[1.2.0] Lightning arrow bow ranger (3 Auras/ life based/ max dps/ good survivability)

Np. Actually I am playing right now (at least until end of August) because game is much fun since the recent ranger buffs.

It's totally insane how good Lioneye works with this build. It's effectively a little less dps than my old Harbinger but you always hit and the effective kill speed and leech ability (through increased attack speed) has vastly improved. I am doing 77 maps w/o problems. Didn't get a 78 map as of yet.

The absolute best bow for this build would ofc be an eternal/exalted Harbinger...But on the other hand a 6-link vaal orbed Lioneyes with implicit culling strike would be sick as well. People might at least do that whereas no one would ever dare to try a vaal orb on an et/ex'ed Harbinger :)

Thanks!

Hi, what do You think about Iron Reflexes?

Also what do you think about Lightning coil to mitigate reflect damage

Iron Reflex/ armor is good vs small hits because it almost totally mitigates them. Evasion is a little worse vs small hits because if you get hit a few times by many projectiles (e.g. of 100s incoming ones) you will receive a lot of dmg. But evasion is better vs strong hits, whereas armor doesn't help there at all.
Personally I prefer evasion as a ranger but both is viable. It's more a matter of preferance and playstyle as well.

Lightning coil works fine with this build, but makes it overall more expensive. You can get a pure Evasion armor 5-link very cheap, whereas lightning couil 5-link might be a couple of ex very likely (depends on league). Also you need very specific high lightning resist gear to make it work, maybe also the lightning res aura. Therefore I don't recommend it to newcomers but only to people who know what they are doing.

Right now I am experimenting with an Evasion/Dodge variant of the above tree. It works better vs devourers and others hard-hitting monsters that can one-shot you. Armor barely does anything from my experience in these situations. Evasions PLUS Dodge on the other hand seems better, but even then you will sometimes die if you are unlucky.

on your passive skill tree did you happen to go up first or continue right after ballistic mastery?

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Dan1986 wrote:

Right now I am experimenting with an Evasion/Dodge variant of the above tree. It works better vs devourers and others hard-hitting monsters that can one-shot you. Armor barely does anything from my experience in these situations. Evasions PLUS Dodge on the other hand seems better, but even then you will sometimes die if you are unlucky.

Have You tried vaal grace? Should work fine with this build.

Btw, got my 5L Lioneye. What a faceroll!

Vaal grace should work fine. I prefer normal grace because it's always active. But levelling one vaal version atm too.
Yeah Lioneye's on standard can be bought for 1 ex or so already. That's all you need to do any maps, really. Item is totally underpriced because it existed for too long. People underestimate the attack speed. Using a Harbinger for a very long time I prefer the faster AS playstyle a lot. So in the end a rare thicket bow might be what I am aiming for.

Hi,
I´m a real noob and just made my first Ranger using your build! I don´t have any high end equipment so I use what crap I find or whatever I get from my guild mates.
I´m currently at Lvl 27 and have some problems using the main attack because it has quite a low DPS. Sure this is just the beginning of the game, but I´m confused because the build should be supposed to use lightning arrow as the main attack. Because of the lack of DPS I use Split Arrow or Ice Shot with much better success right now. Will this change or did I do something wrong? Atm I used the tree to skill to the right to Heavy Draw and Deadly Draw.

This is my gear with the gems right now:



This might be another noob question but how do I use Frenzy? What is the style of playing with this Skill? Do I spam Frenzy or do I use it a few times to charge up and then use another Skill?

Sorry for all my noob questions and thanks for the help in advance!