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Ranger (Build)

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This article describes the Ranger build. For info on Ranger lore, see here.

The Ranger is a Paladin build, using Bows or Crossbows as a weapon (mostly crossbows). This build uses its Aura to increase damage, usually Fanaticism/Holy Shock/Holy Freeze or Conviction.

A popular weapon for this build is the Buriza-Do Kyanon, a unique crossbow with mods, primarily used to slow enemies down.

Though this build has a lot of style, it's hard to play: Paladins don't have a special attack on the left-click button and Paladins don't have any skills (apart from the Aura) that support ranged weapons (no multiple shots, no guided shots, no further bonuses). 

Many players use Widowmaker, allowing the wielder to use guided arrow, or a Witchwild String (usually upped) for its magic arrow attack.

Playing a Ranger[]

There are several ways to build a Ranger. All of them will require some strategic play and forward thinking on part of the player, as a Ranger is not tanky and lacks special attacks to get out of getting swarmed. The player will need to get used to being mobile and light on their feet, as some enemies (especially minotaurs or Extra Strong Extra fast SU packs) can rapidly chew up even a geared build if they catch it.

Attack speeds, breakpoints, Crushing Blow, and stat Allocation[]

IAS will play a big role in what weapon base and gear you choose. The fastest attack framerate for paladins is 9 for bows, and 11 for crossbows. In almost every situation, you'll want a bow, especially if using a runeword. The Hunter's Bow/Blade Bow and Composite Bow/Great Bow each have a base speed of -10, meaning you only need 89 IAS to reach their last breakpoint. The fastest crossbow, the Demon Machine, only needs 8 IAS for its last breakpoint, but it is limited to 11 frames no matter how much IAS you stack; comparatively, a Ballista, the base for Buriza-Do Kyanon needs 215 IAS to reach 11 frames.

The need for IAS leaves you somewhat limited in gear options. All the IAS needed for a Blade or Great Bow can be achieved from the gloves, body, amulet, and jewel socket. Some weapon options have IAS or the ability to add it, so also keep that in mind when considering gear choices.

Crushing Blow is halved for bows, so it's not as effective as it is for melee. A couple pieces of gear below provide it, so it's a nice-to-have.

Stat allocation will remain relatively unchanged regardless of how you build your Ranger. Alter as needed if you choose to have a melee backup.

  • Strength: Enough with gear to equip your bow
  • Dexterity: Enough with gear to equip your bow
  • Vitality: Everything else
  • Energy: None

Early Game and Leveling[]

A Ranger can go from level 1 to killing Hell Baal without ever swinging a melee weapon, even on Players7-8 (though this requires patience and a degree of skill), so this guide assumes the player is doing so, or at the very least equipping the first bow they find and going from there. Learning to kite and reposition early on will make the build much easier in late Nightmare and Hell.

Most players may opt to max Holy Fire while leveling and then respec once they reach Hell or are ready to equip endgame gear. It should be noted that the variants can be played without doing this, but each player has their preference on how to level.

The early game, regardless of build choice, will look identical in leveling gear for the most part and depends on what the player has on hand.

Notable early-mid game gear:

Variants[]

All builds are assumed to have a Torch and Annihilus in inventory. A lot of the gear will be the same across builds, but there's room for customization. All variants will be lacking in resists unless you load your inventory with +res charms. While this can make Hell dicey, it's not an insurmountable drawback.

Razortail is pretty much required regardless of build, as it'll likely be your only source of serious multi-target hits in late and endgame. The only exception would be a nice rare with FHR, 20+ Str or Dex, 40+ Life, and decent Fire and/or Lightning res.

A 160/60 Jeweler's Armor of the Whale is a decent source of +ED% and IAS and may beat out Hustle or Treachery, at the loss of other decent stats and mods the other two provide. If the player has access to one or can easily acquire one, it's a solid option.

Physical Damage build[]

This build focuses on dealing out as much physical damage as possible. It finishes early, and leaves a high degree of room to customize via skills. It gets expensive with its charm requirements though.

There are two required skills to max regardless of customization:

  • 20 Fanaticism
  • 20 Blessed Aim (for the passive AR bonus)

This leaves you with several dozen skill points to do with as you please. You could add an elemental backup and max Holy Shock and its synergies to deal with physical immunes if not running a Sunder charm or Witchwild String, or max Vigor for more mobility, the possibilities are almost endless.

Charms to find for this build are life/AR/max dmg, with +res charms for durability. A Sunder charm is needed to deal with Physical Immunes if not using a Witchwild String or a merc with The Reaper's Toll or Lawbringer.

Gear:

It is not possible to reach the last IAS breakpoint with Windforce unless it's Shael'd and using a 160/60 JAoW. Goldstrike Arch requires the use of either Hustle or Treachery to hit its last breakpoint, and a Shael and IAS jewel may be required. Widowmaker and Witchwild String can hit the last breakpoint at lvl 20 Fananticism with listed gear, meaning sockets can be customized as you see fit. If Widowmaker is used, AR is a moot point as Guided Arrow doesn't need it.

An Artisan's Tiara of Speed with three 40/15s offers up more raw damage and IAS, freeing up some gear options, but like the 160/60 JAoW, it's assumed the player doesn't have one. If one or both of these armors are available to the player, gearing changes up significantly as far as customization goes.

Fortitude is a nice armor and can certainly be useful to this build for survivability and resists that don't rely on a Fade proc, but it's not possible at all to reach 9 frame attacks with it unless using a 2x Shael'd Witchwild String. A Brand made in a Demon Machine may be an interesting alternative to use with it, given its almost nonexistant IAS requirement (but attack speed locked at 11 frames).

Mercenary: An Act 2 Might merc is a solid pairing. Even better if he's wielding a Pride.

Storm Ranger[]

An elemental Ranger that relies on multiple auras to dish out damage. It lacks the physical damage of a physical Ranger, but makes up for it in that no Sunder charms or AR are required, and the guide author has finished the game on Players8 in LoD Classic with this build. The downside is that gear is more or less locked in place, leaving little room for customization. Conviction has a small radius of only ~13 yards, so this will require close-in fighting for maximum aura effect. This is also an expensive build, requiring two Jah runes and a couple other high runes, meaning this build will be difficult to do in single player.

Skills are as follows:

  • 20 Conviction
  • 20 Resist Lightning
  • 20 Resist Cold
  • 20 Salvation

This leaves a bit of wiggle room for customization--using Vigor as a dump skill is a good option. The passive bonus from Blessed Aim is not necessary, as discussed below.

Conviction needs to be raised to lvl 25 for the maximum -res effect. This is achieved with Torch, Anni, and Highlord's Wrath, meaning no skiller charms are needed.

Charms should be a mix of +elemental damage and +res. Due to Conviction and multiple damage sources, Sunder charms are not necessary for this build.

Gear:

Hustle is the superior armor to use, but Treachery's Fade proc warrants a mention. AR for this build will be very low, barely over 1000, but it's a moot point, as lvl 25 Conviction reduces enemy armor by over 90% and Ice's ITD means your only realistic chances for missing will be on SUs and act bosses. Unsurprisingly, physical damage is kind of an afterthought for this build, but there's a reasonable amount of Deadly Strike present that it shouldn't be ignored completely.

Mercenary: This build is strong enough that the player can pick their preferred mercenary and gear, rather than beelining to a tank. Act 2 and 5 mercs will be the strongest options, but both Act 1 and Act 3 mercs will play very nicely with your Conviction aura. The author can attest to an Act 1 merc with a Harmony dishing out respectable damage.

Fire Ranger[]

As the name suggests, this variant uses Holy Fire as its aura, thanks to the buffs it received in D2R. It's possible to do this build in LoD Classic, but it won't be as effective without a Sunder charm. Otherwise it plays similarly to a Storm Ranger. Requires a couple pricey runes, so difficult to do in single player. Otherwise, it dishes respectable damage, and is capable of higher PlayersX settings.

Skills:

  • 20 Holy Fire
  • 20 Resist Fire
  • 20 Salvation

A quick and easy one, easily finished by early Nightmare. Blessed Aim's passive bonus isn't required for this build, so customize as you see fit.

Charms should be a mix of +fire damage, +Offensive Auras skillers and +res. A Fire Sunder charm is necessary even at the cost of resists, as there's way too many Fire Immunes in Hell and Inifinity can't get them all. Also, this build can offset the Sunder's -res, as we'll soon see. Gear:

Flickering Flame is the clear winner in helms here, nothing else even comes close, and its Resist Fire aura offsets the detrimental effects of your Sunder charm. Brand offers up level 15 Exploding Arrows that always hit and dishes out your fire damage at range and comes with a decent stat package, only missing out on IAS. The Bone Spear proc is something, but without synergies or the Marrowwalk bug, it's just a nice little amusement. Hustle still wins out for body armor, but Treachery gets its Fade honorable mention.

Mercenary: Act 2 or Act 5 merc will play best with this variant. Infinity is not required, so there's room for options on gear.

Elemental Ranger[]

This is the legacy Storm Ranger build, in use before runewords like Ice or Grief or even synergies existed, and as a result, is more budget-friendly. It is Hell-capable, but probably won't be viable at higher Players-levels, though Players5 should be reasonable with the right gear in late game. Thematically, there's not much difference from a Storm Ranger, this one just relies on one aura at a time, and Conviction is unfortunately not in play.

Skills:

  • 20 Holy Shock
  • 20 Holy Freeze OR Holy Fire
  • 20 Resist Lightning
  • 20 Resist Cold OR Resist Fire
  • 20 Salvation

This build is effectively a ranged Tesladin with a second element on backup for immunes. Holy Fire was buffed in D2R so it's probably the better backup, but Freeze's moderate CC ability shouldn't be overlooked. There's next to no room for customization, however.

Charms should be a mix of elemental damage, +res, and +Offensive Auras skillers. A Lightning Sunder charm is an option, but the significant loss in resists and the build's inherent low resists might not be to most players' tastes, and Infinity is still capable of breaking most Lightning Immunes.

Gear:

Wizendraw, Witchwild String, and Widowmaker are the strongest bets. Wizendraw also comes with some buffs to cold damage, so would pair nicely with Holy Freeze, the downside being you won't be able to reach its last IAS breakpoint (to say nothing of its stat req if double-upped). Harmony can play nice with this build, but it won't shine as well without Conviction.

Mercenary: Act 2, with an Infinity.

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