Point Blank Archer Keystone

Excellent. Thank you Mark. I do think I'll be using this Keystone then. According to your data, it should enhance my play-style quite nicely, since I usually run tight circles around groups of enemies, just barely out of melee reach, firing arrows inwards. I was afraid the damage bonus drop-off was a bit more steep, but it looks like I can expect between a 20% - 35% damage bonus by taking this.

Thanks again for the numbers.

"

Mark_GGG wrote:

Damage bonus/penalty is as follows:
For reference, The greatest melee weapon range is 5, cold snap has a base range of 15, and 120 is the maximum distance it's possible to shoot an arrow (it's impossible to reach this usually except sometimes when firing at the upper corners of the screen).

What do you mean by "cold snap has a base range of 15" the spell has full screen range, do you mean 15 diameter spell effect?

Alright, this is good to know. It means only those mobs right up in your face are effected by the increase if 15 is that spell's radius not diameter.

The keystone is nearly useless in chaos at this range for non armor rangers. Even outside chaos on groups of mobs, this passive will cause less damage on average with piercing arrows. With it currently not working on rain of arrows and such a small are of increased damage my suggestion for all rangers would be not to touch this keystone.

It will pretty much always be useless, the pros does not out weight the cons. The idea of making a melee ranger is currently not possible. Under all circumstances I can think of you would be better of just building a cleave mara ( because that is pretty much what you reduce yourself to if you're going to go this route ). Cleave mara will have a ton higher DPS, survivability etc.

Either make the bonus A LOT higher, like at least +200% increased, or completely remove the long range penalty.

Does rain of arrows make sense to have a damage boost from this Keystone?

Shoot a bow there is indeed more force at the bow. The arrow has more speed. However, Rain of Arrows is a volley and to shoot one of those up close you would aim your bow straight up thus losing all of the bonus momentum. It would also take longer.

This is just a humorous thought from a RL archer/engineer who prefers to play melee/casters so no need to rage.

"

Sairony wrote:

It will pretty much always be useless, the pros does not out weight the cons. The idea of making a melee ranger is currently not possible. Under all circumstances I can think of you would be better of just building a cleave mara ( because that is pretty much what you reduce yourself to if you're going to go this route ). Cleave mara will have a ton higher DPS, survivability etc.

Either make the bonus A LOT higher, like at least +200% increased, or completely remove the long range penalty.

This is, unfortunately, very true at the moment. At the higher difficulty levels my ranger can get quickly killed allowing monsters in close. Since the range to get increased damage is basically double melee (which is too close!), this is not worth it at all forget about adding in the long distance penalty.

I believe the fix for this is to allow this keystone to still grant additional damage to close range monsters, but no penalty for long range monsters.

(Note: Personally, I still would never grab this keystone even after it's fixed. It's all about attack speed, life leech, and damage - not about defense, evasion, or armor with a ranged char. Monsters get close, I die. End of story.) -- Again, talking about higher difficulty levels, not normal.

one question:
does the point blank keystone stack with the point blank support gem?

Edit:
If yes:
Will it be additive (meaning 50% bonus + 50% bonus for a total of 200% ranged damage at point blank)
Or
Will it be cumulative (meaning 50% bonus on top of the other 50% bonus for a total of 225% ranged damage at point blank)?

"

AngelWingxx wrote:

one question:
does the point blank keystone stack with the point blank support gem?

No, they do not stack.

I'm still undecided about taking this keystone. I think it would help my playstyle as I always have several mobs surrounding me, it seems. Here's my current build:



I've invested heavily in defense (or so I think) with 4 evasion nodes, 7 life nodes (Fitness next), Leather & steel, Arrow dodging and Alchemist. I'm looking to get Acrobatics aswell. If this keystone makes sense I guess it makes sense in a build like this. Or is it not worth it at all?