



Crit bows do have a lot of upsides. They get infinite flasks. They get great clear speed. They cause elemental status effects with no passive node investment. Ondar's Guile takes care of reflect as long as you're careful to balance your accuracy and evade.



I think you'll see with this build that going non-crit can have a lot of upsides as well.



Offense:













Those tooltips aren't horrible for only having 2 5Ls. I run all three heralds and Hatred, reserving all of my mana. Right now 76+ maps with cold res or EE are a pain in the butt, but for the most part I clear pretty fast. Single target is a problem, but having significant dps on my blink arrow helps. I'd love to find the room for Vaal Burning Arrow, but it's just not happening.



Defense:







Pretty standard, Acro + Phase Acro + Lightning Coil. Almost 4100 life.



The Gear



So you can see that the most expensive piece of kit I've got is that 5l Lightning Coil. the most *unusual* item I have is the corrupted Asphyxia's Wrath.



This is the item that I randomly corrupted that inspired the build. I thought, "what would this quiver be good for?"



With crit, you're already freezing, so the extra freeze chance doesn't matter at all.



The inexpensiveness of the gear is the first benefit of going non-crit. The bow is a 310 pdps Thicket that I bought for 7c. Any harbinger with similar dps is going to be 3ex min. My bow was literally 1/20th the cost of a similar dps crit bow.



Passive Tree



The passive tree heads into both the Templar area for elemental status effect chance nodes, resolute technique, and life, as well as the very nice Templar Weapon Elemental Damage notable and area damage.



It then heads up towards the shadow area for more freeze chance, 40% pierce, and acrobatics and phase acrobatics.



It picks up Ondar's Guile, though this keystone is not as useful for this build as other builds, because RT means I cannot evade my own reflect damage. It's still a very useful node for a single passive point.

Vaal pact gives this build the ability to almost completely ignore elemental reflect.



The elemental damage nodes (non-weapon) have the side effect of making the herald of ice explosion a significant clear-speed booster against tight packs. When you get a lot of freezes you'll often get a very satisfying chain explosion that feels like a cold version of Infernal Blow.



With Ice Shot, it's not the arrow itself, but the cone behind it that's doing all the killing, so maximizing the damage of the cone is what makes it clear fastest. Since the cone of damage is automatically 100% phys-ice conversion all of the area and elemental damage from the tree scales this cone very well. In addition, the pierce chance increases the number of overlapping cones of ice in monster packs



My 5l for ice shot is: ice shot, LMP, WED, Blood Magic, Life Leech. Because almost all of the damage from my skills is elemental due to the corrupted quiver, the Weapon Elemental Damage support gems scale my damage massively, allowing me to use two non-dps supports without gimping myself. Because all of my gems are supported by blood magic, I reserve all of my mana for all three Heralds and Hatred, adding even more elemental damage scaling.



A huge benefit from running skills off life with life leech is that half and no-regen maps are a big boost in loot with zero boost in difficulty.



Because I'm non-crit and don't need accuracy, it's easy to get enough lightning res from gear alone to run lightning coil without Purity of Lightning, further increasing my dps.



For Hardcore play, it might be advisable to use Grace rather than Hatred, but I feel pretty durable without it.



Here are some gameplay vids to showcase what the build can do:



Explanation and -24 max res level 77 Shipyard



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H4GklEdwcg&feature=youtu.be



Oba's Full Clear



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80znheew7Kk I can already hear you asking: why go non-crit with bows?Crit bows do have a lot of upsides. They get infinite flasks. They get great clear speed. They cause elemental status effects with no passive node investment. Ondar's Guile takes care of reflect as long as you're careful to balance your accuracy and evade.I think you'll see with this build that going non-crit can have a lot of upsides as well.Offense:Those tooltips aren't horrible for only having 2 5Ls. I run all three heralds and Hatred, reserving all of my mana. Right now 76+ maps with cold res or EE are a pain in the butt, but for the most part I clear pretty fast. Single target is a problem, but having significant dps on my blink arrow helps. I'd love to find the room for Vaal Burning Arrow, but it's just not happening.Defense:Pretty standard, Acro + Phase Acro + Lightning Coil. Almost 4100 life.So you can see that the most expensive piece of kit I've got is that 5l Lightning Coil. the most *unusual* item I have is the corrupted Asphyxia's Wrath.This is the item that I randomly corrupted that inspired the build. I thought, "what would this quiver be good for?"With crit, you're already freezing, so the extra freeze chance doesn't matter at all.The inexpensiveness of the gear is the first benefit of going non-crit. The bow is a 310 pdps Thicket that I bought for 7c. Any harbinger with similar dps is going to be 3ex min. My bow was literally 1/20th the cost of a similar dps crit bow.The passive tree heads into both the Templar area for elemental status effect chance nodes, resolute technique, and life, as well as the very nice Templar Weapon Elemental Damage notable and area damage.It then heads up towards the shadow area for more freeze chance, 40% pierce, and acrobatics and phase acrobatics.It picks up Ondar's Guile, though this keystone is not as useful for this build as other builds, because RT means I cannot evade my own reflect damage. It's still a very useful node for a single passive point.Vaal pact gives this build the ability to almost completely ignore elemental reflect.The elemental damage nodes (non-weapon) have the side effect of making the herald of ice explosion a significant clear-speed booster against tight packs. When you get a lot of freezes you'll often get a very satisfying chain explosion that feels like a cold version of Infernal Blow.With Ice Shot, it's not the arrow itself, but the cone behind it that's doing all the killing, so maximizing the damage of the cone is what makes it clear fastest. Since the cone of damage is automatically 100% phys-ice conversion all of the area and elemental damage from the tree scales this cone very well. In addition, the pierce chance increases the number of overlapping cones of ice in monster packsMy 5l for ice shot is: ice shot, LMP, WED, Blood Magic, Life Leech. Because almost all of the damage from my skills is elemental due to the corrupted quiver, the Weapon Elemental Damage support gems scale my damage massively, allowing me to use two non-dps supports without gimping myself. Because all of my gems are supported by blood magic, I reserve all of my mana for all three Heralds and Hatred, adding even more elemental damage scaling.A huge benefit from running skills off life with life leech is that half and no-regen maps are a big boost in loot with zero boost in difficulty.Because I'm non-crit and don't need accuracy, it's easy to get enough lightning res from gear alone to run lightning coil without Purity of Lightning, further increasing my dps.For Hardcore play, it might be advisable to use Grace rather than Hatred, but I feel pretty durable without it.Here are some gameplay vids to showcase what the build can do:Explanation and -24 max res level 77 Shipyardhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H4GklEdwcg&feature=youtu.beOba's Full Clearhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80znheew7Kk Last edited by LeftyLucy on Feb 11, 2015, 9:24:58 AM