Hardcore Molten Strike /Bow Ranger Guide - Levels 1-41

Hardcore Molten Strike /Bow Ranger Guide - Levels 1-41

The purpose of this guide is to put up my experiences running Normal Hardcore Mode all the way through Dominus. I don’t usually play Hardcore in any game as I don’t like dying to various real life events and interruptions, but I thought why not and started a Ranger in the Two Week Charity Event.
I don’t claim to be the best at Hardcore, and certainly there are many other players that specialize in Hardcore play that are much better at it than I am, but I wanted to put up this Guide/Concept to show other players that aren’t familiar with Hardcore some build possibilities and to put something up for Rangers interested in using Molten Strike.

So why Molten Strike?

Molten strike has two damage components – the first one is the initial hit per your tool tip DPS, the second damage component is three lava balls that do 72% of weapon damage as projectile damage (60% of which is converted to fire and the remainder is physical projectile damage). Projectile damage does not show in your character’s tool tip DPS calculation.

The nice thing about the skill is you can hit one monster and get both weapon and a projectile strike, so the skill works great on bosses. Also, since there are three lava balls you can hit several monsters at once and the lava balls (projectiles) also do area of effect damage. So you can potentially hit one monster for 125% of your DPS (assuming your weapon and only one projectile can hit one monster), and bring a lot of pain to groups at the same time.

As the Ranger has several key projectile damage nodes, and both Molten Strike and bow damage benefit from projectile damage, I thought Molten Strike was the perfect melee skill to compliment a bow.

Starting from Nothing

All players started with nothing in the Two Week League including my character Dawn Raider. Unfortunately, at level 26 she ran into a group of re-spawning monsters and she bought the big one and took all the best gear she had at the time to Standard. Her sister Dawn Raider II was created and she started with a few low level left-over items but that was it for any kind of equipment stash.
It is important to point out that there is no gear optimization on my character. As a matter of fact, there is no 4 linked gear due to the fact that I was always changing my weapon as drops provided, and I had very little currency left over to link my other equipment up.

Purchased Gear

I did splurge my found Chaos and a few gem sales in acquiring three uniques – Crest of Perandus Shield (40% block, 3% life leech, 80 Life), Goldwyrm Boots (60% mana generation, 19% IIQ, 43% Fire Res), and Aurseize Gauntlets (42% IIR, 15% All Res).

The Crest of Perandus shield I consider to be a very important piece of gear to my build as I have not as yet taken any increased block chance from the tree. In addition it provides 3% LL and high life regen which is needed for a melee hardcore character. You can skip using this shield if you have other options, but it is easy to purchase and is available to your character at Level 8.

The Goldwyrm Boots and Aurseize Gauntlets are entirely optional, however both items do provide nice benefits other than magic find potential. I use them because I like to find uniques -- which is probably contrary to hardcore “staying alive” philosophy. :)
Other than those three items, all gear I used was self-found including all gems except a blood magic gem which I purchased for my spell totem.

Play Style

In the early stages of the game, if you stick with the Ranger start, you will get mostly bow gems. So it only makes sense to use a bow at the beginning of the game. I used a bow through most of Act 1 Normal. When a molten strike gem dropped for me that’s when I started experimenting with it. In Act 2 Normal I switched back and forth between the bow and melee (remember pressing X switches your gear). Then in Act 3 Normal I almost played exclusively Molten Strike.

How you play will mostly depend on what is dropped to you unless you have a “stash” of equipment from previous hardcore characters.

As a Ranger, you cannot use Molten Strike unless you are lucky enough to have the gem drop. Otherwise you will have to trade for the gem from another player.
However you can get a Molten Strike gem as a Normal Hillock Quest Reward for Duelist, Marauder, Scion, and Templar. If a Ranger wanted to play it, you may just want to recommend someone getting it via that method to use right away. After obtaining the gem you can restart as a Ranger.(Hint provided by Asirda)

Mobility is very important when using Molten Strike and you can use the Whirlwind gem from an early Ranger quest reward or you can wait until Act 3 Normal and get a Leap Slam gem as a quest reward. Mobility is extremely important for staying alive, especially against heavy magic using bosses.

Having a totem to throw out against bosses is very nice to have, along with curses linked to Cast When Damage Taken. I also ran the hatred aura through all of Act 3.

Update from Cruel Act 1 – I have found using the Endurance Charge on Melee Stun gem a great way to boost my physical and elemental resists as almost all hits from Molten Strike will create an Endurance charge. I am also experimenting with CwDT and Immortal Call for the added physical damage immunity from discharging the endurance charges.

Skill tree Choices and Philosophy

Most of my skill points I tried to have in life nodes and projectile damage. However, there are two keystones that I think are mandatory for using Molten Strike and staying alive. These keystones are “Point Blank” which provides 50% increased projectile damage, and the other keystone is “Ondar’s Guile” which doubles evasion against projectile attacks.
Ondar’s Guile has nothing to do with Molten Strike and is purely defensive, however I think it is invaluable to an evasion based Ranger as it provides near immunity to all forms of projectile attack.

I did not use Acrobatics because I didn’t want to suffer the armor penalty. Whether or not I take Acrobatics in the future will depend on gear drops and how much armor I have.

My skill tree at Level 41


Bandit Rewards

I chose the 8% all resist reward because my resists were dragging all through normal. Now that I have survived to Cruel difficulty, I wish I had taken the 40 Life. In Cruel I will probably choose to side with Oak for the 18% physical damage.

Gem Setup

I ran 3 linked through all of Normal since I was changing gear so much.
So Molten Strike + Added Cold Damage + Weapon Elemental Damage

Four linked in Cruel I use
Molten Strike + Added Cold Damage + Weapon Elemental Damage + Endurance Charge on Melee Stun

Note: I am still experimenting to find the "best" gem setup.

Stats at the end of Normal

1440 Life
Molten Strike tool tip DPS 564 (Note that the tool tip does not show projectile DPS nor the 50% Point Blank damage)

Resists - 75% Fire, 61% Cold, 53% Lightning

My Gear at the End of Normal (Note Aurseize was actually four linked in Cruel)



Where I’m Going Next

I will continue with grabbing health and projectile damage nodes in the skill tree. Gear-wise I have to link up all my gear and get a reduced mana gem so I can run two auras – hatred and grace or determination. Other than that I'll keep magic finding and trading for better gear.

I intend to continue this build whether I get whacked out of hardcore or not. So stay tuned.

Pictures will be added soon. Comments are welcome. Please post comments in this thread rather than PMing me.

My Softcore Lightning Arrow Guide - LA Ranger Guide from Beginning to End Game http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/806626 . This is a better guide for beginners and goes into a lot more detail. Enjoy.

Reserved for updates

Reserved for updates

Molten Strike is a Normal Hillock Quest Reward for Duelist, Marauder, Scion, and Templar. If a Ranger wanted to play it, you may just want to recommend someone getting it via that method to use right away. Then they won't ever have to worry about using a bow, except to kill Hillock again, and it won't even take 5 minutes.

Good point except I want the bow to be available for other bosses and I hope to at least 5 link a bow later in the build. Maybe it isn't efficient to use both a melee weapon and a bow but I want to at least try to play the build into higher levels.

But yes they could start another character and switch back to Ranger and have the gem available immediateley.

Good hint and I will point it into the guide.

Thanks.