How to lvl as melee, find it difficult to get past act without dying

[The Queen Of UwU]

So im trying to lvl up my marauder till i can use the ancenstral warcheif but i can barely get through act 1. Im kinda at loss to what gear to get but also good lvling skills.

Any help/What do you do to lvl up melee characters?

[Wendek]

Molten Strike from level 1 onwards, get Sunder from Nessa at level 12 (free after you've reached Merveil's Caverns, you can also buy it from her if you took another gem as reward for that), link those with Added Fire damage if possible.
Once in Act 2 you'll be able to get the Herald of Ash gem which is a permanent buff that takes 25% of your mana all the time while active and give you pretty nice Fire damage. Doesn't have to be linked with your other skills, it's a general buff. You can also use a Herald of Ice on top actually if you don't have mana problems.

For gear : get anything with Life on it, identify good Rare weapons and see if they're better than whatever you currently have. I've leveled melee as Templar without much issue, not as Marauder though (my only Marauder levelled with Flameblast Totems - I don't recommend, it's boring as hell) but shouldn't be too hard since Marauder is supposed to be a good melee class.

[Darkflash]

I am managing pretty well with my beyblade build. Cyclone is really a good ability as far as play testing. But yes you do need tons of HP first thing I can have 1k HP before level 30 and still die fast so be careful.

[CullinB]

Originally posted by WOTH.LittleBunny:

So im trying to lvl up my marauder till i can use the ancenstral warcheif but i can barely get through act 1.
Any help/What do you do to lvl up melee characters?

My marauder got Ancestral Warchief in normal ACT3
So it is not so hard to aquire that.

I think Marauder needs movement skill
I am playing Marauder and Witch concurrently then bought my Marauder Flame Dash Gem for his movement.

Now he choose one movement skill from Flame dash, Shield Charge or Whirling Blades.

[The_Driver]

Should you not have any leveling weapons, try the vendor recipe:
Weapon
1 rare Rustic Sash
1 Blacksmith's Whetstone

Especially nice on two-handed weapons. It grants a magic weapon with some increased phys damage. As the sashes are kind of rare at first for SSF, try to make the base you use this on count.

[The Queen Of UwU]

Thank you guys, ill try what you have said(:

So for gear, life and res above all and physical dmg on the weapon?

[Darkflash]

Originally posted by WOTH.LittleBunny:

Thank you guys, ill try what you have said(:

So for gear, life and res above all and physical dmg on the weapon?

Yes, survivability is needed more than damage, early.

[NixBoxDone]

Some of the beginner guides for melee characters recommend getting something like sunder for the first few levels if your target build is difficult on low levels. This will let you kill mobs from medium distance until you get the gear and passive skills to mitigate damage and lifeleech properly, after which you can then switch skills.

Just pop your dream melee skill in one of your unused gemslots and level it while you play with a placeholder skill and switch when you think you are ready to face mobs up close and personal.

Check your passives and work for things that are general at first (say you want ancestral warchief - you go for nodes near the ones that would buff that, but that give life, armor, and other stats that will also benefit you with a good placeholder skill for the first 10 to 20 levels and then spec into your target nodes a bit later).

This works really well for me when playing builds that focus on skills that are normally pretty bad for leveling but that really kick into gear when you get the right uniques - until then I level with something that requires very little passives to be somewhat effective.

[Kivex]

put life on tree, have life + resist gear, its all u need bro. If u want u can grab some damage here and there, but hey, once you are level 70+ try path of building its a great tool to min max your character, make sure that skill tree is pure gold :)

[Viking]

Facebreaker/infenal blow 4 link can clear al the way through merc - Groundslam/Sunder also works well for lvling.

[The Queen Of UwU]

Yeah but i got no good starting gear for melee so for me its very hard x)

[NixBoxDone]

Make a less demanding character - I leveled my summoner to like 68 and found about one stash tab worth of mostly physical damage related items. Anything from claws with lifeleech out the butt to belts that give bleed procs, etc. tt.

Shouldn't be hard to find some nice beginner uniques to get your build on its feet like that.

Worst comes to worst you'll find some alchemy orbs that are usually enough to trade for one or two core items.

[MAGNUS SwellWand theShaftSwinger]

fortify

[Ragblasfozm]

Just play it as Path of Range and use Ground Slam/Sunder with totems (Ancestral Protetion should be fine for now and you get it super early in the game) until you can play the build you decided to have fun with.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Darkflashz:

Originally posted by WOTH.LittleBunny:

Thank you guys, ill try what you have said(:

So for gear, life and res above all and physical dmg on the weapon?

Yes, survivability is needed more than damage, early.

It's impossible to get gibbed before Merc because penalties aren't that high and the damage types aren't that bad. If you're dying in act one normal, you're face tanking, pathing the build wrong, or just inexperienced and need to learn the game more. Your gear really does not matter till Merc aside from the few upgrades you can pick up through a NPC. Simple 3-4 link damage skills can carry you to and through Merc even.

So if you're getting deleted in normal softcore act 1 you need to take a hard long look at yourself. Make sure you're swapping out weapons every few levels if you want. Maybe change gear every few levels. I can not begin to say how many times I've gotten to Merc and laughed when I looked at how piss poor my gear was because I was so tunneled in leveling/progression that I forgot to upgrade gear from act say 1-3 normal. Plus learning how to use your flasks is important. Shouldn't need to worry about resistances till Merc. DO NOT FACE TANK UNLESS THE BUILD IS MEANT TO.

[The Queen Of UwU]

Personally i dont think i face tank unless i go for ground slame and sunder for leveling, thats basically telling me to facetank lol. But i try to lvl up firetrap but thats slower than me getting up in the mornings.

Yeah i dont know what type of gear i should look for and i basically get no rare items, only normal or magic.