The Witch and Ranger Zones are the weakest in the game

Thanks for your detailed analysis Qarl. That was interesting to read and consider. I think I agree.

There are obvious Ranger builds, but not so obvious Shadow builds (especially ones which utilize the shadow's projectile nodes). Perhaps the most obvious would be a lightning arrow build.

The Shadow has some nice access to diverse keystones but cannot exploit them in any significant way (like RT). Makes for harder builds.

"

anubite wrote:

The Ranger has some of the best clusters in the game. Has the easiest access to massive critical multiplier. Has access to tons of life and evasion.

Critical Damage: 110
Bow Critical Damage: 110 + 70

Shadow Critical Damage: 20, 60 for spells, 86 for daggers

Witch Critical Damage: 70

Critical Damage is located in the back fields of the Witch and Ranger tree. Since they're really just Shadow nodes put to either side so he has to stretch for them and dedicate himself to his own area of the tree. It isn't a mistake the grid's designed like that.


Evasion: 48%. +4% per Frenzy charge.
Duelist Evasion: 40%, or 104% if you get his Leather and Steel in the back forty.

The Ranger doesn't have an analogue to Leather and Steel, Nullification, Body and Soul, Armour Mastery or even the humble Arcane Focus. Which feels like a gip. The Reflexes bundle (+70%, per side) is just like the middle life and energy shield bundles - as easy to get for the two adjacent classes.

The only major advantage she has on this front is Iron Reflexes, which she can get a smidge earlier than the Duelist can, and a hella lot earlier than The Shadow. (It's not one of my favorite keystones, since it's like "hey evade sucks, let's not use it at all!" But I guess I'm in the minority there.)


Life: +188%
Duelist Life: 52% + 58% = 110%

Yeah, if all you care about is Life, she has a hella lot of them. The only ones who really even compare are the Shadow and Templar. They get to the low-to-mid 100's.

Bows and life and Iron Reflexes and movement speed is what she has. It'd be nice to say Traps are a convenient option for her, too.

"

Witch outclasses Templar in minions by far. Witch has the most optimal access to all minion nodes and can easily get enough mana to do whatever.

Her minion access is superior by 2 skill points. 2. Her only meaningful advantage is getting +1 to skeletons against Merv Griffin in Normal.

I've gone over this in another place, that minion quantity ought to be brought down, and biased to the witch.

So what's left as a high-level signature concept? Curses. Which is a great theme.

If you go straight for it, the Witch takes 13 points to get it. The Templar, 14. The Shadow, 15.

Let's compare that to the Duelist's Golem's Blood, another high value area.

Duelist: Requires 11 points. He gets 28% life or endurance charges along the way.
Marauder: 16 points, same 28% life or endurance along the way. Unlocks a good portion of the Duelist tree from this.
Ranger: 14 points. But I'd rather spend 15 to get +9% move or attack speed along the way. She gets the added bonus of unlocking Diamond Skin and almost unlocking Blade Barrier.

If you look at it from what's unlocked, the Shadow and Templar get more out of their Curses routes than the Witch does. Minions, Static Blows, Ice Duration, Cast Speed, Critical Strike Chance

Going through stat bundles to get the Hex skills for the Witch are another "bag of clashing stuff you probably don't want" lock. Wands + Ice, or Power Charge + Mana.

It should be a little easier for her, is all I'm saying.

The Witch does get superior +mana from the starting bundle given to you if that's your thing; the Templar will achieve about identical functional regen if you take his mana stats, but it costs him 11 skill points or you pick up AoE or Elemental damage on the way..

"

Footnote

I know a lot of what I'm whining about here is intentional class bleed that's supposed to be inherent to the system. And just sums up to "these guys need a stronger mechanical identity", which is difficult to wedge in there.

Really going off on power level is a bit of a tangent (I haven't even mentioned the "large mod stats you can get off of items and support gems can make the net % gain you get from certain nodes feel impotent, and that's why defensive stats like Life% are more valuable" argument out here), as what I'm getting at is more of a presentation thing.

My Celerity comment isn't so much about that ability in itself, it's about having a strong, flashy skill available to her starting area. Something like toning down evasion elsewhere, and giving her a node that gives her +30% evasion and +10% life for a single skill point is more along the lines of what I'm getting at.

Flashy starting nodes:

Shadow: Acceleration and Blinding Speed, the three elemental skills that jack up your status chance. Mental Acuity and Mind Drinker are alright. Nullification is great.

Duelist: Dervish. A Duelist without Dervish is like a bird without wings. A bit of a reason some people feel this guy has a weak identity is his stuff is more vanilla or pushed out a bit compared to someone like the Shadow, whose good stuff is right in his face. Leather and Steel is fantastic in my opinion; Ice Bite doesn't have much of a call unless you're going for ice support gem, aura, and glacial hammer.

Marauder: Troll's Blood, 45% resistance all in one spot, life leech. (A cute touch was giving him a fire damage bundle. With Blood Magic it's like he's burning his own flesh to murder things.)

Templar: Celestial Walker, AoE, Body and Soul, Catalyse.

Witch: Lord of the Dead, Blast Radius.

Ranger: Um. Half the attack speed of shadow for more points, but you get some Physical Damage and more Dexterity along with it. Or you get +18% physical damage with bows.


.. okay, so maybe I am talking about power level on select splashy skills.

Dervish is 4 standard block nodes plus a decent damage node - it's worth 5 points.

Catalyse is conditional on what elemental attack you're using - it's worth 1.5 to 3 points.

Area of Effect is nearly priceless - it's limited to Unique and Support Gem mods. Even so, coverage doesn't kill a boss any faster. It just caters to that human need to be awesome.

Weapon Artistry is 2.5, Heart of the Panther would be 4 if Dex was worth a lot to a ranger, but it's closer to 1.2. Finesse is about 1.5.

So the Ranger's signature skill is Weapon Artistry.


So I guess this stream-of-consciousness thought leads to this:

Dexterity for a Ranger isn't at much of a premium, since that stat is as common as sand for them. The Templar's Precision nodes are great for him since he doesn't have easy access, and he cares about accuracy. A ranger, not nearly as much since she can go in any direction and be swamped with the stuff.

I know these are here to make absolutely sure a new character has stats to equip gear with, but in the long run it adds up to zero zazz for her.

"

We do have a lot of interesting side options with rangers, and the 10% who different things with Rangers really do explore them in some depth, but most of our players who choose Ranger, know exactly what they want out of the class.)

I do like this Elemental Hit idea you have here, almost pure Weapon Elemental and IAS nodes. (Oh lordy the mana drain.) The skill tree almost looks like it was made for it intentionally.

... Also it's kind of horrifying that I've spent dozens of hours of my life looking at and thinking about 1 skill tree in 1 game. It kind of tells what a horrible person I am that I think that that's awesome.

In my opinion ranger and witch is ok as it is.

The power of witch and ranger is damage. If you want def go marauder, if dmg+def go templar or duelist. If you want pure damage go witch / shadow / ranger and then all 3 of them are ok as they are now.

Witch, Shadow and Ranger need damage - too much def and they are quite UP.

"

The skill grid is perhaps biased in favor of defense; defense nodes are generally better.

Not really. Pure damage build has insane killspeed and with some defense skills (like skele / decoy totem and/or minions) its quite safe.

"

LimitedRooster wrote:

"

anubite wrote:

The Ranger has some of the best clusters in the game. Has the easiest access to massive critical multiplier. Has access to tons of life and evasion.

Critical Damage: 110
Bow Critical Damage: 110 + 70

Shadow Critical Damage: 20, 60 for spells, 86 for daggers

Witch Critical Damage: 70

Critical Damage is located in the back fields of the Witch and Ranger tree. Since they're really just Shadow nodes put to either side so he has to stretch for them and dedicate himself to his own area of the tree. It isn't a mistake the grid's designed like that.

Critical damage with daggers has nothing on critical damage with bows. Try this build on for size. Only the ranger can execute this build by level 80:



It has the most critical mult you can get while still maintaining a decent defense.

"

Evasion: 48%. +4% per Frenzy charge.
Duelist Evasion: 40%, or 104% if you get his Leather and Steel in the back forty.

Duelist has to spend more points to access leather and steel early on. It's not as easy to get as the ranger's 48% evasion (it forces you to dual wield if you want the bonus early). Hybrid armor/evasion nodes are only worth it if you're going IR, which you don't need to do if you're going Ranger. You can be pure eva.

"

The Ranger doesn't have an analogue to Leather and Steel, Nullification, Body and Soul, Armour Mastery or even the humble Arcane Focus. Which feels like a gip. The Reflexes bundle (+70%, per side) is just like the middle life and energy shield bundles - as easy to get for the two adjacent classes.

Yes it does? It has crystal skin. Plus, it has three major life flask nodes the duelist doesn't.

"

The only major advantage she has on this front is Iron Reflexes, which she can get a smidge earlier than the Duelist can, and a hella lot earlier than The Shadow. (It's not one of my favorite keystones, since it's like "hey evade sucks, let's not use it at all!" But I guess I'm in the minority there.)

You're putting too much weight in IR. Yes, IR is good, but pure evasion with a high life pool works just as well.

"

Life: +188%
Duelist Life: 52% + 58% = 110%

Yeah, if all you care about is Life, she has a hella lot of them. The only ones who really even compare are the Shadow and Templar. They get to the low-to-mid 100's.

Life is the most important stat in the game unless you're going ES, pretty much. The fact the ranger has so much of it should make you question how powerful the Duelist really is.

"

Bows and life and Iron Reflexes and movement speed is what she has. It'd be nice to say Traps are a convenient option for her, too.

No, because of the Ranger's good block and critical multiplier clusters, 1h+shield is a good build for her too. I've done it. You need to experiment more.

"

Witch outclasses Templar in minions by far. Witch has the most optimal access to all minion nodes and can easily get enough mana to do whatever.

"

Her minion access is superior by 2 skill points. 2. Her only meaningful advantage is getting +1 to skeletons against Merv Griffin in Normal.

I've gone over this in another place, that minion quantity ought to be brought down, and biased to the witch.

So what's left as a high-level signature concept? Curses. Which is a great theme.

If you go straight for it, the Witch takes 13 points to get it. The Templar, 14. The Shadow, 15.

The point isn't so much the points involved, it's the opportunity cost. Here. Look at this build:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAQMABCMwZAcmypYL6q9zDTEnnA9mTEwRxEu8E2sjvhYJv9IX7xjeGknwSRqdWbQhedp6Ia479ievXwMqQ7nXLBPyVjLquew9t5s3P55fTUJM1rxEDfVESUc4nEomSxlKxdMKTTO-q05ijCdcC6LoYhby42M6v8hmEqjuZ2J6umfpMtRuwdXxdwAWCXescSt50r5penHH_JYcZWqQaVMlwL_LyOIy-3X1ObqP_Zht070hu1bNymZjqb8HYsg5MAGcxUTN2Qkd2a129y6hCJm_woU5-u0lMku0DvIuv3_34q5zcQO0Cg9by0EdEaNZqk29-6lxpy5ZzrNkZUr_Nxmf84E4IqsqBTnU0ZyDxLMnee3ZeEiDhhvaoap8BNKRJwo=

You have 24 points to play with basically and what do you have? CI and the curses AND every minion node on the tree. What more could you want? You have a "main highway" in 71 points - you can access cold damage, area of effect, cast speed, critical multiplier, wand damage - whatever you want to supplement your minions with, it's right on this highway. The Templar and the Shadow have to waste 10+ points making this same highway. As a result, they are "10 points weaker" since Minion builds don't really need Shadow spell damage or templar mana regen / AOE increase. Attack speed and melee physical damage are of no use to summoners either.

"

Let's compare that to the Duelist's Golem's Blood, another high value area.

Duelist: Requires 11 points. He gets 28% life or endurance charges along the way.
Marauder: 16 points, same 28% life or endurance along the way. Unlocks a good portion of the Duelist tree from this.
Ranger: 14 points. But I'd rather spend 15 to get +9% move or attack speed along the way. She gets the added bonus of unlocking Diamond Skin and almost unlocking Blade Barrier.

I'm not sure what you're comparing golem blood too. It's life regen. It serves a much different purpose than what Diamond Skin does. If a Marauder is going life-regen heavy, he is going to get golem blood anyway. Duelist and Marauder about even in that department, the main difference being the Duelist gets more regen early on and resolute technique later on.

"

If you look at it from what's unlocked, the Shadow and Templar get more out of their Curses routes than the Witch does. Minions, Static Blows, Ice Duration, Cast Speed, Critical Strike Chance

How do you figure? Curses are only improved by a little bit on the tree. Shadow and Templar get no extra synergy for using curses. Witch has to spend the least amount of points to reach curse improvements but using the highway I linked above, has access to any stat a witch could ever want, while still getting curse improvement. Shadow and Templar need to waste lots of points getting curse mastery and comparatively have less access to minions or other specialization to show for it.

"

Going through stat bundles to get the Hex skills for the Witch are another "bag of clashing stuff you probably don't want" lock. Wands + Ice, or Power Charge + Mana.

It should be a little easier for her, is all I'm saying.

The Witch does get superior +mana from the starting bundle given to you if that's your thing; the Templar will achieve about identical functional regen if you take his mana stats, but it costs him 11 skill points or you pick up AoE or Elemental damage on the way..

"

Footnote

The witch is superior in every way, at least for minions. Actually, the Shadow and Templar do not have convincing spell specialization for my tastes. The only thing notable about the Shadow is he has easier access to ghost reaver, phase dodge, freeze/shock on hit, and projectile damage. None of that is especially useful for a spellcaster compared to what things the witch has access to.

The Templar has some nice AOE increase nodes, but the witch actually gets more. The only reason to even play a templar-spell caster is for totem mastery and mana cost reduction on skills. That's it. The witch beats the Templar at any other game he wants to play.

At the end of this back and forth, I suppose it'd be useful to have tldr version of my assertions:

* Defense passives are nice, especially when they're not stats you can get off of gear. The Witch's Arcane Focus is even more bare bones than the humble Armour Mastery; it could be turned into another Unnatural Calm node, or at least brought up to an even 20%. The Ranger's signature defense skill is an 18% life node. She doesn't have a class-dedicated, big signature Evasion node. It's all in two shared bundles in the Center zone.

* The Witch's main themes, Minions and Curses, do not cost her neighbors much of anything to acquire. Removing the Templar's Minion Quantity node on the inner ring, and moving the witch's 2 Power charge locks somewhere else, would bring her more in line to her theme.

* The Walker signature nodes are a little blah; stats that are all over the tree. An idea that I don't absolutely hate would be to add some status duration/damage to them; it's something the witch already does. These are supposed to be her badass elemental skills. Let them be awesome.

* The ranger's identity is bows. And lots of basic quality life nodes. Many of the characters get inspiring stats right out the gate: minions, attacking so fast it breaks the universe, a skill that gives you a ton of block while increasing your slashiness at the same time, a skill that literally gives you the blood of a troll, skills that help overcome your innate weaknesses, skills that help you shrug off elemental damage.

What does the ranger get from her big, out-of-gate skills? +30 dexterity or +20 dexterity or +2% block.

"

Yes it does? It has crystal skin.

Crystal Skin.

"

No, because of the Ranger's good block and critical multiplier clusters, 1h+shield is a good build for her too. I've done it. You need to experiment more.

She has +17% shield block. Templar has +22 shield block. And spell block. And resist.

You're arguing against arguments that I'm not making. I'm saying these two classes have nothing that is unique to them, that they're the best at. Besides bows, life, and being female.

"

you can access cold damage, area of effect, cast speed, critical multiplier, wand damage - whatever you want to supplement your minions with, it's right on this highway. The Templar and the Shadow have to waste 10+ points making this same highway.

.... the number is 3 to 5. This isn't subjective. It costs them 3 to get onto the backbone if they spec into their spell nodes. 5 if they don't.

How do you get anything approaching ten here.

The Witch is neither inferior or superior when it comes to minions compared to her neighbors. It is nice that she can pick up 50% energy shield along the way I suppose. The Templar only gets 38% es and 10% resist if he decides to go out of his way like that.

"

I'm not sure what you're comparing golem blood too.

I'm comparing the opportunity cost its neighbors have to spend, and comparing that cost to what the witch's neighbors get and spend from going to her Curse Mastery section. I'm suggesting maybe the witch should have a more profitable yield from getting it.

As after all. If a Templar decides to get it, he's already completed about a fifth of that minion highway you were talking about earlier.

"

Shadow and Templar need to waste lots of points getting curse mastery and comparatively have less access to minions or other specialization to show for it.

I... really have no idea what to say to this. Maybe I'll just link a clone of the Templar version of the thing you showed me and point? Link.. (I'd still rather come in on the other side to get Lord of the Dead and save a point)

Now if you're going to spam skeletons all day and going pure defense, and you want to use Energy Shield and Chaos Inoculation to do that, I absolutely grant you that argument. And I absolutely admit that the offensive wings of the Shadow and Templar are the ones closest to the minion net - any Templar would be zany to pass up on Body and Soul if they cared about defense.

There's nothing wrong with tree bleed, that's just Path of Exile. We all love that. I'm talking signature themes here. If all you care about is Minion Quantity, the Witch and Templar are roughly tied by level 15 and above. That's all I'm saying. Not that if you have special conditions and duck by the mountain and have five red flutes a tornado appears and takes you to Dracula's castle.

"

The Templar has some nice AOE increase nodes, but the witch actually gets more.

Um. She pays 1 more point for +4% AoE damage. Her radius is equal, which was one of my suggestions above. That she'd have +25 or 30% radiuii.

What he actually gets to spend that on, will invariably be used on Intelligence lock nodes to access his Defense or Elemental Offense wings. The only way he really gets to apply it to +damage is if he's going physical.

"

None of that is especially useful for a spellcaster compared to what things the witch has access to.

DPS isn't even square one of my complaints here. All three of the blue classes have roughly 60% to spell power if they want it, and the witch has to stretch less for the 30 to 40% bonus bundles in her backyard.

I guess I'm just not sure what your argument is. None of the classes have much unique to them. Ignoring keystones, the only things that are notable are traps and totems passives.

"

* The Witch's main themes, Minions and Curses, do not cost her neighbors much of anything to acquire. Removing the Templar's Minion Quantity node on the inner ring, and moving the witch's 2 Power charge locks somewhere else, would bring her more in line to her theme.

This isn't correct at all though. Minions are more costly to specialize in for all classes that are not the Witch. The witch IS the best summoner without question. Without equal.

I'm all for making all classes unique, but you're comparing classes too rigidly. So what if the Templar has 5% more block chance than the Ranger? 17% block chance is plenty to work with when you consider how much more defensive a ranger is with those huge evasion bonuses to shields and/or iron reflexes. You also fail to consider how much more damage a ranger is doing with their melee weapon, thanks to critical multiplier and attack speed nodes.

Should classes have more identity? Sure, but you aren't going to come about it by trying to balance their clusters against one another. The best way to enhance class identity is to add more keystones and create more unique stats and assign them to each class. By comparing classes against each other, you're simply homogenizing them, not making them more unique or identifiable, which is what confuses me.

Just give each class one more keystone that is class-oriented (off-classes should have a harder time exploiting it). Then, add one small cluster to each class, ie:

Ranger - Spruce up king of the hill cluster, it's already pretty unique, just weak
Templar - Minion nodes that synergize with building tanky
Marauder - Thorns-based nodes
Duelist - Hybrid bow/melee weapon nodes (+3% bow damage, +3% dual wield damage)
Shadow - Trap-mastery nodes (increase AOE of trap spells, damage of trap spells, etc)
Witch - Probably fine. Witch is pretty unique as-is.

Providing some two cents here, I have to agree with Limited Rooster with certain aspects of the Ranger. (The class I play the most) While I do not believe the Ranger is gimped like other classes, I do believe her PStree layout of skills are still something left to be desired. Some of her major notables/pockets like Thick Skin, Fitness, Mana Flows, Deadly Draw, are mostly located in the outer edges of her skill tree. To compound the issue, a lot of the major bow passives/notables are scattered all over her tree and some directly in other class's trees, such as Duelist's Fury Bolts and Shadow's King of the Hill and Piercing Shots.

The other thing that bothers me, and noted by Limited Rooster, is her second starting highway that starts from the 18% evasion. It's rather weak in comparison to other classes's trees in terms of defense. Major life pockets are located either on the borders of the Ranger tree or further along the tree rather than the start. The essential 30% Reflexes notables are located in a major wheel BEHIND the Ranger starting area and has to walk a significant distance to reach them. The Finesse notable is laughably inferior compared to the Shadow's Acceleration notable (12% IAS & 20 Dex vs. 4% IAS and 30 Dex). The Finesse notable should have its IAS bumped up to 8% as a direct counter to the Shadow's Acceleration notable and a better balance.

I feel that the Ranger's defenses are much like some of her damage passives in that they're scattered all over the place and a player has to spend a significant investment in stat nodes to reach their desired skills, though my major beef is with her defenses. Her second starting highway is less than desirable and can be better by changing the Finesse notable (increase IAS to 8% from 4%) and reworking some of the skills around. The Avoid Stun skills can be moved into the Stun Recovery wheel and 3 other 8% life skills can be put in to fill the gaps. This will give the Ranger a much earlier access to essential life nodes without having to work for it. Complete the wheel with the Fitness notable, and the Ranger tree has a lot more defensive options available to her.

Ranger tree is perfect atm for phys bow and phys or ele dw builds.
If u choose play ele bow ranger and not go for CI its imposible to sustain vs swarm situations(flicker packs, very fast mobs). They kill 3.5k hp ranger in 2 seconds and flasks regen not enough against them. Please add keystone with 2-3% global lifeleech with bows.

Another problem build is 1h+shield, most dw clusters have block and dps options, while shield passives give deffence only, also u will nerf shield block in next patch. At this moment dw builds have x3-4 more dps then 1h+shields, slightly lesser block chance but higher sustain cause they leech x3 more hp\es\mp. Give to shield users passives cluster equal to "Twin terrors" swap "deffence on shield passives" with phys damage, accuracy, crit chance, atack speed while holding shield.

Well, the Ranger defense backbone will gravitate toward some subset of this. (And whatever's left over from that subset can be used in making her fatter with on-hand 8% life.) A few reasons for that:

* The Ranger's defensive wing is on the duelist side.

* There's Good Stuff along the way down there. If you want to try to go Energy Shield, you have Bow Nodes or take the basic, wasteful attribute node highway. It's flat pricier to go Shadow-wise.

* The defense options unlocked on the way to Shadowville are long, regular-value life and shield sets. On that route, you have bow nodes. Your reward for taking bow nodes... are incompatible shield nodes? This is insanity. This is another reason I strongly recommend moving the trap set here.

* The Duelist region does not have a defense wing and an offense wing. It's this sweeping, open area of choices. How the high value armor group just glides into the Leather and Steal group? Frankly, it's a thing of beauty. (The Templar ironically has it a bit rough too if he wants more energy shield/es recovery than his region provides. Since there are two wings between his defense and the witch's.)

* Weapon Artistry is in an ugly place when you look at it.

This isn't opinion, the dexterity nodes on the way to Shadow give way less options, and fewer choices. Heck, maybe this is the reason why the Ranger's out-the-gate signature nodes aren't as good.

I guess it goes without saying that I absolutely love how this area is put together, and wished that the routes between all the classes were this open and rewarding. The only other one that really compares is Shadow<->Witch. This is good design.

And the little route north of her area with the two Intelligence nodes is the type of thing I hate about the skill grid. It's like gaining a level to get kicked in the groin with these things.

Back onto the "why bother going deep into the Ranger's tree as another class" topic

The life nodes aren't a draw, not really. Once you acquire a ~+100% to +150% amount of life, you're getting more out of spending points on mitigation. Every class can get half way there on their own, and then go center (or Shadow, in the Witch's case) to finish that out. I suppose they're fantastic for someone who's already there (The evasion+life+/-iron reflexes "Fat Ranger" build); not a reason to take a hike to get there.

So it's raw bow damage and greedily holding the Shadow's critical damage nodes hostage. (Or otherwise known as "more raw bow damage.")

Oh, and you get to chop a target's block down by 40% with swords if you spend 6 points for it. I actually like that stat aesthetically since it's uncommon. Even if its PvE utility is in the toilet. Even though the strength classes have it better and cheaper.

"

By comparing classes against each other, you're simply homogenizing them, not making them more unique or identifiable

It confuses me that we can be on the same wavelength but be on different trollies.

With the Witch, I'm talking minor tweeks.

With the ranger. Most of the class starting zones have really good stuff at the front of them. You want to get in there and go deep. The Marauder is the king of this (and he pays for it by having to take a walk to increase his life and armor; btw holy hell does he get +resist. And life leech.), while the Ranger is the hobo of this. If you don't want even moar evasion, or bow damage, you have no reason to really want to get anywhere close to there. Or to start off as a ranger.

The only real benefit you get from it otherwise is you won't have to worry about Accuracy much as you walk the hell out of there. And no matter which way you go, you'll always have a Deadeye node as an option to make damn sure your miss chance is 5%.

Evasion. Bows. Accuracy. But not traps.

Maybe kittens. But we haven't gotten to that yet.

"

Duelist's Fury Bolts and Shadow's King of the Hill and Piercing Shots.

The King of the Hill cluster is way the heck out there compared to what it's worth. Another point in favor of the Ranger/Duelist.

Well, at least the shadow offers her another Frenzy node and lots of cheap IAS. (Wait, strike the "cheap" part out of that. It's only a good deal if you're dual wielding. But haha, her dual wield wing is... on the other side.)

"

nomenclature

Segway routes you take between classes, like the Witch-Shadow's critical chance/cast speed/+life/energy shield area, or the Ranger-Duelist life/mana/ias/move speed/resistance area, should be called "armpit zones" from here out.

Ranger starting highway issues aside, I find that the Ranger is split between 2 types - HP/Armor + DPS based on flat damage and HP/Evasion + DPH based on Crit damage. The former involves heading towards the Duelist's tree while the latter heads towards the Shadow's tree. Thinking like that, I guess the bow passives locations are fine as is but isn't so much self-contained in the Ranger tree as I would like it to be.

As for melee, it's almost not worth it to travel towards the Shadow portion of tree as it doesn't offer juicy notables compared to delving into the Duelist's side of the tree. The 2 melee builds I've built with Rangers all ended up into the Duelist's tree for its crazy-good damage passives.