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Part of the Family Set:
Armor: Legendary Wildcard: Fort 214% - PRR 54 - Heal Amp 85 - False Life 81 - Green slot
Necklace: Legendary Family Recruit Sigil: True Seeing - Armor Piercing 33 - Deadly 17 - Relentless Fury - Yellow slot
Gloves: Legendary Hammerfist: Insightful Doublestrike 11 - Seeker 21 - Insightful Deadly 8 - Cannith Combat Infusion - Blue slot
(Set gives +15 Doublestrike - 25 Artifact Melee Power - 15% Artifact damage vs Helpless - 10% Fort bypass)
Head: Legendary Umber Brim: Insightful Accuracy 16 - Insightful Deception 8 - Profane well-rounded - Improved Quelling Strikes - Green slot
Goggles: Legendary Collective Sight: Dex 21 - Insight Dex 10 - Quality Resistance 4 - Blue slot
Cloak: Legendary Cloak of the City's Champion: Parrying 10 - Insightful CON 10 - Quality PRR 13 - Green slot
Belt: Legendary Bronze Dragonscale Belt: CON 21 - Heal Amp 85 - Insightful False Life 40 - Lifesealed 50 - Blue slot
Wrist: Brand of Kalok Shash: STR 22 - Quality Accuracy 8 - Quality Deadly 5 - Fire Absorb 53% - Green slot - Blue slot - Yellow slot
Ring: Legendary Celestial Ruby Ring: INT 21 - Stunning 23 - Accuracy 33 - Ghostly - Green slot
Ring: Slaver crafted: Sheltering 45 (for the MRR) - 185 Devotion - Hide 22 - Quality DEX +4
Trinket: Cannith crafted: Doublestrike 17 - Resistance 12 - Insightful Stunning +8
Boots: Cannith crafted: Dodge 15 - ??? - Ins Seeker 7 - Yellow slot (Feather Fall)
20 Ranger Wood Elf
Commentary:
Wood Elf for a few reasons--bonus to Dex and no elven Con penalty, Elven Weapon Training enhancement bonus to scimitars, and I like Wood Elves (flavor).
Pure ranger for Tempest capstone.
Stats
. . . . . . . .36pt . . Tome . . Level Up
. . . . . . . .---- . . ----. . .--------
Strength. . . . .8. . . .+6. . . .4: DEX
Dexterity . . . 20. . . .+6. . . .8: DEX
Constitution. . 18. . . .+6. . . 12: DEX
Intelligence. . .8. . . .+6. . . 16: DEX
Wisdom. . . . . 10. . . .+6. . . 20: DEX
Charisma. . . . .8. . . .+6. . . 24: DEX
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28: DEX
Commentary:
Max dex and con, two points in Int and Wis. Get all the skill points I want with 8 Int, but could put 2 there instead of Wis.
I like having Str as a dump stat, and only have to worry about Dex and Con which helps with gearing.
Skills:
Max: Spot, UMD, Heal, Balance, Search
Jump to 10 (any more is a waste)
1 point in tumble
I have some left over points and put them in hide and move silently, and am a very capable sneaky player, though rarely use sneak.
Commentary:
Concentration skill not a priority due to having Quicken feat for healing casting. Concentration would be then left to help with scroll usage, which is limited to Res Scrolls in this build.
With the change (nerf) to Scion of the Ethereal Plane, Hide doesn't mean much to me anymore.
Feats:
1 Precision
3 Completionist
6 Toughness
9 Improved Crit: Slash
12 Maximize
15 Quicken
18 Dodge
21 OC
24 Epic Toughness
26 Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
27 Blinding speed
28 Elusive target
29 Dire Charge
30 Epic Reflex
30 Scion of the Ethereal plane
Commentary:
I value having lots of HP, thus going against the general grain with Toughness/Epic Toughness. The combo adds 82 hp at cap. Need to be able to take some hard hits and survive.
Maximize vs Empowered Healing - I really value the ability to be a highly effective single target healer, and I've kept tanks and whole parties up on high reaper content and in raids. He can burn through SP, but have an Epic Ring of Spell Storing, and SP pots. I also make sure I have a devotion bonus on my gear. The ability to heal others is underrated and just a huge bonus with this build.
Quicken - Need to get those heals off fast!
Dodge - Can take it or leave it. I don't have any issues maximizing dodge with the help of items and enhancements, and maximizing dodge is a must on the build.
Elusive target - Can take it or leave it, and didn't feel anything else was better.
Dire Charge really helps as this build has no other crowd control which is a weakness that you have to be smart to work around.
Epic Reflex - It's not about the bonus to reflex saves as it is the no fail on a 1. This guy just doesn't fail reflex saves. Love dancing in the middle of traps in reaper.
Scion of the Ethereal plane - With the change (nerf), I'm still taking this over Scion of Arborea, though to be honest I could go either way. I like the Permanent Lesser Displacement and Ghost Touch. I like the Permanent Invisibility Guard too for flavor as it melds well with the playstyle.
Enhancements:
Tempest (to capstone):
Recommended for tempest:
Shield of Whirling Steel, Tempest, Graceful Death, Deflect Arrows, Whirlwind, Dervish
Improved Reaction III, Whirling Blades, Improved Defense III
Improved Parry III, Whirling Blades, Sprint Boost III
Storm Dancer, Whirling Blades
Storm Tempest, The Growing Storm III, Whirling Blades
Dual Perfection, Many Cuts III, Whirling Blades, Dance of Death III
Commentary:
I take the passive Many Cuts vs the Thousand Cuts clickie because I value simplicity and not having too many buttons to click in combat. I like to keep my core combat button click options to 12-13 slots
They really nailed Dance of Death (DoD) with the recent changes to it. The change to a 10 second clickie from the on-it activation itself was wonderful, but the fact you can have this ability on for 10 out of every 15 seconds is just marvelous. 200% Strikethrough Chance (plus the default 20%) so you are hitting three mobs at once (with a small chance to hit four). Moreover, the fact that so many of the abilities can proc on a Strikethrough, gosh...Let's just say that Tempest is better than ever solely based on the change to DoD. In the last 3-5+ years Tempest have gotten respect for high dps but I'd say they've been overlooked in recent years with Inquis and now THF. I'm fine with that...
Deepwood Stalker (at least 30 AP for the 4th core Mark of the Hunted):
Far Shot, Sneak Attack, Exposing Strike, Advanced Sneak Attack, Mark of the Hunted
Stealthy III (for +1 additional Sneak Attack Die), Increased Empathy I
Survivalist, Melee/Range Power Boost III
Survivalist, Thrill of the Hunt III, Favored Hunter III
Survivalist, Killer III, Merciful Strike
Commentary:
Exposing Strike DWS clickie attack is huge for this build. When you get agro in it gives you 4 out of every 6 seconds of sneak attack and works on named bosses.
Merciful Strike - I really like and part of my core combat rotation - (+3[W] damage. On Sneak Attack: If the target is below 50% health, deal 500 damage. This damage scales with 100% Melee Power). You do have to manage that they are vulnerable to sneak attack when you activate.
Advanced Sneak Attack (T3 Core Ability): +1 Sneak Attack Die. +10 Positive Spell Power. You gain a +1 Competence Bonus to Critical Threat Range with your equipped weapons. (This does not apply to Shields or Unarmed). Your attacks now bypass 10% fortification.
Mark of the Hunted: Activate: Expend a use of Wild Empathy. Your currently selected enemy receives -25% Fortification, -10 Armor Class, -10 Spell Resistance, and suffers a -4 penalty to all ability scores for 3 minutes. This effect also works on bosses and Raid bosses.
Passive: Your attacks bypass an additional 10% Fortification. You also gain +2 Damage when attacking Favored Enemies.
Passive: +10 Positive Spell Power
Mark of the Hunted, for red named and bosses, lasts more than enough time and benefits the ENTIRE party.
Wood Elf:
Elven Accuracy I, Nature I: +1 Dexterity
Elven Weapon Training I:
I have (5) racial action points is the reason for this.
For any left over enhancement points, I pump dex.
Epic Destiny:
Shadow-dancer is the way.
+10 Melee Power per Innate ability (60 total). The special abilities use your Dex stat. DDoor is nice to have.
Some core ones to take:
T1 Stealthy (3 points) - For +6 Assassinate DC for use with Executioner's Strike and Consume
T2 Lithe (3 points)
T3 Meld Into Darkness (3 points) - This is like getting the flashy star in Super Mario Brothers for 15 seconds invulnerability. The 120 second cooldown timer is reasonable, and the ability is usually there when you really need it. Huge for survivability.
T3 Grim Precision (3 points) - 15% fort bypass and 3% dodge bypass.
T5 Executioner's Strike (2 points) - Install kill with dc based on character level + higher of Dex modifier + Assassination bonuses. 12 second cooldown. Works with strikethrough. Yes please.
T5 Sealed Soul (2 point cost) - I took this because who doesn't hate neg levels. Not essential.
T6 Dark Imbuement - I love this ability. 30 second buff and only 2 minute cool down. +15 Melee Power, +2 sneak attack die, 9d6 unholy damage, the effective range of your melee attacks increases dramatically. With the attack range boost, combined with Dance of Death, it's like a giant harvesting machine rowing down rows of crops.
Twists:
Martial Hymn
Critical Damage
A Dance of Flowers
Unearthly Reactions
First Harmonic Chord
Commentary:
For Unearthly Reactions, I value adding the +6 reflex saves (adding strength to strength), the +3 dodge, and I like the flavor of phasing out when tumbling (and the visual).
I'm not sold on Critical Damage as my T3 twist.
Impregnable Mind is a backup T1 twist I am tempted to add to help out my will saves (which stink).
Gear: (as of Update 46)
Armor: Legendary Wildcard: Fort 214% - PRR 54 - Heal Amp 85 - False Life 81
Necklace: The Family’s Blessing: Quality Assassinate +2, Insightful Armor-Piercing - 16%, Competence Deadly +17, Doublestrike 24%
Gloves: Legendary Hammerfist: Insightful Doublestrike 11 - Seeker 21 - Insightful Deadly 8 - Cannith Combat Infusion
Head: Legendary Umber Brim: Insightful Accuracy 16 - Insightful Deception 8 - Profane well-rounded - Improved Quelling Strikes
Goggles: Legendary Collective Sight: Con 21 - Insightful DEX 10 - Quality Resistance 4
Cloak: Legendary Cloak of the City's Champion: Parrying 10 - Insightful CON 10 - Quality PRR 13
Ring: Legendary Celestial Ruby Ring: INT 21 - Stunning 23 - Accuracy 33 - Ghostly
Wrist: Legendary Ironclad Armbands: Devotion +214 - Protection +17 - Parrying +10 - Equipped Healing Amplification +43
Ring: Ring of the Silver Tongue: Improved Deception - Insightful Deception +8 - Assassinate +9 - Insightful Assassinate +4
Belt: Legendary Belt of Sure Strikes: Magical Sheltering +54, Insightful Seeker 10, Quality Combat Mastery +5, Quality Accuracy +8
Boots: The Shrouded Steps of the Beyond: Dexterity +22 - Enhanced Ghostly - Insightful Dodge +10% - Quality Dodge +5%
Trinket: Legendary Bottle of Smoke: Quality Dexterity +5 - Smoke Screen - Speed +30 - Deception +17
Commentary:
Login/unbuffed/non-reaper stats:
80.02% doublestrike (Killer enhancement stacked 4 times will bring to 100% or use a reaper charge to add 30%)
Offhand hit is 100% with 41% doublestrike on off hand.
97% fort bypass
17d6 sneak attack
172 standing melee power - Not including Martial Hymn which adds 10 melee power and 2d6 sneak attack (19d6), and Dark Imbuement (every 30 seconds out of 2 minutes) which adds 15 melee power and another 2d6 sneak attack (to 21d6).
175 PRR and 97 MRR
2200 HP and 914 SP
Scimitars:
Nightshard
Vulkoor's Edge
The Fractured Elegance
Commentary:
Will circumstantially switch between Vulkoor's Edge and The Fractured Elegance in the off hand. Love my Nightshard. They are fixing Glass Shards, yay!
Playstyle:
A dex based scimitar ranger is best played as an off-tank and should always be focused on positioning to do sneak attack damage. Ideally others have agro, but the Exposing Strike DWS clickie (4 out of every 6 seconds of sneak attack) really helps when you have agro.
Maximize use of items giving sneak attack damage (Deception, Insightful Deception), and get three Sneak Attack Die from DWS tree, and six SA die from Shadowdancer (SD).
A focus should be on getting Fort Bypass as high as possible (over 100%), which benefits not only the sneak attack damage, but also the expanded crit range of the scimitar. This is a key of the build. With the advent of sharn content, we saw very high fort mobs and this character really, really shined in this regard.
Fort Bypass Passive Sources:
Precision feat (25%)
Armor-Piercing Item - The Family’s Blessing - Insightful Armor-Piercing - 16% (or 33% on Legendary Family Recruit Sigil)
Advanced Sneak Attack (10%) - DWS core 3
Mark of the Hunted (10%)
Grim Precision (15%) - from SD.
Can also Twist in Piercing Clarity (10%)
5% from Filigree
Etc.
Threat reduction:
I use the 50% threat reduction Treachery filigree, plus the inherent 20% from the Shadowdancer Shadow Training III Innate ability. This is useful to maintain sneak attack on end bosses, but also detrimental for the occasional instance you need to keep agro and be a main tank.
Entering a combat situation against trash, it usually Dark Imbuement > Dire Charge > Dance of Death > Executioner's Strike > MASS DEATH (and sometimes the mobs die too)
The end result is a highly resilient, versatile and high DPS character.
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Best Ranger Right Now (Read 2455 times)
