His karmic doppelganger, the High Elf Shadow Warrior, is likely to get played more just by virtue of elven popularity. Still, the Marauder's place in the Warhammer world has its own horrific charm. Read on for details on their meat clubs, axe hands, and the aptly-named 'Wave of Horror.'
The entire class is based around mutating stances. His masteries allow him to focus in a general area of combat, but mutation stances focus him down even further onto a very small subset of his abilities. Those powers become very strong as a result. In melee, he mutates horrifically, transforming his arm into a blade, an axe, a claw. The character's hotbar changes automatically as you transform, locking out some powers and greatly enhancing others.
Interestingly, the mutations are highly random. They're entirely cosmetic, but still very engaging: one use of a power might transform your arm into a beast's claw. Another use (sometime later) might show your arm as a dragon's talon. One use may offer up a green dragon's claw, another a red dragon's. There are a number of different palettes available, but every use of the power will show a different 'side' of the Marauder's internal chaos.
- Claws are about rending armor, debuffing opponents over time. This is known as the Path of Savagery.
- Arm blades and the Path of Brutality, are about high DPS on a single target, slicing and dicing, impaling them.
- The Path of Monstrosity, the 'meat clubs' or bludgeons, are about knockdowns and AoE attacks.
- Terrible Embrace: "You basically reach out to a target 50 feet away with this enormous tentacle and yank him back to you." The jet-black cord will be unmistakable on the battlefield.
- Wave of Horror: Huge tentacles spew from the character's back, wriggling wildly, before slipping back into the Marauder's flesh. "Now, that looks cool, but what it's actually just a detaunt. On monsters it will make them run away, or snap onto another character. In RvR it makes every player you're not attacking do less damage when they hit you." The screenshot just to the right shows just what these tentacled nightmares look like.
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