The Easiest of the Easy Beginner Build Guides [1.1 SotV UPDATED]

Hey Ziggy, thanks a ton for writing up this guide. I'm currently lvl 65 with this build and am enjoying it quite a bit.

I would like some advice, though. Should I be able to solo farm Piety yet at 65? I can clear through Lunaris 3 very quickly, but can't seem to get Piety down without at least a couple deaths.

I'm linking my build and gear below, and hopefully someone can give me a little direction on how to best improve my character. My only changes (I think) from your passive tree right now are that I had to dip into the Marauder starting area to get some resists since my gear was lacking. As I've gotten upgrades to gear, I've refunded out of some of those, but still have 6 points left to refund when my gear gets better. Or, would it be ok to go ahead and change those points out and be at about 50-60% Fire resist for a little while?

Build


Gear


Thanks!!

I bought an amulet upgrade that allowed me to spec out of the resist nodes and grab Static Blows and the additional 10% node behind it. I'm having trouble telling if I'm actually shocking enemies, though. Does LA do enough single target lightning damag to even proc a shock stack? If so, for bosses and rare mobs I'm guessing I should LA until a few stacks are up then switch back to frenzy?

I did finally start to take Piety down solo at 66 last night (without dying)!

(Sorry for the double post)

Great guide, thank you. Though, I really don't know what gear to buy, this is my current gear:



Please help, can't do much in merciless atm :'( and I'm level 62... :S

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honerpro wrote:

Great guide, thank you. Though, I really don't know what gear to buy, this is my current gear:

Spoiler

Please help, can't do much in merciless atm :'( and I'm level 62... :S

Are your resist maxed? Aside from that, I would drop chain, and use a few chromatics on your bow to try for 3 green, and one red, and replace chain with life leech, and rely on projectile weakness for pierce. Also, when you are able to upgrade, I don't think a faster bow would hurt either, around 1.4+. Your current gear also seems to be lacking in +life, and armor/evasion.

"

ManageGlow wrote:

"

honerpro wrote:

Great guide, thank you. Though, I really don't know what gear to buy, this is my current gear:

Spoiler

Please help, can't do much in merciless atm :'( and I'm level 62... :S

Are your resist maxed? Aside from that, I would drop chain, and use a few chromatics on your bow to try for 3 green, and one red, and replace chain with life leech, and rely on projectile weakness for pierce. Also, when you are able to upgrade, I don't think a faster bow would hurt either, around 1.4+. Your current gear also seems to be lacking in +life, and armor/evasion.

Thx for reply! Nope not resist maxed, just saw :x. Ok did that on the bow! Thanks, I'll look for a new bow and gear with res/life/armor(got that skill that removes evasion). Are there any uniques I should look for?

"

honerpro wrote:

"

ManageGlow wrote:

"

honerpro wrote:

Great guide, thank you. Though, I really don't know what gear to buy, this is my current gear:

Spoiler

Please help, can't do much in merciless atm :'( and I'm level 62... :S

Are your resist maxed? Aside from that, I would drop chain, and use a few chromatics on your bow to try for 3 green, and one red, and replace chain with life leech, and rely on projectile weakness for pierce. Also, when you are able to upgrade, I don't think a faster bow would hurt either, around 1.4+. Your current gear also seems to be lacking in +life, and armor/evasion.

Thx for reply! Nope not resist maxed, just saw :x. Ok did that on the bow! Thanks, I'll look for a new bow and gear with res/life/armor(got that skill that removes evasion). Are there any uniques I should look for?

You can still get gear with evasion on it, because iron reflexes converts it onto armor, in fact, evasion gear will give you more armor than armor gear would because of the %evasion nodes taken earlier, but it's good to have a couple pieces of gear that mainly requires the strength stat for socket color reasons, so you can run Cast on damage taken Lvl4/Enduring Cry lvl 7/Decoy totem lvl 9/molten shell lvl 9. (this came from the info Ziggy d added to the first post recently)

Also, you can get a 4 link for your frenzy as well. I don't know of many unqiues yet, except for Lion's Eye Glare, and that thing is crazy expensive. o_0

Hey all

Thanks for the guide, been playing off and on due to my uni study load. Haven't really had the time to research as much about the game as I would have liked.

Currently trying to clear stuff but its going slow as hell with my current bow and gear.

I was wondering since I found like an exalted orb and a GCP if I should start looking into buying something like a "Chin Sol" bow?

linking current gear:


Also got this on switch when I kill bosses (desperately trying to find some proper gear :P)
Killing stuff in act 2 already takes quite long though.


Not really sure what I should aim to upgrade I'm thinking my slow ass bow needs to be better and I just trade a proper one or something.

In any case, thanks for any helpful replies I may receive.

Cheers,

Pred

I think this needs to be edited for Spectral Throw. I dont see how anything else could be easier.

Hey would you post a blood magic skill gem variant? I keep being told that it isn't smart to use blood magic passive with archers because of the reserve cost. I am currently following your guide but want to use blood magic skill gem for skills and keep mana for auras. Suggestions? Are there unnecessary passives I can avoid because I'm not going for blood magic in return get more dmg/survivability?

My Ranger has reached lvl 31 having just reached The City of Sarn (monster level 26) and the start of Act 3 though I have two areas to finish in Act 2 still. I'm following ZiggyD's Tanky Blood Magic Ranger: Higher Damage Lightning Arrow Variant PST and just picked up Iron Reflexes continuing a b-line toward Blood Magic.

Believe it or not I still don't know the strategy in this game concerning armor and equipment and that frustrates me no end. The boss battles continue to be quite challenging but I feel I've either lucked-out with the right equipment and/or my level is so much higher then the monsters.

Now that I have Iron Reflexes my Evasion is converted to 498; Est physical damage reduction is 39%; Chance to Evade is 5%; and Max Energy Shield is 60.

I have a ton of equipment to process through but I am not clear on what I'm looking for. Highest armor ratings I can find? Or what? Not care what the Evasion Rating is but go for the highest Armor and Energy Shield?

PoE is quite a chore! I hope after Thanksgiving I can get back into the game and finish it soon.

I'm hoping ZiggyD might chime in or someone explaining what I need to strive for with equipment or point me to a concise discussion on the subject please. Thank you.