[2.4] "The Skirmisher" - FAST(!) + Dual Siege Ballista
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When I saw the Skirmish quiver in 2.3, I wanted to make a build for it. I've always liked dual-totem builds, but never done an effective one as a Ranger, so here was the chance.
On top of that, I decided to make it a FAST(!) build. This is a serious dancer! Manually evading mobs and projectiles is so easy I almost can't believe it. What this build is:
What this build is not:
Weaknesses:
The build is not gear-dependent apart from Skirmish, but of.c. better gear will make the build better.
Skirmish + Siege Ballista
This is the bread and butter of this build, though it also has respectable offensive power when shooting manually. Particularly useful is the ability to 'shoot around corners'. The totem will fire at what it can see, not what you can see.
Build explanation
The main characteristics for the build is high speed, high damage, and very good abilities to avoid getting hit.
High Speed: At L85 I have a movement speed modifier of 83%. This is from passive skill points and boots only. It could be raised even further by Haste and this: But I've not felt the need to do so. This is plenty fast enough to run away and dodge almost anything. High Damage: My tooltip DPS at L85 is: Siege Ballista: 13k+ Frenzy: 18k+ ...Things die... fast... Note that this is with a Reach of the Council (pre-nerf), so it will be different if using for example Lioneye's Glare. Dodge and evade: At L85, I currently have 34% evade, and 46% dodge. Add to that the speed enabling very good manual dodging, and nothing much hits you. A Quartz flask with even more speed and the Raider ascendancy phasing abilities help even more. However, the life pool is not that big (3.6k for me at L85), so one-shots can happen. This is probably not a HC build. Play style: Stay at a distance, and stay moving! This can't be repeated enough! STAY MOVING! Place your totems ahead of you, and use them to guard your back. Most mobs will melt fast. Against projectile enemies, have something between you and them, then 'shoot around the corner' by placing the totem so it can reach them. Shoot manually to add damage and generate frenzy charges (when safe). More descriptive of how I play is: Place totems, watch the destruction from cover, while running like mad, or at a safe distance :-p
Skill tree
Finished skill tree: 107 Skill Points (L85)
The build has one Jewel slot, and it should have Rain of Splinters in it:
Ascendancy Class
I've picked Raider because of the extra defences and speed.
Pick the following main nodes:
If you feel more offensive minded, you can pick the Deadeye ascendancy class instead.
Bandits
Oak, Skill point, Skill point
Spell links
Main skill:
I use a Tabula Rasa with this setup: Secondary attack, Frenzy: Damage Enhancer: Mana Regeneration Keep it as low level as you can while not running out of mana. I found L5 suits me. Escape! Protection (if needed): CWDT (L1) + Immortal Call (L3) + Phase Run (L3) Golem: (add support gems as you want) I use the Stone Golem as the life regen is sometimes needed.
Gear
Important gear stats:
You'll want maxed resists (of course), life, a bit of strength for the red gems, and as much extra damage as you can get. Your main item is the bow. I've been using a pre-nerf Reach of the Council, but either Lioneye's Glare or a good pDPS bow will do fine. Rain of Splinters will give you 3 projectiles which is enough, or you can replace one of the damage gems with GMP. Other than that I've used a Tabula Rasa for the main skill, but a 5L can be used as well (though with less damage of.c.). The Le Heup of All I've used only because I had it. There are no other gear requirements.
My Gear at L85
Levelling guide
Start using Siege Ballista as soon as you can, and get the Skirmish quiver at L19. Rain of Splinters should go in around then as well.
25 Skill Points 50 Skill Points 80 Skill Points However... This build is very forgiving in how you progress as there are no 'must-have' passive skill points. Just progress as you feel like it.
[2.3] Video
[2.3] Stats at L85
Siege Ballista
 
Frenzy
 
Defensive
  Last edited by Cyzax#3287 on Sep 3, 2016, 11:22:59 AM Last bumped on Dec 15, 2016, 2:03:50 PM
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Added video and levelling guide.
Last edited by Cyzax#3287 on Sep 1, 2016, 2:26:03 PM
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Haven't had that much time to play, but levelling from start in the essence league is going pretty well. Currently L38 in A4N.
Equipment and gems, all apart from the Skirmish quiver self-found (though I had to level a Witch to Brutus to get the Clarity gem). Skirmish cost me 1 fusing in trade.
Spoiler
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This build still works very well in Essence.
I'm currently at L69, and do low-mid level maps comfortably. I haven't yet bothered going beyond Piety in A3N, but she went down like a sack of bricks... Tooltip DPS: Siege Ballista (6L): 9751 Burning Arrow (4L, for single target): 16443 Basic strategy... Place ballista's, run around avoid getting hit which the very high movement speed makes pretty easy. Replaces ballista's when it is safe. Only use your own attack when it is safe. I'm also using the temporal chains curse to slow down fast enemies. Other curses may work as well. If you find you can sustain mana without the Clarity, use a Herald of Fire instead. It'll give you an extra 1000+ DPS for the ballista's, more for the Burning Arrow. This will probably mean you still can't keep up continuous Burning Arrow fire, but a Vaal Clarity to use against bosses could solve that problem. LMP can be used instead of WED in the setup for clearing trash mobs. It'll give two more projectiles, but less damage. I tried it, and it felt slower.
Current Gear with spell links
Last edited by Cyzax#3287 on Sep 19, 2016, 12:29:07 PM
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Build is still working exceptionally well. At L79, I have the following stats:
Siege Ballista DPS: 13395 Burning Arrow DPS: 23780 Movement Speed: 103% Evasion: 32% Dodge 46/30% Life: 3328 The life is low, but I still need to get 18% from the skill tree. It usually doesn't matter much. You move so fast that you can manually avoid just about everything. The only thing that is slightly difficult is flicker strikers. The CWDT setup mitigates most of the danger with that. I've upgraded to use both Hatred, Clarity and Herald of Ash. The mana is slightly tight, but the occasional no mana message is just a small annoyance. The pure bliss of running very very fast and avoiding everything can't be understated :-D
Current Equipment
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Used a 5L instead of the Tabula. The DPS of the Ballista's goes down (of.c.) to 10.2k, but I gained 300+ life, and 8% evasion.
Bought a 6S/5L evasion body armour for 1C, then used a Screaming Essence of Greed on it. Got fairly lucky with the roll too. |
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Some stats at L81, Siege Ballista and Burning Arrow gems at L19, all support gems at L18:
Defensive
Siege Ballista
Burning Arrow
Equipment
Last edited by Cyzax#3287 on Sep 25, 2016, 7:15:34 AM
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you think it's doable to have a version of this with split arrow and also using frenzy as a dual purpose utility shot with a curse on hit set up and greater multiple?
I'm still quite new and not really sure if I will have the gem space for this much going on. I do really like split shot at the moment though with pierce and also picked up a bow with lots of buffs for ballista, as well as the aforementioned quiver that you use. at the moment I'm using a drillneck with pierce gems over the quiver you use (I was going to use both for 3 ballista though) it just seems more viable right now to get my extra turret from the bow, rather than the quiver as I get more damage using my bow and and drillneck than I do with my harp bow and quiver from the guide. have picked up the gem though and will try that out, too. I know this is last leagues build, but I'm new and just playing around tbh. PS: is stone golem the best for the build? someone else advised "flame" for the damage, but if this was the case, would I not just go ice for the more typical archer archtype buffs? I can see the benefits of the stone golem if you are hemorrhaging life at times though. Also would I be wanting something like mark of assassin, or are other curses better? I don't want to fully rely on turrets, just doing this for the strategic aspect of setting up elaborate traps with multiple turrets and blink arrow. I have been really enjoying having that 1 ballista there for doing cool maneuvers in bottleneck type scenarios, 2 will give me even more flexibility. Tyrs Paladium - DoT Enthusiast. Last edited by Umbral_Spectre#0144 on Dec 15, 2016, 3:17:42 PM
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