[2.6] CRIT HoWA BF/ST Raider [13k ES, 60k BF/265k GMP ST DPS, Stun-immune] [4 sec Chayula kill]

I did try out crit damage but the more multiplier on ele focus is just too powerful. I still have 880 with my current build. That's without int on boots, chest, or belt and with my current tree and bad HoWA rolls (I've wasted a dozen divines already). To me crit feels very forced and I am beginning to think dropping it and going ele overload and get the two extra frenzies would be much more consistent. It would also allow faster attacks instead of crit strikes. The extra points would allow me to take US and free up my boots from skyforths for more ES and Int. This would also allow resists to be easier potentially allowing me to grab another accuracy roll.

With completely GG gear I can see crit being better but without it I feel like I do everything OK but nothing really well. I'm going on vacation for the next week so maybe I'll theory craft during downtime and see what I can come up with.

The one thing I really don't understand about your build though is why you go into the Templar area. I understand grabbing the area cluster but it's a large investment skill point wise. Again if I drop crit then the crit wheel in the marauder would be useless but even with crit it just seems so inefficient to go that far solely for the crit chance. I'm mostly thinking while writing but it your looking for damag why not go into the Lightning wheel above witch and grab the %lightning damage instead. You'd scale 100% ish damage for many less points instead of gaining 10% crit chance with low crit multi. Again this is why I'm leaning going non crit.

"

Cruxation wrote:

I did try out crit damage but the more multiplier on ele focus is just too powerful. I still have 880 with my current build. That's without int on boots, chest, or belt and with my current tree and bad HoWA rolls (I've wasted a dozen divines already). To me crit feels very forced and I am beginning to think dropping it and going ele overload and get the two extra frenzies would be much more consistent. It would also allow faster attacks instead of crit strikes. The extra points would allow me to take US and free up my boots from skyforths for more ES and Int. This would also allow resists to be easier potentially allowing me to grab another accuracy roll.

With completely GG gear I can see crit being better but without it I feel like I do everything OK but nothing really well. I'm going on vacation for the next week so maybe I'll theory craft during downtime and see what I can come up with.

The one thing I really don't understand about your build though is why you go into the Templar area. I understand grabbing the area cluster but it's a large investment skill point wise. Again if I drop crit then the crit wheel in the marauder would be useless but even with crit it just seems so inefficient to go that far solely for the crit chance. I'm mostly thinking while writing but it your looking for damag why not go into the Lightning wheel above witch and grab the %lightning damage instead. You'd scale 100% ish damage for many less points instead of gaining 10% crit chance with low crit multi. Again this is why I'm leaning going non crit.

Valid questions. Indeed crit will likely feel forced, but that's simply coz elemental overload is too strong a node and makes gearing extremely easy. Tbh though good int and resists gear can easily be afforded within the budget of a skyforth alone. An amulet with crit multiplier will also do wonders for DPS.

Tell you what, give me a tree to compare with that you think is more efficient than the templar tree that I've provided. I'll do the relevant calculations to compare with.

I've been in an airport looking at poebuilder to figure out why you chose the "inside" path around the scion area and it makes a lot of sense after looking at it. Now that I've looked at that pathing more seriously I understand why you went into the Templar area. Those accuracy nodes are a lot better than shadow (especially for non crit). Looks I'll be burning some currency to repath. I am curious if you use a converting fed to int jewel(I forget the name) in the socket left of Vaal pact. It seems like a good candidate to me. I'm on mobile right now so it's for me to see your current tree.

My plan is to drop skyforths and get Es/int boots and hopefully some decent resistance to make gearing easier. At that point I should be able to get accuracy on my gloves and get my chance to hit up as well. This should also get my ES higher to hopefully free up ES nodes as well. If I do drop crit and drop Inc crit strikes I'm guessing using faster attack is going to really make BF feel great.

Hello everyone!

I am a returning player, been around since early start of the game but always stop playing before i learn much about it.
I just started leveling my Ranger (1st char BHC), i hit Cruel A1 just now and i feel a bit squishy. Thankfully, a friend of mine could afford to buy/spare me some gear and i have stacked some life up.

Could you provide some survival tips to progress until i get HOWA and set my Gems properly?
I can afford

This is my current Gear :



And my current skilltree:



Thanks in advance.

Edit: Adding Brotem on boots now.

"

Cruxation wrote:

I've been in an airport looking at poebuilder to figure out why you chose the "inside" path around the scion area and it makes a lot of sense after looking at it. Now that I've looked at that pathing more seriously I understand why you went into the Templar area. Those accuracy nodes are a lot better than shadow (especially for non crit). Looks I'll be burning some currency to repath. I am curious if you use a converting fed to int jewel(I forget the name) in the socket left of Vaal pact. It seems like a good candidate to me. I'm on mobile right now so it's for me to see your current tree.

My plan is to drop skyforths and get Es/int boots and hopefully some decent resistance to make gearing easier. At that point I should be able to get accuracy on my gloves and get my chance to hit up as well. This should also get my ES higher to hopefully free up ES nodes as well. If I do drop crit and drop Inc crit strikes I'm guessing using faster attack is going to really make BF feel great.

Yup! Don't underestimate accuracy nodes and accuracy mods on gear. You can actually drop faster attacks if you happen to have enough attack speed. I reckon about 6.5 APS should be optimum.

Based on the updated tree build and my calculations, I believe the best links would be:
BF - WED - Lightning Pen - Incr. AOE - Incr. Crit Strikes - Incr. Crit Dmg. Shock applied would outdps elemental focus.

"

pantelisf wrote:

Hello everyone!

I am a returning player, been around since early start of the game but always stop playing before i learn much about it.
I just started leveling my Ranger (1st char BHC), i hit Cruel A1 just now and i feel a bit squishy. Thankfully, a friend of mine could afford to buy/spare me some gear and i have stacked some life up.

Could you provide some survival tips to progress until i get HOWA and set my Gems properly?
I can afford

This is my current Gear :

Spoiler

And my current skilltree:

Spoiler

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAABAIAAQX5Bx4NjQ5IEZYV8BmKGdcj0yP2N9RGcUlRSn1LV02STipRR1uvX7Bvnn_GgwmExYd2j2CTJ5OVlS6VzJcGm7Wjiq0zr-u0DL6KwOPDOspKytPTfuOf5-rtP-4O73rw1fGz-TP5Y_sJ_MU=

Thanks in advance.

Edit: Adding Brotem on boots now.

You've got an empty red socket in your chest. Put in a life leech gem for now, it'll help loads. If you need more life, get the Melding cluster. Once you get Coldhearted Calculation, start branching through the scion center towards the templar area and grab Elemental Overload. It'll help alot while leveling

Hi there. Thank you very much for the build, it is working wonders for me.

I just wanted to get your opinion on a personal link adjustment I've been theory-crafting in my head for awhile.

The current setup is:

Enlighten - Discipline - PCoC - Orb of Storms
Enlighten - Blasphemy - Wrath - Assassins Mark

I was thinking to change it to:

Curse on Hit - PCoC - Orb of Storms - Assassins Mark
Enlighten - Wrath - Discipline - Herald of Thunder/Purity of Elements

My rational is that if we're going to run Orb and PCoC we could sub out Blasphemy and fill in Curse on Hit - this would require Orb to be dropped every 3rd pack or so to maintain power charges but you would be able to run Herald for some extra damage.

From my experience most generic rares/monsters get erased regardless of Assassins' Mark being applied; you really only need the curse for certain rares and bosses though this does depend on the map affixes.

It's an exchange of convenience for potentially(?) more damage.

What are your thoughts?

Also is it worth swapping Inc. AoE for Conc. Effect for bosses?

"

Genera wrote:

Hi there. Thank you very much for the build, it is working wonders for me.

I just wanted to get your opinion on a personal link adjustment I've been theory-crafting in my head for awhile.

The current setup is:

Enlighten - Discipline - PCoC - Orb of Storms
Enlighten - Blasphemy - Wrath - Assassins Mark

I was thinking to change it to:

Curse on Hit - PCoC - Orb of Storms - Assassins Mark
Enlighten - Wrath - Discipline - Herald of Thunder/Purity of Elements

My rational is that if we're going to run Orb and PCoC we could sub out Blasphemy and fill in Curse on Hit - this would require Orb to be dropped every 3rd pack or so to maintain power charges but you would be able to run Herald for some extra damage.

From my experience most generic rares/monsters get erased regardless of Assassins' Mark being applied; you really only need the curse for certain rares and bosses though this does depend on the map affixes.

It's an exchange of convenience for potentially(?) more damage.

What are your thoughts?

Also is it worth swapping Inc. AoE for Conc. Effect for bosses?

yup the option you've proposed is also what I've considered as well. the only downside to that is that you won't be able to curse bosses (unless you can free a socket for a manual curse gem, which I don't), as well as not be able to generate power charges vs bosses (because you won't have the option of orb of storms + PCOC).

On the other hand, you get approx 48 more ave base damage from HoT which translates to about 800-1000 or so increase in average damage overall, as well as not having to have 2 enlightens. 1 will do.

If you swap incr. AOE for Conc. effect, you have to be sure that you can facetank the boss (ie have enough ES( because you will inevitably end up in melee range. Incr. AOE allows for easier kiting because you can hit the boss from further away. That said, conc. effect does kill bosses quicker, so i suppose it will probably depend on the boss mechanics.

Eg. Vaal Oversoul's melee animations are pretty slow so I would use conc. effect versus him. For bosses like brutus I may prefer to use incr. AOE.

Hey bud, nice to see you around as others have said. I remember watching your CI flicker build of the week video after just starting POE and it really got me interested in the game. Anyway started following the guide and leveled a ranger. I'll link my current gear and tree in a few but wanted to ask some questions and make a few comments.

I have played around with the tree a bit, having re-specced several times. My issue I guess is that the tree posted in the guide feels a bit in between being full crit or going full elemental. I feel you know your stuff and have done the math so I have trusted the pathing. Last night I decided to skip the templar side and basically take more crit chance and crit multi nodes while trying to sustain my accuracy. This was based on some of your early assumptions about crit versus ele overload which I have seen you strongly defend.

I changed the colors in my chest and replaced FA and Ele focus with crit strikes and crit dmg. Also changed the pathing to something more in line with your original tree. What happened was obviously I lost attack speed, but actually picked up a descent amount of tooltip damage, even resting in hideout with just auras.

To address the attack speed issue I took finesse and the the quick-step nodes which gave me an additional 17% along with more accuracy, some dex, and move speed at the cost of 4 points. The saved nodes from the templar side allowed me to take more crit chance and multi. I felt extremely safe at 11k Es, and not using astra I was still over 1000 int. Currently down just below 10k ES I believe but I still feel pretty solid.

First question is, having played both the ranger and a templar how do you feel about each class in comparison for this build?
Second, what are your feelings versus going full ele with ele overload versus the crit route like you originally planned?
Third, you have yet to mention this amulet
I feel it fits this build perfectly especially in terms of the crit build, any thoughts? It cost me 18c. If you can spare the 30 int it might be wise to corrupt for an additional frenzy. Also it helped solve some mana issues even with 2x lvl 3 enlightens.

thanks again!

current gear:


still looking for ideal rings, might try diamonds if I can cap res, and looking for a new belt.
Also, pondering Blood rage for the extra attack speed until I solve the issue. The new tree going more crit even with less attack speed feels much more powerful, I know my tooltip is higher bud the overall feel of play feels much ore impressive. Figured I share my thoughts on the more crit focused play.

Current tree:

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAIBAAAGAecF-QqbDXwNjQ5ID8QRgRGWFdcV8BX2FyYZihnXGlUajyPTJP0nqSoLKjgsvy5TNug31DqzO3w8vkMxRmlGcUz_TipRR1T-VmNW-loaW69d8l9qX3BfsGEhYnljp28nb55wUnC7eOt6hH5Zf8aDCYNthMWE74auidOMNo9gj_qQCpMnk5WVzJcGmmqbtZ_LoS-io6OKpHinMK0zr-u0DLjKvea-isHFwdXDM8M6ykrK09DQ02_TftjV2sHdRt7451Tn6uq67BjtP-4O73r22vkz-WP7CfzF_94=

Hey! Thanks for the welcome! :)

Your tree is a very nice iteration for the current number of points used, however as you level further you will probably run out of useful points to place them in though. Frenzy charges stacking is something which I found to be not mathematically worth it. I will have to revisit my maths again to have a look. Been busy leveling an inquisitor version of this guy.

For ranger versus templar:

1. Templar dishes out a heckload of damage. In fact, the damage it dishes out is probably too much imo
2. Raider is just more fun to play because of Avatar of the Veil. It makes it much more fun in maps (because you don't have to worry about status ailments) and hence safer as well. Also, raider gameplay tends to be more fast-paced, both in terms of attack speed and movement speed.

Between the two, I prefer Inquisitor for fighting bosses, but prefer the raider version for everything else haha. You can have a look at my inquisitor version if u wish! I just posted some stats there:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1806782

I feel that choir of the storm is great for spellcasting builds but is lacklustre for attack-based builds. Reason being that:
1. It doesn't provide enough INT
2. The 50% incr. lightning damage only applies for crits and is outweighed by %elemental damage with weapons on rare ammys which apply to everything
3. It doesn't have crit multi.

Compared to my current ammys (below), it is an inferior option.


That said, it is cheaper than astramentis and can be a placeholder in the meantime provided you can cap your lightning res.

With regards to your gear:
I like the fact that you've gotten 3 pieces with +accuracy, never neglect that often overlooked stat! Your gear is otherwise pretty decent and, as you've already mentioned, your belt should probably be upgraded first before the rest. Aim for >34% ele damage and tri res. Will free up slots for your other accessories/gear.

I figured, I'd give you a quick update on my character since we had a lot of back and forth recently. I have found/bought some pretty good gear and totally changed my build. I am now spectral throw and i have gone non crit. I have found the build to be a lot "cleaner" the pathing is very natural to get projectile damage and lots of int. I have outlined major stats below if your curious. I don't find the damage to be much more than crit though but defensively I gained a lot. US and much more int which = ES. Also ST seems a lot safer than BF but it may just be my playstyle. I feel the clear speed is better for sure though.



I'd like to find a neck, belt, and glove upgrade in the future. Accuracy on gloves and neck would be great or WED on the neck. For the belt I would love a crystal belt to try to hit 10k ES.

9.5k ES with discipline up
1,210 int (could have better rolls on HoWAs as well)
ele weakness capped on all res
84% chance to hit (i need to work on this)
27k tooltip ST+GMP+EF+WED+LP+AddL with only HoT and Wrath
67k tooltip with 8 frenzies and ele overload up
97k tooltip with flasks up as well

I switch GMP for slow proj for boss fights where it makes sense. I have to say being stun immune and immune to ele status is unreal and I absolutely love it especially while phasing. Very little slows this build down. The best part is my defenses are pretty set and all my next nodes will be offensive (lightning nodes in witch area, proj damage in shadow, proj/attack speed/accuracy in duelist). I also have levels on gems and quality on added lightning as well so even more room to gain damage. I am lvl 89 ATM.