Cheapest Build NA, Hidden Potential Poison Arrow [2.0]

So Hidden Potential... And Poison Arrow. With a Ranger Tree. If you're looking for a cheap, effective build that can farm all map mods (in Magic gear, no less) then sit down and stay awhile!

This character was built from the ground up with zero stashed gear and I leveled with Poison arrow/without flame totem. I’ll go over my thoughts on leveling later on, but it’s absolutely possible to level normally and not worry too much about respeccing. Essentially this is here as a disclaimer and a note that you don’t need to go find a separate leveling build or guide—the build is pretty noob-friendly.

I ran PA in the beta (as well as a lot of other things) and decided that given the new higher-damage, higher-risk mapping, PA was a perfect fit since it basically allows you to focus on avoiding dangerous mechanics while still getting 100% full DPS uptime due to the poison cloud mechanics. PA is as close as it gets to “fire and forget” gameplay.

Pros


Cons


So first, leveling and a bit of background… We start Ranger, so pick up projectile damage nodes along with life and evasion. I suggest going north to Shadow area first, then coming down to Acro by late Cruel, try to get to Duelist area by Act3/4 Merc and then round out the tree and pick up all the jewels and Frenzy charges last. The way I play I tend to pick offensive nodes through normal, then start pathing towards defense early cruel, and then secure my big notables early merc. with the details like jewels and frenzy charges last. Feel free to do broad strokes early (pathing into Duelist for Proj. damage, then pausing and working to the chaos nodes up top, etc.) but leave the jewels and frenzy charges till you're ready for them.

For the chaos clusters, I got the DOT cluster as soon as I was close to it, got the Corruption ring once I hit mid-50s? and then picked up the third weaker Method to Madness group once I started running out of proj. damage, life, and defensive nodes. Right before or alongside jewel/frenzy charge nodes.

Focus on life/projectile damage and level with split arrow and flame totem which both benefit from Proj. damage. Pick up a Soul Mantle for a chaos or two if you want to add another Flame Totem to the mix. Normal/Cruel Malachai sucks, but just party up. Once you hit Merciless you're basically an hour or two from maps aka the dream.

Bandits:


It seems I went Oak (+40 life), Skill Point, Frenzy charge on this character. If I could do it over I'd probably pick the resists, honestly. But it's really your preference.

Gear requirements to go into maps are pretty much non-existent.

I started mapping with this build at level 64, before I even killed Dominus! At that point in time I think I had one 4L and the rest of my gems were in 2 or 3L items or socketed into random unlinked sockets. Obviously this is not my recommendation, but it’s absolutely doable. There are zero hard gear requirements, other than maybe a +2 bow, but those are very affordable, even early on in a league’s lifespan.

Build is cheap!
When I got to maps I was still wearing low-level blue rings, a rare quiver with zero useful stats, and only one 4L. By the time I hit level 73 maps I'd gotten most of my gear 4L. The most expensive unique the build requires is a Blood Dance. I was mapping with unlinked items and Hyrri's Bite for a long time before I finally bricked the quiver and got the bright idea to try Hidden Potential. Once you socket one of these jewels, you can simply transmute spam white and magic items you find in maps to get your GGG magic gear.

Safety First
I run a super safe setup using Ice shot curse on hit Temp Chains along with Arctic Armour and Purity of Elements. Purity is a necessity with this tree at my gear level, because resists gate you from replacing rares with blues that benefit from Hidden Potential. Ideally you'd want to cap your resists through Jewels/Passives/Bandits, and then focus on +high health blue gear while running something like Grace, double Purities, something like that.

Gear was basically:
+2 Bow (1-2c)
Blood Dance (1-10c)
Hidden Potential (15-25c)
Assorted Rares (Whatever you can afford or find)
Magic Items (Transmutes)

Current Tree:


Current Gear:


Current Flasks (No seriously, these are a joke and I need to roll real flasks now that I'm doing Atziri/75+ maps):


Jewels:


Gems/Links:


I think most of these gem/link choices are self-explanatory, but in regards to curses, I leveled and mapped with Temp Chains for 84 levels. It’s solid. Is it better than Vulnerability? Yes. I think so. Depends on whether you like damage or want more lockdown/defense. I haven't run into a DPS wall yet and using Temp Chains I feel a lot safer. Feel free to run both if you get a lucky corruption and/or score a 5/6L and +1 curse item.

Cast when damage taken/Immortal Call works without endurance charges, not as powerful as pre-2.0 though.

The Cast when stunned setup is something new I dreamed up recently. We have 30% chance to avoid being stunned on the tree, but stuns can be extremely deadly as they usually happen as high-damage spells/attacks are chained through your defense by a boss or otherwise. To be honest, I’m not sure how effective this setup is—I’m not even sure I’ve seen it proc yet, but I feel like there’s solid reasoning here so I’ll be testing this setup out and will report back. (Feel free to run Golem > Culling Strike > Item Rarity > Minion Life/Speed or something else here if you desire.)

Offense:


Defense:


Mapping:


Future plans:

6L +3 bow, obviously.

Power spike if I can buy/obtain a level 2/3/4 empower and 6L, but otherwise just more item rarity/damage.

If I could cap resists with better jewels, I’d drop the rare armor and/or helm for a magic/blue 5/6L or get a Hyrri’s Ire/Carcass Jack. With a lucky amulet corruption, I'd put the Curse on Hit setup in my chest and try dual curse Vuln/Temp Chains/Blind (for 6L).

As far as further passive tree adjustments...

Pierce cluster is optional/convenience and you could drop it to invest in:

Crystal Skin cluster for 50% shock/freeze/chill avoidance as these are, I think, under-rated defensive nodes. Maybe.

OR simply spec into 2 more jewel nodes (the proj damage jewel cluster and the jewel cluster north of the Duelist traversal area) while still keeping 1 life node but gaining 2 more jewel slots-- this is probably the best option, all things considered.

One last hat trick = grabbing a self-flagellation jewel to slot in for maps where you're cursed/dual-cursed (Up to 40% increased free damage during those maps where you're stuck cursed anyway). Works for Atziri, too.

Edit, Atziri Done at 85 with the above gear and a level 19 poison arrow in a 4-link.

1 Death on Double Vaal due to being caught in the wrong spot and getting shotgunned by orb spam. Died once on Trio from spike rain that triggered but didn't show up on my screen as soon as the fight started, crashed once on Atziri (no deaths).

Is this doable as Scion?

Favorited!

really cool idea