Whats best for the ranger

[76561198101980799]

ok i need some help before i waist my level up points. On a ranger what is best for my secondary weapon with a bow being my primary? Another bow, a one-handed weapon, a mace, a two-handed weapon? please help me finger this out. oh and the choices put above are not the only choises. Please give good feed back and if you answered Thank you.

[Bungle]

Checkout ziggyd gaming on youtube he has a blood tanky build which is very solid for a ranger. Complete with detailed skill point allocation.

[old Charlie]

I have never used a secondary on any of my characters in the long run, except for gem-leveling-purposes.
It might work as a standin for complicated late-game builds, but focus on one thing you are good at, skillwise. But you can use a secondary against some elemental-reflect-enemies, incase you do a lot of elemental damage. I´d recommend a 2h-weapon for that purpose because of the high physical-damage, but don´t waste skillpoints into secondary weapons, you´d regret it in the end. In fact i´d advice you to use 2 3l weapons/shield, to level up gems and forget about the whole secondary-weapon-thing..

As far as general advice for your build goes, i´d say stick to bow-nodes, critical-nodes, life-nodes, evasion, Ondars-Guile and and maybe Dodge. There are more experienced ranger-players on this forum though. You´ll probably get way better advice soon.

[Loco]

Originally posted by An Album Cover:

I have never used a secondary on any of my characters in the long run, except for gem-leveling-purposes.
It might work as a standin for complicated late-game builds, but focus on one thing you are good at, skillwise. But you can use a secondary against some elemental-reflect-enemies, incase you do a lot of elemental damage. I´d recommend a 2h-weapon for that purpose because of the high physical-damage, but don´t waste skillpoints into secondary weapons, you´d regret it in the end. In fact i´d advice you to use 2 3l weapons/shield, to level up gems and forget about the whole secondary-weapon-thing..

As far as general advice for your build goes, i´d say stick to bow-nodes, critical-nodes, life-nodes, evasion, Ondars-Guile and and maybe Dodge. There are more experienced ranger-players on this forum though. You´ll probably get way better advice soon.

This.

Focus on one weapon type, otherwise you'll be spending points to make 2nd weapon type work when they would be better used to make your primary weapon attacks stronger.

For dealing with reflect, simply have a skill that's not affected -- Ele reflect, use Frenzy or Split arrow. Phys Reflect, use Lightning/Explosive/Poison arrow.

My personal choice is Frenzy for ele reflect, Lightning arrow for phys reflect, with split arrow on standby for packs that have ele reflect.

[pruitcake]

Secondary weapons are pointless unless you have a specific build such as magic find culling. Just stick to one weapon and have skills that work for single-target and skills for AoE.

[swordfish]

Look man i ll tell u what u have to do, am now a ranger at the end of cruel diffic. on normal, split arrow, added cold or anything else, and most important pierce. also, make sure u level all the purity gems u get, they will be a huge asset for some boss fights, and if u find grace and elemental damage gem too make them level. also, make sure when u finish it on normal, you already have invested at least 4 points in elemental defence nodes, and frozen and chilled resist becz u will need them on cruel diffic.
On cruel, right now am using, split arrow, pericing, increased physical attack, and increased projectile attack speed gems, and I have added cold on the side leveling and i ll use it when I find an armor with five slots to add it.

From now, plan to go to the node that converts all ur evasion to armor instead of evasion becz evasion is good only on normal then on higher diffic, it will not protect u from death.

The question is now why am saying make split arrow skill your main focuse? becz as a ranger u have two nods on ur tree ( increased bow damage and increased projectile damage), and split arrow skill will benfit from both nods, besides increasing ur normal attack. Also, adding percing makes u kill even enemies off the screen without u being hit.
For damage nods, try to focuse on increasing crtical and physical damage, as most bosses have strong resists to elemental.

Pland ahead for the next entire game before u put ur points on the tree, or u will have to restart creating a new game and character. At the begaining of normal, try at least to increase ur mana generation to 40%, belive me will make ur life much easier. last advise to focuse on damage more than health or defence is a huge mistake and the opposit is true. This not torchlight 2 on elite, it is much harder and unforgiven, read a lot as i did becz there are many things u will fail even to discover by urself

[swordfish]

Originally posted by Deer God:

Secondary weapons are pointless unless you have a specific build such as magic find culling. Just stick to one weapon and have skills that work for single-target and skills for AoE.

As the guy told u, no need for secondary weapons, i told u this is not a torchlight 2, just focus on important things and one weapon only.

[Bungle]

I don't understand why you would not recommend a bloodraged tank. You exchange evasion for armour, you don't need mana for skills and your life pool gets to be in excess of 4k HP. Plus all the elemental damage nodes gives you a huge damage output. It really is a no brainer if your looking for an easy option.

[pruitcake]

Bloodrage or any build focused on life leech in general are less effective due to recent changes to life leech mechanics. Besides, I wouldn't recommend such a build to a new player, the risk of you losing too much health with blood rage might be too much for the player to manage. This is just my own opinion however. Do as you wish with your own build.