[1.0.6] Lunys' LA / Frenzy High End Crit Ranger GUIDE (in-depth analysis) 3 VIDEOS
 Recent updates: -added the first video (lvl 78 courtyard) check it out in section 5.2. -added party screenshots for LA & Frenzy DPS -added the second video (lvl 78 palace) check it out in section 5.2. -added the third video (lvl 77 Shipyard with double reflect) section 5.2.! Upcoming updates: -numbers section (numbers! numbers! numbers! advanced theorycrafting & ... stuff) -piece by piece gearing guide -a dedicated section about flask choice INDEX 1. Basic Information 1.1. Introduction 1.2. Requirements 1.3. Pros & Cons 2. Passive Nodes 2.1. How to level save & quickly 2.2. Endgame Build 2.3. Important Keystones + Explanation 3. Gear (includes my gear for reference) 3.1. Weapon Choice (Rare Harbinger vs. Lioneyes vs. Voltaxic) 3.2. Thunderfists vs. Maligaros 3.3. The Taming 4. Gems 4.1. Gemming like a boss 5. Screenshots & Videos 5.1. Screenshots 5.2. Videos 6. FAQ ..................................
Quicky Guide
Nodes & Bandits LVL 100 Passive Tree Normal: Kill all (1 Skillpoint) Cruel: Kraityn (+8% Attack Speed) Merc.: Alira (+1 Power Charge) Gear example with Gems Rare Harbinger Bows are the best choice, because of the amazing base crit chance! Legacy Kaom's Heart is very important for suvivability! Thunderfists are very important, especially for single target damage! Good resistances on gear required for end-game! (zero resistances from passive nodes)
1. Basic Information
1.1. Introduction Hi, guys & gals! I'm Lunys and i decided to create this guide about my current Ranger build, because i am convinced that it is the best build available for bow fanatics like me, who want to achieve insane DPS while maintainig enough survivability for all endgame maps. Before i say anything else i want to thank "Blastrophe" for creating an amazing Ranger guide, which restored my faith in Lightning Arrow Rangers. My build is based on his, but optimized for a certain playstyle & gear. Make sure to check out his guide (#492872) especially if you plan on using a Voltaxic Rift Bow. 1.2. Requirements Before you consider using this build, you have to be aware of its requirements or you may end up disappointed. It is defenitely a build which is based on good gear and not the best choice for newcomers. It's very hard to set a fixed value of currency which is required to start this build. But in order to play endgame maps, no matter how hard they are rolled... i strongly recommend a legacy Kaom's Heart. Of course you can start out without one and breeze through almost every map up to lvl 78, but certain map mods or bosses may be very hard. 1.3. Pros & Cons Pros: -Insane DPS! I onecrit white monster packs in 6 man parties on lvl 78 maps. Every boss dies within seconds. (Yeah... even Dominus in the lvl 78 Palace map.) -High survivability! Many builds that achieve high dps sacrifice too much survivability. This build doesn't. If you got a basic level of awareness and don't fall asleep for 3 seconds on a regular basis(like me :P) you won't die! -Very nice for party play! 99.9% Uptime of 3 Shock stacks on every boss. Boosts your own and your parties damage by 90%! Since you will be using zero auras, every aura of your party members will skyrocket your damage output or increase your survivability even further. -Absolutely every map mod is possible! Of course hard combinations exist, but none of them are impossible. Cons: -High Gear requirement! To utilize the full potential of this build, very good and expensive gear is required. -Desyncs tend to kill you. Don't get me wrong on this, of course you won't die to every desync... but the chance to survive a major desync when you are fighting a hard boss on a high lvl map is pretty small.
2. Passive Nodes
2.1. How to level save & quickly First of all lets see at how we progress through the Passive Tree. LVL 20 Passive Tree | LVL 40 Passive Tree | LVL 60 Passive Tree LVL 80 Passive Tree (at this point i expect you to have done all the quests that grant additional skill points) Now lets take a quick look at some amazing leveling Uniques, which you can try to get if you want to increase your leveling speed.
Leveling Uniques
Especially the amulet which i posted last, helps out a lot until you aquire blood magic from the passive tree. Of course you can always consider using a blood magic gem, if you encounter major mana problems.
2.2. Endgame Build Bandits Normal: Kill all (1 Skillpoint) Cruel: Kraityn (+8% Attack Speed) Merc.: Alira (+1 Power Charge) Passive Nodes LVL 90 Passive Tree | LVL 100 Passive Tree <-- klick here! 2.3. Important Keystones + Explanation As you can see, it is a Life Based.. Blood Magic + Vaal Pact.. Critical Strike Build with Iron Reflexes & Unwavering Stance. Blood Magic We use blood magic because this way we don't have to deal with mana or manaregenration. Since we do not use any auras and leech huge amounts of life from any enemie we hit, there is no downside to blood magic at all. Vaal Pact Using vaal pact, our life leech applies instantly. Since life leech is applied before reflected damage... even if we have only 1 Lifepoint left when we hit a reflect monster, we won't die. The only way to die by reflect is if you reflect more damage with one hit than your maximum life. Since lightning arrow does a huge amount of small hits, this will not happen (even if you do not use a legacy kaom's heart). If you do not use a kaom's heart you may oneshot yourself using frenzy on physical reflect maps with vulnerability. The only downside to vaal pact is, that we can't use life flasks anymore and we have zero life regeneration. TOO LONG DIDN'T READ: Vaal Pact takes care of physical & elemental reflect for us. Iron Reflexes Evasion rating is converted to armour... well what else can i say about this... it's nice to not relie on a small chance to evade all damage and reduce it by a fixed value instead. Unwavering Stance We can't evade attacks anymore but we cannot be stunned either. Since we use irons reflexes which converts all of your evasion rating to armour there is no downside to this keystone and we end up immun to stun. This is especially usefull if we encounter monster packs with the shield charge ability or any kind of hard hitters. I personally think that stun immunity is essential for almost any kind of build in order to efficiently reach level 90+. Iron Grip Last but not least there is iron grip. Which applies the strengh bonus to physical damage to our projectile attacks. It's an amazing keystone for us since we need at least 191 strengh for Kaom's Heart anyway. 191 Strengh = 38% Physical Damage
3. Gear
My current gear (for reference)
It's not perfect to the piece... but almost :) and it's defenitely good enough to give you an idea of which items you should try to get.
3.1. Weapon Choice (Rare Harbinger vs. Lioneyes vs. Voltaxic) Because of it's amazing base crit chance a rare harbinger bow is the best choice for this build. Every passive node and piece of equipment which increases our critical strike chance is applied to the base critical strike chance of your weapon. For example if you have 100% increased critical strike chance from your passive nodes and you apply this to the 9.35% base crit of my harbinger bow... you end up with 18.70% critical strike chance. A normal bow with 5% base crit would only end up with 10% critical strike chance. The one i am using right now is the best harbinger bow thats currently available for mirroring. Since it is very expensive lets take a look at alternatives. Of course you can consider using a different harbinger bow. What you should look for is a high critical strike chance, followed by high physical dps, followed by attack speed. Critical Multiplier and accuracy rating are also nice to have. .................................. Then there is Lioneye's Glare, which is an amazing bow because you do not have to worry about accuracy at all. It's a nice choice if you can't afford a very good harbinger bow. .................................. Last but not least let's talk about Voltaxic Rift. If you want to use this bows full potential take a look at Blastrophe's Ranger guide. It is an amazing bow, since chaos damage can not be reflected and you end up immune to reflect, even if you don't use vaal pact. But compared to a physical bow especially a harbinger bow, Voltaxic's damage is a joke. 3.2. Thunderfists vs. Maligaros Thunderfists clearly win! It is possible to achieve higher tooltip dps with Maligaros. But Thundefists' lightning damage modifier combined with the increased shock duration, make it possible for us to maintain 3 shock stacks on bosses. Even when using frenzy, which deals higher single target dps than lightning arrow but doesn't turn part of our physical damage into lightning damage. You need do deal a certain percentage of the targets hp (1.1%) with lightning damage, in order to apply a 300ms long shock stack. Thats why a high crit chance alone, does not guarantee the application of shock stacks. 3.3. The Taming The Taming is an amazing ring for multiple reasons. Lots of elemental resistances & elemental damage are obviously great for us. But the best part of the ring is the additional increased damage per shock stack, ignite or freeze on the enemy. With "the taming" one of our shock stacks grants 10% increased damage, so 30% for the maximum amount of 3 shock stacks. The fire & cold damage modifiers from our gear or party auras may ignite & freeze the enemies for another 10% increased damage each. TAMING-> 3 Shocks + Ignite + Freeze = 90% flat Damage increase + 50% increased Damage :) no taming-> 3 Shocks + Ignite + Freeze = 90% flat Damage increase :(
4. Gems
4.1. Gemming like a boss Lightning Arrow: We use lightning arrow in our bows! (If you do not have Kaom's Heart you can use it in your armor) 6 Link: 5 Link: 4 Link: Lightning arrow is our AOE (area of effect) ability! There's not much else to say about Lightning Arrow, it is an amazing attack... which deals up to 36 hits per use thanks to LMP & CHAIN. It applies shock stacks and makes monster packs explode! Frenzy: We use Frenzy in our thunderfists! (Or any other 4 Link items if you don't have thunderfists) 4 Link + Added Lightning Damage by Thunderfists: When you are playing in a party with good elemental damage auras (Wrath & Anger) make sure to switch added fire damage for weapon elemental damage. 5 Link (only possible if you don't use Kaom's Heart): 6 Link (only possible if you don't use Kaom's Heart): Frenzy generates our 6 Frenzy and 5 Power Charges which increase Frenzy Damage and Lightning Arrow Damage by a lot. Frenzy is also our skill of choice against single monsters. Thanks to Thunderfists and/or added lightning damage it also applies shock stacks, just like Lightning Arrow. Utility: 4 Link: Critical Weakness is the most important curse for us. No other curse can boost our damage as much as Critical Weakness can. Temporal Chains is usefull for some hard bosses or rare monsters. But i hardly ever use it. 3 Link: This 3 Link procs all the time on reflect maps and makes us immune to physical damage for a short time. It's just a little bonus for survivability, especially on physical reflect maps. If you don't have enough life leech to leech to full life on a physical reflect map in just one hit, you will defenitely leech to full life in the short time you are immune to physical damage. :) I decided to keep all the gems in this 3 Link on lvl 12, so that it procs more often.
5. Screenshots & Videos
5.1. Screenshots Lightning Arrow | solo | no auras
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 Frenzy | solo | no auras
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 Defenses | solo | no auras
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 Lightning Arrow | party | perfect auras
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 Please keep in mind that the party | perfect aura screenshots have been taken with indeed almost perfect auras. (Alpha's howl with multiple aura nodes for Anger, Wrath & Hatred + LVL 20 Haste with some aura nodes.) What i am trying to emphazise is, that it is very hard to achieve these values unless you play with a very well organized party like i do. Frenzy | party | perfect auras
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 5.2. Videos LvL 77 Shipyard | Double Reflect!!! Youtube-Link In this video you see me playing solo. The map is a double reflect map, which is among the hardest kind of maps rolls you can get when playing my build. I ran into a bit of trouble around minute 5:30, but it worked out perfectly fine in the end. I used blackgleam as a quiver for this particular map. LvL 78 Palace | Chaos damage over time + Pack Size :) Youtube-Link In this video you see me playing with 2 friends of mine. One of them is a flicker striker who also does insane dps and the other one provides multiple auras and magic find. The map rolls in this video are pretty easy, but it's a good example for showing how easily you can breeze through high lvl maps with this build. It also shows how much you benefit from party auras. LvL 78 Courtyard | Ele Reflect + Elemental Weakness Youtube-Link In this video you see me playing with 2 friends of mine. One of them is a flicker striker who also does insane dps and the other one provides multiple auras and magic find. The map rolls in this video are very hard, especially since the map was occupied by tons of devourers. You will see my hp spiking alot and it may look very unsafe to you if you are not an experienced vaal pact life build user. But let me assure you, once you get used to the build and if you got a decent reaction time when facing monsters like devourers... it is more than save enough to play. Unlike most people think, i have not once been close to death in this particular map run.
6. FAQ
Ask questions! Or this poor spoiler will stay empty forever! I hope you enjoyed my guide! Keep in mind that it is a work in progress. I will update the build for every single patch as long as i play path of exile! Oh and feel free to ask any questions. Please do not send me PMs, use the thread to ask questions! You can message me ingame if you like, but don't be mad if i don't answer. I'm often busy mapping or simply afk :) Please do not message me ingame unless you got a basic knowledge of english or alternatively german. I will not respond to messages, if i have to guess their meaning! ...google translate is not an option here guys... MY IGN: Lunys Game on! Once an exile, always an exile. Last edited by Lunys on Feb 10, 2014, 2:35:49 PM
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reserved!
Once an exile, always an exile. Last edited by Lunys on Dec 31, 2013, 3:33:24 AM
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Hey nice guide :)
couple questions: 1) How often you die/find yourself in situations which leaves you on very low hp with some DOT effects and no enemies around you can leech from? Ive always considered Vaal pact but I know Blastrophe doesnt recommend it at all for this reason 2) I might have missed it but whats your HP/LA and frenzy damage (no auras, no charges) and your unbuffed crit chance? 3) Since you dont run any auras do I assume correctly that you play only in party? I tried to run without auras but my damage is just horrible while soloing 4) Are there any bosses that gives you trouble? (Maegera, Sallazang, Torture chamber boss, palace Dominus or any other with some nasty modifiers or you just wreck them all? 5) Is power charge rly worth it? I mean for a few increase crit chance you potentionally give up decent damage boosts (added xx damage, faster attacks or w/e + frenzy charge from bandit reward)...I tried to use it like Blastrophe linked with ice spear but it doesnt work at all since you generate only 1 power charge per cast so in the time u would get up 3-4 power charges u would have already killed the mob pack multiple times lol, not to even mention about maintaining it 6) What are your thoughts about the new buffed gems (added lightning damage, added chaos damage), can they potentionally give more damage then weapon ele gem? (I would have tested myself but I would have to recolour my bow) 7) Whats your physical damage reduction without endu charges? I realize that most of those question are probably irrelevant to you as you prolly wreck everything with 550 pDPS+ bow but obviously not everyone can afford to just spend 200 ex only on bow:) (saying that I already dumped 200 ex into my build lol and its still not finished^^). my gear for reference:
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(getting taming in few days, then helmet to fully cap res + life then 6L lottery for my voltax) My hp: 6300 orso my passive tree:
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http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIAAdEB5wR-BS0FtQzyDkgRlhXwGdUZ1xpVGtsbyCF2I_YkPCT9J6kppTB8MfozDDY9Nug51DpYPs9AoEMxSVFKfU4qUUdW-loaWkhabVuvXhNgS2EhZKNnoG_ycFJ07Xb3d9d6738rf8aE74cZh3aIa419jb-QCpUFm42do565n8ugn6EioaSiQKXLp1yn1Kp_qriv67ZBvebAUcSiyqnN6tN-1QDcFd0N4dvjhOdU6xTuDu967_Dz6vT4-WP8q_zF_iv-yP_e
any help appreciated happy new year! Last edited by Aerinqq on Dec 31, 2013, 11:23:28 AM
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" I'm not going to lie and say that this never happened, but if you keep your distance to monsters you can avoid most DOT effects like burning or bleeding (puncture). Chaos DMG per second as a map mod is no problem at all if you have a decent hp pool (i'd say 5k+) it is only a little bit annoying when you loot bosses and you have a Magic Find character in your party (tons of items to check). Currently i only die, if i make a major mistake or to huge desyncs that would kill anybody and everything :) " HP: 6000+ (On lvl 100 i will have about 7K if i dont change any gear pieces) LA DPS in town: 8830.1 DPS Frenzy DPS in town: 20320.9 DPS Crit Chance in town for both: 51.6% " I enjoy party play the most, thats correct. But soloing is no problem at all. On a lvl 78 Palace Map without Mods that lower my DMG i kill Dominus within 10 to 20 seconds and most monster packs within 1 to 3 Hits. " Lvl 78 Palace Dominus/lvl 77 courtyard bosses with double bosses and temporal chains are the only bosses i skip. All others are just as easy as most rare monsters. " I also tried Blastrophes way if maintaining power charges with Ice Spear... and i hated it. But with a Harbinger Bow like mine your Crit Chance (unbuffed) can be above 50%. If you then use Frenzy with power charge on crit linked to it, you have 1 Skill for both Charges you want and since you crit very often it works like a charm. " Added lightning damage being buffed is amazing, because it also buffed thunderfists. I am currently thinking about changing WED for added fire dmg in my frenzy 4Link in Thunderfists. Added chaos damage... mmh never really considered it and to be honest i don't think i will anytime soon. " 2730 Armor = 23% Reduction In parties with grace i got above 50% and on bosses my first flask (jade flask with evasion and recovery when i crit) is always up when a boss actually hits me in melee. " If i switch to a 6Link Lioneye's Glare, of course i don't onehit monster packs in full parties anymore on lvl 77/78 maps. But especially if you play solo or with a friends auras who you stay close to, you still breeze through maps and bosses like almost noone else. -------------- Happy new year guys! Enjoy partying! Once an exile, always an exile. Last edited by Lunys on Jan 2, 2014, 2:40:07 AM
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" Thats not how shock stacks or damage scaling works. However, Im interested in seeing how far you can go with this(in levels) as there has never been a semi successful life based VP build before. IGN: Arlianth Check out my LA build: 1782214 Last edited by Nephalim on Dec 31, 2013, 1:02:30 PM
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" Yeah i guess ill change this to "monsters take up to 140% more damage". Which is exactly how it works. As for how long I will play this build the answer is simple. Level 100. I will upload videos in a few days, that show me soloing some if the hardest bosses & maps in-game. Maybe I'll even stream for some hours once in a while and you will see that the general disadvantages of vaal pact are no real problem for me. Once an exile, always an exile.
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I would suggest doing /deaths now and then again every 1 level to 100 to get a good picture of the builds viability and stability.
Shock stacks are a 'more' modifier that multiply your damage by a certain amount. with 1 000 base damage, a single shock stack raises this to 1 300, 1600, 1900. The taming is an 'increased' modifier which is added to the rest of your damage increasing modifiers like physical damage, WED, projectile damage, etc. Considering you already have a very large amount the taming adds literally no damage. Also, it is conditional on targets having elemental stacks, targets with 3-5 stacks are already dead on the first or second volley and this damage, where it not negligible would still be useless because it is conditioned. with a base damage of 13 000, the taming's 40% increased damage would likely amount to perhaps a 1 500 dps gain. As a test, simply put on 2 le heup with 20% damage increased and see how much damage this this. I do not think it will be very much. In summary, the taming is a terrible item for high end LA builds and the only reason it was worth more than 4 exalts is the lack of mechanical understanding behind damage scaling and modifiers. IGN: Arlianth
Check out my LA build: 1782214 | |
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I get the feeling that your opinion on this matter won't change no matter how wrong I prove you.
But anyway... Just to clarify, if I take the taming ring off and leave the ring slot open, monster packs will still die by a single crit. It simply doesn't matter at all. But the taming does provide an incredible damage boost against every rare monster or boss with enough life to survive 3 or more critical strikes. The weapon elemental damage and elemental damage stats on the ring don't make the difference. It's all about the increased damage from shock freeze and ignite. It does not matter how much elemental damage my gear and passives already provide. Oh and the comment you made about how shock stacks work in your last post, is essentially the same thing I already mentioned twice. Please don't try to talk the effectiveness of something down, unless you have actually tried using it at least once for an extended period of time. Once an exile, always an exile. Last edited by Lunys on Dec 31, 2013, 11:53:57 PM
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" This is a matter of game mechanics you do not understand the difference between 'increased' and 'more' modifiers. you seem to think the taming is 'more' when it is actually just 'increased' as explicitly stated on the item description. you also seem to think "increased damage" is somehow mechanically different or superior from "increased projectile damage" or "increased weapon elemental damage". I will make a thread to illicit a dev response so people can be educated against spending 25 exalts for a glorified paperweight. Hopefully you will listen if a dev chimes in? IGN: Arlianth
Check out my LA build: 1782214 | |
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Still confused by your crit chance, how do you manage to get it up to 75% out of town, or 50% in town?
with a flask or something? |
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