Storm ranger questions

[yiuman]

Storm ranger questions

Hi,
I'm, making a storm ranger (lightning and ice). I'm using the wizendraw (-33CR) for the cold and rouges bow for the light.

Questions
1) What should I socket the bows with? At the moment I have 30IAS from my other gear. (Gems or runes please - I don't have any fancy jewels)
I'm currently thinkins shael, jah or ber.

2) What order should I work on the skills? I'm currently working on holy freeze and resist cold as I level - not sure if I should work on shock in case of immunes of fully synergise cold with sanctuary to get it doing some good damage first.

3) What is the best merc? and why?

Thanks

 

[yiuman]

anyone got anything to say?

 

[PallyRanger]

Yuiman,

I have built a storm ranger with some pretty decent success and was able to finally kill baal at about lvl 82. Great pick for your build btw, storm ranger is the best all around I have built yet.

Question 1:
I would go for the shael on the bows. I shael'd my wizen and then slightly upgraded it and it does pretty well now even in hell. (Although I want to upgrade it fully but do not have the runes yet) But have yet to find a great bow for shock.

Question 2:
I would try to max out your cold damage first. You shouldn't run into too many cold immunes until about midway thru nightmare. That way you always have a maxed damage attack, and also if you max salvation you already have one synergy maxed out for when you do start putting points into shock.

Question 3:
Since you use freeze already, you don't need the standard "freeze merc" so I would say go for a meat shield. Act 5 merc should do pretty well, but if you are hurting on defense go for a defiance merc. I went the rogue merc route which is a different pick I hear alot. I equipped her with the fastest bow possible with knockback and between the two of us we get sort of a "wall of arrows" thing going to drop most any monsters before they get too close to us.
Good luck on your ranger. If you have any questions, the ranger index stickied at the top of the forum is very helpful and is great reading for building rangers.

-PallyRanger

 

[yiuman]

Thanks Pally,

The reason I decided to use rouges bow for the shock is that its the fastest bow in the game (as it says in the ranger index). If I get enuogh IAS later in the game I may change to a more damaging bow.

I was toying between blessed aim (as I'm worried I may be hurting for the AR) and defiance (for obvious reasons). Interesting idea about the Act 5 though...... Slightly unusual.

I will be upgrading both bows as I progress - I have the runes 8)

Thanks again for a useful reply

 

[Billweed]

Thanks Pally,

The reason I decided to use rouges bow for the shock is that its the fastest bow in the game (as it says in the ranger index). If I get enuogh IAS later in the game I may change to a more damaging bow.

I was toying between blessed aim (as I'm worried I may be hurting for the AR) and defiance (for obvious reasons). Interesting idea about the Act 5 though...... Slightly unusual.

I will be upgrading both bows as I progress - I have the runes 8)

Thanks again for a useful reply

Is the Ladder only Uniqe Elite Ward Bow with GA skills and the big DS chance good for a Ranger? I had a friend give me one cause he thought it sucked and I was gonna make it a secondary for my elemental druid but I was also thinking of a Ranger for it but no one seems to talk about it (I think they don't because its ladder only drop?) Seems to me it would be the Best bow in the game for a Ranger (outside of BoTD)

 

[Omikron8]

Is the Ladder only Uniqe Elite Ward Bow with GA skills and the big DS chance good for a Ranger? I had a friend give me one cause he thought it sucked and I was gonna make it a secondary for my elemental druid but I was also thinking of a Ranger for it but no one seems to talk about it (I think they don't because its ladder only drop?) Seems to me it would be the Best bow in the game for a Ranger (outside of BoTD)

Funny you ask i'm building a fanaticism/shock ranger right now with a 192/5 version of that bow. With its ITD i can be certain that i won't have to stack AR items and the deadly strike along with highlords deadly strike and goreriders should mow down the enemies quite fast at 9fps

 

[Dreamsmith]

I equipped her with the fastest bow possible with knockback and between the two of us we get sort of a "wall of arrows" thing going to drop most any monsters before they get too close to us.

:thumbsup: I don't know why so many people are down on the Rogues, or so bloody enamored with those stupid act II mercs that have the brains of a duck you know. Well, I can understand why a summoner would want a thorns merc. But for a Ranger, I definately recommend a good Rogue companion. She works best when you play with precisely the kind of tactics that work best for you as well, and the common interest in cool bows is nice too.

Just to offer a dissenting view on another point, though, I'd max Holy Freeze and Cold Resist, but then start maxing Holy Shock and Lightning Resist. Save Salvation for last -- it's not too bad for Holy Freeze but does very little for Holy Shock -- for a Shock Ranger, I'd call it an optional synergy -- get it if there's nothing better to do with the points, but if you're doing a hybrid or something don't feel bad about skipping it, it doesn't make that much difference. Since you're going with Freeze as well, you do want it eventually, but you will start running into cold immunes before you can max all five skills -- you're really better off saving Salvation for last...

As far as the runes, Shael, definately. Don't even consider Ber, and Jah only if your AR is really really bad. Unless your AR is exceptionally poor, you're better off compensating for how often you miss by firing more often than by using ITD (which'll be ineffective against bosses in any case). I had an Eaglehorn for a while, but I decided it was too slow and ended up giving to my 'zon and going back to my double-upgraded Rogue's Bow.

Count me in the "Widowmaker sucks" camp as well. Guided Arrow ain't all that nifty. My 'zon gets it naturally, and never bothers to use it -- why go out of my way so my Paladin can get it? The auto-hit? Bleh, just get a half-ways decent AR...

 

[yiuman]

I've just checked the IAS tables in the ranger sticky, and shaeling the wizendraw does NOT get me to the next breakpoint (I have 30IAS from Sigons gloves). Where should I get the extra IAS?

 

[Ossar]

Wouldn't Witchwild String be the best bow for a Ranger?

 

[Billweed]

:thumbsup:
Count me in the "Widowmaker sucks" camp as well. Guided Arrow ain't all that nifty. My 'zon gets it naturally, and never bothers to use it -- why go out of my way so my Paladin can get it? The auto-hit? Bleh, just get a half-ways decent AR...

The GA thing is much better on the Ranger if you use a lot of + to all skills items not if useing + pal skills. a High end Widowmaker has the DS too so use maras/shako not highlords etc and the speed and Damage useing natural GA it gives is excellent with +5-7 skills from the other equipment added.

 

[PallyRanger]

Yuiman,

Try socketing your helm or armor with IAS jewels. There are also some helms and belts with IAS on them. Can't think of them off the top of my head at 3am but I know there are some out there. Also, check rare armors and belts too, some of them have IAS mods too.

Good luck on your storm ranger by the way. Keep us updated on your progress, there seems to be a newly sparked interest in rangers lately.

-PallyRanger

 

[Weltkriegpally]

the wizendraw is an excellent choice for the freeze part. For the shock part, its all about speed, well, to a point. If I had a suggestion for a bow like that, I would suggest the demon machine unique exceptional repeating crossbow. It hits 11 fpa with like 20 ias, is pretty much itd for elemental (iirc, not quite sure), and has some nice other mods. It is also easy to get. Socket it with a nef rune for knockback. good luck!

--welt

 

[lextalionis]

the wizendraw is an excellent choice for the freeze part. For the shock part, its all about speed, well, to a point. If I had a suggestion for a bow like that, I would suggest the demon machine unique exceptional repeating crossbow. It hits 11 fpa with like 20 ias, is pretty much itd for elemental (iirc, not quite sure), and has some nice other mods. It is also easy to get. Socket it with a nef rune for knockback. good luck!

--welt

Aren't you guys forgetting Pierce mods? I know that Demon Machine has it, but this effectively doubles or triples your damage output if you can line up more than one monster at a time. You can only get 33% from a belt. So the rest of your pierce has to come from your weapon. IAS can be found on any of your equipment.

I don't know if you are going to have the skill points to heavily invest in Blessed Aim for the Passive AR bonus, but it is an option.

I really want to hear how this works for you.

 

[Weltkriegpally]

true...all the rangers I have played, and I forgot about that. You want the razortail belt, no subsitutions. It has a lot of mods for you that are great. Cheap to get, too. the demon machine has 66% pierce, combined with the belt, you get 99. many zons can't top that.

--welt