10 Best Marauder Builds in Path of Exile 3.25

When it comes to melee builds, the Marauder is always at the forefront next to the Duelist in Path of Exile. It can ascend to three different classes that bring a lot of good things for melee builds to the table.

Thanks to the changes Grinding Gear Games has made in the past couple of years, especially with the buffs to almost all melee skill gems in Patch 3.25, the Marauder has seen a resurgence in terms of the overall popular classes in PoE.

So, if you are thinking about creating a character soon, we invite you to read this article to completion first. For today, we are going to give you our picks for the 10 best Marauder builds in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League!

Why Choose the Marauder

The Marauder is a STR-based class in Path of Exile that specializes in melee combat. The pathing of this class on the passive tree begins on the southwest side, where a bunch of melee damage and life nodes are present.

This class uses armor as the main defensive layer, enabling it to mitigate physical damage to a great extent. The high amount of HP ensures that the Marauder can stay on the battlefield longer than most classes in the game relative to the amount of PoE Currency invested.

The Marauder is able to ascend to three different classes, namely:

Berserker

Grinding Gear Games has created the Berserker mainly for those who want raw power. This ascendancy class contains mostly offensive nodes that make it quite a formidable presence on the battlefield.

In Patch 3.25, GGG made some noteworthy changes to a few nodes. This was done primarily to accommodate the adjustments made to warcry skills and Rage.

For context, you now get more damage per point of Rage. However, this comes at the cost of not having any bonuses to movement speed and attack speed. The Berserker's Crave the Slaughter gets some of the attack speed back by granting you 1% ASPD per point of Rage.

Rite of Ruin no longer grants triple the effects of Rage. Instead, it increases the Rage effect by 50%, which translates to even more damage!

War Bringer received a substantial change as well. This node no longer grants or sacrifices Rage when you use a warcry skill, which means that you cannot get that 50% attack damage boost. In the Settlers of Kalguur expansion, War Bringer only exerts twice as many attacks when using certain warcries.

The Aspect of the Carnage gives you 40% more damage, boosting your attacks immediately just by taking this particular node. Do not mind the downside because that 10% increased damage taken can easily be mitigated by your armor and resistances.

Then you have Flawless Savagery. This is ideal if you want to go for builds that emphasize physical damage and high amounts of crit. Flawless Savagery also ensures a smooth leveling experience, especially if your character is not fully geared yet.

Blitz grants you the ability to generate Blitz Charges. This notable passive skill reduces your critical strike chance by quite a bit. However, it makes up for it by providing you with a lot of attack speed based on the number of Blitz Charges that you have.

If you want to strike hard and fast, the Berserker is definitely the one for you!

Juggernaut

If the Berserker is built for pure offense, the Juggernaut is a defensive force to be reckoned with. The Juggernaut is made primarily for those who want to create a character that is capable of taking hits without worrying about survivability. This ascendancy class is perfect for league start scenarios because you get a ton of value just by taking some specific notable ascendancy passive skills.

Unbreakable makes you tanky without a heavy investment. This notable ascendancy passive essentially doubles the armor value of your equipped body armor. In Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, this node now takes 15% of armor and applies that to reduce the chaos damage you receive from hits. Back then, this was to mitigate elemental damage based on 8% of your armor.

A 100% chance to hit is mandatory if you are playing melee builds. The good news is that the Juggernaut helps you achieve that thanks to Undeniable — an ascendancy node that gives you a flat amount of accuracy. What's more, if you improve your STR attribute, you can gain even more accuracy as a result.

With Undeniable, accuracy is not just about guaranteeing that your attacks will land successfully, but it is about boosting your attack speed as well. You gain 1% attack speed for every 150 points of accuracy rating from your gear and passive skills. Therefore, this node is great during league starts all the way to the endgame.

Untiring provides you with consistent life regeneration, which is why it is a perfect node for those who like using Righteous Fire. The 40% increased life regeneration it provides is no slouch. Couple that with the 1.5% life regen based on the physical damage you have prevented in the past 10 seconds, and you have a pretty tanky character that just wouldn't go down!

The rest of the notable ascendancy passive skills on the Juggernaut tree are all about Endurance Charges. Unflinching not only raises your Maximum Endurance Charges, but it also grants you the ability to reliably and consistently generate charges when you are hit. Unyielding is more for those offensive-minded folks who want to gain more damage and AoE per Endurance Charge.

Lastly, Unrelenting has changed in Patch 3.25. Instead of granting some chaos resistance, it now gives 1% additional elemental damage reduction per Endurance Charge. The 1% physical damage reduction is still present, which makes this node invaluable from a survival standpoint.

Juggernaut is a class best suited for those who want a tough character they can rely on.

Chieftain

The Chieftain is a more well-balanced ascendancy class compared to the other two. GGG reworked the Chieftain a couple of leagues ago and it has been quite a popular option for many Path of Exile players and for good reason — this ascendancy class is just so good, especially if like builds that primarily deal fire damage.

Hinekora, Death's Fury is an amazing notable ascendancy passive. This node gives you the ability to make enemies explode on kill, dealing a whopping 500% of their maximum life as fire damage to nearby monsters. Do not be fooled by that measly 5% chance to explode because it is actually much more consistent in practice.

Tasalio, Cleansing Water is great for defense. Once you take this notable ascendancy passive skill, all you have to think about is improving your fire resistance and your cold/lightning resistance will follow suit. This node is typically paired with Valako, Storm's Embrace to make your maximum elemental resistance on par with each other. So, if you have 85% maximum fire resistance, you will have 85% cold and lightning resistance as well.

In Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur, the node "Arohongui, Moon's Presence" has been replaced with a new one called "Sione, Sun's Roar." This new node gives your warcries infinite power, which means that they always grant their maximum bonuses regardless of how many enemies you are surrounded with. Besides that, it amplifies the buff effect of your warcries by 30%!

If you want to try the newly buffed slam skills, then you might want to give the Chieftain a try!

Best Marauder Builds

With the three ascendancy classes explained, it is now time to talk about the cream of the crop. We have scoured the internet for information about the popular builds in the current league so you do not have to.

So, without further ado, here are the best Marauder builds in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League:

10. Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Berserker

The first build on the list utilizes a slam skill that is boosted by several warcries for maximum benefit.

The Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Berserker is an incredible build that has the power to obliterate enemies with ease. This build uses a Transfigured Gem that does not release projectiles like the original. Instead, it erupts at a targeted location, and then slowly moves to nearby enemies to deal damage by erupting again. Because of this, you do not have to painstakingly slam the ground multiple times just to deal with monsters!

Powering this monstrosity is the Echoes of Creation — a unique helmet in Path of Exile that grants more damage to slam skills for each warcry exerting them. Furthermore, it utilizes the new Overexertion Support, which essentially has the same effect as that of Echoes of Creation, albeit granting a slightly higher damage bonus at gem level 20!

Because you are technically using a slam skill here, War Bringer from the Berserker ascendancy class should be taken. This just makes it so that your warcries exert twice as many attacks. For example, Seismic Cry only exerts six attacks. With War Bringer, that number is effectively doubled to 12!

For the weapon, this build uses a two-handed mace. There are a couple of good crafting bases you can use. If you want a higher attack speed, go for the Piledriver as the base. But, if you want more damage and a couple more exerted attacks, then the Impact Force Propagator is a no-brainer. This can be acquired as a possible reward from the Curio Displays in heists.

So, how does this build fare in terms of survivability? Normally, those who use the Berserker ascendancy class stack armor alone because Marauders do not have easy access to spell suppression nodes.

However, the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Berserker can be built in a way that also incorporates some spell suppression. Aside from wearing hybrid armor-evasion equipment, you can wear The Utmost unique amulet. This amulet gives a considerable amount of spell suppression, which should aid you in reaching the 100% cap.

Do not worry about the evasion rating of those hybrid pieces of gear because you can take the Iron Reflexes keystone passive to convert it into armor.

The reason why the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Berserker is one of the best Marauder builds in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur is that it has a good balance of damage and survivability.

Probably, the only thing that might deter you from playing this build is that slam skills, in general, are a bit slower in animation compared to projectile skills. Be that as it may, the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking Berserker is definitely worth a try!

9. Tectonic Slam of Cataclysm Chieftain

When you want to capitalize on dealing insane amounts of fire damage, then the Chieftain is the ascendancy class that can help you with that.

If you want to play a build that uses a slam skill in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion, then give the Tectonic Slam of Chieftain a try.

Let's talk about Transfigured Gem first. Tectonic Slam of Cataclysm has a lower damage effectiveness compared to the original. This is by design because this skill gem gets more damage based on the Endurance Charges it consumes. Therefore, to maximize this, you will stack as many Endurance Charges as you can.

How damaging does the Tectonic Slam of Cataclysm become? If you level this up to 20 and increase its quality by the same amount, you will get 27% more damage per Endurance Charge consumed. So, if you have 10 Endurance Charges, that translates to a whopping 270% more damage for each slam!

To further improve your damage output, you are going to take Tukohama, War's Herald from the Chieftain's ascendancy tree. This node supports Tectonic Slam of Cataclysm with Fist of War, thus effectively giving your slams more oomph as a result.

While there are no mandatory items for this build, there are certainly some that would give you a much easier time. Remember that the primary skill for this build consumes all of the Endurance Charges that you have per slam. To retain the bonus effects of these charges, you are going to wear Ralakesh's Impatience.

With the said boots equipped, Tectonic Slam of Cataclysm still eats up all of your Endurance Charges, albeit you still gain their effects, such as additional physical and elemental damage reduction per charge.

Increasing the quality of Tectonic Slam of Cataclysm also raises the damage boost it receives per Endurance Charge consumed. Hence, Ashes of the Stars is a great amulet for the build, particularly when you get the max roll of 30% to the quality of all skill gems.

The Chieftain's new notable ascendancy passive skill "Sione, Sun's Roar" ensures that your warcries provide their maximum effects. Just make sure that the warcries you want to gain buffs from are not linked with Autoexertion Support.

The Tectonic Slam of Cataclysm Chieftain is a bit clunky to use at first. But once you get the hang of it, you will find that this build slams!

8. Earthshatter Berserker

The Earthshatter Berserker is yet another build that utilizes a slam skill. The reason for this is that melee skills have been buffed significantly in Patch 3.25. Earthshatter, in particular, has its effectiveness of base and added damage buffed from 200% to 393%!

So, how does Earthshatter differ from other slam skills? On the initial slam, Earthshatter sends out fissures that deal damage in an area. If you quickly follow that up with another slam or warcry, the spikes that emerged from the initial hit will shatter, damaging nearby monsters in the process.

Similar to the Volcanic Fissure of Snaking build mentioned above, the Earthshatter Berserker utilizes several warcry skills, including Battlemage's Cry, Rallying Cry, Infernal Cry, Intimidating Cry, and Infernal Cry. You could link them to Autoexertion Support to have them activated automatically, but if you want to retain their bonuses, you can use Urgent Orders for some of them instead.

Despite being a Berserker, this build is surprisingly tanky. That is because apart from Echoes of Creation, you are going to wear mostly crafted gear, giving you complete control over what mods you want to have.

You could also utilize The Light of Meaning, which is just a rebranded "The Perandus Pact" from the previous league. This unique jewel can roll a bunch of modifiers, though you might want to go for physical damage, life, armor, or chaos resistance.

This build hits hard because of the nodes available to the Berserker. Crave the Slaughter and Rite of Ruin amplifies the damage boost provided by Rage. War Bringer ensures that you have each of your Earthshatter slams deal their maximum damage by doubling the attacks exerted by your warcries.

Then, you have Aspect of the Carnage, which grants 40% more damage at the cost of slightly increased damage taken. You do not have to worry about the downside because it can easily be addressed by gear.

All in all, the Earthshatter Berserker is another slam build that you might want to try out in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur!

7. Dual Strike of Ambidexterity Juggernaut

The Juggernaut is an ascendancy class that you normally do not associate with offense-oriented builds. However, this next entry begs to differ as it can eliminate enemies with fast, hard-hitting attacks.

The Dual Strike of Ambidexterity Juggernaut is a straightforward build where you only attack enemies like you would any other monster. However, there are certain mechanics at play that make it stand out.

For one, Dual Strike of Ambidexterity is unique in the sense that you can use this only if you have two different types of weapons equipped. The damage is calculated based on the main hand weapon and how fast you attack is contingent upon your off-hand weapon.

In most cases, you will use the Paradoxica so that you deal double damage with every hit. Ideally, obtain one with "Chance to Impale Enemies on Hit" to ensure that you hit hard with each swing of your weapon. Moreover, the offhand weapon is typically a fast-attacking one like the Imperial Claw.

Once you have obtained enough PoE Currency, you could replace the said weapons with synthesized weapons, particularly with implicit modifiers that improve the build in various ways, including increased crit chance, critical strike multiplier, and attack speed, among others.

If you are wondering why the Juggernaut is the preferred ascendancy class for the build, it is primarily because of the "Undeniable" node, which increases your attack speed and accuracy based on your STR.

While you can certainly just choose the best weapons in PoE 3.25, you can opt to go the strength-stacking route to take full advantage of Undeniable. If this is the case, you will also use Replica Alberon's Warpath so that you deal huge amounts of chaos damage.

As part of your defenses, you could wear equipment with armor and evasion rating; the latter of which is converted to armor thanks to the Iron Reflexes keystone passive.

Additionally, you can utilize Endurance Charges by taking the Unflinching and Unrelenting nodes. The former grants you the power to gain Endurance Charges when hit, while the latter boosts the effects of these charges, thus giving you additional physical and elemental damage reduction.

Known as a naturally slow-attacking ascendancy class in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, the Dual Strike of Ambidexterity Juggernaut aims to quash that notion.

6. Detonate Dead of Scavenging Chieftain

If you like playing a build that does not require you to spam plenty of buttons in quick succession, then the Detonate Dead of Scavenging Chieftain might just be the right build for you!

The star of the show is, of course, Detonate Dead of Scavenging. Unlike its base counterpart, the secondary damage explosion of this skill gem deals significantly more damage. However, it no longer has a spell damage component, which is actually a good thing because it is now easier to gear your character without compromising survivability.

Having said that, this build relies on Cast When Stunned Support. As you can tell, this support gem automatically activates the active skills it is linked to when you receive a stunning hit. For this build, in particular, you will use Cast When Stunned Support to activate Detonate Dead of Scavenging, Fire Storm of Pelting, Tornado of Elemental Turbulence, Flame Surge, Flame Wall, and Blazing Salvo.

Obviously, those skills will only be activated when you are stunned. So, how do you get stunned consistently? Well, you have the Valyrium for that. This unique ring essentially uses energy shield as your stun threshold rather than your life. And, since you effectively do not have any energy shield on this build due to "The Agnostic" keystone passive, you will get stunned as soon as you are hit!

Of course, getting stunned does not give you a good time, right? To rectify this, you are going to use the Immutable Force. This unique jewel increases your stun recovery by up to 1000%! To make it count, get one that has at least 961% stun recovery so that it will be exactly one server tic.

The Immutable Force is typically accompanied by Bloodnotch. This is another unique jewel that recovers your HP based on 40-60% of the damage you take from stunning hits.

So basically, how this build is played is you simply run around the map, get hit by the enemies, and see them get wrecked by multiple skills that are activated by Cast When Stunned Support.

In terms of defense, you have the combo of Valako and Tasalio to boost your elemental resistances to 90%.

During boss encounters where you typically do not have easy access to corpses to detonate for your primary skill, you have the option of wearing the new "The Hateful Accuser" unique ring. This ring applies a Penance Mark on the target, which will prompt a series of Phantasms to be spawned while you hit the marked enemy.

The Hateful Accuser is a new ring introduced in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur and can be obtained from Rituals.

If you want a more laidback playstyle, then the Detonate Dead of Scavenging Chieftain will not disappoint!

5. Shield Crush Juggernaut

Do you want to be like Captain America, swiping your majestic shield in order to eliminate foes without a hitch? Then, perhaps you'd want to try the Shield Crush Juggernaut in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur!

As you can tell, this build utilizes the shield for damage calculation. Shield Crush deals physical damage based on the armor value of your equipped shield. That said, the Emperor's Vigilance is a great shield to have as it has the mod, "1000% Increased Armour and Energy Shield," which boosts the damage of your primary skill manifold.

Now, you have a couple of options you can take in the endgame. First, you can wear Arn's Anguish and Ralakesh's Impatience for a chance to deal triple damage based on the number of Brutal Charges you have.

Second, you can equip the Replica Dreamfeather and go the armor-stacking route. This unique sword essentially grants 1% increased attack damage for every 450 points of armor on your character. You will have a chance to deal triple damage as well simply by wearing The Magnate. It is not as apparent as the previous combo, but being able to deal triple damage nonetheless is still good.

In both scenarios, you can use Seething Fury — a unique jewel in PoE 3.25 that increases your attack damage and critical strike chance.

As to how the Juggernaut factors into the equation, you will get great benefits from Unbreakable, especially if you are going the armor-stacking route. You see, this ascendancy node doubles the armor value of your chest armor. So, if you're using the Brass Dome, for example, you'll get heaps of armor just by taking the said notable ascendancy passive skill.

In addition, Undeniable provides you with increased attack speed. It is not as powerful compared to a strength-stacker, but it should still provide you with an easy way to cap your hit chance, as well as hit a high attack rate for improved map-clearing speed.

With the right equipment, the Shield Crush Juggernaut can hit hard without sacrificing survivability.

4. Ground Slam of Earthshaking Berserker

If you want a slam skill that has good coverage, then you should give this next build a whirl. The Ground Slam of Earthshaking Berserker utilizes a Transfigured Gem that has a higher damage effectiveness and wider area of effect than the original, with the caveat being that you can only use it while wielding two-handed maces, axes, and staves.

Sure, it has a noticeably slower attack time, but you can go for a crafted Despot Axe to give it a much-needed boost in attack rate. Speaking of which, the Berserker’s Crave the Slaughter ascendancy node provides you with some attack speed per point of Rage as well.

Because you are going to use Echoes of Creation on this build, you have to make sure that your total armor is at least 40,000. This is achieved by wearing pure armor bases like the Royal Plate, Leviathan Gloves, and Leviathan Gauntlets, to name a few.

Another way to improve survivability is by investing in Defiance of Destiny. Although this unique amulet got nerfed in Patch 3.25, it still gives a ton of value to the Ground Slam of Earthshaking Berserker. Essentially, what this thing does is it heals a portion of your missing unreserved life before you receive a damaging hit, which is definitely nice for the build since it attacks slower compared to those that use strike skills.

The Light of Meaning is also a good addition to the build, particularly the one that grants 7% additional armour to the passive skills in its radius.

As you gain more PoE Currency, you can get the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with "Unbreakable" as the matching modifier. This not only doubles the armor that you get from a Royal Plate, for example, but it mitigates the chaos damage you receive from hits as well.

While not as tanky as the Chieftain or the Juggernaut, the issues surrounding the Ground Slam of Earthshaking Berserker are easily addressed with the right gear. So, if you want a slam build that clears areas quickly, then be sure to put this build on your radar!

3. Boneshatter of Complex Trauma Juggernaut

Boneshatter of Complex Trauma Juggernaut is the solution for those who want to use a "safer" version of Boneshatter.

You see, every time you hit enemies with Boneshatter, you gain Trauma stacks that accrue infinitely. Each stack grants increased damage but at the cost of higher damage taken. Since Boneshatter hurts you with each hit as well, it can be quite damaging if you have more than 30 Trauma stacks on you.

Enter its transfigured version, Boneshatter of Complex Trauma. Unlike its base counterpart, this Transfigured Gem only limits the number of Trauma stacks you can get to 10. Once this number is reached, the counter resets to zero, allowing you to earn 10 stacks again. To compensate for this limit, you get more damage for each stack of Trauma, up to a maximum of 200%. This is still quite a good trade-off; one that does not actually kill your character in return.

To maximize your primary skill for this build, you will go for Undeniable from the Juggernaut's ascendancy tree. This gives you some accuracy and attack speed to ensure that each strike hits the intended target.

In addition, Unbreakable can reduce the physical damage you take due to the higher armor value of your equipped body armor. Another option you can take is Unrelenting, which boosts the effects of Endurance Charges by giving you 1% more physical and elemental damage reduction per charge.

Aside from your actual hits, this build utilizes Impale to deal with the enemy as well. In case you do not know, Impales in Path of Exile is a debuff that makes affected enemies take reflected physical damage with each subsequent hit.

The Boneshatter of Complex Trauma Juggernaut is an excellent build, particularly if you want a “safer” Boneshatter build in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur!

2. Righteous Fire Chieftain

The penultimate entry in our list of the best Marauder builds in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur is none other than the Righteous Fire Chieftain. This used to be the top build in the previous league but has now been bested by a build that uses a melee skill.

Righteous Fire has been in the game since closed beta. This fire spell skill has received many notable adjustments, with one implemented just in the previous league. So, what changed?

Well, Righteous Fire no longer has a flat amount of fire damage. Instead, you scale its damage by increasing your life. More specifically, 70% of your HP will be factored into the damage calculation. For this reason, your gear must consist of modifiers that increase maximum life wherever possible.

Anyway, the Righteous Fire Chieftain is great in almost every scenario. You can use it as a league starter, play it in Solo Self-Found (SSF), and it can even survive in hardcore. This build is quite an awesome mapper that can take on bosses without a hitch.

Even though this build has no problem facing any monster in PoE, it does suffer from mediocre single-target damage. That is why you also include Fire Trap into the mix. Fire Trap allows you to throw a trap at a targeted location that creates a burning ground shortly after.

The Fire Trap deals damage in two ways. The first one occurs when the trap explodes a couple of seconds after landing on the ground. The second comes from the burning ground. You can scale Fire Trap's damage by raising its gem levels beyond level 20 and getting as many fire damage and fire damage over time modifiers on your gear as you can.

Part of what makes this build appealing is its laid-back playstyle. When entering a new area, you simply activate Righteous Fire, use Shield Charge to move around the map, and then throw Fire Traps whenever you encounter a harder enemy than usual.

When you are facing a bunch of enemies, use Infernal Cry and Punishment to increase the damage they take for a brief period. Infernal Cry gets automated as soon as you link it with the new Call to Arms Support Gem.

Now, Righteous Fire can be utilized by many different ascendancy classes, including the Inquisitor, Guardian, and Juggernaut. However, what does the Chieftain possess that makes him stand out?

The Chieftain gives you a much easier time capping your elemental resistances with Tasalio, Cleansing Water. Thanks to this node, every time you increase your fire resistance, your cold and lightning resistance will get sorted out as well. This allows you to focus only on raising your fire resistance and chaos resistance, which is quite helpful when it comes to gearing.

When Righteous Fire is activated, it will gradually reduce your life in the process. You can resolve that by making sure that your fire resistance is capped. However, that typical 75% ceiling may not be enough, especially in the endgame. That is why Valako, Storm's Embrace is crucial to the success of this build.

Valako, Storm's Embrace is akin to Melding of the Flesh, albeit without that nasty downside. Therefore, you raise your maximum fire resistance using Purity of Fire and your other elemental resistances will follow suit! Having 90% total resistances can significantly improve your survivability and that can easily be achieved with the help of this notable ascendancy passive skill!

In terms of offense, Hinekora, Death's Fury is an incredible node that enables you to make quick work of the enemy. With this ascendancy node allocated, enemies that you kill have a chance to explode, dealing a huge amount of fire damage to monsters that are nearby.

You might laugh at the measly 5% chance for that effect to activate, but it is actually more pronounced in reality. This is even more so whenever you see multiple enemies bunched up together.

Ramako, Sun's Light weakens your enemies resistance to fire damage over time. This node requires you to be standing still, but that is not a problem at all. You just have to stay in one place for a split second and the game considers you as "stationary."

How about the items? The reason why the Righteous Fire Chieftain is great for league start scenarios and in SSF is that it does not require any items for the build to work. Just make sure that you have your maximum life and fire resistance in check and you should be ready to go!

Of course, there are items that elevate certain aspects of the build, so let's start with some inexpensive ones. Immortal Flesh is a unique belt that not only gives you a tremendous amount of life regeneration, but it also reduces the physical damage you take from hits. Both are useful modifiers for this build and the good thing is that this belt can be yours for a low price of two Chaos Orbs! The price of this belt may be a bit expensive a few days into a new league, though it drops down considerably after that.

Rise of the Phoenix is a cheap way to address your fire resistance early on. This unique shield has a lot of useful modifiers, including armor/energy shield, life regeneration, fire resistance, and ignite avoidance when in low life. The main reason why you pick this shield up, however, is for its +5% to maximum fire resistance.

An alternative shield you can use is the Dawnbreaker. With this shield equipped, up to 20% of cold, lightning, and physical damage is taken as fire damage. Due to the ease of achieving 90% fire resistance on this build, almost anything that hits you in the game is quite negligible.

For body armor, you have a few options. In the beginning, you can craft your own armor using Essence of Greed until you get fire resistance, chaos resistance, and other useful modifiers.

When you have enough PoE Currency, you can then transition to the Cloak of Flame. It is best paired with the Dawnbreaker to reduce any physical damage you take from hits. The Lightning Coil is a viable option as well. Similar to the previously mentioned body armor, 50% of physical damage is taken as lightning damage when you have the Lightning Coil equipped.

If you have saved up enough PoE Currency, we highly recommend that you get the Defiance of Destiny. Although this unique amulet has been nerfed in Patch 3.25, its value is still there for the Righteous Fire Chieftain.

So, where do you go from here? You can think about getting a Mageblood and The Adorned if you really want to take things to a whole new level. As for the mods on the corrupted magic jewels, aim for "+% to Fire Damage Over Time Multiplier" and "7% Increased Maximum Life."

Otherwise, when you have your fire resistance capped at 90%, look for the following modifiers:

• Damage Over Time Multiplier
• Fire Damage Over Time Multiplier
• + to Maximum Life
• % Increased Maximum Life
• % Increased Fire Damage
• % Increased Area Damage

The Righteous Fire Chieftain is an awesome build that can be used as a league starter and taken well into the endgame with enough investment. This is the reason why it is one of the most popular Marauder builds in Patch 3.25!

1. Molten Strike of the Zenith Juggernaut

So, which Marauder build took the top spot in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur? Well, it is the Molten Strike of the Zenith Juggernaut. We will explain why in a bit.

In Patch 3.25, GGG has buffed the effectiveness of the base and added damage of the Transfigured Gem from 130% to 239%. This is actually quite huge, particularly when you are about to land the fifth strike.

You see, what makes the Molten Strike of the Zenith so appealing is that the fifth strike deals more damage and fires several projectiles, hitting more enemies as a result. And, what better way to hit that threshold than to use the Juggernaut equipped with a good two-handed sword for a faster attack rate?

The Juggernaut's Undeniable ascendancy node is an incredible one to take here. This is because you will be stacking strength as high as you possibly can, therefore, improving both your accuracy and attack speed.

Having said that, the Molten Strike of the Zenith Juggernaut does require some pieces of gear to make it work. Replica Alberon's Warpath is definitely one of them. This pair of unique boots grants chaos damage to attacks per 80 points of strength on your character.

In addition, you will use at least a couple of Split Personality unique jewels on this build. When slotted far away from the Marauder's starting point on the passive tree, you are going to get even more STR, in addition to whatever bonus the jewel you have in your possession.

Another important piece of the build is the Crown of Eyes. This unique helmet is akin to the Battlemage's Cry of old, where increases and reductions to spell damage also apply to attacks at 150% of their value.

Now, the Molten Strike of the Zenith Juggernaut is, without a doubt, a very expensive build. Part of the reason why is that the endgame version utilizes Original Sin. This Sanctum-only unique item converts all elemental damage you have to chaos damage. What's more, this ring reduces the chaos resistance of nearby enemies to zero, allowing your attacks to deal huge amounts of damage.

Other complementary items you can sink some PoE Currency into include Lethal Pride, Emperor's Mastery, Emperor's Might, and The Balance of Terror, among many others.

This build is indeed a very expensive build to put up. However, if you are able to secure all of the necessary pieces together, we promise you that you will never regret it!

With an insane damage output, amazing tankiness, and an easy playstyle to boot, it is no wonder that the Molten Strike of the Zenith Juggernaut is deemed the best Marauder build in PoE 3.25!

Tips

With the best Marauder builds in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League already revealed, here are some handy tips that will help make your gaming experience a whole lot better when using this particular class:

Focus on Armor

Spell suppression is one form of defense in Path of Exile that essentially halves the spell damage you take from the enemy's attacks. While it is a good defensive layer to add to any build, it is best that you focus solely on armor instead. Why?

The answer is very simple: it is very difficult to cap spell suppression for Marauders because all of the spell suppression nodes are situated on the right side of the passive tree.

Although it is possible to wear a few pieces of gear that have "% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage" on them, the fact that you cannot reach 100% is just a waste.

If there is any consolation, armor reduces the physical damage you take anyway. So the more armor you have, the better you are at surviving even the most damaging hits!

Don't Be Afraid to Take Attribute Nodes

The Marauder class has very easy access to passive skills that boost your STR. However, there are support gems that would require you to have a minimum amount of DEX and INT. That is why do not be afraid to take the notable passive skills that give you a considerable amount of the said attributes.

For example, the Swift Affliction support gem needs you to have 111 DEX if the gem is at level 20. If your DEX stat at the moment is 98, you can take the"Proficiency" node just near "Soul of Steel" at the southwest portion of the passive tree. Doing so will give you plus 30 to dexterity, thus allowing you to use the said support gem.

Once you have rectified the situation by using gear that has DEX and INT mods, you can use an Orb of Regret to refund the passive skill point, which you can use to allocate a different node.

Try and "Overcap" Your Resistances

Whether you are playing the Righteous Fire Chieftain or not, it is always a good idea to overcap your resistances.

You see, if you do not have any mods that raise your maximum resistances, your fire, cold, lightning, and chaos resistance will only be limited to 75%. Although that is good at the beginning, it might not be enough later on, especially when you are facing the pinnacle bosses in PoE.

Hence, try to find some pieces of gear that increase your maximum resistances as soon as possible. One inexpensive way to do that is by using any of the elemental resistance flasks, such as the Ruby Flask, Sapphire Flask, and Topaz Flask.

Experiment to See What You Like

If you are a complete beginner in Path of Exile, you might assume that you can no longer change ascendancy classes if you have already selected one. That is actually not the case!

You can still change ascendancy classes, provided that you have unallocated the notable ascendancy passive skills prior to interacting with the Divine Font at the end of the level 75 labyrinth. Be ready to spend about 40 Orbs of Regret to do this because refunding an ascendancy node requires five refund points each!

Having said that, each of us has individual preferences. Your buddy likes playing the Boneshatter of the Complex Juggernaut, but you may prefer the Detonate Dead of Scavenging Chieftain for its interesting mechanics.

Whatever the case may be, do not be afraid to experiment until you find which of the Marauder ascendancy classes works best for you!

Get Comfortable with Crafting

Crafting is an essential part of your life in Path of Exile primarily because it is one of the only ways you can gain access to god-tier items. Although it can be quite daunting due to the sheer number of materials and mechanics at play, crafting is certainly helpful from the beginning all the way to the endgame.

Luckily for you, we have a dedicated crafting guide that gives you all that you need to know about how to craft items in the game. Be sure to bookmark it for future reference.

Conclusion

The Marauder is the best class to choose if you want to be up close and personal with the enemy. It has easy access to passive skills that boost your life, bolster your defenses, and enhance your melee/physical damage capabilities.

If you are tired of dying and would want a character that can take a beating without dying, then the Juggernaut is the ascendancy class for you. On the other hand, the Berserker is quite an appealing choice if you want to go purely on the offensive.

There are some merits to choosing the Chieftain. For one, it is a great ascendancy class if you decide to use Righteous Fire for leveling and well into the endgame. Moreover, it is incredibly easy to cap your resistances thanks to the notable ascendancy passive skills available to the Chieftain.

The Berserker is also a lot better to use now thanks to the changes GGG has made in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. With the changes to Crave the Slaughter, Rite of Ruin, and War Bringer, you can certainly use this ascendancy class, especially if you plan on using any of the newly buffed slam skills.

The Juggernaut has taken the crown in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion, primarily for its "Undeniable" and "Unbreakable" ascendancy nodes that grant accuracy and attack speed, as well as more armor, respectively.

So, there you have it! We at RPGStash hope that you have enjoyed this guide. If you try any of the builds mentioned here, feel free to share your experience.

With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!