RANGER FACEBREAKER - CRIT

Redid my jewel at Scion to get some mana leech and res - which helps me add in the Darkrays - I now hit 900k AOE Frenzy. I think someone with better gear, jewel, and higher levels could possibly break 1mm AOE Frenzy.

Yes, I know this is retarded-levels, but the good thing is there is still room to add more defenses: I want to redo my Ascension to Avatar of the Chase + Quartz Infusion and then add in Fortify.

Avatar of the Chase is almost like a mini-Ondar's Guile for both melee and projectile attacks, combined with blind and Rumi's + my dodges will be nice defense profile. I expect dropping Avatar of the Slaughter though will probably be a ~150k, maybe even 200k dps loss.

Duelist Champion would also work nicely.

Past this point you are now replacing gear and nodes to reduce DPS and get more life.


I know not everyone likes Frenzy, so I tried some other skills - these are all solo with buffs I can keep up: BR + Ice Golem + my 3 PCs from Assassin's Mark + 9 FCs + Taste of Hate and Lion's Roar.

Haven't added Vaal Haste yet, I'll probably prefer Vaal Grace for more dodge since I no longer use a Quartz flask.


Overall I really prefer staying with Frenzy, especially with Darkrays which has reduced Frenzy charge duration.



Cyclone + P2L + AF + MPD + ICC + Inc AOE = 770k AOE
Swapping Inc. AOE for Conc. Effect = 1.2mm single target

Good: stun immunity
Bad: a little higher mana cost, harder to maintain frenzy charges especially 1v1


Infernal Blow + P2L + MPD + ICC + MSplash + Multistrike = 823k AOE
Swapping MSplash for AF = 1.0mm single target

Good: fast AOE clear, phys reflect immunity with P2L
Bad: looks lame (not a real downside lol), harder to maintain frenzy charges especially 1v1


Ice Crash + P2L + MPD + ICC + AF + Inc AOE = 650k AOE
Swapping Inc AOE for Conc. Effect = 1.0mm single target. Middle ground is swapping Inc. AOE for ICD = 760k.

Good: fast AOE clear, looks badass, phys reflect immunity with P2L
Bad: lower single target, and wow this one lags my FPS the most I can't use it on this PC in some areas, harder to maintain frenzy charges especially 1v1.


EDIT: Freeze Potential
Realized that with the amount of cold damage on this build the freeze potential is extremely high. You need lots of crits to perma-freeze. I'll be testing removing Stibnite for Diamond Flask and then going Avatar of the Chase to compensate, will also try dropping Multistrike for Frenzy.

So I tried Avatar of the Chase for Raider - I wasn't too happy. The Onslaught buff for my EV% is too short (3 seconds), and having to use Onslaught flask is a pain because this flask uses 40 out of 60 charges as default so it is harder to sustain vs. something like a Stibnite flask that gives blind.

The good thing is that with Avatar of the Chase and Onslaught up my DPS only dropped about 40k vs. with Avatar of the Slaughter.

I can see for those who want high attack avoidance will do Avatar of the Chase with both Silver and Stibnite flasks. But for me I don't find it necessary, everything dies too fast.

Anyway, I'll be testing Pathfinder next.

I'm pretty happy with my mana now - just 0.3-0.4% phys damage leeched as mana is enough for me to sustain frenzy 1v1. I tested a few options, but the easiest option is just to have a mana leech mod on flask. You can put this on a Stibnite / Diamond / Silver / Basalt flask.

Ideally you would put the mana mod on a flask that recharges quickly (like Stibnite), or a flask that you reserve for 1v1 DPS against bosses (like Diamond or Silver).

This frees up your Scion jewel so you can get other mods like life / crit / claw damage / phys damage.

You really only need mana leech for bosses, because killing regular mobs with Assassin's Mark with 1 or 2 attacks is enough to easily sustain mana.

I also tried Diamond flask - for some reason this didn't feel like it was working well. I think it was because I am still using Multistrike and bosses usually take like 1 to 3 sets of attacks to kill. Oh well.

These are my flasks right now. I rolled the Stibnite so I can get a lot of uses -> this really helps because the smoke cloud does not move with you.

So I switched and have been testing as Pathfinder - I lost about 100k DPS so now I'm at 790k thanks to Veteran Bowyer.

Master Surgeon's inc. life recovery -> combined with all my life recovery nodes and Belly and Megi mods -> is giving me SUPER FAST recovery on my life flask I absolutely love it - it's basically now like an instant life flask: 1 sip can recover me 4k hp in about 1 sec.

Unfortunately I'm not seeing any other big advantages to Pathfinder on this build vs. Raider -> flasks recharge a little faster and last longer and have a little more % inc. effect, but apart from that I'm not noticing any big differences.

Bleed removal is nice and gives you a chance to add a different mod to your life flask.

I can see a case where someone just wants a different playing style from Raider and wants to eke out as much as they can from their flasks.

Or if you are using IB + P2L or Ice Crash + P2L and takes Veteran Bowyer to get full use of the 10% ele res penetration foi a very nice damage boost.

Overall though I prefer Raider and it gives a good mix of defensive and offensive options.

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I added in Reckoning + Endurance Charge on Melee Stun setup -> this helps to get some automatic endurance charges on your blocks for CWDT+IC. Alternatively you can add in some warcries since we have a lot of free space.

Last thing I want to test is removing Multistrike from Frenzy and running with Diamond flask to see how well this build can freeze.

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Scion Ascendant:

This is the last thing I want to test since we go so close to Scion start. Scion will be a very nice class to use. Although you lose a bit of life from Ranger start but you can combine:

- Champion (fortify chance on hit) with Berserker - note chance on hit is great with Multistrike because unlike crit it rolls for each hit in Multistrike similar to Blind

- Gladiator + Berserker (if you want more regular spell block and don't like shield swapping to Saffell's)

Other Scion combinations to add for even more retarded levels of DPS:
- Assassin
- Inquisitor

Can you post a vid of a full run without loot picking with a proper AOE melee like IB?

Single target is great versus the 3-4 bosses that need it but aoe clear is king. Past a certain dps threshold its kind of pointless to investment more into DPS. I think around 250-300k is the benchmark for a t14 map solo?

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Nephalim wrote:

Can you post a vid of a full run without loot picking with a proper AOE melee like IB?

Single target is great versus the 3-4 bosses that need it but aoe clear is king. Past a certain dps threshold its kind of pointless to investment more into DPS. I think around 250-300k is the benchmark for a t14 map solo?

EDIT: whoops this turned out to be a long response.

Hi buddy, yes I'll post a vid. For sure IB will clear faster. It's much easier because you can get greater AOE coverage.

Unfortunately IB already has phys conversion, so if you use P2L you will need to spend a few points to get generic mana leech so you can sustain vs. bosses that can't die in 2-3 sets of attacks.

Upside is that with full phys conversion you will never have to worry about phys reflect xD.

Really is just a matter of preference. Since I play solo - Frenzy AOE is already enough for me, and then I really like the higher single-target. It also makes my DPS consistent because I always have Frenzy charges up for bosses - which is when you really need your DPS to be high.

Please keep in mind that Frenzy charges are a big damage boost for Fbrkrs so if you can't keep these up for bosses (i.e. Palace Dominus both stages, Atziri, etc) it will be a big DPS loss.

Since I use Darkrays for extra DPS and to maintain an extra 18% dodge - using Frenzy is even nicer because my frenzy charge duration becomes very short with Darkrays.

So each skill has its pros and cons (see top post on this page). But yes, IB is the fastest AOE clear skill.

About your DPS question -
When I first made this build I thought this thing will be a glass-cannon, but I've actually been happy with the current level of survivability - but I understand that some people want more survivability than this.

I would argue that having high DPS still helps a lot with survivability - perfect example is Atziri or Death and Taxes. It just gives you better safety when you can reduce your time in battle to <3 seconds - especially for an evasion melee build.

I've also been experimenting a bit with perma-freezing bosses - which is looking promising - so the high DPS helps there a lot.


Anyway, if you want to go all the way down to 200-300K that's very easy on this build. All I'll do is change DPS nodes or shield/boots/jewels and get more life. You can also drop flasks i.e. swap say Lion's Roar for a Basalt flask.

I'll make a more tankier version of this build that would aim for:
- 5k+ life
- Lightning Coil
- Taste of Hate + Basalt
- Blind from Stibnite
- High dodges
- High blocks
- and then 200-300k dps =(

You can still run this as Raider to get some extra defensive bonuses:
- extra dodges from Avatar of the Veil
- or extra EV from Avatar of the Chase (could be nice to combine this with Arrow Dancing so you never have to worry about projectiles)

Or Champion for Fortify / Gladiator for extra blocks.

Or Scion to get like a hybrid-mix.

Update on Pathfinder: man, I've been playing Pathfinder extensively and this sub-class really feels useless. Dammit. I'll remove it from my guide. Got a little extra flask duration and bleed removal which was ok. With this kind of build where you one shot packs and bosses - 10% chance to get flask charge on crit is just more useless than I thought.

The best thing about Pathfinder was the inc. life recovery for my life flask -> so overall not worth a whole Ascension to get this.

I did think about Master Alchemist but I don't see any benefit there unless you want to use VoV adn Vaal Pact and grab something else instead of shock removal on your flask.

I really miss the extra movt. speed and phasing I can get from Raider, Pathfinder just feels so slow especially if you use Darkrays and can't sustain frenzy charges.



Vaal Pact: needless to say instant leech on an EV build is amazing. Definitely need either non-legacy VoV or Life Leech gem for 1v1. If you have legacy VoV you can skip Vaal Pact and add VoV to flasks (drop Stibnite) and build Master Alchemist to remove the shock.

Takes 4 points to get Vaal Pact so you will have to drop some damage.

Personally I don't really need Vaal Pact given my life flask gives super-fast regen. Here's a quick vid showing Cautious Eternal Life flask regen past low-life as Raider (Pathfinder would be even faster regen):

https://youtu.be/7RHPWPokeWA


Ancestral Protector: been trying out this guy and holy hell he packs a punch. I have him in a 2L but he hits for about 50k DPS. The range is long as well. This is perfect for dropping down where bosses spawn such as Izaro, Death & Taxes, Palace, Atziri, for extra KO punches! You can link him with Fortify to give him more eHP, but I like linking him with MPD for more damage since I am aiming for dat burst.


Updated Shopping List:
CORE:
Rigwalds: 3-4ex
Abyssus: with new crit mult. range and low phys damage taken: ~2ex
Legacy Facebreakers: old crit mult, and 900%+ unarmed phys roll: 5-6ex, going up
New Facebreakers: new crit mult, and 750%+ unarmed phys roll: <1ex
Legacy Megi: 15+ chaos
New Megi: 1-5 chaos

OPTIONAL:
Great Old One's Ward: 5-20 chaos depending on life roll, perf. life roll: 1ex
Darkrays: 5-10 chaos
Corrupted Darkrays with extra +1 Frenzy: 4ex-5ex, 10ex+ for high light res

Infernal Blow update: here is a quick IB vid on T12 Shipyard (sorry for the lag guys my pc is a bit weak) - clear speed is quick and burst is high. You are pretty much limited by your movt. speed so may be ideal to roll movt. speed on your Diamond/Stibnite flask:

https://youtu.be/yLgTdWdVw-o


If you want even more AOE than that you can add Inc. AOE gem.

I also used this to do a quick run on Labyrinth and just blast Izaro. IB needs a little tweaking on the build to run well.

Mana can be a problem with IB+P2L giving no phys. Bosses that don't die in 2-3 hits will give problems. So you either have to get some generic mana leech nodes (say 1 node from Essence Sap cluster which is 2 points away), or take out P2L for something like ICD or Inc.AOE so that you retain some phys to leech from. I got some generic mana leech by Essence Sap so I could keep P2L, and mana was never an issue.

Overall very nice AOE clear, but if you are not fast enough you may have trouble sustaining frenzy charges with IB. Especially with Darkrays.

IB is nice for regular maps, but maps with a secluded boss like Palace or Atziri will make it hard to actually use frenzy charges for the bosses, which will make your DPS drop much lower.


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EDIT: Death and Taxes
Ok, anyone who has played EV melee before knows this map is a HUGE FKING pain. I thought it would be borderline suicide with Abyssus. I did not switch to Saffell's for spell defense because I was relying more on my freeze and high damage to take down boss quickly.

Death and Taxes Vid with Frenzy:
https://youtu.be/eVEbO9nFv2E


Malformation
Fun on Malformation map with Vulnerability and some boss mods. This dropped from my Shipyard map for infernal blow so I just ran it. Vulnerability + Abyssus not a good combo.
https://youtu.be/ctxQZ6TdTDM

Hello, I was playing this build then i've seen yours it's a nice build mate congrats on the details and investisment. Question : Why not added fire dmg instead o p2l ? And Why not scion ascendent assassin + raider for dodge and perma onslaught ? Do you think Inquisitor ascendency would be more dps ?

"

MonsieurLambda wrote:

Hello, I was playing this build then i've seen yours it's a nice build mate congrats on the details and investisment. Question : Why not added fire dmg instead o p2l ? And Why not scion ascendent assassin + raider for dodge and perma onslaught ? Do you think Inquisitor ascendency would be more dps ?

Thanks buddy. P2L gives a lot of damage because it allows me to shock with lightning when I crit. The shock is a big damage multiplier: 1.5x on all damage.

Scion Ascendant is very good for crit Facebreaker, although I think best combination is something like Champion + Berserker/Assassin/Inquisotor, or Berserker + Assassin, but Ascendant Raider could also work.

I like Ranger Raider the best because it gives me a good mix of damage + high dodge.

Templar Inquisitor has some nice crit bonuses but it is hard to make it work for crit Facebreakers because you need claw nodes and a lot of dex, so Templar start doesn't work well as you will spend a lot of points connecting to the main tree.

Added some new boss vids:

T13 Excavation:
Mods were:
371% inc. monster crit chance
+43% monster crit mult
102% extra damage as fire
93% extra damage as lightning
Bloodlines
https://youtu.be/crgzKdHVdUM


T15 Abyss:
Mods were:
372% inc. monster crit chance
+44% monster crit mult
93% extra damage as lightning
Bloodlines
https://youtu.be/W5EshBZ_dXs