Bow-Toting Auradin?

[Pillz]

So I want to make a ranger, but I also want to make an auradin so I figured I'd combine the two and make a ranged auradin. I haven't seen any guides or anything for a build like this so I was wondering if I could get some input on it.

I was planning on making my skills
20 resist cold
20 resist lightning
20 conviction
20 blessed aim
and prereqs

The gear I was a little more unsure of, I've been looking at ias calcs and stuff for what would be a good bow to make Ice in and came up with a great bow as being ideal.

My tenative gear is

Ice Great Bow
Dream Bone Visage
CoH
Crafted 20ias/kb gloves
Gore Riders
Ravenfrost
Highlords
A rare dual leech ring I have
Razortail

I think my biggest question/fear for this guy though would be whether or not he'd be worth building, i.e would his killing power be enough to not make my life miserable?

Any input on this build is much appreciated, thanks :)

[Clervis]

As with any ranger, killing speed won't approach that of what even decent builds have. Rather, people choose rangers for something different and challenging.

As far as skill allotment goes, you need to pick one main aura because you can only use one at a time. Therefore, Blessed Aim will do you no good.

Now if you want to go the auradin, elemental ranger there are a few directions you could go with it [The numbers represent the damage you get from a maxed out, fully synergized aura w/ +7 skills]:

1. Fire: Use holy fire as your main aura. It deals only moderate damage, but has the special attribute of splash damage when used with exploding bolts or arrows. That is, if you are using a bow/xbow with 'Fires Explosive Bolts or Arrows' (i.e. Demon Machine, Kuko Shakaku, Brand) the damage from your Holy Fire aura attack will not only damage the baddy you hit, but also any baddies in his immediate vicinity. [Fire yields: ~1,200 average fire damage+splash]

2. Lightning: Lightning deals a considerable amount more damage than fire, but lacks the splash damage. On the up side, there are a lot less Lightning Immunes than there are Fire Immunes in Hell. [Lightning yields: ~3,000 average lightning damage]

3. Ice: Holy Freeze has low damage, but it's major benefit is that it slows down the opposition. There are two ways you could go with Holy Freeze.
A. (Yours) Use the runeword Ice and Conviction as the main aura. [This yields: ~850 average cold damage * about 45% Conviction bonus= ~1,200 average cold damage]
B. Use Holy Freeze as your main aura. It denies you conviction, but lets you choose a better bow for more damage from that direction. [This yields: ~1,700 average cold damage]

Other considerations/alternatives:

a) Use Holy Freeze/Ice as a switch. People have found that it can be quite useful to just have a quick hot key set to Holy Freeze so you just flip to Holy Freeze really quick and everybody gets a little pulse of Holy Freeze to slow them down temporarily, before you switch back and make your main attack. Another way you could do this is to have Ice on switch and just switch to it really quick and switch back after they freeze up.

b) Use a Combination. If you use Ice as your bow, Holy Fire as your main aura, and a Dream helm, then you will have a tri-elemental ranger. If you perfect it, you could get around 3,300 average elemental damage. Throw in an Infinity merc and you could be a bad-arse.

c) There are many different Bows/Xbows that offer their own special benefits that can wholy change gameplay and builds: Ice offers Holy Freeze, Faith offers Fanaticism plus little skeleton buddies as a melee shield, Harmony lets you summon a Valkerie, Wrath offers CtC Decrepify, Widowmaker offers Guided Arrow, Gut Siphon offers 33% Pierce + Slows Target by 25%, Kuko Shakaku offers Eplosive arrows and 50% Pierce, Witchwild String fires Magic Arrows and Amplify Damage, Buriza-do Kyanon freezes target and has 100% Pierce, Demon Machine fires Eplosive Bolts with 66% Pierce, and there are many more bows/xbows that provide you with a considerable amount of elemental damage mods already on the bow! You can also use any of these as a convenient switch.

Merc considerations:

a) Faith merc: A little buddie to stand along side you that not only helps keep the wolves at bay, but also drastically improves your attack speed!!!, improves your physical damage!!!, and one out of every ten guys she kills turns into a little skeleton to protect the two of you.

b) Infinite merc: This guy provides you with a nice tank to keep the horde from reaching your frail, HolyShield-lacking ranger, but on top of that, he provides you with Conviction that can add an easy 50% to your elemental damage output.

c) Ice/Doom/Holy Freeze merc: These guys provide you with Holy Freeze, which is invaluable to a low-damage ranged attacker. Doom & Holy Freeze gives you a tank to stand behind, and Ice gives you a buddy who won't die easily (i.e. Iron Maiden)

d) Act 3 Cold merc: These guys can freeze guys (heh, that rhymes) to a standstill, just don't ask them to contribute much in the damage sector.

e) Some other tank: Act 2 and 5 mercs can make good tanks which provide you with the protection of someone else to attract your enemies.

I hope this helps. But I'll remind you again. Beware, these aren't builds for mindless expedited slaughtered, they kill slowly and require tact, but ultimately it makes them pretty enjoyable.


Here are some guides that you may not have seen:
Storm Ranger (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=217256)
Rane's Ranger Guide (http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=328379)

[ShotgunOpera]

Blessed Aim has a hidden bonus of +5% AR per level invested. This bonus is entirely passive so it *could* be worth it.

[Clervis]

Blessed Aim has a hidden bonus of +5% AR per level invested. This bonus is entirely passive so it *could* be worth it.

Hmm, I did not realize that. Well I'd then say that it is certainly worth it considering that rangers really don't need a lot of skill points, because it all goes to a specific aura and then synergies.

Also, another thing worth mentioning is: Rangers benefit greatly from +skill gear. So maybe substitute those ring for a BK or SoJ, maybe Mara's. Arachnid Mesh could also be useful with it's slow enemy mod. And, of course, all those options are super cheap. :P