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

Hey ZiggyD,

First of all, thank you for putting this build together, i think these type of guides are very helpful for new players, and I also like the idea of keeping builds simple, and yet creating an efficient character.

I have just started a Ranger myself, and decided to use this build as a reference, mostly because I am a fan of blood magic, and not having to worry about mana at all, and I don't really want to play the min-max game with the critical chance nodes for now.

However, I also read on the forums, that boosting up evasion is a very point efficient way for a Ranger to build up a really strong survivality base, using acrobatics, phase acrobatics, ondars guile, and frenzy charges as a booster.

What do you think, would it be viable to modify the build in such a way, that I remove iron reflexes, and endrance charges from your tree, while also sacrificing some of the life nodes, to be able to pick up the 3 mentioned keystone passives along with all of the frenzy charges (all of these are relatively near to initial tree)? This way I would trade up some of the life, and all the armor for good evasion and dodge. I am aware that this complicates things a little bit, and the whole idea was to create a tanky archer, but as a ranged character I prefer the playstyle of not being hit to taking and reducing all incoming hits.

Right now I am just looking into the possibility to craft a possible skill tree, but haven't arrived to a conclusion yet. Has anyone experimented with something like this? I would really appriciate your experience, if any.

Theoreticly it should be viable I think. Question is, how much life is to be sacrificed for the transition. Also I'm not sure if I should go along with iron reflexes until higher levels and then spec into evasion, or would it be fine to start building towards it on the way (like after picking up blood magic, or something like that)...


Thanks! :-)

Regards,
sonic

I actually have thought about grabbing the three keystones you spoke of, in the optic of a lightning arrow centric variation.I have not gotten an answer yet, but here is the reasonning I presented

"

FakePersona wrote:

Hi!
I love this build and your channel, it really helped me get into the game.
However, I would like to play lightning arrow instead of iceshot, so I thought I could try to improvise on your build, to see if I actually understood what made the build work, and what can work differently.

Spoiler

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIAAF4B5wR-BS0FtQX5CC4M8hEvFCAUcRXwGY4Z1xn-GlUbARvII_YppTB8MfoyATJ-Nj026DnUOlI6WD7PQKBBqkMxSn1OKlBHUUdW-loaWkhbr14TYEthIWSjZ6Bqk2_ydO1293rvfXV_K4TvhxmHdohriiKNfY2_kAqXBpsmm42euaCfo4qly6cwqn-quLIZtkG297vjvea-p8APxKLKqc2YzerPetJN037UI9Xt1ordDd7G37_qYu2D7g7veu_w9775Y_zF_rr-yA==

The number of points is basically the same for the final build.
What I did was to stop the expansion to the left after getting blood magic, so that I could have points to push further into the dex tree. By cutting off what I did, I lose 100 strength, 30 flat life, 36% life, 12% resist and 1.9% regen. However, I can grab the 2 +30 nodes if need be, so that is not that much of an issue. I get some life as well, so I don't lose as much as it would seem. I can grab 8% resist from nullifictation as well, and heart of oak somewhat mitigates the loss of troll's blood.
By doing this I grab 30% lightning damage, tons of crit, and I can roll (iron reflexes+Ondar's guile+acrobatics) instead of (iron reflexes+unwavering stance) which feels like an ok trade off to me.

In this tree I did not grab phase acrobatics, but it is close enough hat grabbing it does not change that much. My reasoning for taking (iron reflexes+Ondar's guile+acrobatics) is that melee is not going to be that much of an issue, i am ranged. with 5% base plus 30%acrobatics+x2ondar, I am sitting pretty at a whopping 70% dodge against ranged (90% if I go grab phase): I really do not need additional evasion, might as well dump my evasion rating into iron rfelxes so that the hits are a bit more mitigated.

FakePersona,

Thanks! That tree looks pretty good, I was thinking on something similar, except I am planning to keep resolute technique as well, and dropping the crit nodes. At least until high levels, always hitting seems to me a bit more reliable especially that i will rely a lot on life leech.

As for the armor + dogde and possibly some endurance charges combo: it seems interesting. My only problem is that acrobatics reduces your armor by 50% which is a lot. Not sure if it worth keeping armor instead of evasion even after it's been halved. I would definetly pick up phase acrobatics as well.

I am also a little bit concerned about the fact that we are unable to ran evasion aura, so it might end up squishy in the end whit not so high evasion.


Are you leveling that build you posted? If yes, how is it working so far?


Tomorrow I will try to come with a passive tree plan of my own, so people can critisize it. :-) Until that I will keep leveling, until blood magic its pretty straightforward.

"

ZiggyD wrote:

Preferred bandits is Life/Physdamage/Endurance though Frenzy charge could also work.

For passive tree I would not skip the amazing life wheel for the scion, especially as it will make leveling easier as the scion.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgABAecEfgUtBfkS4RRxFfAZLhn-GlUa2xsBG8gn7SmlMn426DpSOlhAoEGqQzFKfUrITipQUFRJVvpXDVhjWK9aGlpSW69eE18_YEthIWSjZ6Bqk26qcql07XgNeu982YTvhxmHdozPkAqRzptdnrmfy6cwqJqpbqyqtfK2Qbndvea-p8APxtjNmNJN1I_V7dlh3Q3ext-_51LqYu4O7w7yL_KX8932SPcy97746_lj_MX-yDWS_o9N46ZXMZ6sWYjxFCBQRyP27_BaSA==

A little over but you can just pick up some of the ranger damage nodes in the late 80's.

Awesome, thanks! I'll def give it a try, though I'll need to find some gems to use. Not sure if Scion gets any of the ones you need early on or not...

I want to do this build and have been working towards it and progressing my ranger through, but I'm just wondering, with either Ice shot (or cold arrow or whatever it's called) or Lightning arrow, wouldn't neither of these get their status ailment on crits due to resolute technique? Does this affect the damage of the build?

Quick question, somehow I managed to get leech on gear, which means the Life gain on hit and leech is not needed. What shall I replace it with?

Currently: Lightning arrow, faster atk, LMP, added fire dmg, chain, wildcard.

"

smplx wrote:

FakePersona,

Thanks! That tree looks pretty good, I was thinking on something similar, except I am planning to keep resolute technique as well, and dropping the crit nodes. At least until high levels, always hitting seems to me a bit more reliable especially that i will rely a lot on life leech.

As for the armor + dogde and possibly some endurance charges combo: it seems interesting. My only problem is that acrobatics reduces your armor by 50% which is a lot. Not sure if it worth keeping armor instead of evasion even after it's been halved. I would definetly pick up phase acrobatics as well.

I am also a little bit concerned about the fact that we are unable to ran evasion aura, so it might end up squishy in the end whit not so high evasion.


Are you leveling that build you posted? If yes, how is it working so far?


Tomorrow I will try to come with a passive tree plan of my own, so people can critisize it. :-) Until that I will keep leveling, until blood magic its pretty straightforward.

I made a calculation mistake.
Actually,I, personally am going to grab unwavering stance once I start having troubles with stuns.
Evade and dodge are two entirely separate mechanics. Unwavering sets your evasion to 0%. You still get the dodge chance however: with full dodge nodes (the ones we discussed) you are still going to dodge 80% of projectiles.
Evade chance and dodge chance are multiplicative: there is not that much difference between mild evasion and no evasion when you have high dodge.

However, armor scales either linearly if the raw damage is high, or quadratively if it is lower then your armor value: it scales much much better than evasion in my eyes.
So yes, I would say even with the 50% thing, iron is sill great.

I would say that if you want to do what you said you would do, you really should not go lightining arrow: it needs to crit to apply shock stacks.

I am not far enough in levels to have diverged significantly from ziggy's build

Ok, so you are saying that armor + dodge would be superior to armor + evasion. Might be true, so will try. :-) Luckily it's fairly easy to try that first by picking up acrobatics and ondars guile, and then dropping iron reflexes if need be.

Right now i am at lvl32, marching towards the end of normal. Blood magic is 1 point away, but since I am facerolling everything with a single poison arrow gem put in a silver branch bow, I don't really need it right now. I think I can finish normal with this "setup". Not even using my actual skills. Havent picked up iron reflexes yet either, couse evasion helps a lot right now as I am just running around spamming poison clouds all over the screen.

For now i won't be speccing into crits for sure. Besides LA i am leveling ice shot, and split arrow as well. Not sure what would be a good setup for a 4 link... Maybe Ice shot - LMP - pierce - Life gain on hit? I was planning on LA - WED - LGoH - LMP.


Thanks for your input!

Actually what I was saying is that armor+dodge seems better than dodge+evasion. I am not sure how armor+evasions scales in the equation.
I actually made a mistake again, since ondar is evade (this double avoid system is really confusing ><), so ondar+unwavering is completely stupid. Then there is the problem that you are not gonna have that much dodge because of that (40%=) which is low enough to actually benefit from evasion. So the problem is more of how you want to play your character? get hit 50% of the time by projectiles but be able to tank some hits (knowing you cannot evade some attacks) or try to get to very high evasion?
Besides doge is very RNG-y while evasion is entropic, so 70% evasion actually means about 70% mitigation on a consistent basis.
Ugh, I am still getting accustomed to the game, I would really appreciate if someone with actual practical experience could put some input.

This is what I could come up with so far:

TREE

Requires lvl 75 to complete it, wich is ok. Still a bit concerned about not being able to run grace. Without it the evasion% might be a little bit low, but I will see that later on anyways. Some extra points might be needed in resist, but there are some node-s within 2-3 point reach so shouldn't be a problem.

Anyways, if evasion wont work I will just spec into armor and stick to the original build. :-)


All criticism are welcome!