Need help with an evasion/dodge/split arrow ranger

How do you make evasion/dodge work well-enough with a bow ranger? It seems as though it works superb with block, but once you no longer have that, survivability drops like a rock. Is it pretty much mandatory for an evasion/dodge bow build to supplement survivability through very item and build-specific combo's such as Darkray/Frenzy, and/or lightning coil? I tried frenzy and really didn't like the mechanic of building charges.

I've levelled an evasion/dodge build to 82 lately and I can run level 70 maps ok, but there are a lot of things that come consistently close to being able to murder me and I have to scamper off, regain health and kite a lot. If I can't kite melee bosses/exiles, they are close to impossible to kill, like Xandro Blooddrinker. There is also the well-known problem of physical damage spells like ethereal knives (though I have been killing the beartrap/knives exile consistently lately due to life leech).

Here's my build and my gear:





Life, with clarity on blood magic: 3358
Evasion rating without grace: 10057 (46%)
Evasion rating with grace: 16308 (56%)
Tooltip DPS of split arrow without hatred: 2650
Tooltip DPS of split arrow with hatred: 3324
Full resists, except chaos (-32%)
Dodge: 40% (30% spell)

Currently it works ok'ish, but I have neither huge dps nor huge survivability. I used to have mana issues, but 1-2% mana leech on gear solved that. I can deal with phys reflect fairly well through life leech, and as long as I can avoid enough damage I can leech life back fast enough to survive. The problems start when enemies have high damage and are accurate or require manual avoidance which is not always possible because of desync (rhoas, chimera’s).

Current flaws of this build:
- I rely a lot on Carnage Heart for life leech but it costs me in terms of overall life. However, if I drop the heart I can no longer use most red/blue gems I use and would have to get life leech elsewhere.
- I can't run two aura's and have to switch between hatred/grace depending on the situation. However, whenever I feel grace is necessary (boss fight, fast enemies, charging/jumping enemies), the added survival seems negligible and I'm still better off kiting anyway. Even with smoke mines some enemies don’t give a damn and hit constantly regardless. Perhaps I need to put split arrow on blood magic and run grace anyway? That would hurt dps a bit though.
- This is also why I run temp chains CwDT instead of enfeeble, because if something does start hitting me, kiting is often better than tanking because too many unlucky hits in a row can be fatal. Currently I use projectile weakness to kill stuff (overwritten by temp chains once something hits me so I can get away again) but perhaps I’m better off casting enfeeble pre-emptively?
- I could take more life nodes if I give up dps, but that would only mean I would have to tank more because my killing speed diminishes.

I don’t die a lot and clear easy rare 70’s like graveyard relatively fast, but the game is only going to get harder so if I don’t breeze through 70’s there’s no point in risking losing experience on harder maps yet. Anything I can do to improve survival as well as dps? I'm not rich, got 2~3 exalt if I sell some lower currencies, so huge gear improvements would be difficult. Got around 10 respec points left, and a bunch of regrets, so there's some freedom for the build.

I play a level 72 Ranger and I think your tree is solid for an evasion based Ranger. I can't give you an easy answer, and I don't know if one exists for a Ranger, but I will give you a few of my experiences that may help you.

I run Grace and Hatred at the same time with a 599 mana pool, some mana skill and reduction nodes, and 100% mana regen on gear. I don't use blood magic on any skill and run all my attacks off of about 150 left over mana. There are aura calculators out there to determine how much of everything you need to run auras.

The other thing that has helped me a lot is to use Puncture. Puncture is a great skill for kiting bosses because they take damage over time and a ton of damage if they move. I've beaten all the bosses/exiles with Puncture except for Dominus (1st Form which is a PTA) and some of the Vaal bosses (but the odds are crazy in most of those fights). Along with Puncture I throw up a Totem which will distract bosses and will block for you if you stand behind it.

Thanks for the comments, they help a lot. I only started about a month ago and there’s a lot I need to learn and just don’t know (heck I used three curses on CwDT for an hour once before I noticed they didn’t stack).

"

Panini_aux_olives wrote:

Your life is a bit lacking, you would be much better with 4k life. The culprits are of course the amulet and to a lesser extent rat's nest. You should try to replace added fire by life gain on hit, just to see how it's nice to get back the life instantly.

You should also redo your cwdt setups. Decoy totem is cool on it, as well as skeleton, enduring cry and immortal call. Some classics:
CwDT lvl 1, Enduring cry lvl 5, Decoy totem lvl 8, whatever (increase area of effect, temp chain or enfeeble lvl 5)
CwDT lvl 1, Enduring cry lvl 5, Skele, whatever (increase area of effect, temp chain or enfeeble lvl 5, blind, etc.)
CwDT leveled, Immortal call, increased duration, whatever. This is best used a second setup with the lvl 1 setup used to build charges. Immortal call is also used hard cast with increased duration, so that you can control when to use it.

As for IIR/IIQ, just use them on easy runs like Piety. For regular mapping, you should use stronger rings with more life and damage on them.

Yeah when I got the Rat's nest it cost me 300-400 health, but it boosted my dps immensely, and I love having high movement speed. Without the nest I end up doing a lot more kiting. I'm looking into getting boots with better health, because 27 is just really low.

I’ve got some LoHG gems so I’ll give that a try to see how much it’ll help.

On the cwdt setups:
I haven’t tried enduring cry yet because I thought 1 or 2 endurance charges would be close to negligible, and while it’s nice to have dmg reduction against lots of small hits which would built charges faster, it’s the big hits that are the main problem. How many charges would I be, realistically, running? If I take 1000 damage on 2 charges, that’s a reduction of 80 damage, which helps a bit but nothing grandiose.

Decoy totem or skele on cwdt looks like a really fun idea, I’ll give those a shot.

Immortal call, I have the same objection to as with enduring cry. If I’m not getting a lot of charges, I won’t benefit a lot from it, and the setup on cwdt seems counterintuitive because it relies on getting hit, whereas my survival relies on not getting hit in the first place. Regardless, I’ll give it a shot, who knows perhaps I get hit more often than I think and get a lot of charges running constantly.

And yeah, I’ve been drawn to IIR too much. I just really like the idea of getting more loot faster, I'll see if I have some better rings stored :)

"

Skywalkerfx wrote:

I play a level 72 Ranger and I think your tree is solid for an evasion based
I run Grace and Hatred at the same time with a 599 mana pool, some mana skill and reduction nodes, and 100% mana regen on gear. I don't use blood magic on any skill and run all my attacks off of about 150 left over mana. There are aura calculators out there to determine how much of everything you need to run auras.

The other thing that has helped me a lot is to use Puncture. Puncture is a great skill for kiting bosses because they take damage over time and a ton of damage if they move. I've beaten all the bosses/exiles with Puncture except for Dominus (1st Form which is a PTA) and some of the Vaal bosses (but the odds are crazy in most of those fights). Along with Puncture I throw up a Totem which will distract bosses and will block for you if you stand behind it.

I only have around 450 mana and with two aura’s on at the same time I can just barely fire a few split arrows. If it weren't for the mana leech and flasks that recharge on my crits I'd have a lot more mana problems already. But I’ve been thinking about going Charisma (15% reduction total) which I think would allow me to run two aura’s. It's only 6 points from where I'm at and worth a try, I can always switch back.

I’ve read about puncture, looks really nice for bosses I need to kite. Don’t know why I haven't tried it yet, thanks for the reminder.

I run a high damage/low life Evasion build with Lioneye's, so I pretty much plan on getting hit like a truck every once in a while. That's the main downside with Evasion/Dodge, is you *WILL* get hit sometimes, so you have to have an "oh crap" plan. I cannot tell you the number of times Immortal Call has saved me when a stray arrow hits a Reflect pack or I walk around a corner into a Rogue Exile.

Some ways to get rid of your Amulet: You have 2-3 ex worth of stuff? Why not pick up a Meginord's Girdle (to increase damage and keep your Strength items from falling off) and get a different Leech/resist amulet? It's pretty easy to craft a nice rare, and you shouldn't be getting hit enough to need that much life regain anyway.

"

Panini_aux_olives wrote:

If you want to keep rat's nets, which I understand, try to get more life on other gear pieces.
Btw, there are also players who hard cast EC, best used with fast cast then. Something like that maybe: enduring cry, immortal call, increased duration, fast cast. My guess is it will be annoying to use though.
And another useful setup: Range attack totem, Ice shot, GMP, Elemental proliferation. Combined with Temporal chain, all monsters are in slow mo.

Yeah I need to upgrade a ton of stuff; better boots especially, a 5L armour perhaps, better gloves. Better eva/life is pretty cheap, but getting the right resistances combo is a tad difficult right now. Every piece I got is a vital part of some resistance. Oh well, everyone has to deal with that.

That range totem combo looks like a ton of fun, can’t wait to try it, thanks. When I scouted the forums before for a ranger support setup all I found was molten shell stuff and that seems almost entirely useless in comparison.

"

feyith wrote:

I run a high damage/low life Evasion build with Lioneye's, so I pretty much plan on getting hit like a truck every once in a while. That's the main downside with Evasion/Dodge, is you *WILL* get hit sometimes, so you have to have an "oh crap" plan. I cannot tell you the number of times Immortal Call has saved me when a stray arrow hits a Reflect pack or I walk around a corner into a Rogue Exile.

Some ways to get rid of your Amulet: You have 2-3 ex worth of stuff? Why not pick up a Meginord's Girdle (to increase damage and keep your Strength items from falling off) and get a different Leech/resist amulet? It's pretty easy to craft a nice rare, and you shouldn't be getting hit enough to need that much life regain anyway.

Ondar’s Guile and life leech almost take care of phys reflect mobs, and I don’t even notice elemental reflect. I guess that isn’t really an option for you with a Lioneye’s. Still, true, I can switch to that amulet if I need to run a map like that instead of wearing it all the time, and just use a LGoH gem for standard play; I’ll try that.

I just threw a Meginord’s into PoE builder, and if I use it to replace my current belt and take off my amulet, I’d have about the same dps and gain roughly 100 life, and of course gain 10% more on any other future life upgrade; and all of this is without putting a different amulet in the slot, so that’s definitely a win-win situation.

I’d have to get a good resist to all amulet or cover it with some other gear, but I'll definitely start working on it. Thanks, that’s the kind of stuff that doesn’t come to my mind because I didn’t knew that belt existed, and when I look for upgrades it’s usually just +life/resist/dmg with numbers larger than my last item, and interesting stuff like that just won’t pop up. The only reason I have that amulet in the first place is because it dropped really early. I dislike how it has become a crutch so much because it disables a lot of flexibility options, and this looks like a perfect way to replace it.

Edit: Yeah this is great. That belt and a cheap placeholder amulet cost me 23 chaos total and I gained 23 dps on split arrow but, far more importantly, gained roughly 400 life so I'm running with 3864, without losing resistances. If I buy a more expensive amulet with +phys dmg once they get online I'm sure I'll get a big dps upgrade as well.

Carnage Heart has to go - Evasion/dodge builds can survive - but they survive by having a high life pool and lot's of lgoh/leech. The life cost of it is too much, and 4% life leech is a roll on normal amulets.

Here is my current build at 92:

Build

You have much more evasion, but I have more of basically everything else, including the ability to run 2x 60% auras and still use mana. Also I notice you have the pierce node taken, but use Chain. Remove the node as Pierce checks first and if it pierces, it no longer has the ability to chain.

If you replace added fire for LGOH and trade for a 4% leech ammy, you will have much more healing and more HP. And you can get some DPS on the amulet too to make up for the loss of added fire.

"

Asidra wrote:

Carnage Heart has to go - Evasion/dodge builds can survive - but they survive by having a high life pool and lot's of lgoh/leech. The life cost of it is too much, and 4% life leech is a roll on normal amulets.

Here is my current build at 92:

Build

You have much more evasion, but I have more of basically everything else, including the ability to run 2x 60% auras and still use mana. Also I notice you have the pierce node taken, but use Chain. Remove the node as Pierce checks first and if it pierces, it no longer has the ability to chain.

If you replace added fire for LGOH and trade for a 4% leech ammy, you will have much more healing and more HP. And you can get some DPS on the amulet too to make up for the loss of added fire.

I didn't know that about pierce, thanks, I'll refund it.

Two of my evasion nodes are placeholders, on the left side of Reflexes, because I was planning to take Charisma at some point but I'd rather run around with 20% more evasion and refund them later than to work towards Charisma gradually and run around with 10 int/dex for the time being.

Your build looks more balanced, and perhaps I've invested too much in evasion. Though, with 10 more levels, a refund of Pierce, the two evasion nodes and perhaps the crit multiplier nodes in the south-east, I think I could still get Charisma, Haste, Mental Acuity (could get rid of Thief's Craft and perhaps Prowess as well by then) and Conditioning. That looks like a decent enough plan for the future. I'd be missing out on some pretty sweet crit nodes north, as well as the additional 5% aura reduction, but I'd keep more evasion and +10 to all resists, which is nice as long as my gear isn't yet good enough to cover both of those areas well enough.

Edit: Heck I just realised I can get Oak Heart for the cost of 1 point if I connect to Ballistic Mastery through Oak and lose the two dex nodes south-east of Pressure Points. Those points are only there to make a connection through Frenzy nodes and I don't spec frenzy anyway.

"

Fleve wrote:

Thanks, that’s the kind of stuff that doesn’t come to my mind because I didn’t knew that belt existed, and when I look for upgrades it’s usually just +life/resist/dmg with numbers larger than my last item, and interesting stuff like that just won’t pop up. The only reason I have that amulet in the first place is because it dropped really early. I dislike how it has become a crutch so much because it disables a lot of flexibility options, and this looks like a perfect way to replace it.

Edit: Yeah this is great. That belt and a cheap placeholder amulet cost me 23 chaos total and I gained 23 dps on split arrow but, far more importantly, gained roughly 400 life so I'm running with 3864, without losing resistances. If I buy a more expensive amulet with +phys dmg once they get online I'm sure I'll get a big dps upgrade as well.

I'm glad that helped! :)

"

Fleve wrote:

with 10 more levels, a refund of Pierce, the two evasion nodes and perhaps the crit multiplier nodes in the south-east, I think I could still get Charisma, Haste, Mental Acuity (could get rid of Thief's Craft and perhaps Prowess as well by then) and Conditioning. That looks like a decent enough plan for the future. I'd be missing out on some pretty sweet crit nodes north, as well as the additional 5% aura reduction, but I'd keep more evasion and +10 to all resists, which is nice as long as my gear isn't yet good enough to cover both of those areas well enough.

How's this? Since you said you don't use Frenzy, I rerouted your tree to pick up all of the things you mentioned plus a nearby +8 all resists/Evasion node. No reason to wait 10 levels. :)


It's kind of an upside-down version of my tree. Have you tried Puncture for those melee bosses? Since you're investing so much toward crit, how would you feel about a CoC build? Also, you can just manually dodge spells by moving your character out of the way. That's what I do instead of Phase Acrobatics. 5 free points! :)