[1.3] The Green Tornado (10 Frenzy Charge, Crit Bow Frenzy Ranger)

I've been playing builds similar to this (i.e. max frenzy charge ranger) as my main character for almost 18 months now with 4 separate level 85+ chars running essentially the same build (why bother making new builds when this one is perfect ;D), so I'll briefly run over a few thoughts and ideas I've had that I use with my most recent iteration that you might be interested in:

Firstly: maintaining frenzy charges. You use frenzy as your AOE to solve this which works I guess, but 50% pierce isn't really ideal for 1 shotting entire packs, and GMP's less damage modifier results in lower potential damage compared to TS/SA, even with max charges. Your clear speed would presumably be limited by the lack of pierce when you have to shoot 2-3 times to clear a pack that you actually have enough power to wipe out in 1 hit. It's true that using a dedicated AOE skill would make maintaining charges harder, but luckily there are other ways of generating charges :D

Blood rage is a really underused skill IMO, not only does it make charge generation almost as trivial as using the frenzy skill itself, but also provides massive leech, meaning you dont have to worry about it at all on gear. The degen is a pain but I've built my chars around it by spending a few extra points to reach the master of the arena notable as well as Golem's blood and its neighbouring 0.6% regen node. This is enough to completely counteract the degen if you can find ~60% chaos res on gear. I only have 30% on my current gear so use vitality to make up for the extra degen, but tbh there isn't really a good aura to use in place of vitality anyway so there's not much loss there. Herald of ice/thunder perhaps or a purity aura, but grace wouldn't leave enough unreserved mana so isn't an option.

Another note: Diamond flasks. These things are incredible! I run 2 so that I can keep one popped for most major packs and it really does make a big difference in clear speed. The dps increase of Atziri's promise is tiny in comparision, and if you're running blood rage as well then there's no need for the leech boost from promise either.

Maintaining power charges: Your use of Romira's is interesting but I'd still argue that a decent rare ring would easily outperform it if you can spare the mana leech. You can get mana and accuracy on rare rings and a decent phys roll would probably be more valuable than 10% crit multi. And also life, resists and stats which are all lovely.
With 50% base crit chance you'll on average only have 1 power charge up at a time, so that's roughly equivalent to replacing the charge generation mods on romira's with a plain "50% increased critical strike chance". Still a decent offensive ring, but assassin's mark will give you 3 times more power charges on average, and almost double your crit damage.

Flat physical on gear: This can make a BIG difference to your dps output, people often underestimate how significant it is (flat phys > crit multi > crit chance, seriously). My gear alone is about 80 dps EXCLUDING the bow, so adds about 25% to my overall damage which is huge. You don't have any flat physical at all in your setup, so you're missing out on quite a bit of potential damage.

Quicksilver flasks: There's no such thing as being "fast enough". Use them. They'll make a big difference in your clear speed in the long run.

Quiver: Drillneck is godly. Massive flat phys, huge increased projectile damage and some attack speed. And life. And evasion. OMG. But maybe that's just my bias cus I think it's cool. A STRONG rare quiver could rival it I guess.

Also a quick comment on your tree: I've reflected a lot on whether the ballistic mastery and aspect of the eagle notables are actually worthwhile (the stun recovery is essentially a wasted node and the 2 phys dmg and attack speed nodes are pretty weak). They were a key part of my tree for a long time but I don't take either any more, and find I get slightly higher returns for my points elsewhere. I do however invest more in life regen, so for your build it may work fine to take both, and it wouldn't make much difference either way. However I would suggest replacing the 4 standard nodes around Aspect of the Eagle with the 4 nodes leading up to deadly draw. You'd gain 12% IPD, 15% IAS and 20% arrow speed (which you like) at the cost of 30% critical chance, which seems like a no-brainer to me.

My current gear for comparison:



4.5k life
92k tooltip frenzy dps (6L, max charges... but effective 5L)
36.5k tooltip SA dps (5L, max charges)
using ~350 PDS bow
50% chance to evade (max charges, no flask. 55% with max charges and diamond flask of reflexes)
current tree (level 93)

SA is cool, TS is for noobs ;) but would work fine with a boring TS setup as well I'm sure.

To everyone else: would defo recommend a build like this to anyone, by far the most fun build I've played and clear speed is incredible thanks to all that run speed :P

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Yordle wrote:

This just in from the "pre" act 4 beta patch notes:

"Frenzy charges (more damage per frenzy charge, attack and cast speed bonuses have been reduced)."

It's not very clear if this will be an overall buff or nerf to my build, but I am excited to see where it takes it! I expect the build to undergo a complete overhaul.

It's MORE damage so it's a big buff for your build imo. With your 10 frenzy charges you will be able to get 40% more damage. It's like having an additional level 10 Physical Projectile Attack Damage gem linked to your skill without the attack speed penalty.

M-m...MORE damages!?!?!

I am so hyped for this now. Thank for for sharing, dEus!

...and thank you for that thoughtful and detailed write-up, Bed! :)

Re: AoE, I think I'll stick to Frenzy, even though I'm fully aware it's not "ideal" for AoE. I like the idea of having a pure Frenzy character and sticking to that means a lot to me. I'm hoping with Act 4 I can bump up my 50% pierce closer to 75 or even 100 without much sacrifice of other stats. As far as having to shoot multiple times into a pack, at this high of attack speed I honestly don't mind or notice the pierce chance being a bit lackluster.

Re: Power Charges, you make some good points, and I'll definitely have to re-evaluate my unique choices come the new act! It would be sad to see my Romira's go, as that ring has been so helpful. I'd like to shy away from Assassin's Mark if possible, personally, as I don't like to stop and curse packs when I'm running around this fast. I'll tinker around with power charge generation for sure, though.

Re: Passives, thank you for putting so much effort into the min-maxing! I agree those four nodes you suggest to change would be a nice little boost. I'm guessing my tree will change a lot with act 4, so I'll have to figure out an entirely new one anyways.

edit: Re: Flasks, I'm not against using a Quicksilver, but my defense was a little on the low side so I opted for more defense flasks. I think I'd rather use a Diamond over one anyways if I had the room for it. 90% movespeed is definitely fast enough for me :)

(BTW, nice gear you've got there!)

You're welcome and nice guide. Keep up the good work.

Friend started playing so I wanted a character to run through some low maps with him. This is my draft for this character:



Using Lioneye right now since my 6L Harbinger is on my TS spec, but no accuracy issues, I suppose :P

Still have to find a +1 Frenzy Karui Ward, but that's just a matter of time as I'm waiting for some poe.trade folks to respond. Vaal'ed the Darkray myself, of course the one with the worst Lightning Resist roll was the one that got it, but took 5-6 of them so better than spending any additional currency. Gems are not leveled, so I did a test drive on a 71 Map and it was pretty smooth. I went with IR/IQ + Divination because I don't plan on moving on to higher maps until I get the gems more up to par in level. Very fun build!

"

allsunsdawn wrote:

Spoiler

Friend started playing so I wanted a character to run through some low maps with him. This is my draft for this character:

Spoiler

Using Lioneye right now since my 6L Harbinger is on my TS spec, but no accuracy issues, I suppose :P

Still have to find a +1 Frenzy Karui Ward, but that's just a matter of time as I'm waiting for some poe.trade folks to respond. Vaal'ed the Darkray myself, of course the one with the worst Lightning Resist roll was the one that got it, but took 5-6 of them so better than spending any additional currency. Gems are not leveled, so I did a test drive on a 71 Map and it was pretty smooth. I went with IR/IQ + Divination because I don't plan on moving on to higher maps until I get the gems more up to par in level. Very fun build!

If you can support the extra mana cost/recolouring costs then WED would likely give you a LOT more frenzy damage than faster attacks - since frenzy has so much implicit attack speed anyway, the marginal gain of using a faster attacks gem on top if it is relatively low... And if you can't support the extra mana I'd wager that replacing added fire with reduced mana as well would still give more dps than the current setup

"

Bed wrote:

"

allsunsdawn wrote:

Spoiler

Friend started playing so I wanted a character to run through some low maps with him. This is my draft for this character:

Spoiler

Using Lioneye right now since my 6L Harbinger is on my TS spec, but no accuracy issues, I suppose :P

Still have to find a +1 Frenzy Karui Ward, but that's just a matter of time as I'm waiting for some poe.trade folks to respond. Vaal'ed the Darkray myself, of course the one with the worst Lightning Resist roll was the one that got it, but took 5-6 of them so better than spending any additional currency. Gems are not leveled, so I did a test drive on a 71 Map and it was pretty smooth. I went with IR/IQ + Divination because I don't plan on moving on to higher maps until I get the gems more up to par in level. Very fun build!

If you can support the extra mana cost/recolouring costs then WED would likely give you a LOT more frenzy damage than faster attacks - since frenzy has so much implicit attack speed anyway, the marginal gain of using a faster attacks gem on top if it is relatively low... And if you can't support the extra mana I'd wager that replacing added fire with reduced mana as well would still give more dps than the current setup

I tried this earlier and you are correct. I have similar level WED and Added Fire so I did recolor into GGGRRB to try this out. With WED and Fire it was 46 mana cost (with Elreon Ring) in order to use Frenzy so I replaced Added Fire with Reduced Mana (pesky Added Fire, I've had it since Torment and I'll never get it to 20 :P). Thanks for the tip! And wound up getting the Karui Ward as well, a lot of fun playing this build.

"The Green Torando" <.<

Hey Yordle. I am working On a self cast Voltaxic Rift Romiras Banquiet discharge. Would you like to help me? currently I am thinking of going RT but this frenzy build has changed my perspective. I know youre really good with voltaxic and would like your help. please message me on forums, thanks!

Also, I am bumping this because it is literally the sickest bow build I have ever seen and I feel with some my amount of currency, I could make this pretty gg. great idea! will try it soon.

Started this build about a week ago, from a ranger with a similar tree but had to spec a little. (was lvl 67)

Now after doing quite a bit of mapping, level 84



+1 corrupt frenzy darkray vectors seems kinda expensive and unsure on the price, usually no online ones on poe.trade. Thinking of taking blood rage out, putting blink there, portal in second loadout, and then switching into a CWDT setup on my boots.

Expensive gear (at least for me), right now I'm using a 4L puncture trap for single target because of reflect, but then grabbed Ondar's Guile. However, puncture trap is always good against bosses and rogue exiles when constantly shooting just isn't viable.

For Romira's Banquet, I switched to constant Split Arrow + Chain + Curse on Hit + Assassin's Mark for power charges as I usually have a constant 3 charges, which gives a lot more dps and crit than 0 or 1 with the Romira's Banquet equipped. However, the accuracy and mana leech is pretty nice on Romira's.

I found the Atziri's Splendour to be really helpful because of the +100 mana gained on kill. I could effectively drop the mana leech node near the shadow region (saves me 3 points) but I still have 1% on my gloves. Because frenzy costs a bunch of mana, I just use split arrow when I'm out and I get quite a bit.

Without Drillneck, I wouldn't really see how the build would be viable. Having 100% pierce seems like an expectation for these types of high clear speed builds.



Nice build!