The Advent of The Elemental Ranger

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Siguesigue

Diabloii.Net Member
The Advent of The Elemental Ranger

The time is now! :D

I'm sure I'm saying nothing that you guys didn't already know, but I'm going to say it anyway.
As one of my final characters on D2, I decided to make an Elemental Ranger. Standard setup, but I decided to go dual element. HS/HF. Oh. My. God.

I can not stress how fun this guy is in PvP.
Everyone I see gives a "Lol, Pala with a Bow :)" kind of message, but it's all good natured. Then they see what he can do. "Death, Destroyer of Worlds" comes to mind.
I beat Amas in ranged duels, sorcs... Anyone except the cheesy builds like smiters and ubar-chargers. And what's more there is a palpable sense of fragility surrounding him - like at any second someone can swoop in and deatomise him. Widowmaker makes this build. No two ways about it. It removes the skill (As per a regular Ranger), but adds a massive flexibility in combat.

Grab a Widow and go kill someone with it ;) Everyone loves the underdog, and everyone likes seeing a build which is odd do well :)
 
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LovelyGods

Banned
Correct me if im wrong here but i thought the main reason why nobody (including myself) made a pvp ranger (storm style) is because of the absurdly low damage they deal out. With no Ds to cover you, it doesn't seem like a totally viable killing machine like u seem to think..

What gear are u using?

What stat setup?

What Charms?

im very interested, cuz i was always wanted to find a use for widowmaker. Either u stumbled on a better setup then i for this or you must know something i dont hehe...

Keep me posted.
 
S

Siguesigue

Diabloii.Net Member
Standard limited NL setup -->

Andariel with Cold Facet
CoH (For res)
Widowmaker (Shael)
Classic Rare Boots
Magnus' Skin
2 Good 2xx/20 Ravens
Verdungo/Titans
Highlord's
+10 Off Charms/Life
+1 Anni

With a CtA on the switch.

20 Salvation
20 Res Cold
20 HFreeze
20 HShock
~15 Res Light
+ reqs

Lvl 87

I'm assuming my damage output is decent, nothing noteworthy, but I'm pumping 4k Cold arrows and 9k Lightning Arrows (Max).
I use the HF by and large, as cheesy as it is, for solid damage. The slow affects about .001% of opponents, what with Enigmas and casters being all the rage at the minute.
The HS I got is largely for do and die situations, what with the massive Max on it. You just fire n' pray - not a good strategy - and hope that 9k comes out smiling right in that sorc's face.
The beauty of the build - if it has one at the minute in PvP - is that very few people seem to have a notion on how to combat me. My guess would be run at me and stab me, but they don't seem to get it O_O

The dual elements are useful also in PvM, not that I PvM much to be honest.

But this is a very fun build, and it still challenges me, even though I don't really have to aim. But then again, how many characters classes still aim these days?

20 + 20 + 20 +20 = 80 IAS, making the 75 frame. I reckon 125 wouldn't be suitable as it means losing my armour by and large o_O
 
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LovelyGods

Banned
so basicaly your a caster killer for the most part.

hmm..

is there any way to get Cold damage higher? Maybe a Nightwings??

a Pure Frost Ranger would be rather neat..
 
S

Siguesigue

Diabloii.Net Member
A Nightwing could work - but in my case I would need to IAS jewel it to get to 75%
And with reagrds to armour, a 15% Ormus with a RBF?

Casters do suffer, yes, but so do Barbs for obvious reasons :D

It's worth a look in.
 
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LovelyGods

Banned
Armor = no ormus, 20 % might not do it..

maybe try..... Jewelers armor of the Whale, 20.-20 it... something like that..

then compare the damage of that with that of a coh, see if +2 does more or 20/20 armor.
 
R

Rane-

Diabloii.Net Member
You guys DO know that Deadly Strike works with elemental damage right? With Highlords+Gores+Widowmaker that's 85% chance to do double damage.

Also why two ravenfrosts? You don't need the dex/AR and IMO +1 skills> 20% more cold absorb (whilst not being BM in attaining 40% absorb). You just need one rf for CBF and then throw on a Bul-Kathos.

Most importantly you really should focus on only one element if you want to be a serious dueler. There's no point in having Holy Shock 'just for the hell of it' and shoot them like prayers. Either go Holy Shock or Holy Freeze and then tweak your gear accordingly.

Eg;
Griffons Eye vs Nightwings
Rainbow Facet armour vs other Rainbow Facet armour

After the 60 points into your kill skill I would probably max Vigor so you have uber-turbo jets for catching people or running from them. Also have 1pt Charge with some weapon on switch. That'll be some good getaway gear. I was also contemplating 20 Fanat just in case you encounter some 40% absorb you element + 95 all res. Hey, what else are you gonna do with em?

As for which aura to choose idk. With appropriate gear the damage is;
Shock:
4000avg*1.35=5400 with 85% chane to do 10800 with -40% enemy light res.
Freeze:
2600avg*1.35=3510 with 85% chane to do 7020 with -20% enemy cold res.

For Shock the MAX dmg is ~21600 with DS and 10800 without it. If you compare this to zons thesedays (who are no powerhouses but can kill none the less) who pump out 7k[non-DS] GA's at most (and that's dexazons with ~0 hp and -70 all res ). Then take into account that the physical dmg PvP reduction is 1/6 whilst the elemental is only 1/4. Add to that the fact that everyone and there mother has some form of dr close to 50 thanks to Enigma/Verdungoes/CoA/Ber's so these zons are pumping out GA's that do ~1167 max dmg with good DS, ~583 avg.

Now your worst enemies will have 75% res but you have -40% (-20% with cold). This means with good DS your Shock arrows do ~3510 max dmg, ~1755. Likewise your Freeze arrows do ~790 max & avg.

The bonus of Freeze is that obviously you can slow them. However the fact that this is sometimes bm in addition to the fact that there are so many teleporters or charges that can kill you before the 3 sec flash happens this doesn't appear as useful as it does at first glance. Add to that the fact that 99.9% of all duelers wear at least one ravenfrost which takes the avg dmg to ~474. Whilst it's true some people wear wisp rings, they are far fewer than those with ravenfrost as everyone wants CBF.

In the end I think that Holy Freeze can work, as 474 dmg GA's are still good enough to contend seeing how this is the end resulting damage. So that's only say 6 hits to kill almost all people (of course there are Druids and BO etc, but the average dueler doesn't have more than 2.5k life)

I however would choose Holy Shock as it simply does a fair bit more damage. Even if you assume everyone who wears a rf also has a wisp, Holy Shock still far outplays Freeze.

Last point of call is the 11fpa vs 10fpa vs 9fpa debate. I myslef have always been partial to the faster the better side. However this is PvP not PvM. In PvM 9fpa wins hands-down, as you do 1/10 more damage per shot, which is hard to equate to with whatever gear you would replace the ias with. However PvP is fire fire fire, run, fire fire fire, run, etc. In this case removing some ias for Rainbow facets is quite an argument. Mathematically it appears that the best dmg output is 11fpa. Is 11fpa fast enought to fire whilst on the run though? There is a limit as to how much ias you can lose... I'm stilll looking into this and would like to hear suggestions.

Soz for the long post, been doing a lot of work on Ranger PvPers lately :/ :D
 
R

Rane-

Diabloii.Net Member
neXus said:
deadly strike doesnt work with elemental damage
Click to expand...
Since when? Afaik DS has always applied to elemental damage, whilst Critical Strike only applies to physical.
 
O

Omikron8

Diabloii.Net Member
I have never seen deadly strike or critical strike ever boost elemental damage in all the time that i played zons.
 
S

Siguesigue

Diabloii.Net Member
HF in my eyes outplays HS, except in the situations where a 1-hit lucky blitz can work.

20 Vigour isn't hot, because people can still tele at you, and HF slows the runners anyway. Pants idea.

The Fanat is hot though, chipping off the health might be a good idea rather than just healing the bastards. Obviously.

The 20/20 Armour is favourable. The life can come in handy.
Still reporting good things..! :D
 
R

Rane-

Diabloii.Net Member
Well that kinda sucks. In that case I don't think freeze can compete, Holy Shock however I still think is viable. The other idea I was toying with was Maxing HShock/RLight/Salvation/FoH and putting all needed in Conviction to hit 25 (with +skills and +10 off aura gc's). The idea was kinda of like a bone necro w/o tele. I was wonderin if you could fire of 2-3 GA's to get the opponent movin, then with Vigor+Charge catch up to them, wen near enough switch over to FoH+Conviction. Foh is mainly there just to stun them (and does a decent bit of damage at ~lvl25,) then the GA's catch up and hit with Conviction on. I don't know IF FoH will stun long enough for this to work, or if you can run fast enough, or if conviction wil latch on quick enough, but it's just an idea I've been messin with.
 
F

fast

Diabloii.Net Member
found a wizendraw the other day, -28% to enemy cold resist, thought would be fun for a frost-ranger

always thought a ranger might be fun
 
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Aladdin_IV

Diabloii.Net Member
I was looking after my cousin's account and noticed that he had a ranger in the making. After playing with it for two hours, I decided to adapt the Storm Ranger guide stickied at the top for Classic D2 since that's all I have.

Since Classic has no Widowmaker, is it wiser to put more than 1 point into Blessed Aim before maxing out Holy Shock? What should my chance-to-hit be and should I sacrifice points from Vitality to Dexterity to maintain this number?

My equipment:
Rattlecage (for 25% Crushing Blow and 40% of casting Terror)
Sigon gloves and belt (for 30% IAS and 10% LL)
Howltusk (for Knockback and 25% of casting Terror)
Goblin Toe (for 25% Crushing Blow)
Rogue's Bow

I'm going to take this ranger to probably around late NM. Any suggestions for alternative equipment and what mods I should look for in rings and amulets?

Also, why does Wizendraw have a -% to enemy cold resist? I'm looking at the DII.net Item Database and it says nothing about reducing cold resist. Is it an expansion-only thing like runes and jewels or is it a hidden attribute like Blessed Aim's boost to AR or the resistance aura's increasing maximum resist?
 
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Ed_MarloZon

Diabloii.Net Member
I started a Pure Fire elemental Ranger a week or so ago and he is upto lvl 41 right now and still using shi**y gear for now but he is so much fun

I am just glad to see other ppl playing rangers. :clap: :worship: :yep:

TangPau
 
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