Not a Second Class Zogue (39Rang/1Rog)

[Crazy]

No jackass ears required for this rogue.

There are 2 variants, one is an Anarch that, as is, requires double demi for max rogue abilities. This is easy enough to overcome, by swapping 2 feats for ESF feats.

The second variant is for the new Sidhe BUR race, at 0x demi.

The build is 1DC down from a pure ranger. It has max in all rogue skills. Has pulled top kills in most hells/abyss runs. Does OK in Ely. Has opened all hells/P3 abyss loot.

Google Spreadsheet with both builds on different tabs

[gsheet]0ApVVbzRZ8bkjdGE0aFk4SzlzakJxNE1iLUdyb1hFS2c[/gsheet]

How to play
There shouldn't need to be a section for this, but nonetheless..

You can kill 97.3% of non crit imm mobs, regardless of buffs, spell level immunity, ect. Your primary job it to take out priority targets that others can not. As tempting as the Lemure might be, the Superior Elite Raja is a touch more important.

Mobs with spell mantles are usually high priority. Rakshasha/Raja for hells, in abyss there are a few, Yaunti, dustmen, ect.

Ranged mobs are another, Spinagons, Yaunti Archers, Dustmen Slingers..

Mobs that do special abilities, like Cornagons (need bard curse first to drop parry), Spinagons, ect.

Don't waste your time shooting at mobs about to be ploded/drowned/weirded, focus on stuff away from group, or mobs attacking casters.

Don't forget you have very high AC, decent conceal. You can tank non stat check mobs better than most 'tanks'.

You have 100+ AB with a melee weapon (I prefer spear). If there's nothing left to shoot, and your groups dmg is bleh, get out your spear and start attacking. You will do much better generally with melee.

You have active search as an elf, so you should, ready for it, actively search... While the groups recovering from killing 2 lemures, check the search your standing next to. Waiting until the end and QQing about it is stupid. The groups not going to wait for you, however much they want the secrets, so just get the job done.
wiki.hgweb.org/wiki/Hell_Secrets
Print it out, memorize it, dream about it....

Note: Don't search in abyss unless you have a DM in party. Most of them are buggy at best, not worth the risk in delaying the party.


Gear
Zen is very easy to gear, since you natively get very high AC and not that many attacks per round.

You will want to get the set of Ranger short bows, that give nice ele/exotic dmg, as well as some shield AC. They can be found on the wiki, but drop from Uro/Hive/POM.

For intuitive attack I personally use a Spear. I have a couple abyss spears so i don't have to bother with weapon buffs past IOF. Machine spear is very handy to have on this char.

Chest - Must be light armor, Nameless Cold is my personal favorite, but it depends what you have from random gear. (Abyss ranger armor might be worth a look too).

Bracer - POM Called Shot DC Gloves

Artifact - I use an Asmo Helmet for the stats/UEF. If you can get +16wis elsewhere, a belt for GS, or cloak for immunities might be a better choice.

Ego - You will want a huge one, make sure to post kill stats after every battle.

Rogue stuff - You will want +50 to search/OL/DT, incase there is no bard ect. Can just swap it all on when you need to search. GR belt is pretty worthless now that you have to rest with it on. SF Search augs are easy enough to get as well. Start collecting 21/24 picks, they go faster than you would like with no upgrade pick option.

Enjoy. I don't mind giving advice on builds if anyone has any questions/variants, let me know.

[galunggung]

I use Abyss armor atm on my Zen. Gives 16 wisdom. Asmo belt for str/dex/con.
Is up for rebuild. Goin to try this out. After xp loss it should be 72.
hoping to obtain a Sidhe.
that is all.

[Deleted]

Bumping for those wanting an OP Zen Ranger.

[ruddigore]

Looking at this build, why 5 points on set trap? and nothing on parry?

[boroie]

Oct 14, 2020 15:01:01 GMT ruddigore said:

Looking at this build, why 5 points on set trap? and nothing on parry?

Set trap gives a synergy bonus with disable trap and raises outside the 50 cap. 
Nothing on parry probably because it is a little skill light due to rogue skill dump, and primarily a ranged character. 

[merkley]

5 ranks of Set Trap gives a +2 Skill Affinity bonus to Disable Traps.

Rangers can cast Polymorph Self:Zombie to get crit immunity, so Parry is unnecessary for crit damage reduction. However there are Parry checks in some LL runs, so it still has some value if you can fit it in.

I have never seen this build before. Seems like a decent picker tank!

[boroie]

Oct 14, 2020 15:27:55 GMT merkley said:

Rangers can cast Polymorph Self:Zombie to get crit immunity,

Requires 40 base str though I believe? 

[merkley]

Ya, that makes more sense than my answer.

I think I would like to try this as a 2H build.

[chainlink]

Oct 14, 2020 15:35:58 GMT merkley said:

Ya, that makes more sense than my answer.

I think I would like to try this as a 2H build.

Why?
Much lower CS DC than a Zen, no ability to make Str and borderline ability to make Dex checks and without big Str to back it up physical damage will be meh and of course the biggest issue is there are no Intuitive Attack weapons you can wield 2H.

[ruddigore]

Wondering if there is any value of Tumble over 40? If not, there's extra points available to use there.

[merkley]

Oct 14, 2020 15:40:29 GMT chainlink said:

Oct 14, 2020 15:35:58 GMT merkley said:

Ya, that makes more sense than my answer.

I think I would like to try this as a 2H build.

Why?
Much lower CS DC than a Zen, no ability to make Str and borderline ability to make Dex checks and without big Str to back it up physical damage will be meh and of course the biggest issue is there are no Intuitive Attack weapons you can wield 2H.

I meant a Ranger build with a rogue splash, then going the 2H STR/UNI route. Not quite the same theme as the Wis/Intuitive Attack/Called shot, but the idea of a picker ranger seems fun. Rangers are already an S tier tank, so I don't think they would lose much having the rogue splash. Maybe bring it down to A tier, which I would be happy with.

[woqued]

There is a separate build for 2h ranger on the forum that can be adjusted to fit rogue splash and skills in, poliwhirls 2h ranger can do it izipizi. Drop some filler feats to make it work.

[chainlink]

Oct 14, 2020 17:22:45 GMT ruddigore said:

Wondering if there is any value of Tumble over 40? If not, there's extra points available to use there.

Potentially 4 ac taking it from 40 to 60 and there are a few tumble checks in the mod.

[winny]

So I am about to take level 75. Freaking loved every second of this build. Got all the standard paragon weapon and adapt feats. But now im not sure what to finish the build off with. Is there a meta? Or like obvious standard that i cant see? Or is it pretty free.. anything helps. Anyways ty for the build! i highly recommend!

[chainlink]

Environmental survival feats, you could tale the Firewalking and Passwall ones if you plan to be wearing a Planewalker most of the time or you could go for Levitation and Waterbreathing if you don't or want to have more ring flexibility, you also get additional % elemental immunity from them.