2.0 ranged gameplay concerns

so, i don't know a whole lot about what changes are being made tomorrow, as i haven't played the beta, though from what i gather it seems like the defenses of ranged characters will be nerfed pretty significantly.

with the changes to ondar's guile alone (severe nerf for both ranged and melee physical damage) ranged characters will be much more susceptible to damage.
how are characters overcoming this?


my current character relies on movement speed and pure evasion with a massive emphasis on ondar's evasion rate, since im ranged. i do not run a CWDT setup as im full on sockets already, and im not sure what type of warcries will be available, defensively.

my initial thought was to hold off one of my auras. this would lower my dps very slightly, but give me enough mana where i could allocate into Mind over Matter and instantly become much tankier by using my mana pool, which i do not use much of through skill usage. however MoM was drastically moved across the entire tree to a point where it is not accessible any longer. the chest is also not a viable substitute.

to make matters worse, i REALLY want to use the new helm that gives elemental damage and increased damage per curse on enemies (as i use 3 curses) but that would lower both my movement speed and my evasion rating quite drastically, since im currently using devoto's devotion.

right now my gameplay is extremely safe. maybe too safe, to a point where i get lazy. i haven't died from anything other than reflect on this character since i don't even know when, so it is possible i CAN give up some aspect of defense.
the only thing i can possibly think of is to keep devoto's devotion for my movement speed/evasion rating. continue to use ondar's for projectile and focus on kiting melee with my speed and blink arrow. maybe use vaal grace more often.

are there other ways people that have played the beta have overcome these changes? are they as drastic as im making out in my mind?

Ranged guys should be fine. You take Acro right?

I think taking Ondar's depends on how safe you want to be from reflect. Now i'm not sure but I believe the % reflect has been reduced in 2.0 - someone please correct me if I'm wrong. So dropping Ondar's could be worth the extra points.

Movement speed will let you avoid a lot of melee damage.

Even in 1.3 most bow builds could just kill melee enemies before they reached them, and if not then easily kite and run with high movement speed.

Also dont forget that many bow skills were buffed so you will have higher damage now. Especially SA and LA which I believe now have greater AOE damage than TS.

You also have other things like crit golem and frenzy charge change that will further increase your damage.

So net net I think bow builds are in better shape than in 1.3.

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Ceryneian wrote:

Ranged guys should be fine. You take Acro right?

I think taking Ondar's depends on how safe you want to be from reflect. Now i'm not sure but I believe the % reflect has been reduced in 2.0 - someone please correct me if I'm wrong. So dropping Ondar's could be worth the extra points.

Movement speed will let you avoid a lot of melee damage.

Even in 1.3 most bow builds could just kill melee enemies before they reached them, and if not then easily kite and run with high movement speed.

Also dont forget that many bow skills were buffed so you will have higher damage now. Especially SA and LA which I believe now have greater AOE damage than TS.

You also have other things like crit golem and frenzy charge change that will further increase your damage.

So net net I think bow builds are in better shape than in 1.3.

Reflect is the biggest concern for a bow character, that or the insane high physical damage that some of the bosses put out that are considered spells (hence, 100% dumps on you unless you count phase acrobatics which is completely random).

Looking at the patch notes, reflect was changed to no longer be an aura but only a mod on the enemy.

There is not much you can really do about high boss damage. It is a problem for everyone. This is what GGG wants when they say they want the game to become more challenging.