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Some of this information is irrelevant as of patch 1.2 as some talents have changed in the skill trees so many of the links to torhead talent calculator are wrong as they dont reflect the pre 1.2 skill trees, thus i dont recommend any of the hybrid builds anymore.

So on my way to grinding for that Battlemaster rank in Star Wars: The Old Republic, I feel I have a good idea for what the strengths and weaknesses of each Marauder tree are. So ill try to keep things short and simple and provide video evidence on how each of the following specs performs in PVP(for hybrid specs at least).

Pure Specs:

Annihilation : http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#100bIrRroMcGzZhZGb.1

The strengths of a an Annihilation build is that it puts out very consistent pressure and dps through bleeds on your target and you gain incredible survivability through self heals making it a very appealing PVP build for the solo player.  The biggest downside is that bleeds are dispellable and any competent class with a dispel will diminish your ability to take them down but otherwise one of the best 1 vs 1+ specs as i have been able to take two people(three a few times) by myself due to self heals sustaining me.

Carnage: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#1000cZhGMbddrorsZGb.1

In the hands of someone who knows what they are doing, Carnage can be very devastating to your opponents.  Carnage like Annihilation will be very consistent dps similar to Annihilation because Ataru form strikes act like bleeds as they produce extra damage whenever you strike with a melee attack and they are not dispellable.  Other benefits with Carnage are increased speed and immobilization abilities which work wonders for PVP.  The  downside to a Carnage spec is the lack of self heals and most of your damage relies on armor penetration(Gore is essential to weave in before you do a ravage) with the exception of Force Scream procs but otherwise a very potent PVP spec.


Rage: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#100bcZhZGbRrdbRdGR.1

Rage is a build about full control of your opponent through Force Choke and Force Crush.  It will provide you high burst damage in the form of smash(after obtaining 4 stacks of shockwave) and some decent mobility with obliterate.  Like Carnage you dont have the self heals of bleeds but you gain a little more damage reduction with shii-cho form.  A fun PVP build nonetheless.

Hybrid Specs:

Deadly Saber - Smash : http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#100bIbRZZGr0rddRdh.1

This is probably my goto talent spec that i use most of the time.  The concept behind this build is to take advantage of Juyo form bleed criticals and maximizing their damage thus its essential to take Bleedout and Dark Resonance as they both increase bleed critical damage(yes bleeds are considered force damage).   This will make deadly saber and rupture crit damage alot higher than even a standard annihilation build if you are geared appropriately ( full champion gear in my case ).  Also you gain a bit of burst damage in the form of full Shockwave Smash after choking someone for 4 stacks.  Obliterate is also nice for extra mobility, so this build basically covers the best of both worlds from the Annihilation and Rage trees.  This build will also have a similar weakness to annihilation in that your bleeds ca be dispelled but youll have more tricks up your sleeve as a backup.







Deadly Saber - Carnage : http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#100dcroZhGMbddrorc.1

Now you are probably think this build is fairly dumb and idiotic, I felt the same way but for some reason it works surprisingly well.  *update* So after further research bleeds dont proc extra Ataru strikes so therefore im updating this to reflect my findings. So while you dont have massive burst you gain very quick small hits of damage and do a very large amount in a very short time.  This build also adds self sustaining heals which you wouldnt get from a pure Carnage (Massacre) build.  Would i recommend this build for everyone?  Probably not but its something fun to try out and see if it suits your style.



True Hybrid : http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#100dcroMZhGMbdZrr0rz.1

Ive not used this build myself but it seems to work upon some of the same concepts of the build above but at the same time it has points in the rage tree which upgrades vicious slash and gets you obliterate.  A friend referred me to this build because he saw someone on Twitch.TV use it with decent results.   You can watch for yourself to see if its something you want to copy.


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Anyways thats it for Marauder builds, if I havent covered something and you think it works decently well feel free to visit my youtube channel and send me a PM.
http://www.youtube.com/analogmarz/