Talk:Ranger Builds/@comment-98.248.37.55-20150617102725

Got a Slavas Ranger. Beat the Infernal Guardian on Classic, midway through Act II on Inferno NG+ with a hilariously imbalanced build --  http://i.imgur.com/WSwfako.png -- all VIT+DEX with health/armor passives. The armor and charm were crafted, the shield was found, the dagger was bought.

VIT/DEX build + crafting for VIT/DEX + duelist (*massive* +50% crit bonus w/ swords/daggers, makes it easier to permacrit before you get very high +DEX gear) => crits all of the time => stacking up to +100% attack since you practically never non-crit, 20% of your criticals marking and healing you somewhat, constant replenishing of mana at +30/crit as well making it much more likely you'll be able to do a clutch heal or riposte even against a SMITER enemy w/o needing to put points in wisdom or intelligence. Guided Arrow being able to stop charges makes it even easier to be aggressive, too, since you don't need to reposition nearly as often. Vs. bows, bows do get a higher damage bonus from DEX, but you sacrifice blocking and can't benefit from the +50% of Duelist so you'll need to invest correspondingly more DEX and reach peak-critical later.

Slavas => laughs at curses, giving that curses cause regeneration that scales with max hp; significantly reduced damage from mega-pummel + high VIT build => lets you power through and ignore them almost all the time (and when you're cursed, it's usually for quite a while). Curse is not unusual for bosses and it has few counters, but regenerating 10% of your MAX HP per round for being cursed is good compensation for not being able to use your ULT.

Poison scales with your health, but continuous poison that you can't riposte / ravage away is pretty rare; perma-bleed scales and is not that rare, but both Umbral and Bloodthrust can make use of it. Bloodthrust will basically do damage equal to your max health, which makes it far and away your most powerful attack later on (*).

Passives => mostly health or block; regeneration and damage avoidance.

Early on I stuck with a low-stat Cloaking shield so I could keep attacking at close range or dealing with 'RANGED' enemies w/o worrying about Expose... and because armor/charm are much easier to switch out (crafting w/ hides and wood, with benefit from crafting skill + hammer) while shields need the kits. Holy charm was also nice, but less useful than getting a massive VIT. Nothing can kill you without going through VIT, and many things will have trouble hurting you if you have extremely high DEX.

Turtle wardrobe makes sense because this has very little reliance on MP and the penalty seems to be that you *start* battle at 50% but can actually reach your full mana, making it basically no penalty at all when every attack is a crit that gives you mana and you don't need to prep with Barrier  or a mantra... and reducing enemy attack rating further plays into making you nigh invulnerable -- with high DEX and Ranger's dodge advantages difficulty for non-focused / non-giant to hit, with high VIT and high-defense armor difficult to seriously harm; with high health passive, randomly tending to regenerate as well.

I went with a Wizard mercenary... pretty much all through Act I-V, and I-II so far on Inferno. Yes, Heal dazes, but since Heal weakens each use, I'd rather not be spamming it instead focusing on doing damage. The confusion is an added bonus.

And craft, craft, craft with any build. You can make obscenely powerful items with enough patience and soul-shard farming (every second fight against arena brawlers, every dungeon keystone boss gives one, notably). Every time you craft w/o overheating and with a durability <= 50, your skill goes up => higher quality to start (and higher durability AFAICT as well) => end up with higher quality. VIT/DEX are your friends.