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

First of all let me explain a little bit of what I had in mind. This is supposed to be a physical/crit based build with CI. I hope to make it work in Ons/HC. The endgame skill tree I had in mind would be somewhat like this:



Build specs:


Skills being used would be split arrow (pierce, LL, PCoC, add crit chance if 5l) for AoE damage. As for single target I am still debating what to use, perhaps burning arrow and/or a puncture/poison arrow mix.

Grace and discipline auras are necessary, mana might be enough for clarity (if necessary) or another choice of aura (purity/determination/haste most probably).

Enfeeble/Ciritcal weakness would be the two main curses, enfeeble being used against reflect and critical weakness in every other case. A third option could be vulnerability.

Due to the fact the build is CI blood rage could be used without a downside in order to obtain frenzy charges.

Gear I had in mind would include Lochtonial Caress, allowing for a little more party support as well as a little boost to attack speed, and Darkscorn bow.

Darkscorn bow would be very important since 1/4th of your damage would be dealt as chaos damage, and the downside of having it reflected to you would be nullified due to the use of CI. I am unsure whether this means you would do 125% damage, 25% being chaos, or 100%, 25% being chaos. If the second case is true then this would also help deal with reflect.

Victario's Acuity would also be a little extra possibility for a luxury item for Onslaught, adding a little extra chance to get frenzy/power charges as well as adding an extra bonus to them.

Character Stats:
- 4205 HP
- 11.6k EVR @ 52% chance to evade, 12.9k EVR @ 54% chance to evade with 7 charges
- all capped resists @ 75%
- 751 mana, 195 mana after 2 auras (Grace, Hatred)
- 42 life/sec regen
- 25% Move Speed
- 365 Dex, 157 Str, 145 Int

Damage Stats: (with Hatred aura)
- Frenzy = 9.0k base DPS / 20.5k DPS @ 3.82 APS (7 charges), 28 mana
- RoA = 11.9k base DPS / 14.1k DPS @ 2.45 APS (7 charges), 45 mana
- 45.3% Crit Chance
- 470% Crit Multiplier
- 84% Chance to Hit

So I decided to go for a physical-based build for a second time, the first time being my first build in OB with no crit. And let me tell you that build sucked balls as my survivability was low and my DPS was lackluster.

I fancied upon VictorDOOM's physical/crit/IR Ranger, and decided to use his build and make my own tweaks to what I thought was necessary. And with the new .11.2 patch, I retooled this Ranger to use the evasion/Ondar's Guile/Acrobatics/Phase Acrobatics as a full defense. With IR, you lose way too much armor for it to be effective against physical reflect, and Lioneye's is also not recommended for this build because you can't evade your own damage. (reflect is based off of your accuracy)

This build will be the following:
1. Very solid DPS
2. Susceptible to physical reflect
3. Strong against projectile attacks, weak against physical/chaos spells
4. Gear-dependent than some other starting builds, but not too bad
5. Decent survivability, but hard to build up life
6. Map-viable (I've run a few low-level alched maps, no problem)
7. Super FUN with criticals!

Bandit quest rewards: (O/O/K)
Normal - Help Oak for +40 life
Cruel - Help Oak for +18% IPD
Merciless - Help Kraityn for +1 Frenzy charge

Main single-target skill is Frenzy, main AoE skill is Rain of Arrows. Supports are listed in priority from left to right. Reason why I use RoA instead of Split Arrows is because you can use the Concentrated Area of Effect gem and seriously boost your DPS that way and also be able to control your shots - no offscreen phys-reflect deaths! You control your own fate.

- Frenzy + Mana Leech + Faster Attacks + Inc Crit Strikes + Physical Projectile Attack Damage + Inc Crit Damage/Culling Strike

- Rain of Arrows + Physical Projectile Attack Damage + Faster Attacks + Concentrated Area of Effect + Inc Crit Strikes + Inc Crit Damage/Inc Area of Effect

- Grace + Hatred + Critical Weakness + Reduced Mana

- Decoy Totem + Faster Casting + Puncture + GMP

- Conversion Trap + Multiple Traps + Reduced Mana + Temporal Chains

- Bear Trap (in a spare socket)


While leveling:
- Projectile Weakness - this curse is better than Crit Weakness for Normal to pre-maps.
- Bear Trap - unsupported or not, it's good for tough mobs
- Purity - to get those resistances up when you need em and your gear sucks
- Poison Arrow/Puncture to deal with phys reflect or hard mobs

Miscellaneous skills:
- Lightning Warp (movement, retreating)
- Conversion Trap + Multiple Traps (for those really hard or phys-ref mob packs)
- Summon Skeleton + Spell Totem (another decoy/aggro-magnet)
- Ranged Attack Totem + whatever bow skill

On armor:
+ life
+ rez
+ EVR
+ Movespeed on Boots
+ Physical damage on Gloves
+ Mana leech on Gloves
+ Attack Speed on Gloves
+ Int on Helm (for stats)

Use Dex-based gear, mainly EVR-only gear.


On rings/ammy/quiver:
+ life
+ rez
+ physical damage
+ crit chance
+ crit mult
+ mana leech
+ mana
+ manaregen
+ life leech
+ accuracy Rating
+ EVR

Use Diamond or Coral Rings, Agate/Lapis/Amber amulet, and Heavy/Light Quiver. If you're struggling with mana, prioritize mana leech on rings.


On belt:
+ life
+ rez
+ %weapon ele damage
+ Str
+ Flask Charges Gained
+ Reduced Flask Charges Used
+ Flask Duration

Use Rustic or Leather belt.


On Bow: Harbingers Bow is best for this build due to its implicit crit chance!
+ IPD%
+ physical damage
+ increased crit chance
+ increased crit multiplier
+ accuracy (a hybrid mod will also increase the IPD%)
+ mana leech
+ life leech
+ attack speed (not as important)
+ increased projectile speed (optional)
+ rez (optional)

Favor low-attackspeed (1.2-1.4) bows for the higher base physical damage. You'll naturally build up attack speed through passives, Frenzy charges, and Faster Attacks support gem.


Uniques that can be used, but not BiS:

- Maligaros Virtuosity: great gloves for this build, has +50% crit chance and 40-50% crit multiplier. I personally use this in favor of other uniques.

- Broadstroke Heavy Quiver: great starting quiver up to Cruel. By Cruel Act 3, you'll want a more defensive quiver.

- Lioneyes Glare Imperial Bow: a good bow, but the problem inherent with this bow is that when it comes to reflect, you can only dodge the effects since reflect is based off your accuracy, and we all know that LG always hit. Use with caution.

- Wurms Molt Studded Belt/Slitherpinch Bronzescale Gloves: strong early uniques that will solve your mana problems until you get mana leech on gear/Mind Drinker notable.

- Blood Dance Sharkskin Boots: great endgame boots as it adds a lot of survivability through 1% regen per frenzy charge.

- Rat's Nest Ursine Pelt: like Maligaro's gloves, this is a great helmet that adds high crit chance, attack speed, EVR, and rarity. Shrinks your character a bit.


For Flasks:
2x Hallowed life flask, either Seething or Bubbling
1-2x Hallowed Hybrid flask, either Bubbling or Catalyzed
1-2x Granite flask + Reflexes mod
1x Quicksilver flask

I decided to opt for a pure evasion build simply due to the fact that Iron Reflexes suck for us Dex-users, or characters that have a high amount of dexterity. (In short, our dex bonus do not apply for extra armor, which is bad since Dex-based Rangers can get around 350 Dex, which translates into 70% extra armor%.) That means you will need to be extra careful when you encounter physical reflect mobs and use Bear/Conversion Traps or single out the phys reflect boss from the pack. You won't have armor to protect you from straight reflect damage, but having evasion and Acrobatics/PhaseAcrobatics will help avoid some of the damage.

Let me also explain some of my choices in my build and my skillgem setup.

- First off, I have enough resistance on gear to avoid getting Diamond Flesh and the +6allrez node. Since Purity no longer provides +max rez, I don't use it. I do not recommend players skipping those nodes unless they have gear that can cover 120% resistance of each type. I can get away with one passive investment in resistances (which is the Nullification notable that gives +8 all rez) and still be capped. Having over-capped resists is also important for maps with ele-weakness curse mod or the -x max player rez mod. More rez you have, the better you can take on endgame content.

- Crit Chance over Crit Multiplier is my creed; you don't have to follow this. I personally like being able to crit more. Every third shot should crit, and if you can build even higher crit, every second shot should crit. That provides a more consistent DPS over time, especially when facing unique/rare mobs. Stack too much crit mult, you run the risk of one-shotting yourself on physical reflect. This is why I suggest aiming for a 300-500% crit multiplier and go no further. Yes, having tons of crit mult is fun, but ultimately I think is unnecessary and overkill. The Heartseeker cluster is overkill and worse off point-investment-wise compared to the Deadly Draw cluster.

- Why get Mana Flows when you already have Primal Spirit? Mana Flows is necessary to support 3 auras at once (Grace, Hatred, and Purity) while having enough leftover mana to constantly support your attacks and miscellaneous skills like curses and traps and totems. If I get to a high enough level that I don't need the extra mana, I'll spec out of Mana Flows, but I don't think it will happen since the Ranger isn't an Int-based build.

- If you have over 33% chance to crit and over 80% chance to hit, I don't recommend getting the Bloodthirst notable that grants 45% increased crit chance because it isn't necessary. (At the top of the Shadow tree) But if you don't have high enough crit chance and accuracy, then definitely get Bloodthirst. IMO, you want more crit chance than crit mult. With my current passives, I have slightly over 400% crit multiplier, which is MORE than enough to destroy mobs/bosses. You can also support your main skills with the Increased Critical Damage support gem for the extra damage.

- Acrobatics/PhaseAcrobatics do not have to be taken early whatsoever. I did a test run on my new Ranger at Lunaris lvl 2, and had no problems surviving stuns/stunnage, and this was without Acrobatics. You must grab Ondar's Guile, which makes you godly against projectile attacks.

- Icebite, upon further reflection, is unnecessary. You'd get more damage going for physical damage and/or attack speed, which will also buff your cold damage being dealt.

This is a 114-point leveling guide, ending at lvl 97. We will be taking Oak/Oak/Kraityn quest rewards for Normal/Cruel/Merciless respectively.

Keep in mind that my current/planned build does not reflect the leveling guide below because of the certain gear I own. The major difference is the inclusion of several +allrez passives to help compensate for mediocre equipment. I don't need said passives, so I have more freedom to spend points on other passives.

1. 25 points in

2. 39 points in

3. 61 points in
- This section will hurt due to the fact that you're spending a majority of your points on dex nodes to reach Mana Flows. The Beef and Wisdom of the Glade notables (+30 to x) are important for leveling your skill/support gems, especially your Decoy Totem. Once you get some proper gear with enough Int/Str stats, you can respec out of the +30stat notables.

4. 81 points in
- Grab the 6/6/10% life cluster before moving up to the Shadow tree. Once in the Shadow tree, get Nullification, Mind Drinker, Conditioning, and Assassination in that order. Revenge of the Hunted is unnecessary and is skipped in build 1.0.2. You should be around the low-mid 60s at this point, and should not be facing Piety until you get those notables.

5. 101 points in
- This should be the level 84 mark, and ripe time for maps. Grab the following notables in this order: 1) Acrobatics 2) Charisma 3) Talons of Murder 4) Savagery 5) Heavy Draw 6) Deadly Draw. I also spec out of the Beef/Wisdom of the Glade/+6 all rez node by the bottom. Your gear should be nearing completion and be capped out on rez and Str/Int.

6. 109 points in
- Get the life cluster by Mind Drinker, Leather&Steel by the Duelist area, and Master Fletcher.

7. At this point, the build can go in different directions depending on how you feel. You can spend 5 points to get Phase Acrobatics, or you can spend those points into getting the life cluster above Master Flether. You'll still have 3 free points to play with. You can grab the 2x 15% IPD w/ bows nodes by Aspect of the Eagle, or 2x 20% crit chance nodes, or 2x 20% acc nodes... plus one passive leftover. If I ever get to the high level 90s, I'll post my thoughts down here regarding the applicability of Phase Acrobatics in endgame map level.

Remember, your skilltree should always be evolving and changing. If you get a ton of resistances on gear, you can opt out of Diamond Flesh and +6allrez and put those points into more evasion/life nodes or offensive nodes.

It was pretty easy going from Normal to Cruel, but Act 3 Cruel did provide some challenge. I was able to get my hands on a Slitherpinch gloves (a drop), which basically solved my mana issues until I got Mind Drinker (2% mana leech notable). However, the real wall came in around Merciless Act 2 and got much worse in Act 3 when the mid-level gear wasn't cutting it. Like VictorDoom mentioned, this build is not an easy one to build for as the gear requirements becomes steep around the Merciless difficulty. I couldn't kill mobs fast, and I was dying pretty hard in Act3 (mostly due to zerging areas and rushing to get up the sewers part for the passive point). It wasn't until I got a lucky Exalt drop that I was able to get my Maligaro Virtuosity Gloves (10 GCPs), the rings (1 chaos, 1 GCP), the ammy (2 GCPs 2 regrets), the helmet (1 chaos 2 alchs), the boots (1 GCP), and the bow (2 GCPs). (Quiver and chest I got from my friend for 1 GCP, Belt cost 9 chaos 4 Scouring.). While this build is not as expensive as other builds (for example opting for a good set of rare gloves instead of Maligaro's), to make it a solid build will require some serious investment in gear, roughly 2-4 exalted worth around 70s and 80s level mark.

Before taking on Piety, I was able to go through Lunaris 2 and 3 with no death, just careful progress. I died once to Piety which was due to her ice form 3-shotting me when I was out of position (blergh). This was at lvl 70 when I still had IR. With evasion + Ondar's, Piety is a joke.

Usually I feel comfortable around the mid 70s to even start mapping. For most of Act 3 Merciless, I farmed City of Sarn from lvl 60 to 67, and from lvl 68 to level 73 just doing Docks. Once you have 70+ rez for all three resistances, you should start doing Lunaris lvl 2/3. Overall though, this Ranger really gives the impression of what a true Ranger should be, and props to VictorDoom showing the playerbase that it can be done.

For 5Ls, I plan on linking Added Fire Damage to Frenzy and Increased Critical Strikes to RoA. Originally I wanted this build to be purely physical and cold damage based, but the benefit of having a red socket in your Frenzy setup is being able to put in a damage-based support (added fire damage) OR a survivability support (Lifeleech). Being able to interchange them will give you more options than putting in a blue socket for Increased Crit Damage, although you should be leveling that support on the side if you need it.

If you use Decoy Totem, you must link Faster Casting with it to get that totem up ASAP. This is crucial because the faster you can summon the Decoy Totem, the better you can take the mob attention off of you and onto it. Don't compromise on your Decoy Totem as it is a lifesaver. Get the needed Strength if you need it from the +30 str notables if necessary.

Also, for those Rogue exiles, have Poison Arrow or Puncture on standby coupled with Temporal Chains. Killing Rogue exiles is very helpful in Normal/Cruel where your gear is going to suck, so having them drop a few rares is worth the fighting/kiting. And that's basically what you're doing with Poison Arrow/Puncture, kiting them to death. Use Puncture on very mobile rogues (the melee ones) and Poison Arrow on more stationary rogues (archers, summoners). These tactics are also useful for bosses that you can't tank (like Oak/Piety/Brutus/Kole). Bear Trap can also come in handy for this, which is further augmented by the Hatred aura and the increased crit chance.

Make sure your flasks are up to date with the appropriate prefix/suffixes. Quality them as soon as you can because the Alchemist notable will really boost the life gained from health flasks. Do NOT skip Herbalism (the old Alchemist notable) - it will be a lifesaver. Use Granite flask with the Evasion mod when solo or in hard maps, and use quicksilver when speed EXPing or partying. I haven't found a diamond flask yet, and personally I don't think it's necessary for this build. (Not to mention it's a one-time use and takes forever to recharge... this flask is clearly meant for CI builds.)

Regarding curses, use Projectile Weakness and try to get Critical Weakness/Temporal Chains when you can. Once you have over 80% chance to hit and over 33% chance to crit, you can drop Projectile Weakness and use Critical Weakness instead. This is for endgame purpose when you're doing maps and Lunaris 2/3 runs to really bring in the pain.