My First Archer! Helpful Crit-icism Wanted...

I'm currently working on making a Shadow Archer Build.

I understand crit damage and trying to incorporate some blood magic with some things... ultimately I run into just a few issues but overall I think i'm on the right track.



SHADOW LEVEL 53

SKILL TREE:



CURRENT ITEMS:
Chest -



This is the only gear, at my current level, that has 5 links and it boosts my ES pretty well. I honestly went for the best color socket combination I could considering it hates rolling greens. Armor is OK, for this level, tho as an Evasion character, it's not necessary at the moment.


Helm -



This is also one of the few helms I own at the moment that gives me good life. Also strength since I'm weak there and would like to run some higher level red gems.


Boots -



These are weak ass pussy boots... Hoping to find something better. Soon...


Jewelery -



This was a balance of Mana Regen, Life and Strength. I have some rings that are better than this, but my mana regen is terrible...



Belt -



This is a good belt.


Gloves -



Pretty good gloves, like the basic resists and magic find. Could def do better, but they're like crack and are addicting.


WEAPON -



This is literally the best bow I have, it's very low DPS but on cruel difficulty it's not that bad. I know I can do better, just waiting for a good drop. I have Storm Cloud, but bc there's no Phys Dmg, fuck that.


QUIVER (of POO) -



This is a quiver that i've had for some time. Given my skill choices below it befits some of the shots I use. Otherwise it's kind of a useless quiver in terms of others I could be using.



GAMEPLAN:

Skills I use are (and would like to be):
- Fire Arrow (recently plugged this in and found it's damage potential, probably also due to the quiver)
- Lightning Arrow (working on gather crit nodes now, and this is a mana hungry skill... it's hard to boost it's DPS without having to boost my mana regen)
- Frenzy - This is one I don't have linked atm as i'm still trying out builds... hence the frenzy nodes in the tree. It's eventually going to be in here, just not at the present moment. Actually the extra speed is sort of killing my mana.

For Auras...

I use Discipline to give my ES around 1300 and I run Clarity to boost my Mana Regen (this one's using blood magic and I am staying the level, aka not leveling it up atm).

I would love to run A damage boosting Aura, just don't know if I can spare the ES or Mana Regen (def not the mana regen).


As far as everything else goes, he's just being built as an eventual Crit/Bow character and I fell in love with lightning arrow so I'm hoping there's someone who can assist in gem combinations for that and any other skill that could be useful.


I hope i'm going down the right path generally... as I tried to make the trip down the tree as efficient so as to open everything I need/want up for eventual fills during progression.

Thanks!
-- A

Forgot I also like Barrage as well, it's grown on me and it works fairly well in close quarter combat.

I do use Flammability as my base curse (considering all the fire dmg to begin with) and a Rejuvenation Totem + CoDT to distract enemies and to heal thyself.

When using an archer character be sure to equip a bow and have a bunch of arrows handy.

Shoot bad guys with your arrows.

Make sure the arrows have the pointy end facing away from you.

Try to have a rehearsed quip to greet your enemies with, such as: You can run, probably much faster than I.

Try to get the look right as well. It should be law for all archers to wear tights.

Then it's just a matter of click, loot, repeat.

Best of luck and may your arrows always fly true.

I probably know little since I've only played my bow ranger only through the three acts once, so you can probably tell me more but my questions are;

Why the mix of armour, evasion and magic shield?
FWIW, mine is totally evasion(forum reading).

So far, the best body item (highest evasion)I've picked up is a thief garb(nearly 300) and wolf pelt for head gear.
I've also managed to pick up a +3000 evasion bottle and if you're fast enough running away, that should keep you alive and allow you to refresh and return..

What are your mouse links? and your actions keys(QWERT)?
Mine are L:default, R:split(linked to flame gem) and M: rain of arrows.
Q: is etheral knives & T: is Artic armour linked to added cold damage(drains mana)
W,E,R swapp around poison. lightning, burning arrows, various totems/decoys and traps as I feel like it.

Stuff like belts and rings, I look for mana & health regen generally

Archers suck, roll something else (unless ur uber rich and got voltaxic or lioneyes)

The general Crit Nodes are MUCH better than many of the crit nodes you picked up.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYABbUM8g5IEHsRLxGWFr8eGiLqJpUqWysKL28wfDY9OdRNklBCUUdVS1_hYeJirGskbXtv8nBScLt1in8rh9uIa4w2jX2Nv5XpmZqdo52qoJ-iLqXLpzSqf6q4tMW1SLb3vjrBAM3q0hnUBdaK1p3W0dkT2xrjhOd06NbrFOtj8ELz6vVL_Kv_kw==

That is a tree that doesn't pick up the trash nodes, and takes the decent ones

It looks like you are trying to go hybrid. I think hybrid isn't too bad, and since you are going high dps no leech it might work out really well.

About your skills, Lightning Arrow probably won't work out well for you for a couple reasons:

1) You will need mana leech to be able to spam the ability
2) It requires a lot of links if you want it to excel (considering you don't need Life Gain, it actually may be doable, we'll see).

Overall you don't seem to be i ntoo bad of a spot, I'd say sell that 5l and buy a better rolled chest, preferably 4l. Get lots of life if you can, ES secondary. I wouldn't recommend a hybrid build for a new players though, the amount of nodes it takes compared to pure life is pretty high. Resistances are a must. For rings focus on Life and resists. Don't use Coral rings unless they have 60+ life and medium to high resistances (at least 2 20+)

Make sure you utilize Granite flasks.

I also have a great thicket bow sitting around on Standard, I suppose I could give it to you if you want me to, but it might ruin the experience of you earning the bow.

There's also the option of running proliferation instead of faster attack on your burn arrow for aoe and less mana problems.

Barrage isn't really all that great damage wise without a decent amount of increased attack speed, but i guess thats really a personal choice.

Another option would be frenzy as you said.

To run blood magic you'd really would need leech, rejuv just won't cut it.
Instead of the blood magic gem why not mana leech gem? In which case you can probably take clarity off and run a damage aura like you said you wanted as well.

If you want to use lightning arrow with your burn arrow, consider using elemental weakness instead of flamability. Might also want to run a defensive curse.

Now I'm play an archer and made him like this.

If you need some mana regen, just take Mind Drinker for some leech. It really help for leveling.
If you are going into EV mb try something like Bronn's Lithe

"

woodyfly wrote:

Archers suck, roll something else (unless ur uber rich and got voltaxic or lioneyes)

None of these 2 bows are even decent.
Voltaxic is 'easy', and that's it.

You can deal way way higher damage with a decent enough rare, not even talking about mirrored ones.