Melee Evasion Ranger Build Advice s/shield

Hey guys, I've been working on creating a sustainable melee evasion/acrobatics based ranger. Lvl 33 so far, about to go into cruel and loving it, but there are a few potential bumps I've seen late-game pure evasion characters hit that I'd like to avoid.

My main anxiety:
-No shield block point allocation.
-High enough hp?
-Good dps/hp balance?
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First link is the tree, second is a summary.





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Leveling would progress towards acrobatics, the first reflexes node, then the thick skin group near the bottom, and then follow a 2x dps 1xhp pattern of allocation before grabbing the second reflexes node just before merciless.
Knowing full well the difficulties experienced by many melee pure evasion builds so far, I hope to create something more sustainable than the efforts I've seen lately in the community.

Thanks!

Needs more hp, and block. Can drop some dps nodes, but not sure if you will have adequate dps. It's really hard to make an acrobatics melee work. I've done it before, but my drawback was hp. I'm about to make a dw character this way, but really unsure if it will work, have some good end game gear for it. But because of diminishing returns I don't invest heavily in evasion bonuses.

I posted my experiences here:


http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/254998
In an attempt to quit the game I deleted all my toons, including this one. Currently releveling it. I am an idiot.

It worked perfectly fine, the biggest drawback being maximum hp which was a bit short of 3k when I stopped but would find itself ~3.5k at lvl85 with rather mediocre equipment.

Thanks for the replies, guys. To tell you the truth, Pliffmaster, your build was one of the first I found on the forums when I began searching, but I was put off by its reliance on dw damage.
There seems to be an overwhelming preference for dw in evasion characters, but I've always considered shields to be invaluable endgame for survivability.
Would I negate my potentially low dps output by switching out my shield for another weapon?

I have not tried with a shield. My reason being that I rely a lot on dual wield block. There is also the point that this is an "active" tanking concept, i.e. a lot of survivability comes from leech/blind, both of which get triggered twice as often on a dw-char as on a sword&board toon. I agree that you would significantly increase your effective health with a shield and block nodes.

That said I think you need to make up your mind relatively early as for both builds to be effective you need to invest into either shield block/life or dual wield block nodes. I think I actually have very few DW damage nodes but grabbed all the dw-block nodes I could. If you want to go with a shield you would probably invest most of those nodes into damage or life as there are fewer shield block nodes available.

Updated and rearranged to incorporate dw and stabilize dps.
Kept very high evasion (118%), while virtually matching Pliffmaster's dps output, slightly higher dexterity and accuracy, ~10% less physical damage boost.



EDIT: Didn't see that you replied. After some thinking, I don't think it's very feasible to opt with the shield and still hope to maintain any kind of significant damage output. Maintaining high evasion, in combination with the 18% dw block, I hope will be an adequate substitute.

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Pliffmaster wrote:

I have not tried with a shield. My reason being that I rely a lot on dual wield block. There is also the point that this is an "active" tanking concept, i.e. a lot of survivability comes from leech/blind, both of which get triggered twice as often on a dw-char as on a sword&board toon.

DW does not give you twice as many attacks. What you get is 10% IAS and 15% Block. If you goal is to apply on-hit effects (blind) then double strike (two separate attacks @ 70% efficiency) will do it better than dual strike (one swing from each hand @ 100% efficiency, but counts as a single attack).

I stand corrected. Dual strike does not apply hit effects twice (so says the wiki anyways). Not sure about cyclone. This would need to be tested. I honestly don't know right now. Releveling is taking longer as well.

As for on-hit effects application that is largely an issue of cleave vs cyclone. Single target situations are not all that interesting here.

Here's my plan, also think I will be running dual strike with some type of melee support, multi strike or splash, but trying cyclone soon.



Here's the lower level version based on how I value nodes.


What point are you guys going for acrobatics? Right now I am level 20, have arrow dodging but planning on going to duelist area. I already have really high block chance cause using twin daggers, so i think it's 39% there, about 46% evade, and about 20% physical reduction. I've started to go to duelist area but only a couple points into it. I figured the life regen and block nodes would be nice, as well as attack speed.

Also visiting shadow area is up in the air. I gain 24% ias, 4% block, 4 good life nodes, potentially some physical damage nearby, for 13 points. I'm finding it pretty powerful use of 13 nodes, not to mention I set myself up for a large cluster of life nodes after 1 10 dex node I can use later on. I don't have any feedback on my build, but since it has become more like your guy's builds I figure you could help me out.

This here is what I think earlier on is the most beneficial use of the points.



Also the option of visiting shadow area early on if I get acrobatics early on, seems to be slightly better than working towards duelist area at first.

One question to add to that, do you guys use blood rage? I left out frenzy charges because I wasn't planning on using it. Does chaos resistance reduce the damage you get drained for from blood rage?