[1.xx] Islidox's Build tips/critique section for Rangers

Welcome exiles, new and old!or Rangers featuring my Phys/Crit/Evade Ranger pg30!

Obviously you've come to this forum to discuss builds of your favorite class (or should be your favorite class). With the onset of OB, you're wondering what sort of builds will be feasible, hardcore or softcore (default). To that end, there are several things you need to keep in mind before jumping into the build specifics.

As your first character in a brand new league/realm, you will have nothing at your dispoal, nothing in your stash, to help you build those powerful builds you had in closed beta. Gone, nada, zero. As such, your builds should keep in mind several things:


1. Be as Gear Independent as possible

- Do not rely on skill gems (e.g. Elemental Hit) or support gems (Greater Multiple Projectiles [GMP], Chain) that can only be found by looting or trading with others.

- Do not rely 5Link/6Link (5L/6L) equipment to make your build survivable. Work with 3Ls and 4Ls with the hopes of eventually getting a 5L/6L. Your main skills must be able to work with 4Ls at the very least to be viable. When you hit Merciless, you should be working with 3/4L equipment.

- Do not rely on trading with people for things you need; this is a brand new economy and everything will be hyperinflated. If you need specific support/skillgems, consider rolling another toon that will receive that skill/support gem. ***This applies to the new 4month leagues, Anarchy and Onslaught.***

- Do not rely on obtaining uber weapons/armor. Chances are, you might be using magic (blue) items even in Merciless difficulty.


2. Defense over Offense

- Try to maintain a greater ratio of defense to offense. You want your first build to marginally succeed, even if it runs across trouble in the endgame map content. Do not spec all into offense or throw a passive point or two into defense. This will get you killed fast, and rumor has it that Act 3 is pretty tough and Act 3 is TOUGH. Likewise, do not spec all into defense as it will you get you nowhere either!

- The three defense aspects you have to consider are: 1) primary defense (life or ES) 2) secondary defense type (armor, evasion, acrobatics), 3) resistances

- Generally speaking, having 2k+ life, 40%+ armor or evasion, and 20+ resistances will be enough when starting Merciless difficulty, but these are the bare minimum figures and should strive for more beyond that. By the time you hit endgame at lvl 66+, you'll want 3k+ life, 50%+ armor/evasion, and 50+ resistances.

- Watch out for mobs dealing Chaos damage, shock stacking/freeze, and critical damage.


3. Build smartly

- Don't just make a build all willy-nilly with the online passive skill tree and post it for feedback, have a plan! What do you want to accomplish with this character with the available skill/support gems?

- What skills will you be using? What skills will you be focusing on as your main mode of attack? Think about the synergy of skills with support gems and support/utility skills.

- What type of damage are you dealing? Physical, Elemental, single element, crit, or a mix? Successful builds in this game usually require a combination of 2 types of damage.

- What defense type will you go for? Armor through Iron Reflexes, or evasion + Acrobatics/PhaseAcrobatics + Arrow Dodging?

- How will you fuel your attacks? Mana (e.g. Mana Flows, leech, regen) or Blood Magic (keystone/support, HP, HP regen)?

- Plan a build using 105 points, then break that down in stages (1-20, 21-40, 41-70, 71-85, 85-105). This will help you to envision the type of build you are aiming for, and what nodes, notables, and keystones you will take first over others. An 85-point build will give a solid picture of a build that can tackle endgame content once you've finished Act 3 of merciless (level-wise low to high 60s).

- You should be using points 1-70 to reach all the necessary areas/keystones before filling in the gaps. You don't want to be wasting a lot of skill points on measly +10 stat attributes to reach a cluster of passives at high levels. Starting from lvl 85 and up, each point will matter a whole lot more as your experience gain slows down exponentially.

- Try to make your build utilizing some of the most powerful notables at the Ranger's disposal.


4. Watch your Flask selection

- Certain flasks (resists, diamond, granite) are drop only, and cannot be purchased from the NPC vendor.

- Diamond flasks are now being reinstated into the game in a nerfed manner. Crit builds can now utilize this flask as a way to increase your chance of criticaling. Not really worth using imo due to the fact it consumes 80 charges out of 80 for ONE use. I'd bring one for emergency use... but I don't think it's necessary.

- Granite flasks have been nerfed (again). The current nerf makes it so it grants +3000 additional armor instead of 4000.

- Quicksilver flasks will replace the overrused Phase Run. This flask is great for farming and panic escape. Think about whether or not you want this flask to use up one of your slots on your flask belt. As such, you may want to spend a passive point on movement speed such as the Armor Mastery notable or the Celerity notable. And be on the lookout for boots with movement speed mods. Phase Run may or may not come back; we shall see.


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After all that, you might be wondering how to go about an actual build. Located throughout this forum, there have been dedicated members advising people on how to properly construct builds, myself included.

Please take a look, and don't be lazy. Chances are your questions have already been answered by someone else. I will also be willing to look over your proposed builds if you're uncertain. All veteran members are welcome to chip in as well. When posting builds, please use the url and spoiler tags to make it easier for the people you are seeking help from.

I hope this cleared up a lot confusion and doubts, and happy gaming.

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Links to Major (IMPORTANT) posts made by me in this thread:

Here's the post that refers to many types of starter Bow builds (also located further down the first page):

> http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/69224/page/1#p844898

What mods to look for on gear:

> http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/69224/page/9#p874206

How to plan for Skills and Supports:

> http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/69224/page/20#p998666

My own Physical/Critical Dodge/Evade build:

> http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/69224/page/30#p4113880

+1

Well done Islidox very informative - I agree that basing builds on 5L - 6L gear and gems such as chain will be absolutely ludicrous since those items will be worth a fortune.

If you need Lightning Strike gem just level a Templar to 10 - 13 defeat Brutus and obtain it that way since i feel that gem will be expensive also

Heeey! Good job! :D
Another pro tip as a Ranger: get LMP whenever it's available as a quest reward. Rangers get this gem as a quest reward something absurd like 7 times, but other classes get it few times and at very high levels. Trading away a bunch of LMP can snag you some good currency to either use or horde till prices come down. XD
Don't feel bad about taking advantage of the flood of noobs in OB. ^^ Chances are they wont be supporters, so they can learn from a little bit of use and abuse like most of us probably did. Just make sure not to be mean! I'm sure a lot of us Closed Beta members will become flustered with their silliness at one point or another. ^.~
<3

Very informative and well thought out post.
I will come back to this alot for reference.

A few notes I found very useful

Granites can roll a % Increase to Evasion, meaning that acrobatics users and/or evasion users can put a granite to good use, even if the armor is useless.

Instant HP pots can be facerolled, meaning that while 1 dose is not huge, 2-4-6 can be the difference between life or death

You can have more then one type of curse; it's a very good plan to keep both an offensive (Vuln/proj weak/ele weak) and a defensive curse (Temp chains/Enfeeble)

Oh and since I often forgot myself, try Hardcore. If you die you go to Default League and you can bring any items to default league if anything valuable is in the Hardcore league Stashes.

And try to participate in a three hour race as soon as they come after OB. I'm not very compatitive myself but after watching some people race on Twitch I tried a couple races and learned a lot by doing so. Made me think more about the value of mods, and how to spend my currencies more effectively. For example rolling a high physical damage mod on a magic item can go a long way when you start with nothing. Also another thing that was cool (besides earning some rewards if you survived the 3 hour race), is that I found several quality gems while doing so! So even though the race starts at level 1, you can still get some good skill gems that you didn't have yet.

The BOW builds - UNDER RECONSTRUCTION DUE TO CHANGES IN 1.0.0!!! - CHECK BACK LATER

I want to make a note that all of these builds have been inspired and/or tested by established builds veteran players have made. As such, originality may be lacking, but I made my own twists and tweaks.

You'll note that these builds are all numbering around the 106-108 points - this is meant for a true vision of what your build should look like in the level 80s. As such, how to level up to these sort of builds is to always:
1. Aim for keystones
2. Aim for important notables
3. Life, life, and more life (or if CI, which I don't recommend when starting out, ES)

I cannot stress how important life is in this game due to the increase in mob damage. You'll note that all builds listed below have over 200% increased life, which becomes a 300%+ multiplier on your base life (1 + 2.XX). That's how important life is in this game and specifically how dangerous Merciless/Maps mobs can be. Also all builds utilize Iron Reflexes (IR) to convert evasion to armor. Having armor makes it easier to manage your secondary defense than having to dump lots of passives into evasion/Acrobatics+PhaseAcrobatics/ArrowDodging. (Also more reliable defense.) One last thing to note is that most Ranger builds are based around elemental damage - that's unfortunately how the game is currently set up with ele mods being more numerous and easier to build up than physical damage. Now onto the builds:

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Build 1: Elemental Ranger using BM, IG, IR, RT, and Static Blows

This build is probably the most popularized LA/Elemental Hit build out there that utilize the Static Blows notable to inflict shock status, resulting in 40% more damage. I don't even know who the originator of the build is, but regardless, it's there, and highly popular. Use Anger/Wrath/Grace auras with the Lightning Arrow (LA) skill for AoE and Elemental Hit for single-target.



Build 2: Elemental Frenzy Ranger using BM, IG, IR, RT

This build is another type of elemental ranger that instead seeks to utilize the speed/physicaldamage increase from frenzy charges instead of inflicting shock ailment. Elemental damage stacks nicely with Frenzy, and like Build 1, this build uses Anger/Wrath/Grace with LA for AoE and Frenzy for single-target. Designed heavily off of MrPetrov's original IR/IG/RT/BM build.



Build 3: Elemental Ranger using IG, IR, RT, and Inner Force

This build mixes things up a bit where the focus is centered around %-based auras, like Vitality, Hatred, Determination, Purity, and Haste. You can use flat-mana auras by using the Blood Magic support gem on top of stacking 3 %-based auras on your mana pool. This increases your defense AND offense but sacrifices some slots that could be used for utility skills. LA and Elemental Hit OR Frenzy Hit can be used.



Build 4: Critical/Physical Frenzy and Split/RoA Ranger using IR

This build is basically VictorDoom's build that is far more interesting than the previous ele-dmg builds. While it has less health that the previous elemental builds, it offers Critical damage that can easily match its own AND exceed DPS of that of elemental builds. Utilizing Frenzy as single-target skill and frenzy charges, the charges help power up your AoE attack, which can either be Split Arrow or Rain of Arrows. Any auras can be used, but consider using 2 %-based auras, and 2 flat-cost auras on BM support gem (if you have enough life.) Mana Leech on gear is a must to power this build. (Build not limited to physical damage only. Hatred aura is great for this.)

Visit my own version of this build using Evasion/Dodge here!


Build 5: Critical Frenzy/LA Ranger using IR, EB, and Arcing Blows

A critical Ranger with a twist. Utilizing the notable Arcing Blows that grants 30% increased lightning damage with weapons, this build is a mixture of physical, elemental, and crit damage. Frenzy will be your single-target skill, but LA will be your AoE. This build is also different because it utilizes the Eldritch Battery (EB) keystone to power its attacks, so finding gear with Energy Shield mods on it will boost your mana pool. Like Build 4, the type of auras can be used is similar, although you should able to stack a third %-based aura on your mana pool.



Build 6: Elemental RainOfArrows Ranger using IG, IR, PB, RT

Here's a build for the plucky, up-in-your-face type of players. Utilizing the Point Blank keystone, this build relies on Rain of Arrows and increased Area of Effect passives (or support gem) to deal heavy damage at extreme close range. To further build up damage, this build uses elemental damage as its main source of damage while forgoing the BM keystone for %-based auras. This build is based off of Ghoun's PB Marauder build, but with the Ranger in mind. Elemental Hit for single-target and Rain of Arrows for AoE. 2 flat-cost auras and 2-3 %-based auras can be used. This Ranger is very tanky and your skills are designed to be used off of the BM support gem.



Build 7: Elemental Frenzy/IceShot Ranger using IG, IR, RT, and Icebite

After the buff to the Duelist tree, Iceshot builds are becoming pretty neat to play around with. As such, grabbing the Icebite notable in the Duelist tree is key to this build. Also, since the Hatred aura adds cold damage as a % of your physical damage, the BM keystone is not chosen for this purpose and mana regen/leech is key. Frenzy for single-target skill and Ice Shot (with LMP + Fork) is your AoE skill. Ice Shot can also be used for single target, but Frenzy does more damage overall. 2 flat-cost auras and 2-3 %-based auras can be used.



Build 8: Physical/Crit Frenzy/Split Arrow Ranger using IR, CI, GR, VP

After the life/ES nerfs, CI became very popular, especially when combined with Ghost Reaver and Vaal Pact. This build requires a Chayula's Onyx amulet to prevent being stunned constantly, but the upside of this build (once properly geared) is being able to use Blood Rage and instantly leech life. It's a very strong build but is also quite equipment heavy. Discipline/Grace/Hatred are your go to auras. Use Frenzy for single target and Split Arrow for your AoE.



****** One final note, a lot of these builds function best with a 5L for AoE and either 4/5L for single-target. To make a successful build, you must envision your build at the end for it to be successful.

I havent tried pure physical buulds so im gonna take ut word on this. How good is the lategame scaling of the dps without any elemental damage. Seems to me its a lot harder to scale on pure physical compared to ele dmg lategame. Again i could be completely off here so pls feel free to correct me with some solid facts.

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Newb4evar wrote:

I havent tried pure physical buulds so im gonna take ut word on this. How good is the lategame scaling of the dps without any elemental damage. Seems to me its a lot harder to scale on pure physical compared to ele dmg lategame. Again i could be completely off here so pls feel free to correct me with some solid facts.

Yes, it is definitely harder to obtain more Physical Damage than Elemental damage, but it can be done.

Take a look at this thread: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/53795

While his gear is very high-end, it shows that physical/crit can be more than viable for endgame content. The thread also goes over certain aspects of his build, including several proposed builds by myself. It's well worth a look.

Islidox, as a brand new Exile, this is really helpful. Thank you for taking the time to post this :)

I haven't done enough research yet to warrant a question, but you have certainly done enough to warrant a thank you!