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

@Hingerson: The reason why elemental bow builds are so popular is because it's easier to stack elemental damage and elemental mod values are better than physical damage mods on bows. Physical bow builds aren't weak by any stretch of the imagination, but you get much better DPS values going elemental. This, I feel, is something that GGG needs to address.


@Leoho: It's not a bad build, except that it's still lacking in life, and you miss some of the more important notables. With 15 more points, I believe this build can be fully fleshed out:



@Chromek: If you're using Split Arrow/Rain of Arrows for your AoE attacks, I would not pick up Lesser Multiple Projectiles and instead pick up Faster Projectiles, Faster Attacks, Mana Leech, Culling Strike, and Iron Grip from the Ranger quests. And yes, going for IR before you reach the Vaal Oversoul boss is a good idea, and certainly before the end of Normal difficulty.

The way I plan my skillset is to usually utilize at least these things:
- 1 default attack
- 1 AoE attack
- 1 aura
- 1 spell
- 1 utility skill/spell

With this in mind, you can expand on what your deficiencies are and supplement that with the available skills/supports.


@Bundin: I think gansinho has answered your questions adequately. I'll address other things.
- Regarding Golem's Blood, it's worth picking up for BM IF you don't plan on heading up to the Templar tree for an Elemental Ranger. This is due to choosing your passives wisely and reaching to notables that give the best bang for buck AND complete the build.
- As for BM, you need lots of life before getting it (say 4 life clusters), and that's really the best answer I can come up with.
- Depending on your build, if you're not wasting a lot of passive points to get it, i.e. along the way, then grab it. If not, I'd get resists elsewhere.
- Str is not only useful for IG and skill/support requirements, it also adds flat HP, which can never be bad.


@Hoverdog: CI in its current incarnation is basically useless without extra ES.


@Durgarnkuld: your build lacks survivability via life. I cannot stress enough that all builds MUST have a reasonable amount of life passives to be viable for Merciless difficulty and endgame maps, nor should you plan on being able to use all 111 points for build planning. Mind Drinker by itself is not enough to solve mana issues as physical damage from bows aren't that high. Passives must be spent on +mana or mana regen to make Mind Drinker that much more effective. In my builds post, I would highly recommend basing your build off of one of those and rework it to your liking, say more crit or more attack speed etc.


@UnholyCross: Certain keystones take priority over others, other keystones are dependent on getting more life (for BM) or getting more evasion (for ArrowD/PA/Acrobatics). Iron Reflexes is a keystone that you should immediately pick up for those using it. Other keystones can wait til Cruel difficulty to access them. ALL ESSENTIAL keystones should be gotten BEFORE Merciless difficulty.

I want to make a separate note - I won't always be available to answer all questions, I want to play as well, aside from IRL obligations. The original intent of this thread was to simply provide some guidelines on how to properly make a build for OB. It obviously evolved far beyond this point to a more in-depth Q&A on how to make a truly viable Ranger beyond the theorycrafting. If I don't reply to you in this thread, it's because I'm simply human. I implore players who have questions to thoroughly go over the contents of this thread and do some outside research before asking questions here. After all, it doesn't hurt to know more about the game outside of a Ranger's perspective.

After some thought, before you took your time to respond, I based another attempt off your STR Ranger and it ended with this:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIBm43Tflb6dEEUdcHYDq0ppUOcGNt08Z65IWBAoAUtYEt673Tt704otWCIYVIyCVYEhmA6Ut-_r-sB0fT4okDEotwVq9Kn1P7In8tVqZe0rLr8xWegh3ZKfd0NOrMs6bQa4sslP8rTGbT6sepiapPADxUgKk0_J26qMn7exr6nFFJHfqvFhNmuk1s9zqgBvO96d9d_KzB8UUdv8jnUoJ8x-nb3yqkhdjMM_isZ1f_ejb8FtbEwhs531PlWqriqf4cZDPKlyzY953Rh4ofbFr_z6nBScNXAUWVN9qOvp2z2


I took a lot more Life and Regen this time around (and the right arm from the tree will be skilled later on, doesn't matter that I don't have those skillpoints for a long time).
Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it.

Two attempts so far (with best being in closed beta lvl 13 - on started playing 1 week b4 open beta)

Lvl 21 , ran into a room i already face checked, and got blown away (lol me - throw some aoe out)

Lvl 37 , on cruel, underestimated the cold damage of some mobs and got slowed / killed.

Third time lucky now; following BM build into rauder tree, taking IR / BM / IG, now might take US into the build.

Question about US; upon taking it, do you need alot of armour / evasion as your going to be hit all the time?

"

Islidox wrote:

I want to make a separate note - I won't always be available to answer all questions, I want to play as well, aside from IRL obligations. The original intent of this thread was to simply provide some guidelines on how to properly make a build for OB. It obviously evolved far beyond this point to a more in-depth Q&A on how to make a truly viable Ranger beyond the theorycrafting. If I don't reply to you in this thread, it's because I'm simply human. I implore players who have questions to thoroughly go over the contents of this thread and do some outside research before asking questions here. After all, it doesn't hurt to know more about the game outside of a Ranger's perspective.

Just wanted to say thank you. Take your time and go play!

Your thread and the great effort you are taking in helping others makes this community big. imo this prevented the ranger forum to be flooded even more ;)

Pity is that most people are not used to gather information themselves, plain asking is faster and comes with less effort for oneself.

Let's just hope this will adjust over time.

EDIT: Spelling

Перевод первого поста можете почитать здесь.
Thx for the tips! I've translted your post on Russian and put a link.

I have just started levelling a melee ranger (dual swords), and I have a general Idea of what Nodes i will be going for.

I also know that I will need quite a bunch of defensive nodes, going for Iron reflexes and Unwavering stance.

What I am unsure about is what path to take intially. Should I rush towards the Duelist area of the skilltree to pick up some +Str and life? Or can I start out with Weapon artistry/Heart of the Panther (both seem too good to miss)?

I figure I should get the thick skin node below the ranger starter area rather quickly, but should I rush it directly or can I first go through the offensive nodes and travel down after the heartseeker cluster?

Or maybe just go weapon artistry, and then start a second branch via the other starting node (+18% evasion) and travel down the 2 strength nodes towards the thick skin cluster and the Fencing cluster, then get Iron Reflexes from there.

So many options...

How about This Build for the first 20 levels?

Big thanks to you Islindox for your work. I'm currently going for frenzy build, i'm just curious why it skips all the critical strike passives since its a physical damage build? Its because it would spread too much?

@havenrl: Once you take IR, you basically have no evasion. I believe there's a 5% base chance to evade attacks - taking US would eliminate that 5% chance and that's really nothing. So long as you keep your gear up-to-date whenever you can, take US when you get there.

@gulasch666: haha, yeah, I know people are lazy. I got my knowledge over the course of 6 months, and that's something people don't have. Still, a little research didn't hurt no one. :)

@zhandarm: wow, I'm flattered. Hope it was of use to those who read Russian!

@Cronos988: I would follow this build using 88 points
The Ranger's starting melee nodes (other than the 6% attack speed) are really weak and you're better off spending them elsewhere.

@Chromek: Correct. Ever since they removed diamond flasks in the game (coming back nerfed), the needed investment in crit has become an-all-build thing the way I see it. Now you have spend a lot more passives on crit chance instead of just crit multiplier and spam diamond flasks. I figure if my bow is going to have less than 25% to crit (it's around 15% with all the nearby crit chance nodes in the Ranger tree), then I'd be better without any crit and just focus on increasing my raw damage. Obviously the Increased Crit Strike support will help there, but it's not a quest reward for the Ranger and it takes up another socket in a 3-4L setup. (5Ls and 6Ls for the lucky, farmers, and crafters)

Which attack skills should I use for 1H/Shield build? Double strike and Cleave maybe? I played similar dual-wielding build in closed beta with Dual Strike, Cleave, Blood Rage and Flicker Strike and really loved it.