Is Marauder weak ? Follow

Ive been playing marauder since I started on the CE and today I feel I hit a new low.
im class rank 17 physical 20 and I was leveling on moles in the lvl 20 area of uldah when a lvl 12 lancer comes along and kills them faster while taking less dmg than me(these mobs range in lvl from 16-19 im told), I check his gear he only had the lvl 9 harpoon ( or is it lvl 10) and his armor wasnt great. I'm still using the lvl 10 axe ( need a new one soon) my stats are the obvious focus on DEX and STR with VIT on the side. Also in a party I cant realy do much even if there is a group of things I cant AoE because alot of the random mobs follow you around so if I cant use my main abilites which revolve around AoE what am I good for ?

are we weak or am I doing something wrong ?

the class itself is a bit under geared from the start. so focusing on putting some gear together with decent def stats would help. another thing i did was lvl jobs to gain extra traits such as second wind, shock spikes, cure, ferocity, stoneskin, etc. all classes have weak points. so building on those weak points will make things easier. marauders biggest weakness is their accuracy. so holding two handfulls of acc rings wouldnt hurt either. i am currently a rank 20 marauder with most stats focused into vit and then rest evenly put into dex/str. dmg output isnt my main concern. but overall durability and usefullness in a fight is.

MRD is by no means a weak class, but I have to agree that MRD is a very gear dependent class. Currently being 16 MRD I have no problem taking out orange mobs, comfortably. I do not have any sub classes leveled yet either. I simply keep my gear up to date, especially my weapon. Also fix your broken gear.

Solo play I feel we do just as good, if not better then the other classes. Skill rotation is key as well as being able to avoid enemy specials. Ya the MRD has SF but that requires standing still and if you ask me, not worth taking an enemy special to the face since you can not block/parry them. I am always circling the mob, that way i avoid every enemy special. Often times i can get a good three hits in between specials. Mobs like Dodos who seem to use multiple specials in a row, it allows for a ton of free opportunities. I currently Stack Primary STR and Secondly Vitality. I have yet to spec dex. as I have seen no difference between Open/Closed beta (where i was heavy in dex) and now being at 20 dex (+5 over starting stat but i keep forgetting to get rid of them).

I just always keep my weapon up to date, always saving for new gear, and have simply just been stacking +acc rings.

As Quor stated you gain a ton of TP from skills like broadswing where you hit multiple mobs at once, this is a great way to level if you have a healer but I find grinding out yellow/orange mobs one at a time is better experience / WS points overall.

Unlike Zeretai i take a heavy damage approach. Since i do not seem to suffer from acc problems that much (there are some times where ill miss a few times a in row but not often) I feel the best approach is hit the mob as hard as you can, and strafe away from specials. Bloodbath is usually enough to keep me up and running for a 3-5 mobs and if i were to ever put in second wind it would keep my killing spree alive longer.

In regards to your question about caps, a soft cap refers to a certain number that, when reached and exceeded, will provide diminishing returns. As a point of reference, a hard cap means that when the number is reached, no returns are given once exceeded.

The fact that you need to put in 2pts after 40 is a very literal representation of this. You have to put in twice as much for the same response, effectively halving the efficiency of your points and providing an obvious soft cap.

It all depends, and I think partly on player skill as well as what others have suggested. In closed and open beta, I thought the same thing as the OP. I was usually partied with someone on either THM, who could AoE stuff, or on Gladiator. He had several other classes leveled to varying ranks to pull in different actions from. He had also played since Alpha and was very well-versed on how to do everything. I was still struggling to target sometimes and hitting empty slots in my action bar.

Now, I'm partied with my husband, who was unable to play in beta at all. He's playing either Gladiator or Pugilist, with no other jobs to pull from except those two. He's also still frustrated with accidentally hitting empty slots on his action bar, starting a battle regimen when he doesn't mean to, and having trouble targeting. Despite his shield and purposely trying to gear a PLD type Gladiator, I can sometimes sustain more hits than he can. When he's on PUG, I can do more damage a lot of times, partly due to my having a rank 10 axe and his having a rank 1 h2h. His physical level is one higher than mine.

So, I think it greatly depends on gear, physical level, the stats you've pumping points into, what other classes you have leveled, and player skill. The job itself isn't weak. :)

Edit: I also heard early on that Wind plays a part in some MRD weapon skills, so I've kept it my highest (also to get more wind shards). That may be playing a role. I don't know.

Edited, Oct 6th 2010 6:38am by LuthienOfSeraph

MRD seems to be one of the more gear dependent classes in game so far. WAR was like this in FFXI as where most of the "heavy hitters" like DRK, SAM, etc.

I am only 14, but phys is 23, I go DEX > STR > Vit (56, 43, 53 right now, I think). I tend to think STR has diminished returns from my reassignments so far, as I used to be STR > DEX > VIT. Upping my DEX while lowering STR improved my ACC a lot while DMG did not see to go down. It probably went up due to less missed swings. Also, I bought the 4 ACC rings for my level, copper, and have brass ready in storage. Upgrading to the level 12 Axe helped a ton too, as it has much higher ACC rating. Thanks to a friend, I have a spiked bronze waiting in storage as well now too.

Also, many other classes abilities seem to compliment MRD a ton and give us a lot of versatility.

With Stoneskin, Shock Spikes, Defender, Taunt, and Provoke, combined with multiple AoE abilities, I can tank really well for squishier friends, with a healer. Without a healer, I can still tank really well, but I drop either the stoneskin or the spikes for Cure and Second Wind.

Great must have abilities for MRD (some are situational):

Second Wind
Cure
Punishing Barbs
Stoneskin
Shock Spikes
Ferocity (I use in a macro with Bloodbath + Trunksplitter while solo)
Provoke
Taunt


I am sure there are others as well. Those are the ones I use the most right now, but I have not leveled Archer at all yet and do not have any other class past 10 yet. I do not think twice about attacking any orange or lower mobs yet... and many types of low red mobs (some Anglers for example) are pretty much push overs as well. I keep Defender on my bar all the time, as the benefits when it is needed, out weigh the lower attack and loss of 3 action points. If I need it, throwing it up, even at yellow HP can make all the difference.