ZIGGYD's Rain of Arrows Ranger (Top 40 Nemesis 1 Week Race Build) 1.1 Updated!
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Gday! I've had a lot of requests to do a write up for the RoA Ranger I used in the Nemesis 1 week race to secure top 40 and coincidentally my first ever Demi's. I wasn't originally planning on making my own RoA build - I was going to copy Gankstaboo's but it and all other RoA builds I looked at were out of date so I took what I already knew about the classic style and made my own setup that fully takes advantage of a lot of the recent Ranger Passive Tree buffs. The end result is a build that not only performed better than expected in the 1 week race but that has continued to be so fun and effective to play that I'm still using it to do high level maps in Nemesis.
 VIDEO GUIDE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35QBIPpwLTM MORE VIDEOS OF THIS BUILD
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My 1 Week Race Coverage: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4aZrsY9M5qA-WWSGkLg9WVQzCWIrgjhx
Level 70 Underground Sea Walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ_bXeQuEhI Maps with WillyWonka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUO5cxXREDQ & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qHIA8HTFBA DEFENSIVE OVERVIEW
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Lots & Lots of Life
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Pretty classic stuff, this build stacks a huge amount of life node scaling and even a fair bit of base life from STR & base life nodes. The result is a pretty easy to achieve 4.5k to 6k life at endgame.
Armor, Grace & Iron Reflexes
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This build takes Iron Reflexes which gives us more gear flexibility and allows us to convert the evasion from the Grace Aura into armor. The result is a very high amount of armor even with average gear. 45-50% mitigation at level 85+ isn't too hard to achieve.
When you join a party running determination this is amplified even further. Playing in the 1 week race we had an Aura effectiveness stacking character that ran Determination and combining that with my Grace made most forms of phys damage (including reflect) a non-issue). Sustain Through Life Leech
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This build gets 8% life leech from the life leech support gem. I also personally use an Amulet with another 3% life leech and this combined with pretty high damage on RoA means we have a ton of sustain. The high leech + high armor combo also means reflect is pretty easy to deal with.
Stunning!
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RoA hits hard - much harder than most other bow skills per attack. This means your attacks will stunlock trash and blue mobs and do a pretty decent job of interrupting rares solo. In a 6 man party you will stun Trash mobs and blues pretty often as well. Never underestimate the defensive power of stun!
Unwavering Stance
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Since we are already using Iron Reflexes we drop our final 5% chance to evade in exchange for not being able to be stunned. Since this build likes to see us get up in mob's faces not getting stunned is amazing. It also means you'll never get stun locked in a turbo storm herald...
OFFENSIVE OVERVIEW
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Phys Damage Scaling & Elemental Conversion
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This build uses high phys damage bows and scales that damage through plenty of increased phys damage passives. We then take that phys damage and scale it further with Added Fire and hatred, which take a % of your phys damage and add it on top of your overall damage as the specified element.
High Attack Speed
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I recommend using bows with at least 1.3 aspd to make this build 'feel fun'. We get a lot of extra attack speed from the passive tree, from the faster attacks support gem and from keeping 4 frenzy charges up most of the time.
Point Blank
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"50% More Damage". This means we take our DPS and multiply it by 1.5. This is HUGE.
The reason I like this is that it gives you less damage when you are shooting at the edge of your screen. This is good because it means we wont accidentally kill ourselves to a massive reflect pack. By the time you get close enough to do enough damage to kill yourself you should have noticed that there is a reflect pack there! However, when you want to DPS down something with a lot of life you can get close and benefit from that huge modifier. More damage when you want it, less when you don't. PASSIVE TREE
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Final Passive Tree
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIBAF4CcQSzCC4UTRUgGYUZjhn-GjgabBsBI_YkqiftKaUqTSzpMZ4yCTKJMpQ1kjbpOuE8LT8nSn1KyE4qVvpX4lnzWhpaSFuvZp5noGqTbBZsRm6qcmxyqXRBd9d82X11fwKDOIPbh3aI8ZAKkFWVBZuNogCkwqZXpuCnhKfUqW6sqq_rtfK2Qbc-u-O-p8APwBrEosT2xq7NmM5x0k3TftXt2cbcFd0N3sbjaupi7Djtg-4O73rvfO_w8B_yRfPd-rH60vxL_MX-Cv66_sg= Suggested Leveling Path Note that this is just a suggestion - be flexible when playing any build! If you think you need more DPS for the next 10 levels then go DPS nodes! If you need more life then go life nodes! If you don't need resolute technique yet then get it later! That said, here's the route I roughly suggest you take for the core build - this sets you up nicely in the end game to be able to get more defense or DPS as you need it without having to spend 5+ levels traveling through STR nodes. COMING SOON! BANDITS
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Help Oak for Life
Either Oak for Life or Kraityn for Attack Speed. (we had a few people do the math on this and it works out so similar that I think this is personal preference). Help Kraityn for a Frenzy Charge. Keeping 5 charges up with frenzy gives us a huge attack speed boost to RoA. Since Enduring cry is on CoDT I dont think the End Charge is worth it. SKILLS & SUPPORTS
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Rain of Arrows: AoE & Single Target
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- Blood Magic
- Life Leech - Faster Attacks - Added Fire - Concentrated Effect It's up to you which you want for your 5th vs 6th link. Added fire gives less damage but more AoE while conc effect reduces your AoE but gives much more DPS. Running both is amazing though and by that point RoA's implicit AoE increase should be negating the AoE decrease from conc effect. Frenzy: Frenzy Charges & Culling
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- Blood Magic
- Culling Strike - Increased Item Rarity - faster attacks - added fire Frenzy is more of a utility skill in this build. Use it to generate your 4 frenzy charges and then once every 10 seconds to maintain them. I also use it as a magic find culling skill when im solo or in a party without a dedicated MF character. In the 1 week race this was a huge boon to the party. Frenzy culls make you feel like a leet sniper as well... so there's that. Utility Skills & Curses
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Decoy Brotem: Block doorways and keep volatile rares off you.
Devouring Totem: Remove corpses around necros and soul conduit rares. Projectile Weakness: More damage vs easy packs. Temp Chains: slow bosses and rares before your enfeeble goes off. Cast When Damage Taken Setup
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CwDT Level 4
- Enfeeble Level 7 - Enduring Cry Level 7 - Molten Shell Level 9 GEARING
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Bow
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My Current Bow:
Mandatory Mods: - Increased Phys Damage % (90%+ for leveling, 150%+ for endgame) - Flat Phys damage (whatever you can get while leveling & 20-40ish for endgame) Extremely Good: - Attack Speed Gravy Mods: - Ele Damage - Projectile Speed Lioneye's Glare is a good option but it does increase your risk of reflect death. Voltaxic is meh for this build. Quiver
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My Current:
Just a defensive quiver for me but I'll share optimal. Good Mods: - Life - Phys Damage - Attack Speed - Resists I recommend primarily EV/AR type armor pieces as it is easiest to roll the correct color sockets on and will give high amounts of total armor. Chest
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Mine:
I recommend EV/AR type for easier to roll socket colors. This one took several hundred chrome to roll >.> 5 link and later 6 link are priority, defensive stats are a bonus. I'd wear a blue 6link if I had to. Helmet
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My current:
Just get defensive stats on your helmet. If you happen to get accuracy you might be able to delay getting RT for a while. Helm is a good slot for rarity in this build. Gloves
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My current:
Awesome: - Attack Speed - Phys Damage - Life, AR/EV, Resists Boots
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My Current:
Move speed is important in this build for repositioning for Point Blank. Otherwise your standard defensive mods apply. Belt
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My current:
Rustic Sash is optimal for a big DPS increase. Get defensive mods though Weapon Elemental Dmg +% is also pretty decent. Armor is highly underrated on belts - get it if you can! Otherwise flask charges gained or enemey stun threshold reduction are pretty nice. Rings & Ammy
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Phys damage & attack speed are great. Life leech is pretty sweet too.
Otherwise get whatever resists you need, try and get life. Flasks
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I'm pretty happy with this setup:
Hopefully you guys enjoy the build! If you have any questions I'll check the thread every now and then and try my best to answer. I've also noticed that I get a lot of cool people coming back to these threads and helping other people out after they've played the builds themselves. You guys that do this are amazing! <3 Like this build or want something different? My Ethereal Knives Mind Over Matter Scion! - http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/619533 Also make sure to follow me on YouTube if you aren't already! https://www.youtube.com/user/ZiggyDStarcraft Twitch.TV/ZiggyDLive YouTube.com/ZiggyDStarcraft Twitter.com/ZiggyDStarcraft PoE and Strategy Gaming Content Last edited by ZiggyD#7244 on Jul 22, 2014, 7:34:00 AM
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Subscribed to your Youtube channel. You have helped me get into this game immensely. :)
I almost wish I hadn't started http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/300860 this build just this afternoon so that I could have tried this out. :( |
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" The early stages of them aren't too different so it'd be pretty easy to switch over to RoA! Twitch.TV/ZiggyDLive
YouTube.com/ZiggyDStarcraft Twitter.com/ZiggyDStarcraft PoE and Strategy Gaming Content |
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Thanks for the post Ziggy!
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Did not know Point Blank worked this way with Rain of Arrows, and I can't find any source for this as well. Do you have further info regarding this? :)
As I understand it, Point Blank for RoA is calculated from where you stand and the centre of RoA, not from the centre of RoA outwards. Quote from Daniel_GGG " IGN : Ericaa My Store! /108685 My Rain of Arrows Evasion build guide! https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/791798 Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/samfishersam Last edited by linkstatic#6621 on Jan 14, 2014, 3:48:37 AM
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" Oh no, I did not mean from the centre of RoA outwards but from you to the centre of where the RoA lands. Aka where you aim. I'll check my wording in the OP in case it is ambiguous. EDIT: turns out it's not true anyway! Thanks for bringing that up. It is based on each target hit from you rather than the centre of RoA. Twitch.TV/ZiggyDLive YouTube.com/ZiggyDStarcraft Twitter.com/ZiggyDStarcraft PoE and Strategy Gaming Content Last edited by ZiggyD#7244 on Jan 14, 2014, 4:11:54 AM
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" Would you recommend it for a first character? I don't want to get too complicated that's why I followed your easiest guide. I'm still trying to get the hang of what most people would consider basic game mechanics. :p |
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" Ok, then we understand the same then :P But with the 50% increased damage only available up to 10 range, doesn't that mean you most probably have to be standing at most half a screen away from the targetted mob. Cold Snap has a range of 15 according to wiki. So a 2/3 the range at most of Cold Snap to benefit from it. IGN : Ericaa My Store! /108685 My Rain of Arrows Evasion build guide! https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/791798 Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/samfishersam Last edited by linkstatic#6621 on Jan 14, 2014, 4:13:02 AM
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" Did some more research and turns out it isn't based on the centre - rather each mob hit as your quote said. Thanks for that! Nonetheless the reason I use it is still the same - we get 50% more damage when we are trying to DPS down a rare or boss with a group and vs most mobs we get between 50% more and 10% more. Vs anything edge of screen we do less damage and this helps avoid reflect deaths. It's a bit of a playstyle thing but based on my play so far I find I'm usually getting a significant benefit from RoA. Twitch.TV/ZiggyDLive
YouTube.com/ZiggyDStarcraft Twitter.com/ZiggyDStarcraft PoE and Strategy Gaming Content |
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" It's slightly more complex than the LA build and has you get up more close and personal with mobs (so relying on you to better recognize threats) but I still think it's pretty beginner friendly! I've linked it in that original thread even. Twitch.TV/ZiggyDLive
YouTube.com/ZiggyDStarcraft Twitter.com/ZiggyDStarcraft PoE and Strategy Gaming Content |
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