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Brief Scope
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The charging ranger is a well made d2 dueler. He can compete with all
GM builds holding his own & has ways to produce leverage.

Average damage per hit

Charge 2400
Zeal 1000
Arrow 650
Smite 350

Vs opponents with 50% damage reduction & 75 all resistances.
These averages include open wounds, deadly strike & crushing blow.
Also poison damage coming off a single +451 psn dmg small charm.
These are rough estimates.

Mechanics

67% Deadly Strike (@ lvl 99)
70% Crushing Blow
45% Open Wounds

Our charging ranger has the option to increase any
particular mechanic by changing the weapon socket.
The above #s are for if this din uses a "Ber" rune
in weapon gaining 20% crushing blow. By putting a
"Lo" or "Um" rune he can alter another mechanic.

I recommend 70% crushing blow. Its what pulls this
build together & brings the highest average damage
versus all. Without it, his arrows & smite deteriorate
greatly. Along with charge & zeal not reaping enough
of the benefits of CB.

Build has been tested vs all GM builds. The charging
ranger has many wins. The highlight of this build is
the capability to land a 20,000+ dmg charge that can
proc all three offense mechanics adding further dmg.
This happens fairly often.




Gear

Helm: Guillaume's Face [15 IAS 30 P Res Jewel]
Weapon: Ethereal Berserker Axe w C/F Mods & Adds Damage [Ber Rune]
Armor: Fortitude
Gloves: Dracul's Grasp
Belt: Crafted Blood Belt
Ring: Ravens Frost
Ring: Raven Turn
Boots: Gore Rider's
Amulet: Highlord's Wrath
Shield: Storm Shield [+15 All Res & 15% Lower Requirements Jewel]
Swap: Widowmaker [Ber]

Inventory
7 Sharp Grand Charm's [10 max, 65-70 AR, 35-40 Life]
9 Shimmering Small Charm's [5 All Resistances 20 Life}
4 Amber Small Charm's [11 Lightning Res 20 Life]
Annihilus & Cube for Battle Orders


Skills

Vigor 20
Might 20
Fantacism 20
Charge 20
Holy Shield 9
Sacrifice 7
Blessed Aim 5
Salvation & Zeal 1



Stat Points

Vitality all with enough to equip gear & 165 in Dexterity for slight boost to attack rating

Stats
Charge Damage: 4700 - 13k+ [Excludes CB & OW]
Zeal Damage: 2450 - 6.2k ^
Smite: 275 - 455 ^
Widowmaker: 1 - 3k

Charge Attack Rating: 27k [enchanted with fantacism]
Zeal Attack Rating: 16.5K ^

Defense: 9.5k
Block: 75%
Damage Reduction: 35%
Resistances: F 25 C 72 L 183 P 75

HP: 3400

The extra lightning res is good to have.
I get it this high with the affix being on
my blood belt & choice ring.



Useful info
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Zeal & no P torch

Let me cover why there's no Paladin Torch in the inventory. Its so
our din's able to keep zeal at 3 points. So only 4 swings occur.

The charging ranger utilizes zeal fairly often. In current
setup a 3 point zeals achieved IF NOT USING BATTLE
COMMANDS while buffing. Since it gives a +1 to skills.


..ok

Why a 3 point zeal?


With 3 points a paladin gets a 4 swing zeal.
BYPASSING a 5th slow swing. The last swing
in a 5 swing zeal was made by blizzard to
be double the frames of the first 4 swings.
However when a paladin has a 3 point zeal
with 4 swings the last swing stays at the
frames of the first 3. No slowdown. Yes
I have tested it by recording zeals &
checking the actual time. The 4 swing
zeal my paladin has stays at 5 frames
for all attacks. Bypassing the 10 frame
fifth zeal swing.


This does 3 main things.

One - Can get a 5 frame zeal with only
30% IAS needed off gear.

Two- It makes our 5 frame zeal launch 5
attacks in 25 frames. The 4 frame
zealer with IAS capped does 5 attacks
in 24 frames. We're very close to that.


Three- It makes it so that zeal launching 4 attacks
is done in 20 frames. A .8 of a second. Allowing
us to maneuver quicker then the 5 swing zealer.
The 5 swing zealer has to wait .96 seconds before
they finish a zeal. We can throw a zeal & escape.


There's literally no point of that last 5th slower swing.
Missing a P torch & not using battle command is worth
making one of the main skills we need to be stronger.
Zeal is the only answer in some scenarios & also works
as a great surprise attack.

To further boot, with a 3 point setup & 4 swings.
If IAS was maxed to achieve a 4 frame zeal. Then
the 4 frame zeal would be as fast as whirlwind.

The only other downside is zeal damage & attack
rating can't be increased by using skill points
on zeal. This really doesn't matter since this
dueler isn't made for melee only. He can just
smite another zealer down with his high crushing
blow & open wounds to have a fair chance winning.

Sacrifice & blessed aim both enhance zeal anyways.
Sacrifice increases zeal dmg at a higher rate then
zeal itself. Blessed aim bring the attack rating up
at about the same rate as zeal.

Heres a solid D2 IAS calculator, if anyone wants to see
that fifth slower zeal swing on chart: https://d2.lc/IAS/

To use, just select weapon & fantacism level. Then click
"Show IAS table". Don't fill anything else out, let the
chart come up - that'll show everything you need.


Charge


In my experienced opinion, Vigor aura for Charging is better
then Fantacism 9 out of 10 times. With that extra speed
Vigor brings, it becomes harder for opponents to land hits.

In fact without Vigor charge.. might as well not do
this build at all. The #s on charge above are based
off Fantacism aura. They do go down a small notch
when in Vigor. With charge already bringing so much
damage & attack rating. It doesn't matter enough
to hinder survivability for a bit of extra dmg & AR.
Still there comes times where a quick fantacism charge
is great.


Playstyle

In terms of playstyle, practice gets the hang of it.
As mentioned firstly in this guide, this din has ways
to produce leverage over all GM duelers & thats what'll
win more duels.

To boot.. he doesn't need many swaps. Only 4 to face builds
with heavy elemental damage from the 4 elements. Just swap
to tri res boots & or throw a HoZ on with an um rune in it.
Swap gcs to all res gcs.


Main Setup

The main setup is more then comfortable enough to face the
following duelers..

WW Barbs
Wind Druid
WW / Hybrid Assasin
Every Paladin except the Fohadin
Most Amazons


Crushing Blow

Lastly I want to cover why I use 70% crushing blow.
Its very strong vs WW Barbs & Druids. Vs all else
its adding damage 7 out of 10 times to our regular
hit. Its almost like having a phoenix on with fortitude.

It allows smite to be viable. Smite however is only
really used vs shield barbs & for random pings.

The CB also makes Widowmaker much stronger.
IAS is capped already on bow.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last Words [Also covers the 3 mechanics proccing together]
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If anyone's interested in seeing how this build plays out.
Check my youtube channel @ "Fiddla Handag". Search my D2
Charge PvP Videos. The older ones were all done with builds
weaker then this, the strategy remains somewhat similar.

On the most recent video I released 2 duels are shown using
this build. For future reference that video is called King
Of North mix.

I won't get into strategy, experience is key. Controller
allows for great charge namelocks.

The fun part of this charger is when a 20,000+ dmg
charge lands packed with crushing blow & open wounds.
Leaving the opponent draining with bleed + poison dmg.

Yup.

I'm ok with that. Also yes all offensive mechanics are
able to proc on the same hit. I tested it. Regardless
of what people may say. I'm certain that DS, CB & OW
can be triggered on the same hit.

I have a video of some testing I did, I'll share link below.

Before that I'll say while dueling I've seen very often large
chunks of my targets HP removed with them in bleed frames off
one hit. Good indicator that all 3 mechanics hit at once.

Before I link the video. Let me say this so those who watch
will understand the video.

If a toon has 99% chance of deadly strike & 35%
chance of open wounds. It would mean that 1 out
of a 100 hits on average would proc open wounds.
That's IF they cannot proc on the same hit. I did
some testing & this was not the case.

In this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi5Zwq36t9k

The test was done using Widowmaker.

It became very clear that open wounds was proccing
much more then 1 out of a 100 times. In the vid I use
widowmaker and have 99% deadly strike & 35% open wounds.

So to anyone who would say "they don't proc on the same
hit". I ask this. Then why is my widowmaker consistently
putting the target in bleed frames with a 99% deadly strike.

If a hit rolls right it will produce deadly strike,
crushing blow & open wounds all in one.

The build will be posted on my channel at some point.
If anyone interested in seeing it, subscribe. Thanks.

This post was edited by Trevor3413 on May 30 2025 12:01pm

lost me @ no torch

With resistances & HP where they're at on this build. A torch does nothing other then very slightly increase skills.
Those being paladin skills only as well, if it increased the Widowmaker damage then it may be more viable. When
I calculated the damage done against me by all GM duelers I realized that 35% DR is enough with 3400 hp.
With these resistances: F 25 C 72 L 183 P 75 on main setup (swaps for elemental damage duelers only).

A torch will only slightly increase HP & resistances.. not enough to the point of surviving
another hit. Did you read about the 4 swing zeal? I mean the value of that is superb.
Much better then what the torch brings.

Here's the first look at this dueler. I made a quick vid to show what my setup is like.

https://youtu.be/8ISENjb0KdQ

Hope this helps.

By all means though 2 SC's can be replaced by a P torch. The build will still be solid.
I'm pulling this off right now with a range 1 eth hydra edge w c/f mods. Landing charges
that shave off near 3/4's of my opponents health at times. The charge can hit up over
25,000 damage at maximum and averages 17,500. Without even factoring in crushing blow
& open wounds. This builds given me my best experience on D2 up to date.

This post was edited by Trevor3413 on May 30 2025 12:41pm

Wtf just use another character torch like a zon torch. 40 life and 10 all res vs 180 life and 20 resistances.

Fun guide.
But you can just use another torch.
You can use both vigor and fana, just change to fana when ur charging with a namelock, else use vigor.