[1.2] Sidra's Guide: Acrobatics Based Physical Crit Split Arrow Ranger (Atziri Kill Video Inside)

Build at 94

What it would look like at 85

And a word about Atziri's Acuity....They are brand new and not needed. All of my accomplishments on this build happened before I owned them. Their biggest advantage is that you can remove LGOH and replace with a damage gem (where I have added Fire now), and they make mana a bit easier. But the build works just fine with a Rat's Nest and HP/RES/+phs gloves or Maligaros and a HP/Res Helm.

Defense

Frenzy

Split Arrow - Chain (primary skill)

HP > Phys Damage > Frenzy Charge

For any Physical Crit Build - figuring out how to survive Physical Reflect is pivotal. And there are a number of ways to do it. Lightning Coil is great. So is a 4L of CwDT > Enduring Cry > Immortal Call > Increased duration. To do this, you want one of your pieces AR/EV so that you can get 4 reds. For instance I used to use: . Ignore the level of the gems in it now, it's on a new lower level toon. But, my current method is simply to evade my own reflects. Surprisingly, this has proven very safe for me. And it's safe for a few reasons. First - I use Chain. This is important - because it cuts the damage of each projectile in half so when one does come back and hit you it doesn't kill you. I also have high evasion, over 13k. So the likelihood of taking a hit, combined with the game's entropy system keeps me safe. LGOH combined with 4% leech literally fills anything I lost close to immediately. Finally, whether I notice before I shoot into the pack, or after - I pop my Jade Flask and kill the reflect rare. Since level 85 I have not killed myself handling reflect this way. I do have a few reflect deaths though - both times using Pierce because of Half Regen Maps (one also had vuln). So you do need to pay extra attention and tread more lightly as Pierce is considerably more dangerous than Chain.

This is really one of the major decisions of any Split Arrow Ranger. I use Chain, although I did level with Pierce and actually recommend that as it takes a while to be able to handle the mana of Chain. But my ultimate decision to use Chain comes down to 2 reasons - Reflect and Clear Speed. Reflect I just touched on above - and now I want to talk a little about the mechanics of Chain and how it impacts clear speed. If you look at my damage screenshots above, my Chain DPS is 11k while my Pierce has 20k. So it's slower, right...?

Hell no.

To calculate DPS, the game only takes into account a singular projectile, not how many of them there are and not what happens to them. So Pierce always has a higher DPS because Chain has a 50% damage multiplier. But, once a Chain attack hits it then chains 2 more times. So - let's just take an example of 2 mobs standing beside each other - at a distance apart that you hit both. If you use Pierce - you shoot and it hits them each for 20 - passing thorough. If you use Chain - each mob takes 11 damage. Then, each initial hit chains to the other mob, so now they have each taken 22 damage. But..with one chain left, each attack now bounces back to the mob it hit the first time for 11 more damage. Each mob now has taken 33 damage. So you can see the damage benefit. But the other reason it is quicker is that Chain doesn't rely on mob positioning. Even if you had infinite damage with Pierce and one sot killed everything, unfortunately mobs just aren't always lined up in such a perfect manner and such fixed widths apart from each other. So you end up with lot's of "stragglers" which require more shooting...which takes time. The Chains on the other hand are basically heat seeking missiles. There is much less cleanup work needed - so while the Pierce Ranger is taking extra shots to clear out stragglers the chain ranger is moving to the next group of mobs. The combination of generally more damage per shot, as well as the fact it works with however mobs are scattered is what makes Chain the superior clearer. There is a reason it has a 200% mana multiplier and Pierce's is 110%. Additional added benefit: Since it hits more it heals more via LGOH. For completionists sake I would just like to mention that technically you could make a scenario Pierce does more damage. SA/Chain caps at 18 hits landed, and Pierce has no such cap. If you had 6 mobs perfectly lined in 3 or 4 nice layers it will hit 18 or 24 times and at more damage per hit. So it's possible. But in real game scenarios it just doesn't happen near often enough.

Lastly, though I wouldn't knock anyone for just using Pierce anyway. It still clears fast compared to most other skills in the game - and it is a little easier to use as you don't have to tinker with the build to be able to handle the mana.

Mana all the Way. In General, each gem slot is worth 25-30% true incremental damage. That's a huge amount, one that cannot be make up with a few nodes on the tree. In general, it takes an offensive aura to even come close - but this build is already able to run it's valuable aura while using mana. Additionally, one of the prime benefits of using a physical skill, as opposed to say Lightning Arrow - is that physical leech comes on gear and the tree. In this build, using a BM gem would be totally sub-optimal.

Split Arrow

Split Arrow > Faster Attacks > Physical Projectile Damage > Chain > Life Gain on Hit > Increased Critical Damage

-OK to use Pierce instead of Chain until you can handle Chain's mana (in which case life leech over LGOH as well)

-If you are comfortable with physical life leech on gear, can put ICD ahead of LGOH.

Frenzy

Frenzy > Faster Attacks > Physical Projectile Damage > Added Fire > Increased Critical Damage > Increased Critical Strikes

-or Life leech if your damage isn't high enough to cap your leech rate from leech on gear
-Using Burning Arrow is perfectly fine until you have more Frenzy charges, and high enough damage to deal with Frenzy's mana. If you go this route, make sure you are still leveling a Frenzy gem.

Well - it's a Split Arrow build! Honestly, some people do very well with Rain of Arrow. Sam has my favorite guide because like me - he likes to push the limits on bosses and map mods. His build is awesome and powerful. But my reasoning comes again down to clear speed. Most people using RoA use Concentrated Effect and don't have much AOE help from gear or tree. It just doesn't cover much area. So take what I said about Chain and Pierce above - Rain of Arrows requires more clicking than Pierce does. Now it does have advantages (100% control and visibility to what you're shooting). Personally - I feel safe like I am and prefer the quicker clear speed. But it's all personal preference.

Tornado Shot is an impressive skill and I find the clear speed to be basically equal to my SA/Chain setup. On the positive end, it has considerably stronger single target capability so you don't really need to fire another single target skill which could potentially free up another link set and make mapping even simpler. It's high end damage output when most projectiles land seems overall stronger than SA/Chain.

On the downside, the individual projectiles are stronger, and there are more of them (20 v 18) potentially making reflect a little more dangerous. And it's use required a bit more effort as you always want to target right behind the enemies as opposed to just shooting in the general direction. Lastly, since the projectiles go in random directions, there seemed to some extra cleanup occasionally where 1 or 2 mobs in a pack were still alive...which in terms of overall speed I'd say counterbalances it's better damage output when nearly everything is landing compared to SA/Chain.

Basically this is a 2 gem swap: SA and Chain for GMP and Tornado Shot. No other gems need to change, and no passives need change. In my view, at this point they are basically completely interchangeable. Tornado Shot will see more run because it's new - and it's a great skill. IMO nothing else in a Bow Ranger's arsenal to this point has matched SA/Chain in clear speed, besides perhaps a really well done Lightning Arrow build which are a lot harder to pull off. But GMP/Tornado does just that. It just comes down to what you prefer to play - this guide is still valid for a Tornado Shot build.

So - there are a lot of what I call glass cannon uniques - a unique piece of equipment that helps the build offensively, but doesn't have any HP. 80 HP on gear equates to over 250 real HP. My rule for this build was to limit myself to one, since it's a trade-off between offense and defense, and with the challenges I am presenting myself with I need to ensure that I am leaning defensively. I have chosen Maligaro's - they provide a huge overall DPS increase. But Blood Dance boots are awesome too as they enable additional leech using Blood Rage while also making random Frenzy pot shots to keep up charges unnecessary. Rat's nest is super awesome also - and since gloves can actually roll offensive stats pairing it with say a pair of gloves with physical damage, life, and resistances are perfectly fine, and maybe even better.

If you look at my gloves now they are linked with Lightning Warp. This is a relatively new occurrence - I am leveling it because I want to take a crack at Atziri with the build. But for almost all of the game I have used my glove slot experimenting with different totems. They make solo play much safer by providing a distraction to the enemy while also adding DPS and utility. Use them as soon as you can. Aside from being useful, it was a really enjoyable part of my leveling experience testing different combos and really helped me start maps. My 2 favorite were:

Lightning Arrow > Faster Attacks > Elemental Proliferation
Ice Shot > LMP > Knockback

For moving single targets you aren't comfortable face tanking (my favorite being 74 Dom and Courtyard) Swap out Frenzy and added Fire for Puncture and Increased Duration. Then LOL as one shot kills everything. And I swap in Pierce for no/half regen maps.

About halfway through 92 - I took on Megaera (Crematorium Boss) with a 30% more boss damage and 90+% extra cold damage. It killed me - I got hit and stun-locked so I couldn't move out of the firestorm and died. It was the first time the game killed me in forever - and so I started leveling a Purity of Fire. I'll swap in for Grace for that encounter moving forward.

Yes - yes I do. And I always want more. I see a lot of phys crit rangers running 4k-4500, and if that works for them, great. But I know that there are many times I have come extremely close to death and survived. Whether it's a boss or 78 Palace Evangelists dropping bombs on me with vulnerability and damage mod - it happens. And I know that if they were in my shoes at that exact moment - they would be dead and I survived.

Shrine Piety Kill: http://youtu.be/-MqqmW-v1Wo

Full 75 Plateau Map Run (ExtraProj/AddedFireDmg): http://youtu.be/Puh3nWAmg-0


First Atziri Kill (and possibly most pathetic one ever): http://youtu.be/Dv5eofEU2zQ

2nd Atziri Kill (much less embarrassing): http://youtu.be/Eb6r1bpltRQ