Yes, before everything, i know is the Marauder is a such good class with the debuffs and support skills like the pull and armor debuff. As same the brutality damage capacity... but, he cant be a solid class to be on the podium of White lions, even the WP 2h now... We have much more content than zerg x zerg playstyle and I can say that many people play on a small scale and would like more gameplay options. So, with this in mind, lets start with some context and lore:
A Chaos Marauder, also known simply as a Marauder, is one of the numerous barbarian Human warriors of the north, usually drawn from the tribes of Norsca, who are dedicated to the worship of Chaos. Their predilection for violence, theft and bloodthirsty savagery earned them this name from the civilised inhabitants of the Old World.
However, amongst their own people, they are known simply as "warriors," and in the rare times of peace, they often serve their clans as guardians and hunters.
Maraunder acctualy are divided by 4 types:
Marauders Of Khorne
Marauders Of Tzeentch
Marauders Of Slaneesh
Marauders Of Nurgle (this is our focus)
Many Chaos Marauders offer sacrifices to the Lord of Decay as precaution against illness, but there are those that completely entrust their souls to his care. When epidemics ravage the northern tribes, some chieftains and shamans decree that their only chance of survival is to devote themselves to the Plague Lord. In battle, Marauders bearing the Mark of Nurgle will often favour two-handed greatweapons, for they have become so resilient that shield-bearing becomes the least of their concerns.
So, we have lore with marauders carrying two-handed weapons... The design exist, even in the current game like this:
imgur.com/a/lQhpFF5
Yeah, i know, its just npcs... but im almost certain that on the game files we have animations of marauders using 2h... so, if u have patient, that are some design about a new Path for the Marauder class:
Path of Nurgle - Gift of Plague
On this stance, the marauder dont have the arm mutation, instead, the marauder gain green wounds on the body or just a bunch of scars or desieses on the chest. This allows the marauder to wearing two-handed great weapons, just like chosens with greataxes and swords.
So, why we need 2h Marauders if we already have 3 playstyles? The is answer is not about balance or something we dont have on the game, is about class design, popularity and the most important, the destro side dont have the WhiteLion playstyle class... Burst, control and run. This is one of the most fun playstyle, and just order have it (do not take into consideration the WH/WE, they are on another level and context).
With that much in mind, if u stay here reading this, let me share about the build, tree, abilities and playstyle toughts:
Playstyle
Here, to be consistent like WL's but without pet, the marauder need more abilities to make solid damage to be at same spot as wlions. So, he needs something like cordinated strike, single-target knockdown and high burst ability like Leonine Frenzy.
The Tree
Here i have 2 suggestions, change the Brutality tree for Plague or just add the plague on the brutality tree... The first potion is more viable, so i will theorize on that.
Try to read like patchnotes:
Marauders rework
- The Path of Brutality has changed to Path of Plague;
- Now on Path of Plague you can wearing two-handed weapons and use Gift of Plague;
- Gift of Plague - requires two-handed weapon. While u are mutating your body on disease, your auto attacks have 25% chance to swing another autoattack. In addition, the armor penetration of your autoattacks is increased by 15%
- The Guillotine 5 points ability is now core ability from Path of Plague (this abilitie is too easy to get because the crit% tactic is above him, so u get it anyway);
- Convulsive Slashing has moved to 5 points Path of Plague requires two-handed, the damage has changed from 184 to 274 and hits from 6 to 5. If you are currently Mutated Agressor, this ability has 15% increased critical chance. Cooldown 12 sec;
- Removed Unstable Convulsions 11 points on Path of Plague;
- Plage Bearer - New 11 points tactic from Path of The plague, if u are using two-handed weapons, you have 10% chance when taking damage to make the target suffers 230 elemental damage and you gain 112 elemental resist. This effect can stack up by 3 times. (matchup to Echoing Roar)
- Wave of Terror 13 points ability is now core ability from Path of Plague and requires two-handed.;
- Skull Crusher, new ability at 13 points on Path of Plague - a single-target knockdown of 3 seconds doing 314 damage and if u are affected by Mutated Agressor, this ability has 20% increased parry strikethrotgh. cooldown 20 sec;
- Mark of Nurgle, new core ability from Path of Plague - Harden the skin granting 15% damage reduction by 10 sec, requires two-handed weapon. Cooldown 30 sec;
- Draining Swipe - now can be used with Gift of Plague and Gift of Savagery, the damage of each hit has changed from 145 to 134 and now if u are equped a two-handed weapon the plague on your weapon will explode and do more two hits of 114 demage each. (This is to match the damage from Cordinated Strikes) Cooldown 12 sec.
- Rend, Tainted Claw, Gut Ripper, Impale, Touch of Instability, Pulverize, Mounth of Tzeetch, Ferocious Assault and Demolition (yes, to matchup the Slashing Blade) is now can be used on Gift of Plague.
- Gift of Savagery and Gift of Monstruosity now have dual-wielding requiriment to be used.
So, that is my suggestions to make marauder more viable on small scale situations and much more popular to new players and old ones.
Please be kind when responding to this post, I don't want to prove that Marauder is a bad class and that it needs buffs, etc... I only see the potential in the class design to bring in new players and also rejuvenate the current gameplay, I appreciate your understanding.
Some questions can be answered here:
Q: Hey dude, the squig is the mirror for WL, not the marauder!
A: yes, on theory. The squig has a totaly different play style, just have a pet, pounce and kind of cordinated strike but with low damage, is faaar way to be the same as WL on lake... and im talking about Single Target gameplay, we dont have nothing like WL's playstyle on destro side.
Q: The brutality build has his space, good dps and utility on moral draining...
A: dude, at this moment, DPS zealots do more damage than brutality does... hes just have autoattack crits and a finisher, almost every class has it.
Q: What we do with the brutality animations?
A: split them on the other two (savagery and monstruosity) they will have more mutated arms visuals to show
So, thats it. I love this game, and is a pleasure to help in something and see the evolution on next years. Thx for reading and share up, comment and pump up if u agreed, maybe the devs make this real. Love you all
