Marauder is good. Pretty simple class to start off. They get interesting once they can reach skills like Resolute Technique, Blood Magic or Iron Grip.How is the marauder? Im yet to try it but I made which is ready to go as soon as I get bored of my Necromatic ranger shadow.
May have to go with an intended build tho because I see it falling off further into the game. The bow abilties are very close but what its lacking is survabilty which im getting from Energy shields and the talents to improve that are just out of reach. Melee is easy but Ranged will most likely be a problem later on.
Might make another shadow and go claws...
Energy Shield reliant builds are pretty problematic in that during Act 2 Merc and Maps many mobs ignore ES with chaos damage. So you sorta are forced to play with a tank if you are a ES Shadow or Ranger at higher difficulties.
I made it to 58~ as an ES ranger and it was definitely not worth the effort. Evade/ES gear wasn't enough to avoid a 1-shot. Pure ES gear became out of reach due to Int reqs and pure Evade gear was a guaranteed 1-shot if you were hit... which you will be because spells never miss.
Shadow actually made a better archer than a Ranger previously. The old tree offered more elemental damage and critical strike passives than a Ranger could reach. With a high IAS bow and cold damage a bow Shadow was able to perma freeze half the map... off screen.
I tried to recreate the bow Shadow in the new tree. It looks promising but lacks about half the crit and crit multiplier of the previous tree.
Full build plan: http://tinyurl.com/d2bm8er