Guide: Storm Ranger (Ver. 1.5)

[raphiel20]

can someone plz tell me what a Widowmaker is???

widow maker is a uni ward bow that gives the user guided arrow heres its stats:
Two-Hand Damage: (50-60) To (132-159) (91-109.5 Avg)
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 72
Required Dexterity: 146
Base Weapon Speed: [0]
+150-200% Enhanced Damage (varies)
Ignore Target's Defense
33% Deadly Strike
+3-5 To Guided Arrow (varies)
Fires Magic Arrows [Level 11]
(Ladder Only)
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.10 or later)

l8rs :howdy:

raph

[Br_]

Well I got ahold of a Hell Rack and I know you say that C Bows are too slow, but I wanted to know if I double shaeled it and had decent IAS would it be worth using??

Br_

[flashmario]

Interesting guide. Having a teslafroster zealot already, I would think the conversion to a storm ranger would be rather easy, he already has the main skills maxed! His main weapon right now it a crescent moon phase blade. Maybe it could be a hybrid by just having widowmaker on switch ? One question though... does guided arrow ALWAYS hit, even on bosses?

[QuickShifter]

Thanks for the guide.

As raphiel20 stated. I think a Kuku may have a great potential for a variant of this build, If one where to max Holy fire and its synergies instead of Holy freeze. Holy fire does alot less damage to a single target but the pierce from Kuku and the big radius from the exploding arrows will quickly ramp up the damage against a larger group. level 24 Holy fire will do 957 on average. But in a crowd against say 3 monsters, piercing all of them the total damage from one shot will be 3 x 957.

[Seaskye]

As I have always loved zons, I though this would be a good build to try, I pitched it to my friend and he suggested starting with the artic set, Lvl 2 requirments and Im wearing a gemed cap, 1 strength charm, +1 to strenth ring and ammy, will let you know how it goes.
Have everybow except a Widowmaker,, it is a ladder only item, Duh yeah missed that in the description above ,,,well maybe will be about that level when ladder seasons ends or will have to go looking.

Going to give it a try anway


Seaskye

[PallyRanger]

First off, great guide MSA. Storm-Rangers are about the most versatile and lethal ranger variant I have used and to me, they are the most fun.

Second, a viable PVP ranger is very difficult to build. Even with a Widowmaker, most folks in duels have maxed out resists so you have to hit them with at minimum 5 shots to get them into the "oh crap my life is way low" stage. You could shael the widow, and wear a ton of ias gear to reach the breakpoint and just spam guided arrows at your opponent and hope he isn't wearing an enigma. I like to use the term "spray and pray" to describe it. Shoot like crazy and run like hell(or teleport if possible), and then rinse and repeat. If your opponent gets close enough, switch to holy freeze to slow him down then swap back to light then run and gun.

Third, a few more gear choices. Venow grip gloves, life leech, 5% CB, 5 max poison res and +30 poison res, and a tiny bit of poison damage. IK boots, if anything just for the 40% frw. Carrion Wind ring, life leech, posion creeper charges, buncha poison resistance( for pesky poison-mancers) and a small changce to cast lvl 13 twister( which is just funny to me). Or a Wisp projector ring for the Heart of Wolverine charges for added damage. Maybe a Demon Limb on switch for the "enchant me" charges before the battle.

My current storm-ranger/melee hybrid setup (lvl 72):
Bow: Witchwild Twin Shaels
Helm: Guillame's 25/15 IAS jewel
Armor: G. Angel Perect Ruby(until I find an Um)
Boots: Silkweaves
Rings: Carrion Wind and rare with dual leech and buncha resists
Gloves: Venow Grip
Belt: Rare spiderweb sash with lotsa resists
Ammy: Rare with +2 pally skills, resists and life leech
Switch Weapon: Hand of Blessed Light and Moser's with 2 Perf Diamonds (until I find better melee gear)
Charms: All are resistance charms, large, small, and grand.
I have 80 cold/85 light/80 fire/95 poison resist in hell.

[Goldstriker]

Hi,

I am currently making this build, but I have a few suggestions/questions: (this is my 4rth character ever, so maybe I say some silly things)

- What is exactly a break-point? A point where further increased attack speed isn't possible? Or is it a point you múst reach to be effective in combat? (I think i prefer going for +skills instead of +attack speed)

- I'm currently using the Goldstrike-Arch bow, mostly for one simple reason: it gives 100-150% bonus to attack rating (in my case 150) which gives a huge boost (I have the Widowmaker ready, but need to level a bit more). The armor I'm wearing is Griswolds, socketed with 3 perfect diamonds for an extra 300 attack rating (that ofcourse will also receive the bonus from the Goldstrike bow). My previous bow was the Rogue's Bow, which I found useless when you only hit 1 out of 5 shots due to low attack rating. So until you get good attack rating or can use the Widowmaker, I suggest using Goldstrike.

- You say that you do not need attack rating when using Widowmaker, because it fires guided arrows. But is it guided arrow that causes this? Or is it 'Ignore Target Defense', which basically lowers enemy defense to 0, that makes attack rating useless? If it's the guided arrow, then there's no problem. But if it's the other mod, then you might have some problems killing bosses, as Ignore target defense doesn't work on them. From the Arreat Summit: "This ability will not work on Unique Monsters, Super Unique Monsters, Hirelings, other players, and Act-end bosses."

- Will Griffon's Eye with its +1 to all skills, +lightning damage and -lightning resistance be better than a helm with +2 to all skills? I want to use shock aura as my base aura.

- Did somebody ever try using a javelin with this build? What about Gargoyle's Bite, a unique winged harpoon with a base weapon speed of -10, 9-15% life leech and replenish quantity? The advantage of using a javelin would be the ability of wearing a shield.





So far for the questions, I could use some suggestions for the equipment I'm planning on wearing later:

Helm: Griffon's Eye (or if a +2 skills helm is better: Andariel's Visage)
Armor: Guardian Angel
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Weapon: Runeword 'Silence' Crusador bow (see below)
Gloves: Immortal King
Boots: Immortal King
Amulet: Highlord's Wrath
Ring 1: Raven Frost (with +250 to attack rating, +20 to dexterity)
Ring 2: Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band


NOTES:
I think the runeword silence has some very useful mods: (anyone got a Vex for me? ^^ )
200% Enhanced Damage
+75% Damage To Undead
Requirements -20%
20% Increased Attack Speed
+50 To Attack Rating Against Undead
+2 To All Skills
All Resistances +75
20% Faster Hit Recovery
11% Mana Stolen Per Hit
Hit Causes Monster To Flee 25%
Hit Blinds Target +33
+2 To Mana After Each Kill
30% Better Chance Of Getting Magic Items

You'll be using a bow with base attack speed and only 20% increased attack speed, meaning you'd need quite some more:
Bow: 20% IAS
Helm: 15% IAS (jewel)
Armor: 15% IAS (jewel)
Gloves: 25% IAS
Amulet: 20% IAS
TOTAL: 95% IAS
That should be enough, wouldn't it?

I'll use Immortal King gloves and boots for the following reasons: Together the gloves give 25% IAS, the boots add 110 to attack rating and the gloves also give +20 to dexterity for more attack rating.

Other options:
- If I have enough attack rating I can also choose for another Bul Kathos ring.
- If my attack speed is good enough I can replace the amulet for Seraph's Hymn, which gives a huge skill boost (with a perfect one you'd get +2 to offensive auras and +4 to defensive auras!)

Thanks for making the guide,

greets,
goldie (Ladder Europe, this is not my account name)

[Wurmer]

Nice guide, down to earth and very doable for most everyone. I think that's an important aspect when writing a guide.

I am currently leveling up a ranger and he is in act-1 hell. I must say he's great fun. It's makes for something very different. I wouldn't suggest that built to someone that is new to paladin but if you have tried pretty much every built or are getting bored of melee that might just be your ticket.


A PvP ranger certainly sounds interesting. Again not a built for everyone. Even though you can reach pretty high lighting damage with Holy shock, the problem is that like with pretty much every lighting skill, the range of damage varies way too much. 8k damage is nice but 1 lightning damage is not even enough to kill a quilrat.

Loading up your gear with facet jewels and using griffion eye might be an option but you would end up with a low FPS. Too damn bad we can't do a Crescent moon bow.

[ROMVS]

Nice guide, down to earth and very doable for most everyone. I think that's an important aspect when writing a guide.

I am currently leveling up a ranger and he is in act-1 hell. I must say he's great fun. It's makes for something very different. I wouldn't suggest that built to someone that is new to paladin but if you have tried pretty much every built or are getting bored of melee that might just be your ticket.


A PvP ranger certainly sounds interesting. Again not a built for everyone. Even though you can reach pretty high lighting damage with Holy shock, the problem is that like with pretty much every lighting skill, the range of damage varies way too much. 8k damage is nice but 1 lightning damage is not even enough to kill a quilrat.

Loading up your gear with facet jewels and using griffion eye might be an option but you would end up with a low FPS. Too damn bad we can't do a Crescent moon bow.

Crescent is good but I'd like a famine.

[kung food]

I have been dueling with my storm ranger for a while now. He does all right, but certain things just slaughter me. My equip at lvl 87 is as follows:
Widowmaker /w shael
Andy helm /w 15 ias jewel
Duress Great hauberk
Disciple gloves
21 Maras
20 dex ravenfrost
BK ring
40/12 verdungos (I have Tgods and snowclash in the stash)
Nats boots (Aldur's boots in stash)
6 plain offensives
15 resist anni

On the switch I have a sceptor with +2 to charge on it and a rare pali shield with some resists. I must say charge is a life savor. Forget vigor, a fast barb will still run you down. Use shift+charge and holy freeze and leave them in your dust. Vs trappers you can put on the light resist aura and just widdle away thier health little by little. Same goes for orb sorcs and cold resist aura, but blizzard will kill you too fast.

Goldstriker: With 95 ias you still fire at 10 fpa. You need 125 ias to reach 9 fpa. The break point for 10 fpa is only 75 and is really easy to reach with the gear I have on while still being useful. (Andy helm /w 15ias jewel=35 ias, bow /w shael and gloves=40). In my opinion to reach the next break point would not be worth the minor increase in attack speed, since you would need to sacrafice too much to fit in all that ias. Another set up I have considered is putting an um in my bow instead of shael, and making up the ias with highlords since I really like open wounds.

This is of course not my final gear, although a lot of things would remain the same. For one I think that widowmaker is the ONLY viable bow for pvp. I mean guided arrow! You don't have to worry about AR, and it tracks. Any other bow and you will rarely hit anything at all, either from missing or your foe's def being too high. I also think that andy held was made for non zon bow users. +2 to skills along with 35 ias (w/ jewel) is awesome!

What I would like to change: I am seriously thinking of switching my bk ring for an soj. I only have around 200 mana, and with constant firing it does tend to go down quickly. Add charging away from my foes and that saps it even further. On the switch I want to get a 5 socket divine sceptor or caddy with + to charge and holy freeze (In fact if someone has this on west NL sc I will trade a vex for it) and make CTA out of it. For the switch shield I would like to get a 3 soc pali shield with resists and make sanctuary for some really beefy resists and slow missle charges. Also of use would be some +5 resist all or 11 light resist SCs.