Chaos Marauder

[Isak]

Say what you will of us. Call us heathens because we deny your weak pretender-God. Call us savages because we strike at you. But know this ? it is we who are closest to the Ruinous Powers. We most favored of the Gods shall raid your lands, revel in your suffering and destroy you. Despair! For all that remains for you is the taste of Northern steel and the end of your world. Such is the will of the Gods.
- Hallbj?rn, Norscan Marauder


In the frozen roof of the world - Norsca - live the many and various northern tribes collectively known as the Norse. Born in that frigid, hostile place, Norsemen are universally powerful ? gifted with ferocity and strength at arms. Believing themselves to be closest to the gods, they flock to the banners of the great Chaos Champions in the hopes of proving themselves worthy of favor. These brutal Norse warriors are the Marauders ? a fanatical throng whose only interest is destruction. Bred for war, dedicated to the gods, endlessly violent. This is all a Marauder knows or cares to be.

Marauder Specialty
As favored warriors of Tzeentch, Marauders are granted the Gift of Change in its purest form. As their bloodlust rises in anticipation of the violence of battle or pillaging, the energy of Chaos itself courses through the Marauder, bringing about dramatic physical changes. Limbs stretch into obscene forms, skin changes to iron or scale or stone, features multiply or disappear. The look of a Marauder mutated and ready to attack is terrifying to behold. Each mutation brings with it an additional, unique gift that aides the Marauder in battle. These gifts help to direct and enhance the destructive force of the
Marauder and, in turn, help to earn greater favor (and more
horrible gifts) from the Changer of Ways.

Playing as a Marauder
As a Marauder, your only goal is to unleash the pure, destructive might of Change into the world. Feel the power of Chaos course through your body, changing you from a fearsome warrior into something much, much more horrible ? and deadly. Once mutated, you will have access to numerous powerful abilities that will enable you to smash, slice, rend and crush your enemies. Each mutation that is granted to you by the Raven God will also bring with it some added benefit. Learn to use these wisely and you will become even more devastating on the battlefield.

Fight the Marauder
If you happen to find a Marauder in their unchanged form, thank Sigmar for the blessing and attack them immediately. Marauders are warrior-born and make intimidating opponents even without the hand of Tzeentch intervening, but your chances of defeating them are greatly reduced if they have time to mutate before an attack. Once changed, learn to recognize the various (and repulsive) mutations that have overtaken the Marauder, as these will be important clues as to what additional gifts the Lord of Change has granted this particular warrior.

Marauder Look

Barbaric, medium-strength armor.
One-handed melee weapons of all kinds.
Blasphemous offhand mutations that are best left unspoken.

[Kermul]

Marauder.....<perk>......MAHHAHHAHHAHhahhaaaaaaaaa

if not sneaky.....then perhaps just making it hurt

oh this sounds like a place for Kermul......they did say that marauders only go to battle for cookies... right?

[Broggle]

hmmmm now too many choices!!

[Athelstaine]

Tell me about it..I am still pretty deadset on playign greenskins.This has me second guessing though.Going to be tough.

[Belsarius]

Tell me about it..I am still pretty deadset on playign greenskins.This has me second guessing though.Going to be tough.

It is a fun class with lot's of fun things to do, it is pretty easy to solo. One of my top classes I enjoy playing

[Wodin]

I found this on the warhammeralliance forums, and thought you guys might not have seen it.

http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1144636#post1144636


Monstrosity 4tw!

[IvarrWolfsong]

This weekend I leveled a Marauder up to 12 and had full RR6 gear.

Basics
You have 3 "transformed arm" (Gifts) lines of abilities: Savagery (debuff/dot, +ws), Brutality (Single Target Dps, positional attacks, +str), Monstrosity (AoE, +Toughness). Some abilities can only be used while using a specific Gift (ie arm).
Example: Impale is a Brutality-only ability that does high single target dps from behind.

Others can be used anytime or in two Gifts.
Example: Flail is a Savagery dd ability that can be used in any form and Tongue of Tzeentch is a ranged interupt that can be used with the Gifts of Savagery or Monstrosity, but not with the Gift of Brutality.

You can switch to diffrent gifts instantly but there is a 4 sec cooldown afterwords.
Example: If you were using Gift of Monstrosity to AoE, you could instantly switch to Gift of Brutality to dps one enemy down but you would need to wait 4 secs for the cooldown to switch again.

You can wear medium armor and have good hps. This makes a huge difference as a mdps class. You can wade in and smash face without fearing death from 2 blows.

Combat
Ok so how do they stand up in PvE and PvP?

PvE was easy. You are tough enough to kill several mobs at once and they die fast enough that you don't take damage for that long.

PvP was awesome! I used Brutality and Savagery most of the time, with Monstrosity being my go to when running away :P . Its toughness bonus saved my rear a few times.

Fighting was pretty straight forward... run up and bash face. I would usually run up at a rear/side angle and snare my squishy target. I then debuffed toughness. If they ran, I would use Impale (high dps rear style) again and again. If they stayed, I would mix up Flail (dps) with the melee dot (stacks 5 times) and smash em to bits. If they were a melee class, I would further DoT em by using a style that causes them dmg every time they attack.

Bright Wiz, Engineer, Shadow Warrior and Witch Hunter are all very squishy. If you can get to em, you will pound their heads in lickety split. They may CC with a knockback or a root, but unless they run like mad, you will still crush them. Witch Hunters are particularly fun in that they think they can go head to head with you. They do more pure dps than you, but they take a lot more from their crappy armor. I found they died before I even got to 1/2 health... think sb vs zerk. Wiz's can be interupted from range to help save his target from being fried.

Runepriest, Archmage - These are ranged dps healers. If you close on them, they will run and self heal. I suggest trying to dps em as they run in either Savagery or Brutality so you can use the Tongue of Tzeentch interupt to nix a heal. If you stop even one of their heals while dpsing them, they should be dunyuns.

Warrior Priest - Melee Healer. These guys can be very tough. If you let them continue to heal themselves, you will lose. Lucky for me, everyone was kind of new at the game and most of the WP waited too long to self heal. I Tongue of Tzeentch'd em and then meleed em to death before the interupt wore off.

White Lion - I only fought one of these. He was very strong and I barely beat him and then died from his dot dmg. They are very much like a Marauder it seems. I didn't notice any pet dmg and basically ignored it. This may have been because we were on a ledge and the pet may have had pathing issues. It was slugfest of dps :D.

Blademaster, Iron Breaker -These were the hardest to kill. If they had a two hander, it was going to be a long fight but it was one that I won more often than not. If they were shield spec'd I would just run away. It would take so long to kill em that more enemies would enter the fray. The two times I got a solo fight with one of these, I lost.:( In mass rvr, you can debuff their toughness and help assist them into the dirt. Eventually I think we get a armor debuff too... that might help squish em. I found myself snaring them off squishies alot in big fights.

...next abilities and play tactics for keeeeling stunties, elfses and city folk...

[IvarrWolfsong]

okies now on to abilities... (I am sorry but I forgot some of the names)

Flee - (use anytime) You run away and lose all your action points. The APs are instantly consumed and you gain a 30% speed bonus for several seconds. Once it runs out, you start gaining your aps back. Every class gets this. It is good for running away or for chasing people who also have fled.

Throw Axe - (use anytime) You use a throwing axe and do tiny ity bity dmg. You don't get the big kill chance that tanks get.

Flail - (used anytime) DD melee attack with your weapon folowed by your claw arm. This does decent dps with the weapon followed by nice dps by the claw. It seems to be independent of the auto attack timer though. With no cooldown, I found myself spamming this like mad. By using it like flurry, you really dish out damage very fast. Between the weapon, the claw and auto attack, it is a very good anytime attack.

Toughness Debuff - (use anytime) This debuffs an enemies toughness by 33 at lvl 11. I usually start out with this if I am fighting anyone that wears armor.

Melee DoT - (Brutality/Savagery) This is a melee attack that does some dd followed by a DoT. The DoT can be stacked up to 5 times for some nice bleed dmg. I usually only bothered with this on tanks and elite mobs. I did try it a few times on Witch Hunters to stop their stealthing. I don't know if it works or not.

Snare - (use anytime) This is a melee snare that lasts 5 secs and does decent dmg. This is your go to ability when attacking players. It will give you and yours time to close and prevent them from getting away. I usually started the fight with this if I was attacking a ranged class. It is nice against bunny hopping spaz melees too.

Impale - (Brutality) This is a high dmg melee attack from the rear. It has no cooldown so it can be spammed from behind. Most of your other attacks do around 40-60 dmg... impale does about 120. I noticed that a lot of casters started running away in reverse to avoid this :) .

AoE Front Cone Attack - (Monstrosity) This is a medium dmg frontal aoe cone that hits all enemies in 30 feet. This attack has no cooldown and is spamable. I am not a fan of this except at choke points and such. My single target dmg was much higher and actually put enemies down regardless of heals. This attack may have done more damage over all (45 dmg to 5 people lets say) but since it is spread out, people just get healed up. However, some people swear by it. It does help keep healers busy and can scare folks who see that all their groupmates are taking dmg. You must have a target to use this ability.

Tongue of Tzeentch - (Monstrosity or Savagery) This a 60' ranged insta interupt. It interupts the spell being cast and starts its cooldown. I didn't bother with this at first. After using it against a Warrior Preist, it became one of my favorites when battling healers. If you can interupt just one of their heals while you attack them, you dps will often put em in the ground before they recover.

Charge - (use anytime) This ability is basically a free sprint. You get +50% run speed for about 7 secs that cancels once you use an ability. This helps you chase down folks, flank from speed, run away, etc. Great utility. I usually use this to charge an enemy and then snare em and start pounding.

Agony Thingie - (Savagery)This is a debuff that causes the enemy to take damage everytime they use an attack. The damage was ok but not spectacular. It was something nice to help wittle down some melee classes. I don't know if armor is taken into acct or not.

Basic Tic tacs
Attacking - I usually tried to come in from the side or rear and suprise my target. I haven't seen a game where soooooo many people were sooooo tunnelled visioned as they seemed this week end. I am guessing that people will learn fast. Also, cast times are long so I think people may just be caught up in that and not have noticed a huge mutated reeking mess of bloodlust tippity toe-ing up behind them.

Once I make contact, I would usually snare if they were likely to run (ie squishies). If they were brawny types, I started with toughness debuff and then snare so I could have a movement adavantage if they were spazzy bunnyhopping WoW freaks.

Next, I would begin bashing them apart with flail and some DoTs. If it was a melee class, I would add the Agony Thingie. If it was a caster/healer, I would ready Tongue of Tzeentch for when they looked like they were casting. If they started running away, they would get impaled again and again.

If things began going south, I would usually switch to Monstrosity for the Toughness Buff, wait for snare to refresh, snare the enemy and Charge away.

Defending - During big RvR range fights, my roll changed. I was like a guard dog. Anything that came into melee range of our support, got snared, debuffed and beat down. I also used Tongue to interupt healers and wizbangs from range.

Sneaky stuff - Classic DAoC tactics seem to work fine... rope-a-dope to draw out over zealous players, the two man bait and hide ambush, looping wide to flank, etc.

Overall Perspective
This is a very solid melee class. In tier 1 battles, I would say that the marauder is a bit overpowered currently. If you avoid the tanks, you can just about kill anyone in your path. Getting nuked from max range? You will surve to get close and slaughter the caster before he burns you down. Two witch hunters attacking you? You have a very good chance of killing them both one after the other. Healer? Interupt and massacre. Tank? Fight for a bit and run away if it drags on.

Its the most fun class I have played in a game since I first learned the joys of Bard in EQ1.

[Narg]

Thanks for the read. Helped solidify my choice.

[Scath]

How/What is the MDPS role in keep taking? More specifically the Marauder. I remember seeing a lot of the MDPS classes in DAoC just running around until the doors went down.

[Jalec]

Similar i do belive. though my knowlege is limited. i would think the tenticle grab would help somewhat if you can get close enough.

[burt]

They also get http://www.wardb.com/spell.aspx?id=14423, Bypass Defenses, which lets them port through the postern door.

[Drakhon]

Rams, ranged siege and beating on the door as well as sorties through the postern doors as mentioned. Preventing small reinforcements from reaching the postern doors themselves is also useful.

[Qizarek]

I played a Chaos Marauder for the first time over the weekend (was it just me or were the servers down lots?!)...I only got to level 3 or 4...but man was it fun!

Plus, I had a beard that even dorfs would be okay with!

[Broggle]

mmmmmmm Dorfy looking beard!!;)

[Wodin]

Marauders have a ton of abilities. With a bit of healer backup they're downright nasty.

[Skrigg]

I'm having a blast with my Marauder so far. With support they are a really good and fun class to play.

[Greenmind]

Any advice on spec? I'm currently full brutality because that's what I used to grind. I'm look at monstrosity for the AE effects now. I never realized how good my damage was while doing AE and the AE knockdown looks like it could have a big impact on fights.

[Gisli]

At the moment, I'm full monstrosity. That seems to be the best for PvE, and its effective for large-scale RvR, especially keep battles. Later on, I might switch. There is some question as to whether brutality or Savagery is best for 1-on-1. Brutality is more DPS, but savagery has better debuffs.

Either way, yes, the AOE knockdowns and knockbacks can be important in tight places. Higher-level marauders have good bombing opportunities.

[Greenmind]

Which tactics/skill within monstrocity would you recommend me getting? I'm thinking that at 21 I'd be better off getting 5 points + the AE knockdown vs picking up the first tactic (+toughness isn't it?).

[Gisli]

I got the knockdown. Blite highly recommends the combination of Wrecking Ball with the morale that makes your hits affect 2 extra targets. I don't recall if any of the other choices in the tree are worth getting, I've not thought about that much yet.

[Blite]

Heh, a marauder discussion that doesn't include me, it just feels so wrong somehow. Anyways, send me a tell in game, I've had over a dozen marauders since the beginning of beta, every spec, know the pluses and minuses of the abilities, and most of the major bugs/nuances that benefit or cost the class atm. Discussing everything here would take way too long.

[bisett]

am full mon. as well and with the ae knockdown i use my ae melee attacks wrecking ball according to the damage report on its delve is about equal to what we do with our ae attacks with ur str/toughness buff up.

[Narg]

Need some help here... When you advance your tactics you loose the ability to utilize your already unlocked tactics? I had a nice aoe I could use under the Savegery line, but its grayed out now that i've advanced further up the savegery line?

Is this right?

[Drakhon]

You have to purchase Mastery skills.

For instance, to get the first Tactic in a Mastery Path, you have to hit the plus sign three times (to put three points into the Path itself) and then click on the Tactic icon to purchase it with a fourth point.

Points used to purchase skills do not provide the bonus to all skills associated with that Mastery that Path points (plus button) do, so there are many more possible spec combinations.

[Narg]

<mutters something incoherent about the ill logic in this>

[Drakhon]

Makes perfect sense to me and I never had a problem figuring it out. Yes, I was in beta for a long time, so I'm talking about when they first introduced the Mastery system rather than now. This part of the UI hasn't changed since then.

Still, given how many people do apparently have trouble with it, they probably should have made a note or changed the UI layout a bit.

[Gisli]

I think the big problem is that you can't really SEE if a given ability is clicked on or not. The shading is somewhere between subtle and non-existant. So you cannot tell if (a) you have previously trained a given ability or (b) if you have selected a given ability now for training.

[Narg]

What was also strange to me was... I had it for a while.. then didn't have it as soon as I passed that rank. >shrugs< up until a few ago, I had never re spec'd either.

[Greenmind]

Does anyone understand the mechanics behind Concussive Jolt? It seems completely unreliable and I'm almost to the point where I would consider some other spec. Sometimes I use it and nobody is knocked down, the cooldown isn't used, and I'm destroyed...other times I use it and only one person is knocked down (my target), the cooldown is used, and again I get destroyed. It seems like the only time I can really get this to work on a regular basis is when it's 1 v 1 and they're standing still. Is it lag that's causing it to not do anything?

What gives?