space_loner
26-09-2004, 17:55
Index
Introduction
Skill Distribution:
-holy shock variants
-physical variants
-other variants
Statistic Distribution
Equipment
-weapon
-gloves
-belt
-armor
-helm
-belt
-boots
-jewelry
-charms
Mercenary
Playing Strategies
Conclusion
Introduction
Since the beginning of Diablo II, paladins have always used bows and crossbows more than any other class, save for the amazons. This is because many paladin auras work in conjunction with range weapons.
Although Rangers have always been a minor build that is much weaker compared to Liberaters, Crusadors, Vanguards/Vindicators, Templars and Avengers, they have had their glory during v1.08-09. Those were the days when eth-bows, 100%+ faster run/walk and an insanely high slvl in holy freeze and conviction (aura stacking!) made Rangers the ultimate pvp melee killers.
In version 1.10, however, this build is hardly seen anymore. I hope my guide can popularize it again.
This is going to be a lengthy guide, please bare with me.
Skill Distribution
There are many ways to make a ranger. With synergies, lots of skills that used to be worthless gained in power. Here are some effective skill distributon possibilities.
I listed a good number of holy shock variants because holy shock is, in v1.10, the biggest and only notable advantage a ranger can have over a bowazon. Tesladins (Shockadins) nowadays are known to reach damage with 20k max or higher. It is true that holy shock has a low mininum damage (close to one, in fact) but its overall average is decent. In older versions, people would prefer to use holy freeze for the slow effect, today it remains a very decent choice, and holy freeze, too, can have up to a 8k average when godly eq is available.
1. Holy Shock Variants
a) Shock Ranger
20 Holy Shock
20 Resist Lightning
20 Salvation
20 Blessed Aim
10 Redemption
Overall: 7
Damage: 9
Flexibility: 5
PvM: 7
PvP: 5
Gear Req: 10 (note that this means the LEAST amount of good gear is required for effectiveness)
b) Light Hunter
20 Holy Shock
20 Resist Lightning
20 Conviction
20 Fist of Heavens
10 Salvation
Overall: 8
Damage: 8
Flexibility: 6
PvM: 7
PvP: 8
Gear Req: 8
c) Frost Shock Ranger
20 Holy Shock
20 Holy Freeze
20 Resist Lightning
15-20 Salvation
10-15 Resist Cold
Overall: 8
Damage: 7
Flexibility: 10
PvM: 7
PvP: 6
Gear Req: 9.5
These builds all focus on lightning damage. Fully synergized, holy shock adds about 1-7000 damage at slvl 30.
2. Physical Variants
a) Charge Ranger
20 Fanatism
20 Charge
20 Vigor
20 Might
10 Blessed Aim
Overall: 9
Damage: 8
Flexibility: 8
PvM: 6
PvP: 9
Gear Req: 7
b) Hammer Hunter
20 Concentration
20 Vigor
20 Blessed Aim
20 Blessed Hammer
10 Redemption
Overall: 8
Damage: 9
Flexibility: 6
PvM: 7
PvP: 8
Gear Req: 6
c) Frost Fanatic
20 Holy Freeze
20 Resist Cold
20 Salvation
20 Fanatism
10 Blessed Aim
Overall: 8.5
Damage: 8
Flexibility: 10
PvM: 8
PvP: 7
Gear Req: 9
These builds require a bow with good damage to be coupled with fanatism/concentration. Blessed aim is used for the passive AR bonus. A switch weapon is also needed for casting hammers or charging.
3. Other Variants
a) Clerical Ranger
20 Prayer
20 Holy Bolt
15 Holy Shock / Holy Freeze
15 Conviction / Salvation
20 Fist of Heavens / Resist Lightning / Resist Cold
1 Meditation
Overall: 7
Damage: 5
Flexibility: 10
PvM: 6
PvP: 6
Gear Req: 10
b) Tomb Raider
20 Sanctuary
20 Cleansing
20 Holy Bolt
15 Blessed Hammer
15 Fist of Heavens
Overall: 7
Damage: 9
Flexibility: 5
PvM: 8
PvP: 5
Gear Req: 9
As you can see, there are a lot of variants to the Ranger. However, many use the bow as a secondary attack and on switch. I have personally played the Light Hunter, Charge Raner, Frost Fanatic and Clerical Ranger. I will relate my experiences with those.
Statistic Distribution
Strength: Much as required for gear. This stat is higher for Physical Variant Rangers.
Dexterity: I like to pump this for AR. Some might argue that an ITD bow would solve the problem, but seeing as I see rangers as useful for PvP, I tend to have at least 150 dex anyways. If you don't care about weapon damage, you could use a 4 x eth bow. Dex is also the damage bonus for bows, and so the more you have the higher your physical damage.
Vitality: The rest of your points goes here, you need both life and stamina for all the running you'd be doing. For a stat Ranger (only for serious Rangers!), enigma armor and eth bow would mean you can spend every single point in vitality for 1k+ base life!
Energy: Not one blasted point, not one! Even if you chain cast FoH, one point in meditation will compensate your mana.
Equipment
Finally, the section where rangers truly differ from other builds. For equipment, we are trying to achieve the following:
1. As much run/walk as possible, 100 is a good goal.
2. At least 75 resist all in hell, if you get hit, chances are it would be from a ranged attack, and most ranged attacks are elemental.
3. Ability to solo hell alone, this shouldn't be too hard at all, any build can achieve it.
4. Crushing blow is nice, but don't sacrifice other mods for it since with bows it works at 1/2 its usual effect.
5. Increase to skill can really help a lot
6. If you can get 25% life leach, you'd be god.
Crushing Blow, Open Wounds, Deadly Strike:
Crushing Blow, coupled with a bow, deals 1/8 the life of a normal monster, 1/16 of a boss monster and 1/20 in PvP. Although its half as effective as melee, it can still rapidly reduce monsters with a lot of life points, and will help indefinitely against things such as uber diablo.
Open Wounds:
Open Wounds will drain a certain amount of life for 8 seconds, depending on the level of the attacker, following the formula.
Level 1-15: (9*Level+31)/256
Level 16-30: (18*Level-64)/256
Level 31-45: (27*Level-374)/256
Level 46-60: (36*Level-779)/256
Level 61-99: (45*Level-1319)/256
Per frame, multiply this number by 25 for damage per second, and by 8 again for total damage. Note that open wounds also prevents healing, (so, again, superb for Dclone killing)
For example, at lvl 75, open wounds does (45*75-1319)/256 about 8 damage per frame, 200 damage per second and 1600 damage overall. Open wounds, unlike poison, can not be resisted very well, and is awesome for pvp.
Deadly Strike, of course, multiplies PHYSICAL damage by two, for physical variants, a good percentage in deadly strike can devestate enemies twice as fast. High lord's wrath is probably the best source of deadly strike in the game.
Paladin Fastest Hit Recovery:
0% fhr - 9 frames
7% fhr - 8 frames
15% fhr - 7 frames
27% fhr - 6 frames
48% fhr - 5 frames
86% fhr - 4 frames
200% fhr - 3 frames
for when using a bow.
Thank you Ragnarod.
Enchant:
Simply the best charge skill for you. There are 5 general sources you can get this. At lvl 10, it gives you a nice 101% boost to AR, which can save you many a time. 1. Lava Gouts, the best gloves ever for this purpose. 2. The Demon Limb, which has enchant charges. 3. The Todesfaelle Flamme, cheaper than Demon Limb and just as good. 4. Magical staves, some have charges to a lot of stuff. 5. Sorceresses! not much that play on b.net nowadays have invested heavily in enchant, but those that have can make you immortal.
Weapon
Bow:
You need very fast attack speed for your bows. Breath of the Dying and Windforce are powerful choices for physical damage rangers, but a 6 socket bow can last a long time for holy shockers. Suggestions for socketing are eth runes, shael runes, cheap facets and pgems. (or, if you are more boss, perfect facets, ums, ohms and so on)
Also, look for bows that shoots magic or exploding arrows, as well as those that pierces, since you will need these mods to give you the ability to attack more than one target at once. I especially recommend Widowmaker, which happens to grant guided arrows, I think its this one ability that can, at times, put paladins totally above bowazons (since we stole their best attack). Guided arrows that does NOT miss (widowmaker has ITD, as well), tracks and in PvP is just godly.
Witchwild string with deadly strike is worth considering, and Wizendraw is decent for holy freezers (in the real game, it has -15% enemy cold resistance, which is for some reason not listed in the diabloii.net items.)
For low lvls, Vidala's set is worth considering, and Skystrike can boast some decent damage.
For charging, a cruel berserker axe works nicely, as well as anything with decent damage and range 3. I recommend rune words such as Famine, Breath of the Dying, Fury and such like for max possible damage, and a good rare can in fact spawn with higher damage than any of those. Anything from magic priest scepters to Hoto can work for hammers and holy bolts, a good source of FcR is welcome here and for the purpose we can take the 50% available in suicide branch and wizardspike (which also has nice mana and resistances)
Gloves
There aren't that many good uniques for you other than Lava Gouts, which gives 20% IAS and 5% to cast Enchant, though Hellmouths has some interesting mods.
The set gloves should probably be your choice. Cleglaw's pincers have knockback, which is useful for crowd control.
For IAS purposes, look into Sigon's gloves, which gives 30% with any other piece. Laying of Hands is just godly with 20% IA and fire resistance. A nice pair of rare gloves can spawn with IAS, stats and lots of lovely resistances. For different variants, try to craft different gloves. Blood Gloves, as well as many other Blood Items (such as rings) can help the physical variants, while clerics and Fohers might want Caster Items.
Armor
The best armor of all times for the Ranger is the Enigma Runeword. Not only would it solve all your strength problems, but its run/walk is the highest of all armors. The skill levels, magic find and teleport is just gravy.
For those unable to afford enigma, the Stealth runeword and Trang's armor also have r/w. Duriel's Shell is good for CBF mod, and a nice Skin of Viper Magi really shines with resist and skill level. The Smoke and Lionheart runewords are also decent end-game choices.
For low levels, stealth will help a lot, rares or vidala armor will do, as well. Sigons Armor might be used if you are interested in the whole set, and the same is true for the Disciple set armor (I've actually used disciple set many times with my rangers, its cheap, gives about 75% prismatic and +3 skills overall, and brings some very neat gloves and belt)
A unique or set with lots of sockets is pretty cool as well, notable ones are Black Hades and Grisworld's Heart.
Like as for bowazons, Duress is one of the single best rune word armor.
Helm
For skill points, Andariel's Visage, Shako and rare circlets all have +2. Nightwing's is especially good for holy freeze users. Valkyrie Wing has some lovely r/w, and Delerium offers crazy crowd control, I don't think the stygian doll can shoot arrows, though.
Peasant Crown, Crown of Thieves, the Undead Crown, and the Crown of Ages (wow am I obsessed with crowns or am I obsessed with crowns) offers dex, leach, +skill, stats and resists, and are pretty good headwear as far as crowns go. Gryphon's Eye unique ladder diadam is most obviously THE helm for holy shockers, or at least those that can afford it.
For low lvls, Rockstopper presents DR and resists. A marshal's (+3 offensive aura) circlet can increase holy shock damage by a lot (about 750 to max, when fully synergized).
Belt
Some decent choices are Verdungo's for life, String of Ears for leech and Thunder God's for duel stat as well as light absorb. Nefesratu's Coil is always sweet.
You can also look into the Orphan's Call set belt Wilhelm's Pride for dual leech, and M'avinas Tenet for 20% r/w. The Disciple set belt Credendum gives stats as well as prismatic, making it in fact one of the best belts around. Bladebuckle is not shabby either.
Sigon's can work well with gloves and other pieces, and its very sweet to have 16 potion slots at lvl 7 or so.
Boots
Sander's Paradox, Aldur's Advance, Natalya's Soul Spur and Immortal King's Pillars (I recalled all these names from my memory :)!) all have 40% r/w, so we should probably use one of those. However, Tearhaunch gives a nice bonus to vigor and War Travellers gives increased damage as well as MF.
Gore Riders is a fascinating boot with Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike AND Open Wounds, and Waterwalk offers life as well as dex. Silkweaves and Marrowalk are nice spellcaster boots (but marrowalk's price has been increased indcently due to the bug that involves it and bone necros)
Use whatever you can get your hands on.
Rings
Raven frost has AR, Dex, cold absorb AND Cannot Be Frozen! A perfect one probably beats anthing else. However, Bul-Kathos and Carrion Wind has nice life leech, and a duel leech rare can help immensely. Magical ones with resistances, fast cast rate and half freeze duration are also helpful. Two angelic rings and one amulet can give lots and lots of AR at high levels.
Amulet
Highlord's Wrath has skill level and deadly strike, a cat's eye can give you r/w (and both have IAS, which is why you would want them) Maras is probably better than everything else for all classes save for a godly rare/crafted.
Otherwise, look for +1 rares, Marshal's for holy shock damage, and ones with leech. Rares with prismatic, +1, some stats and MF if you are lucky is not very hard to find at all.
Charms
Look for charms with life, r/w and resists. A captain's (+1 offensive aura) grand charm is great for holy shock variants. A charm with cold damage can slow enemies if you dont have any other source of cold. Annihilus with 15+/18+/x is great, and Gheed's Fortune helps as well as other mf charms.
Mercenary
You will probably want your merc to tank, so go for an act 5 barbarian with Vampire Gaze and Shaftstop. Act two mercs with blessed aim, holy freeze and might can all help you indefinitely, even defiance is not too shabby.
As for mercenary weapons, any elite unique sword has decent damage, I doubt most of you would be able to afford a Grandfather's or BotD eth CB. Duel Azurewrath can help Tomb Raider Rangers to further slaughter the Undead.
Act 2 mercenaries can use to great effect a rare polearm, or a cruel one with some nice ed jewels/runes socketed. A Doom runeword polearm can provide holy freeze to a mercenary that stacks with his blessed aim, might or defiance.
Playing Strategies
In act 1, you can play like any other class, since any build can start out using bows. You will probably need to pump dex to keep up your accuracy. From act 2 on, people will start laughing at you. A Skystrike under lvl 30 can really cut enemies to pieces. In baal runs and cow runs, grab some nice trade items. Chipped gmes can get you some good newbie gears if you have a lot of them.
Charge Rangers have an easier time than most here since they can max might. The other variants would have to wait for lvl 18 (concentration), lvl 24 (holy shock) or lvl 30 (fanatism).
By lvl 45, builds should start to vary. The physical rangers, light hunters and clerical rangers are all considered somewhat party friendly with concentration, fanatism, conviction and meditation/holy bolt. Try to group up throughtout nightmare.
During the nm baal runs, you should have most of your items updated to prepare for hell. Wait until at least lvl 70 before entering hell. You would not be a very godly char, (though holy shock can reach over 7k average and BotD with fanatism will also bring about a ton of firepower) but if you have a Barbarian, Javazon or Zealot tanking for you, you shouldn't die too often.
Conclusion
The Ranger is a fairly viable build that plays by "hid and run" method. They are very fun to try and can deal a half-decent blow.
Rangers, along with many other builds, are thought to have been made extinct by v1.10 patch, I hope my guide would revive them.
I'll try to add a PvP patch to this some time soon.
Thx to contributions by:
wvx_leader_returns
astral_pvp
wangboBW
Phadech
and GiasEmbrace (notice i've changed it to 4xeth)
Have fun all.
Introduction
Skill Distribution:
-holy shock variants
-physical variants
-other variants
Statistic Distribution
Equipment
-weapon
-gloves
-belt
-armor
-helm
-belt
-boots
-jewelry
-charms
Mercenary
Playing Strategies
Conclusion
Introduction
Since the beginning of Diablo II, paladins have always used bows and crossbows more than any other class, save for the amazons. This is because many paladin auras work in conjunction with range weapons.
Although Rangers have always been a minor build that is much weaker compared to Liberaters, Crusadors, Vanguards/Vindicators, Templars and Avengers, they have had their glory during v1.08-09. Those were the days when eth-bows, 100%+ faster run/walk and an insanely high slvl in holy freeze and conviction (aura stacking!) made Rangers the ultimate pvp melee killers.
In version 1.10, however, this build is hardly seen anymore. I hope my guide can popularize it again.
This is going to be a lengthy guide, please bare with me.
Skill Distribution
There are many ways to make a ranger. With synergies, lots of skills that used to be worthless gained in power. Here are some effective skill distributon possibilities.
I listed a good number of holy shock variants because holy shock is, in v1.10, the biggest and only notable advantage a ranger can have over a bowazon. Tesladins (Shockadins) nowadays are known to reach damage with 20k max or higher. It is true that holy shock has a low mininum damage (close to one, in fact) but its overall average is decent. In older versions, people would prefer to use holy freeze for the slow effect, today it remains a very decent choice, and holy freeze, too, can have up to a 8k average when godly eq is available.
1. Holy Shock Variants
a) Shock Ranger
20 Holy Shock
20 Resist Lightning
20 Salvation
20 Blessed Aim
10 Redemption
Overall: 7
Damage: 9
Flexibility: 5
PvM: 7
PvP: 5
Gear Req: 10 (note that this means the LEAST amount of good gear is required for effectiveness)
b) Light Hunter
20 Holy Shock
20 Resist Lightning
20 Conviction
20 Fist of Heavens
10 Salvation
Overall: 8
Damage: 8
Flexibility: 6
PvM: 7
PvP: 8
Gear Req: 8
c) Frost Shock Ranger
20 Holy Shock
20 Holy Freeze
20 Resist Lightning
15-20 Salvation
10-15 Resist Cold
Overall: 8
Damage: 7
Flexibility: 10
PvM: 7
PvP: 6
Gear Req: 9.5
These builds all focus on lightning damage. Fully synergized, holy shock adds about 1-7000 damage at slvl 30.
2. Physical Variants
a) Charge Ranger
20 Fanatism
20 Charge
20 Vigor
20 Might
10 Blessed Aim
Overall: 9
Damage: 8
Flexibility: 8
PvM: 6
PvP: 9
Gear Req: 7
b) Hammer Hunter
20 Concentration
20 Vigor
20 Blessed Aim
20 Blessed Hammer
10 Redemption
Overall: 8
Damage: 9
Flexibility: 6
PvM: 7
PvP: 8
Gear Req: 6
c) Frost Fanatic
20 Holy Freeze
20 Resist Cold
20 Salvation
20 Fanatism
10 Blessed Aim
Overall: 8.5
Damage: 8
Flexibility: 10
PvM: 8
PvP: 7
Gear Req: 9
These builds require a bow with good damage to be coupled with fanatism/concentration. Blessed aim is used for the passive AR bonus. A switch weapon is also needed for casting hammers or charging.
3. Other Variants
a) Clerical Ranger
20 Prayer
20 Holy Bolt
15 Holy Shock / Holy Freeze
15 Conviction / Salvation
20 Fist of Heavens / Resist Lightning / Resist Cold
1 Meditation
Overall: 7
Damage: 5
Flexibility: 10
PvM: 6
PvP: 6
Gear Req: 10
b) Tomb Raider
20 Sanctuary
20 Cleansing
20 Holy Bolt
15 Blessed Hammer
15 Fist of Heavens
Overall: 7
Damage: 9
Flexibility: 5
PvM: 8
PvP: 5
Gear Req: 9
As you can see, there are a lot of variants to the Ranger. However, many use the bow as a secondary attack and on switch. I have personally played the Light Hunter, Charge Raner, Frost Fanatic and Clerical Ranger. I will relate my experiences with those.
Statistic Distribution
Strength: Much as required for gear. This stat is higher for Physical Variant Rangers.
Dexterity: I like to pump this for AR. Some might argue that an ITD bow would solve the problem, but seeing as I see rangers as useful for PvP, I tend to have at least 150 dex anyways. If you don't care about weapon damage, you could use a 4 x eth bow. Dex is also the damage bonus for bows, and so the more you have the higher your physical damage.
Vitality: The rest of your points goes here, you need both life and stamina for all the running you'd be doing. For a stat Ranger (only for serious Rangers!), enigma armor and eth bow would mean you can spend every single point in vitality for 1k+ base life!
Energy: Not one blasted point, not one! Even if you chain cast FoH, one point in meditation will compensate your mana.
Equipment
Finally, the section where rangers truly differ from other builds. For equipment, we are trying to achieve the following:
1. As much run/walk as possible, 100 is a good goal.
2. At least 75 resist all in hell, if you get hit, chances are it would be from a ranged attack, and most ranged attacks are elemental.
3. Ability to solo hell alone, this shouldn't be too hard at all, any build can achieve it.
4. Crushing blow is nice, but don't sacrifice other mods for it since with bows it works at 1/2 its usual effect.
5. Increase to skill can really help a lot
6. If you can get 25% life leach, you'd be god.
Crushing Blow, Open Wounds, Deadly Strike:
Crushing Blow, coupled with a bow, deals 1/8 the life of a normal monster, 1/16 of a boss monster and 1/20 in PvP. Although its half as effective as melee, it can still rapidly reduce monsters with a lot of life points, and will help indefinitely against things such as uber diablo.
Open Wounds:
Open Wounds will drain a certain amount of life for 8 seconds, depending on the level of the attacker, following the formula.
Level 1-15: (9*Level+31)/256
Level 16-30: (18*Level-64)/256
Level 31-45: (27*Level-374)/256
Level 46-60: (36*Level-779)/256
Level 61-99: (45*Level-1319)/256
Per frame, multiply this number by 25 for damage per second, and by 8 again for total damage. Note that open wounds also prevents healing, (so, again, superb for Dclone killing)
For example, at lvl 75, open wounds does (45*75-1319)/256 about 8 damage per frame, 200 damage per second and 1600 damage overall. Open wounds, unlike poison, can not be resisted very well, and is awesome for pvp.
Deadly Strike, of course, multiplies PHYSICAL damage by two, for physical variants, a good percentage in deadly strike can devestate enemies twice as fast. High lord's wrath is probably the best source of deadly strike in the game.
Paladin Fastest Hit Recovery:
0% fhr - 9 frames
7% fhr - 8 frames
15% fhr - 7 frames
27% fhr - 6 frames
48% fhr - 5 frames
86% fhr - 4 frames
200% fhr - 3 frames
for when using a bow.
Thank you Ragnarod.
Enchant:
Simply the best charge skill for you. There are 5 general sources you can get this. At lvl 10, it gives you a nice 101% boost to AR, which can save you many a time. 1. Lava Gouts, the best gloves ever for this purpose. 2. The Demon Limb, which has enchant charges. 3. The Todesfaelle Flamme, cheaper than Demon Limb and just as good. 4. Magical staves, some have charges to a lot of stuff. 5. Sorceresses! not much that play on b.net nowadays have invested heavily in enchant, but those that have can make you immortal.
Weapon
Bow:
You need very fast attack speed for your bows. Breath of the Dying and Windforce are powerful choices for physical damage rangers, but a 6 socket bow can last a long time for holy shockers. Suggestions for socketing are eth runes, shael runes, cheap facets and pgems. (or, if you are more boss, perfect facets, ums, ohms and so on)
Also, look for bows that shoots magic or exploding arrows, as well as those that pierces, since you will need these mods to give you the ability to attack more than one target at once. I especially recommend Widowmaker, which happens to grant guided arrows, I think its this one ability that can, at times, put paladins totally above bowazons (since we stole their best attack). Guided arrows that does NOT miss (widowmaker has ITD, as well), tracks and in PvP is just godly.
Witchwild string with deadly strike is worth considering, and Wizendraw is decent for holy freezers (in the real game, it has -15% enemy cold resistance, which is for some reason not listed in the diabloii.net items.)
For low lvls, Vidala's set is worth considering, and Skystrike can boast some decent damage.
For charging, a cruel berserker axe works nicely, as well as anything with decent damage and range 3. I recommend rune words such as Famine, Breath of the Dying, Fury and such like for max possible damage, and a good rare can in fact spawn with higher damage than any of those. Anything from magic priest scepters to Hoto can work for hammers and holy bolts, a good source of FcR is welcome here and for the purpose we can take the 50% available in suicide branch and wizardspike (which also has nice mana and resistances)
Gloves
There aren't that many good uniques for you other than Lava Gouts, which gives 20% IAS and 5% to cast Enchant, though Hellmouths has some interesting mods.
The set gloves should probably be your choice. Cleglaw's pincers have knockback, which is useful for crowd control.
For IAS purposes, look into Sigon's gloves, which gives 30% with any other piece. Laying of Hands is just godly with 20% IA and fire resistance. A nice pair of rare gloves can spawn with IAS, stats and lots of lovely resistances. For different variants, try to craft different gloves. Blood Gloves, as well as many other Blood Items (such as rings) can help the physical variants, while clerics and Fohers might want Caster Items.
Armor
The best armor of all times for the Ranger is the Enigma Runeword. Not only would it solve all your strength problems, but its run/walk is the highest of all armors. The skill levels, magic find and teleport is just gravy.
For those unable to afford enigma, the Stealth runeword and Trang's armor also have r/w. Duriel's Shell is good for CBF mod, and a nice Skin of Viper Magi really shines with resist and skill level. The Smoke and Lionheart runewords are also decent end-game choices.
For low levels, stealth will help a lot, rares or vidala armor will do, as well. Sigons Armor might be used if you are interested in the whole set, and the same is true for the Disciple set armor (I've actually used disciple set many times with my rangers, its cheap, gives about 75% prismatic and +3 skills overall, and brings some very neat gloves and belt)
A unique or set with lots of sockets is pretty cool as well, notable ones are Black Hades and Grisworld's Heart.
Like as for bowazons, Duress is one of the single best rune word armor.
Helm
For skill points, Andariel's Visage, Shako and rare circlets all have +2. Nightwing's is especially good for holy freeze users. Valkyrie Wing has some lovely r/w, and Delerium offers crazy crowd control, I don't think the stygian doll can shoot arrows, though.
Peasant Crown, Crown of Thieves, the Undead Crown, and the Crown of Ages (wow am I obsessed with crowns or am I obsessed with crowns) offers dex, leach, +skill, stats and resists, and are pretty good headwear as far as crowns go. Gryphon's Eye unique ladder diadam is most obviously THE helm for holy shockers, or at least those that can afford it.
For low lvls, Rockstopper presents DR and resists. A marshal's (+3 offensive aura) circlet can increase holy shock damage by a lot (about 750 to max, when fully synergized).
Belt
Some decent choices are Verdungo's for life, String of Ears for leech and Thunder God's for duel stat as well as light absorb. Nefesratu's Coil is always sweet.
You can also look into the Orphan's Call set belt Wilhelm's Pride for dual leech, and M'avinas Tenet for 20% r/w. The Disciple set belt Credendum gives stats as well as prismatic, making it in fact one of the best belts around. Bladebuckle is not shabby either.
Sigon's can work well with gloves and other pieces, and its very sweet to have 16 potion slots at lvl 7 or so.
Boots
Sander's Paradox, Aldur's Advance, Natalya's Soul Spur and Immortal King's Pillars (I recalled all these names from my memory :)!) all have 40% r/w, so we should probably use one of those. However, Tearhaunch gives a nice bonus to vigor and War Travellers gives increased damage as well as MF.
Gore Riders is a fascinating boot with Crushing Blow, Deadly Strike AND Open Wounds, and Waterwalk offers life as well as dex. Silkweaves and Marrowalk are nice spellcaster boots (but marrowalk's price has been increased indcently due to the bug that involves it and bone necros)
Use whatever you can get your hands on.
Rings
Raven frost has AR, Dex, cold absorb AND Cannot Be Frozen! A perfect one probably beats anthing else. However, Bul-Kathos and Carrion Wind has nice life leech, and a duel leech rare can help immensely. Magical ones with resistances, fast cast rate and half freeze duration are also helpful. Two angelic rings and one amulet can give lots and lots of AR at high levels.
Amulet
Highlord's Wrath has skill level and deadly strike, a cat's eye can give you r/w (and both have IAS, which is why you would want them) Maras is probably better than everything else for all classes save for a godly rare/crafted.
Otherwise, look for +1 rares, Marshal's for holy shock damage, and ones with leech. Rares with prismatic, +1, some stats and MF if you are lucky is not very hard to find at all.
Charms
Look for charms with life, r/w and resists. A captain's (+1 offensive aura) grand charm is great for holy shock variants. A charm with cold damage can slow enemies if you dont have any other source of cold. Annihilus with 15+/18+/x is great, and Gheed's Fortune helps as well as other mf charms.
Mercenary
You will probably want your merc to tank, so go for an act 5 barbarian with Vampire Gaze and Shaftstop. Act two mercs with blessed aim, holy freeze and might can all help you indefinitely, even defiance is not too shabby.
As for mercenary weapons, any elite unique sword has decent damage, I doubt most of you would be able to afford a Grandfather's or BotD eth CB. Duel Azurewrath can help Tomb Raider Rangers to further slaughter the Undead.
Act 2 mercenaries can use to great effect a rare polearm, or a cruel one with some nice ed jewels/runes socketed. A Doom runeword polearm can provide holy freeze to a mercenary that stacks with his blessed aim, might or defiance.
Playing Strategies
In act 1, you can play like any other class, since any build can start out using bows. You will probably need to pump dex to keep up your accuracy. From act 2 on, people will start laughing at you. A Skystrike under lvl 30 can really cut enemies to pieces. In baal runs and cow runs, grab some nice trade items. Chipped gmes can get you some good newbie gears if you have a lot of them.
Charge Rangers have an easier time than most here since they can max might. The other variants would have to wait for lvl 18 (concentration), lvl 24 (holy shock) or lvl 30 (fanatism).
By lvl 45, builds should start to vary. The physical rangers, light hunters and clerical rangers are all considered somewhat party friendly with concentration, fanatism, conviction and meditation/holy bolt. Try to group up throughtout nightmare.
During the nm baal runs, you should have most of your items updated to prepare for hell. Wait until at least lvl 70 before entering hell. You would not be a very godly char, (though holy shock can reach over 7k average and BotD with fanatism will also bring about a ton of firepower) but if you have a Barbarian, Javazon or Zealot tanking for you, you shouldn't die too often.
Conclusion
The Ranger is a fairly viable build that plays by "hid and run" method. They are very fun to try and can deal a half-decent blow.
Rangers, along with many other builds, are thought to have been made extinct by v1.10 patch, I hope my guide would revive them.
I'll try to add a PvP patch to this some time soon.
Thx to contributions by:
wvx_leader_returns
astral_pvp
wangboBW
Phadech
and GiasEmbrace (notice i've changed it to 4xeth)
Have fun all.