Sniper of the Woods (Anarch Ranger 40)

[scarabamassa]

The build is pretty straight.. go ranger all levels

Anarch (CON +4 WIS +6, free feat: Alertness, free feat: Creature Weapon Specialization, free
feat: Martial Weapon Proficiency, free feat: Armor Skin, free feat: Creature Epic Weapon
Specialization, increased base movement rate - fast)

Base Race: Human
Starting Stats
Base/After Sub/
Str 8/8
Dex 14/14
Con 10/14
Wis 18/24
Int 14/14
Cha 8/8
All Stats goes to Wisdom
For skills: Animal Empathy, Craft Weapon, Discipline, Hide, Listen, Parry... keep rest for tumble at lvl 42
You can easily drop craft weapon to get search since AB isnt much a problem
Feats marked with a * are ranger feats

Lvl 1 - Blooded, Strong Soul (swap for dauntless at lvl 1), Favored Enemy
Lvl 3 - Weap Focus (Longbow or Shortbow)
Lvl 5 - Favored Enemy
Lvl 6 - Zen Archery
Lvl 9 - Intuitive attack (being able to use melee weapons in deeper hell runs is better for crit imm monsters after all the others are dead)
Lvl 10 - Favored Enemy
Lvl 12 - Point Blank Shot
Lvl 15 - Lightning Reflexes, Favored Enemy
Lvl 18 - Called SHot
Lvl 20 - Favored Enemy
Lvl 21 - Great Wisdom I
Lvl 23 - Bane Of Enemies*
Lvl 24 - Great Wisdom II
Lvl 25 - Epic Weap Focus (Longbow or Shortbow)*
Lvl 26 - Epic Prowess*
Lvl 27 - Great Wisdom III
Lvl 29 - Favored Enemy*
Lvl 30 - Great Wisdom IV, Favored Enemy*
Lvl 32 - Favored Enemy*
Lvl 33 - Great Wisdom V
Lvl 35 - Favored Enemy*, Favored Enemy*
Lvl 36 - Great Wisdom VI
Lvl 38 - Favored Enemy*
Lvl 39 - Great Wisdom VII
Lvl 40 - Favored Enemy*
Lvl 42 - LSA Tumble
Lvl 45 - Leg weapon Focus (longbow or shortbow)
Lvl 48 - Leg Valor
Lvl 51 - Leg Reflexes
Lvl 54 - Great Wisdom VIII
Lvl 57 - Great Wisdom IX
Lvl 60 - Great Wisdom X

Favored Enemies (take in the order you think are better)
Aberrations
Animals
Beasts
Dragons
Elementals
Half - Elves
Magical Beasts
Monstruous Humanoids
Outsiders
Reptilian Humanoids
Shapechangers
Vermin

Planing to use wisdom artifact and pandect for rapid shot feat


Saves at lvl 40/60/(x1 demi)

Fort: 25/63/(64)
Reflex: 21/64/(65)
Will: 32/70/(71)

AB: 20 base + 10 epic +15 legendary + 7 weapon foci + 20 buffs + 28 wisdom + 1 or 2 craft weapon = 101 or 102 (+2 Bane of Enemies + 1 when standing in 15 ft + 3 with d-demi and wis arti - 2 Rapid Shot)
AC in URs: 10 base + 8 dex + 19 light armor + 6 shield (Uro bow) + 16 deflection + 16 natural + 20 dodge + 12 tumble + 2 Armor Skin + 28 wis + 1 or 2 Craft Armor = 138 or 139

[Lythe Featherblade]

With a called shot DC maxing at 60 you'll be having a lot of fun at 50+ on anything not crit mmune, but you'll never really have a weapon for decent regular damage output. As it stands, your best weapon may be Uroboros shortbows, trading some damage (vs Hunters points) for quick swappable choices in damage types. I think I've met someone planning a pure ranger zen archer before, but forget who; hopefully someone has some insight in how well an archer without DB bows fares.

[simpetar]

This is pretty similar to my own build and I can say I love it I went with Anarch Gnome instead of Human - you will get 1 more skill to max, 60 more HPs and loss of 1 feat can be easily compensated, but it is the matter of your taste

May 29, 2008 6:21:55 GMT Lythe Featherblade said:

hopefully someone has some insight in how well an archer without DB bows fares.

I have been using Uroboros Shortbow all the time (x1 demi, tagged to Phleg) and IMHO it is the right tool for this type of build. Damage types are not that great, but they do not really matter, since your power will be in instant kills. I hardly found necessary to switch bows. Other bonuses are lovely - extra attack per round will help you insta kill a mob faster, shield AC will push your AC to mid - high 140´s.
I wish you enjoy this build like I have so far - it is a funny one to play

cheers
simpetar

[simpetar]

Some calculations:
AB: 20 base + 10 epic +15 legendary + 7 weapon foci + 20 buffs + 28 wisdom + 1 or 2 craft weapon = 101 or 102 (+2 Bane of Enemies + 1 when standing in 15 ft + 3 with d-demi and wis arti - 2 Rapid Shot)

AC in URs: 10 base + 8 dex + 19 light armor + 6 shield (Uro bow) + 16 deflection + 16 natural + 20 dodge + 12 tumble + 2 Armor Skin + 28 wis + 1 or 2 Craft Armor = 138 or 139 (which is excellent IMHO for somebody who will just stay back and rain arrows, d-demi in BURs, Asmo item, Girding and wis arti you can get up to 151 (!!!))

Some suggestions:
I would probably drop Undead and Constructs from FE list; they are mostly immune to critical hits, therefore to your CS. Keep in mind that bows are ranged weapons (= no GMW or BT or such) and your arrows will get no enhancement bonus. On the other hand, I miss Beasts and Magical Beasts, both of which are more common in LL areas and hells. Dragons are fine (you *can* CS Spawns of Uro and save your party lots of troubles), if you are planning to spend extra time with drows, I would probably exchange Humans for Half-Elves (Drey).
Small suggestion (and maybe completely out of mind ): You will have lots of spell slots to buff your party or self. You might want to read Transmutation or Enchantment book to improve BT for party mates. I have been playing with idea to read Conjuration book (and then take LSF Conjuration) to improve Grease, just for fun. Your high wisdom will ensure its DC will be noteworthy (52 @ lvl 60, 55 with d-demi and arti) and from lvl 41 it ignores SR. Just a thought though

[scarabamassa]

Thanks for the reply
i'm with some doubts like is necessary to get that high wisdom or i could drop 2 great wis feats for toughness and rapid shot?
i think i can leave without rapid shot and can always search for a pandect to get this
Using gnome would cost me Luck of Heroes which means -4 all saves.. droping blooded isn't an option.
Another major doubt is if i need at least an AA level to use DB bows.. most people in game said i can't leave without them but well, where the fun in a splash ranger? i don't think AA lvl and DB bows are this necessary.
Should i drop craft armor or weapon for animal empathy?
The Spell book idea is really nice.. was thinking about this before and i have a huge stockpile of these books and nothing to do with them.... just don't know which to use... Enchantment would give +13/keen for slashing, Transmutation would give +10/keen for all... enchantment must b better... Conjuration for grease isn't a bad choice too.. i will think about it.

Thanks again

[simpetar]

AA splash: you lose Improved Evasion, 2 DC from Called Shot, some benefits from buffing spells, but will have higher damage output apart from instant kills. DB bows require at least 1 lvl of AA, Uro bows require nothing else but 1 ranger lvl (and you are going to be pure).
As for saves, with Gnome, I took 4 extra feats (Lightning, Epic and Legendary Reflexes + Epic Fort) at the cost of 2 GR wis. It really did not hurt, especially because Gnomes are small and get bonuses against bigger mobs. Saves ended at 62/62/68, which is fairly playable.

[simpetar]

My take of the build:
Gnome (Anarch)
Str 6
Con 12 (16)
Dex 14
Int 14
Wis 18 (24)
Cha 8

Pre-epic feats: Blooded, Zen Archery, Called Shot, WF Shortbow, IC Shortbow, Point Blank Shot, Lightning Reflex, 5x FE
Epic feats: ESF Discipline, Epic Reflex, Epic Fortitude, 4x Great Wisdom, 4x FE
Ranger bonus feats: Epic Prowess, EWF Shortbow, Bane of Enemies, 3x FE
Legendary feats: LSA Tumble, LWF Shortbow, Legendary Reflex, 4x Great Wisdom

Skills to max: Animal Empathy, Craft Armor, Craft Weapon, Discipline, Hide, Listen, Parry, Tumble

FEs: Aberrations, Animals, Beasts, Constructs (probably going to exchange for Elves on reinc after d-demi), Dragons, Elementals, Magical Beasts, Monstrous Humanoids, Undead (going to exchange for Half-Elves on reinc), Vermin

Saves at 60: Ref 62 (+ Improved Evasion), Fort 62, Will 68
HPs: 1110
Spell book: Transmutation (if anybody wants Blade Thirst)
Pandect: if I ever come across Rapid Shot...
Artifact: wisdom

[scarabamassa]

Updated to change favored enemy list as suggested and to include AB and AC calculation as posted by simpetar
thanks for the numbers btw simpetar

Scaraba

[Feng]

Does Blade Thirst work on a Bow if you have GSF Transmutation ?

[starlandra]

no

[scarabamassa]

Jun 8, 2008 18:57:20 GMT Feng said:

Does Blade Thirst work on a Bow if you have GSF Transmutation ?

no

[scarabamassa]

demi this build yesterday and reincarnated it to make some changes from the original, so now its updated to include some modification since it was an old build

Swaped Luck of Heroes for Strong Soul at lvl 1 to gain acess to Dauntless feat

Swaped Imp Critical short-bow for Intuitive attack

Swaped favored enemies elves to get shapechangers (can CS raks and nuperibos in hells)

Kept favored enemies half-elves

Droped craft armor skill to get animal empathy since this build already have crazy ac

[Michael Buble]

Is this still a viable build into the paragon days? I'm going to reinc soon and have an Anarch book ready to go. What would you take in the Paragon levels?

[Lythe Featherblade]

Looks very viable to me. Just some thoughts glancing through this...

Weapon focus (longbow or shortbow) you definitely want to go shortbow as a ranger.

Lack of improved critical... no big loss, you can always get it off an augmenter, it's not worth fitting a feat in.

Enemies list - seems ok, once you hit 60+ and get your wis arti (and don't need to do Pyramid anymore) you may wish to redo it and drop elementals in favor of elves or humans (for abyss).

saves - very high for a zen

race - human... I've gone elf on several zens/reincarnates now for the active search, it cost me in saves but I've never regretted it. Paragon levels allowed me to catch up in saves.

point blank shot - personally I'd drop this for extended spell. 1 hit/dam is pointless as you don't do much damage, and it doesn't do anything useful like preventing attacks of opportunity. However with extended spell your bladethirst for weapons using intuitive attack will last longer, so it's a good investment.

pandects - I preffer the blindfighting pandect instead, called shot plus free blindfighting, while you should have maxed listen at least you get the defensive benefit, but this does require a reincarnate to make full use of. Rapid shot can be useful, but much of the time I'm to busy to toggle it on, and you'll be swapping targets so often that it doesn't always stay on for long.


Zen rangers are fairly simple, if you max your wis you max your called shot DC and most things become secondary.

Paragon levels.. as a zen ranger your biggest problem is ability checks. I did nessus as a doppleganger non-demi recently (dusted off an old zen), and I was sitting down a lot. 2x+ demi with asmo belt is a lot more respectable, and you can be making things like gelugon checks even rolling a 1, and kyton/erinyes checks are a thing of the past. Paragon feats lets you add another +4 to each, giving you a base 34 on str, 40 on dex... with asmo belt at 66 that would be 36/42, and at 80 38/44.

Intuitive attack - I wouldn't do without it anymore. Paragon levels gives you extra feats, extra feats mean you can pick a melee weapon and get more attack bonus. I've racked up some impressive damage with my zen just by swapping to melee after the trash is down and only crit immune stuff is left (now combine that with your ability to make stat checks, and go melee a pitfiend or malebranche). Scimitars have decent crits, clubs are unslaggable, and spears give some nice 2-handed damage.. using an abyss spear, kocrachons go down pretty fast for me now even only self buffed (~200 damage a hit), and fully buffed with clubs I can be doing consistent 100+ damage a hit to pitfiends (my sig is a level 60 zen ranger on an enervated PF).

Called shot DC... max was 64 with 74 wis. 70 wis was 62 DC, the last step was where you got a double bonus. Paragon levels means the max went up to 65 DC at 78 wis. So you can go for 1 more DC, or once you get high enough, you can drop 4 wis, and use that versatility to flesh out another aspect.. but I recommend doing this after you've come close to or hit level 80. Getting from 62 to 64 DC is very nice, and the current plan means you hit it at single demi even if you are missing one of the following(double demi, level 65, wis arti, ego item)...

The only real caution about reincarnations to update your build at higher levels is if you plan on doing abyss, and/or if elemental evils have a long progression of tags, you'll want to update your build before you start them, as these kinds of tags can be hard to regain or to finish the complete set so you don't lose them on reincarnate.

[Crazy]

My suggestions,

Follow the favored enemies on Rain's build.
highergroundpoa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=baseranger&action=display&thread=17311

Intuitive Attack is awesome, as Lythe said. Use a spear/QS, with the new dmg increase it should be better than 2 maces/clubs. I have 102AB with no weapon focus feats with a spear or maces, nice and easy.

I took the 3 -layer penalty feats on mine, I think lythe's idea with the +4 to dex/str checks might be better.