[1.3] Sidra's Necromancing Ranger of Chaos (Poison Arrow) Videos/Atziri capable

A very original approach, you gain access to the projectile damage passives near shadow start but you give up all the evasion points. Is this viable defensively in high level maps? This build relies on evasion for defence.

This is my tree, more traditional than yours:

In truth, whether you are looking at an 18% bonus to evasion from the tree, or 60%, it doesn't end up being that huge a difference in terms of where your actual evasion % ends up. Prolly 2-3% difference. But going up through the middle adds an extremely noticeable 24% and 20 hp. That will be about 350 HP. HP are a defense against everything, whereas evasion is basically just a defense against mele attacks as Ondars basically makes ranged moot either way. And since the build uses MoM, those HP go further than they do in just a normal evasion build.

The fact the path just happens to be right on the Shadow Projectile nodes is an added bonus. Since I also am able to get Lord of the Dead so easily - I think I am going to do the respec. It seems superior to where I am at now. On SC though regrets are so expensive :( so not sure exactly when it will happen though. And I am going to see if I can work adding in a Vitality to make up for the regen loss.

That being said - if your build is going to use the evasion wheel - might as well take it to Path of the Hunter for the juicy 12% Projectile bonus.

Ok, once you have completed the respec could you post the results? I still do not know which route to take.

Btw, have you tried the new vaal summon skeletons rune? Its quite funny and provides nice protection in dangerous situations.

Updated main post. Completed respec - it netted me over 500 more HP and more/better minions while leaving mana, mana regen, and dps basically unchanged. It was a combination of Inspire's idea to use the witch start, with my own to reroute up the shadow middle. Also gained a level and made a few small gear changes.

Next steps - I have had basically no incentive to 5L my bow because of how small the benefit is of additional links. But I probably should do that. And the other main thing is the long road from 19 > 20 on Poison Arrow as each level brings with it a large DPS increase.

Just bought a Drillneck for 2ex in Ambush - too bad I can't rip my char over to standard. 3 month wait to use it!

Wow the last patch.

The latest patch made this build rather viable again, all I'm left to think is how in blue blazes do I level? and at what point does it become effective? I could see it being rather hard to level with, and having to skip most of invaders pretty much.

Woah...just got back from 6 days in Vegas and noticed this...I don't remember my exact number, but my tooltip DPS on Poison Arrow's damage which is level 25, basically doubled.

I guess it's a consolation prize for all the money I lost!

Will play around a bit and report back.

Updated main post. Just hit 87. Also decided to put some DPS numbers in there. The Chaos DoT tooltip is off because the tooltip doesn't recognize any added damage with the area tag - so the 12%'s from Carcass Jack and Blast Radius need added in, and the all of it needs multiplied by the Concentrated effect number. The number I listed should be accurate, and does not count the 40% more damage from vulnerability.

To Irkthul:
The build should level pretty well just playing as is. You will prolly need to be sure you are running 2 mana pots for a while - and you may want to make sure you have a Summon Skelly, Summon Zombie, Desecrate, and Spell Totem all ready to use at the first level you can. This is what keeps you safe until you get your defenses (EB/MoM/Grace and Ondars/AA) up.

Just dinged 88 and updated main post. Prior to the last update, I viewed this as a safe and steady build. Solo, stuff died fast enough and I was always safe. But I would keep away from groups because that's when I would start to feel the damage lacking. Combined with the fact that minion damage is next to useless in group play, I viewed it as a primarily a solo build.

With the damage buff, solo, stuff now dies extremely quickly - noticeable bump in clear speed. But I have also joined a few groups and it no longer feels damage gimped in a party. Loving it. I still view this is a build that moreso lends itself to solo (don't need minion "distractions" as much with 5 other party members) but the build can now definitely hold it's own in groups. I have even gotten a few comments about how potent it was.

Just turned 89, as the build continues to level very efficiently. I also have now killed Shrine Piety and Palace Dom.

I also managed to 6S my bow, and have been leveling Slower Projectiles in my offslot. Technically, Slower Projectiles gives the biggest DPS boost of any gem, but I chose to use Faster Projectiles because I hate slow moving projectiles, as well as the fact the I had a 20Q Faster Projectiles and I like the attack speed bonus it gives, as it helps me more quickly fill a screen with clouds. However, with a 5th link I will happily link slower it in addition to my faster projectiles gem. My plan is to ding level 20 on my poison arrow gem (over 70% of the way there), and then at the same time add the 5th link, with the 2 happening at the same time giving me a huge last DPS boost.

I actually think after I ding 90 and add Primal Spirit, I am going to see if I can use this build to kill Atziri. Offensively, other than the fact she is resistant to chaos - it's almost perfect in that she doesn't move, and each shot lasts over 5.4 seconds. So I will be able to keep 100% damage uptime while constantly moving.

Defensively, it's not as ideal - but I will have an effective hitpoint pool (incuding mana) of about 6400 - and the flask bonus also applies to resist flasks - somehow a fire flask now moves me from 75 to 88 resist. I will just need to roll a few more healing/bleed potions.

Not sure if I will be able to accomplish it or not, but it will definitely be fun trying. My main (92 phys crit ranger) doesn't stand a chance - but I think this build actually does.

Main post updated, and added some info about healing.