How can I get more survivability for this melee ranger build?

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Snorkle_uk wrote:

right so theres talk here about defences. theres so many ways to skin this cat. my frostblades ranger is pretty tanky, ill start by explaining what i did on mine. not saying this is how u should do it, but its an option.

my ranger has the equiv defences of having around 76,000 armour and 35,000 evasion without using grace or determination. i run hatred, herald of ice, precision etc.

the way that works is I have a legacy lightning coil, a taste of hate, high evasion on my hat and shield giving me 17,300 total evasion, i blind on hit and im a raider (which grants 10% more chance to evade).

taste of hate + lightning coil give a total of 70% of physical damage taken as elemental, of which you resist 75% of that damage. so thats a total of 52.5% physical damage reduction against any size of hit. Were evasion so we dont care about bursts of small phys damage attacks, we evade 80% of them, we are worried about being 1 shot by physical damage. I have 7500 life, so I can survive a physical hit of 15,000 damage. in order to survive that off the back of just having armour from the spreadsheet calc im looking at here based on the recent armour changes youre going to need about 76,000 armour.

I have 80% chance to evade, without the more chance to evade granted by raiders avatar of the chase and having blind on hit youd need about 35,000 evasion for an 80% evade chance.

so, to get 35k evasion + 76k armour without any auras simply from our gear = lightning coil, taste of hate, high evasion shield, high evasion hat, blind on hit chance, raider ascendancy.

that, imo, is how you play evasion. and it was so stupidly effective, for basically no investment your defences outstripped even a lot of heavily invested armour characters, it was so absurdly broken that they nerfed lightning coil down from 40% phys taken as lightning to 30% and nerfed taste of hate from 30% to 15%.

i see you have a 20% taste of hate right? i dunno if youve got any old coils laying around or not, with a lego coil thats 45% phys reduction. given we were looking at about 5500 life, that means you could survive a phys hit of 9,800 damage, which would take roughly 40,000 armour to replicate, give or take. thats an insane amount of phys reduction.

people used to know about this, it was meta for a while way wayyy back, its largely been forgotten about. i havent run the maths on a new coil + toh but with the old setup you had 95% chance to evade + phys reduction that beat at the time 150k armour + 75% chance to dodge + spell dodge + 7-8k life. it was so stupidly broken before they nerfed coil/toh/blind.

coil comes with -% lightning resist, queen has triple resists, so theres the catch, you need enough res on your other gear to carry the coil.

I do have an old Lightning Coil with 40% phys to light, my taste of hate is "only" 20% phys to cold and I have a few hats that can convert phys to elemental:


I know it used to be one of the best ways to mitigate physical damage, so I've been keeping it around. I've never focused on getting all the resistance gear I will need in order to compensate for the negative resist on it (not to mention the fusings needed to 6link...), so it always stayed in the stash.

I will need to get a bunch of upgrades all over the place in order to equip a Lightning Coil, but maybe it will be my late-late game goal to do the same thing as you.

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Snorkle_uk wrote:

you can go auras, you can get a chest with armour, or armour and evasion. these sort of things are in the current mod pool

youre not gonna get the same sort of defence as a coil + raider from something like that, and you wont even get the same amount of defence from wearing that AND running determination. but using that with at least determination will be more tanky than what you currently have, no doubt there.

is it worth it? would just better damage + more health actually make the build feel alright without needing any of this? i dunno m8, only you can answer that its all about how it feels to you playing it. maybe youre fine with just the queen once uve got capped spell suppression.

raider has 40% spell suppression. it helps a lot when ur trying to cap that stat.

I will try out using a rare armour based armour with the two auras, because last night I managed to get 2 very interesting options in that slot and one of them is already 6linked:


I will try to get a Syndicate reward of exalt slamming for the first one, so I can try to give it more good mods, since it has the potential to get more armour. But the second one is ready to go, so I'll test it out as soon as I can figure out how to fit Determination and Grace in the build.

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Snorkle_uk wrote:

ok, regarding losing tailwind and being slow as a result. raider has permanent onslaught with 130% increased onslaught effect, thats 100% uptime 46% movespeed and 46% attack speed. shes a zippy little critter too.

i play with 2 life flasks. i know the meta is 1 life flask, i see streamers do it, i just have always used 2 life flasks and my reactions, instincts, its all tied to 2 life flasks so i keep them as is.

technically u can get more having another utlity flask there. but then theres also those death clips of people like raizqt amd ziz etc where they have emptied their 1 life flask and are now stuck and die because they couldnt log out and had no potions in the heat of a fight. it might be once in a blue moon i actually need it but i always have 2 flasks.


most of my builds are ci with 5 util flasks tbh, but on life builds i like

99% of the time its overkill, but its just what im used to.

I'm used to 2 life flasks as well. Also there was the last time I tried to play with only 1 healing pot and I immediately died in the next map I got into, because I didn't have a second life flask like I was used to... I think back then Enduring Cry didn't even give healing over time, so maybe now it really is a great choice to go 1 instant pot + enduring cry for healing over time. It will have to take some getting used to and also having 1 more utility flask to think about will be a bit challenging, but it will be interesting to see if I can manage it eventually.

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Snorkle_uk wrote:

can you sustain off windup re: power charges.
e
heres the thing, you only have these super high levels of crit chance when you have power charges, so when you dont have them windup can get you them. really where you need power charges most is against a boss. you have assassins mark, you can use the new mark on hit support, that gives you powercharge on hit too against the marked enemy.

so with these sort of dps levels you just instagib mobs even without ur pcharges, when u dont have them windup can get you them, once you have them windup isnt great at sustaining them alone but then assassins mark will trigger on rare enemies and killing them will guarantee a pcharge which refreshes them. you can get pcharge duration on ur jewels from harvest crafts.

its not gonna be 100% pcharges all the time, but most of the time when you need them you will have them in combo with assassins mark is my experience.

Omfg! It looks like this new Mark on hit support actually is enough for mapping right now! I tested it out in a couple of maps and it looks great!
I've already removed my phys to lightning gem and I added in Ice Bite to generate charges and to get the phys to cold conversion from the tree. Now I'm lacking shock, but I'll get it back from vaal lightning trap and I don't have to self-cast my mark anymore!!!


I've also added the Nightblade support gem, but it seems a bit off to me. The crit Multi scales with elusive effecivness, but also scales down to 0% with the rest of the buff. On average it looks like it will give about 50% of the total crit multi, since it scales down back gradually, right? This kinda makes it into a gem that gives a bit less than 50% of Increased Crit strikes support + 50-ish % of Crit multi Support gem + dodge + spell dodge + movement speed. All in all it doesn't sound like it is the clear best support in terms of damage. It probably is good for one-shotting the first pack you come into contact and it should be great if you can take down a boss in half the time it takes for the elusive buff to run down, but this 6-7-8 second period of getting weaker over time makes things rather weird for me.

Do you know how PoB calculates Nightblade into its calculations for dps? Does it by chance take only the full crit multi stat that we'd get on the 1st second of the buff or does it average it out to make the calculation a bit more realistic?

ok, the onslaught veil hat is amazing and that new astral plate 6 link is also really good.

so heres what i would do given what weve got in play now, i would forget about grace. youve got 1k evasion on that hat, how much on your shield? this is what im using as my main sources of evasion...



and i have 80% chance to evade without using grace, because 10% more chance to evade with the raider ascendancy and i have an abyss jewel with blind on hit. a lot of people use grace now, and it is really strong, but i also think people have got used to discounting the fact you can actually have armour and evasion on gear and it can be enough and thats why we see so much use of grace and determination.

determination however is also crazy strong and you just dont have the armour from gear to do without it if youre gonna make armour a part of the plan.



so, use the astral and the 1k evasion hat, run determination and hatred, forget grace and just try to live with evasion from gear. so the plate, the hat and the taste of hate give you 40% of phys taken as ele, that will reduce the size of the phys hit that gets through as phys by a lot which will make you armour more effective because the small the hit, the more effective armour is against it. then youve got actual armour from the chest and determination backed up by endurance charges. thats gonna be quite a lot of phys reduction, way more than before.


that would be my advice, and then my next step would be to cap spell suppression. i think if you did those things you wouldnt even need to worry about a coil, youll probably be 75% of the way there anyway without needing to rethink every item on the build to make a coil fit in, and youve got the base crit on the chest, more life, theres benefits without the coil.


i think temjin worked out a tree where you didnt need precision right? i think hes right that you really want determination if you can fit it along side hatred. 1 defence 1 offense, i mean you can run those 2 just off the back of a lvl4 enlighten gem without any aura reservation tree nodes, something to consider.

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TemjinGold wrote:

1) I added a single Large ring Thread of Hope. I did not optimize the roll since you are budget. Do note, you are no longer res capped because Thread of Hope has some minus res, so you do need to make this up somewhere.

I might have to upgrade some pieces in order to wear this. But I can see how it can save some traveling points. I can't use it immediately, but I will try to get one for the future.

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TemjinGold wrote:

2) I added a mana reservation enchant to your hat. This should not be expensive and you can get it for either Hatred or Determination (same exact outcome). Don't get it for Grace because you already have some on the tree, which waters it down.

These enchants seem to be very expensive. Items with very weak prefixes and suffixes are offered for 2-3-5 exalts. I can't even find a good base item with one of these enchants that isn't 2ex. It looks like this will be a problem for the three auras.

I found out that the medium cluster jewels that give hatred/determination/grace reservation have been buffed. They now give 50% reservation. Maybe I will have to use one of these cluster jewels instead of the helmet enchant?
I know that it is almosti mpossible to get the enchant that you want by running the lab and I can't buy a similar helmet with one of these enchants right now.

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TemjinGold wrote:

3) I switched your amulet annoint to Panopticon. This is similar in cost to your divine wrath but significantly better.

I see! I didnt know there was a passive like this one. Seems very good for any build with a melee totem!

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TemjinGold wrote:

4) I changed your gems (disabled all your old ones and added new ones). Arcanist Brand allows you to just plop it down and continue with your business. When it attaches to something (generally the boss), it will follow that guy and automatically cast the linked spells on him/her. This is much better than you manually trying to cast those things while worrying about fighting. Leave it at Level 1 because higher level doesn't make it better (but will cost more mana). You do want to max the quality on it though (get a 1/23 if you can) because quality determines how often it casts.

That sounds like a useful little support. Mark on hit does the job right now, but I'll try to replace it with this brand as soon as possible.

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TemjinGold wrote:

5) I swapped out Phys to Lightning for Nightblade support. All I changed in Configuration is to switch on your Elusive (which activates Nightblade's damage).

I've already done this myself as well. However PoB is lying about the DPS of the build when you just turn on elusive. It counts the Crit Multiplier as if it is always at 100%, but instead it drops from 100% to 0% like the rest of the elusive buff, which means it should be counted as about 50% of the crit multi on average.

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TemjinGold wrote:

8) You were worried about losing Tailwind and feeling slow. You previously hit 5 times per second and had 59% move. You now hit 8 times per second and have 120% move without Elusive on (which should be close to never) and 172% move with maximum Elusive. I would honestly dump the quicksilver pot at this point.

Do you think that PoB calculates Tailwind properly? There is just a tick box for it and it doesn't seem to realise that Gale force gives me 150% increased Tailwind effect. Which should make it a 20% action speed buff and not 8% like it says in PoB.

I'm almost sure it doesn't calculate Intimidation properly, because when I click on the checkbox for it it doesn't change the dps numbers at all.



It is very interesting to see how much dps Life Raker and Depth Perception actually add to the build. I really have underestimated them.

I do like the bursty-ness of double damage though. It also helps with freezing bosses I think, because from time to time I can actually kill them without allowing them to move too much. I'll also keep in mind the shadow part of the tree. It definitely has some nice passives over there.

I've already respecced the bandid choice, so I have 2 more points, so I'll try to make some kind of hybrid tree between mine and yours, untill I can get a good Threaded Hope and figure out how to fit the 3 auras without the helmet enchant.

Hopefully these days I'll have a chance to play the game and level up a bit instead of only chatting about it in the forums :)))

Thank you very much for all the advice! It is much appreciated! and you've helped me catch up with a lot of new stuff that I've missed over the years!

It is really dissapointing to me that 100% reservation effeciency doesn't mean a free aura... I just tested it out and I had big hopes about this stat...

Happy to help. If the mana reservation enchants are expensive, I would honestly just farm some Uber labs. Now that they changed the font at the end to show you the enchants (and give you 3 choices of helmet enchant), it should not take long at all to get one of the ones I recommended to show up.

Regarding Arcanist Brand, you can link as many things as you have sockets to it. So it's not just Marks, but also Hexes, Frost Bomb, you name it. The brand will just keep cycling all the linked spells.

As for Tailwind even at 20% action speed, it doesn't compare to the raider. The raider without elusive or a pot on moves faster than you currently do with your quicksilver pot on. Attacks faster too. On top of that, when you get stupidly rich, you can get tailwind boots later if you really want that too.

If the elusive range bothers you, Withering Step is something people use to reset elusive. But even if you took elusive out completely, the tree I showed you still has 2x the damage as the one you had.

I do highly recommend getting into the defenses I showed you and testing that out in maps. You will be surprised at how much less damage you take and how much less often you get hit. This will more than make up for only having 1 healing pot.

I;ve just noticed that you have placed Vaal Ancestral Warchief and Ancestral Protector into the sockets. Is it possible to have both totems out at the same time??? That blows my mind!

I currently have room for a Molten Shell. Do you have it connected to Cast When Damage taken? And if so, at what level do you keep it at?

Multiple Totems Support allows you to have both non-Vaals out at once (you could already do Vaal + protector because the Vaal half ups your totem limit). I personally use non-Vaal warchief because it lasts 12 seconds base (like protector) whereas Vaal lasts 6 and needs Vaal souls. I only kept the Vaal checked because your original pob had that (to be apples to apples).

Molten Shell I put on Left-Click. Level to max. Without having Cast When Damage Taken, you are not restricted that way. Additionally, if you link it to Increased Duration (and Efficacy if you have room), it will last a LONG time (mine lasts 6 secs). On left click, it will autocast as you move every time it's off cooldown. If your mana isn't good enough to handle that, I would throw Lifetap in there too.

I managed to grab the only pig-faced hat in std that had this enchant! :D

What would be a sensible approach to try and craft this? I'm really unfamilliar with beastcrafting and harvest crafting, so my best bet would be to chaos spam and/or essence spam untill I hit something I can use with a single bench craft on top.

Thanks to the chest I don't really need too much resists, but I will still need a fire and lightning in this slot for now. Unless I wait, untill I also manage to upgrade some other slots at the same time.

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ivkoto77777 wrote:

I managed to grab the only pig-faced hat in std that had this enchant! :D

What would be a sensible approach to try and craft this? I'm really unfamilliar with beastcrafting and harvest crafting, so my best bet would be to chaos spam and/or essence spam untill I hit something I can use with a single bench craft on top.

Thanks to the chest I don't really need too much resists, but I will still need a fire and lightning in this slot for now. Unless I wait, untill I also manage to upgrade some other slots at the same time.

Anyone would like to chime in with ideas for the helmet? I kinda wasted on it 200 chaos orbs and all the relevant essences I had and it doesn't look any prettier right now.