[3.16][HC][ON BREAK] Caustic Arrow Raider, DoT Focused | Tanky | 6k+ Health | All Content | In-depth

Changed the master craft, i think the bow cant get any better now :)

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ZenEnott wrote:

I am a little confused...

Which bow base is the recommended one? Maraketh or Thicket? I see the former in the guide and the latter being crafted by people in this thread.

Or is this simply a matter of trade availability, with Thicket being a more common one?

I crafted thicket for 2 reasons: the base is cheaper (1ex cheaper but still i'm f2p and struggle with tab space to make more currency) and the 2nd reason i use movement boots (Atziri's step) so that 6% MS compared to more AS for me doesnt make me want to get Makareth.

I really like this guide and I am currently doing quite well in red maps. I know gems and flasks matter in end-game fights, but what hover tooltip DPS (without temporary factors like Despair, Onslaught, or More Damage if you X recently), Life and Evasion (before being hit) is recommended for Yellow/Red Elder, Uber Atzi and the like? My DPS is at 120K, Eva is at 69 and life is a little below 6.5K.

September 24th, 2018
Videos:
* Added 2 new videos:
#1 - 300 depth Vaal Outpost
#2 - 300 depth Primeval Ruins

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I've started to work on Delve league mini-guide, 1 section inside is almost finished. Two more to go. I also learned something during it - majority of new monsters in delve deal physical damage that's converted to another element. The spider, lion and shrieking bat all have 100% conversion on basic attacks (according to poedb.tw), making my physical damage reduction setup a bit... pointless. That's what i tried to avoid, those random hard hitting basic attacks, and they're all elemental damage. I'll still keep using my current Crab + end charges setup anyway.

Also the Primeval Ruins rares are tanky as hell because they have 50% more hp than next tankiest delve rare mob AND 35% chaos resistance on top of it. Not much you can do about it.

I'm also exploring possibility of using Abyss Jewels instead of normal ones for slightly more damage/hp (possible thanks to fossils).

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ZenEnott wrote:

I am a little confused...

Which bow base is the recommended one? Maraketh or Thicket? I see the former in the guide and the latter being crafted by people in this thread.

Or is this simply a matter of trade availability, with Thicket being a more common one?

I can think of few reasons - Porcupine card makes 1.5 AS base easily available (ilvl 50 short bow, dread essence crafted with Catarina method).

Also Maraketh bases seem to be less common as a drop in general, at least to me. I might be personal bias, so don't take this too seriously.

I personally prefer Maraketh in general. I don't feel the need to use more than 1.4 AS bow, 6% or 4% MS is helpful even if it's just a small bonus. It looks the best of all bow bases too (looks > mechanics, am i right?).

A good reason to pick 1.5 AS bow base is... Vicious Projectiles support. It has 10% less AS modifier and wasn't used prior to Delve league. When 1.4 AS was enough before, it might not be right now.

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Kastanj wrote:

I really like this guide and I am currently doing quite well in red maps. I know gems and flasks matter in end-game fights, but what hover tooltip DPS (without temporary factors like Despair, Onslaught, or More Damage if you X recently), Life and Evasion (before being hit) is recommended for Yellow/Red Elder, Uber Atzi and the like? My DPS is at 120K, Eva is at 69 and life is a little below 6.5K.

Considering you're softcore, you already fit the requirements. 120k tooltip dps (150k buffed) was a peak damage number back in 3.1-3.3 leagues, and i managed to kill Uber Elder with it while having to use weapon swap on top of it. You will be fine.

I don't have any real damage threshold in mind. Health wise i advice 6k with Kintsugi for majority of the encounters. Uber Atziri is probably the fight i have least experience with, but it's mostly dodge or die. For Shaper/Uber Elder encounters you need 6,8k life and Kintsugi passive to survive max damage rolled Shaper ball (the dmg variance is 4,5k-6,8k according to poe.db, after all dmg calculations).

Hi there,

Awesome guide and loving the build so far!

Wondering if the Frenzy + GMP is really necessary for maintaining frenzy charges? Does the Way of the Poacher give enough Frenzy to maintain full stack as long as you're hitting?

You mention a Toxic Rain debuff in the twink leveling guide. Do you mean the move speed debuff?

Order of most to least important for damage? Void Manipulation, Swift Affliction, Viscous Projectiles?

Cursing setup is there to... curse enemy (usually boss) and refresh the frenzy charges when needed. It's big QoL and guaranteed way to do it, and you can do it monsters off-screen. The end game version of this build doesn't use that frenzy branch too, so in the long run it is necessary.

I meant the debuff from Withering Touch support that is linked to Toxic Rain. It's mentioned in normal CA levelling.

I've organized the setups in levelling guide in importance order, from left to right. Example:

Caustic Arrow - Vicious Projectiles - Void Manipulation - Swift Affliction

CA most important (ofc), Swift Affliction is the least important.

All these gem slots remained empty, I got a Portal drop and decided to put it on me (why not? even if i use portal scrolls lol)

I placed it on my gloves, where the CWDT - Immortal Call - Increased duration go.

The next map while i was fighting mobs, I realised portals were spawning and spawning, so I thought it was a map mod or something, but it didn't stop in the next map too...

Then I started to realize that it had to be with CWDT + Portal.

I guess it could be useful if I can get used to portals spawning so I don't click on them.

With the 5 remaining gem slots, i wanted to add Mirage archer.

Do you think Toxic Rain or another caustic arrow is better?

Caustic Arrow/Toxic Rain - Void Manipulation - Swift Affliction - Vicious Projectiles- Mirage Archer

well I'm almost done with this char and with it this game (once again). this build is really piss poor in delve for one thing (things swarm you and sometimes you die, despite the really useful perma-phasing. and that is at monster level 72!!!). yesterday a shaped winged death one-shot me, and that is just fucked up! I found 2 tier 10 maps so far and neither of em dropped anything same level or above (it wasn't hard in harbinger to aggregate red maps when I last played)

how lesser multiple isn't in the build guide is beyond me cause without it how would you have any clearance.

ome minor optimisations are obviously still possible (I got a 5-link unique bow on the 5th try, but I could still try to craft the +3 bow), but I really don't feel like wasting time when I see I can't go up in level anymore. what kills this for me isn't the expected deaths (in the mine or lab trials), it's the unexpected deaths against bullshit enemies. and since that is obviously intended design in poe, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna uninstall on this weekend in disgust when I die to one of those bullshit enemies like the fucking shaped winged death which I have never died to ever before, much less in a one-shot!

I'm currently level 50 and deciding which way to spezialice.
At the moment I use CA for Trash, TR for bosses and HoA for fun.
I wanted to drop HoA, because poison seems pointless, since it's to big of an investment for mediocre damage.

Do you think it's viable to use your build as base and add TR for boss dps in the remaining 5 sockets or might I still be mediocre in singe target dps?

Additionally I wanted to know your thoughts about The Green Nightmare Jewel.
If used in the socket near Scion it should give +10% dodge attack hits and +28% to gain a frenzy charge on hit. Especially when running the onslaught ascendancy, this could be a reliable way for frenzy charge generation.

What do you think about "Aspect of the Eagle" and "Deadly Draw" nodes in passive tree? They have been changed in 3.4 and seem like a good addition for more damage over time to me.

First off, I wanted to say thank you for the great, in-depth guide. It has made playing this build so easy and enjoyable. The only suggestion I would make is to "push" GMP a little more. I just switched to using it around half-way through Act 8, and found the clear speed to be so much faster, easier to sustain (less shots of CA to kill everything for less mana used), and just overall more fun. It was a little shocking to see my DoT damage halved from switching Swift Affliction for GMP, but the benefits far outweigh the extra time it takes to kill tankier rares (at least for me); and it's only a single gem swap for bosses.

I just recently came back to the game after 4 years or so of not playing. I had a Ranger that was my main back when I played last, and I wanted to play her again when I came back, as I enjoyed the class overall. My build wasn't really a build, it was me picking up nodes that sounded interesting as a new player with no idea about builds, etc. So when I came back, I had a free re-spec and picked a build that looked fun (as what I had wasn't working very well). It was horrible: I did no damage, the character was pretty much unplayable. I didn't have currency to try and "fix" the build or gear either, as she was my highest character at level 42, so I shelved her and made a couple of other characters.

With the release of Delve league and the full respec that provided, I decided to try your build, and have found the fun in this character again. I've picked up a little currency from my other characters, and been able to buy little things to fit the build and really enjoy the character. I've spent about 12c so far, and found/crafted the rest myself.

That said, I had a couple questions. Would you be willing to take a quick look at my gear and see if I'm mapping ready; I am about half-way through Act 9 now, so getting close? And I saw in a recent post you mentioned that Leo's DoT damage craft isn't really necessary anymore on the +3 bow... What is the reasoning behind that, and what would you recommend instead? I ask because I think that the next thing I need to work on is my bow unless you have other suggestions; and I hate PvP, so Leo is still level 1, so this could be a good thing.

You will likely notice I have no Ascendency... my play time is very limited, and generally sporadic, with long AFKs that sometimes need to happen with no prep time. This makes playing through the lab hard, as I have had to afk and let my character die quite a few times. I have a bit of uninterrupted time coming up soon and plan to knock out at least the first 2 Labs, maybe the 3rd if I feel up to it, so that should be fixed soonish. Also, because of limited play time, I prefer to play on Standard so I'm not starting over all the time and can share currency/drops between all of my characters. As an idea of how little time I have to play, this character has gone from 45 to 69 since Delve league started, and I've had more play time than normal lately.

Thank you again for the very well-written and comprehensive guide. Thank you for bringing back the fun in my Ranger!