Re-Imaging of the duelist and ranger... Duelists as finesse, Rangers as hybrid

When I think of Duelists, I think light on their feet, quick, wielding finesse weapons, and winning at all costs, not caring if others think those methods are cheap or cowardly. My vision of this class would rely on increasing the usefulness of status attacks like bleed, poison, and bind. The duelist would be moved to the right side of the skill tree. Some of the weapon specific and damage passives would be replaced with passives that increase status effects.

Some examples would be, removing the sword wheel to the southeast of the start point. Your first node could be something like, Laceration, which would increase the duration of bleeding by 10%. This would be followed by two more Lacerations,then a bigger passive node called Deep Wounds. Deep Wounds would increase the duration and damage of bleeding by 20%. Then you would have two passives called Wounding which would increase the bleeding damage by 10% each.

The two projecticle damage keystones by the start would be changed to Venom, which could increase the damage done by poison status by 10%. Perfect Aim would be changed to Cobra, which would add 20 DEX and 15% damage done by poison. The two melee damage passives would get changed to Toxic, which would increase the duration of poisons, and the weapon artistry would change to the Alchemist stone.

The alchemist passive node currently would be changed to Sneak Attack which would inflict 25% more damage to blinded enemies. The dual wield keystones to the right of that would be changed to Acrobatics put into wheel form. The first stone would be acrobatics, followed by two acrobatic improvements, followed by phase acro.

The three life nodes by he start would become a four wheel section, with Troll's Blood added. The wrecking ball 2h wheel could be switched with a shield wheel. The Duelist wouldkeep all the move speed, evasion, critical nodes, etc.

It would also gain some new passives. One would be Vampire, which will double your life leech against bleeding enemies. Point Blank would be moved out of the area, and instead you will get a skill called Weak Point, which now adds increased damage based on your DEX (think like iron grip does with STR and bows). Finally where Acrobatics was, you will just have one keystone, called Uncanny Dodge, which will use your DEX to gain physical damage reduction %. Something like every 100 DEX = set 5% damage reduction and since it doesn't count as armor or evasion, could work with acrobatics etc. This would make them a bit more durable.



So to some things up, Duelists would be all about finesse, speed, and status effects. Rangers would be about survival and versatility.

So you just want to exchange the skins of the Duelist and Ranger classes?

The ideas you wrote about status effects, poison and sneak attacks sound much more fitting to the Shadow class and stuff like that could be added to his area (towards the Dex part of tree). I don't think stuff really fits the Duelist's background: in his introduction he talks about defending his honour and dueling, doesn't really sound like a poison-using backstabber to me.

Also, very specific stuff like increased bleed and poison dmg is not very fitting to class areas, those should include pretty general modifiers (ie. melee dmg instead of sword dmg) to allow for a flexible start. However, nodes like that could easily be added to the outer ring of the tree I think.

-Ropetus

This game sissified rangers, and it shouldn't be that way. Rangers are supposed to be tough. I hate the ignorant that think rangers = bow wielding sissies made of glass.

Shadow is a hybrid class, not really the same thing.. Duelist fits into a DEX class better. Who is to say just because you duel doesn't mean you coated your blade in poison before hand or struck a vital spot of the opponent's body to make them bleed to death.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIABbUG7gguDQIPOBR1FSAZjhnVGtsj9iRqJP0shSzpMHEwfDGwMww1hjWSOkI6sz7PRA1Flkp9S0lLeE2STshRR1b6WhpaSGMXZ6Bqk2wWbmlxsHRBdPF89YPbhxmHdooijb-Su5LNkvOXcJuNnaqeuZ8no-eqf6q4rEev67ZBuDe5zb3mwA_AGcCmwPPB2MS4xqLL9c5nznHTftQj1FLVANX43Q3dqOKA5w_nVO2D7g7v8Plj_Ev8xf4r_94=

Non-"sissy" ranger build. Two-handed swords. Pretty sure this would work fine.

I don't necessarily disagree with the OP, but I think class identity and build-viability issues for rangers (if such issues exist) simply stem from a lack of active skills. We lack...

dagger skills
physical bow skills
claw skills
sword / axe specific skills
dual wield skills
dex-aligned AOE melee weapon skills

If we had all those things, I think the number of viable ranger/shadow/duelist builds would skyrocket.

We also should have some poison-based support gems. Would be cool to have various poison effects on hit.