PoE 3.6 Builds POE 3.6 Ranger Builds
 

If you a new players and are having no issues with currency and are getting a fair level of gear, this build can help new players to clear all content even though the playstyle may seem rough at first. 

 

 

Quick Jump

 

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • + Easy and Achievable Items. No League Specific or Legacy Items are needed. All you really need are some Uniques with Life & Elemental Resistances on Rare Gear. No need to stack 10+ Abyss Jewels.
  • + Adaptable. You can easily swap out some gear and skills to suit your own play style. e.g Tornado Shot or Lightning Arrow for clearing/mapping.
  • + Easy Map Boss Killer. Uber Elder, Shaper and (Shaper/Elder) Guardians are cut and dry, no extra mechanics needed, just need to know their basic mechanics and you'll be fine.
  • + 5.6K+ Life. With a bit of investment in gear, you can EASILY achieve a life pool above 5.6K, this build usually ends up around 5.7K to 6.1K of Life.
  • + Start Build Friendly. The template of this build can be a nice starter build for a Temp League, no need to respec or level a new character just to play this build.
  • + Beginner Friendly Endgame. Once you get use to the Scourge Arrow mechanics, you can just simply fire away from a safe distance and the Thorn Arrows (from the Spores) does most of the work for you.

Cons

  • - Cannot do REFLECT Maps.
  • - Cannot do Hall of Grandmasters. Only a few builds are dedicate to doing and farming this map. This build definately isn't one of them.
  • - Leech Rate. Unlike Barrage where you fire continuously and maintain a level of DPS and Life Leech, Scourge Arrow can't to that, so you can't face tank Endgame contents.

 

Mechanics

As stated previously, Lightning Damage mods offers a high range of damage and it scales with Elemental Damage bonuses. Lightning Damage also gives us the ability to Shock our enemies, making them more vulnerable to damage, hence allowing us to deal even more damage. With the help of Crit Chances and a Diamond Flask, Shock can easily be applied.

Since 3.1, Inpulsa's Broken Heart was released. This Body Armour gives us a decent amount of Life, but most importantly, it increases the effect of shock making our target more vulnerable to damage as well as increasing our damage if we have Shocked an enemy recently. Thus Lightning based builds have received a blessing.

In 3.4, Scourge Arrow was released! Making Barrage no longer the only single target DPS attack for bow builds. Although everyone doubted this skill when it was first released, I can dare say that this is the next/already mainstream single target DPS skill (just hope it doesn't get nerfed again lol).

In 3.5, Inpulsa's AoE Explosion got nerfed, but it won't be a big deal. If you are really worried about clear, you can use Herald of Ice instead of Herald of Thunder, and switch back to Herald of Thunder for the Big Bosses.

Since our build is Lightning based, the existance Inpulsa's and Scourge Arrow's draw time is based on Attack Speed, The Tempest finally emerged to be a bow that is viable for the Endgame. The Tempest grants us lots of Attack Speed thus making the draw time on Scourge Arrow much smoother to play with, and literally doubles our Lightning Damage makes it the one of the best bows for overall Endgame Mapping and Bossing. 

 

Skill Tree 

Ascendancy

Gathering Winds -> Fast and Deadly -> Powerful Precision -> Rupture

Bandits

Alira (You can choose Kill All too if you want. If can you managed to cap you resistances with gear and don't feel like leveling up to level 92).

Passive Tree

 

 

 

Gems Setup

Weapon 1: Scourge Arrow

Mirage Archer + Added Lightning Damage + Faster Attacks + Elemental Damage with Attacks + Lightning Penetration

Weapon 2: Lightning Arrow

(Optional Weapon Swap)

Mirage Archer + Added Lightning Damage + Greater Multiple Projectiles + Increased Critical Strikes + Elemental Damage with Attacks

Body Armour: Curse on Hit

Assassin's Mark + Herald of Thunder + Wrath (+ Enlighten (Optional)) | Portal

This doesn't need to be a 6-Link, 5-Link would be nice, 4-link still works perfectly fine.

Helmet: Increased Duration

Vaal Haste + Blood Rage + Phase Run

Boots: Cast when Damage Taken

Increased Duration + Immortal Call + Vaal Grace

Vaal Grace won't proc by Cast when Damage Taken, we just need to take advantage of the linked Increased Duration.

Gloves: Blink Arrow + Summon Ice Golem

 

Gem Quality & Gem Level

Usually you'd want to get Level 20 or 21 Gems with 20% Quality, but some Gem Qualities and Level doesn't affect the build or has little to no impact.

Wrath - Gem Quality has no effect our build. The quality only boosts the radius of the Aura, which has no effect our solo play.

Vaal Haste - Gem Quality has no effect our build. The quality only boosts the radius of the Aura, which has no effect our solo play.

Vaal Grace - Gem Quality has no effect our build. The quality only boosts the radius of the Aura, which has no effect our solo play.

Cast when Damage Taken - Gem Quality has no effect our build. The quality only boosts linked damaging skills, which we have none of.

Summon Ice Golem - The Qualty on this Gem has no effect on your DPS, it would only give your Golem more Life thus sustainability. I personally wouldn't pay extra for quality on this Gem.

Immortal Call - You can have this Gem at Level 1 if you wish. The levels and quality on this Gem has no effect on the duration unless you have Endurance Charges. Since you are a Ranger, Endurance Charges are basically off the table. The Qualtiy on this Gem affects the Cast Speed, and since we use Cast when Damage Taken, Immortal Call gets instantly casted anyway.

Enlighten - Level 3 is where you'd want it. You can try getting a Level 4 if you have too much currency on your hands. Quality on this Gem only affects the Leveling process.

Portal - 20% Quality is where you'd want it for faster casting. Levels have no use on this Gem.

 

Gear

Bows

The Tempest is the goto Bow for this build, you can do all contents with this Bow. It gives a good amount of Attack Speed and Lightning Damage, benefits the Lightning based build really well.

Note: Scourge Arrow itself isn't a bad clear skill. I would first use Scourge Arrow with The Tempest until I can afford a Chin Sol, then put Scourge Arrow into the Chin Sol and have Lightning Arrow (or another clear skill of your choice) in The Tempest.[/s] Nerfed in 3.5.

Windripper/Death's Opus, if you have one of these 6-Linked lying around and don't feel like buying another Bow, these can work too, but The Tempest is just straight up the big brother in this scenario because you are stacking Lightning Damage.

Quivers

Rare Spike-Point Arrow Quivers with Life, Elemental Damage with Attack Skills, Critical Strike Multiplier and Attack Speed (Attack Speed can be crafted), are the type of Quivers you want to aim to get.

Alternatively you could try buying Corrupted Drillnecks with Lightning Damage Implicit: http://poe.trade/search/ugihuwonarihau

Don't try to aim for something similar to my Dragon Quill in a Temp League, it can be very expensive and not worth it, I only bought it because someone was selling it for a good price on Standard.

Helm

Starkonja's is a good option for Bow builds in general, it gives a good amount of survivability and damage. However, this item can be a bit a expensive at the beginning of a Temp League. 

Alternatively, Devoto's Devotion and Rat's Nest are options too.

As for the Enchantment, it would probably be the last thing you'd buy the for the build depending on how expensive it is. This Enchant won't give you an insane amount of DPS boost like a "+ 2 Barrage Projectile" Enchant, but it does help out a bit when you have that extra Pod for some Endgame contents.

Body Armours

Inpulsa's Broken Heart, the best Unique Body Armour for Lightning Damage builds, gives extra Damage on Shock and Extra Shock Damage.

Loreweave is also a good option, however it can be expensive to get in Temp Leagues.

Queen of the Forest is one of the best Unique Body Armours for speed mapping. I don't recommend it unless you can afford to colour 4 or 5 Blue Sockets, it can be extremely hard to get the right coloured sockets.

Belly of the Beast is a good option for a more depensive playstyle, again this can be hard to colour too.

Belt

Stygian Vise is your goto base, but Leather Belts can be a good budget option until you can afford Stygian Vise with decent mods.

Gloves

Tombfist is the best Gloves you can get for DPS and a fair amount of Life. Remember to get the ones with 2 ABYSSAL SOCKETS. Otherwise, a pair of cheap Rare Gripped Gloves with Life and Resistances can be a good budget option.

Boots

You wanna get a pair of Rare Boots that has 30% Increased Movement Speed on it. You'd want to then have Elemental Resistances and/or Life (you can craft a decent amount of Life onto if it has an open Prefix). Also try to get some Intelligence or Strength on it to meet the Attribute Requirements for your Skill Gems.

Rings

Not too pedantic about Ring bases, just get Life, Resistances, Attributes, and then Elemental Damage if your budget allows.

Amulet

This build recommend Lapis Amulet as the base because it gives you a good amount of Intelligence for your 155 Intelligence Requirement.
Try to get Critical Strike Multiplier mod on the Amulet too, it helps a bit with your Damage.

Jewels

For your Belt, Amulet and Rings, you'd want to get Elemental Resistances and cap it with a decent amount of Life on them.

You'd then want to look for "#% Increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills" if your budget allows.

Having Life, Elemental Resistances and Increased Elemental Damage, having these 3 types of mods together instantly makes the item pricey. If you drop Elemental

Damage mod can make finding and purchasing these items much easier.

Remember to consider buying gear that has Strength or Intelligence on them, you'd need a total of 117 Strength and 155 Intelligence.

Flasks

Essentials: Life Flask with Bleed Immunity, Quicksilver Flask, Diamond Flask with Chill and Freeze Immunity

Utility Flask 1: Atziri's Promise, Dying Sun, Wise Oak

Atziri's Promise is the budget option and it provides you with a bit more damage and extra Leech.

Dying Sun can be expensive in Temp Leagues but it can helps Scourge Arrow to concentrate where the Spore Pods are placed to benefits single target DPS, as well as Scourge Arrow's initial projectile having a large Hit Box, so all 3 of them can hit the same target.

Wise Oak is a good budget option opposed to a Dying Sun if are able to balance your resistances (or have your Lightning Resistance being the highest uncapped resistance).

Utility Flask 2: Silver Flask, Dying Sun, Wise Oak

A Silver Flask gives you Onslaught which gives you Attack Speed which is important because it helps a lot with Scourge Arrow's draw time. Onslaught also gives you Movement Speed which is a nice addition that makes you more agile in Boss fights (also a tiny bonus to clear speed too).

A Jade Flask of Reflexes gives you a ton of Evasion. Only consider using this when you have a Queen of the Forest with 4+ Blue Sockets. It'll make you move faster and harder to hit.