[2.2] Poor Mans Guide to Bows - 114K DPS and Atziri on a 5L

Tornado Shot: Rated Aids Cancer
Easy win, I hate this skill so much, and personally refuse to use it. Sure it's awesome for clearing packs and can be good single target also. But it's ugly to use, requires no thought and so random in the way it deals damage that I can't get behind it. A lot of you just stopped reading, that's fine. You won't make me like TS.

Poison Arrow: Rated snore
Poison arrow can be boss, but it requires such specific gear to be good. As a crit bow ranger it's no good. Great for +3 bows and drillneck and all that jazz but thats not what we are discussing today.

Split Arrow: Rated Meh
This skill is not bad, it's just not amaze either, it's kind of the meat and three vege of bow skills. It will get the job done but you're not wow'd by it.

Burning Arrow: Rated Not Bad
It has a really high damage multiplier so it hits really hard and provides a solid burn on enemies. It is a great single target skill but doesn't provide a quality pack clearing option, especially after the nerf to brolif, there are just better options for pack clearing. Use for single target winning.

Ice Shot: Rated Pretty Boss
Has great area of effect and awesome utility as it creates chilled ground which gives it a good survivability boost. Has a high damage multiplier so for DPS warriors it looks really good on paper. It has a really cool visual effect and sounds cool when it hits. Super satisfying skill with great clear speed when setup right.

Puncture: Rated Quality
It is a really good single target skill, if you crit and the enemy is moving they will wreck themselves in a split second due to the high bleed. It has limited use multi target.

Frenzy: Rated the Single Target Boss
This is my favorite single target skill, it has a lowish damage multiplier, but it scales up with a 5% increased damage per frenzy charge. It also gets added extra attack speed per frenzy charge so it increases your crits per second. It also generates frenzy charges which now not only give attack speed but a more damage multiplier for extra winning.

Lightning Arrow: Rated Fun Included
This skill is ridiculous, while it's damage multiplier is lowish when set up properly, it enables you to multishot packs. Shotgunning is alive and well with this skill. If you want a visually cool looking skill that does high damage, provides fast clearance and is just generally fun to use. This is your skill baby.

Blood Rage = Use this. If you're feeling lazy you don't have to worry about building up charges using frenzy. Or once you have built up your charges you can run the rest of the map without having to build them again. Blood rage refreshes them enough to not have to worry.

The skill you use will greatly impact on the support gems you use. Gear can play a part, e.g. if you use a drillneck pierce might be a best in slot support on your single target regardless of wanting to pierce or not.

Physical Projectile Attack Damage - Pretty much every build is going to want to use this. No brainer. Depending on where you are at in your leveling process it may not be the best idea to roll this to 20% quality as it's only 10% increased phys.

Lesser Multiple Projectiles vs Greater MP - In most cases now GMP is significantly better, it's only a 35% less modifier in 2.0, it gives you better coverage and more hits, unless you are really struggling with DPS GMP is way better than LMP. Quality on both of these gems is a huge 10% increased attack speed, these gems are an instant rollover to 20% quality upon reaching lvl 20.

Added Fire vs Weapon Elemental Damage - Some skills you are going to want to use both of these together. But some skills you're not going to have the space to fit them both. You'll want to test which works better for the skill in question, WED likely works better with Lightning Arrow where Added fire will work better with Ice shot due to the % conversions of each of these skills. This one is really hard to pick a winner overall. Q20 for these gems is pretty negligible, if you absolutely have to max your build you can roll them over, but you get most of your DPS from the level's not the quality.

Faster Attacks - In most cases it is not worthwhile, unless your bow is really slow but hard hitting you're better off with another support.

Phys to Lightning
I like the idea of this gem, and on paper it looks really good. It is a huge DPS boost. But I personally think that in reality it is paper DPS only. My reasoning for this is that it removes a large portion of your phys damage. Phys damage is important for two reasons, it leeches, and it is not resisted as much as elemental damage. Sure slotting it into your attack will give you godly DPS on paper. But I believe that it will slow your clear speed compared to slower projectiles on a single target skill. The Exception to this might be split arrow, as your pack clearing skill you don't want slow moving projectiles. But single target Slower Projectiles will scale your phys DPS which is more important IMO.

Slower Projectiles - For single target attacks slower projectiles is incredible. It's a massive boost to your DPS, it can make things a little annoying against fast moving bosses, but given you end up taking 50% increased projectile speed of the tree for most builds you end up back at 75% of regular arrow speed for a HUGE jump in damage. It also scales all damage as a more multiplier not just phys. Use this wherever you can.

Pierce - This baby is a build maker. I love this gem. Combine it with Lightning Arrow or Ice Shot, and each time you pierce an enemy you get another AOE multi hit. You don't even need a drillneck for this gem to enable map wrecking insane shotgunning.

Chain - This gem is good, but it has such a massive damage penalty. I prefer Pierce. But if you want a change then chain will provide excellent multihit capability. The only advantage it has over pierce is that it can shot around corners and the next chain is always aimed whereas pierce is a straight line/wall of damage. Chain can have some interesting effects with projectiles coming back towards you, visually interesting.

Fork - Personally I think this is a complete waste of time.

Power Charge on Crit - Unless you are using more than 3 power charges you're better off using the next gem.

Increased Critical Strikes - If you're struggling to crit and feel that crit DPS is better than any other additional dps your can add then use this gem. Unless you have more than 3 power charges then use power charge on crit.

Increased Critical Damage - Since the nerf to this gem in 1.3 I find that pretty much any other multiplier is better. Consider Added Fire, Weapon Elemental Damage or Slower Projectiles as they scale all of your damage rather than just crits.

Pack Clearing - Ice Shot Pierce, Ice Shot Chain, Lightning Arrow Chain

Single Target - Pierce, Burning Arrow

http://poeplanner.com/AAAABAICAZuNCC7tgxmOAF7Tfn11_rrveu4Oo4oj9k2SjX0wfH8rOdR29zH6oJ_8xQ2Nh3bjn0p9W68hdobOwTNOKkz_QzHawXTtBS3DM1oajX7NmOpidcu-p2VNvTZHflFHjb_UIzBx3ahLeDpC51Qk_f_e3vikeMHVBbXo1ud0bWzssIwLuXw2PZ2qbIxirFWFpcu1SA-rFr8mlWHiVUuMNonTcFIqC13yDkgRlgcelS7w1UlRlQXZxjKUfwKm4AiJmvFdaMqpN9TtPz7PvebI3MFJ_h2P-lxAVL0V7ZaL1bl672lOU88T2rEBcUNl0w==

http://poeplanner.com/AAAABAYBAbDYotnIFPVvaowWvyaVYeJVS4w2idNwUioLXfIOSOOEDdFjQxvINj2dqmyMYqxtbOywjAu5fLVItMXC7AW1jb_UIzBx3ahLeDpCUUfnVCT9_97e-KR4wdUwfI19I_ZNkn8rOdR29zH6oJ-jiu4O_MUNjYd2459KfVuvIXaGzsEz73rTfn11_roAXhmO7YMILk4qTP9DMY1-zZjqYnXLvqdlTb02R37awXTtBS1678MzWho31O0_Ps-95gzypcuVBdnGMpR_AqbgCIma8V1oyqkqW4JeUuzP3fGKLlPTbzIyEJLZhrxvhKJMjg==

http://poeplanner.com/AAAABAQBAbkdFeyK8MSCsKu-p2VNvTZHfnXL6mLNmI1-QzHDM1oa2sF07QUtTP9OKluvDY2HduOfSn0hdobOwTP8xe4Oo4oj9k2SjX0wfH8rOdR29zH6oJ9RR5UF2cYylH8CpuAIiZrxXWjKqedUJP3_3o2_1CMwcd2oS3g6Qj7PveY31O0_BbXC7LTFYqxsjJ2qNj1tbOywjAu5fLVID6sWvyaVYeJVS4w2idNwUioLXfIOSBGWBx6VLvDVSVGP-lxAVL0V7ZaL1bnvetN-AF4Zju2DCC59df66yNzBSf4dDPKlyw==