[1.2 Beyond Viable] Phys/Semi-Crit Tornado Shot + Frenzy Ranger

This is my first guide but I haven't seen too many hardcore or Beyond league viable ranger builds up for 1.2 so I figured I would post mine to see what people thought.

My build is based on the new skill Tornado shot, a skill that has not only a good clear speed for maps but when used right on single target is a very high burst shotgun style skill.

One of the hardest things to do with a bow build is create something that has high damage output but can still soften the blows of hardcore, especially with the new beyond league mobs. I tried my build as acrobatics/ondar's based as well as iron reflexes based and have had interesting results from both. I'll post both passive trees, but in my opinion I would prefer a dodge/evasion build over iron reflexes.

One of the best things I noticed is running ondar's on dodge/evasion you can almost completely nullify any of the ranged/crit heavy bow portal spawns that appear. Running IR when they crit you it still HURTS immensely, but you can survive the blows at least. IR in the higher up maps hasn't seemed to soften the blows too much, I'd only really suggest running it over dodge if A) You have high anxiety and the small amount of chunks that do hit you through your 40% dodge, 60+% evasion, and 30% spell dodge are too much for you to handle, or B) You have a Lioneyes Glare bow as ondar's won't apply to this and you can almost instantly 1-2 shot yourself on reflect.

Both build guides are done to 97 Points, leaving you at level 80 and some left over, I can post a full view of what my end game trees would look like too adding some more crit/survivability. You can see one small benefit to running IR over Dodge is you pickup 5 extra passive points to work with, this can come in quite handy depending on what you do with them, myself I've chosen to go up through the Reflexes evasion wheel up to the health/crit nodes there.






Bandits

Normal - Help Oak (Maximum Life)
Cruel - Help Oak (+18% Phys Dmg)
Merc - Help Kraityn (+1 Frenzy Charge)


Gem Setup

Tornado Shot is your main skill here Linked with GMP. In my opinion having used both LMP and GMP I found GMP works extremely well for mob density and clear speed, as well as a good shotgun burst effect on single target.

Links: Tornado Shot + GMP + Faster Attacks + Added Fire + Life Leech(I'd use life on hit at lower levels until you have higher damage/a leveled life leech) + Increased Critical Damage or Physical Projectile Attack Damage. If you don't want to run life leech I'd run Power Charge on Crit/Inc Crit Damage, but in Beyond, the life leech has saved me more than a few times.

Frenzy is your secondary skill, personally I like running some item rarity and I felt the single target damage on Tornado shot has been high enough to where I haven't needed to run damage links on Frenzy, I'm simply using it as a charge generator (6 charges total) for the bonus attack speed, damage, and evasion.

My Frenzy Setup: Frenzy + Item rarity + Culling Strike (If you have more links for it I would use Faster attacks, PPAD, and Added Fire.

Auras:

As much as I love hatred I opted to run Grace + Herald of Ash + Herald of Ice for the higher survivability with less damage from your auras until you have the mana pool to sustain hatred and grace The way I have this figured for my build currently is I'll be using Hatred around level 95 once I get the reduced mana node near the ranger tree. If you wanted to do a blood magic setup on your tornado shot you could run hatred or if you figure out a way to have a large enough mana pool to run both then fantastic those would be my choices. I suppose you could do an Alpha's Howl too. Could you run hatred over grace? Yes you could, but in a league like Beyond where you can RIP so insanely easily, I'd prefer the additional % Evasion or Damage Reduction as you can still do plenty of damage with this build.

My Link with Reduced mana: Grace + Herald of Ash + Herald of Ice + Reduced mana

Utility:
Curse - Poachers Mark or Warlords Mark. Poachers Mark has a lot of synergy with this build as it has the % chance to refresh or even add to your frenzy stacks, keeping you from having to use single target as much. The reduced evasion and life/mana on hit comes in really handy as well. Warlords Mark is also a good option if you're running a Cast When Damage Taken setup like mine, plus again, the life/mana leech is very very handy.

Cast When Damage Taken Setup - I prefer running CwDT + Enduring Cry + Immortal Call + Increased Duration. This has always been my go to setup for my ranger builds. If you're running Iron Reflexes you could use Molten Shell over increased duration for the additional Phys Damage Reduction.

Decoy Brotem - If you get in a bind he's a helpful thing to have around. Even though it only survives for a split second or a bit longer if you're lucky, it can be just what you need to successfully kite mobs or take some pressure off you.

This also leaves another 4 link open, you could always run a curse on hit setup or many other ideas, I myself am currently running a cold snap setup with Cold snap + Multi Trap + Ele Proliferation + Trap. The reason why i'm using multitrap even though I have ele prolif is simply for strongboxes, it allows me to pretty much freeze everything when popping one. I'm sure there is better utility than this you can use, this was just a personal choice pretty much until I come up with something better or more useful.


My Current Gear (At level 92)


Currently using Iron reflexes with this gear as having a lioneye's it's the only way to deal with reflect (which isn't much of an issue using this setup). I have around 5300 HP right now. One of the best parts about Tornado Shot is its a rare gem in the sense that it actually has a higher % base damage. Tornado shot currently doing around 10500 DPS with frenzy charges (Now that I have my 6 link). I took a little bit more evasion to start and will be filling in the crit nodes over the next few levels. Crit chance is currently 30%, end game will be around 40% (or higher if I can find a good crit bow).

Offense/Defense Screenshots


If you want to see it in action I do have a twitch stream and stream daily at http://www.twitch.tv/AoE_TV

Not sure if I left anything out or not but like I said it's my first build post so hopefully you guys enjoy it, if you have any questions, feedback, criticism, etc I'd love to hear it.

Thanks!
Last edited by madduffer on Sep 18, 2014, 2:19:08 PM
Updated with leveling guide and current corrected stats/gear for those that were asking.

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