[2.6] Flash Freeze Ice Shot Ranger

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CreationsAU wrote:

Can anyone have a look at my character and explain why my CoH + Assassin Mark isn't working? HoI says that it will apply the curse but nothing is ever cursed regardless of what skill I use.

Also i'm finding Iceshot fairly underwhelming even with my current 5L bow, can anyone see what exactly i'm missing that would make a big difference with Iceshot's damage?

I was having similar problems, but I focused on the nodes in the tree (breaking from the suggested path according to the OP) and got as much crit chance as I could. I'm sitting now close to 50% in Cruel Act 4 and damage and clear is now where it should be with rares. Take a look at my tree and pick up some of the crit nodes to the south east of the tree and that will help.

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NewbieDOTcom wrote:

Self found is a whole different ballgame especially Hardcore. You will not be able to follow the guide exactly you are going to have to make adjustments as you go yet it's a rush.

Agreed - I deviated from the suggested leveling path of the tree and added in more crit, as well as fixed a few gear pieces for crit and now I'm at a satisfying level of clear/dmg in Cruel, as I make my way through Act 4.

I'm curious though for you NewbieDOTcom or anyone else reading this: I would love to find a Lightning Arrow guide that is similar to this two spell setup; LA for groups and a single target. I used to have one, years ago that was LA for groups and Ice Shot for single target that was rather effective. I'm not a fan of the TS/LA/Barrage/toomanyspells builds :)

Anyone got an advice or links to a build that is a two-fer of LA and a good single target?

how important are the additional power charges from the pasive tree and bandits rewards from merciless? was thinking if was a mandatory investment and i could survive with 3 charges, or the dps incresed is really that considerable

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Polrayne wrote:

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NewbieDOTcom wrote:

Self found is a whole different ballgame especially Hardcore. You will not be able to follow the guide exactly you are going to have to make adjustments as you go yet it's a rush.

Agreed - I deviated from the suggested leveling path of the tree and added in more crit, as well as fixed a few gear pieces for crit and now I'm at a satisfying level of clear/dmg in Cruel, as I make my way through Act 4.

I'm curious though for you NewbieDOTcom or anyone else reading this: I would love to find a Lightning Arrow guide that is similar to this two spell setup; LA for groups and a single target. I used to have one, years ago that was LA for groups and Ice Shot for single target that was rather effective. I'm not a fan of the TS/LA/Barrage/toomanyspells builds :)

Anyone got an advice or links to a build that is a two-fer of LA and a good single target?

Well I just got 1 hit trying to lvl to fast so back to the drawing board on HC self found. Playing an archer in HC is not an easy task especially self found. It is not a cookie cutter build that has a cushion. In general eventually you are going to die IMO unlike some other type builds that are more suitable for HC. As for why I had 3 attacks on my character as you level early IS is a no go for bosses. BR and TS and Barrage all work good. The hard part at the beginning of a build is you really have to have as much attack speed as you can get. TS and Barrage depend on it and you can not make mistakes because no matter how much you invest in evade it is a broken mechanic. The only way to partially get help is to invest in as much HP as possible yet in self found there is no way around it. Being an archer you can not attempt to stand toe to toe like you can on non HC. Evade will fail on you at some point. Look at leader boards. How many archers do you see at the top? I like TS and barrage with fast attack speed a lot since it can really keep a boss pinned a little. Ice shot is only good for clearing when there are large groups, etc. yet I love the skill even more now that it got beefed up a little. I will take a short break then try again yet its not if you are going to die with an archer on HC self found - "It's When!" HaHa.

Lightning arrow is sorta just like IS yet I like the idea of things shattering. Less chance for corpses exploding, etc, and shattering enemies in HC is always a good thing. There are really no guides yet once you get into the last act of cruel you better start thinking about putting as many points into HP as you can find since evasion is pretty useless in the endgame for a HC player with no block, etc. yet early on on self found its hard to manage HP and have enough damage with what drops.

LA + BR can work real well too. BR may be a little safer then barrage since you can shoot and move easier and get an area radius damage for HC. I did not get into merciless since Self found gears were nowhere near good enough to getting me past act 4 in cruel after 2 attempts haha. Have fun. I will be back for another try after I relax for a while.

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Jolo0213 wrote:

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badgerx wrote:

What about adding reach of the council spine bow instead of deaths opus? especially with the foil version being out in legacy mode?

I think Reach is only better than Death's Opus if you're using the legacy version with the extra 4 arrows.

This is basically correct, as long as a reasonably obtainable four arrow Reach was in the game it was good but now that they have changed it to two arrows the crit multi on the Opus becomes better since a legacy Reach will eventually become too pricey for most. A legacy or especially a double legacy Reach will be better for dps if you can get your hands on it though.

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12naruto wrote:

Hello, I was wondering how you would rate Lioneye's Glare as a budget bow in comparison with Chin Sol? Is the 100% more bow damage in close range significantly better than Lioneye's Glare's overall better stats, which scales better with modifiers, and with the never miss mod, it saves a few points for accuracy in the tree. Also when using Slivertongue + Rigwald's Quill, if I get the phys to cold conversion in the tree to get 100% cold ice shot, then the bleed portion of Slivertongue is basically nonexistant right?

The accuracy nodes I take on the tree also have crit chance attached to them but I have picked up a Glare in Legacy for mine and you are right they are great for a budget bow aside from the Chin Sol. The one I had in standard isn't even close to the current version and it didn't perform the same, this will be corrected on the front page soon.

Yes on the bleed too but that's okay because the real power of the Slivertongue is the increased crit on projectiles that fork. It will help from having to stack so much crit on your gear and you can get other stats and it will probably make gear cheaper since crit gear usually has a higher price tag.

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Akutsai wrote:

how important are the additional power charges from the pasive tree and bandits rewards from merciless? was thinking if was a mandatory investment and i could survive with 3 charges, or the dps incresed is really that considerable

This really depends on what your final crit chance is. Any cold damage that crits and enemy is a 100% freeze and they come out of the freeze in a chill state for the duration of the freeze plus 0.3 seconds. This gives you enough time to take another shot while they are stopped or slowed causing the cycle to go again. Also the higher your crit chance the more times you multiply your damage with the crit multi.

Don't be me!
If you're playing with a Death's Opus... do use blessed orbs on it to roll the implicit as higher as possible, it goes from 35% to 50% and it improves a lot the base crit of the bow and thus your overall crit chance.
I only noticed yesterday I was running on a 35% Death's opus for a while now ugh!

Oh and I have a question about leech, if an item specifies % of physical damage leeched as mana/health, will this work at all with Ice shot as it's a 100% conversion to Cold?
Or will it only work for the 10% off Blast rain as it's 50% fire + 40% cold from tree?

For my Raider I'm looking forward to try and reach the maximum amount of frenzy charges, currently sitting at 8, I've been looking at the Darkray Vector boots that can be corrupted and give +2 Frenzy charges and ms/dodge per chance, plus an additional charge from a corrupted amulet.
Managing resistances is going to be hard though!


Also for those not too happy with their current critical chance, might I indulge you in considering a Diamond Flask? It was first suggested here and I used it all the way to level 90 and it helped a great deal in consistently critting enemies, for those unaware this is what "your critical chance is lucky" does:
(Lucky means that a number is rolled twice and the best result is picked.)
Roll it with Increased duration and you'll manage just fine.
At the end of the day the Ice shot is so good that you can really play around the gems and flasks to test things out for mid tier maps. As raider I completely forsake the Faster attacks on Ice shot for Increased Critical Strike, since your AS is more than fine with just frenzy charges and Avatar of the Slaughter.

What I also like about this build is the life/mana leech being so great that you can safely run with one health flask and no mana flask at all, leaving you with several choices for utility flasks you can swap whenever.


P.S. Currently a Legacy RotC sells for around 30-40 ex in Softcore so don't plan on getting one without much pain. Way cheaper atm to get a Death's Opus and a +1 arrow quiver, I found that running shaped strand with sextant that give corrupted items is a good way to fish for those quivers.
P.P.S. What about the Halcyon amulet? It looks very strong wit the 60% increased damage upon freezing enemies or is it damage bait and a good rare will be better?
Turns out there's an upgraded version too as it's a Breach item that trades the damage for 20% cold penetration.

Thanks for the build guide. I'm doing something similar in HC, but as a Duelist Slayer (=OP leech without Vaal Pact, you guys should really try it out).
Basic idea is the same though.
Now that we can easily convert our Ice Shot to 100% cold, I am assuming a Q20 added cold is definitely better than PPaD? I have yet to try this, never thought about not using PPaD.
Legacy Reach or Death's Opus with +1 Quiver would make Icshot a good single target skill, yeah. But those options are out of my budget for now, so I'm using a Blast Rain setup for single targets ATM. Also a Vaal Burning Arrow for the fun factor :D
Getting charges via bloodrage is really nice, I've missed that. So far no power charges, using the ICS gem instead.

Question: Herald of Ash or Herald of Ice? I know you can't curse with Ash, but just for the sake of damage, Ash should be better? Gives me more deeps at least.

My gear:


And tree:


cheers

Quick Question.
Would you recommend using two Threshold Jewels for Ice shot to make it pierce 100%? Or should I ditch it and make use of Chain?
Also if going pierce, would you drop "Ricochet" and "Fast and Deadly" for "Powerful Precision" and maybe "Rupture" for the extra crit% and crit multi% against bleeding Enemies?

With kind regards,
Blackiiee