Build crafting is one of the MMORPG genre’s main appeals. Star Wars: The Old Republic is no exception, as the game places heavy emphasis on tuning and customizing your playstyle. With 2 factions, 8 classes, and 24 combat styles, there’s no shortage of options in this regard. But while this breadth of choice DOES encourage freedom, freedom, flexibility, and experimentation, it can also get your head spinning pretty quickly. With this in mind, we’ve created this guide of some of the best Sith Marauder builds in SWTOR.
The 3 Best Sith Marauder Builds in Star Wars: The Old Republic
Wielding two lightsabers with deadly precision and overwhelming zeal, the Marauder is the Empire’s primary damage-dealing Force class. The 3 combat styles available to the Marauder are Annihilation, Carnage, and Fury. We’ve included a build for each one to act both as a standard, solid choice and to serve as a jumping off point for players interested in experimentation.
Sith Marauder Annihilation Build
Marauder Annihilation Build’s Role – DoT DPS
DoT DPS (Damage over Time Damage Per Second) is a subrole of the DPS role. Essentially, DoT focuses not on maximizing the amounts of damage done by each hit. Rather, DoT DPS is all about dealing damage as a slow burn, constantly dealing smaller amounts of damage which add up over time.
Main Abilities
Icon | Ability |
---|---|
Berserk – This ability is unique to each Marauder combat style. For Annihilation, it makes your next 6 DoT hits have a 100% critical chance. This is very important for Annihilation’s playstyle and should therefore be used pretty much whenever you can. It’s only useable when you have 30 stacks of Fury, which is generated every time you use an ability that doesn’t spend Rage. Rage is the primary fuel resource for your abilities. The only Marauder abilities which don’t generate Fury are: Assault, Ravage, Battering Assault, and Dual Saber Throw. | |
Deadly Saber – Activating this will cause your next 5 melee hits to deal DoTs. This ability adds quite a lot of difficulty to Annihilation, as its cooldown is not part of your Global Cooldown. As such, timing for Deadly Saber is very important. Use it whenever it comes off of cooldown. The difficulty here comes from this being one of Annihilation’s main DoT abilities, combined with the timing importance. Failure to achieve good Deadly Saber timing can lead to a quick downfall for the Annihilation Marauder. | |
Rupture – This is your secondary DoT. Damage on the initial hit is negligible, you’re mainly just using this one for the bleed effect. | |
Force Rend – Annihilation’s primary DoT. The initial hit has respectable damage and the bleed has a good duration (9 seconds) with equally good damage potential. This ability really shines after the buffs it gets in the ability tree (more on that later). | |
Annihilate – The highest amount of burst damage Annihilation can achieve. This is a very good ability to have in your toolbox, as Annihilation generally has some of the worst burst damage in the game. Additionally, this ability provides a bit of bonus damage on your DoTs. | |
Viscous Slash – What is normally a low-tier standard ability for the Sith Warrior becomes a bit more important for Annihilation Marauders. This is basically the only filler ability offered to Annihilation. | |
Battering Assault – This is the main avenue for generating Rage as Annihilation. It contributes in no small part to Annihilation rarely needing to worry too much about how much Rage they have. |
Additional Abilities to Consider
Icon | Ability |
---|---|
Viscous Throw – Deals very high damage comparable to Annihilate, but can only be used when the enemy is down to 30% health or less. Use this pretty much whenever you can. | |
Dual Saber Throw – Activating this ability sends your lightsabers flying in a 30m line in front of you. Any enemy standing in this line gets damaged, making this a good ranged attack, especially for a combat style with few other ranged options. | |
Smash – An AoE attack that can spread your DoTs around to enemies surrounding you. Useful for group encounters, not much else to say about it. | |
Force Charge – This ability causes you to leap towards your target and generate a bit of Rage along the way. Primary gap closer and standard opener. | |
Saber Ward – Upon activation, gives you +50% defense for a bit. Defense is your chance to avoid an attack. This means that when using Saber Ward, (on average) you’ll only take half damage for a while. Very good for situations in which the enemy is dishing out a lot of attacks, or for conserving your health. |
Ability Tree Choices
Level | Icon | Ability |
---|---|---|
23 | Draining Center – Force Rend being able to both deal more damage and heal you make this one a no-brainer. | |
27 | Predation – Speed buffs are extremely useful in SWTOR. For both group and solo activities, you’re gonna want to keep this ability in your wheelhouse. | |
39 | Rupturing Rage – Helps Annihilation’s ability to maintain a consistent stock of Rage. | |
43 | Bleeding Center – Dramatically assists Rage generation, Fury generation, and Berserk uptime. | |
51 | Steel Self – A nice defensive option for a combat style with a relative few of those. | |
64 | Blood Ward – Makes Annihilation’s best defensive ability even better. | |
68 | Undying Rage – A lot of nail-biting moments can be saved by this ability. Absurdly good defensive option. | |
73 | Thirst for Rage – Consistent, passive healing for a DPS class cannot be overstated in its usefulness. Among the best ability tree choices in the entire game. |
Rotation
Icon | Ability |
---|---|
Before the encounter begins, use Channel Hatred to get 30 stacks of Fury. | |
Leap in with Force Charge. If you have melee tanks on your team, make sure they use Charge first so that you don’t take threat away from them. | |
Use Battering Assault. | |
Activate Deadly Saber. | |
Rupture to get DoTs going. | |
Annihilate for massive damage. | |
For some buffs, activate Berserk. | |
Force Rend for more DoT. | |
Finish up with Ravage for some damage and Rage generation. | |
Use Viscious Slash whenever you need a filler. | |
Dual Saber Throw or Smash when you need and AoE and/or DoT spread. | |
Viscious Throw when the enemy gets down to low health. |
This is meant to be a very basic and general rotation. You can experiment with this to your liking, and many Marauder abilities not listed here will come in handy in certain situations while actually playing the game.
Gear Suggestions
Upon reaching level 80, focus on acquiring as much Gold tier gear at the highest Item Rating possible (currently this number is 336). After all of your gear has reached this level, here are some tips on how to optimize your gear loadouts:
- The best tactical item for an Annihilation Marauder is Spiteful Saber
- The best Legendary Implants for an Annihilation Marauder are Dispatcher, Fearless Victor, and/or Berserker’s Call
Sith Marauder Carnage Build
Marauder Carnage Build’s Role – Burst DPS
Burst DPS focuses on dealing the most damage possible with every hit. They typically have poor DoT/sustained damage, but the Carnage Marauder isn’t left entirely devoid in this area. That being said, don’t expect sustain anywhere near the level of dedicated styles such as Annihilation.
Main Abilities
Icon | Ability |
---|---|
Berserk – This ability differs for each Marauder style. For Carnage, Berserk essentially speeds up cooldowns on your next 6 attacks. Very good for building up quick combos of high-damaging attacks. It’s only useable when you have 30 stacks of Fury, which is generated every time you use an ability that doesn’t spend Rage. Rage is the primary fuel resource for your abilities. The only Marauder abilities which don’t generate Fury are: Assault, Ravage, Battering Assault, and Dual Saber Throw. | |
Massacre – Your primary filler ability. Prepare to use this a lot. Because Massacre costs 3 Rage, pretty high for a filler, a lot of Carnage builds are at least partially built around this ability. | |
Ferocity – This ability, combined with Berserk, is the center of the Carnage style. Upon activation, it gives you 2 stacks of a buff, each of which allows an attack to entirely penetrate armor. Furthermore, if used while Berserk is active, it gives 3 stacks. Therefore, these three abilities used in conjunction create a downright devastating rhythmic rotation. | |
Battering Assault – Quickly generates a lot of Rage. Therefore, this is Carnage’s primary rage-generator. Especially useful for the amount of Massacre activations utilized by the Carnage Marauder’s rotation. | |
Devastating Blast – Among Carnage’s most deadly abilities. Made even deadlier by Ferocity. As a result, you should only use Devastating Blast when you have Ferocity stacks. | |
Gore – Not much to say about this ability. Overall, Gore is mostly just a reliable, high-damage ability with some useful debuffs. Useful to have in your toolbox. |
Additional Abilities to Consider
Icon | Ability |
---|---|
Viscous Throw – Deals very high damage, but can only activate when the enemy is down to 30% health or less. Use this pretty much whenever you can. | |
Dual Saber Throw – Activating this ability sends your lightsabers flying in a 30m line in front of you. Any enemy standing in this line takes damage. Basically, a pretty good ranged attack, especially for a combat style with few other ranged options. | |
Force Charge – This ability causes you to leap towards your target and generate a bit of Rage along the way. Primary gap closer and standard opener. | |
Saber Ward – Upon activation, gives you +50% defense for a bit. Defense is your chance to avoid an attack. This means that when using Saber Ward, (on average) you’ll only take half damage for a while. Very good for situations in which the enemy is dishing out a lot of attacks, or for conserving your health. | |
Ravage – Deals a similar amount of damage to Massacre. However, Ravage costs 0 Rage. As a result, Ravage is best used either in times when you’re low on Rage or as a break from Massacre to make sure your Rage stock doesn’t drain quite as quickly. |
Ability Tree Choices
Level | Icon | Ability |
---|---|---|
23 | Berserk Gore – Opens up some more combo options, as well as increasing DPS capabilities. | |
27 | Predation – Speed buffs are extremely useful in SWTOR. Therefore, in both group and solo activities, you’re gonna want to keep this ability in your wheelhouse. | |
39 | Frenzied Blade – As well as boosting Massacre’s damage potential, this choice’s cooldown reduction also provides an opportunity to speed up Carnage’s rotation. | |
43 | Swiftness – Free increased chance to dish out critical hits, just a nice passive to have around. | |
51 | Steel Self – A nice defensive option for a combat style with a relative few of those. | |
64 | Blood Ward – Makes the Marauder’s best defensive ability even better. Furthermore, provides consistent healing, always welcome for DPS. | |
68 | Undying Rage – A lot of nail-biting moments can be saved by this ability. Absurdly good defensive option. | |
73 | Thirst for Rage – Consistent and passive healing for a DPS class cannot be overstated in its usefulness. Obviously the best choice here, and among the best ability tree choices in the entire game. |
Rotation
Because this rotation is a bit complex, we’ll break it into small, more digestible chunks.
Icon | Ability |
---|---|
Use Channel Hatred before the encounter to generate 30 Fury stacks. | |
Activate Dual Saber Throw, giving you a bit of Rage to start with and moreover improving your ability to keep up with the rotation. | |
Leap in with Force Charge. If you have melee tanks on your team, make sure they use Charge first so that you don’t take threat away from them. | |
Now that you’re in range, pop Berserk and begin the rotation. | |
The first major chunk of the rotation. Try and memorize this order: Massacre, Ferocity, Massacre, Vicious Throw, and Devastating Blast. Once you have that down, move on to chunk 2. | |
This is where effective memorization and resource management become really important. Again, try to memorize this ability order: Massacre, Battering Assault, Massacre, Massacre, Massacre, Ferocity, Gore, and Devastating Blast. Following this comes the final chunk. | |
The home stretch! This one is short and simple: Ravage, Battering Assault, Massacre, Dual Saber Throw, Massacre. After completing this chunk, repeat the entire rotation, starting with either Berserk (if the enemy is still alive) or Dual Saber Throw + Force Charge (if the enemy has been defeated). |
Gear Suggestions
Upon reaching level 80, focus on acquiring as much Gold tier gear at the highest Item Rating possible (currently this number is 336). After all of your gear has reached this level, here are some tips on how to optimize your gear loadouts:
- The Shard of Mortis Tactical Item, alongside the Dispatcher Package Legendary Implant are essential to make this build work properly.
- Additionally, Fearless Victor is a good option for the other Legendary Implant slot.
Sith Marauder Fury Build
Marauder Fury Build’s Role – Hybrid DPS
Hybrid DPS is the middle point between burst damage and DoT sustain damage. Because it splits the difference here, it’s good for players who don’t want to commit too hard to one damage type.
Main Abilities
Icon | Ability |
---|---|
Force Crush – This is Fury’s best DoT. It gradually decreases an enemy’s movement speed over its duration, furthermore progressively damaging them as well. Additionally, it buffs Raging Burst’s damage while eliminating its Rage cost. | |
Berserk – This ability is unique for each Marauder style. Fury’s version instantly generates 4 Rage, as well as generating 8 more Rage progressively over the next few seconds. It’s only useable when you have 30 stacks of Fury, which is generated every time you use an ability that doesn’t spend Rage. Rage is the primary fuel resource for your abilities. The only Marauder abilities which don’t generate Fury are: Assault, Ravage, Battering Assault, and Dual Saber Throw. | |
Raging Burst – A very powerful burst damage attack. Because it gets buffed by Force Crush and buffs Furious Strike, the three abilities create a nice combo. | |
Furious Strike – Fury’s single most (burst) damaging ability. Activating Raging Burst will cause Furious Strike to deal even more damage. Utilize the buff flow between Force Crush, Raging Burst, and Furious Strike. | |
Obliterate – This ability can be very risky. It causes you to jump towards a target dealing a ton of burst damage. However, the jump timing can leave you open to enemy attacks. Thankfully, this weakness is somewhat counteracted by the fact that it stuns the target after it connects. | |
Battering Assault – Fury Marauders have a very hard time maintaining Rage stocks. As a result, any opportunity to generate Rage is important. Battering Assault is a good, quick way to get some extra Rage. Use this in emergencies when your stock gets low. |
Additional Abilities to Consider
Icon | Ability |
---|---|
Saber Ward – Upon activation, gives you +50% defense for a bit. Defense is your chance to avoid an attack. This means that when using Saber Ward, (on average) you’ll only take half damage for a while. Very good for situations in which the enemy is dishing out a lot of attacks, or for conserving your health. | |
Viscous Throw – Deals very high damage comparable to Annihilate, but can only be used when the enemy is down to 30% health or less. Use this pretty much whenever you can. | |
Force Charge – This ability causes you to leap towards your target and generate a bit of Rage along the way. Primary gap closer and standard opener. | |
Ravage – A simple filler with a respectable amount of damage | |
Vicious Slash – Another simple filler, though it doesn’t deal quite as much damage as Ravage. | |
Smash – A good AoE option if you get surrounded. Can spread DoTs. | |
Dual Saber Throw – Activating this ability sends your lightsabers flying in a 30m line in front of you. Any enemy standing in this line takes damage. Basically, a pretty good ranged attack, especially for a combat style with few other ranged options. |
Ability Tree Choices
Level | Image | Ability |
---|---|---|
23 | Dark Synergy – This ability makes the buff loop mentioned earlier even stronger. | |
27 | Predation – Speed buffs are extremely useful in SWTOR. Therefore, in both group and solo activities, you’re gonna want to keep this ability in your wheelhouse. | |
39 | Furious Discovery – Fury Marauders, as said, need any chance to build more Rage. | |
43 | Furious Rumination – Again, being able to build more Rage as a Fury is very needed. | |
51 | Inexorable – The choices available at this level aren’t great, all things considered. We recommend Inexorable for the (albeit small) boost to Rage generation. | |
64 | Blood Ward – Makes the Marauder’s best defensive ability even better. Furthermore, provides consistent healing, always welcome for DPS. | |
68 | Undying Rage – A lot of nail-biting moments can be saved by this ability. Absurdly good defensive option. | |
73 | Thirst for Rage – Consistent and passive healing for a DPS class cannot be overstated in its usefulness. Obviously the best choice here, and among the best ability tree choices in the entire game. |
Rotation
Similarly to the Carnage rotation, Fury’s is a long string of abilities to memorize. As such, we’ll split them into easily digestible chunks.
Icon | Ability |
---|---|
Use Channel Hatred before the encounter to generate 30 Fury stacks. Start the encounter with a leaping Force Charge. If you have melee tanks on your team, make sure they use Charge first so that you don’t take threat away from them. | |
The first half of the rotation. Memorize the order of these attacks. Force Crush, Raging Burst, Berserk, Furious Strike, Force Scream, Obliterate. Once you have these down, you can move on to the second chunk. | |
Now memorize this order for the second half. Ravage, Vicious Slash, Raging Burst, Furious Strike, Vicious Slash, Obliterate, Vicious Slash. After this chunk, repeat the rotation from Force Crush if the target has not been defeated and Channel Hatred/Force Charge if it has. If you find it hard to memorize this order, you can simply line the abilities up in your quickbar in order. |
This is meant to be a very basic and general rotation. You can experiment with this to your liking, and many Marauder abilities not listed here will come in handy in certain situations while actually playing the game.
Gear Suggestions
Upon reaching level 80, focus on acquiring as much Gold tier gear at the highest Item Rating possible (currently this number is 336). After all of your gear has reached this level, here are some tips on how to optimize your gear loadouts:
- The best tactical item for a Fury Marauder is Cauterized Conary.
- The best legendary implants for a Fury Marauder are Fearless Victor and Berserker’s Call.
Join the High Ground
That wraps up our guide to the best Sith Marauder builds in SWTOR. We hope this guide has prepared you to bring the Republic to its knees with the unrivaled might of the Dark Side.
More Resources:
- Vulk: https://vulkk.com/2023/04/07/best-swtor-marauder-solo-builds/
- SWTORISTA: Fury, Annihilation, Carnage
- As well, this article contains some content originally from the Sith Marauder page in Wookiepedia at Fandom Wiki.
Have any more thoughts on the article? Want to show off your Sith Marauder? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below or share this article on social media to let us know your thoughts. Also, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter for more Star Wars: The Old Republic guides and gaming content.
Happy gaming, and may the Force be with you!
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