IllustriousDjinni's RoA IR Ranger. HC Viable, Beginner Friendly UPDATED: 2.3 patch
 UPDATED FOR PATCH 2.3 Ascendancy: For our Ascendancy we choose Deadeye for the increased damage and attack speed as well as for the area readius and bleed. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1n5cgquXxYlYpIcQ3lF0dhiN84Q5CwFOKO5fJo1-e-yE/pubhtml Note: All number are not yet updated for 2.3 tree Hi, IllustriousDjinni here and welcome to my Rain of Arrows, Iron Reflexes ranger. I have played Path of Exile since just before the end of open beta. My current IGN on the Prophecy league is Rhianil so feel free to whisper me, send a message on the forum or comment on this post with any questions. This is a build I came up with for the Beyond league. The build is extremely tanky with a high life pool and a decent amount of armour from Iron reflexes. It is also extremely cheap to gear and deals with reflect quite nicely. These traits make it a nice beginner friendly build whilst still having mechanics that experienced players can use. It uses Rain of Arrows to both clear large packs effectively and deal good damage to single targets. You may also wish to check out my other ranger build guide IllustriousDjinni's Elemental Spectral Throw Ranger Hardcore Viable Build (Buzzsaw) 1.3 patch! Video coming soon
Defensive overview
Life
This build gives a whopping 209% increased life so you will have a huge life pool, easily breaking 5k life around level 75. At level 65 with no gear equipped I have almost 2177 life. This is without filling in the Scion life wheel at all and skipping some of the life on the sides of the route, instead rushing towards the increase aoe from the Templar area and resolute technique.
Armour from Iron Reflexes and Grace
Iron reflexes converts all our evasion from gear and Grace being scaled by 176% increased evasion rating to give a decently large amount of armor and damage mitigation. At level 65 I have 8786 Armor with 65% physical mitigation. With Molten shell up this is boosted to 9521 and with a Granite and Jade flask up to 32200 with 87% damage mitigation.
Life leech sustain and Regeneration
This build picks up 3% life leech from the tree which can be added to from gear to give a good amount of life leech. Vitality also gives a nice amount of life regeneration so you will have no trouble sustaining blood magic and healing during combat. You may decided that you want to use Vaal Pact making your life leech instantly but making life regen useless. In this case only regen node that could be worth replacing is Sanctity and replacing it with Elementalist to connect the Life and Increased AoE areas. This is probably worth it especially if you do either of these to choices to replace Vitality. Firstly you could Run both Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder instead, putting one in your spare 6 socket item full of utility skills. Alternatively you can get a level 22 Reduced Mana (Hard) or swap out 2 life nodes on the Scion life wheel for a 4% reduced mana reserved node by Sovereignty (Easy). This allows you to run Hatred. Both these options get more damage going the Elementalist route over Sanctity but you will lose a small amount of defense from the 20% increased armour. Option number 3 is to just replace Vitality with your chosen purity aura depending on what kind of damage the zone you are going into uses.
Two cast when damage taken setups
This build uses two different levels of cast when damage taken to greatly increase survive ability. Enfeeble goes off regularly reducing damage from enfeebled targets by 20% while molten shell grants 450 armor and enduring cry gives endurance charges reducing incoming damage by 4% per charge.
Stunning
Rain of Arrows hits quite hard when it lands and so monsters can be stunned for short a duration stopping movement and attack channeling.
Endurance charges
This build keeps up 3-4 endurance charges fairly easily depending on your bandit choice in merciless. These reduce incoming damage by 4% each.
Offensive overview
High physical damage
This build gets quite a high amount of physical damage. This damage is complimented by the use of Herald of Ash and Hatred auras to add 15% and 30% of your physical damage as elemental damage. The overkill on Herald of Ash is also very helpful due to rain of arrows heavy hits. At level 65 these give me 3.3k dps on Rain of arrows. This is fairly inaccurate though as it doesn't take into account all the extra damage I gain at close range from Chin Sol and Point Blank.
Fast attack speed
This build picks up a decent amount of 34% increased attack speed allowing you to attack fast. At level 65 this gives me 2.7 attacks per second on Rain of arrows linked to faster attacks with a 1.40 attacks per second base bow.
Point blank
This build uses Point blank to add 50% of your damage as extra at close range. This can be complimented through the use of a Chin Sol to add an additional 100% at close range and causing knock-back. This gives you a huge 2.5 times damage multiplier at close range. The reduced damage at range from point blank helps to deal with off screen reflect.
Skills
Main attack
-Rain of Arrows (Blast Rain) -Faster Attacks -Physical Projectile Attack Damage -Life Leech -Concentrated Effect -Added Fire This doubles as both your area of effect attack and single target due to concentrated effect. Since the introduction of Blast Rain you may prefer to use it instead.
Auras
-Herald of Ash -Grace -Vitality -Reduced Mana -Hatred If you can acquire a level 22 reduced mana you can run Hatred instead of Vitality. You will have to run almost all skills off blood magic as this will reserve almost 100% of it. You could also run hatred instead of grace if you want more damage over armor. Feel free to swap the gems around depending on the zone you are in. Running Hatred and Herald of Ash will give you 45% of you physical damage as additional elemental damage. While Grace will grant you a large amount of armor depending on it's level. This armor (evasion converted to armor) granted by grace will be increased by all your evasion nodes on the tree (176% extra)
Defensive set up 1
-Cast When Damage Taken, Level 1 -Enfeeble, Level 5 -Enduring Cry, Level 5 -Decoy Totem, Level 8 This will proc very often enfeebling the enemies and keeping up almost constant endurance charges in combat. Enfeebled enemies do 20% reduced damage while you will take 4% less damage per endurance charge from enduring cry. An alternative is that you can swap out decoy totem to frost wall to push away melee attackers. More experienced players may wish to manually cast an unlinked enduring cry allowing you to use a higher level and keep them up more consistently. -
Defensive set up 2
-Cast When Damage Taken, Level 7 -Immortal Call, Level 8 -Molten Shell, Level 10 -Increased Duration, Highest level possible This will go off after taking large hits like a Rhoa charge preventing death from subsequent charges. Immortal call will make you immune to physical damage for a short duration and molten shell will give an additional 450 armor.
Utility skills(use other 6 socket item)
-Decoy Totem -Vulnerability/Projectile weakness -Smoke Mine -Blood Magic -Spell totem -Summon skeletons -Blind/Minion Life -Blink Arrow -Herald of .. It can be very helpful to get plus one curses on mobs through corrupting an item. Decoy totem can be swapped out to another skill if required due to the cast when damage taken set up will often replace it.I recommend the use of the summon skeleton totem instead of the decoy totem if the required links are available. Blind or minion life can be used depending on whether you want them to be more tanky or to blind on hit both increasing survive-ability. I also recommend using projectile weakness over vulnerability simply because vulnerability is an intelligence based skill and so you may struggle to acquire enough intelligence. Projectile weakness will increase projectile damage by 20%-29% to cursed targets. At level 65 I decided to use Curse on Hit linked to Projectile Weakness, Lightning Arrow and Lesser Multiple Projectiles. This set up is working very well for me. Blink arrow is very good for this build. Use the herald here depending on whether you chose to use Vaal Pact.
Alternate utility skills
-Arc -Item rarity -Culling strike The Arc can be used for culling to get better drops from bosses as well as killing traps. Arc can be swapped out for any spell or bow skill and doesn't need to have a high level due to culling strike.
Bandits
Normal - Oak. +40 life Cruel - Oak or Kraityn. 18% increased physical damage or 8% increased attack speed. Merciless - Oak, Kraityn or Passive. +1 Endurance charges, +1 Frenzy charges or a passive skill point. Both choices are fairly even and come to personal preference. Both Oak and Kraityn give similar dps increases in cruel. Oak's endurance charge will help reduce incoming damage and potentially increase the duration of Immortal Call while Kraityn's frenzy charge can give you more attack speed if you have a way to generate them. The passive point helps to progress with the build quicker. In Cruel I decided to take the attack speed as I enjoy a fast attack speed while clearing. In Merciless I decided to take the endurance charge as I plan to self cast enduring cry so I should have no problem. sustaining 4 charges.
Gear
Life and resistances are good to have on any gear. Attack speed, physical damage and weapon elemental damage give a nice amount of extra damage. Life leech, movement speed and increased item rarity are nice on gear too.
Bow
For the bow I recommend anything with a high increased physical damage roll as well as a good flat roll. Attack speed, projectile damage, life leech and weapon elemental damage are also good on it with attack speed being the best of them after the two physical rolls.
Quiver
High life and resistance rolls are good on a quiver. Additionally flat physical damage, attack speed, projectile speed, weapon elemental damage and life leech are also nice on it.
Chest
The chest can be either armor, evasion or hybrid with pure evasion being preferred. High life and resistance rolls are good on this as well as a flat and percentage evasion or armor roll.
Helmet
This can be either armor, evasion or hybrid with pure evasion being preferred. Life and resistances are good on this. Rarity can be nice.
Boots
This can be either armor, evasion or hybrid with pure evasion being preferred. Life and resistances are good on this. Due to a lack of a good movement skill a movement speed roll is required with 30% being preferred.
Gloves
This can be either armor, evasion or hybrid with pure evasion being preferred. Life and resistances are good on this. Additionally attack speed is nice.
Belt
Life and resistances are good on this.
Amulet/Rings
Life and resistances are good on this.
Flasks
I recommend running 3 Life flasks, 1 Quicksilver and 1 Granite. You may wish to swap out one of the Life flasks or the Quicksilver for a relevant resistance flask or a Quartz with a movement speed mod. You can also use a Jade as the evasion will become armor so this is like another granite.
Leveling
I found that this character was very easy, fast and enjoyable to level. When progressing along the passive tree there is no definitive way to allocate points. If you feel like your damage is a bit low get the damage nodes and if you feel a bit squishy get the life or evasion nodes. I recommend picking up Iron Reflexes around the end of normal as well as heading towards the scion life wheel before filling out the tree as it gives a huge life boost. You may wish to delay getting point blank as to get the increased damage you will have to be closer and so expose yourself to taking more damage. Pick up the intelligence nodes when you find you are lacking it to level up your skill gems. As for leveling gear I recommend using the following vendor recipe. By trading a blacksmith whetstone, a rare rustic sash and any bow (I recommend one with decent attack speed) you can get a the same base bow back with 70%-89% increased physical damage. You can then use an augmentation orb and hope for attack speed or a flat physical roll. If you are happy with the 2nd mod you can then use a regal orb on it. after that use Tora's master crafting bench and add a flat physical roll, unless you already got one in which case you can add attack speed or a hybrid increased physical damage, accuracy roll. A really easy way to level is using jewelry sold by Elreon. By using two pieces, both with -8 to mana cost of skills I was able to use Rain of arrows with 0 mana cost until I four linked it and then it's cost rose to 2 mana. This will mean you will have no mana problems. Very early on (act 1, 2 and early 3) I found it helpful to use fire trap and poison arrow as well as these are good at clearing packs. Puncture can also be very useful early for killing dangerous monsters and as a single target.
My character
I probably will not post any higher level update due to other priorities.
Level 55
Offensive tool tip
 This is running Hatred and Herald of Ash
Defensive tool tip
 This is running Grace with iron reflexes. You should try to have your elemental resistances capped at 75% or higher if possible however due to only using self found gear I do not. If this is the case for you I recommend swapping out an aura for the relevant purity aura especially for boss fights.
Passive skill tree
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIAAF4ILhRNFSAZjhn-GwEj9iftKaUqTSzpMHwylDWSPAU8LT8nSn1KyEz_TZJOKlFHVvpbr2egbqp9W311fwKDOId2jX2VBZuNn9-iAKOKpuCn1KxHrKqvbK_rtfK3PrvjxBXEosT2xYrGrtN-2L3ZxtwV3Q3tg-4O73zwH_lj_MX-Cv66_sg= I am currently heading towards Resolute technique as this will help me later so I don't need any accuracy nodes. Due to the accuracy on my bow giving me 90% chance to hit this isn't necessary at the moment however I don't want to be restricted to getting accuracy when I get an upgrade. Also anyone using this build may not have accuracy on their gear.
Gear
All this gear is self found. This is a pretty nice bow I happened to find. I then crafted a hybrid physical accuracy roll on it at Tora's crafting bench. All this gear is pretty average although the quiver, ruby ring, and boots are fairly nice finds. I am running two quicksilver flasks simply so that I can rush through areas faster. The socketed gems may seem strange as I am experimenting with a few different things. I am leveling up the gems I plan to use in my alternate weapon slot as although you can't use these skills they still gain experience.
Level 65
Offensive tool tip
 This is running Hatred and Herald of Ash
Defensive tool tip
 This is running Grace with iron reflexes.
Passive skill tree
http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIAAF4B5wSzCC4UTRR1FSAYkRmOGf4bASP2JT8ppSpNLOkyCTJ-NZI26DwFPC0_J0ZpSshM_02STipW-livW69o8mxGbpduqnJscql4DXzZfVuGYI19m42fy5_fogCjiqTCpzCn1Kluq9KsR69sr-u18rc-u-O8n8BmxKLE9sau037YvdqN3BXdDe2D7g7veu988B_ynPcy9775Y_xL_MX-Cv66_sg= As you can see I have now picked up Resolute Technique, Point Blank, more life and Life leech and am in the process of getting berserking for the attack speed.
Gear
Due to the leech from the tree and gear I am able to run Blood Magic safely.
Gear
Due to the leech from the tree and gear I am able to run Blood Magic safely. Enjoy the build and thanks for reading. Feel free to comment how your take on this is going and to link any gear you might be using.
FAQ
I will add any good questions I get here. Q: I now do get Iron Grip. Why do you not get Iron grip as the build picks up over 200 strength from the tree? You could also get Unwavering stance then. A: I do not get Iron grip as it is not very point efficient for the benefit it gives. Iron grip means that the physical damage bonus from strength applies to bows as well. For every 10 strength you gain 2% increased physical damage and so at 200 strength we are getting 40% increased physical damage. This may sound like a lot but at the cost of 5 points it would be fare more efficient to get something like the Master fletcher cluster. Yes Unwavering stance would be a nice keystone to pick up but 6 points is just too large an investment compared to the gain it gives. Q: Could you make a higher damage variant for softcore leagues? A: Yes, I have now added one. Q: Is Carcass Jack good for this build? A: Yes I am using it now since passing level 62. The increased AoE and area damage are really nice although it is not as defensive as a good rare. IGN: Rhianil *** Build guides *** http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1209798 Last edited by IllustriousDjinni on Jun 20, 2016, 12:54:15 AM Last bumped on Jun 20, 2016, 12:54:57 AM
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Reserved
IGN: Rhianil
*** Build guides *** http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1209798 |
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Updated
IGN: Rhianil
*** Build guides *** http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1209798 |
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RoA is not a projectile, so projectile damage is completely useless
Rip Mjölner
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What if u cant afford to buy BM gems or u had bad luck finding them? is it worth it to go BM on the tree? Also doesnt carcass jack compliment this?
Where do u find Tora? all i ever see is the two from act 1.....nbdy else | |
" RoA is a projectile. It just doesn't say it in on the gem however as it is effected by increased projectile speed support gem and other projectile things. " It's not worth going all the way down to the BM keystone as it costs a lot of points and will remove your auras. You should be able to get a BM gem for about a chaos which is only about 20 alts. Yes Carcass Jack is good for this I am using one now but couldn't before as it has a level 62 requirement. You should just find Tora randomly in the wild. After getting her to level 2 she will wait in the act 2 town. Carcass Jack adds a nice amount of dps while sacrificing a bit of survivability froma good rare chest. IGN: Rhianil *** Build guides *** http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1209798 Last edited by IllustriousDjinni on Oct 23, 2014, 8:39:04 AM
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Updated
IGN: Rhianil
*** Build guides *** http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1209798 |
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" RoA is a projectile... @Friskick Yeap Carcass Jack works with RoA. It's good if you can take the Evasion/Life and Res hit from wearing it. IGN : Ericaa
My Store! /108685 My Rain of Arrows Evasion build guide! https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/791798 Twitch! http://www.twitch.tv/samfishersam |
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So is RoA scaling well?
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yeah, it scales really nicely. It still takes a few volleys (2 or ) to kill packs but as this is quite tanky this is expected really. Also as soon as you kill one and get the herald of fire explosion they die a bit quicker.
IGN: Rhianil
*** Build guides *** http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1209798 |
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