WHO FARTED?! (Poison Arrow Ranger 2.0)
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SERIOUSLY, WHO FARTED?!
(Shoutout to serleth who's build I started this as but later turned into this, one of my favorite buiids of all time <3) Hello everyone! Over the past few weeks, I have been playing a Poison arrow character and I've managed to change the build quite substantially from what it was meant to be. What started out as a Magic find character is now a heavily defense orientated build. First, this build takes advantage of the unique item Queen of the Forest. Make sure you quality this! The added quality gave me 300 more evasion. But there's a weird bug that I'm not sure to report where I am qualitying things and it's removing my quality. This item is amazing for any evasion based character for the high amount of movement speed it can give. Poison arrow is an awesome skill with a lot of different mechanics that don't really work with item or gear modifiers (Except Leo's damage over time master craft but I don't want to level Leo). This makes it great for defensive builds because it doesn't require a ton of heavy investment to make it good. The final tree is here:
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my current gear as of 8/16/15 is here:
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I just bought this bow and I am currently trying to chrome the correct sockets for it of BBGGR (blue blue green green red): My current tree at level 70 is here:
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I leveled using EK and flame totem up til 38 when I could use Poison arrow, concentrated effect, slower projectiles, Increased area of effect. PLEASE, IF YOU HAVE LEVELING IDEAS', I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR THEM AND WILL MOST LIKELY ADD THEM TO THE LIST. <3 If you're planning on going the ethereal knives way, this is what I advise:
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Ethereal Knives linked with Added cold damage Added lightning damage in a lifesprig. Lifesprig is an amazing leveling wand that I would use for any projectile or spell character leveling. Along with EK, Flame totem Added cold Added lightning For aura's to help with leveling, use Clarity as soon as you can get it Herald of Thunder Herald of Ice And put grace somewhere without using it so it can level up. You can use an elemental weakness curse somewhere to help clear but by the time I thought about it, I had started using Poison Arrow. For leveling this way, I would go through the evasion life branch of ranger, up for heart of the oak and primal spirit to help mana and leveling flame totem. Continue up to Coordination, then grab soul siphon for life and survival. Over to sniper to help with EK and Flame totem, then quickness which we can spec out of later since it doesn't affect poison arrow. You do want to keep projectile damage cause that does affect poison arrow. Then grab the three projectile damage nodes connected to ballistic mastery. Then over to blood drinker and this is the point where you want to decide what you want to level with. If poison arrow, grab method to the madness going through the chaos damage. Then you want to grab Entropy. Now you move up to Corruption through the chaos damage. Now the tree is very flexible with what you can do. What I did was grab acrobatics, then I went to piercing shots. Then I grabbed fervor and herbalism and I'm currently working on the duelist area then I'll move on to the scion area. Another way I've used to level another character but it might not be AS effective as it would be if we got spell damage. It's using elreon jewelry and incinerate LMP:
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Using incinerate is really expensive but at lower levels, elreon jewelry can nullify it's mana cost. So I used LMP incinerate in a Reverberation Rod and it would kill things so quickly along with flame totem in a abberath's horn since abberath's gives so much fire damage.
What I used for links is this: Reverberation Rod (gives level 1 spell echo to socketed gems and it can be used at 24) Incinerate Lesser multiple Projectiles Faster Casting Flame totem: Flame totem Added cold damage Added lightning damage That's really the bulk of your leveling setup. You can add other things but this setup just kills so quickly. Like I said, I have not practiced this with my current build but Projectile damage scales Incinerate and I'd imagine it would work. If someone could test this out for me just til 38 or 55 when you can get a +2 level of socketed bow gems bow, I will add you to the helpful comments section <3 The links for this build in order of priority:
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Clear: Poison arrow Slower projectiles Concentrated effect Increased Area of Effect Empower Enhance NOTE:If you're having trouble chroming a 5/6 link bow with these colors, feel free to switch out one of these gems with a faster projectiles. It still gives damage but it would be slightly easier to chrom the bow. :) Curse on hit setup: Ice shot Greater multiple Projectiles Curse on Hit Vulnerability Pierce Increased Area of Effect Aura's can really go anywhere: Grace Clarity Single target (Of course you still use poison arrow but this is for especially painful mobs): Fire Trap Concentrated effect Increased Burning damage Increased Area of Effect I don't use this just because I don't have enough links Golem and Bloodrage (We use frenzy charges in this build because flat damage does affect poison arrow): Cast when Damage Taken Level 1 (this makes it constantly summon Flame golem and use blood rage) Summon Flame Golem (The golem 15% damage does help) Blood rage Blank here Cast when Damage Taken setup: Cast when Damage Taken (Personal preference on level) Ice Wall Temporal Chains Another blank I say the only mandatory setups are the Poison arrow, the curse on hit, the aura, and the cast when damage taken. Some helpful gems are, Vaal Grace, Vaal Haste. Vaal Grace gives us more dodge chance than we already have and Vaal haste gives us movement speed for the kiting abilities. Item priorities are as follows:
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Helmet:
Life>Resistance>Evasion Remember the more evasion we have, the faster we move. Chest is going to be Queen of the Forest: Life, Resistances, Evasion, Movement speed. (The 25% less movement speed doesn't matter with how much evasion you get) I bought my QotF for cheap. Boots: Life>Resistance>Movement Speed>Evasion Atziri's step is a great pair of boots for this since it gives a ton of Evasion, life, movement speed, and spell dodge. These are cheap in Warbands, (I got mine for 3c) but incase you can't afford them, just follow the priorities. Gloves: Life>resistances>Evasion>You can get attack speed but it doesn't really affect you to much I got these for a decent amount (I believe 3c too) Bow: +2 to level of socketed bow gems>+1 Level of socketed Gems>Damage over time mod> Resistances Poison arrow's damage scales with it's levels(Much like most elemental builds). The more you can get the better. Hence why we use Empower with our poison arrow. Quiver: Life>Resistances Drillneck is a great damage boost but a bit out of my price range. If you have one, awesome, if you don't, life and resistances is all you need. For leveling, I would recommend Hyrri's bite to increase the AoE of Poison arrow. Rings: Life>Resistances>Rarity I started this build as MF so rarity isn't needed but I already have these awesome rings so yeah. Andvarius is cool too if you do plan on taking this to MF. Amulet: Again, Life>Resistances>Rarity I don't have any recommendations for unique amulets so this is what'cha get. Belt: Life>resistances>Strength/Dexterity A leather belt is your best option but I was low on strength so I got this and it's awesome. Jewels: Damage Over time>Area Damage>Life>Resistances Jewels are a large part of our damage, that's why I grab so many on the tree because you cant get a lot of damage over time anywhere else. Or, you could use them for utility for life and resistances (Which is cool if you plan on doing this on HC but on SC (like myself) the damage is just to much to pass up. Bandits:
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Bandits are pretty interchangeable and the only ground breaking bandit is merciless kaitryn. So my recommendations are:
Normal: Oak (Flat 40 life, very nice) This is helpful for low levels but if you think you don't need it, feel free to take the point. Either way you should end up with 4.5k-5.5k life with high rolled gear so I don't know if 40 life is worth it. Cruel: Point (Phys damage doesn't do anything for PA) or Kaitryn (for attack speed. Very utility but I prefer the point. Merciless: Kaitryn (I would say this is the mandatory. Frenzy charge is extremely helpful and the more you have the better) Priority Microtransactions (Joking but if you have the money, these are a seriously awesome combo)
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Seraph body armour, seraph boots, seraph gloves, summer skull, seraph wings, verdant weapon effect, verdant footprint effects, aurate halo
Helpful PA links given by Serleth <3 https://vmoddin.wordpress.com/poisonarrow/ Another PA calculator By the end of the build, you will have tons of evasion chance, movement speed, decent amount of life, and Acrobatics/Phase Acrobatics. Hope you enjoy the build and please drop a comment if I missed anything, if there's anything you would like to see, or if there's something I could improve upon. I like the criticism so bring it on. This section is for the people who brought up good discussion: CommanderZ xMustard Serleth Also, you guys don't know just how much it means to me to see people commenting. It's making me really giddy and excited and it's awesome getting ideas from this and people that comment. Thank you so much to everyone who browses and says, "Hey, this guy could do this differently and it might be more efficient." <3 Last edited by Alexthefake on Aug 23, 2015, 1:13:10 AM
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I'm nearing 70 with my PA ranger too and I'm deciding about the endgame direction of the build.
I have some discussion points about your build: - Why pick up the Master of the Arena node. Just for the regen? Going towards Cloth and Chain seems to be much more benefitial. - Are the Frenzy charge nodes worth it for this build? You spend 2 points for each +1 max, effectively picking up nodes that give you 2% damage and 2% attack speed per skill point. I would never picking up such node, especially considering there are a few more significant Projectile damage nodes around you could easily pick up. - How are you doing on mana? I have slightly more mana nodes than you do and still require Clarity and a mana potion to sustain a 4-linked PA. - How much move speed total do you get from the Armor? Is that so much that you could completely ignore speed nodes in the tree? I personally really like my move speed nodes. Last edited by CommanderZ on Aug 17, 2015, 9:40:32 AM
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" These are really strong points. -I am running 7 frenzy charges and since I don't have blood dance, I need to run blood rage so the regen is REALLY helpful on Master of the Arena. -Now, cloth and chain brings up a good node to that I had not thought of. It seems like a good node with tons of evasion but I am capped on my resistances but I could sacrifice some in the future. I might test it out over Revenge of the Hunted so thank you for bringing this up. :) -At 7 frenzy charges, I gain about 1000 damage on my poison arrow which doesn't sound like much but in mapping, I find it really effective to grab frenzy charges. -I stopped leveling my clarity at level 11 and that's enough regen to run my whole setup and it's very rare that I run out of mana, especially since my only other aura is Grace. Now I've thought about maybe adding arctic armor but I'm not sure if it's that much of a defensive buff or if I could even get enough reduced mana nodes/mana nodes to run all 3 aura's. -I currently, with QotF, 7 frenzy charges, and grace get about 50% movement speed so I LOVE it. Along with it, you get evasion which is awesome. With a 67% evade chance and (Soon to be) 40% dodge chance and 44% spell dodge, it's an awesome chest. I do hope to cap my evasion chance which would be awesome and I definitely could get better gear to work with the chest. |
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" master of arena for regen and strength. frenzy charges are WAY worth it for poison arrow. its some of the best DPS boost you can get. the more the better. each frenzy charge gives you 4% MORE damage (not increased, more). i have 9 frenzy charges on my PA build meaning i get 36% MORE damage. this is different from increased and far more noticeable/effective. personally, i find rallying cry to be a much better skill to use for mana regen tha clarity. clarity will reserve your mana, and still doesn't give great mana regen. rallying cry, which you can activate anytime you want. you only need one mob around for the regen, the boost in damage is just a bonus. it gives a great base flat mana rate, which will be boosted by all of your own +mana regen rate from jewelry/tree. i suggest getting all the mana nodes you can that have mana regen rate and just activate rallying cry. then you don't need to bother with clarity at all. that armor is good, but it really doesn't give you an amazing amount of run speed unless you're using a shield. i personally won't bother using that chest piece as a bow user, but to each their own. for a PA build i'd rather run a carcass jack or kaom's if you can sacrifice the sockets. edit: also i find drillneck to be the best quiver with PA. its just a free massive damage boost. why not Last edited by xMustard on Aug 17, 2015, 12:23:31 PM
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" I like the Rallying cry idea which I also had not thought of (Probably because I'm an old school noobie (Shout out to anyone who knows that song lyric)) and had always used clarity so I might also explore that which would give me a free slot for AA. I chose QotF by chance cause I needed an upgraded and I stumbled upon it, now I'm loving it and wanted to make a different build guide than the normal ones that would use Carcass or Kaom's but those are definitely good options for this. Also, when I had bought the QotF, I had planned on using an ele cleave build with this and dual dreamfeathers but those are just WAY to expensive for me so I wouldn't be able to use it for awhile. EDIT: I covered and gave a shoutout to drillneck, I just don't have the currency for one at the moment but it is BiS quiver. EDIT OF AN EDIT: Also, it's very rare that I don't have all my frenzy charges up due to blood rage so the movement speed is awesome. EDIT OF AN EDIT OF AN EDIT: Also, I started MF because I was going to save for a voltaxic for a totally different build that I REALLY wanted to do but I am also LOVING this build so I don't know how long I will continue this. Probably til I get a drillneck drop or I buy a voltaxic (Which good luck to either of those.) Also, I do TRY my best to do item trading but for the most part, all the items I pick up are going to the chaos recipe just because it's really demotivating when I've had a shop up full of ilevel 60+ items (and the items aren't bad) and no one is buying. That is why it will take awhile to buy anything worth more than an exalt :P Last edited by Alexthefake on Aug 17, 2015, 1:30:14 PM
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yup just keep a couple pages full of unID'd rares and as you gather the jewelry sell it off for the 2 chaos recipe.
any extra rare stuff just sell for alts if you have jewels you want to craft, or save those for master recipe for more jewelers etc. this is what my tree looks like for my PA build at level 90 rallying cry def is the way to go tho, you'll like it much more. since you're not spamming PA you don't need it up constantly, but when you're running out of mana just activate it and boom you'll be at full again in no time. this does allow you to run AA...so might as well since no other aura is really worthy of much for PA builds. i take advantage of PA not needing much added damage via tree, or crit etc, and just pump all my passives into jewels, frenzy, and life/regen. it ends up being quite tanky. my links currently are PA,pierce,conc effect,empower,slower projectiles. when i hit 6L i'll add inc aoe, but i may even consider replacing slower proj for inc aoe just so i don't need to shoot it as often - the dmg will still be incredible (since i have 21 PA and 4 empower in +3 bow) | |
"I just don't like manual labor (Aka pressing buttons) except for the 3 i need to kill everything. Rallying cry is now manual and it annoys me because I'm lazy XD. Also, I would definitely keep slower proj, conc, and replace pierce (Unless you have drillneck) with increased AoE, it helps soooooo much. |
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i do have drillneck
its very tough to test the damage difference with things like poison arrow though. wish it was easier. i'd like to test the difference between slower projectiles and pierce | |
" https://vmoddin.wordpress.com/poisonarrow/ Another PA calculator =) Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
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" sweet thanks. by those calculations slower projectiles is a larger boost than pierce/drillneck by a little bit. guess i know what to exclude now while i still use a 5L |
