I think there is a significantly better tree route from Ranger to Duelist than stated in this guide.
The Duelist route goes through Quickstep, which is quite meh. To hit the Dex point near King of the Hill from Ranger (Finesse) takes 7 nodes, through Quickstep, and gives:
+40 dex,
12% attack speed,
8% movement speed.
However, we are already using Ondar's guile (Arrow Dance). So, to go to King of the Hill from there requires only 4 nodes. This gives 3 nodes in hand, which could well be spent to achieve Graceful Assault. THIS approach gives:
+40 dex,
+24% Evasion,
+16% increased Attack Damage
25% increased Evasion when you have Onslaught
10% change to gain Onslaught for 3 seconds on kill (20% increased attack and movement)
...for the same number of nodes.
AND it works beautifully well with the Pathfinder ascendancy route.
I just tried champion phys bow and is insanely strong, previously i had 90 phys bow raider and it looks weak in comparison with champion. Perma 18 movespeed is very good for mapping ( and does not depend on frenzy charges like raider does)
It has same clearspeed capabilities like ranger but on top of that there is broken fortify with 22 all damage reduction. With that i could easily resign from dodge and saved 5 points by that. Also with daresso, rats nest, maligaro and rare boots + onslaught flask with armor suffix i got 5k armor, 6k evasion + 1.6sec immortall call due to daresso charges. No wonder champion is most picked class atm (excluding ascendant but its only one way for scion, while duelist got 3 ascendancies)
Tldr : want godlike phys bow : go champion
Can you share your tree? I'd like to play this in HC, but I never played a bow Duelist and I don't really know how to go about it efficiently.
first of all i wouldnt go with build Leguleyo suggested.
key of the champion is using armor//evasion (since tree gives u 45//45bonus + there are few similar nodes in duelist tree), thats why there is no point in going acrobatics with duelists build because it cuts ur armor by half (which is much in my case) + its 6 points to get there.
also revenge of the hunted is not that good - not worthy spending 4 dex to get there.
also more life leech + vaal pact are mandatory with duelist. that way you are able to sortof "facetank" damage by leeching + its really good (i can do reflect maps without swapping gems)
this is my tree so far with lvl 86 :
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAQDAABeBiMILgiJCpsNjQ-rES8WvxmKGY4brSF2I9Mj9iSLJP0mlSo4LJQwfDH6MpQ2PTnUPs9DMUd-Sn1M_02STipRR1O7VP5VS1WFWhpbr11oXzlh4mIXYqxlTWyMbydwUnXLdf1293jrexR71H11fwJ_K4RvhJSGzod2iXGJ04rwjDaNfY1-j2CUuJUFlwaaaprxmy2dqqCfoaSly6bgp9Swq7VIt7a5HbvjvTa95r6nv9XBM8MzwzrEgsSiyqnTftRC2cbh2-Of5wrnVOlG6mLrY-xc7YPvevlj_MX-uv7I_94=
key to this build is proper gear, especially daresso defiance, or for levelling belly is even better i would say 50-80 bonus life from belly is good, but later on with enough +% life nodes daresso is getting better because it provides more eva//armor, 6% dodge, and which is most important are those endurance charges which are easy to max and provide us with phys resistance + 1,6sec immortall call (from cwdt) this thing is very usefull on high lvl maps.
with my previous ranger build i was afraid of some mid tier "deadly bossess" like tunneltrap//spinner
and now i can even "tank them".
of course its not pure tank build especially with lots of move speed key here is to evading attacks by positioning, using blink arrow clone + ballista. but even so pure dodge + acrobatics of ranger wouldnt save me from 1hitko from some bossess, and now i can survive much more due to armor + fortify.
another important piece is rats nest. it gives lots of eva, good dps and move speed.
gloves are debatable i was using maligaro at the beggining but now with high crit base bow i swapped to facebreaker and it boosted dps by 6%
boots should be rare to buff hp + provide some resists
belt needs to be like this :
lota of armor + life is mandatory+ some resists wouldnt hurt, phys variant of the one i linked would be even better for this build.
rare//amu//quiver all rare with life, phys dmg, res , int and a bit of str (111int//str is min)
about gems typical phys la//blast rain setups are main key (5l/6l) cdwt+ic, ice golem, herald of ash, hatred is mandatory too
as "utility" i use blink arrow + siege ballista, and frenzy + curse on hit + assassins mark for boss fights + maintaining frenzy.
however for hc i would probably change some things in tree (more life), and maybe darkray vectors for more dodge chance (but then it might be hard to cap resists)
Your version of the build is really interesting! 2 ideas I would like to discuss with you:
- You would save 5 passives if you ignored quickstep and weapon artistry and used 2 dex nodes to connect the duelist and rager areas. Totally worth it imo.
- If you plan to face tank some bosses why not take point blank?
Maybe i am looking at smth wrong but how would you hit the Thick Skin nodes think you need more that way? Also how much of mana leech is enough as i am thinking of dropping essence sap and 2 nodes around it? Also Arrow Dance is not even selected in his regular tree. I am currently Deadeye but i will be switching to Champion as it just looks so good with the move speed and fortify, any thoughts?
I think there is a significantly better tree route from Ranger to Duelist than stated in this guide.
The Duelist route goes through Quickstep, which is quite meh. To hit the Dex point near King of the Hill from Ranger (Finesse) takes 7 nodes, through Quickstep, and gives:
+40 dex,
12% attack speed,
8% movement speed.
However, we are already using Ondar's guile (Arrow Dance). So, to go to King of the Hill from there requires only 4 nodes. This gives 3 nodes in hand, which could well be spent to achieve Graceful Assault. THIS approach gives:
+40 dex,
+24% Evasion,
+16% increased Attack Damage
25% increased Evasion when you have Onslaught
10% change to gain Onslaught for 3 seconds on kill (20% increased attack and movement)
...for the same number of nodes.
AND it works beautifully well with the Pathfinder ascendancy route.
Your version of the build is really interesting! 2 ideas I would like to discuss with you:
- You would save 5 passives if you ignored quickstep and weapon artistry and used 2 dex nodes to connect the duelist and rager areas. Totally worth it imo.
- If you plan to face tank some bosses why not take point blank?
the ideas you are proposing are not bad, i started with something similar you say but over course of testing i discovered that weapon artistry is very good node worth taking especially the 16phys + 4ias provides quite nice dps boost + 10 str helps to get that desired 111 without relying on gear.
the reason why i choose to connect right side of the tree by frenzy charges instead of bottom dex path is because this 1,5 extra second of frenzy is quite nice for mapping, especially when there is lot of loot to pick i discovered that diffrence with 13 vs 15 sec frenzy saves my charges frequently. but now im thinking of regretting and go by bottom path + take 3 weapon ele damage nodes, im going to test it today.
about quickstep its quite good, but not mandatory i just love to minmax move speed for mapping so this 8% extra move is nice + i already maxed my build in primary nodes so now i would take the secondary ones like +4ias//+15phys damage near aspect of the eagle, thats why quickstep is good because its 3 nodes for 12 ias (same as those +4per node near ranger start) + "free" 8%move.
about facetaking bossess i was little ironical, as a bow user u never want to facetank (especially in hc) but in comparison with my previous 90 raider which was build around evasion + acrobatics i was dying "quite" often while as a champion i could stand my ground and survive by leeching
thats why u want to keep everthing at range so there is no point in using point blank, its only good for some ice shoot combinations
this jewel socket near vaal pact is quite interesting i forgot about it but its quite good addition, especially when there will be more good jewels on the market.
and from some minor additions i would add 1 point to duelist starting tree +6ias + 12% accu: its really good for 1 point
