Violet,40 Ranger,sidhe,Zen archer

[pete]

This is my build for a Sidhe called shot zen ranger
It is aimed at Hell/Ely/Abo/Abyss and excells in these areas

Its been a bunch of LL and endgame runs and its been a lot of fun

Pro's:
103 AB
135 AC
64 fort, 65 ref, 71 will
60-65% concealment (altered by bard song and hell pens)
Called Shot DC 61 (can get an extra 2 with ego and double demi)
Can CS every vulnerable mob in these areas
Urob/PoM/Hive bows give 7D8 elemental damage
max discipline and listen, very high concentration
max search - with elf keen senses allowing search checks without the need for search mode and your own restore spells being free actions you can check spots really quickly, without slowing the party (though with listed gear setup you do need song)

Con's:
very vulnerable to str and dex checks
no parry
damage is relatively low
no form of greater sanctuary, got to rely on pots
have to spam called shot every 6 seconds

List of favored enemys taken:
outsiders
aberrations
shapechangers
animals
vermin
magical beasts
monstrous humanoids
dragons
reptilian humanoids
elves
humans
undead (for extra AB/damage)

Elf sidhe pure ranger

Sidhe, Elf base race only
+2dex, +2con, +6wis, free zen archery, great wisdom 1 and 2

Base/sub/@60 without gear/@60 with all +14 and wis arty
str 8/ 8/ 8/22
dex 12/14/14/28
con 12/14/18/32
int 14/14/14/28
wis 18/24/54/70
cha 8/ 8/ 8/22

1 Ranger
Concentration +4, Discipline +4, Hide +4, Listen +4, Search +4, Tumble +2
- Favored Enemy (outsiders)
- Great Wisdom I
- Great Wisdom II
- Immunity To Sleep
- Skill Affinity (Listen)
- Skill Affinity (Search)
- Strong Soul (replace with dauntless at lvl 1)
- Zen Archery

2 Ranger

3 Ranger
- Weapon Focus (shortbow)

4 Ranger (Wisdom +1)

5 Ranger
- Favored Enemy (abberations)

6 Ranger
- Animal Companion
- Greater Weapon Focus (shortbow)

7 Ranger

8 Ranger (Wisdom +1)

9 Ranger
- Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
- Point Blank Shot

10 Ranger
- Favored Enemy (shapechangers)

11 Ranger

12 Ranger (Wisdom +1)
- Rapid Shot

13 Ranger

14 Ranger

15 Ranger
- Favored Enemy (animals)
- Lightning Reflexes

16 Ranger (Wisdom +1)

17 Ranger

18 Ranger
- Improved Critical (shortbow) take CS instead if not a reincartation with min tag

19 Ranger

20 Ranger (Wisdom +1)
- Favored Enemy (vermin)

21 Ranger
- Great Wisdom III

22 Ranger

23 Ranger
- Favored Enemy (magical beasts)

24 Ranger (Wisdom +1)
- Great Wisdom IV

25 Ranger
- Favored Enemy (monstrous humanoids)

26 Ranger
- Favored Enemy (dragons)

27 Ranger
- Great Wisdom V

28 Ranger (Wisdom +1)

29 Ranger
- Favored Enemy (reptilian humanoids)

30 Ranger
- Favored Enemy (elves)
- Great Wisdom VI

31 Ranger

32 Ranger (Wisdom +1)
- Favored Enemy (humans)

33 Ranger
- Great Wisdom VII

34 Ranger

35 Ranger
- Favored Enemy (undead)
- Bane of Enemies

36 Ranger (Wisdom +1)
- Great Wisdom VIII

37 Ranger

38 Ranger
- Epic Prowess

39 Ranger
- Great Wisdom IX

40 Ranger (Wisdom +1)
- Epic Weapon Focus (shortbow)

Legendary feats
Great Wisdom X
Legendary Weapon Focus (shortbow)
Epic Skill Focus (Search)
Epic Skill Focus (Discipline)
Legendary Valor
Legendary Reflexes
Armor Skin

Skills 63 ranks in all but tumble which will be 60 points to get 30 ranks (what skill would be at if it weren’t for the 127 cap)
Concentration (124)
Discipline (129)
Hide (122)
Listen (145)
Search (134)
Tumble CC (30 ranks)
3 spare points to do with what you want, nothing will make a real difference, i went parry

Use Epic Spell Focus Illusion book (bonus hide skill for self/party camo)
Use called shot pandect (or take CS at lvl 12 and use rapid shot pandect, but this costs the defensive aspects of blindfight)
Use wisdom arty


Gear:
weapon - ranger shortbows from Urob/PoM/Hive
armor - wings of the deva (lev and +14s)
mote - ely 5% imm mote
helm - VoV (listen, search, +14s)
bracers - reach out and kill someone (+1 CS DC)
boots - legendary boots of absorption (elemental resists)
belt - aimfea's masterworked belt (immunities)
amulet - specters necklace (exotic resists and listen)
cloak - titans wrap (phys resists and +14s)

rings - breach for most runs, either BUR exotic imm ones or ely elemental imm ones. on runs that need it BUR exotic mord ring (PW upon demi) or BUR immunity ring

this setup gives high conc disc listen search, all "#/-" resists, decent "%" immunitys, +14 to all but int


Saves: 64 fort, 65 reflex, 71 will

AB:
20 BAB + 10 epic + 15 legendary + 30 wis + 20 magic cap + 8 fw/gwf/ewf/lwf/prowess = 103

AC:
10 base + 9 dex + 19 BUR light armor + 30 wis + 20 dodge + 17 natural + 17 deflection + 2 Armor Skin + 6 Tumble + 6 shield AC on bows = 136

Called Shot DC: 61 (62 with ego or double demi, 63 with both)

Pete

[pete]

please help me with a sidhe zen archer build

thanks

pete

[Lee]

missed tumble? that's 12 ac ouch!

[pete]

got to be elf base race
so i only get 1 feat at level 1 and i personally feel getting saves above 60 is more valuable than 6 AC i would gain from taking blooded and LSA tumble

the big choice there, should i lower AB to 103 in order to raise AC to 130

it is an archer and will have 65% conceal too (loosing 1% per 4 skill hell pens)

[buddhamind]

I think tumble AC isn't really mandatory on a zen build. First off you already have a very high Wis bonus to AC. Second, for the most part you just stand near the casters and shoot stuff from a distance (unless you are actively trying to tank, or a mob decides you're its "buddy").

That said, my Zen has 60 ranks in tumble and I love having 140 AC. So I do think that dropping Craft Weapon for a bit of tumble is a good idea.

If you theoretically wanted to pick up tumble ranks, would swapping Dauntless/Leg. Valor for Great Fort/Leg. Fort, or possibly Epic Reflexes & Epic Fort, in exchange for Blooded at lvl. 1 drop you below 60 on fort or reflexes? Could you pick up a couple points of Con or Dex anywhere to make up for it?

And one final comment, playing in Abyss, Cha-Will checks (Lagathati, ugh) are much more of a nuisance for a Zen than sleep, because on a high Wis toon you never need to take a Will feat. And you can't CS when you're amnied.





Just my 2¢

[pete]

ty for input
iv decided to take 30 tumble CC, i dont think ESA would be worth it, as it would cost a legendary feat, which would be armor skin if i want to keep decent saves, so would only gain +4 AC from it.

yeh not looking forward to those cha-will saves. would it be worth going luck of heroes and Legendary luck in place of valor. would drop fort to 62, ref to 63. but would up will to 75 and cha-will to 51... which still sucks but sucks less
is it worth it just for abyss?

[buddhamind]

I guess it depends on how much you play in abyss. Laghathati check is DC 57 according to the wiki.

Also don't forget about the +6 Shield AC from the Ranger-specific shortbows. That will bring your calculation up to 136 AC.

[fallenwizard]

As for laghatis there are items for amni immunity that you can (sometimes easily) swap on without nerfing other gear totaly, how ever they also appear on runs that are underwater that alrdy puts more chalenge on the gear.

As side note, what are the pro's and con's vs your old, non sidhe CS ranger? Because Anarch for example is any race and puts you 1 pre epic, 1 epic feat behind, but would open you choice to go human for second lvl 1 feat for example.

Personaly I wouldnt bother with discepline on a zenny, or at least not ESF, lightarmors are quite safe from slagging as well as bow, disarm can be annoying at abyss, but unlike AA's who combines their bows into legendary archer bow and there for are much more hurt when disarmed, zenny can just swap another bow and keep CS'ing just dealing slightly less damage.

Improved critical is another feat you really have no use for: if you can crit you can insta kill, might get you like 500 more damage on log but IMHO really not needed on CS ranger build.

Going with Human Anarch you'd get extra lvl 1 feat, +1 skill at cost of 1 epic feat (human can start 8/14/10/18/14/8, which is same as your stats after sub, or drop 2 from int for +2str) and fast movement! Well, actuall pre epics are even, but extra lvl 1 is worth more than average pre epic, especialy since you can easily drop imp crit feat.

Then again, it is me who wrote a rant about these new subs the day they were released.. IMHO anarch works better for zenny than sidhe does, mostly because sidhe is restricted to Elf. Also with Anarch could possibly go with gnome, gets even more skills, or rather same skills with less int to spend more points on dex/str/con, example for gnome would be 12str/14dex/14con/24wis/10int/8cha after sub, same amount of skill points, drop imp crit and ESF disc for +1ab/ac (small stature) and fast movement. I bet you notice the movement more than -10disc on a zenny. Ofcourse, checking secrets without keen sence would be slightly slower I have to admit that.

[pete]

I wouldnt say sidhe its better than anarch sub, id say its equal

pro:
+1 pre-epic and +1 epic feats (if your picking armor skin anyway, +2 if your not)

con:
has to be elf

if i had free rain id put this sub on a halfling base, but immunity to sleep and keen senses are useful