Ranger Melee Manliness ! (Pure Eva, Acrobatics, Ondar's, Block)

Hello everyone, I would like to present to you a build I'm rather happy to play right now in this Beyond league for 3 reasons :

- Tanky as fuck (65%+ Evasion + Block + Dodge + lots of Life + lots of life gain on hit makes you REALLY hard to go down if played properly)
- Consistant in the damage it deals
- Melee (real Melee, not that Reave semi-range bullshit, we don't want any of that here !) meaning it's the MANLIEST way to play this game

And here some reasons why I don't like this build :

- FUCKING DESYNC !!

When I first started playing at the beginning of the league, I was building a classic armor character but got fucked by random server spikes and multi-disconnection so my thoughts process went like this :

"- How the fuck can I not die if that happens again ?!"
"- Play one of those lame screen-wide freeze builds..."
"- But I want to be melee and self-found still :x."
"- Try not to get hit at all ?"
"- Deal bitch !"

So here it is :

Current lvl 61 build :

Current Gear :

All the gear on this character minus the weapon which I brought yesterday for 2 Fusings - I was using a Mightflay before that that I found in Act 3 Normal which carried me until Ledge Merciless - is self found/self crafted (the helmet is like 2 hours old or something like that).

Some of it is okay, a lot of it is junk but it still gives me really good survivability nonetheless.

Stats :

My current usable skills set-up is as follow :

4 Links : Cyclone - Conc. Effect - Life Gain on Hit - Blood Magic
3 Links : Reduced Mana - Grace - Hatred
3 Links : Viper Strike - Faster Attacks - Blood Magic

Smoke Mine for boxes opening

Everything else is crap leveling for resell value or playing around for fun or out of boredom.

Expected final build :

Right now, at level 61, the build isn't as tanky as I hope he would become later on with higher levels and a Stone of Lazhwar (I've been chancing Lapis Amulet lately, let's hope I get one soon enough).

I'm currently running only Grace and Hatred while leveling and it works wonders BUT, I'm going for the mana reservation nodes between Shadow and Ranger to be finally able to run either Tempest Shield + Blind combo (even if it's weaker now, it's still pretty damn good with lots of block) or Herald of Ash or Herald of Ice + Blind Combo.

Herald of Ash should increase my DPS by quite a lot and Tempest Shield should increase my tankyness even further.
Herald of Ice + Blind should make me tankier while increase my damage a tiny bit, so I'll see what I'll use but the final plan is getting a Alpha's Howl and going with Hatred + Grace + Herald of Ash + Tempest Shield/Blind for a grand total of exactly 100% mana reservation.

The tree can be tweeked a lot depending on your playstyle, your gear (for example, getting Bloodseeker or Soul Taker would would make me change the tree accordingly) and the situation you're in.

The only problem I see with this build right now is that it's a little bit lacking of damage, but it's nothing too crazy, a 5 or 6 link and levels could easily fix that, especially levels, this build is always gonna be better the more you level anyways so it's okay.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I will try to answer them as much as possible.

VIDEOS

Act 2 Merciless "The Den" level 61 gameplay video :

Act 2 Merciless "Fellshrine" level 65 gameplay video :

EDIT

First gameplay video level 61 online !
Second gameplay video level 65 added !

I'm also playing a melee ranger build (level 67 in Beyond), and some of our trees are similar, but I've gone in a bit different direction getting IR and being life/ES hybrid (hoping to get 1000+ ES atleast as a good extra buffer)

I've had some problems dealing enough damage, and I have more damage in the tree than it seems you do, so might be an issue for you sooner or later.

Here's my current build:



And endgame:



And I was extremely lucky with a sword drop:

Thanks for the feedback and that's a pretty sweet ass weapon right there, gratz :x.

Looking at your build, we have approximatively the same amount of modifiers as far as damage goes right now I think but the main difference I would guess is that you really need to be constantly leeching to mitigate all the hits you have to tank right ?
While I get hit maybe 10 times every map and really only need life gain on hit to sustain the Chaos Damage auras of Beyond demons right now.

Slashing Comeback is a really good cluster (I'm not a fan of the Brutal Blade one though), I like it too, but since I need to not focus on one particular type of weaponry (I really like having a lot of options in my playstyle), I couldn't include it in the current build ; it'll all depend on my luck I guess :x.

I have about 60% mitigation from armour, so I usually leech enough against white mobs, while against rares/blue/beyond mobs I just use pots.

The rest of my gear incase it's of interest (currently set up for a bit more IIR and less survivability than I have when progressing though):

First post updated with some gameplay videos at level 61 and 65 (when aura nodes come into play).

I notice you mention tempest shield, one tip there is using Curse on Hit with it, which doesn't increase the mana reservation, but lets you curse enemies automatically and with greater efficiency (at higher levels).

True, but I'm still gonna use Blind with it and I'll need to put it in another 4 Links for it to work, so I need to test if the new Blind (only 50%) is better than having a Curse on Hit Enfeeble for example.

You call 1h+shield manly? Grow some facial hair and pick up that 2-handed axe boy ! :D