[3.0] NeverSink's ♣ INDEPTH Tornado&Archer Guide ♣ Beginner friendly ♣ Rapid clear ♣ All bosses

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NeverSink wrote:

Hi guys,

I've been playing the beta during the last days (got to level 80) and here are my impressions. Obviously all of this is subject to change and I'll keep you (and the thread) updated:

click to dispense feedback

Leveling: Leveling is a slightly harder now. Mobs on normal have more HP and damage, increased multipliers do MUCH more work for you than the minor more multipliers in the first levels.

Act4 (spoiler warning!): Difficulty-wise its on the same level as act 3 so far, not much to be said here, nothing particulary deadly for bow builds. Just dont try to facetank daresso/voll/kaom on merciless.

Jewels: Rare jewels can be VERY worth the skillpoints, but are very hard to get (good ones). Intuitive leap is somewhat worth it. Lionseye's fall is not worth it (for rangers at least, I didn't find a good spot for it in the current game/current radius).

Skills: OH BOY did much change here.
-Tornado shot in it's current form is actually VERY strong. It's slightly weaker in cruel, but becomes WAY stronger once you gain a 4L/merciless
-Due to the way all attack gems scale right now %increased damage from the tree is worth a bit more tahn before.
-Nearly all relevant gems have LEVEL-SCALING MORE multipliers similar to the base damage of TS (Lightning arrow, ice shot, split arrow, GMP, LMP, Chain, slower projectiles, all of those have level-scaling more/less multipliers)
-High levels gems provide tons of damage
-Due to the way gems scale now links have become much more important. I was running a tabula with: TS->FasterAttacks->GMP->PPAD->WED->FireDamage/Chain/PTL.
-Ice Arrow / Lightning Arrow / Split arrow are just as viable, each of them having it's own advantages.
-Tornado shot doesn't need a single target attack, provides decent utility and decent aoe damage
-Split shot (8-9 additional arrows on high levels and scaling base damage, similar to TS) works wonders with chain, but needs a decent single target. From the tested gems I liked split show the least compared to TS/LA/IS
-Lightning arrow has scaling base damage too now. I was running a LA->GMP->PPAD->Chain->WED->Faster attacks and could 1-shot clear packs
-Ice arrow is my absolute favorite in the beta with LA->GMP->PPAD->Chain->WED->Faster attacks i could clear packs extremly fast and very very safely (permafreezy).
-My weapon was horrible and i was BREEZING through content (i had a tabula though)
-Frenzy charges are INSANE right now. They provide 4% more damage on top of the old benefits
-Frenzy is my single target of choice in the beta
-I was actually running blood rage. Yes charges are this good.
-With a <200DPS harbinger with 8% crit and no uniques (except for wurms bolt and tabula), with both chain AND gmp, my ice arrow/tornado shot still had 7000+ DPS and my frenzy 16000+ DPS with 3 power and 6 frenzy charges. My clearspeed was insane for that level of gear.
-Ondals got nerfed but is still a must have
-CWDT got nerfed hard. I was using CWDT assassins mark.
-War cries are effective but have a cast time
-Ice golem provides a decent benefit, but you have to resummon him here and there
-You can use all arrow skills with nearly the same skill tree right now
-Reflect is single target now, not an aura, but reflects a lot more. Can be very dangerous

TL;DR skills:
-A lot more damage. A lot more viable alternative skills and passives. Less defense!

Items: Barely any changes. The new bows suck. Harbingers are still the way to go. Decimation bows have 1.2 attack speed, instead of 1.1

Skilltree: Barely anything changed. You have 3 more skillpoints. However, you want frenzy charges now

TL;DR:

I'll be rewriting the guide in 2.0 as a general ranger-archer guide, with the focus on TS, but with options for Ice arrow / Lightning arrow / Split Shot / RoA. I expect changes to the current balance though.

I also did some streaming, might highlight / upload some moments to visualize what i mean later on

What's your links on frenzy, may give it a try, and could you post your skill tree.

Alright, so I went to your stream to talk a lill' bit a couple of days ago to give a positive feedback about your guide.
I managed to realize another version with Hatred plus all 3 heralds without any 30str/30Int nodes, my main goal was to be able to run Hatred + HoA + HoI + HoL link to enhance to benefit a lot of last link support gem (Physical to lightning).
Result is very nice eventhough with a tanky version:
-4.5 K Life
-Cap res
-12K evasion granting 50% evade, 30% attacks, 30% dodge spells.
-Positive chaos res for bloodrage & fast clear mapping.
-Vaal pact (Bloodrage + leech on rings).

I play with 73 mana remaining and i don't have any trouble (just turning off an herald for clone phase to be able to land 3 traps).



http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgIAAF4DHgW1BiMILgiJFSAWvxmKGY4ZtBqPH0EhdiLiIuoj9iSdJP0mlSoLKjgqTSpbLOkwcTB8MfoyATKUNZI2PTnUOkI_J0fiSn1KyEt4TZJRR1LsVUtW-luvXWhh4mHrYlpirGVNZ6BsjG1sbqpwUnb3d9d9W38CfyuCXobOh3aMNo19jb-VBZrxmyabjZu1naqgn6Q5puCpbqxHr6eyGbVItfK9Nr6nwTPC7MqpytPPetCB037UI9aK2L3Zxt0N3ajjn-dU53To1u2D73rz6vaj9tr7CfzF_94=

Thinking about another version with frenzy charges (Alching+ corrupting every nice pair of Slink boots in order to get a +1 frenzy charge), if i succeed I would change some points in my passive tree to get 2 other charges in order to be prepare for Awakening.

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NeverSink wrote:

You still need to be a good player.

lol... I found the problem with my version of the build!

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Tallion99 wrote:

"

NeverSink wrote:

You still need to be a good player.

lol... I found the problem with my version of the build!

that's the first step at getting better! :P

"

Tallion99 wrote:

"

NeverSink wrote:

You still need to be a good player.

lol... I found the problem with my version of the build!

Dat self slam :D

Need some advice here, guys. So I've been thinking about retuning my Gems a little bit. I play on an alt with a friend and use hand-me-down gear from my main Ranger, and have been trying out Puncture-Trap.

I do like the armor I'm using but it's not awesome, the only reason I wear it is because it's a 6L. So...

I was thinking:

Swap Out:


For:


And change (1) Resist All on the Ring to Critical Strike Chance, (2) Boots to RRGG so I can use Increased Duration - Empower - Vaal Haste or Grace - Blink Arrow, (3) 6S5L the Chest to get a 5L Puncture-Trap and a spare B socket for Assassin's Mark.

The only thing I'm concerend about is the armor change, I would lose ~600 Eva off the chest at the cost of +30 life and extra Resists. Thoughts?

Just a short heads up:

I've tested all kind of builds in beta (with bows):

-Ice Shot builds
-Lightning arrow builds
-Tons of tornado shot setups
-Split arrow setup

most of them are viable, some of them are downright crazy strong.

Right now I'm playing with a windripper in closed beta (cheers to CritSpear for selling it to me cheap for testing). I really like the way it works and I'll include it into the 2.0 update

I played now for 2 days in closed beta because of getting a beta key. And i dont like the changes. its much more extensive to lvl with this build. I hope with good geat it will be better, but til now i think without verry good gear there are better builds.

And i love my ranger so much. so i hope it will something change til release

and at never

perhaps windripper is a good choise but then this build will be verry expensive

Tornado Bite

I am currently running a beta variation of this build :

Tornado Shot with Ice Bite and Frenzy charges. I aim to get two charges which are right along our build tree which cost 4 points total ( the third near Fury Bolt is not worth the point investment I think ) and one from Deal with the Bandits for a total of 6 charges.

4+ Tornado Shot + LMP/GMP + PPaD + Ice Bite [+Physical to Lightning] [+Added Fire Damage]

4+ Frenzy + PPaD + Added Fire + Inc Crit Strikes ( as long as crit chance is below 50% ) / Inc Crit Damage + WED [+Inc Crit Dmg / Item Rarity]
Frenzy requires Inc Crit Strikes to be decent as long as crit chance is below 50% but then it is pretty strong which means it will be even better once the crit chance is at 50%+ and the Inc Crit strike can be replaced.

4 Blink Arrow + Mirror Arrow + Faster Attacks + Increased Duration

4 Reduced Mana + Hatred ( Herald of Ice while levelling ) + Herald of Ash + Summon Ice Golem

4 Cast when Damage taken ( Lvl 1 ) + Increased Duration + Immortal Call ( Lvl 1 ) [ + Enfeeble ( Lvl 5 ) / Assassin's Mark ( Lvl 5 ) / Vaal Grace / Vaal Haste]
Enfeeble should be the safest solution - its pretty poweful and right now I feel like its almost as good as the old EC setup ( as long as you dont need other curses - with 50%+ crit chance I dont think Assassin's Mark is mandatory - if you think you need another curse the new additional curse jewel might be useful ). Actually it seem to help with Reflect enemies as well - not 100% sure yet.


Deal with the Bandits :
Oak - Kraityn - Kraityn

Attack speed in cruel synergises well with the frenzy charges, gives a better overall DPS boost and it really is almost neccessary since the end game harbinger only has a base attack speed of 1.20.

With only the base 3 frenzy charges and a crit chance of around 40% while levelling Ice Bite is an insane buff to the build already. The first mob will get me to full frenzy charges which will almost never expire ( probably never with the increased duration once I pick up more charges ). It is as good as faster attacks but with a more damage buff. Utilizing Frenzy as single target attack will make sure that the charges stay up against bosses.

To anyone ever levelling this build I can only recommend two BiS items

- ( Level 32 ) Deaths Harp : This is the point where you want to switch from your levelling skill ( Split Arrow / Ice Shot ) to Tornado shot and it will carry you all the way to a good harbinger ( actually you can do maps with it especially when combined with Rat's Nest ). Its extra arrow basically turns LMP into a GMP with 4 projectiles with the lower damage punishment of LMP.

- ( Level 55 ) Rat's Nest : With a good Death's Harp ( 7.5% crit chance ), the basic build's crit nodes and the Ice golem this will bring you to 40% crit chance and everything shatters reliably. This "helmet" is BiS in my oppinion - High Evasion, high crit chance, a very nice rarity boost which will make you run out of scrolls and drop you some nice uniques and the movement speed which is a huge defensive mechanic but also a clear speed bonus. Plus it looks absolutly rat. I think its 3D art got reworked and while it was ugly before it now looks really really nice. The character size reduction looks so sweet as well - I just fell in love with Rat's Nest since it dropped for me in the 1m hardcore league and I will use it whenever possible.

At some point later :

- ( Level 60 / as soon as you can compensate the -60% Lightning Resist ) Lightning Coil : I think this build can not live without it. Evasion got nerfed, physical monster damage got buffed - this essentialy means the also nerfed Lighning Coil is the only way left to us to survive an accidental wrong move or any of the many charge attacks. All the life and evasion nodes wasted because a single hit of a single extra damage / powerful crits physical / charging enemy can potentially kill you.

Final Note : While the build is insane for soloing ( at least while I level it ) the question remains how it will perform in parties where it will maybe be harder to shatter enemies to gain frenzy charges.