[3.9] Zed's Dex Stacking Ranger Guide (Outdated & Mostly Legacy)

In 3.9, GGG decided to mega nerf this build from all angles. First they made the 3-5 cold damage per 10 dex only 2-4 cold damage per 10 dex, which is about 33% less damage. Then they nerfed 12 ias/20 double damage to 12 ias/6 double damage. They removed the cold%/freeze craft on bows. And on top of that, they mega nerfed the range of tornado shot's secondary projectiles. The new Awakened Support Gems help quite a bit in making up that damage loss, but they are extremely expensive.

My opinion is this: if you are playing the legacy variant of this build (in Standard league), then this is still the strongest bow build in the game. If not, you are going to need an extreme level of investment to reach similar dps numbers as in previous leagues. The deepest delvers are still playing dex stack+scourge arrow, but they all have mirrored gear. I will not be updating this guide for a long time, as it has too many legacy items in it now and almost all of the information is outdated. Maybe in the future when I'm less busy I will try to play league as a bow character and get new gear, but that is not happening in 3.9.

The core of this build is to shift how you look at dexterity. Instead of seeing it as some negligible buff to accuracy or evasion, or meeting requirements for your equipment, we are going to convert the attributes found on our gear to flat damage. So when you see a 55 dex roll on your boots, instead of seeing it as a wasted stat, you should see it as 45 to 50 flat cold added to your attacks, which is pretty huge considering you can get dex rolls on every item.

Pros:

Swifter attacks than other bow characters
Hits like a truck
Doesn't cost nearly as much as a phys conversion bow character
Zooms zooms around the map
Fastest clear in the game
High evasion & dodge means better survivability compared to other bow builds
No investment required to hit 100% accuracy

Cons:

Sometimes it's hard to find rare rings/boots
Low life combined with being a bow character means you'll be squishy
High investment cost
For more experienced players, as there is a lot of balancing components to your gear
The build is getting more popular so you won't find 3 exalt magic bow with 3/5 cold and double damage anymore

https://pastebin.com/RTCZDSbj

This is a more realistic pastebin, with gear that is absolutely attainable in league, roughly 50 exalts worth of gear, and it still hits 25 million shaper dps.

https://pastebin.com/ic8xud57

This isn't a mirror service advertisement type of guide. You can make a 20 ex~ build clear all content in the game. This is simply the gear I use on my character.

Uber Elder video recorded by "kriskostye" in Blight League

Flawless Uber Elder with min maxed gear, recorded by me in Standard League

One Minute Elder T16 Clear

Chimera doesn't even have time to enter hidden form!

0.8 second Hydra kill

500+ depth Kurgal (with almost every tanky mod)
After I killed him I realized I didn't have my jewels equipped, will post another when I find him again!

Videos are with old gear, gonna be a while before I post more. But the build is even stronger in 3.7 with the introduction of Fractal Thoughts

Choosing your Ranger Ascendancy is highly preferential, with most preferring Deadeye and Pathfinder. I will briefly explain why you would choose each variant.



Pathfinder is my personal favorite because of easy flask sustain and immunity to ailments. The damage scales the best in my experience, but takes a lot of investment to reach satisfying levels. Recommended for experienced players.



Deadeye achieves the greatest clear potential with the lowest amount of investment. +1 chain and tailwind are notorious for how powerful they are and you will definitely feel the difference. You will run out of flasks vs bosses, but that's not a problem if you are only mapping or delving. Recommended for all players.



Raider is the least popular Ascendancy, but does provide some nice quality of life improvements to the build: elemental ailment immunity, phasing, 25% more evasion... All very desirable stats. It is the fastest Ascendancy, but unfortunately it has the least damage. Personally I wouldn't recommend it, but it is pretty solid for getting to 100 or deep delving.

In order to pick up:
Pathfinder: Nature's Boon>Master Alchemist>Veteran Bower>Nature's Adrenaline
Deadeye: Gathering Winds>Far Shot>Ricochet>Endless Munitions
Raider: Rapid Assault>Avatar of the Chase>Quartz Infusion>Avatar of the Veil

Bandits: we will choose Alira, since it gives an incredible amount of damage, and this build is very, very hard to resist cap.

Major: Soul of Lunaris is best for this build, we don't need to use the others for status ailment avoidance. Soul of Solaris is better for bossing, or Soul of the Brine King if you are vs Uber Elder and playing a Deadeye.
Minor: I use Soul of Shakiri for delving, Soul of Gruthkul is good for maps. Since we are trying to make use of as many flasks as possible, we need to take "corrupted blood cannot be inflicted on you" on one of our jewels. Therefore, Soul of Ralakesh can be useful if you find you die to normal bleed.

6 link Lightning Arrow - Insta Clear Maps/Adds

With the Chain Buff in 3.6, Lightning Arrow can once again melt mobs instantly and is the fastest trash killer without question. When to choose TS over LA? When you have low damage or are deep delving. LA is used specifically so we can achieve the fastest clear speed possible in T16 maps.



6 link Tornado Shot - Superior Coverage

360 degree coverage vs cone coverage. I personally use TS more than LA, but if you're farming linear maps, LA is faster.



6 link Barrage - Boss Annihilator

With Headhunter, you won't even need to use this in maps. You can replace Hypothermia with Elemental Focus if you feel like you are shocking your enemies sufficiently with Lightning Arrow (this will be discussed more in-depth in the gear explanation section).



Blink Arrow and Portal - Utility

If you opt to use portal scrolls instead of the gem, swap that with Faster Projectiles Support. If you're using a helm with 3 sockets due to an abyssal socket, drop Enhance.



Charge Generation & Added DPS

Herald of Ice adds about an abyss jewel worth of damage to this build, and helps our clear. Assassin's Mark+Curse on Hit allows up to generate power charges, and you can substitute Innervate for Ice Bite if you want to use Herald to generate Frenzy Charges. If you go that route you can replace Ice Bite in our bow with Hypothermia, Added Cold, or Damage on Full Life Support. An assassin's mark on hit ring allows us to drop 2 gem links, in a build that is hungry for sockets, so I highly recommend it!



Buffs and Debuffs

With the buffs to hatred in 3.6, there is no longer a question on what aura we use. The more cold damage it gives is perfect for this build. Blood Rage and Ice Golem give you a nice buff, and Frost Bomb makes the enemy take much more damage. Personally, with my level of gear, I don't find Ice Golem or Frost Bomb to be necessary, and so I replace them with a level 1 Cast When Damage Taken and a level 1 Immortal Call (optional: 20/23 Increased Duration Support linked to them). Level 1 Precision is basically a free 40% crit chance.



Damage Avoidance - Optional

I always use this--it allows you to make mistakes when bossing, as very few of us are as talented as UberDan :) Some people still use Level 1 Immortal Call linked to Level 1 CwDT, I don't think it's that good anymore as a ranger.



Additional Utility - Optional

Vaal Haste gives you more boss damage if you are fighting a boss where you can collect souls. Vaal Grace gives you 34% attack/spell dodge. That's more than a free Acrobatics/Phase Acrobatics. If you're pushing 100 it's the most OP single gem slot in the game. Link increased duration support to make this puppy last over 10 seconds.

The idea of this build is to stack dexterity (and to a lesser extent, intelligence and strength) to make use of the added damage mods we get from the following items. Previously, we thought it was best to have around 1000 dexterity. I advise getting above 700 and making use of scaling damage via increased damage, increased weapon elemental damage, damage penetration, etc.

A bow with the modifier "Adds 3 to 5 cold damage to attacks with this weapon per 15 dexterity" is the most important mod--make sure it is divined to perfection or you will lose a good amount of damage. Next is double damage. A bow like this should be multicrafted. Bases that are acceptable (has to be shaped and i82+) are Imperial Bow, Thicket Bow, or Harbinger Bow (if you are lacking crit).

"But Family Man, adds 3/5 cold damage can't possibly be that strong of a mod. I think I'm going to go with a cheaper ele bow."



A Hyrri's Demise is necessary for this build, but the corruption is not. It will add an obscene amount of damage to your build however. Can it be beaten? Actually, yes. With a perfectly rolled synthesized +1 arrow base that is essence of horrror'd to have 4/7 cold damage per frenzy charge, you can manage to squeeze 3-4% more damage with a perfectly rolled one. If that ever exists, it'll cost you a mirror and a fee :) -- Hopefully in the future we will see an adds x/x cold damage that scales with dex modifier on a quiver, because no hyrri item has life on it.

Yoke of Suffering allows us to shock with cold damage, which basically is a 50% more modifier if you hit above the shock threshold. In addition to that, we are inflicting most ailments on the enemies, and will get a lot of more damage from the amulet. The modifier which says 5% increased damage per ailment might be misleading to a newer player--enemies take increased damage is a more multiplier, and therefore is worth a lot of points on the tree. Also, it has really nice resistances.

Important Note: Due to the amount of projectiles barrage looses, you will NEVER shock a boss with enough damage in one hit to gain 50% more damage. This amulet is used for inst-clearing maps and map bosses. You can still use Yoke for bossing, but a rare amulet or an Eyes of the Greatwolf with increased stats will yield higher damage, if used in conjunction with a focus shock craft on a rare ring.



If you're bossing then you'll want a increased damage per 15 dexterity amulet, which can be found in league on a shaped ammy. A nice amulet will also have 12% increased attributes and will be multimodded.


Just look at this thing. When this and brutal restraint were introduced dex builds instantly became the most popular bow build in the game. Make sure that your strength is higher than your intelligence if you wear this thing.


Brutal Restraint adds so much dex and beneficial stats that it beats every jewel and is a must have in your build. The way it works is it adds +2 dexterity to attribute pathing nodes, +4 dexterity to nodes that precede a notable, and then adds an additional stat to a notable passive.

In order of recommended stats:
20% projectile/20% elemental damage
5% increased dexterity
20 flat dexterity
5% attack speed/4% maximum life (preferential)
25% increased critical strike chance/5% increased movement speed (preferential)
You gain Onslaught for 8 seconds on kill (situational)

Helmet: a crafted helmet with the appropriate enchant should have the following stats: High life roll, with the delve percent life>High Dex roll>Nearby Enemies have -9% to Cold Resistance>Abyssal jewel slot or resists to meet your needs. Again, capping resists is difficult on this build. The crafted modifier "8% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage" is a really nice boost to survivability.

Body Armor:
Hyrri's Ire is a fantastic and cheap option to start this build. The amount of damage it adds for the relative cost is unbeatable. Unfortunately it has no life, and this build is lacking on life.

Farrul's Fur can prove to be useful in keeping charges up during fights. It also gives a nice amount of defense. If you choose to go that route, an aspect of the cat amulet like below is a nice upgrade, though you won't be able to shock the enemies as frequently. Against bosses this is rarely an issue due to the shock threshold. (Ideally this amulet would have no life and the affix "1% increased Damage per 15 Dexterity" and 50% WED).

You can craft aspect of the cat on any rare item you want, but amulets with these stats rarely have 6 useful mods, so that's why I'm suggesting it here. If you are fighting shaper only, then Farrul's Fur is better than a rare chest (vs. Uber Elder he spawns enough adds that charges are up most of the time unless you are really slow).
Note:GGGs new design philosophy is that rare items should always be better than their unique equivalent, and that is the case for amulets in this build. If you want to run a rare amulet to achieve higher dps, craft "Shocks nearby enemies for 4 seconds when you focus" onto a rare ring, and you will do more damage. But these amulets are not cheap.

Rings

Provides more damage and life if you manage to balance resists. If you're going hybrid, get this ring with this corruption.
The new synthesis ring might provide more damage than Mark of the Elder but I haven't been able to try it.

Quiver:

Rigwald's Quill gives "Fork" which multiplies your projectiles

Gloves:
Tombfists provide more damage at the cost of life. Personally, I would recommend sticking with Shaper's Touch, unless you have a nice corrupted, legacy pair with good abyssal jewels.

A rare pair of gloves with "25% of Physical Damage Converted to Cold Damage" is super powerful. After I add a double veiled mod to these--via Aislin on research--these will be the best dex gloves in the game. But you can multimod one of these too with only dexterity as an affix. An abyssal socket is luxury.

Boots:
Many people complain about low life on this build. Garukhan's flight adds more than Kaom's Roots. Problem solved <3
On top of that the boots have good movement speed, solid life recovery, incredible evasion rating, and immunity to ground effects. Solid choice!

Helmet: For Helmet enchants best in slot enchants for the three recommended skills

Tornado Shot: Tornado Shot fires an Additional Secondary Projectile or Tornado Shot fires 2 additional secondary projectiles if you are in standard.

Barrage: Barrage fires an Additional Projectile or Barrage fires 2 additional projectiles if you are in standard.

Lightning Arrow: Lightning Arrow hits 2 Additional Enemies

Gloves: Glove enchants are not very useful on this build. It is better to get a "Attacks have +% to Critical Strike Chance", "+1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges", or "Curse enemies with # Elemental Weakness on Hit".

Boots:For bossing, no one can deny the power of Damage Penetrates 10% of Enemy Elemental Resistances if you Haven't Killed Recently for mapping you can use 16% Increased Attack and Cast Speed.

Body Armour: If using an Astral Plate, don't corrupt it. If you are using a unique chest, then "You take 50% reduced extra damage from critical strikes", "50% increased damage", "+1 to maximum resistances", or "+1 to socketed gems". The bonuses from these corruption implicits is substantial, but not at all necessary.

Amulet: The best anointments are, in this order: Whispers of Doom (+1 Curse), Soul of Steel (+1 res, 5% phys reduction, some nice armour), Freedom of Movement (free phasing, which provides insane utility), Throatseeker (+30 crit multi), Constitution (14% life, +20 flat life. this is the best anointment if you have a low life pool and want a higher one), Master of Force (4% double damage, some strength for Fractal Thoughts requirement), and any frenzy node. What anointment you have on your amulet is highly, highly dependent on how you personally want to tailor your build. For corruptions, the normal implicit of Yoke of Suffering is fine, but if you want to push the limits then a double corrupt "increased dexterity" would add a lot of dexterity, and "+1 to maximum resistances" would give you a nice amount of defense. Corrupting a shaped amulet is pretty risky and I don't recommend it :)

Quiver: Additional Arrow is by far best in slot, point blank saves you a point the tree, chain makes your clear better but is overkill. Flat damage is better than nothing.

Rare 3/5 Cold Damage Bow


"Adds 3 to 5 Cold Damage to Attacks with this Weapon per 10 Dexterity" is the only absolutely crucial mod to have on your bow. You can acquire one of these bow purchasing a base (recommended), or by using the following crafting recommendations. First option is to purchase an i82 shaped bow (has to be i82 so no chaos rolls), and use the fossils Frigid>Metallic>Abberant until you hit the 3/5 mod. It's going to take a few slams before you hit it, and that's why buying a base is not cheap. If you want to spend some more currency, add a prismatic fossil into the mix and go for a legendary bow!

The second option is to pick up a synthesis bow with the adds 3/5 cold damage as the implicit, or to synthesize one yourself with 3 T1 dex rolls on fractured bases (has to total 161 dex). Unfortunately you won't be able to roll 20% double damage, but it frees up a prefix, which might be more powerful--and is easier to craft, following the same crafting advice.

Do not alt spam a bow unless you want to go mad.

A perfect bow would have

prefixes: 120% Elemental Damage (delve mod), Attacks Penetrate 20% Resistances (delve mod), 3/5 cold damage to attacks (shaper mod).
suffixes: 12% Increased Attack Speed/20% Chance to Deal Double Damage (shaper mod), 38% Increased Critical Strike Chance, and crafted double damage.

Quiver


Hyrri's Demise adds a ton of flat damage to the build with its attributes, and more importantly, its attribute scaling flat damage modifiers.

Helmet


A Fractal Thoughts with the Tornado Shot fires an Additional Secondary Projectile enchant is the best unique helm for this build. It provides an absurd amount of dexterity, over 100% increased elemental damage, 40 crit multi, a small amount of life. When this helmet was introduced in 3.7 this build went from a very good build to the best ele bow build in the game. For rare options, check out the "Gearing Alternatives" section.

Chest


Assuming you are not using a Hyrri's Ire or Farrul's Fur, a crafted rare chest with Attacks Have +% Critical Strike Chance and +% Increased Dexterity will fix the low natural crit chance of our non-harbinger bow and will add more flat damage via increased dexterity. Getting flat life and percent life on a chest like this is super useful as our build won't have much life without it! Having the physical damage taken as fire mod is useful, but additional curse (if you are also using elemental weakness corrupt on gloves) or percent life is better. For a crafted suffix, use +% increased attributes.

Gloves


Shaper's Touch is best in slot for most attribute stacking builds, and it is for ours too. Go to the "Gearing Alternatives" and "Enchants and Corruptions" sections for more information.

Boots


Boots are where you're going to pick up some dexterity, movement speed, life, and resistances. Pretty simple really. The 5% increased dexterity synthesized implicit would be nice, but not necessary. Go to the "Enchants and Corruptions" section for information on enchants.

Amulet


Yoke of Suffering has had a profound impact on bow element versatility due to the "Your Elemental Damage can Shock" affix. Shock is the most powerful of all elemental ailments, providing a potential 50% more multiplier to your damage. Since we deal almost all cold damage, we will never shock our enemies, so we must use this amulet to alleviate that problem. Additionally, the affix above this which states "Enemies take 5% Increased Damage for Each Type of Ailment You have Inflicted upon Them" is actually another more multiplier, and we are pretty much going to be stacking ailments with this build. Fire associated ailments might be a concern to you, but you only have to deal 1 damage of fire to inflict them.

For more information, read the following links:
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Shock
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Ignite
https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Ailment


Rings



On rings, you want dexterity, life, and increased damage via cold damage or elemental damage with attacks. You'll most likely have to use rings to fill out your resists, so these can get quite expensive. If not, they'll be cheap, so it might be best to get a rare helmet or gloves with a lot of resistances. If you somehow are not having resist problems, a Mark of the Elder is very powerful DPS and life boost. Make sure your other ring is shaper touched if you use it! An assassin's mark on hit ring is useful in being able to curse bosses and free up 2 gem slots. It's a nice upgrade, but only has a .362% chance to roll on an item. Might want to buy one and multimod it. Circle of Fear is probably the best dps ring for this build, but it doesn't have life. Your call.

Belt


On Deadeye: Cannot be Frozen is great utility, additionally Cyclopean Coil provides great attributes and %damage.

On Pathfinder or Raider: life, increased attributes, and as much increased damage you can get! You can stack up on resists here as well if you're low. For mapping, use a Headhunter or Bisco's Leash.

Jewels


Brutal Restraint is described in detail in the "Key Items and Information" section. On Watcher's Eyes you want to go for the flat damage/cold pen one if you have a elder chest with flat crit. You want to go for the crit/multi watcher's if you are running Hyrri's Ire or any chest without flat crit on it.

Unique Flasks:

Dying Sun


Adds projectiles is the #1 way to scale barrage damage, this flask will give you 40% more damage straight up. 60% if you decide to scale increased effects (50% will give you a third projectile).

Atziri's Promise


This thing gives you 15% of elemental damage as chaos damage. Lots of damage.

Cinderswallow Urn


One, this flask instantly heals you and restores your mana, which makes this build feel so smooth. Two, we ignite all enemies, so this is a 10% more multiplying flask. Three, it provides Onslaught which makes us move faster and loose arrows quicker. Four, you can craft a flask modifier on it.

Yea, I'm surprised this flask didn't go legacy.

In 3.8 I have been playing standard instead of league, and so I wanted to post some items that will help you achieve the maximum potential of this build.

Mirror Items for this Build

For the best bow and amulet
For the best ring, boots, and much more
My friend Kevin's shop which has an unbelievable chest

Legacy Items

Instant Leech


Note: Added flat lightning is the best modifier for the vessel of vinktar, but it is very expensive.

Q. Why is your life so low?

The goal of a bow build is to kill everything before it kills you. Also with a solid amount of evasion, you won't get hit that often. You do need decent mechanics vs Uber Elder, but again, this isn't a RF build or something. Feel free to drop as many damage nodes and pick up as many life nodes as you want. Adding Garukhan's Flight and Shaper's Touch to your build will get you far too.

Q. Why Arrow Dancing?

I've found that it is very useful for survivability, because as a bow build with a lot of damage you shouldn't ever be hit by melee attacks, and you mostly die to random ranged one shots. Combined with blind, you never get 1 shot by crits from ranged creeps.

Q. When to use Lightning Arrow over Tornado Shot?

Lightning Arrow is faster at clearing maps if a single projectile can 1 shot a rare monster at whatever level of content you desire. The way lightning arrow works is the projectiles fan out and maybe only 1 hits the target before chaining. If that one arrow can't kill a rare, I'd probably use Tornado Shot instead. Tornado Shot looses a number of arrows that hit the ground and shoot secondary projectiles from them in all directions. The way it works with the enchant, chain, and fork is in essence a multiplication of projectiles--meaning that a great number of projectiles will hit your target, and is thus why we use it in deep delve and in other content where damage is more important than clear speed. Another question is why is lightning arrow faster in general? Because, in my opinion the projectiles are loosed faster than Tornado Shot and it feels like Mirage Archer fires much more frequently.

Why Yoke of Suffering?

Yoke is one of those items that I recommend only for mapping as a way to transition into getting a shaped amulet, and many people just keep using them because of how difficult it is to cap resistances since dexterity eats up a suffix slot on our items. A shaped amulet with increased damage per 15 dex and increased attributes will always do more damage vs bosses, and will sometimes do more damage in maps (which is not needed) and will always do more damage in deep delves. Yoke is just a solid item that is fairly cheap.

Added Fractal Thoughts
Added Brutal Restraint
Changed Skill Tree
Added a FAQ Section
Added options for all three Ranger Ascendancies
Various Minor Changes

Added an Anointment Section
Added a Options for Standard Players Section
Updated the Gems Section
Updated Skill Tree
Various Minor Changes

Added explanation on nerfs

Changed guide to Hollow Palm Technique Dex Stacking