Petrov's Elemental Bow Ranger Build(s) (0.10)

Why is no one getting shock/freeze/blaze? Does it not apply to weapons? They seem pretty good.

Crit with cold damage = freeze
Crit with fire or smt chance = ignite
Crit with Light = shock (more damage taken)

Maybe chance is better on the elemental damage taken i dunno

and Freeze + Shock = shatter.. or smt there re those effects too

*waves*

Just a short review of the build. I've been using this build ever since the skill tree reset (I was level 79 then). Prior to the build, I was running an IR + Crit build (a.k.a glass cannon mostly) and I found myself in quite a few hairy situations (and lag / desyncs pretty much spelled death for me).

After switching over to Petrov's build, I found myself to be a lot more tanky and unwavering stance was pretty much my savior a number of times. I've only died once ever since switching over and that's due to my brain dissolving at midnight and killing myself via reflect elemental damage. I'm now level 81 and can strongly recommend this build to any ranger-enthusiasts out there. Being level 81, I decided to get Golem's Blood with my extra skill points to handle maps with chaos damage per second (and the life nodes just around it).

A nice mix of tankiness and sufficient dps makes this build an easy one to recommend.

PS : Will be doing CI / LA on my upcoming bow witch for giggles. =)

I have a question, Petrov:

Why, when starting allocating points, right before Finesse (+30 Dex, 4% Atk Spd), you choose to take 2 +10 Dex instead of 3 +10% Evasion? Isn't 30% Evasion worth the extra point and -20 Dex?

Further, as the build is life-heavy, why not avoid another +10 Dex and take two +8 Life, just ahead of Finesse?

With 1 more point, you could take a -20 Dex "penalty" (2% Evasion and 40 accuracy - seems negligible to me) to add, instead, 30% Evasion.

With one more point, you can take another -10 Dex "penalty" (totaling 3% evasion and 60 accuracy - still seems negligible to me) and add another 16% life.

At first glance, seems a very good trade-off, and none of your gear requirements will miss that 30 Dex.

nice build im pretty sure when i get a beta key i will play ranger with that build.

Petrov, have you thought about how you would modify this to deal with the upcoming resist changes?

Is unwavering stance super vital to this build? Those 5 points look like they would be the easiest to give up to gain +33 lightning res, +30 fire resist, + 15% cold resist.

The resistance nodes down by the marauder starting location also look very tempting. The biggest issue would be that these are at the very end of the build (levels 65+) where they would potentially be needed earlier on.

The other option would be of course to drop Blood magic entirely which would free up more than enough points to max resist, but at the cost of not having many points to increase mana talents.

I've recently switched my res test race ranger to using LA and may try to see how I can do with this build modified slightly if I can find enough regrets to undo what I have. I'd love to hear your thoughts on modifications.

"

kidaf wrote:

I have a question, Petrov:

Why, when starting allocating points, right before Finesse (+30 Dex, 4% Atk Spd), you choose to take 2 +10 Dex instead of 3 +10% Evasion? Isn't 30% Evasion worth the extra point and -20 Dex?

Further, as the build is life-heavy, why not avoid another +10 Dex and take two +8 Life, just ahead of Finesse?

With 1 more point, you could take a -20 Dex "penalty" (2% Evasion and 40 accuracy - seems negligible to me) to add, instead, 30% Evasion.

With one more point, you can take another -10 Dex "penalty" (totaling 3% evasion and 60 accuracy - still seems negligible to me) and add another 16% life.

At first glance, seems a very good trade-off, and none of your gear requirements will miss that 30 Dex.

Hey kidaf

Thanks very much for taking the time to have a close look at my build and guide, it's much appreciated.

I agree that your preferred route is a better tradeoff - but I was constraining myself to an 89 point build. So if I took the extra nodes that your build required, I would have had to get rid of other nodes somewhere in my build, which I couldn't quite justify doing.

If you were sticking to the 89 point build, what would you sacrifice to make your suggested changes?


Thanks again,
Petrov.

"

Vondum wrote:

Petrov, have you thought about how you would modify this to deal with the upcoming resist changes?

Is unwavering stance super vital to this build? Those 5 points look like they would be the easiest to give up to gain +33 lightning res, +30 fire resist, + 15% cold resist.

The resistance nodes down by the marauder starting location also look very tempting. The biggest issue would be that these are at the very end of the build (levels 65+) where they would potentially be needed earlier on.

The other option would be of course to drop Blood magic entirely which would free up more than enough points to max resist, but at the cost of not having many points to increase mana talents.

I've recently switched my res test race ranger to using LA and may try to see how I can do with this build modified slightly if I can find enough regrets to undo what I have. I'd love to hear your thoughts on modifications.

Hey Vondum - really good question(s). I haven't thought about it yet and, as you know, building for resists is so very gear dependent (which is why I tend not to take the +8% all res bandit reward, because you usually just don't know what your gear is going to be like end-game).

I'd clearly be very tempted to get the resistance cluster and Diamond Skin just west of the Marauder starting zone, especially if I've already got Elemental Adaptation. And of course the single +18% lightning res node in the centre of the skill tree would be a temptation.

That being said, I'd need to see how much of each resistance I actually needed to max out at 80% - again, the question of gear.

I don't think unwavering stance is "absolutely vital" but it's a big help if you use blood magic, because you rely on dealing damage to stay alive (via life leech gem). As SAD_Caitlyn has pointed out, it's helped a lot with that build. You could easily drop unwavering stance and see if it affects play-style/survivability for you - only costs one regret to do so.

Likewise you can free up 12 points by simply avoiding blood magic and that chain altogether - but then that really is an entirely different build (but still very capable one), so you'd have to start planning for mana usage/leech, etc etc

So, short version is, I'd start with my end game gear, then work backwards to see which resistances I needed to plunder around Diamond Skin. Then I'd probably drop some combination of life nodes, the 4% IAS node and the 20% accuracy node as required.

Thanks again!
Petrov.

"

mrpetrov wrote:

"

kidaf wrote:

I have a question, Petrov:

Why, when starting allocating points, right before Finesse (+30 Dex, 4% Atk Spd), you choose to take 2 +10 Dex instead of 3 +10% Evasion? Isn't 30% Evasion worth the extra point and -20 Dex?

Further, as the build is life-heavy, why not avoid another +10 Dex and take two +8 Life, just ahead of Finesse?

With 1 more point, you could take a -20 Dex "penalty" (2% Evasion and 40 accuracy - seems negligible to me) to add, instead, 30% Evasion.

With one more point, you can take another -10 Dex "penalty" (totaling 3% evasion and 60 accuracy - still seems negligible to me) and add another 16% life.

At first glance, seems a very good trade-off, and none of your gear requirements will miss that 30 Dex.

Hey kidaf

Thanks very much for taking the time to have a close look at my build and guide, it's much appreciated.

I agree that your preferred route is a better tradeoff - but I was constraining myself to an 89 point build. So if I took the extra nodes that your build required, I would have had to get rid of other nodes somewhere in my build, which I couldn't quite justify doing.

If you were sticking to the 89 point build, what would you sacrifice to make your suggested changes?


Thanks again,
Petrov.

My pleasure, Petrov!


Your question is very easily answered: First, you already took one point off of Vaal Pact, right? That one could be used to the first detour, taking 3 +10% Evasion.

Second, there is a single +8% Life node you took, right before Reflexes. You can transform that point into 2 +8% Life, using the second detour.


If you already took into consideration that not used point from Vaal Pact, then you can weight if maybe 4% Attack Speed (last node you took from Ranger's upper branch) isn't a worthy sacrifice to get those 30% evasion.


And, as I am just starting this Ranger, maybe I'll contribute with more suggestions as I go farther on the skill tree. =)


Cheers!
Kid.

Edit: my poor English-as-a-foreign-language skills

as I understand

missuses variation of kidiafs modification of petrovs build

differences:
80 less str
10 less dex
10 less int

36% more life - prob 1k hp in your case
4% more evasion - not a big deal
24% less armor - not a big deal, doubt you use mix eva/armor items
1.9% life regen - big deal in my book - main reason for this route in my own build
no 5+ to max resists - how much does it rly help?

12% less projectile dmg - applies also to ele dmg, prob noticeable in dps
8% more as - as I understand most important factor in ele ranger dps
16% less phys dmg from str - phys dmg is already low - not a big deal

so a tradeof

more life and life regen for 5% max res and maybe a bit of dps decrease - maybe even increase coz of the 8% ias more?

what you think?