Marauder - The Wrong Choice?

[Chat]

So.. I started playing SWTOR and so far the story is amazing and so are the quests. I love the whole good/evil thing.

But.. I have a concern.. I am a sith warrior marauder.. and Im starting to realize these guys are seriously weak..
I keep dieing to champions/elites. While everyone else is doing their class quests/ soloable quests. With no problem..im dieing over and over and over again.. - is this a known issue or do I just suck and Im gonna have to reroll to something OP like a Sniper or something..?

Some guy also whispered me telling me to quit my marauder while I had the chance because he leveled to 50 and regrets it..

I am currently level 33. So what should I do guys.. reroll or keep going?

[Terranullis]

Yep they aren't amazing. Roll a BH like I did and own everyone.

[Matt0193]

I'm a Dual-Wielder on every game I play, so I went Sentinel (=/= Marauder). I only find it annoying that we don't have a tanking tree, as every other class has multiple roles for each advanced specialisation.

[allaiva]

I have a Sentinel (Jedi equivalent) at lvl 32 and have had little problems leveling and lots of fun in flashpoints. The roughest parts are the basic fact that they are pure dps classes and can make finding groups harder than a class that can spec into both damage and healing/tanking.

The key to surviving champions and elites is purely on how strong your companion you work with is. I use a tank while my lvl 39 marauder friend uses a healer, but we are sure to keep them adequately geared as well (even going out of our way to improve their gear). Doing so will allow you longer to just burn on the mob and less time worrying about your own survival.

A tip for a particularly strong champion while using a tank would be to start him on a damage presence and swap to tanking after you've started and used saber ward. Once that ends have your companion taunt and after a few moments hit your 20min epic cooldown. This will bring saber ward back up (for when/if your companion dies) and grants the healing while you pound away at the mob.

[Vladrick]

Can't comment on a Marauder from personnel experience but a guild-mate of mine is 44 now and says the same thing, he has a hard time with a lot of bosses, needs to make multiple attempts and such to help kill adds that are with them to finally get the boss alone. I am a tanked spec'd Juggernaut and doing the same class quests and don't have any issues doing them solo, either with my healer companion or dps one. Try Sithwarrior.com and see if there is anything on there to help before you switch, maybe your spec needs to be changed or tuned.

[Spl4sh3r]

I'm a Dual-Wielder on every game I play, so I went Sentinel (=/= Marauder). I only find it annoying that we don't have a tanking tree, as every other class has multiple roles for each advanced specialisation.

Maurader/Sentinel can tank if they want to, otherwise why is there so many tank stats on some of our armor? As a synthweaver I can make medium armor with defence. We also have some good defensive cooldowns.

A question OP that I was stupid about, did you learn all skills from trainer? I actually hadn't noticed it had two tabs for skills until recently. One for basic class and the other for advanced. I had only trained the basic stuff and my Sith Marauder was level 32 when I found out, didn't even have enough to buy the new skills. Also are you using the healing companion and put it to only heal?

[Matt0193]

We don't have access to the same abilities and survivability that the other specs have within their trees. Within our CD's we're relatively durable but once they're gone we're considerably soft.

For example, we don't have the "Tank Aura", 50% more Threat, Increased Armor. We can't equip a shield/focus in our OH. We don't even have taunts. That's why we're not tanks. We're good in a pinch if the tank dies, but we will not be good until we out-gear the instances you're trying to do.

[Pretentious]

I'll say it before and I'll say it again and again until people realize it - It's one of the few classes that I've played (Sniper, BH, Marauder) 20+ that requires some amount of strategy to use. Yes, the class currently is underpowered in levels, but it makes up for that on the upper end of the 20s. Once you get abilities like gore or the corresponding equivalent in the other 2 talent trees, you just will never lose. I solo'd my class quest at 28/29, and didn't even have that. It comes down to correct companion usage, and ability usage. Don't be afraid to pop a CD just because it's one strong monster. Some stims are a bonus (not required to do anything however), and just be prepared to have fun as you swing two glowsticks around messing people up.

[zorkuus]

Maurader/Sentinel can tank if they want to, otherwise why is there so many tank stats on some of our armor? As a synthweaver I can make medium armor with defence. We also have some good defensive cooldowns.

I can make defence gear with synthweaving on my sorcerer too... it doesn't mean I can tank

[giblet]

it does seem at times i can take on 20 guys and others 1 guy will wipe my ass up lol

[Spl4sh3r]

Another question is are you skipping planets because the quests turn green or something? That can be another reason, you intentionally go to the higher level places. This in turn makes the mobs harder for you

[Grrwaherr]

Im a level 15 Marauder and Im doing pretty well right now. This Spec almost reminds me of a feral druid for some reason. Dont forget its early in the game and some things or abilities can be tuned. All in All, Im enjoying him very much.

[Tore]

I'm a DPS Juggernaut and I can still get whooped by just two Strongs (the ones with silver portraits. not normal mobs but not elite). Questing from 38+ is srs bzns in this game, mobs can get pretty brutal. I had to go away and get some gear and stims just for one of my class quest sections.

[Ninjamoo]

It depends on what spec you are and which companion you use. A guilde leveled as annihilation with a dps companion since the tree has self-healing. I leveled as carnage with a healing companion.

It gets better at 40+ with more abilities. Personally, when I was leveling and had to take on the 1 stong, +3-4 normals, I would simply ctrl 1 my companion on the strong (attack), while I jumped to a normal + force scream then the hilt bash (dead). Then tab to the next normal and ravage (dead, if not hit something else and they'll die usually), then the third gets a lightsaber throw to the face and then a savage kick to finish it off, then back to force sceam for the last and finish it up with whatever is off cd and then onto the strong mob.

As far as I can tell, annihilation favors crit and surge whereas carnage favors power and accuracy. If I'm running hm fp's I usually end up puling off the tank after a while, very soon if it's a bad tank or poorly geared one. The damage we put down is pretty significant and shouldn't be taken lightly so spend some time getting to know your abilities and how to use them properly while keeping your companion geared up. Try to get your companion to the same item level as the things you're wearing.

[Deleted]

Annihilation had okayish self healing (recuperate), but felt like a rogue - a bit of stealth, emphasis on garrote and rupture and deadly poison on cooldown. Also leather armor and dual wielding.


Not trolling, just to me marauder felt like a rogue with charge.

[allaiva]

I'll say it before and I'll say it again and again until people realize it - It's one of the few classes that I've played (Sniper, BH, Marauder) 20+ that requires some amount of strategy to use. Yes, the class currently is underpowered in levels, but it makes up for that on the upper end of the 20s. Once you get abilities like gore or the corresponding equivalent in the other 2 talent trees, you just will never lose. I solo'd my class quest at 28/29, and didn't even have that. It comes down to correct companion usage, and ability usage. Don't be afraid to pop a CD just because it's one strong monster. Some stims are a bonus (not required to do anything however), and just be prepared to have fun as you swing two glowsticks around messing people up.

Pinned the tail on the donkey. I believe it's partially why I enjoy the sentinel. The number of times I've died on a pull and having to figure out how to perform it better is what I enjoy about leveling the class. It's why I enjoyed raiding in Wow, and why the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time intrigued my 4th grade soul <3. The thought of how to better yourself and best the challenge, and finally doing so, gives such a rewarding feeling imo.

[slipshade]

my friend plays a marauder and was always complaining at being really weak like super super weak in battlegrounds i would almost always double or sometimes quadruple his damage done as a bounty hunter. he did around 40k i usually bounced in between 130-200k and i am 20 levels below him.

Then he respeced

Now he's pretty much even with me every game even though he's melee and dies much more than i do.

Your class isn't hopeless if your having trouble atm try respecing there are 3 different trees and im not sure which one he picked to improve so much.

He talked a lot with some 50 marauders in his guild and they admit that its seriously rough from about 1-30 but then it really levels out and while your not overpowered your not weak either.

[Deleted]

So.. I started playing SWTOR and so far the story is amazing and so are the quests. I love the whole good/evil thing.

But.. I have a concern.. I am a sith warrior marauder.. and Im starting to realize these guys are seriously weak..
I keep dieing to champions/elites. While everyone else is doing their class quests/ soloable quests. With no problem..im dieing over and over and over again.. - is this a known issue or do I just suck and Im gonna have to reroll to something OP like a Sniper or something..?

Some guy also whispered me telling me to quit my marauder while I had the chance because he leveled to 50 and regrets it..

I am currently level 33. So what should I do guys.. reroll or keep going?

Lvl 50 Marauder here, leveling up was hell for me as well for the reasons you state. Even with a well geared Malavi to heal me i would struggle to beat some of the elite mobs without medpack, stims, 20 min CD etc. Got to 50 and still had problems (even mobs in Illum for dailies gave me grief), then i got a couple of PVP pieces and upgraded my gear a bit. Now the mobs die in seconds and in PVP if i'm attacking someone and they don't run i kill them 99% of the time.

Ofc Sorcs and Operatives are still way better but i feel these will be hit by a nerf hammer soon. Marauders are the best |(with snipers) single target damage dealers in the game but it seems unlike other classes they need gear to pull it off.

[Karshtakavaar]

Signed up to post a reply here. Been reading these forums for a long time, never felt the need to post anything though.

As to the issue with the Marauder, I'm currently playing one as a main, and I'm at level 37 at the moment. I actually found soloing content to be fairly easy until I finished on Balmorra. My biggest gripe has to be with the healing companion. He doesn't seem to want to heal all the time, even if I turn off his other abilities (they tend to turn themselves back on all the time when he disappears due to me mounting my speeder) and setting him on med watch. The biggest thing I've noticed to cause this is if you jump into a group at max range, and move closer in, he does not want to move within your range so he can heal you, instead, he will just sit back and fire at the enemy mobs with his pistol.

Personally, though, I think the best way to bring the Marauder class on par with other advanced classes would be to change on of the two dps trees to a more tanking viable tree (since no offhands, would have to be parry focused tanking) or to give them an actual viable CC ability. As it is, we can only disable droids, and that is rarely any use.

I should mention, I am playing as annihilation spec in Ataru Form (the stance that is specific to that spec and required for most of the abilities). I tried the rage spec which improves abilities based on being in Shi-Cho Form, but it felt very wonky and uncomfortable. However, as someone mentioned earlier in this thread, changing specs could solve the problem people are having soloing content, but I must respectfully disagree. In a pure dps class, all three dps specs should be equally viable for soloing PvE content. If one or two of the trees are just not working for anyone on strong mobs that are in groups with other mobs (normal, strong, or otherwise) then there is an obvious tuning issue with how that class works. If they were specs based on utility such as healing or tanking, then that would be a different story.

[Pretentious]

Signed up to post a reply here. Been reading these forums for a long time, never felt the need to post anything though.

As to the issue with the Marauder, I'm currently playing one as a main, and I'm at level 37 at the moment. I actually found soloing content to be fairly easy until I finished on Balmorra. My biggest gripe has to be with the healing companion. He doesn't seem to want to heal all the time, even if I turn off his other abilities (they tend to turn themselves back on all the time when he disappears due to me mounting my speeder) and setting him on med watch. The biggest thing I've noticed to cause this is if you jump into a group at max range, and move closer in, he does not want to move within your range so he can heal you, instead, he will just sit back and fire at the enemy mobs with his pistol.

Personally, though, I think the best way to bring the Marauder class on par with other advanced classes would be to change on of the two dps trees to a more tanking viable tree (since no offhands, would have to be parry focused tanking) or to give them an actual viable CC ability. As it is, we can only disable droids, and that is rarely any use.

I should mention, I am playing as annihilation spec in Ataru Form (the stance that is specific to that spec and required for most of the abilities). I tried the rage spec which improves abilities based on being in Shi-Cho Form, but it felt very wonky and uncomfortable. However, as someone mentioned earlier in this thread, changing specs could solve the problem people are having soloing content, but I must respectfully disagree. In a pure dps class, all three dps specs should be equally viable for soloing PvE content. If one or two of the trees are just not working for anyone on strong mobs that are in groups with other mobs (normal, strong, or otherwise) then there is an obvious tuning issue with how that class works. If they were specs based on utility such as healing or tanking, then that would be a different story.

You sure it's Ataru form? That's ~ 1/3 up carnage...

Edit: With regards to the difficulty, I'm more or less around the same level on my marauder, and I thought it was the inverse. Balmorra was hard, and up to Balmorra. But once I hit Alderaan, and picked up the new companion (don't want to give spoilers for anyone who doesn't want it), stuff started to melt beneath me. I really wouldn't use the healing companions the game provides tbqh. It's more of a dps race than a marathon.