Archer location, I am dissapoint

Avoid Stun is great for ES builds, but it's kind of pointless on a Ranger. I agree those could be moved elsewhere, but the Ranger already has so much access to life and evasion... if your build isn't getting enough of either, that's your fault, not the tree's.

Duelist shouldn't have too many mana problems, there's the mana flows noteable going right towards dex skills, and up to the middle 3 +20% regen nodes (reachable for rangers, as well), and blood magic on the left.
The areas with no mana regen at all are Marauder and Shadow; Understandable on the Marauder, the shadow might need better leech instead, as discussed in another thread.

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anubite wrote:

Avoid Stun is great for ES builds, but it's kind of pointless on a Ranger. I agree those could be moved elsewhere, but the Ranger already has so much access to life and evasion... if your build isn't getting enough of either, that's your fault, not the tree's.

Not so much that Rangers need more life but a relocation of life nodes. Sorry if I wasn't clear enough. (I tend to leave things out when posting and typing fast.)

And you're right, the entirety of Avoid Stun and Stun Recovery nodes could totally be pushed into a wheel on the outer edges, and then the Thick Skin and Alchemist notable could be pushed inwards to replace the Stun-related passives. I think this would make a far stronger defense highway that offers great survivability in the early game, and would be akin in passive-highway strength like the Marauder and Witch.

I have on occasion referred to the Ranger's one-handed weapon route as "a cancer". Today I finally cobbled together enough points and refund points to get rid of it. The effects on my stat sheet:

With the one-handed route:

Life: 1155
Life Regen: 32.9
Block: 30%
----------
Dual Strike: 1500.6
Cleave: 910.6
Chance to Hit: 88%

Without those nodes, but with 2 12% life nodes and 1 Strength Node added instead.

Life: 1321
Life Regen: 37.1
Block: 27%
----------
Dual Strike: 1269.4
Cleave: 754.9
Chance to Hit: 85%


So ten points there gave her roughly 18.2% more damage. And three points elsewhere gave her 14.4% more life.

If I really wanted to get back that damage, I could spend 2 points on the rationally located Fencing, or splurge 4 points away for the zippy Blade Master. Together, they give more than the "bundle of random crap" on everything but Block. Except Dex I guess.

It's an abysmal route. Let's contrast and compare it to other comparable routes.

Ranger one-handed weapon route

Exits: Heartseeker. And Shield Block. The evasion set your starting location already starts at. This "going forward to go backwards" reminds me of throwing up in my mouth. (I don't mean that to sound as offended as it might sound; I simply find it an amusing metaphor I can't help but think of, is all.)

Cost: 8 or 10 points.

Benefits:
52% increased damage
3% block
2% increased attack speed
22% increased accuracy
+30 dexterity


Shadow weapon route

Exits: Elemental damage, life, Nullification bundle, critical hit bundle, a weak damage while dual wielding bundle, with a few offramps to the attribute highway along the way.

Cost: 9 or 10

24% increased damage (with immediate access to spend 2 more points for another 24%)
24% increased attack speed
4% block
7% movement speed
+20 dexterity


Duelist weapon route

Exits: Armour, a ton of life+life regeneration sets, shield block. The sister Dual Wield route leads into Dervish (8% block. EIGHT.), Leather and Steel, and Ice Bite. Also a Diamond Skin if you're going for Frenzy.

Cost: 8

34% increased damage
11% increased attack speed
+20 dexterity
+30 strength

====

I could do the others, but I think I've already done overkill here.

The Ranger's melee route offers excessive accuracy, excessive dexterity (the Witch doesn't have two +30 int nodes two inches away leading into each other), expensive damage, isn't compatible with her two-hand "Wrecking Ball" variant build. And it doesn't lead you anywhere.

It's a kaizo trap.

Btw, I really like Claws of the Pride, and Fencing. They give you affordable DPS that makes a decent impact; almost as powerful as the basic +% life node. (While cruft like Eagle Talons doesn't enable anything; they're dark holes to squander your vast riches into.) I wish half of the DPS bundles were as strong - I'd buy Blade Master or Galvanic Hammer for 3 points. It's not like getting access to its set was free.

Also: I like the design of the Marauder's melee route, which has a bypass on it so you can skip accuracy and get Versatility sooner.

The only route that's remotely as bad is the Witch's flask mana route, but even then, it's a lot less points and at least you have a ton of mana now.

I agree that past Weapon Artistry, the melee passives get weak and the Heart of Panther notable is especially weak, offering more dex (acc) than you need at that stage of the game.

However, while the melee route could be improved, I'd rather much see the starting defense highway improved more than the melee route. Instead going past Weapon Artistry, you'd stop there and then go straight for the defense highway and onto juicier options.

The specifics Rooster points out I can't disagree with. I haven't done any computation, but, I generally avoid that cluster at all costs because of how slow it is to "get out" -- any melee build I do with the ranger follows this basic setup:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAQIAAAAILgAAGY4AADWSAABOyAAAm40AAK_rAADTfgAA7YM=

I would suggest the 6% melee damage nodes for the Ranger be changed into something else. Some unique stats for the ranger could make melee builds with her interesting. Some hybrid offensive/defensive nodes (nodes that increase damage done and shield block chance, or how about shield defenses and melee physical damage?)

Dual wield passives are especially uninviting.

Availing myself of the free respec for my archer (so my wretched karma of blowing 10 respec points two hours before getting more than that for nothing kind of balances out).

This time, this time I do things right. Movement speed is priority one, with life evasion and resists filling it out. For, why play ranger, if not for the movement speed? (Don't say Diamond flasks, hisss.)

(Once again, wish Celerity led to anything besides Iron Reflexes and Point Blank. And sorrow overwhelms that the Shadow side of everything is so closed off to I. Will just have to wait for an easier game before getting into the 32%+ range.)

The "fake notable node" the ranger is so rife with isn't unique to her (the Templar's 6-6-12 damage nodes that lead you to arriving exactly at the 8% average in total come to mind), but the archery zone really is. No other class's root route leads into a 10 point blob of average nodes for 1 weapon.

Anyway, my pitch for Heart of the Panther is that it oughta make you speedy like a kitty, and give you strength instead of dex:

Heart of the Panther
8% increased physical damage with one handed weapons
5% increased movement speed
+20 strength

It's a bit odd the shadow has movement speed in his root, despite it being a secondary stat for him, and the ranger doesn't.

A big issue is that those 10% accuracy nodes feel like contracting a disease instead of being a benefit. They're little highway men that rob you on your way to town. Or venomous snakes lurking in the grass. "Oh it won't be so bad taking this." No. They'll full of myotoxin. Which turns your muscles into mayonnaise.

Well, the Ranger actually gets access to more movement speed, you just need to spend a few points to get it, while it comes more natural to the Shadow. I think 5% movement might be a bit much, but if the cluster were kept the same, it might be balanced I guess.

And accuracy is not a bad stat, please. Do you know how hard it is for my Witch to break 75% accuracy against map monsters? She has 200 dex.

Let's quantify the nodes

6% attack speed
12% accuracy
8% melee dmg
6% melee dmg
10% melee + 3% block
6% one handed dmg
6% one handed dmg
30 dex + 4% one handed wep dmg + 2% attack speed
10% accuracy

For 8 points (ignoring 6% aspeed start) you get:
22% accuracy, 32% melee damage, 2% attack speed, 3% block, 30 dex

Per point you get: 2.75% acc, 4% melee phys, 0.25% attack speed, 0.375% block, 3.75 dex

Reaching the end of this cluster leads access to:

block cluster - this is fine, standard with other classes
critical cluster - this is fine, 30% crit damage 30% crit mult for 3 points; it's not exceptional, but it's not bad to have easy access to these stat combos, technically though, Shadow cluster beats this out pretty hard (80% crit chance 20% crit damage for 3 points)!

Notably, there are two average dual wield nodes too, I'm not sure why anyone would take these though. I honestly think they could be buffed by having them give +1% attack speed, or 2% more physical damage each. There's only two of them and they're not buying you any new opportunities when you take them (you'll still wind up in the same place if you take the evasion nodes).

In order to compare though, let's look at one-handed damage on the Shadow in his starting cluster. He gets 8 points past the first starting node.

3% movement speed
8% one handed phys
8% 1h phys
8% 1h phys
12% aspeed, 20 dex

6% phys
18% phys
6% phys
OR
2% dw block
12% dw aspeed
2% dw block

Leads access to: 8% dual wield damage+6% dual wield and/or 4% movement speed

54% melee phys, 20 dex, 3% movement, 12% aspeed
6.75 melee phys, 2.5 dex, 0.375% move, 1.5% aspeed per level

OR

24% melee phys, 20 dex, 24% aspeed, 4% dw block
3% melee phys, 2.5 dex, 3% aspeed, 0.5% block per level

Putting the Ranger's one-handed 8 purchases alongside:

4% melee phys, 2.75% acc, 0.25% attack speed, 0.375% block, 3.75 dex

Notably: Ranger gets 33% more physical damage and a lot more accuracy than a DW Shadow. The DW Shadow gets slightly more block and 12 times more aattack speed. GGG has acknowledged that attack speed is a very powerful stat, especially comapred to IPD.

If we compare the ranger with the non-DW path:

Shadow gets more than 2x more physical damage, 6 times more attack speed. No accuracy or block bonuses.

Now, it's kind of unfair to make comparisons like this. It's too direct. We need to look at the bigger picture. But unfortunately, even in the bigger picture, the Shadow wins:

If the ranger takes the critical strike cluster, the Shadow is better at criticals by far.
If the ranger takes the block cluster, there's a slight lead, but the Shadow gets access to the same cluster, just a few points later.
The shadow's tree allows for him to "decouple" from it faster. If you take the melee physical path for the Ranger, you're "stuck" commiting a whole 8 points before you can get off it. For these investments, it's just not worth it. The shadow gets a lot more versatility. The only thing the ranger is getting is some accuracy (which they may not need if they're going to focus entirely on dexterity).

I think power gap issue here is attack speed. Some of the passives here should give some attack speed, so the ranger and shadow are roughly equal? 1.5% attack speed per level seems fair to me, but if that's too much, or you want more class identity, I'd say, put some more block chance here? Make the 3% notable give 4%, and make the panther notable give 2% block chance, maybe 10% critical strike chance too. I'd also say raise the 12% accuracy node to 15%. Twelve percent seems a little wimpy considering the Ranger is already getting less than average melee physical damage starting nodes compared to the Shadow, Templar, Marauder and Duelist.

I'd also suggest putting a really cool/unique notable node in this cluster. Something to do with bleed? Or how about some kind of evasion/"parry" mechanic the ranger could utilize? How about some percentage of your accuracy is added as physical damage to your attacks? A little movement speed bonus wouldn't be a bad idea either (2-3% would be fine I think). Raising all the 6% melee physical damage nodes to 8% might suffice, though, the ranger I think has enough physical damage... I suppose 4 or 8% more wouldn't hurt at all. My last suggestion is to onnect the first node after 'weapon artistry' to 'dual wield damage' -- the biggest thing is that the Shadow has a lot of versatility with his melee physical start, the Ranger is too restricted while taking his stuff. Encourage more mobility here.

Was eyeballing Burning Arrow on my ranger today. While eyeballing the Pyromaniac cluster.

A rough build for a Templar to handle, but he is king of elemental weapon damage.

An annoying thing to lament; Final Fantasy 10 allowed warp zones on its grid. Sometimes I feel like they'll be mandatory if the grid is ever expanded in a significant fashion.