Originally posted to SWTORHUB.com - pre 3.3 info below.

Filled with rage and brandishing a lightsabre in each hand, the Sith Marauder can cut even the heaviest armor to ribbons with surgical precision. While they may only be clothed in medium armor, their advanced defense abilities and option to go stealth when things are looking grim make them able to survive the most deadly encounters. Where the Marauder specializes though is dishing the damage out, via his dual lightsabres. The Focus and Combat trees train the Marauder in more powerful immediate damage while the Watchman tree leans more towards damage over time.

What goes into powering all of these abilities are Rage and Fury. As a Marauder you will start with an empty resource bar that can be filed by performing Rage building abilities. Two of the more effective ones are Force Charge and Battering Assault. Fury is your secondary resource and is built up by using attacks and abilities that require rage, and by defeating opponents. When you have built up 30 stacks of Fury you become “Furious” and can use one of the three abilities, Bloodthirst, Predation, or Berserk.

Shii-Cho Form: The first lightsabre form your gain access to is the Shii-Cho Form. This is supposed to be the swiss army knife of forms as it is the perfect balance between damage and defense. Providing a 3% reduction in damage received and a 3% increase in damage dealt.

Ataru Form: Enters an acrobatic lightsaber form, increasing accuracy by 3%. In addition, your successful melee attacks have a 20% chance to trigger a second strike that deals 234 - 279 weapon damage. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds.

Juyo Form: Enters an offensive lightsaber form, causing your melee attacks to increase all damage dealt by 2% for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds. The second form unique to the Marauder, it will improve damage output by a good deal.

Opening moves with the Marauder are all about closing the distance between you and the enemy, laying an opening salvo of damage, and limiting their movement. Force charge is your go to opening move followed by Deadly Sabre and Battering Assault to build up rage and fury. After that Rupture, Annihilate, and Ravage will deal a good amount of damage. If the enemy is attempting to flee at this point a leg slash will ensure that they don’t get too far. You should still have a decent amount of rage at this point so you can throw Force Scream and Massacre into the mix, returning to the previous abilities when you’ve ran out of rage or are waiting on cooldowns. When you’ve built up 30 fury you can activate one of the three abilities that use it. Which one you choose is different depending on the situation you are in. Bloodthirst and Beserk are good buffs to damage output, while Predation will increase your movement speed and armor, a great one for quick getaways.

Choosing which tree to specialize in is a little harder with pure DPS classes and depends on your preferred playstyle. The Annihilation tree’s specialty is buffing the burn effects of your lightsabre causing much more damage over time. Carnage takes a more direct approach and enhances the immediate damage many of your attacks do. Since Rage is shared by Juggernauts and Marauders it’s a bit of a mixed bag and offers both buffs to DoT and immediate damage, with a few crowd control enhancements as well. A good choice for those unsure of how they want to play.

In a PVP setting the Sith Marauders have a lot to offer. They have a good amount of utility and are decent Huttball carriers due to their two Force Leaps and damage mitigating abilities. First and foremost they are single target hunters. Marauders are excellent in 1v1 fights and can make quick work of most other classes when the gear is balanced (and sometimes if its not). If you’re looking for a melee DPS then this is the advanced class for you.

Choose Your Destiny

Why choose the Marauder over the hearty Juggernauts who boast heavy armor and can shrug off powerful attacks. First off is the damage. Sith Marauders do a large amount more damage than the Juggernaut and have access to Cauterize, which makes their damage keep adding up even after the strike has landed. While they may not wear heavy armor the Marauder is still now slouch in the defense department. Sabre Ward can reduce much of the incoming damage long enough to activate Force Camouflage and make a speedy exit.

When you do come to that crossroads at level 10 it all comes down to personal preference and not just between one lightsabre and two (although that is one). Are you more inclined to the damage roll in a flashpoint? dealing out heavy damage while keeping your threat controlled? Do you want to wear dark robes with a scary hood and wield dual lightsabres with deadly precision? If so then the Marauder may be a perfect fit for you.

Anyone looking to capture the true Sith Warrior feel of the movies will definitely want to consider the Sith Marauder as their frontrunner. Their dual sabre combat style, brown robes, and ability to dish out whack loads of damage and keep on ticking are only a few of highlights you’ll discover.

Equipment

Medium armor is what’s on order for the Marauder. The Stats you will want to have on these pieces of armor are the Sith Warrior’s primary stat: strength (bonus to melee/force dmg, and crit bonus) and secondary Endurance, for an increase in overall health and health regeneration. Any extra boost in endurance you can get will help out with the medium armoring you have to deal with.

Secondary stats to consider when picking up gear are the same no matter the tree you specialize into.. All players will find more utility in pieces with a higher amount of power, surge (crit bonus), and critical rating (chance of critical).

If you’re going to be taking part in PVP you’ll also have to consider resilience. This catch all PVP stat determines how much damage you do to another player in PVP combat and how much damage you will receive from him. Fresh level 50 characters will definitely want to suit up with the basic PVP set or risk getting torn to pieces in warzones.

Companions

The Sith Warrior has five companions, each of which assists the Juggernaut/Marauder in combat and throughout their storyline. The Juggernaut and the Marauder each have different needs when it comes to companions, although they share the same five, which you will find listed below.

Companion utility varies a bit between the two classes. The Juggernaut can take a sustained beating and has excellent survivability, but needs either a healer or DPS companion to last through tougher fights. The Marauder is slightly more frail but handles the damage-dealing well, and needs either a tank to keep the mobs off of him or a healer to keep him in the fight.

Vette

Vette is the starting companion for the Sith Warrior, picked up on Korriban during the initial trials. Vette is a capable ranged DPSer, and a decent companion for Juggernauts who need a bit more attack strength. She tends to draw a lot of aggro, especially at lower levels where her DPS is much higher than yours, and it can take some work to keep her alive.

Malavai Quinn

Quinn is arguably the most valuable Juggernaut companion. He is an excellent healer who can CC enemies with his Carbon Freeze ability. This makes the Juggernaut nearly unkillable in regular "trash-mob" fights, and can allow the Juggernaut to solo some difficult group content. He has mediocre damage output, but the healing easily makes up for that.

Jaesa Wilsaam

In later levels, Jaesa is a slightly better DPS alternative to Vette, though she is melee rather than ranged. She makes an excellent flanker - enemies who have short-range AoE attacks can hit the Juggernaut with them while Jaesa pummels them safely from behind. Dark-side Jaesa is rather bloodthirsty.

Lieutenant Pierce

Pierce is a ranged tank, which is not particularly desirable for a melee tank's companion. He has a high damage output, but you will end up chasing a lot of enemies around when they start attacking him rather than you. His forced-attack skills can be deactivated, making him a heavily-armored version of Vette, which will be useful in some situations.

Broonmark

The strange Talz warrior is a melee tank, and will be hit or miss for some players. DPSers will appreciate having a companion capable of taking a beating, but tank-spec players will see him as competition, and having two tanks competing for aggro can occasionally complicate fights. Broonmark can wear a Juggernauts hand-me-downs, so gearing him up is pretty easy.


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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