Guide: Storm Ranger (Ver. 1.5)

[royalesse]

what i want to do is get massive elemental damage out of a bow thats not on a zon..

I think you could get massive damage without being a zon. The interesting thing is that as a pally you actually have higher damage output using Holy fire and equipment with Exploding Arrow than the Enchantress. The ranged Enchantress doesn't get the majority of her damage from fire mastery like the melee enchantress. She actually gets her damage from dual counting EA. Exploding Arrow gets all fire damage counted twice!!! Once on the arrow itself the other on the Explosion. So if you prebuff with an enchant from demon limb, Max out your holy fire aura, and get a bunch of +fire damage charms. Add up all the fire damage and multiply by 2!!! You could probably get somewhere in that 6~15k

If you really want to hit with that ranger then you could use Widow with the freeze aura and get Blackhorn's face, cleglaw's gloves, and arachnid's mesh and super slow someone with your holy freeze aura + equip slow (actually, arachnid's is probably overkill since pvp slow is capped at 50%). Then weapon switch to Kuko and unload hellfury on them.

But I digress... I'm surprised that HoJ wasn't mentioned in a Razor bow or something :cheesy: . It's ITD and the fire aura will synergize with salvation. It'd be better to max fire resists... but you wouldn't want to do it on this build.

I'm working on the *drum roll please*....*...*...* the Tesla Ravenger!!! :scratch:
lol... just kidding... at any rate I maxed Holy shock, Salvation, Resist Lightning, Resist cold, Resist fire... I have 1 point in zeal & vengence. Vengence does a helluva lot of damage with all the synergies. Factor in the Holy shock and you got a good amount of elemental damage. Then I'm looking to put Doom in either a zerker or warspike and HoJ in either a razor bow or demon machine (elite xbow). Then I'll have synergized lvl 16 holy fire or lvl 12 doom. On the melee side the 1 pt in zeal +2 skills in Doom and I'll have 4 zeals already. Furthermore, I'll have a synergized vengence with a cold aura and a lightning aura attached to it. On the ranged side HoJ has nice speed on it, it's ITD and it freezes and blinds. If you get a HoZ you should be able to switch from ranged mode to melee easily because of the high block and high resists on HoZ.

But I digress... great guide! You've given me lots of options on how to lvl and how to play untill I find all this bad a$$ equipment. Rogue's bow was priceless. That alone covered the price of admission :drink:

edit: on the fire aura b/c of the way the damage ramps you'd be better with + skill charms and + fire damage small charms as filler and you could get close to 3k in aura damage. When you factor in the enchant and other fire damage and then double it for EA then you're good to go for the 6k... 15k? don't know if that's doable... maybe loaded with fire facets?

[LovelyGods]

elaborate on the holy fire thing..

what bow would u use?

and is the splash damage really 2 x damage?

[royalesse]

elaborate on the holy fire thing..

what bow would u use?

and is the splash damage really 2 x damage?

Exploding arrow has 2 ways it damages. 1st is the explosion itself the 2nd is the arrow. Now when you add fire damage to EA the fire damage is added to both the explosion and the arrow. So with holy fire... the holy fire damage is added to both the explision and the arrow. So no the splash isn't x2 but the splash + the arrow is equal to 2. Now the tricky part is that the splash always hits since it's counted as a spell and the arrow needs AR to hit.

As far as which bow.... your choices are Kuko or Demon machine. I'd like to go Kuko but I don't think I could get my resists and pdr where I'd want them and utilize Kuko's speed. So, I'd probably end up with Demon machine. Now, if you don't think slowing so you can hit them is cheap then have widow on switch with and use Cleglaw's & Blackhorn's Face along with your Holy Freeze aura. Fire a few shots running towards them and then weapon switch to Demon Mach & Holy Fire and let them fly.

Your opponent should be slow enough to hit. They should be 50% slowed from your aura and another 50% slowed from your equip. It's two types of slow so they should both count and both be capped.

If you socket an Eth in the Demon Mach and a fervor jewel in blackhorns you should be able to hit the last break point and get a good % to hit with both the arrow and the splash damage. Fire damage jewels & facets would be nice but not necessary if you have enough + skills.

[Phadech]

Demon Machine PERFECTLY works with a fire ranger. Just my 2 cents...

[LovelyGods]

thats most interesting.

only thing i dont see this being any sort of super caster killer or a super pvp threat.

but it does sound fun to play.

Charms for this sort of thing with holyfire would be?

Flaming sc of vita? or Offensive aura gc?

Average damaeg on Flaming are like 14-26 or so.

one x Gc adds how much fire damaeg to attack.

take 14-26 * 3 = xxx

compare to one Gc adds how much fire damage.

One Gc adds approx 122 damage

26*3 = 78

Conclustion if those numbers are right, that means that offensive aura gc add more fire damage (while using aura) then flaming sc of vita.

Anyone verify that??

[royalesse]

Conclustion if those numbers are right, that means that offensive aura gc add more fire damage (while using aura) then flaming sc of vita.

Anyone verify that??

Don't know exactly by how much damage the aura skills add... but as long as the skill and synergies are maxed the damage on the aura increases a lot more than the small charms could add. The nice thing is you can do a mix since the grand charms are 3 spaces and you could squeeze a small charm in the left over space.

As a Super PvP killer... you're right it won't be... just because the game play itself would be difficult. It's doable though... just not likely.

PvM it's awesome... I tested it out on SP in players 8 still mowed like a tractor even in hell. Fire immunes sucked though but I didn't put the proper back up. If you want PvM with Fire & Frost go with Demon Mach & Buriza + Nef. Unless of course you're looking for strictly boss killing power. Then you'll want an HoJ so you can dual aura the jerk.

[realjeep]

Just wondering if anyone has tried this build with throwing weapons (javs/knives/throwing axes)?

It looks to me like this would work just as well, especially with a weap such as warshrike with deadly strike and piercing. All appear to be decently easy to achieve the 9fpa as with the bow. This would also allow for a shield (resists + blocking)


realjeep

[Absolutian]

Yeah, I've tried it, and while I like Rangers, it's a shame to waste those good shield skills.

My first big pal was a thrower/zealot...a theme build...Name was Absolutian. Main auras were HF/HS, and I use Hand of Zak as a melee switch. It was kinduv a tough build, without the uberest gear. I kept trying all kinds of rare javs/axes/knives, but it was slow going, and I chose an A5 merc as part the theme, which wasn't a lot of fun. This pal was fun in the sense that I had to use many different skills to survive; I didn't just shoot all day with the two auras.

What did work well, was the ability to melee, and I used Conversion to make my own minions. This pal can usually tank it long enough, and once I have a Convert to tank for me, I'll run back and start launching.

One big problem: your axes and daggers only go to the edge of the screen. Javes have the same screen-and-a-half range that bows do. In house-to-house fighting, this isn't such an issue, but outdoors you'll miss that extra range. One thing you can do, is have javs on one set of hands, and daggers/axes on the other, for when you close ranks with the enemy.

As you can guess, you also have a logistics problem. Without the high replenish of the unique throwers (and even with), you will burn through a clip real fast. This will turn your cube into an ammo pouch.

There is also in the old strat compendium a Throwsmiter. Can't recall the author, but it was sound advice. Also, check out the Throwbarb strat guide, and throwbarb threads.

I think if I ever build an Exile, that this will become a workable build.

[Roco Sigafredi]

I was looking for a ranger guide and I find this one very nice.
The problem is that I want it for a untwinked HC build (single player).
Do you think it could work or the low resist and no shield for block will be a rather big obsticle ?

[LovelyGods]

Idea::

HoJ bow adds a holyfire aura..right? So if you maxed Conviction, and the holyfire synergies, does it cary over to the bow's aura? So you would esentaly do more damage using conviction and the holyfire bow....or maybe use fant...since you need ar..

Hoj bow + Fant , max holyfire synergies?

no idea how that works.