[1.0.3] Vaine's Blood Magic & Critical Frenzy/LA Build

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thefloydian wrote:

So can I still use this build if I don't have that Lioneyes bow you talk about in the OP?

Yes, no problem at all. In fact your survivability would be better without lioneyes due to being able to evade reflected damage. :)

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vaiNe_ wrote:

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thefloydian wrote:

So can I still use this build if I don't have that Lioneyes bow you talk about in the OP?

Yes, no problem at all. In fact your survivability would be better without lioneyes due to being able to evade reflected damage. :)

I was just wondering since you said you didn't take any accuracy nodes because of the bow.

I believe the build picks up 2 accuracy nodes along the way along with alot of dexterity, and with some accuracy on gear you should do fine without a Lioneyes. :)

Because I also don't have the Lioneyes Bow, I thought about to use the "Heart of Oak" passive, it gives "30% chance to avoid being stunned" along with 4% life and 1% lifereg. I would trade the 3x8% projectile dmg nodes at first (re-add later maybe). Could look like this at the beginning of the Ranger tree:



Good idea?

That works, you're basically sacrificing some dps for better survivability. :)

OK, I tested the build. Sadly, it is not that good for my Ranger, but I guess my old build is not usable anymore.
Your build is nice but like many builds, it needs DPS to stay alive, I don't have much DPS yet, just can't afford it item and skillwise. Not enough life to even run one Aura, even with reduced passives and support, I have to talk a serious word with GGG.
Survivability is bad, the mobs in the gardens are insane and somehow I don't trigger much shocks, no wonder why (17% crit chance), but I guess I need the crit curse too. (used the projectile weakness so far). With more life I can run the Wrath Aura agein of course.
The new Acrobatics passive eats alot of armor, at least I can dodge now compared to my own build. ;)
GGG also nerfed the bear traps so the only thing that basicly keeps me alife is my skelly totem right now, not that fluid gameplay, have to advance slowly and now I need more kiting...I hate kiting...

I'd just like to point out that projectile weakness is horrible if you link chain with your LA, as pierce gets rolled before chain.

OK, thanks for the tip. I was not sure about the Pierce aspect of Projectile Weakness but I guess it makes sense because when it pierce it can't chain anymore. ^^
I will use the Crit Curse but my Mana is not that high for leveling up this gem. My Ranger is Level 73, there are alot of gaps to fill in the passive but I had to start somewhere.
It's sad that the new Aura mechanics reserve so much Mana, it would be more easy if I had more sockets to use blood magic support gems instead of the passive skill. Let's hope GGG rethinks the Aura costs again but I doubt I wil lever be able to easily run 3 Auras with my Ranger like before (bye bye grace, bye bye Anger )

I took a new take on this build, and decided to avoid the ranger tree altogether and just go scion to do some fun stuff like static blows.


Starting in the center right along one of the super highways gives some really nice advantages, so I decided to go pure strength and just pick up IR (my old open beta build was a ranger and all dodge/crit). The amount of health from strength combined with the insane amount of %health nodes makes for a crazy tanky character, not to mention unwavering stun-proof. Plus the str gives a solid boost to phys damage using iron grip.

No dex for accuracy pushes to resolute, so crits are out, but static blows lands us with definitely more shock potential than crits, so we just lose the crit damage. The extra shocks will make up a little for the damage, but also will be very nice for parties, and we spend those saved crit passives on health pretty much.

This build also manages to get some solid mana reserved reductions just by good luck of pathing to end up at around 22% reserved with level 16 reduced mana gem and alpha's.

While my character is not doing maps yet, so gear is not finished, I'm heading to most of the same gem choices as yours, with a few exceptions. I don't need lioneye's because of resolute, so I can get a cheaper high DPS bow until I can afford voltaxic rift (yes static blows still works with it), plus that's a free 10% shock chance, immunity to ele reflect, and runs into less resists. You can't use any ele reduction curses for damage, or conductivity for the shock chance, but voltaxic rift pretty much gives you all that for free anyway, so a curse slot is freed up. Since I don't dodge, and thus don't get the full benefit of enfeeble, I'm going with temporal chains for the curse, which will add a nice duration bonus to my shocks in addition to slowing for defensive purposes (people often forget about the status effect duration increase from temp chains =P). The other exception is that I chose a ranged attack totem with ice shot to proc freezes to add survivability. I'm considering switching to skele totem, but I haven't gotten my build completed enough to see if I can freeze enough to make ice shot worthwhile.

That's not a new take on this build. That's an entirely different build altogether. Your build is looking more like the old school LA builds which went for elemental damage nodes and static blows for shock. It works, I guess, but damage wise, your build is gimped.