Marauder - [3.12] Sword & Board Smite Juggernaut - D3 Style (All Uniques!), Fast, Tanky, Fun, Cheap to Start - Forum - Path of Exile (2024)

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Ok guys, I've been working on this since the start of 3.12 and it's worked out much better than I expected!

This build was not created just for the sake of this guide. This is my main Heist toon, it's what I play everyday and so I am constantly fine tuning it to be the best it can be.

If you want to see what I'm upto, my profile is public and you can always import into PoB or just inspect my Heist character "Corosii".

Keep in mind the PoB exports here on the main post can go out of date quickly, so make sure to check the last pages on the thread as I post updates often that are not part of the main post.

If you don't know me, I've made quite a few builds in the past, most popular being 'ScourgeFlurry' back in the 2.6-3.0 days.

My build guide for last league is here: 3.11 Infernal Blow Champ

Take comfort in knowing that if I release a guide, I've taken the time to test and made sure the build is worthy of it. I stand by my work, show videos for you to judge for yourselves, and you can always ask questions here or in-game, but depending on the complexity of it, I may ask you to post it here for me to write a detailed answer.

Also, just drop me a line here or in-game and let me know if you're playing this and if enjoying the build or not. It's always nice to hear from players trying out my crazy niche builds.

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**Click each image for full HQ GIF with sound

T16 Tropical Island - Corrupted 60% Delirium Showcase

T16 Tropical Island - Full Juice Enfeebled

Hunter 8 - Ancestral Call Single Target DPS Showcase

Baran 8 - Max Rage/Beserk Showcase

83 Heist - Clear Speed Showcase

T16 Incursion - Clear Speed Showcase

Sirus 7 - Boss Kill

T15 Dark Forest - Twin Boss Facetanking, +35% Life Boss

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This is a "D3 style" build using mostly all uniques.

I designed it to survive the damage I was seeing at the start of Heist. Now with all that nerfed this build is better than I envisioned, so go Heist some Heists!!

Clear speed is amazing! Smite is a very good skill, but when I first wrote the guide, I was literally the only person playing it as a main skill. Now that has changed and several people have tried it and loved it.

The basic idea is scaling damage through stacking of Ailments by doing damage of all types (Cold, Fire, Lightning, Physical and Chaos). We can scale this by having our resistances balanced for maximum Wise Oak buff (Balance your res with Jewels, Yoke and Valako's. If you're using Esh's, gone Dual Wield or using another shield with some resist, don't worry about balancing Wise Oak, but do always make sure your highest resistance is lightning!). This all means we are applying Chill, Ignite and most importantly, Shock to boost our damage through Yoke of Suffering and The Taming.

A combination of lightning/ailment focused uniques lets us scale Shock and Ailments as much as possible. Then add Wrath, Herald of Thunder, Conductivity and Elemental Weakness to the mix and it's just a matter of letting that juicy Lightning damage disintegrate whole rooms of mobs with all those lovely Inpulsa's explosions!

We clear whole rooms because Awakened Ancestral Call or if Dual Wield, The Saviour, in addition to Tribal Fury let us hit many additional targets. This also means the AoE portion of each attack on those targets will hit each other and all other mobs around.

Herald of Thunder, in turn, continuously applies Condutivity and Elem. Weak. When your Hextouch is not 5/20, you can run Culling strike as the 4th link. Once it reaches 5/20, move Culling to your totems or Leap Slam and add Elem. Weak. Keep in mind that during lone bosses like Sirus, Herald of Thunder won't have any mobs to begin the cursing, so if you want to be able to curse Sirus, swap Herald of Thunder for Storm Brand. You can temporarily drop one of the Leap Slam links and put HoT there. This is easy if you get some Vorici white sockets on your helm.

One thing to keep in mind is that a large chunk of DPS is coming from totem buffs. This is especially relevant during fights like Minotaur, with AoE rockfall that kill your totems and without AP, you're going to lose a chunk of DPS. So... keep your totems up and alive for max DPS!

Also, if you decide to play this, realize that gear rolls matter. Some of the items I use can be found for 1c, but you want to make sure you're getting the highest rolls of each unique and as many useful corruptions as possible. We're squeezing as much as we can out of these items, so you want the very best you can find/afford.

Going back to what I said in the beginning, another important thing to note is that I did not design this build to 1-shot Sirus or Mino or any other tanky mob. I designed it for Heist, and that's where I believe it will shine. Yes, as you can see in the videos, it is fully capable of all end-game content, but I don't think I'll be taking down bosses in 2-3 seconds with this, since a lot of scaling is based off of the number of mobs around you.

Regarding the Dual Wield Variant

Initially the build was only Sword & Board, but the version I am currently running is a Dual Wield Crit/Rage/Berserk variant that I highly recommend, if you can afford it.

All videos above, besides the Baran 8 were with a Shield, but as you can see with Baran, the Single Target DPS of the Dual Wield is quite respectable!

This variant abuses a combination of items, namely: "Chains of Emancipation" + "Bubbling Life Warding Flask" + "BerserK", to achieve a massive DPS boost and added tankyness ON DEMAND on ANY BOSS including Sirus!

The sequence of events is this: Get hit > Belt curses you with Temporal > Pop Warding Flask > Belt grants you Max Rage > Pop Berserk > Become a massive, tanky beast that obliterates anything in sight!

While under the effects of Berserk you'll most likely get hit. If you get hit while your Rage counter is under 25, you'll again be cursed with Temporal, you can then pop your Warding flask, and regain max rage, by that time the Bersrk CD should be complete and you can pop it again. Timed correctly, you can chain these endlessly as long as there are mobs around to hit you.

Basically, you'll have 65rage which you can gain/sustain just by attacking or fully replenish just by getting hit and popping your Warding flask.

We use a "Bubbling" Life flask, because it has a similar instant heal to a "Seething", but we need a bit of duration, so that we can remove the curse on maps/zones with Temporal on it.

Keep in mind we are not affected by Temporal as a Jugg, so if you let it stay on you, while at the same time you have Berserk active, it will also make Berserk last longer. Not by much, but something to keep in mind.

The trick to optimizing DPS and being able to maintain Berserk uptime, is learning to juggle Berserk expiration timer, Temporal expiration timer and Berserk cooldown timer.

An important timing thing to keep in mind is that you want to make sure you pop your Warding flask BEFORE popping Berserk, or else you might not be at max rage and you will have to wait for Berkserk to cooldown. A potentially deadly situation when you are counting on Berserk to keep you alive.

This might sound simple, but when you're fighting a ton of mobs, keeping track and timing takes practice to get right, but the reward can be you running from the Artifact in a Heist all the way back to the exit with Berserk active almost all the time.

The shield version could also be converted into this Crit variant, but I have not done that myself. I see no reason why it wouldn't work and I am sure you guys can figure it out on your own if you want to ;)

You can find both Sword & Board and Dual Wield PoB Exports at the end of this guide.

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Leveling tree
1) Path out through "Melee Damage" (You will drop these for life later)
2) Bridge through "Strong Arm" to "Resolute Technique"
3) Path to "Art of the Gladiator"
4) Path to "Life and Mana Leech" (Solves Mana problems forever! Or can do anoint "Spirit Void")
5) Path to "Tribal Fury" + "Call to Arms"

From here complete the tree to either Fatal Blade or Elemental Overload and drop Resolute when you reach them. This isn't rocket science. Experiment, think critically and I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out from the PoB Exports.

Leveling Skill: Smite + Ancestral Call + Onslaught or any melee skill you like
Bandits: 2 Points
Ascend: Unstoppable > Undeniable > Unyielding
Pantheon: Solaris + Shakari/Ryslatha/Abberath
Helm Enchant: Blood Rage 12% AS, Smite 40% dmg, Berserk 30% eff
Boot Enchant: 16% AS (Mapping), Ele Pen (Bossing)

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Run around spamming your attack, but don't stand around. Our Leap Slam can be linked to Culling Strike, so use your mobility to stay alive and kill low health mobs. Also remember Leap is linked to Blood Magic, so if you run out of mana, just Leap on mobs to leech mana.

If you want to gather mobs up and then blow them up, I find that pretty satisfying!

Keep your totem up for max DPS and swap to single target gems for tanky bosses.

Pop Vaal Ancestral Warchief when you need a boost to DPS.

Pop Vaal Molten Shell for your everyday "ohh sh*t!!!" moments.

If running Dual Wield version, use your Warding Flask to gain Max Rage after being cursed with Temporal Chains and then pop Berserk. You can do this on any boss!

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*Keep 3 fingers on "234" and thumb on "Space", ready to spam the most used flasks.
*Slide over ring finger to "1" for Life flask.

"LMB" = Warcry
"MMB" = Blood and Sand
"RMB" = Smite
"Q" = Ancestral Protector
"W" = Leap Slam
"E" = Blood Rage/Frenzy
"A" = Berserk/Vaal Haste
"S" = Vaal Ancestral Warchief
"D" = Vaal Molten Shell

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Chests

Weapons

Shields

Helmets

Gloves

Boots

Flasks

Jewelry

Jewels

**Obviously, I have some pretty expensive items, but they are by no means required, they are just icing on the cake and there are cheap options listed below.

**Swap Inpulsa's/Taming/AS boots/Esh's > Farrul's/Rare Cat/Pen boots/Lioneye's or Victario's or Ahn's for T16 bosses (This is NOT NECESSARY! It's just for those that want to focus on bossing. You can do T16 bosses with Inpulsa's just fine. All videos above were with Inpulsa's).

**Swap Ring > Sibyl's + Yugul Pantheon to run Reflect Maps.

**Replica Rumi's + Replica Mistwall = Max Block + Max Spell Block

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