For those who want to give the Maurader set another go in patch 2.3, I want to introduce my build, which ups the damage a bit and plays around with the traditional Marauder Fire build. This blog will discuss the basic gear and skills to get this build going.
If you were away from Diablo for a while and have not given the newer Natalyas or Unhallowed Essence builds a shot but still have the gear from an older Marauder Demon Hunter from previous patches lying around, you can still make use of that gear while searching for new items. The positive aspect about Marauders is that it’s a tankier, more passive build than Unhallowed Essence and can serve as a support function to a degree from various CCs and buffs provided through the Companion skill.
Unfortunately, the older Marauder builds also were very resource intensive and couldn’t provide the level of damage competitive to a pure Unhallowed Essence build or have the mobility, defense and burst damage output of Natalyas. What Marauders gains in this patch through a few key items is more damage sustainability with resource management and slightly damage with the help of Focus/Restraint.
So like many other Focus/Restraint type of builds, you will need a full 6 piece Marauders set. For your weapon of choice, you will need a Yangs Recurve so that you can spam Multishot along with a cubed Cindercoat. Having that combination pretty much eliminates the need for Reapers Wraps and Blood Vengeance for improving your Hatred regeneration. You will also want to cube a Dead Mans Legacy to improve your Multishot damage. Finally, you will want the new Wraps of Clarity for reducing damage using your generators. Since you’ll be occasionally firing Evasive Fire: Focus to proc your Bastion of Will, you will also be gaining some defense too.
For your jewelry slot, my suggestion is to go with a Convention of Elements. You won’t need a Ring of Royal Grandeur any longer and a Unity isn’t necessary in singles as much because of your bracers providing more defense. So you can go a little more offensive here. If not that then an immunity amulet can prove useful if you decide to go with a well rolled Hellfire Amulet.
Your belt slot probably should be The Witching Hour for the raw damage output. Alternatively, you could use the new Hunters Wrath. However, just be warned the damage and attack speed boost are only for generators and do not include Chakram and Elemental Arrow (if used in conjunction with a Kridershot or Spines of Seething Hatred.
For my passives, the main thing I changed out was switching out Blood Vengeance for Ambush. I suppose you could also go for Steady Aim or both if you can get a well rolled Hellfire Amulet. And my active skills are pretty much the same from the traditional Frost-Fire Multishot build (Evasive Fire: Focus, Multishot: Arsena, Sentry: Polar Station, Vault: Tumble, Preparation: Punishment and Companion: Wolf Companion). I suppose I could also change our Preparation: Punishment for either another defensive like Smoke Screen or go for more damage with something like Marked for Death.
At any rate, the main idea behind the gearing for this build is to remove the resource cost with Yang’s Recurse and Cindercoat and focus more on spamming Multishot with Evasive Fire thrown in. The only real issue with this build is that it’s slow compared to Natalya’s and makes you too dependent upon Sentry placement to keep up your damage buff.
The benefit of this build is that you get to keep all your companions and have more passive damage. That is, your pets and sentries will be doing damage when you’re not firing. I don’t know if your sentries’ Multishot firings benefit from the Dead Man’s Legacy but at the very least you still will be firing Multishot more frequently.
I think this is a reliable but not supremely high end type of build. Your main problem is just dealing enough damage compared to other builds since you’re too dependent upon setting up your sentries. If, for instance, you die during a Greater Rift while fighting a boss and your sentries are on cooldown, then you pretty much have to wait a bit until they’re all back up. That can easily mean the success or failure of a Greater Rift.
Also, because you aren’t as fast as other builds, you might have a tough time keeping up with certain classes like a Whirlwind barbarian or DelRasha with a cubed Aether Walker. I do think this is a good build for gold farming since you get your ferrets once again and that you can pick up items as you go compared to other builds that are constantly moving.
Overall, this is a decent build if you’ve been out for a while and have the gear, or it’s the first dedicated set you’ve managed to find. But if you want to be competitive, there’s better builds around. It’s still fun and has it’s place but just not on the high end.
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