[1.2.0] Ice Pierce Crit Ranger

Gotcha. I've been running Haste. What would be the top Aura's to run then, if we're only choosing 1-2?

Hatred for damage and Grace for increased evasion.

I'm planning to run Purity of Ice (ele reflect) and Grace+IR (phys reflect).

Rolling my first ranger and trying it out... Would like some clarifications if I may.

What is the stat priority here? Health? IAS? Crit? How much survivability can we expect from this spec?

The path to get Blood Magic seems like an incredibly far deviation from our core abilities... Would that gimp our character too much?

I don't recommend leveling with Ice Shot --> ST + LMP + LoH (and mana leech on at lest 2 items) until ~lvl50 and when you get a bow with a high physical roll you can switch to Ice Shot, because you need a high mana leech to sustain the skill.

@Skill tree and path
Just prioritize life nodes...at ~lvl45 you should be near Piercing Shots, so you can swap immediatley to a bow, if you found a good one.

@Leveling
Gear with +HP and +resi, mana leech on at least 2 items.

@Stat priority (bow)
High base crit on bow (best base is Harbinger Bow) + high physical roll, high IAS is good to have --> you can't leech over +ele dmg on bow plus Ice Shot reduces the physical dmg.

Okay just noticed the suggested build for early leveling skips straight to piercing arrows but then in the level 60 version it takes a completely different route! I already followed the former.... Am I f***ed? :S

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lunarwolfspirit wrote:

Okay just noticed the suggested build for early leveling skips straight to piercing arrows but then in the level 60 version it takes a completely different route! I already followed the former.... Am I f***ed? :S

Nope, a re-routing is 'part of the plan' -->

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[...] first take a roundabout route to Piercing Arrows, picking up Ondar's Guile on the way. Then spec into the usual passives: crit, HP, IAS.

..and then re-route.

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Fleischtorte wrote:

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lunarwolfspirit wrote:

Okay just noticed the suggested build for early leveling skips straight to piercing arrows but then in the level 60 version it takes a completely different route! I already followed the former.... Am I f***ed? :S

Nope, a re-routing is 'part of the plan' -->

"

[...] first take a roundabout route to Piercing Arrows, picking up Ondar's Guile on the way. Then spec into the usual passives: crit, HP, IAS.

..and then re-route.

1) Sorry, I need further clarification on this too. Is this to say:

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First take that "roundabout" spec where it dips toward Ondar's. Then when you've filled that out, fill out the nodes listed in this second spec.

Is that correct? I also was confused by this and thought the spec page was broken.

Also, I had a couple other n00b questions, since I'm only on my first playthrough:
2) I'm confused about Blood Rage. I see that it's a skill that makes it hard for you to take damage. Beyond that, I don't understand what it contributes to your strategy unless it's just survivability.
3) I'm only like level 27 right now. I find that my bear traps or taunt totem (can't remember the name) go down in like 2 seconds on tougher guys. Is there a decent tactic to handle these? When I was using zombies, they started to go down quick too.
4) For gear while I'm leveling up, do I prioritize evasion, armor, or energy shield? I've been doing evasion and it's (mostly) worked out okay.

Thanks for the help

Alright, let's see. In order of questions.

1. yes, and after you've filled in the remaining, you'll probably have enough respecs from quests to take out the funky in-between nodes you no longer need.

2. frenzy charges

3. if you can't facetank, try a skele totem for distraction. Decoy doesn't really get good until higher levels.

4. Whatever you get that's good, but I like ev too.

Oh yeah. Updated with a mana management section and actually remembered to change the version number in the title.