Need some advice before I get too much further

Right, so I've been playing PoE in little chunks over the last 2 years but I've never finished the game and never had a char hit lvl 30 even. I make a guy, get to lvl 20 something and realize I screwed up or don't play for a couple months and forget what my plan was or how to play my character and just scrap him/her and start over when a new expansion hits or a new league starts. Well, I am determined not to start over anymore. I love to make non-standard builds in these types opf games, I got bored of standard tropes years ago. PoE offers the opportunity top really make a character your own.......so I thought "well I like playing as an archer......but I want to be able to take some hits.......like a Cataphract Archer without a horse or something, I've done standard Rangers before but what about a heavily armored one?". The duelist class looked like it gave me the opportunity to do that. I'm level 18 now, and have been taking safe choices that first improve my damage with bows or just increasing physical attack, attack speed, and accuracy. But before I go further and ruin everything, I figured I'd come here and ask some questions:

1) How much accuracy do I really need? Do I have to keep investing in it the whole game? Is say, 93 percent an acceptable accuracy rate?

2) Should I go for a balance of evasion rating and armor, or just armor? I'd like to try and incorporate as much movement speed, fire rate, and crit chance/crit multiplier as I can still, is all this possible without ending up mediocre at everything?

3) I was considering going down and investing in the Point Blank skill.....is it any good?

4) I also plan on getting Iron Grip.....this seems like exactly what I want for a "tanky" archer that is going to inevitably hit a fair number of strength nodes along the way.....or am I missing something?

5) Can someone explain what Iron reflexes does? If I plan to get it......does that mean I should avoid any node that increases evasion rating in the mean-time? The problem is theres a lot of nodes in or near the duelist tree that provide both armor and evasion bonuses, would that mean those are wasted by taking Iron Reflexes?

6) I guess in general, I notice theres stuff like Golem's Blood that looks useful, but theres not a lot of other nodes that provide similar effects I could stack on top of it, should I avoid things like that or grab it anyway if it doesn't take too many nodes to get there (2-3).

7) How much should I go for elemental damage/resistance stuff? Again theres the whole node investment/rate of return thing. Is there no point bothering with it if you only are gonna get just a couple nodes worth of it?

8) Is a bow considered a "two handed melee weapon"? Cause that lioneye archer build I saw uses some two-handed nodes......ugh confused.

I'm sorry for the battery of n00b questions. This game just oozes possibilities to the point its easy to second-guess one's choices at every turn. Its not that I'm incapable of figuring it out on my own, I'd just rather not waste dozens of hours anymore doing it inefficiently or outright incorrectly.

EDIT: heres a link to what I have so far on the passive tree: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwQAFSAV7Bm0JT8tg185dcuNfpstq9Kwq7e2uR2-p82Y2o3d4-pi9OY=

"

Scrotacus_XLII wrote:

1) How much accuracy do I really need? Do I have to keep investing in it the whole game? Is say, 93 percent an acceptable accuracy rate?

90% is plenty. But yes, that means you have to invest in it the whole game. You should get a decent chunk of it from bow nodes, if nothing else.

"

2) Should I go for a balance of evasion rating and armor, or just armor? I'd like to try and incorporate as much movement speed, fire rate, and crit chance/crit multiplier as I can still, is all this possible without ending up mediocre at everything?

I would generally go for Iron Reflexes if you want to be doing armour, because a lot of your gear will likely be evasion-based anyway and small amount of armour are a bit useless. Getting all those things is totally doable, I would be surprised by a traditional bow build that didn't.

"

3) I was considering going down and investing in the Point Blank skill.....is it any good?

It's fine. If you want to go for that style, you'll probably also want to use Chin Sol when you get to a high enough level (or I guess if, given your history). You'll also want to look for good skills to use with it like Ice Shot or Rain of Arrows (or the upcoming "Shrapnel Shot" skill, which looks perfect for it).

"

4) I also plan on getting Iron Grip.....this seems like exactly what I want for a "tanky" archer that is going to inevitably hit a fair number of strength nodes along the way.....or am I missing something?

Here's the thing. If you want to be properly tanky, wander around the left side of the tree, etc, you can't really go crit. All the crit stuff is way over on the right. You will spread yourself a bit thin trying to do all that. I would advise you to pick either being slightly tanky and go crit (in which case you won't get that much strength, but it's probably still worth picking up Iron Grip if you go right past it), or be seriously tanky and take Resolute Technique/use Lioneye's Glare (in which case Iron Grip will be sweet).

"

5) Can someone explain what Iron reflexes does? If I plan to get it......does that mean I should avoid any node that increases evasion rating in the mean-time? The problem is theres a lot of nodes in or near the duelist tree that provide both armor and evasion bonuses, would that mean those are wasted by taking Iron Reflexes?

When you convert one stat to another in this game, bonuses to both apply to the converted portion. When you have IR, your evasion is increased by your increased evasion nodes, converted to armour, then that armour is increased by your increased armour nodes.

"

6) I guess in general, I notice theres stuff like Golem's Blood that looks useful, but theres not a lot of other nodes that provide similar effects I could stack on top of it, should I avoid things like that or grab it anyway if it doesn't take too many nodes to get there (2-3).

Life regen is nice to have. Generally it comes with other useful stats (usually life), so you if you invest heavily in those you can end up with 3-5% life regen, which is cool. Don't go out of your way for regen though, it's mostly just a convenience.

"

7) How much should I go for elemental damage/resistance stuff? Again theres the whole node investment/rate of return thing. Is there no point bothering with it if you only are gonna get just a couple nodes worth of it?

There's no point getting elemental damage on tree if you're a phys ranger, even if you're converting damage to elemental. The nodes just aren't good enough. % increased weapon ele damage on gear is fine, though. Resists on tree are okay while you're levelling, but generally you'll want to get rid of them and rely on your gear for resists in the endgame (although often builds end up with some incidental resists from the tree, because a few nodes that grant really good stuff also give resists).

"

8) Is a bow considered a "two handed melee weapon"? Cause that lioneye archer build I saw uses some two-handed nodes......ugh confused.

A bow is not a melee weapon, unsurprisingly. That build uses the unique jewel Lioneye's Fall to convert those nodes into bow nodes.

"

EDIT: heres a link to what I have so far on the passive tree: https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwQAFSAV7Bm0JT8tg185dcuNfpstq9Kwq7e2uR2-p82Y2o3d4-pi9OY=

So far so good, although of course you haven't gotten all that far yet. The one thing I would say is that it's generally inefficient to completely take a wheel of nodes. You usually want to path to the notable and that's it (although there are some exceptions). So in the projectile wheel right at the duelist start, you should remove one of the nodes that doesn't help you path down.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

"

Its not that I'm incapable of figuring it out on my own, I'd just rather not waste dozens of hours anymore doing it inefficiently or outright incorrectly.

thats exactly whats gonna happen unless you follow a build with a good guide.

your first char will fail, your second char will fail, your third char will make it to merciless maybe, etc.

if you didnt made it past level 30 so far poe is not a good game for your needs.

read some guides to the get basics regarding minimum requirements (hp and stuff) and then just play.

Wow, viperesque beat me to it.

The only point I'm not so sure on is the Point Blank keystone because it depends a lot on what skill and playstyle you're going to use. There's some serious damage reduction involved for attacks on mobs far away so if your plan involves lots of kiting then it seems rather bad. Of course, with Lioneye's Glare and maybe even Puncture traps or something it shines.

1) Not really, a few passive clusters and some accuracy on gear are all you need, depending on tree location, right side builds don't need a lot because of high dex score.

2) Evasion/Armor hybrids are strong but you need better gear than for straight variants, depends on your budget. You will be able to have a lot of move/attack speed, crit and crit multi, that isn't a problem.

3) For a tanky archer it's very good, Chin Sol is also cheap and good for such a build.

4) Iron Grip is worth it if you have a high strength score or are passing very close to it so you aren't spending many points to get it. Making the trip is otherwise not justified.

5) It converts all your base evasion to base armor, when converted like that it will be affected by both armor and evasion bonuses. Which nodes your take depends on what type of gear you're using, if all your base is converted evasion you can take either armor, evasion or hybrid passives, doesn't matter. But if you got pieces that are straight armor you should focus on getting armor or hybrid passives.

6) If you're making a melee archer visiting Marauder area is usually worthwhile, you should be able to get 5-6% regen total, which is useful to have.

7) Your resists should be maxed all the time in late cruel and onward but it is usualyl taken care of with gear only. Elemental damage is pointless if you aren't making an elemental damage build.

8) Bow isn't a melee weapon, he was using a jewel that converts other weapon nodes to bow nodes.

Ah thank you very much for the detailed replies. Hmm yea I guess I wont wander too much further over to the right then. I'm glad some of my assumptions weren't totally wrong. As a side note, yea I am kind of a spaz gamer.....but for now theres not much else I want to play so I think I can get much further this time. I've grown a bit tired of open world games and the "Death by a thousand map markers syndrome". So until the DLC for Bloodborne comes out I should be able to get some real progress going this time.

Also I did think of something else regarding the Point Blank thing.......so I've been messing around a lot with the Blink Arrow skill......does my little temporary clone's damage work under the same parameters of Point Blank? My thought is that with enough practice, I would be able to create flanking attacks at max damage range from either side of a group pretty much at all times.......would that work or is Blink Arrow just kind of a parlor trick no one use later on?

"

Scrotacus_XLII wrote:

Also I did think of something else regarding the Point Blank thing.......so I've been messing around a lot with the Blink Arrow skill......does my little temporary clone's damage work under the same parameters of Point Blank? My thought is that with enough practice, I would be able to create flanking attacks at max damage range from either side of a group.......would that work or is Blink Arrow just kind of a parlor trick no one use later on?

Your clone is a minion, a separate entity that has none of your passive bonuses except those that are designated for minions.

Blink arrow is a useful movement/decoy skill throughout the game, it won't do much damage unless you're a summoner, though.

"

Scrotacus_XLII wrote:

Also I did think of something else regarding the Point Blank thing.......so I've been messing around a lot with the Blink Arrow skill......does my little temporary clone's damage work under the same parameters of Point Blank? My thought is that with enough practice, I would be able to create flanking attacks at max damage range from either side of a group.......would that work or is Blink Arrow just kind of a parlor trick no one use later on?

Couple of things on that. You're overestimating Point Blank, I think. See this chart for an idea of how close you have to be for it to be good:



More importantly though, Blink/Mirror Arrow's clones are not you. They use your bow and quiver, but that's it. They don't have your passives or gear, they work like any other minion in that only stuff that explicitly applies to minions affects them.

"

Scrotacus_XLII wrote:

...so I thought "well I like playing as an archer......but I want to be able to take some hits.......like a Cataphract Archer without a horse or something, I've done standard Rangers before but what about a heavily armored one?"

They gave you a lot of answers but I would like to add something like a personal appreciation...
If you want to be real tank you should use a Marauder. The Marauder has at hand a lot of Life/Armour/Regeneration nodes. Also has proximity to many Endurance Charges and Fire damage nodes. It is ideal for fire-based Archer. You can do wonders with an elemental bow and this armor:



This armor is relatively cheap and you constantly regenerates Endurance charges which makes especially a Marauder "a real machine to withstand blows".

:)

Ok so yea.....Point Blank is out, lol. Ok so I took the liberty of going on and attempting to fill out the whole tree (this is a really well done site by the way)......I startedto get a bit lost at the end on what to do and what passives would best suit being a tankish archer that can still do archery things like knock people back or crit them. I'm unsure about spending so many points to get to things like Heavy Draw at the end but i ran out of ideas and that whole wheel seemed like a good choice to me, I dunno. Please let me know what you folks think.

https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwQBAO4B5wTkBS0IiQixCpsNjRUgFewYkRm0G_ohYCF2I9MlPyXfKaUqTSzpLYMuUzB8MfsyfjKUNug51DpSPyc__ECgQzFEnkp9SshM_04qUUdTu1b6V1RYr1uvXWheE185Xz9hUm6Xbydv8nTtdPF1y3XQeOt5aH1bfXV_An8rf-OCB4Zghs6HdoqzjX6TqJUFmmqa8Zstns2fy6CfpBmm4Kcwp9Sooqluqvir0qxHsKu2LLkdu-O8n76nv9XBBMEzwdjEosqpzZjSIdNv037ZxtqN2sHcFd3j45_nCuhm6mLuDu9O73ryQfKc9Ob3vvzF_rr-yP-w

I'm apparently doing links worng, don't know why.

EDIT: ignore this build link, the better one is on the next page.