[1.2.0] Omjak’s guide: Maximizing Dps - MAJOR UPDATE 3. REFINED TREES:NEW PERMA FREEZE TOTEM VARIANT

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MagicChicken wrote:

Instead of getting the dexterity node and 3 life nodes above Heavy Draw, how do you feel about allocating those 4 points into the health nodes near Shadow start and Mental Acuity?

Even tho the crit chance/intelligence/mana regen stats would be great to have, you will lose health overall if you do this. However, if u absolutely need the intelligence for gear/gems then that would be a good alternative to the current build. Its really up to you, but balancing dps with health is very important.

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Arachnae wrote:

Thanks for the great build and in-depth description. I was struggling with low DPS on my Ranger lately and could not decide how to improve it significantly. After reading your guide, I sank my remaining 20 skill points into Crit enhancing nodes, changed my skill links a bit and retired my Burning Arrow skill (at least for now).

The result is that I tripled my DPS on paper and now I can clear maps way faster then before. And the fun I'm having!

The only thing holding me back now is my gear - I seriously lack in resists and I have not updated some of the items I am wearing since Cruel difficulty.

I have a couple of questions though:

- wouldn't it be better to use a decent Harbringer bow instead of Lioneye's? It would add up to 50% to your base crit chance, bringing your overall crit over 50% (based on the screenshots you posted - mine is still far behind).

- I noticed you're using mixed Evasion / Armor gear and I wonder if you could post a screen of your defense stats. I am using pure Eva gear and so far I am doing fine (50+% eva + 40% dodge = rarely get hit). However I suffer from big hits, so I wonder what would my DR / EVA look with mixed armor / evasion and how much would it mitigate such big hits (I still need to try the Enduring Cry + Immortal Call combo you mentioned)

- any particular reason why you're using Blood Magic with LA? I am currently using LA+LMP+Pierce+Power on Crit and with my 2% mana leech node, I can fire nonstop as long as I hit something (I guess GMP + Life on Hit multipliers will probably make it unsustainable, but Mana Leech gem would ofset that as well)


For the reference, this is my skill tree - I am open to suggestions / critique :)

-A Harbinger would be good, depending on its dps. Theres a point where "chance to hit" can significanlty impact dps. This build has a high amount of dex which should give u almost all the accuracy you would need, but keep "chance to hit" in mind. A high Dps Harbinger could definetely be a good replacement for a lioneyes, but the dps would have to be incredibly high to meet the dps that a lioneyes provides. Also, the low attackspeed would not provide as good life regen as a high attackspeed bow with life on hit. However, this could be offset by a stronger defense against reflect. But u don't really need this because dodge/immortal call is sufficient. Really, it depends on the bow but sometimes Lioneyes is cheaper, faster, and sufficient

-i am still working on the guide, i can add to it later (right now i'm busy with school). If you want you can post your gear here and maybe i can offer you some advice. As for immortal call, i definitely recommend you try it.

-That combo in itself should have a fairly low mana multiplier so it is expected that you would have np. If you want more survivability, i would switch out pCoC for life on hit. The regen is instant and amazing. But if this setup is serving you well so far, then keep it.

Have you tried dropping all of those 8% projectile damage nodes for Heavy Draw?

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Gorgexpress wrote:

Have you tried dropping all of those 8% projectile damage nodes for Heavy Draw?

build includes both, projectile nodes and heavy/deadly draw?

Only in the final build though, which would be rather difficult to reach. If Heavy Draw is better than the projectile damage nodes, obviously it should be gotten before the 80s-90s.

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Gorgexpress wrote:

Only in the final build though, which would be rather difficult to reach. If Heavy Draw is better than the projectile damage nodes, obviously it should be gotten before the 80s-90s.

It depends really, if ur running solo most of the time you can get it first. However, if u do party play (which is great for xp in certain cases) then it would be better to stack some projectile damage for when u get auras stacking.

Having a combination of physical damage, and projectile damage is good for the overall game.

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Omjak_777 wrote:

-A Harbinger would be good, depending on its dps. Theres a point where "chance to hit" can significanlty impact dps. This build has a high amount of dex which should give u almost all the accuracy you would need, but keep "chance to hit" in mind. A high Dps Harbinger could definetely be a good replacement for a lioneyes, but the dps would have to be incredibly high to meet the dps that a lioneyes provides. Also, the low attackspeed would not provide as good life regen as a high attackspeed bow with life on hit. However, this could be offset by a stronger defense against reflect. But u don't really need this because dodge/immortal call is sufficient. Really, it depends on the bow but sometimes Lioneyes is cheaper, faster, and sufficient

-i am still working on the guide, i can add to it later (right now i'm busy with school). If you want you can post your gear here and maybe i can offer you some advice. As for immortal call, i definitely recommend you try it.

-That combo in itself should have a fairly low mana multiplier so it is expected that you would have np. If you want more survivability, i would switch out pCoC for life on hit. The regen is instant and amazing. But if this setup is serving you well so far, then keep it.

Thanks for your answers.

As for Harbrigner bow, I did not realize that "chance to hit" needs to be factored in as well. Still, I did some quick calculations and a Harbringer with the same DPS as Lioneye's should give me better overall DPS - but that's still a theoretical question, since I have nowhere near the amount of exalts needed for either. The lower attack speed would mean that I would have an easier time sustaining my mana.

For the defense, it was mostly a question of how much total Eva / Armor you have and what DR / chance to evade it gives you, since I wonder if Armor has any point if you have Acrobatics (it's halved anyway). I tried the EC/IC combo, I tried it, but I just can't get it to work right - it's too short (even with quality Increased Duration) and it takes a lot of practice to time it right. I might try to link it to CwDT gem.

The combo is awesome, but I was mostly wondering why you use Blood Magic and not some other damage or crit enhancing gem (I think ICC would work nicely with this), when mana is not an issue.

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Arachnae wrote:

Thanks for your answers.

As for Harbrigner bow, I did not realize that "chance to hit" needs to be factored in as well. Still, I did some quick calculations and a Harbringer with the same DPS as Lioneye's should give me better overall DPS - but that's still a theoretical question, since I have nowhere near the amount of exalts needed for either. The lower attack speed would mean that I would have an easier time sustaining my mana.

For the defense, it was mostly a question of how much total Eva / Armor you have and what DR / chance to evade it gives you, since I wonder if Armor has any point if you have Acrobatics (it's halved anyway). I tried the EC/IC combo, I tried it, but I just can't get it to work right - it's too short (even with quality Increased Duration) and it takes a lot of practice to time it right. I might try to link it to CwDT gem.

The combo is awesome, but I was mostly wondering why you use Blood Magic and not some other damage or crit enhancing gem (I think ICC would work nicely with this), when mana is not an issue.

np

Well, technically a harbinger of equal dps as a lioneyes should do less dps overall. Lets say i have a 90% chance to hit. this means that i will miss one out of every 10 hits. This is a multiplicative effect on dps. Let's say that i have a lioneyes of the exact dps as a harbinger, and when i equip both i have a potential to do 2000dps before chance to hit (neglecting the added crit chance from the implicit mod, which can net you a 2.5 increase to your crit chance). because lioneyes does not miss it has full damage when i equip it. However, when i equip the harbinger i will get only 90% of the damage, which will be around 1800. now lets take crit chance and multiplier into effect. with a 20% chance to crit, and a 500 multiplier. Lioneyes: 2000*.8+.2*(5.00)*(2000)= 4000dps final. Harbinger: 1800*(.8-.025)+(.2-.025)(5.00)(1800)=3420dps final.

If you really want to find the dps you would need to match a lioneyes (when you get one), divide the dps of a lioneyes by your chance to hit when you take it off.

I've been descreet on armour and defense because i'm not exaclty sure how this works. What i do know is that values diminish at each level up, so they can be misleading.

But if u must know, at level 84 for defense i can get up to 40% damage reduction with my flask and endurance charges 47% chance to evade with grace (around 37% before). When i was running a unwaveringstance/iron reflexes build i remember it being at around 60% with grace. Its not a bad idea to have armour, as it has diminishing values anyway and the 50% cut for dodge can be overcome. You also have things like immortal call and endurance charges to help you. However, my gear has stuck with me for awhile as i'm mostly self found (except for the lioneyes of course) and buy gear rarely. I mention this is not optimal because i haven't tried this full evade, and my armour gives me decent combo of both so that i can facetank minion waves and kite when i need to.

as for Imortal call/increased duration/enduring cry, you may want to link faster casting with all three on a 4L (or cwdt/cwstuned). It is a bit hard to find a rythm to chaining both, but once you get used to it it can be quite useful. It could also be the level of your gems, or if ur not getting max charges before you use it. cwdt has the advantage of being activated my reflect, cast when stunned can only be activated on hit. However, cast when stunned doens't have a level requirement (last time i checked)

Harbringer gives 50% increased crit chance, but it is local crit chance, so it is apploied before your skill / global multipliers are applied. So the increase is not 2.5%, but 2.5% * your multipliers (I just double checked in game - with spine bow, I have 23% crit chance, with a non-perfect Harbringer, I have 34% chance).

This means that using your example, you would do 2000 * (0.2 * 5 + 0.8) = 3600 DPS with Lioneyes and 1800 * (0.3 * 5 + 0,7) = 3960 DPS with Harbringer and 90% chance to hit, which is a 10% increase in flat DPS. This might not seem like that much - but you would also crit a LOT more, so you would shock more, gain charges faster etc (and the more chance to crit passives you have, the bigger the difference will be).

As for defense, I will try the faster casting trick and level up my gems some more. I probably just need some getting used to it. I also need to start casting Enfeeble or Temporal Chains - that would probably help me survive

Very interesting build! Trying to make up my mind on which build to use for my recently created LA shadow. Leaning towards yours. I'm just wondering, how well do you handle mapping? Both solo and in a full party. And what is the highest map level you feel confident in doing safely, and might this increase with better gear or is it a build limitation?

I'm looking to play both solo and in a party, but probably more solo. Just want a fast, hard hitting ranged character that I can also invest a lot of exalted into to make amazing. :)

Thanks for a well structured and informative guide!