Krip LS ranger <-

I think I've settled on this for Hardcore (currently in early Cruel):

Lightning Strike build for Hardcore (98 pts, lvl 81)

I spent a while trying to get both high life and high damage. So this is kind of a compromise with the survivability at level 66.

The main compromise was to take Iron Grip, and have less single target damage, but make up for it with Iron Grip by having more projectile damage, while at the same time going for life nodes in that area. Kripp basically used Lightning Strike as his main skill. My approach would be to resort to Viper Strike or Heavy Strike to complement LS on single targets.

Estimates below are with my spreadsheet which include some bonuses from a sample level 74 range in CB, so eg.
- +20 all stats onyx amulet, with further +11 INT, +29+16 STR, +11+13 DEX
- +376 flat life regen mode on all items (pretty inconsequential like 5-6 per sec total)
- .. nothing really spectacular, no special unique items
- ... but you want a high phys dmg sword, and high eva shield and armor (ie. 1K+ eva)

So with my sample gear, at level 66 with 83 pts:

- 2899 life (includes +40 life Oak reward)
- 73 life/sec
- 139% physical dmg (ALSO for projectiles, due to Iron Grip)
- IR + Level 14 Grace: 8207 (46% vs lvl 74 monster, maybe lower in OB)

At level 81:

- 3490 life (230% life nodes, 309 STR bonus, and level add up to that)
- 121 life/sec
- 207% phys dmg (ALSO for LS projectiles, due to Iron Grip)
- IR + Level 14 Grace: 8459 (47%)

By my same estimates Kripps build had

- 235% phys dmg, but 179% on projectiles without strenght bonus.

Of course his numbers would have been a bit different based on gear but it demonstrates the idea was that to get more life I had to compromise single target damage (which includes strength bonus), and get Iron Grip to make up for it.

All in all near 200% single target LS phys damage is pretty decent I think.

So the progression from 66 to 81 is
- Adding more phys dmg (as required) and moving into the duelist additional dmg, 24% life and 1% regen.

Having Iron Grip early on I think would be essential and maybe hold off the physical dmg nodes depending on what weapon you have so you can go for life nodes as early as possible while maintaining decent solo ability.

So one weakness here is the armor. I'd be curious what others would compromise in this build to get some armor nodes?

My thoughts were that with IR and Grace, it would be manageable with Enduring Cry and Granite flasks but still...

I would pickup the Molten Shell reward in Cruel Act 1 after killing Hillock for extra safety, and conveniently, Increased Duration with the next quest reward (Medicine Chest, Cruel).

Progression would be as such for above, in Hardcore:

Normal Rewards
--------------
Hillock Cleave (nice AOE in Normal diff)
Glyph Wall Viper Strike (great boss killer, Brutus, Merveil, even Vaal)
Brutus Hatred (more dmg till you get a great weapon)
Merveil Added Cold Damage (more dmg)
Chambers of Sin Wrath (might use it in endgame build.. otherwise trade it)
Weaver's Needle Fork (link with Lightning Strike !, some ppl may prefer LMP, Pierce, ...)
Help Oak +40 Life
Act III Clarissa Warlord's Mark (if you need more leech?)
Act III Gravicious Increased Critical Dmg (save to link to LS endgame)

Cruel
-----
Hillock Molten Shell (safety)
Medicine Chest Increased Duration (link with Molten Shell)
Glyph Wall (gear)
Brutus ???
Merveil ???
Chambers of Sin (gear)
Weaver's Needle Mana Leech (use it till switching to Blood Magic, or trade it)
Help Oak +12% Physical Dmg
Act III Clarissa Grace (start levelling it on swap gear, might wanna use it much later)
Act III Gravicious Faster Attacks (1)

Merciless
---------
Hillock (ring)
Medicine Chest Faster Attacks (2)
Glyph Wall (gear)
Brutus Enduring Cry
Merveil Faster Attacks (3)
Chambers of Sin (weapon)
Weaver's Needle ???
Help Oak +1 Endurance Charge
Act III Clarissa (ring)
Act III Gravicious ???


You also want either Leap Slam, Shield Charge or Whirling Blades. Leap Slam appears to be on the Ranger rewards list, I'll have to clear this up.

I lucked out on LS in Normal, and Enfeeble, but Lightning Strike otherwise is available as a quest reward if all else fails (Cruel, Act III). See quest rewards spreadsheet.


You want at least two Faster Attacks, they are essential for mobility and safety:
- one for Leap Slam
- one for Lightning Strike
- (optional) one more for a main attack (left mouse) Heavy Strike, Double Strike, Viper Strike, ..?

I would use Enfeeble as my main Curse, or Temporal Chains. Other damage enhancing curses if soloing easy areas.

Mind I did luck out on Lightning Strike in Normal. It does help a ton with AOE damage so if you have to wait till the end of Cruel to get it it may be a bit frustrating. You might have to party up to that point, because Cleave becomes weak very quickly without lots of support gems.

PS: Think I forgot something in there, I also use Fire Trap from early Act 1, it does add up to AOE damage early on and halfway through Cruel. Might become too weak to bother with it in Merciless.

To obtain LS I created a Templar and ran him to Brutus for the quest reward.

i switched it up a bit since i leaked hp not sure if its better tho went for life notes right side of the ranger tree which also gives u +1 frenzy charge and gives 4% evasion per frenzy charge ..kinda like it

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIBAecFLQaiBu4ILg6tEPAUIBRSFHUX3BjbGY4bqiFgI_Yn1Si1KaUyCTJ-NYY1kjboOJY6UjpxOrM64UCgR35KfU3jTshQR1PfVgRW-livWNtaSFuvXQBgS2CIYVJjF2OnZU1noGqHbUpuqnRBdO108XgNeu-BOoTZhO-GYId2iO2I8ZAKl3Cbg5uNnaqeuZ_LpMKmV6cwqW6rxaxZrpOvorXytxe5zcHYxFjTftRS3Q3dRt-_7YPuDu9O7_D3vvxO_MX-jxrb-WMV8DpYBH6Nfb3mPs9RR6q4qn-HGQ==

The build is nice, but depends on the gear very much. Crap-wearing mara, for ex, was quite more viable, then my 48 ls-ranger. But still, the build is nice (up to my 48)

"

slaka wrote:

To obtain LS I created a Templar and ran him to Brutus for the quest reward.

Good to know, i'll take the advice

"

cagecreed wrote:

The build is nice, but depends on the gear very much. Crap-wearing mara, for ex, was quite more viable, then my 48 ls-ranger. But still, the build is nice (up to my 48)

Referring to the Hardcore build variant I posted above, this was a Marauder hybrid variant I planned but it ends up with roughly the same 3500 HP at level 81. It has 153 instead of 121 life/sec regen, which helps against Chaos damage, and Elemental Adaptation. However I had to trade 60% physical damage for that.


Marauder hybrid level 81 (98 pts)


You could also go for a nutty 186 life/sec and almost 3500 HP, but again something has to give and the loss of physical damage would not be worth it imho.


The biggest advantage of the hybrid imho was to get another Diamond Skin node. In Hardcore on this fresh league, topping resists in Merciless will severely limit my gear flexibility for some time...

Your builds are exactly what i was planning to do with my ranger. I opened a thread about it to ask about possible drawbacks between Duelist/Marauder area, Armor nodes and the middle area with Iron Grip.

Link:

"

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/88706

Imo in this early stage of the game and without gear it would be best to go for said hybrid tree with lots and lots of Life + extra resists from Diamond Skin and Elemental Adaptation. I don't know if Iron Grip is worth it but the 2x 28% Life nodes in the middle section are definitely something to consider even without IG.

In the later stage you can respec these points and put them in more sword nodes or even armor.

I'm toying with this idea now, taking inspiration from R_h_o_x's Marauder:

level 81 HC (98 pts)

That's the best compromise I can find so far with damage, armor, life, etc.

- 78% armor
- +40% to all resists (+15 +15 +10)
- 201% life, 124 life/sec, should be ~3460 life at level 81 (with 330+ on items)
(+30 +30 from passives, +40 from Oak)
- 193% damage (117% weapon damage + 76% from strength) (+12% from Oak)
Note: strength bonus does not apply to Lightning Strike projectiles!
- 29% attack speed

I tried many permutations but the duelist area is not worth it imho, if only because of the weak 3% Attack Speed, and 6% Damage nodes. It would be worht it if you could use it to connect to the Marauder, but you have to go south to pick Unwavering Stance and Blood Magic.

You could take another +1% regen at the templar area, to get 158 life/sec (up to 170/sec if you want to get the 2x 0.4% near Golem's Blood).

For that build I guess you could respec out of the 30% Elemental Damage nodes when you reach the Templar area.

You could respec also out of Thick Skin and go for Fitness in the Templar for 6 pts get 20dex 30int 34% life, or 20str 20int 34% life. 14 INT +20 INT +20 all from Onyx Amulet would be the bare minimum to run some curses and perhaps Wrath to a decent level.

Life isn't as high as I wish but it does have 81% resistances, and 30% reduced damage from criticals, and Resolute Technique + Life Leech should help a lot.

Got lucky in Cruel difficuty with a super fast rapier:



Damage is not that great for Cruel Act III, but it's a lot of fun using Lightning Strike with it. Pretty much shooting lasers :) Currently farming the first area of Act 3 with an Increased Rarity support gem.

Still haven't switched to Blood Magic. Using Mana Leech atm to support Lightning Strike.




So what's the concensus lately on the DEX support gems for Lightning Strike? I'm using Fork and it seems do work well, but I'm wondering how good Chain would be? One big difference is that Fork is just 125% Mana Cost Multiplier, Chain is 200%!