The Easiest of the Easy Beginner Build Guides [1.1 SotV UPDATED]

thanks for the update to this good guide. i read you talked about the added fire support gem but there is no mention of it in the actual guide. not updated yet or a mistake?

Another thing you need to update in your guide is about "Elemental Hit".
You wrote, that it's not available as a quest reward - but you can get it
in Act 3 Normal Mode by doing the Quest "A fixture of fate", where you have
to get the 4 golden Pages from the archives linked to the library.
Don't know if this quest has been added in 1.0.0 but I got my Elemental Hit
from it.

Another question about gems:

I use Ice Shot instead of LA, now I managed to get the following supportgems:
-lesser multiple projectiles
-life gain on hit
-faster projectiles
-pierce

Yesterday I finalle found some 4-linked boots with 3 green and 1 red socket.
Which combination of gems would you use?
Ice shot + lmp + lgoh + faster projectiles
or
Ice shot + lmp + lgoh + pierce

Still need to get "faster attacks" and "weapon elemental damage". I also
found a magic 5S (all green) Thiefs Garb - would you recommend to reroll
it, hoping for 3 green and 2 red sockets and link them?

"

Phyzziks wrote:

Another thing you need to update in your guide is about "Elemental Hit".
You wrote, that it's not available as a quest reward - but you can get it
in Act 3 Normal Mode by doing the Quest "A fixture of fate", where you have
to get the 4 golden Pages from the archives linked to the library.
Don't know if this quest has been added in 1.0.0 but I got my Elemental Hit
from it.

Another question about gems:

I use Ice Shot instead of LA, now I managed to get the following supportgems:
-lesser multiple projectiles
-life gain on hit
-faster projectiles
-pierce

Yesterday I finalle found some 4-linked boots with 3 green and 1 red socket.
Which combination of gems would you use?
Ice shot + lmp + lgoh + faster projectiles
or
Ice shot + lmp + lgoh + pierce

Still need to get "faster attacks" and "weapon elemental damage". I also
found a magic 5S (all green) Thiefs Garb - would you recommend to reroll
it, hoping for 3 green and 2 red sockets and link them?

nice find. you should use an orb of scouring to turn the theif garb into a white item. then use 4 armour scraps for 20% quality and finally use an alchemy orb on it. unless it has good mods now of course. like life and some resist.

and yeah. just use chroms to get the colours you want. just be aware that trying to get 50% or more off-colours on an item is very hard and likely a waste of chroms. getting two red on that one though shouldn't be too hard. good luck.

i don't know what gems are best to use sorry.

Are you still running auras in the 1.0.0 version? I noticed the reduced reserved talents, but fail to see how % reserved auras are going to work in pure BM situations.

I am wondering the same thing regarding the blood magic node with reduced reserve mana nodes.im assuming its best to run wrath only at first and perhaps hatred when I get enough HP/hp regen for the most damage possible while not gimping life pool too much.

Lastly, I would like to know if the kill speed with this build is acceptable end game, or with entry level maps or merciless zone farming. I am in domination so I'm pretty much self found until I build up a lot of currency for the gg ranger items

edit. deleted.

Hi ZiggyD,

I've been following your updated 1.0.0 passive skill tree but I have to admit as a beginner I'm starting to lose focus of what I'm supposed to go for first.

I'm level 20 now and I've gotten Finesse, Heart of Oak, Ballistic, Aspect of the Eagle and Revenge of the Hunted and haven't hit any major keystone yet. I have no idea where to head to now because the youtube video passive skill tree wasn't for 1.0.0 so I'm kind of confused right now.

Would appreciate it if anyone or ZiggyD himself can answer my question.

And I've read somewhere saying that it is not viable to get BM node itself but rely on the gem so to use more auras. I don't really understand it can someone explain as well?

Thanks

Regards,
Snow

Great guide & build. I've tried out a few other Ranger builds, this is my favorite so far. Thank you for putting in the time & work to compile all of this.

"

aquasnow wrote:

Hi ZiggyD,

I've been following your updated 1.0.0 passive skill tree but I have to admit as a beginner I'm starting to lose focus of what I'm supposed to go for first.

I'm level 20 now and I've gotten Finesse, Heart of Oak, Ballistic, Aspect of the Eagle and Revenge of the Hunted and haven't hit any major keystone yet. I have no idea where to head to now because the youtube video passive skill tree wasn't for 1.0.0 so I'm kind of confused right now.

Would appreciate it if anyone or ZiggyD himself can answer my question.

And I've read somewhere saying that it is not viable to get BM node itself but rely on the gem so to use more auras. I don't really understand it can someone explain as well?

Thanks

Regards,
Snow

the guide's gonna need an update too. the author has only updated the 1.0.0 passive tree yet.
the new build provided focuses on physical damage while the guide pre 1.0.0 focused on elemental damage so keep this in mind and wait for an update from the author.

now to your questions.

1. always go for blood magic first. be sure to pick up all the life nodes along the way. try to get max life and resists on every piece of equipment. you may wanna skip the life nodes on the right side in the passive tree for now and pick them up after you get blood magic.

2. if your resists are low and slowing down your progress pick up diamond flesh for 12% to all res. otherwise....

your next stop will be resolute technique. if your chance to hit is rather low try to get this as fast as you can.

3. get the rest of the life nodes now. after you have picked up all life nodes, blood magic and resolute technique. you can start finalizing your build. get the reduced mana reservation nodes (if you plan to run hatred or some other aura), get the damage nodes, armour nodes and acceleration for an attack speed boost.

you will want to get unwavering stance when you feel like stuns becoming a nuisance. iron reflexes is personal preference imo. use it if you prefer armour instead of evasion.

4. end game you probably want to spec out of bm, run hatred aura and use a high physical damage bow with the added fire damage gem in the link. now your physical attacks will add a ton of fire and cold damage too.



your other question..

the blood magic keystone removes mana altogether and makes all skills use life only.
the blood magic gem only uses life for the supported skill in the link. the rest of your skills can use mana. this means you can run auras on mana instead of life now.

it is generally not a good idea to run auras on life because they each reserve 60% of your life. even with the reduced mana reservation nodes and a reduced mana gem i find it is too taxing on life.

if you have more questions feel free to ask

edit: i think it's actually better to start as a marauder instead of ranger because you can get blood magic and resolute technique much earlier. everyone wanna get those first anyway so it's something worth considering.

Guide fully updated! Sorry for the wait, been pretty full on nemesis.

I put up a mana version of the tree for people unconvinced that Blood Magic is viable. I dont recommend the mana version but its there if you want it.

I also completely dropped any attempt at auras on the core BM variant - we use the resources freed up from auras to run better support gems, set up awesome trigger procs and allocate more passives to the core build. Contrary to popular opinion auras are not mandatory - sometimes keeping things simpler is better.

Hope you enjoy the update! I'll be playing the build in my new PoE walkthrough series:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4aZrsY9M5qAP6P6vcrqU7XedCJi3mQTE