[1.2.0] Ice Pierce Crit Ranger

In your passives build guide what does EB means ?

Eldritch Batter Keystone

@kellenlawson

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eva/ar BM spec with Ondar's guile to help with reflect mobs, and hopefully still pick up some crit nodes

Looks doable. Level 75 with frenzy charges

@SEOINAGE

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I will likely only have IS, lmp, mana leech, life leech in a four link

At that level, and with that attack-speed, consider going for physical mana leech (either from gear or Mind Drinker) to have some mana return on the physical portion of initial hit. It should be just about sustainable, by my estimate, and then your links will be freed up a little. And yeah, single-target power charges generation isn't for everyone. It isn't for me either, truthfully.

Curious to see your even-more-compact skill tree, mind linking it?

@Darkcastle

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What is your rationale for using WED as a priority over cold pen?

As a side note, do you know what resistances normal monsters in Merciless have?

I believe it's 0% unless specified otherwise. My rationale for WED is simply that WED is a guaranteed damage increase on all mobs rather than just cold-resistant ones, and quite a significant increase at that. Depending on the level of the cold pen gem, it would only beat WED in damage on mobs with >50% cold res, give or take. Not so many of those around.

"

Kirielis wrote:

@kellenlawson

"

eva/ar BM spec with Ondar's guile to help with reflect mobs, and hopefully still pick up some crit nodes

Looks doable. Level 75 with frenzy charges

@SEOINAGE

"

I will likely only have IS, lmp, mana leech, life leech in a four link

At that level, and with that attack-speed, consider going for physical mana leech (either from gear or Mind Drinker) to have some mana return on the physical portion of initial hit. It should be just about sustainable, by my estimate, and then your links will be freed up a little. And yeah, single-target power charges generation isn't for everyone. It isn't for me either, truthfully.

Curious to see your even-more-compact skill tree, mind linking it?

@Darkcastle

"

What is your rationale for using WED as a priority over cold pen?

As a side note, do you know what resistances normal monsters in Merciless have?

I believe it's 0% unless specified otherwise. My rationale for WED is simply that WED is a guaranteed damage increase on all mobs rather than just cold-resistant ones, and quite a significant increase at that. Depending on the level of the cold pen gem, it would only beat WED in damage on mobs with >50% cold res, give or take. Not so many of those around.

Thanks for the build help! Looks solid.

In reply to the last part about cold pen- -> resistances can go negative. So, cold pen would improve cold damage against a target that started with 0 cold resist (Source: "Both curses and penetration gems can reduce the resistance of a target below 0%"- http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Resistances#Resistance_Penetration_Mechanics). Whether that makes cold pen a better option or not, I couldn't say.

I have mind drinker currently, and I tried taking the mana leech off of my bow but it wouldn't work, likely because my bow's damage is just too low. Although I can sustain burning arrow with just mind drinker.

I am thinking that with my new bow I can drop the mana leech with the higher phys damage.

current tree, working on phase acrobatics right now


Future dense build, but with the option of grabbing charisma, might try to run two auras, and might not need that 5% reserve if I only run 1 aura, maybe I can run two with just that I don't know, currently run hatred, but would love to add grace for some more avoidance. I tried BM at one point in place of the mana leech, but without much hp regen and relying on just my leech it didn't work, was kind of low level though.


Right now in nemesis I'm doing just fine, solo piety being under leveled no problem. I was worried about reflect, but currently I can't even notice taking any hits, worried about killing myself when my dps is higher though, so plan on first reflect mobs I run into with the new bow to hit corners and not all at once to gauge what happens, it all depends on luck too, but if I can get a few more hp nodes after phase acro it would be nice.

I'm open to comments about my build, and really not sure about the two 15% phys nodes, and how those stack up to crit mult. I would love to be able to sustain 5 power charges in some way, the crit from them is insane, and if it was in place of WED, then it would boost phys damage more, and maybe make the passive node cover my mana needs, not to mention its only a 110% modifier!!!! But Ideally I would like it on my single target instead, we'll see if my crit is high enough later. It is tempting to try to maximize the dps of burning arrow for single target, as that is probably my weakest point right now, bad luck single target without crits, combined with low attack speed gets painful.

I hope I wasn't sounding like a prick, not trying to say my build is better than yours. As it basically follows your by 60 template.

My main intent in calling it more dense was it is far more dense than my original build with the character that didn't work. And that I wasn't spreading out to duelist area like in some of your other later suggestions.

My build that didn't work went over to templar for catalyze when it was good, and all the inc aoe along the way, and I was trying to make point blank keystone with the point blank bow work, with pierce, and acrobatics. SO you can see how being so spread out wouldn't work, not to mention face tanking with acrobatics isn't the best choice. I also was planning on just using one projectile for max cone damage, and subsequent large cones as it passed through. I never got past low 60s because poor gear, a spec that was so spread out I didn't have enough tankiness or dps to do anything, and I hadn't picked up the aoe nodes yet. One of those builds that work till the end of merc but hit a wall and you get bored with forcing it further to make up for that.

No worries, there is not really "my build is better than yours". Especially since I make a point of not showing the one I use. Yours looks cool, btw. Definitely more compact (I spread out way far into duelist start after level 60) but that's not at all a bad thing.

Soul Siphon, or whatever the mana-on-kill nodes are called? I've been meaning to test those nodes out, but it all went on the back burner due to too many projects not enough time.

Voll's Protector would definitely resolve the power charges generation. So does CDT + icespear + PCoC, the method used by that other guy.

pointblank pierce shotgun LA build

We've talked. I'm a huge fan of that build, it uses frostwall in interesting ways. Not sure I'd be able to pull off what he does, but for sure it's cool. Need to link it in the OP, brb. Along with a side note about using icespear to generate charges.

--offtopic begins here

Re: Point Blank, I was actually thinking of doing that with this build, but somewhere along the line I realised that as long as I'm gettin 100% pierce, I want to maximise damage over the entire screen-area. Besides, it allows me to shoot from a distance. As for Chin Sol, I was using that right up until I switched to the bow listed in the OP. It's fantastic.

These days, I'm doing a more standard PB CS RoA build in Nemesis. Some of the time. Nothing to write a guide about, but asdf I want a Chin Sol build, that bow has held my fancy for a VERY long time now.

His build has some interesting ideas, I am considering trying the ice spear cast on damage taken, I could combine it with gmp as well, and pcoc. My concern is with acrobatics phase acrobatics and high evasion, we don't take damage that often, also I try to avoid damage. But I will give it a shot, it's the reason I didn't bother with cast on damage taken enduring cry.


Last night I was able to equip my bow, and I took my four link and went IS, pcoc, lmp, and LL. I can manage without the mana leech, although I have to use flasks on occasion if the mob size is too small, I also put burning arrow with added fire, weapon elemental, and FA. I now have much better single target, and pcoc being on the aoe skill causes it to ramp up insanely fast. I have 59% crit with 4 power charges up, will have 5 eventually. In groups with clarity mana isn't a problem at all, I just can't run the gem. So the trick is cursing a large pack hitting it, and then cursing mobs that got missed and finishing them off, if enough mobs are there, which is where Ice shot shines anyways it does really well.

I ran a bunch of easy maps up to lvl 68 last night, and didn't have much problems, personally I would like higher dps, but I have 6 more life based nodes to grab.

My idea on point blank kind of was like well the front line is the one that doesn't die as fast, so it might augment that, It would be fun to try again, but I don't feel like buying a chin sol nor using the points. Crit on your bow makes a massive difference besides, I'm hoping to get a bow that will also have a good crit roll explicitly so I can get closer to 75% crit chance.

Still wondering if after the hp and power charge if I should grab the small crit multipler cluster by ondars guile, finish off the other weaker crit nodes, or grab the two 15% phys nodes.

actually the 7% crit on ice spear, and the 600% crit on second form, I would imagine it would keep power charges up piece of cake. It was funny trying to keep power charges up with my single target, almost impossible even if that was the only skill i was using. I already have the perfect colors, but the problem is my pcoc is too high a level already, but looking at his his support is leveled, so it only affects the skill itself? Sounds like I'm in business. Just lose out on having proj weakness attached to reduce mana.

The last thing I would like to do is figure out how to run grace in addition to my hatred. I don't know if snagging all those reduce mana reserves would be enough, when mana is already somewhat of an issue.

Having a really hard time keeping power charges up with the ice spear method. I'll keep trying but have to take damage on purpose, and most I have gotten so far is 3, and not trying I did get 2 briefly, which doesn't make it worth if you want them up or invested in more power charges.

I stopped using cast on damage taken on enduring cry, but figured it might work since the leveled pcoc works. But only have 26% base crit for this ability.



EDIT: BAD IDEA, this will get you killed on hardcore, especially with corrupting blood. Which is too bad, since although it didn't work I wanted to combine it with frost nova or something just for the extra cold effects lol.