Brut or Sav? How did mara’s build back in the day?

[TenTonHammer]

Ive never played mara, but it is quickly becoming my new favorite classes, the whole dynamic of switching abilities and tactic’s on the fly. In my memories I always remembered this as the cookie cutter build that maras used, going up monstro first to have 2 KD’s and then the rest into Brut (no idea about rr spect or morale’s tbt):

http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=mar ... :5194:5221:

But today I was chatting with a nice player in /ad and I was told that it was not brut but rather sav, to focus on after monstro; that sav not brut but rather sav was the better dps tree:

http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=mar ... :5194:5204:

This would coincide with what I saw a lot of maras vids on youtube by Icecoldkilla and the like spec’d into on their videos, but before I could talk to him some more the server restarted and e hid not log back on so I decided to come here and talk to yall about whats what

[KarlFranz]

http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=mar ... 1:;0:0:0:0:


you can switch Flanking or Deadly Clutch

[Resteloin]

I never made it to t4 with my marauder, but from recollection, savagery and brutality were quite good together. Growing Instability and Guillotine from Brutality are quite awesome.

It is true you are missing a KD from Monstrosity, but I think the increase in DPS from Brutality far exceeds the loss.

[jonathanmurphy3]

If you had a savage/monstrousity mara, then max brutality = lovely guillotine/impale crits. though ofc Choppa was probably better

[Luth]

http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=mar ... :;0:0:0:0:

This. Every other build is inferior to this one, in a challenging group vs group situation. But i remember many marauders ran around in a gimp specced "hide in zerg/demospam" build.
They couldn't kill anything in a seriuos fight, because running around in monstro all the time and lacking all the OP debuffs.

[jimmysp]

Monstrosity in my opinion can tanky alot in team fights but when you switch to brutality you can be more agressive and deal hight dmg in zero time

[Luth]

Without path of savagery, you lack the most important debuffs of the class:

- wounds debuff: was buggy on mythic server, despite no mutation is required to be active for the ability it was profiting from the "piercing bites" tactic

- armor debuff: undefendable, possibly the highest armor debuff in the game; the WL has the same debuff, but there is no other usefull ability higher in his tree

- and most important, the OP healdebuff tactic: 10 seconds 50% inc healdebuff with only 5 seconds cooldown, so 200% uptime; this is unique for melee classes. The marauder gets a part of every heal cast on the target while it's running, so he is most of the time very hard to kill, even without monstro stance. The tactic was buggy on mythic server too, as the "heal-leach" part worked on every heal, even heal that couldn't be healdebuffed (e.g. healpots...).

[Xaun]

** much of what I say below is endgame T4 stuff, only partially applicable to RoR in it's current state, but since the OP posted builds that were endgame - I'm following the same premise

There are lots of variations and very viable specs, and for that reason Mara is also my favourite class. It's true other mdps can do higher burst dps - but if that's what you want - play a Choppa or WE

Where Mara excels, is his ability to debuff or suppress in conjunction with other classes. It's often overlooked because people have in inherent need to 'win the dps race' against their compatriots who are often better suited - although this is not to say a Mara cannot be a potent dps in his own right, just to do so in an organized group would be akin to buying a top of the line 4k home entertainment system and playing 480p VHS tapes on it.

An often used tactic (in 6v6) would be to deploy more than 1 Mara of different builds to take advantage of all the debuffs available to them

KarlFranz is correct in that the cookie-cutter build was probably the optimal build for an all-purpose, group Mara - so if that's what you're after, read no further

I've seen people play both the full Brut builds to max the dmg they got from Impale and Guillotine

I was never a big advocate of the Knockdown builds personally (although they are quite effective for soloing, Maras have a lot of options for soloing), I would leave this to the tanks to do as I felt you lost too much utility to take this on the Mara - there was a build that proved a lot of fun in keeps where you were either trying to break a massed defence or stem the rush of people trying to get to your floor in a keep defence. You didn't get a lot of dbs this way but you made a huge difference with the CC and AoE abilities, as well as morale stripping and re-cast time increasing. This build however was a very specific one and only useful really when Order were outnumbering Destro by a lot

Another example, a slight variant on the cookie cutter build with less focus on outgoing burst dps can still be lethal as a Heal/AP debuffer using a combination of Draining Swipes and the Exhaustive Strikes tactic. Whilst still being able to do solid dps, they would basically lockdown any AP driven class and force them to use pots very fast (initiating cooldowns on certain pots). Runepriests, AMs, Slayers, WH and especially WL's hated this build. You could stay in Sav the whole time thus not having to stance swap, do decent dmg but not have the punch of Brut's Impale or Guillotine

When used in conjunction with BG (Choking Fury (+20ap cost for every ability), Crushing Anger (AP drain), Mind Killer with Soul Killer Tactic (-50% outgoing heal debuff) - it really shone and you'd lockdown/kill any RP/AM very fast - and/or nerf the dps of pretty much any mdps. Ofc you also got super punt and 5s KD thrown in for good measure

This would leave 2 other slots for either a Chosen and Dps or if ballsy 2x Dps to do a lot of the dps/pressuring

[Dajciekrwi]

Marauders play style was always determinted by style of whole Destroside.
When y was in small group of elitistic players, y bring build for group fightstyle mosty sav/brute or brute for guilotine.
But true is sad and short- most time running in zerg or with 2-3 ppl, so must care for yourselfs to survive and heal ( cos destro lacks healers alwyas) - so safest way to play was mix sav-tough.
But one is clear - love marauder for versatility and look

In ROR - i play Savagery/Monstro, especially Monstro workin in sc against hord of Order rdpses. Some say its one-button spamming, but whole Order is one-and-only type of army.

[Vampire]

No point talking about Mara in T4 atm.. Tier 2 is what you should be thinking about

http://waronlinebuilder.org/#career=mar ... 1:5202:0:0:

Sav is what you should stay in the most in Tier 1/2. Mono is great for self heal , 1v1 fights, Defensive etc.