Barrage CoC Fireball Ranger (No, not the usual, HC Viable, no Lag, Teamplayer)

Barrage CoC with Chain, fireball and Arc

Cast on Crit. Nice gem, and we have seen a lot of different variations of the build around. However, they all focus on getting killed by reflect mobs, and creating lag. I myself wanted a truly viable CoC build, so thats where i focused on. No insane fireworks, no true dps spikes. Just consistent and Tanky. Its still in progress though, but thats because Im not in maps yet with this Char. Expect it to work though.

Second disclaimer. Its not viable as a first char. You will need stuff. (which I, unfortunately, dont have much off anyways, except the skill gems)

My main Skill will be a Barrage, linked to Chain, Cast on Crit and Fireball. It will work from a 4-link on, but preferrably, you want a 6L.

The 5th slot will go to Added Chaos, which scales both on barrage and Fireball and pretty decent too. It also Combats reflect, which is important, because we are aiming for survivability.

The 6th link is more flexible. Several options are:

1. GMP/LMP: Obviously, it scales extremely well, combined with chain, and barrage. However, its really laggy. So not the option for me

2. Fire Pen: Great option, for resist packs, it also gives you a red slot, which makes it switchable for lifeleech/life gain on hit, for reflect mobs

3. Lifeleech/life gain on hit: Extremely well to combat reflect. Also combines well with blood magic, if you decide to slot in an item that gives blood magic (getting it from tree is too expensive)

4. Concentrated effect: Best inslot damage scaler, id say, because it also scales up the chaos part of the damage

5. Fork: Kind of. Rather not, the forked fireballs arent targeted, so too random

6. Power charge on Crit: Decent if you dont have decent crit rates, or want even more fireballs. I would say that from a 70% Crit chance Conc eff gives more damage though.

7. Added lightning/Added Cold: They scale worse than Conc eff, due to the fact you already have added Chaos

8. Ice Shot: Mehh, more projectiles. It does scale very strongly, but i dont know if its better than Conc. I should test how it works though. It would be a really good counter for EE maps though, so maybe cary it with you. Biggest risk is getting reflect mobs. They kill you on the crits the ice shot makes (remember, second form has probably a capped crit chance)

I am going to pick Conc effect, combined with a swapable ice shot probably. Ill try to get life gain on hit on my gear if possible, but not a main focus.

Important fact, is this skill scales pretty well against single target, best against double target though. Dominus wont be a problem at all with this setup. Also, Barrage deals an important part of the damage, so you can easily run this setup from when it becomes availlable to you. Id recommend leveling with ST or your personal leveling build though, since its just way easier. you would need at least a 30% crit chance for the setup to be decent in damage scaling, or the 5L.

My second skill, will be my main single target focussing skill:

Barrage - CoC - Ice Shot - Added Cold - Inc Crit DMg (and as a 6L: Something like Faster Proj or maybe even slower proj, just to increase ice shot damage)

It should be pretty decent against bosses without adds, so you will be able to kill them very fast without getting into danger at all.

Why Fireball instead of ice shot as a main skill? Fireball doesnt pierce. That basically

Support skills, im figuring them out still. I will run aura's:

Reduced Mana - Clarity - Haste/Grace/Determination (whatever fits) - Purity of lightning (on off, only on for lightning thorns for obvious reasons)

Im currently running another aura setup while leveling: Wrath - Clarity (and will add anger, probably, more on this on my gear section, i have a special headgear atm :) )

Then, a CwdT setup in the form of:

CwdT - Enfeeble - Molten Shell - Decoy Totem

Molten shell and Enfeeble will keep me alive in first second there, decoy will draw the mobs away after some hits (remember, he takes time to cast his taunt). Hopefully that will be enough for me to respond to dangerous situations



This will leave 1 four link open. It will probably include Lightning warp - Reduced duration - Faster Cast and Smoke mine (for opening boxes)

I might also consider running a CoC Proj Weakness setup instead, to make cursing easier, but probably not.

Cruel Skill setup:

Lvl 34 - Right before Piety kill

Passive skill tree build

First, pick up Primal Spirit - Heart of the Oak - Ballistic Mastery and work your way up to Thick skin. This route is by far most efficient to level with ST. From there, work your way through the bow nodes and go to Gymnastics. At this point you will have enough life (given the right gear, ofc) to complete normal. Now, work to Lethality, after piety, you can pick those last 2 nodes. Working towards Dominus, you can work on Deadly draw and then on to Charisma for running 2 aura's in start of cruel.

lvl 51 - Again, Piety kill just before the 2 passive points

Passive skill tree build

After you take Deadly draw and friends, go upwards, skip the aura nodes if you can pick up enough mana on your gear. Keep clarity at lvl 8ish, run wrath. Or level clarity and dont run wrath, but i recommend running it. Why? because, its extra damage. And shock. Unless, well later on that. Anyways. I love the damage i do with barrage, and your support single target dps wants it too. you will barily have enough mana to sustain your main skill, but, mana leech (even just small amounts) should be enough. And if you have enough crit chance anyways, you can even use a lvl 1 barrage for minimal mana usage. As i said, work upwards, through the life (which will be just on time) then go via the spell crit and take the crit nodes, and then the mana leech node. this will help you sustain barrage while running 2 auras. Again, if you feel fragile, dont keep your hands of the extra life nodes by the ranger, or the ones at shadow, where you are right at. after this, you really want to pick up Charisma, influence, work to bloodthirst, and pick up more life nodes. life nodes first btw, for Dominus. you want to have enough hp there :P

As I said, work in progress, so the rest of the tree progression will be posted later. This is what it will look like at lvl 76:

Passive skill tree build

Life is there, Crit chance is there. Mind drinker is to sustain your skills better, since you will still be dealing a good amount of phys damage. The rest speaks for itself. From this point, just scale your damage with all the good nodes lying within reach. Pick up projectile damage over Fire damage for obvious reasons, and the 8% att speed at the start of ranger is a good idea too. you can decide yourself when to do this. Also, dont be too fast on picking up the life circle at the ranger, since you dont immediatly need it when you can grab it. its a good idea to save picking it up for when you actually start to get low on life, so you can scale damage first. Picking up Iron reflexes or Acrobatics are two different options you can pick, or just leave those and pick up more Crit and Damage. Accuracy is within reach too, for when needed.

lvl 34 gear



Lvl 51 Gear



Really, The gear doesnt matter much yet. Look for a better bow than i have now, focussing on Crit chance. Doomfletch is a decent unique to use low lvl. Later, get a better bow.

Having Maligaro's Virtuosity is a must, id say. Later, At lvl 55, get Rat's Nest. For a chest, either a GG chest, or an infernal mantle, which gives fire damage, chaos convertion, crit chance, high ES. Sweet stuff all the way. Volls is just not good for survivability.

Also, watch for good Diamong rings, try to aim for 30% implicit rolls, combined with life on prefix and resists on suffix. Even better. Crit chance.

Pick up a Sharp-point Quiver with Crit Chance on it as suffix, to get even more Crit chance.

For the rest of the Gear, the basic demands. Life, Resist, EV/Armor, after that, Mana and Added Damage. Getting Intelligence is important in the early stage of leveling too, since you wont have picked up intelligence nodes yet.

4 times

Once due to not realizing i was bleeding

Once due to not realizing i was quad poison stacked

Dont try to facetank Wiraq (or whatever the name is of that double strike dude in the corrupted area of sceptre of god)

last time i dont remember. Probably not significant (might be another corrupted area death, i remember dying there often, should stop the bad habit. )

Anyways, nothing was due to lack of survivability. I can easily facetank the Fireform of piety, lightning form of piety, even kole for a hit or 2.

Also, dps is a bit lower than ST at this stage, though im starting to catch up. It would actually help though if I had more gear than right now..