[3.5-3.12 + 3,18 HC] Pure Herald of Agony Jugg. All content. Videos+Link to 3.14 & 3.15 Updates

So,

I have run at this point literally dozens of iterations of this idea trying to perfect it. Rain of arrows was the very first one I tried. And what I learned is that it's fine for packs, or bosses with adds, and a total fail against individual endgame bosses. No significant LGOH, only a few stacks of virulence. It was terrible once I took it into endgame. So I scrapped it and started working on this. :)

-O

Ah ok yah rain seems fine in low levels but was afraid it would fail and now u confirmed it so barrage it is
Have u tried goin shield wand for barrage?, you lose Loh and some speed but gain 30% block chance, is it worth it?

Re: Wand & shield.

That choice would literally cut your life gain/sec nearly in half, not to mention having to trade in blink arrow (which has almost unlimited range across a screen and comes with a brief decoy) for flame dash (which is more limited in speed and range and has no decoy). Instead of block we have dodge and spell dodge, which is superior anyway.

No contest between these two options. QRFTW! :>

-O

Advice for SSF HC version? So assuming I can't get the uniques, what should I look do differently?

Re: SSF

Quill rain is really non-negotiable for late game, but you can do the rest of the build via crafting/fossil crafting and quill rain is not hard to chance [edit--"not hard" is relative. trying to chance QR can still be crazy making if rng doesn't go your way.] Someone did an experiment and estimated it's about 1 in 175. You can do this on every short bow you can find or buy from vendors--save your chance orbs. Since you don't need a 6L, just a 6soc, you can add the extra sockets via jews later. Early leveling will be fine even without QR--just look for the best attack speed bow you have access to without worrying too much about other stats.

Thief's torment and gluttony are significant upgrades, but the build can function without them. Farm for elder rings when you get to maps and craft with Pristine fossils to get life gain on hit. Spend your first 20 GCPs to quality your LGOH gem. For the mana, you will need to take revelry early, and then craft jewels using alts to get the +mana on hit affix. You will know when you have slotted enough of those by feel. Until then, you will need a mana flask.

For the helm and glove fossil crafting, you won't have the leveling uniques, but i can confirm that the build will work fine without them up through low-mid maps, since i have done something similar as a league start. Once you get to maps, you will farm for elder helms and gloves and you will farm for sulphite to delve for the fossils you need. The craft for the gloves is a corroded/aberrant & or shuddering fossil. The craft for the helm is a bound fossil. Last league I was able to self craft both the 6 link gloves and helm using this method.

(bonus for adding a pristine fossil to either craft if you have lots of fossils, but otherwise I would not use pristines to give greater likelihood of the mods you need--you can craft life after)

Hope that helps. Good luck!

-O

Granted, iam still only leveling this build but i had to come on this thread and express my gratitude. Ive been playing HC in ARPGS since forever. I Just dont want to play without that rush, finding builds that work for me tho is always a bit tricky.

Iam not a good player by any stretch of the imaginating, i dont care about understanding the deeper mechanics of the game i just want to kill monsters and have fun doing it. So i look for guides. Most of the so called HC viable builds out there are really bad, its a DPS meter race and the general advice is for HC go sion life cluster GG.

This build however is fantastic, it makes no claim to be a fast mapper or a being the best dps build out there but it works so beautifully! All you have to do is follow the guide and you will be fine, facetanking stuff i normally would have really big problems with. Even the syndicate of screen one shot kills are not happening on this build, just keep firing that bow and you will be fine :)

I always wanted to play more bow builds but ranger is not very hc friendly. This is so great and i want to thank Orion72 for sharing and taking time out of his/her day to help others.

You are awesome!

This kind of response is what keeps me going trying to create new builds worth writing up. Very glad you are enjoying it!

-O

hello!
this is an awesome build that i'm leveling (currently lvl 39) but i have a few doubts

do you have a leveling skill tree? and, since you're using Glutony, wont be better tu use an evasion based armor?

thanks for your time and happy holidays ;)

Re Doubts:

Well, using this build, I am currently lvl 94 and just broke the top ten on the HC Delve ladder, if that helps any. :>

As for the leveling tree, it is laid out at the bottom of the guide--it isn't a very complex tree/process: Start with the dodge cluster then take the most efficient life nodes available until you do your cruel ascendancy. Then take the endurance charge nodes. Then take more life nodes until you swap to Kaoms or a 6L helm. Then take the minion nodes. Then resume taking life nodes. Spec into resses when you need to to stay capped.

Evasion Armour will provide only slight incremental defense, given that we already evade over 70% of attacks with flasks, and can layer dodge on top of that with a 10 second vaal grace when necessary. Kaom's, on the other hand, provides nearly an additional 2k life at full build, which let's us tank all kinds of things that would otherwise kill us.

Happy holidays to you also. :>

-O

I've been struggling to find a build I enjoy, I either end up with a skill I don't like the mechanics of or a build that's fun but dies when an enemy breaths on it. I only play SC so dying isn't really an issue but I find it annoying when things 1-shot or stunlock until I die anyway.

What changes would you consider to this build if played on SC (if any at all), where dying isn't the end but someone is still looking to avoid it while maximizing damage?