[1.2.0] Ice Pierce Crit Ranger

Things that stood out to me about your build:

1) YOU ARE ONLY FOUR POINTS AWAY FROM ELDRITCH BATTERY

that is all.

i will let you contemplate the implications in silence

Hahahahahahaha. Yes, yes I am.

I also didn't post a complete build point for point, that's not my style.

I'll leave everyone else to contemplate the implications of that in silence too.

I've gone for a true "Glass Cannon" Approach to Ice Pierce Crit, below is my talent tree and gear:

Build:


Gear:


Now speaking strictly sheet dps my Ice Shot is at 12k, my Burning Arrow (main single tar) is at 30k. Yes reflect can go spectacularly wrong, however since speccing into Vaal pact I've found that so long as I don't do anything stupid (like spam frenzy on phys reflect or equip a blackgleam for ele reflect) my LoH on Ice Shot allows me to power through. Eventually I'd like to either expand to a 5l chest and run Life Leech in Burning Arrow while retaining it's current damage, or probably drop the added fire on BA for LL, and work towards a Kaom's for the life.

My questions are:
1) did I miss any obvious damage gains from my passive tree?
2) What should I be focusing on as I upgrade my gear, (please don't say evasion/resistances/life, I'll be going for more of that as I can anyway), currently I cannot tell if I should get more crit %, more crit mult? more phys dmg (flat), phys dmg %? (such as on belt)? or ele dmg %? (note pure Str = phys dmg, I have Iron Grip).
3) Questions/comments/etc welcome about my build.

Bloody hell. You have four times my sheet DPS and I 6-link ice shot.

Yes - you missed many attack speed nodes. Those are extremely significant for sheet DPS gains, and also incredible for actual in-game DPS gains before a certain point (that is, one-shotting packs in a 6-man group in high maps.) If you're stacking Frenzy charges, I recommend those nodes too.

Um, I would upgrade that Glare, but then I am very much not in favour of Glare. Not enough crit. I would et/ex that quiver for HP and attackspeed. (Just kidding! Wouldn't et/ex it, buy a new one instead.)

Going by the math - getting phys% and ele% work equally well, which is to say, if you already have 300% increased, then the extra 50% is lower priority than if you had only 100%. Flat damage and crit chance work to make your hits more consistently damaging, crit multiplier makes those big hits really shine - you decide. I personally prefer the former.

Questions? Oh yeah, I have questions. Build says you're level 75 or so? How in the world can you possibly survive with that build, how much HP/resists do you even have? What level of content are you clearing up to, alone and with a party? I assume you switch out Pierce with something else when you have the ability to cast Projectile Weakness (ie not feeling lazy and not in a party). Is that something else Faster Projectiles and why use that over Cold Penetration? How in the asdf do you manage your mana when casting iceshot continuously, or are you using flasks?

I knew glass cannon type builds were possible, I didn't think you could go that far into glass-cannon territory and still live. Respect, man. Respect.

"

Yes - you missed many attack speed nodes. Those are extremely significant for sheet DPS gains, and also incredible for actual in-game DPS gains before a certain point (that is, one-shotting packs in a 6-man group in high maps.) If you're stacking Frenzy charges, I recommend those nodes too.

While I do have Frenzy it's really more of a backup/mana spell currently, from gear/passives/etc I have around +100% increased attack speed, and I'm undecided on further investment, on one hand yes it would be a very large boost to my frenzy/burning arrow damage, on the other, mana is a pain on Ice Shot and I don't think I'd be able to maximize further Aspd as I already have to use mana pots in some situations (such as 0 mana regen maps)

"

Um, I would upgrade that Glare, but then I am very much not in favour of Glare. Not enough crit. I would et/ex that quiver for HP and attackspeed. (Just kidding! Wouldn't et/ex it, buy a new one instead.)

Yea, Life/Aspd would be very nice on it, though I might have to settle for life/res or life/proj speed I haven't seen any high crit/ele/crit dmg quivers that also have aspd. Guess that's what I'll look at next. As for my bow I feel Lionseye (despite the lower crit) is still one of my best options because it's physical damage is so strong, do you think I would be able to find a ~300 dps, 5l physical bow with local crit for ~5 exalts? (approx the value of my Lionseye), because I've specced almost pure physical, elemental bows are a significant downgrade for me (my sheet dps more or less went up 250% from my lionseye vs my old bow). I am at around 37% crit chance even with the lionseye.

"

Questions? Oh yeah, I have questions. Build says you're level 75 or so? How in the world can you possibly survive with that build, how much HP/resists do you even have? What level of content are you clearing up to, alone and with a party? I assume you switch out Pierce with something else when you have the ability to cast Projectile Weakness (ie not feeling lazy and not in a party). Is that something else Faster Projectiles and why use that over Cold Penetration? How in the asdf do you manage your mana when casting iceshot continuously, or are you using flasks?

I'm L77 currently, and I survive more or less by not getting hit, which makes a few map bosses very dangerous to me (such as Blacksmith who can instakill me with his leapslam if I allow him to get close enough to use it). I've mostly just been running Lunaris, and 66/67 maps while trying to actually get 68+ maps (I'm wondering if I should just buy a few). The only thing in Lunaris I usually don't do is Piety because I can't freeze her which makes her a PITA. I have 62% Fire 72%, 75% Lightning, -60% Chaos, ~1400 life. I usually don't remove Pierce, because I use Proj weakness for boss killing, yes in theory it's a "dps loss" to run pierce, however I rather like that I can blast a group of enemies then kill 5-10 extra off screen while I'm at it. if I were running a 6th gem it would probably be added fire damage to compliment my auras, or cold pen to kill pesky cold res mobs easier. As for mana.... it's a pain, currently what makes it fairly manageable is the fact that in group play when I spell spam I have my friend's clarity, solo things die fast enough that I regen worst case if I do find myself oom I use frenzy (which has a mana leech). However in most cases the 2% from Mind Drinker is more than sufficient, there are times I have to use my mana flask yes mostly on 0% or 50% regen maps. Personally I feel like this build can currently take on any map boss which can be frozen, map piety/vaal I'm not sure about.

The secret to my survival vs reflect is Vaal pact, reflect is actually where my lionseye hurts me, I can't evade my own attacks, so instead of having a 90%+ eva chance I have 20% dodge, and nothing else. Personally I feel that if I got a Kaom's (long way off lol) any hp/tankyness issues would be resolved, the only issue would be finding ~35% more all res on my gear to balance the loss swapping over.

Why did u choose Carcass jack to be the bis for this build? Does ice shot get benefits from it when using LMP/GMP? Thx!

I did not. Like (almost) every other bow build, Kaom's is BiS and everything else just has to work around its sockets or lack thereof. But Carcass Jack affects the AoE of iceshot, yes. Larger AoE and more damage; the former is especially good for getting more overlap out of your AoE cones.

Regarding running iceshot on mana: Thief's Torment is my personal build enabler. But you are right, a good crit bow with DPS either has to be self-linked or will cost you in the 50 ex range for a 6L. 5Ls just don't show up on the market ever.

Now all I need is 90 ex and I can get #1 crit Imperial on server from its owner.

why not use the Lethality node which has a good amount of crit chance?

Do not understand? The build does take Lethality.

oups im hopeless!

I must have confused it with heartseeker.

ANyways, im trying something similar but with more life nodes. I just need a damn BM gem so I can use ice shot properly now. The auras thing and mana does my head in!!!!!!