Siege Ballista

Currently trying it out, and it' pretty fun.
Attack speed also really helps.
But seriously, is there any reason to actually build this with ranger?
As far as I can see, Scion is better in every way, as it is with most interesting build.
Original reason I hate that class so much. -.-
With 6 points of Ascendant, according to the planner, I can get Deadeye's Farshot, extra projectile, a pretty decent boost in the oh so valuable dexterity, and then get an extra totem from templar for diversion/soak or an extra siege ballista, depending on my socket needs.
Meanwhile, I also get more passive points.
So, yeh, even with Iron commander, this in't a ranger skill. I won't give up yet, though.

so im currenly level 53 with a templar/hierophant, running with iron commander untill i can use the lioneye bow. currently im doing really well with this build both in damage and defense, since im on str side of tree im using lioneye's fall to get bow nodes. it started a bit slow but it's scaling incredibly well, now i dont have the 2 extra totem point in hierophant yet but i just hit 200 dex wich will let me have 1 extra siege ballista with the bow im using, BUT since im also running searing bond, i cant use 3 ballistas and a searing bond at the same time, seems like the extra totem on searing bond and iron commander take up the same "slot"

but all in all its a fun and effective build, just annoying that i have to hit 400 dex to get the bonus from iron commander while using searing bond.

Siege Ballista is great totem skill. I fell it's way better than flame totem. Siege Ballista starts shine when you are 70 lvl +, but when linked in tablula with 15-20 quality support gems it got devastating power even on low levels.
Siege Ballista is best suited for ranger class, and here comes biggest leveling problem: long way to Ancestral Bond. You must sacrifice all regen and dps to get it around 32 lvl, which requires some gear investments and dedication.
I strongly suggest introduce to PoE some unique jewel who works exactly as Ancestral Bond point.
Another Siege Ballista issue is they are very, very fragile. Way more then flame totems, which can be easy supported by many points in marauder area. Siege Ballista need some kind of jewel or point in tree who gives thet 5 sec dmg immunity, like trap can have from "Clever Construction"
Doing Atziri split phases is very hard, ballistas die fast form aoe. On Death and taxes map it's just impossible to make ballistas works because they are nuked in 0,00001sec.
this is biggest Siege Ballista issue.

I rly enjoyed they as dedicated totem player.

"

Vipermagi wrote:

Ancestral Bond for Ballistae, without the downside. Can even function end-game if you build for it.

I tested that bow and saw many builds focusing on it. It works, but at huge dps loss cost. Iron_Commander is simply bad, low level bow is you compare dps to Lionsey's glare it's pathetic weak. And someone can says: you can have 4 or more totems: yes, but that make gameplay even worse, because totems dies from boss aoe fast and you must recast more to have same dps. Atziri split phase for example. On other side for easy content why anyone want more then 2 totems if we have so huge siege ballista range? I rly dislike Iron commander mechanics.

Mine dps is 42,879 per totem selfbuffed in hideout:

http://i.imgur.com/JyJcazR.jpg

And 57,816 per totem full buffed solo gameplay.

http://i.imgur.com/mAp7zAc.jpg

It's not even close possible to achieve on Iron Commander crap.
And with all that dps I'm sitting on very healthy 6437 hp and 10779 evasion rating ( 48% ).

i'll take a 30k on a 5L 90% crit iron commander build over an AB version any day. Throw in the crit multiplier, bleeds, as well as poisons and that damage you posted doesn't look that great.

I think this gem does not work with trap DAMAGE GEMS.

I mean it works with trap gem and multi and cluster support gems.
But non of trap related support gems nor the trap passive points change the tooltip dps.

"

Kartikdon wrote:

i'll take a 30k on a 5L 90% crit iron commander build over an AB version any day. Throw in the crit multiplier, bleeds, as well as poisons and that damage you posted doesn't look that great.

The other possibility is to do a elemental / added Chaos damage build with iron commander.
The elemental damage is multiplied with 4 (easy) or 5 totems.

And 4-5 totems are more bait for monsters or bosses.

So one possibility: Run Wrath/Anger aura, socket SB with faster attack, weapon elemental damage, frost damage, added Light. damage and in Skilltree Totem / proj. damage + crit.

Or go poison with added Chaos damage / snakebite gloves or a poison gem.
You can effectivly run a 8 link on a tabula/6link with splinter/Snakebite replacing LMA/Poison gem.


Using 4 totems instead of 2 doubles the damage in comparasation with a conventional 2-totem builds.

"

Llyrain wrote:

So one possibility: Run Wrath/Anger aura, socket SB with faster attack, weapon elemental damage, frost damage, added Light. damage and in Skilltree Totem / proj. damage + crit.

I've done something pretty similar to this in Perandus SC and it's been a really fun build. At level 80 with average-to-crap gear I'm doing 17k dps × 4 totems × 4 piercing arrows. On top of that I can attack for another ~10k dps (× 6 arrows), which makes it much less boring than the average double totem build. I'm a little fragile, but that's only really a problem when I'm cornered, which isn't very often thanks to knockback from projectile weakness and king of the hill.

Fun skill, and in the end that's what it's all about.