Frenzy - Evasion Ranger - Anarchy League

[shoju]

In the Anarchy League, I'm currently running a Bow Ranger.

-Single Target I'm using Frenzy
-AoE I'm using Split Arrow / Rain of Arrows (depending on the need)
-I'm also running Bear Trap (I'm less than impressed with this... I wish I had a fire Trap.)
-Decoy Totem It's... no Skeleton Totem
-Clairty (I'm leveling it up at this point, not sure if I will end up using it)
-Poison Arrow I haven't really used this lately, but It's still in the gear.

I'm currently working off Evasion for my Defenses, and I have Acrobatics and Spell Dodging.

Weakness of the whole thing: Bosses. Hard Hitting Bosses to be more precise, but so far bosses have been the main problem. Normal mobs (outside of ridiculous rare + Magic combos) haven't been a problem.

So far my big problem has been Decoy Totem keeps their attention for a hit or two, but other than that, i'm just running and running and running and running, and shooting when I can, to try and drop them. My evasion just isn't high enough yet, and I've been "mapping out" the build planning to go back and pick up health nodes in a couple of levels when I pick up the last Frenzy Node.

I'm fairly confident it isn't a DPS issue. With 5 Frenzy Charges at my disposal, I can really get the DPS cranking. I know my "resting" frenzy DPS is 696.

My question(s):

Should I continue to press to get the 6th Frenzy Charge? 3 more points and I will be there. (which would be 2 more levels, since I have another skill point quest in the very near future)

Or, should I start fleshing out some major HP upgrades? If I wanted, I could spend my next 12 skill points on nothing but HP nodes. They were nodes I was planning on picking up, but I was trying to get to the next frenzy charge now. Something I'm not sure I really need.

Next question:

If I were to give up the idea of acrobatics and Evasion, and use another stat that I didn't gimp myself on, what would you do? I've been leaning more towards armor / Evasion in my thoughts on this, but I figured I would get some info from people. What would you do for defenses with a ranger?

my build currently
I'm not sold on acrobatics right now either. It's been.... Eh?, but that might be because I'm still just not sitting at that much evasion. I'm right around 48% right now. I have enough refund points, I could drop the acrobatic stuff right now, and flesh out more HP.

If I did that, I could add 46% more HP based on available HP nodes. That sounds like a nice chunk to me.

For reference, this is/was my current "final" build. If I drop Acrobatics, I would probably drop those points into getting into that life cluster that is nearby the Thieve's Craft Intelligence Node.

[Chesspiece_face]

I haven't felt that acrobatics are necessary early on. I am playing a somewhat similar build as you are: My Current Build. I've got about 10% less evasion than you and I don't feel I am in any real danger. Having said that I may be farther behind you in relation to point in the game.

My single target skill is also Frenzy but my AoE skill is a LMP Ice Shot which I absolutely love. It is effective at chilling large swathes of enemies while also rewarding good positioning and situational awareness. I use Clarity as an aura which I accidentally leveled up once more than I intended so it uses up more of my pool than I would like, but as long as I am attentive and don't expect to just spam Ice Shot it's not a big issue.

Where are you in the game right now? I am nearing the end of Act II Cruel. I've got about 800 hp, 90 ES, and 40% evasion. On the other hand my resists are all pretty much maxed other than chaos (obviously). At this point I think the Acrobatics nodes will be the last thing I put points into and even then I may just fill out some health nodes. But for the place that we are both at I see it as more of a detriment than a help.

I'm not sure what my Frenzy dps is but It sounds like yours is much higher than mine. It's possible that a large part of the ease I'm feeling right now is the addition of chill/freeze. I don't think I would give it up for the world.

[Brimstone]

I ran a lmp/ice shot ranger in standard, up to act 3 cruel, and I agree, it's an underrated combo.


In Anarchy, I'm slowly leveling up a similar build to yours, Shoju, running Frenzy single-target and Split Arrow/Fork for crowds. As I ease through content I keep eyeing Iron Reflexes... it's a scant 3 nodes away in my current build. I may find myself scrapping Evasion and switching to armor. The main problem I have with Evasion is the spikiness of it... either I waltz through mobs, or I get turned into a red smear on the floor, with little grey area between.

[MonTy]

In the Anarchy League, I'm currently running a Bow Ranger.

-Single Target I'm using Frenzy

One of the best Single Target skills you can use, but is better with Elemental Damage due to causing elemental effects, and faster. Still a great source of single target damage if you're a physical ranger.

-AoE I'm using Split Arrow / Rain of Arrows (depending on the need)

Both are incredible skills. Split arrow is essentially a LMP without having your damage reduced. Rain of Arrows is great for when you need to target down specific mobs, such as those dreaded Necromancers. In fact Rain of Arrows is so good, some rangers only use that skill. I had a Rain of Arrows ranger that made it to 68 using Point Blank, which increase your damage by 50% but forces you be in closer range. I didn't mind that as long as I had decent armor, resistances, and when free for all loot was the norm it was great for getting your gear.

-I'm also running Bear Trap (I'm less than impressed with this... I wish I had a fire Trap.)

Whoa, I'm surprised. This skill has incredible physical damage, higher than your frenzy bow, and stops monsters in their tracks. At level 18 it does 1671–2339 damage. You can have two Bear Trap gems supported with Added Fire and lay down six traps. That's a lot of pain before a Mob can even think about getting to you.

-Decoy Totem It's... no Skeleton Totem

Nope. As soon as you're able to trade for Spell Totem (I think Rangers are the only class that doesn't get it as a quest reward), go for skelly totems.

Ok, as far as the build goes, I would focus on three things, health, damage, and evasion. Your damage will most likely not be as high as elemental route, so you'll need a decent physical bow and passive. Second is that when you get hit, you'll get hit harder than an armor based character, so you'll want a higher life pool. And the most obvious is that you'll want the major evasion keystones.

I'll have you know, I used one of my total character respecs to make a build extremely similar to yours. I had amazing gear, five linked high physical damage bow, five linked 1300 evasion chest, and other good equipment. I still could not kill as fast as an Elemental based character, nor could I survive as well as an armor based one. But it was fun, I had to be on my toes and actually try to dodge attacks. Constantly hit and run, which is why I highly recommend Frenzy. The faster you attack the faster you can move. I did respectable damage and was able to run maps, so in no way is it a dud of a build.

Should I continue to press to get the 6th Frenzy Charge? 3 more points and I will be there. (which would be 2 more levels, since I have another skill point quest in the very near future)

Or, should I start fleshing out some major HP upgrades?

I almost always choose HP until the very end of the game. All my character level up getting resistances, health, and major keystones. Then flesh out damage passives when you hit 60+.

If I were to give up the idea of acrobatics and Evasion, and use another stat that I didn't gimp myself on, what would you do? I've been leaning more towards armor / Evasion in my thoughts on this, but I figured I would get some info from people. What would you do for defenses with a ranger?

IMO if you were to ever do a evasion based character, now would be the time. The Ranger class excels at very little, but it does have great physical damage and evasion passives right from the start. In my opinion you'll have more success late game if you just get Iron Reflexes, you can then focus on Armor and Evasion passives, not to mention more open passives for Health and Damage. But your skill tree would be significantly different. I personally make a themed character and stick with it, it's fun seeing how far I can get. Will this be your character that will blaze through end-game maps? Probably not. But it's a fast, fun, hit and run type of character.

[shoju]

Well, I dropped acrobatics for now. I haven't noticed any discernable change in my damage intake. I'm sure there is, but with Ondar's Guile, I feel like I'm surviving ok, as I don't let much get to me. I've picked up almost all of the close health that I can, and I'm thinking about some other changes to the tree to see what I can do.

I finally got a mana leech gem, and I'm doing pretty good. At this point, I'm actually thinking about building towards improving the elemental damage of my skills, because I've ended up with a lot of jewelry that adds ele damage, I've yet to have a "great" high phys bow, and and there is a fair amount of ele damage close by (a small cluster just south of the ranger section, and then the shadow section). We'll see how it goes. I'm trying not to stick too close to a set thing, letting the character evolve as time and gear allows.

I'm pleased with my progress, and should be out of A2 cruel in the next day or so, and heading off into A3 cruel, where I should have a better idea of what awaits me. I definitely have found A3 cruel to be the big step up from "hey this is pretty easy" to WTF just happened to me on all of my chars so far.

I'm enjoying Evasion for now, but I'm also keeping an open mind about swapping over to some sort of armor based build if need be.

I would LOVE to get a Life Leech Gem. it's about the only thing that I feel like I'm missing from survivability standpoint at this time, besides just "better" gear.

[shoju]

As I had feared, my Evasion is now dropping off the table quickly in A3 Cruel. it's a result of my lack of gear upgrades in a while. I'm down to 38% evasion, and I'm getting destroyed in the Crematorium. Low Resists, Low Evasion, my 1500 HP is just not enough of a cushion. I'm probably going to farm up some better gear, as right now, this is slowing me down more than I would like.

It is purely a gear issue at this point. I'm wearing some pieces that I've had since A1 Normal (ring) and other pieces that just aren't itemized well.

So I'm probably headed back to A2 Cruel Church, and going to plow through that place and see if I can find some upgrades.

[Chesspiece_face]

As I had feared, my Evasion is now dropping off the table quickly in A3 Cruel.

What level are you? I'm not quite to the Crematorium, I just started AC Cruel. I am not having any issues at all so far with A3 unless I start getting those oh-so-fun desyncs. As far as defenses I've got the same Evasion as you do. My resistances are maxed but I also have half the hit points that you do. It's possible things will start getting out of hand as I progress into A3 further but at this point even things that were causing me problems when I met them first in Normal are falling over like they were nothing.

[shoju]

I was 48 at the time of posting, 49 now.

I think a big part of my problem is my resistances. I just don't have much. I did score 5 gcp on a sale last night, so I'm going to be doing some gear searching over the next couple of days, see if I can find some better gear. I'm now up to about 1500 HP.

I've been thinking, and I think that another problem that I'm having is that I'm just not "mobile" enough as a ranger. I can't shoot on the run, so I'm still trying to approach a ranger as a WoW hunter.

On the plus side, I did finally see my first exile, and kill it last night. It dropped all kinds stuff, but sadly, nothing was all that amazing.