Question about bow pally

[Hakanai]

Im making a holy freeze/bow pally and im lookin at my skills..

holy freeze, salv, resist cold..

what the hell else would I use? What auras give passive bonuses besides defiance and blessed aim?

[herr_s]

some rangers like holy shock/resist light for a secondary attack (that shares salvation as a synergy) against cold immunes...

[VladTheImpalerX]

The only other one i can think of would take away your HF(putting pts in prayer and then having meditation/cleansing)

However if u wish to have life regen and mana regen, make an insight throw it on a prayer merc....in theory(havent actually tested) He should gain twice the health that it would with just prayer(as both prayer and meditation would be active and prayer is a synergy to meditation)

Not 100% but thats my logic

[Ax2Grind]

Im making a holy freeze/bow pally and im lookin at my skills..

holy freeze, salv, resist cold..

what the hell else would I use? What auras give passive bonuses besides defiance and blessed aim?

That's what a bow-wielding Paladin is, and due to having no combat skills which enhance bow damage (only auras) the elemental/magic auras are the only viable additions since the standard damage ones, like Fanaticism/Concentration/Might, don't give as much of a benefit. Holy Freeze is a favorite since you want all enemies to stay out of melee range, so it's Holy Fire or Holy Shock for the cold immunes, and either can be completely synergized given you've already maxed Salvation.

Then there's the Infinite Vengeance build, what some people call the Holy Trinity. Ranged Avengers/Avenging Rangers max all resistance auras and Vengeance then use Dream helms, Dragon armor and Doom/Ice weapons with an Infinity-weilding merc. Requires a lot of high runes but you get fully synergized auras and monster damage without needing huge resistance/attack rating gear, running Salvation almost exclusively.

Supplemental resistances and skills through an Annihilus and defensive skillers (easy to get), FRW, PLR 75%, HFD/CBF... all easy to get with jewelry, belt, boots, gloves and shield. Just have to decide what the main use of such a build would be, other than to show off.

[herr_s]

Then there's the Infinite Vengeance build, what some people call the Holy Trinity. Ranged Avengers/Avenging Rangers max all resistance auras and Vengeance then use Dream helms, Dragon armor and Doom/Ice weapons with an Infinity-weilding merc. Requires a lot of high runes but you get fully synergized auras and monster damage without needing huge resistance/attack rating gear, running Salvation almost exclusively.

hello ax2grind, i don't think you can use vengeance with a bow, only melee attacks. however the build you are describing would do a ton of damage using just a normal attack and not vengeance; the resists auras synergize the elemental auras given by the equipment.

However if u wish to have life regen and mana regen, make an insight throw it on a prayer merc....in theory(havent actually tested) He should gain twice the health that it would with just prayer(as both prayer and meditation would be active and prayer is a synergy to meditation).

hello mister impaler, i don't think the prayer aura on the act 2 merc is high enough to make a big difference in terms of life regeneration. however, if you max prayer and wield an insight polearm/staff, and fill up on +def skill items and charms, then we're talking about serious life regeneration (and free mana regeneration!). amazingly, the prayer synergy bonus on cleansing and meditation is not limited to actual skill points put into prayer. try messing around with the d2items skill planner, you'll see some nice heal numbers with feasible equipment. :)

i've been toying with the idea of a two handed avenger using an insight staff/polearm. the meditation aura would regenerate my mana fast enough so i don't have to worry about the high mana costs of maxed out vengeance. i won't be using a shield so the points that would go into holy shield can be used for a vengeance synergy. i would use conviction as a main aura and get a defiance merc to make up for the lack of holy shield (or a shield for that matter!). so by a reasonable level, i could probably max prayer, max vengeance, max 2 vengeance synergies and have a decent conviction aura on with +skills. the rest of the skill points would go into the third vengeance synergy. i think this build would be fun to try out, but i'm still deciding on what to make insight out of so i can hit a good vengeance frame.

[PallyRanger]

Hakani,
The freeze/shock ranger you are describing is commonly called a storm-ranger. This is one of the more versatile ranger builds I have seen. You can achieve about 2k damage with freeze and about 4k max with shock with is nothing to shake a stick at as far as damage goes. The build is not terribly gear dependant since mostly you deal the elemental damage from your aura...and it's loads of fun. Drop your points in resist light and shock and grab yourself a widowmaker and have a blast.

As far as the Holy Trinity...this is a pretty expensive ranger. Dream helm, Dragon armor, and Ice bow is a bunch of fairly high runes. Put your points in all the resists and salvation to max out the "granted" auras and your will be doing fire, light and cold damage so no monster will be totally immune to you. If you really want to get crazy, get a might merc and give him an Infinity weapon for the Conviction which will enhance both of your damages significantly and enhance your physical damage some. Run your Salvation aura at all times(for the resists), get some defensive charms(to enhance the resists, thus enhancing your damage), and let the good times roll. You will have Holy Fire, Freeze, Shock, and Slavation auras active at all times as well as your merc having Might and Conviction aura on at all times. Scary.

Hope I helped.

-PallyRanger

[Rane-]

Although builds will vary I believe the best Trinity Ranger would use Ice/Dragon/Dream, then max Resist Cold/Fire/Light and Salvation and Conviction. You then use Conviction (which should have -150% enemy res with 5 additional skills,) and then if you still have dough lying around get a Might Merc and throw a Pride Polearm on him. That's the most Elemental and Physical Damage you can get.

On the note of Vengeance some Ranger's like to put 1pt in it (as it will be heavily synergised anyway) and use it with a weapon and shield on switch when you are out of arrows or too heavily surrounded and stuck in hit recovery.

[herr_s]

it's been mentioned twice here that boosting the three resist auras via def charms will boost the synergies for the three elemental damage auras. i thought only actual points in the resist auras synergize damage on the elemental auras? have things changed?

[Rane-]

it's been mentioned twice here that boosting the three resist auras via def charms will boost the synergies for the three elemental damage auras. i thought only actual points in the resist auras synergize damage on the elemental auras? have things changed?

That's just not true. Only hard points will synergise.

[prion]

What auras give passive bonuses besides defiance and blessed aim?
just want to poit out that the synergy from Defiance only applies to Holy Sheild so that won't help you. I have never heard of a passive bonus from Defiance.