAM for rage THEN SLASH SPAMMMM again.... you are doing it wrong.

 

My marauder still reap thru people way faster AND survive better than my slinger especially in a 1v1 situation where there's no healer/tank baby sitting you.

Edited August 21, 2012 by warultima

[darklordryo]

You're better off going full carnage at that level, get the deadly throw snare and gore, and you will be fine, then put your next points into the camo one.

[The_Kane]

Has an Marauder only class I ever play, I have to say in pvp carnage is the way to go, its a very efficient tree, and really helps against long range, You have deadly trow with movement impairing, Charge, Ravage, when you combine Gore+Ravage (That also has movement Impairing in the Carnage Tree) thats a really big hit 4k+, and thats me on my average geared marauder, the trick is Immobilizing the long range players once you do it their pretty much done, since if you play your cards right and get up close you have plenty of skills to prevent them to run away from you anyway I'v tried all trees and Carnage is the hardest to master but also the best in PVP, Rage is the easiest, force choke+smash is a pretty deadly combo can hit up 3k and its aoe, you will do more dmg on the average in pvp, but its not good in 1vs1 fights, and even worse against long range.

Cheers

[PoliteAssasin]

Carnage really isn't that hard. None of them are really, but out of all 3 annihilation is simply due to having the most key binds. Carnage is also easy to counter like rage. As soon as you see them use gore just cc. Locks them out of armor pen for 12 seconds and if during ravage 30 seconds for their main burst. They'd have to use scream until ravage cooldowns up. Same with rage, you can cc them mid air before they even land a smash. Do it all the time on the lolsmash maras on my server which results in them ravaging, or running of it's already on cooldown until they can setup another smash. Annihilation isn't as easy to counter because our abilities aren't interruptible. Rupture and annihilate are pretty much instant. The only thing we set up are heals which are passive from crits so cc won't prevent that.

[WaywardOne]

I've got a few sub 50 sentinels and a sub-50 mara. It is an exercise in frustration (dealing with CC in this game is - I'll be unsubbing soon becasue I'm tired of getting knocked around, snared, rooted, stunned and mezzed 50x a wz), but with decent gear they can be very competitive. The keys are to get your rotation down and learn to stay on your target which you have to keep snared/rooted.

 

Vs Snipers, vanish is very useful (as mentioned above) and positioning is critical. Alot of them tend to take cover next to a wall. Get in between them and that wall. That way when they use one of their two knockbacks/roots to interrupt your master-strike/ravage you'll still be at melee range unless they break cover (and they will do that or die).

 

Make friends with a tank and/or healer is the real way to win...

[arkitip]

Carnage really isn't that hard. None of them are really, but out of all 3 annihilation is simply due to having the most key binds. Carnage is also easy to counter like rage. As soon as you see them use gore just cc. Locks them out of armor pen for 12 seconds and if during ravage 30 seconds for their main burst. They'd have to use scream until ravage cooldowns up. Same with rage, you can cc them mid air before they even land a smash. Do it all the time on the lolsmash maras on my server which results in them ravaging, or running of it's already on cooldown until they can setup another smash. Annihilation isn't as easy to counter because our abilities aren't interruptible. Rupture and annihilate are pretty much instant. The only thing we set up are heals which are passive from crits so cc won't prevent that.

 

While Gore>Ravage>Force Scream is the most damage inside of 2 GCDs that any class can do, it's also extremely difficult for 1 healer to keep up with Berserk>Massacre spam. It's not nearly as easy to counter.

Having played all the specs, I think Carnage and Annihilation are equal in their challenge. Carnage needs some pretty good timing and Annihilation needs strong resource management.