[1.2.0] Ice Pierce Crit Ranger

@ichobi

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1. What's considered 'decent' crit chance? I am sitting at around 20-25% and I notice Ice shot doesn't really crit all that much, compared to Frenzy and Burning Arrow.

They'll all crit at exactly the same rate, and I do recommend power charges. It has to be a difference in perception because there is no difference in the actual crit rate.

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2. To what lvl do you think I can use the bow linked until? (pretty new to POE)

Switch out to a level 50 bow (Highborn) or something like that with decent dps. Death's Harp is brilliant, but using a level 30 bow in a level 50+ zone, not surprising that you're having issues.

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3. I notice LA clear mob more efficiently than IS with the same build and gem links...

And I didn't, but if you want to use LA, go right ahead, it's pretty much the identical build. Shock stacking would provide the increased efficiency you see, but at the point you're 1-2 shotting everything, nobody really cares.

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4. Voll's protector is it useful? When it takes half of your mana, i can barely sustain continuous nuking in merciless. No aura of course.

Mana leech and Thief's Torment, and a few %mana nodes I was passing by. It was enough. The alternative is, of course, using a BM gem. No mana issues that way!

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5. Attack Speed, for this build does it come mainly from passive or from gears?

Anywhere you can get it from as long as you can sustain your attacks.

@Aeora

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Are you sure carcass jack boost ice shot dmg?

Tooltip shows the initial hit on the mob, not the AoE it creates behind the mob. Carcass Jack boosts the AoE portion, but not the initial hit.

@Silent_UK I love that people enjoy playing my builds. Thanks for the encouragement!

Aha, now I know why my Burning Aero crit so hard, as I have WED linked to it and Ice Shot doesn't! Thanks for your help!

Love the build

feels like I'm playing Ashe in League of Legends :)

Loving this build, using a duelist, currently lvl 61, nemesis.

Here's my skill build:

I was wondering if iron grip is really worth it. I currently have about 250 strength, and really like the hp bonus in nemesis. I'm planning on getting the 10 lifenodes next, but I might be sacrificing too much DPS... And going for iron grip is really out of the way...(currently 1250 DPS, IS around 1050 DPS)

Advice?

Fair warning that everything I say about non-crit builds is pure theory craft.

That said. There's a little connection below IR/duelist, though you'll lose the 30% armour node along the way. Also, with non-crit builds, I usually see if I can go for RT. Resolves accuracy problems like no other.

Maybe something like this.

I mean, if you're going to go that way, may as well go all the way, right?

My experience with an iron grip RT archer (Nemesis) is that damage increased drastically when I picked up the keystone, at about 200-250 str. The bonus is pretty substantial. It would be a DPS sacrifice if not for the str damage bonus, which actually comes out to quite a lot. Perhaps not as much as going full crit, but hey.

Thanks for the reply! Good to know that going for IG was worth it. Mmmm, I might go the route you suggested, but after I can get some replacement armor nodes. Way to scared to run around in merciless without them :p.

And I've just fallen in love with frenzy as my main singletarget DPS skill, time to get some extra charges and the added evasion buff. Never knew that frenzy could hurt so much with the correct nodes! :D

Thanks for the reply. I have another question. Is there a reason you dont take the "Freeze" node in the shadow tree? I would think having a 5% chance to freeze with just your normal cold dmg ontop of the crits would be great, would also help with going more glass cannon.

Also What do you think about the new prismatic ring "The Taming" it also gives a 5% chance to freeze and you do 10% more dmg to frozen targets, Seems like it would be great for this build.

Let me know your thoughts on the matter.

Love the build so far thanks for all your hard work :)

Why, when I run around with nearly 50% crit chance? I mean yeah if you want to do it go ahead, but I honestly never felt the need to.

I think The Taming is too expensive for me to use, though it looks fantastic. On paper. Assuming I could resolve mana issues without using Thief's Torment. (Which I indeed can, but dammit that's been my build for the last 15 levels.)

With that much crit, I was regularly shocking mobs with just my bow lightning damage and Wrath, before the patch. More power to The Taming, I guess.

Just wanted to drop a line that this is the build that made me enjoy PoE.

I messed around in closed beta and open beta and bounced off of it pretty fast both times. Not all of that was build related (and arguably not even a lot of it), but this build is incredibly fun and pleasant to play.

So thanks for that.

Am currently somewhere in Act 3 Cruel (pre-Piety) using Voll's Protector for some pretty great burst damage and Asenath's Gentle Touch to double down on CCing everything.

Resistances definitely still suck so far, but it's hard to find items that boost DPS as well as allow for greater survivability. In any case, I'm starting to ramble, so anyway, thanks again!

Kirielis, which gem is best with 5L? I got IS-LoH-BM-LMP, so my next should be WED, or there is better options for non-crit?