[3.4] The Plague Archer - Assassin Crit/Poison based Toxic Rain!
 I like to use the new skills and changes when a fresh league launches. Keeping with that tradition this will be my take on the Toxic rain skill that is being introduced. This is a pre-league concept that will develop and change a bit as I flesh out the build. The build will use Toxic rain as the main skill and possibly a single target if I need to throw one in. It will be poison based and use the new Herald of Agony as well. As this is a pre-launch build I would love and expect people to find things that I have missed. If you do see something that works better or have ideas let me know in the comments! ---Thanks to everyone in the comments for the advice!--- Update log– 09/12/2018
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-Update - 09/12/2018 -Added Normal Atziri kill video -Added Uber Izaro kill video -Updated gem links. -Updated gear section. -Update - 09/07/2018 -Updated Current gem links. -Updated gearing section with current budget gear. -Update - 09/02/2018 -Added a random clip leveling video. -Update - 08/31/2018 -Delve Launched! GOOD LUCK and have FUN! -More updates on the build will come as I level and test things. -Bear with me I work 24h shifts I can't super twitch streamer level grind it out. -Update - 08/30/2018 -Added PoE Planner Skill tree links. -Added Leveling Tips. -Added Gear considerations. -Update - 08/29/2018 -3.4 Patch Notes released https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2201187 -Updated Passive Tree on Path of Building. -Added Lvl 22 suggestion passives. -Scion Pastebin Passives updated. -Update - 08/28/2018 -Putting together build concept. -Forming the page layout and basics of the build. Previous Builds
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-[3.0] Quad Glacial Cascade Totems - Fun and Cheap! https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1931216 -[3.3] Crit Fire/Flamethrower Trapper! - League Starter https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2150567/page/1 Gameplay Video's
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-Random Leveling with bad found gear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QemR4_B4Pa8 -Normal Atziri kill full run. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuVd1urzTRE -Uber Izaro kill final phase. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_SAEplZ9eM Strengths and Weaknesses
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Strengths
-Utilizes the new Herald of Agony -Synergizes well with Poison and chaos damage. Weaknesses -Does not take the big life wheel so life on gear is important. -Does not kill all things instantly from off-screen I.e meta builds. Skill Tree
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-Lvl 22 Suggestion
Path of building Pastebin - https://pastebin.com/kJrfE4Gv PoE Planner - https://goo.gl/sG9VUy -Lvl 96 Final Tree Suggested by Stars-in-the-nights ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Adds more life and attack speed at the cost of some up front damage. Path of building Pastebin - https://pastebin.com/pvV2Kkea PoE Planner - https://goo.gl/9qXao4 Ascendancy
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Class - Assassin Points - Noxious Strike > Toxic Delivery > Opportunistic / Ambush and Assassinate Scion Variation The Ascendant version for people who like to be jack of all master of none. Provides a few more passives and stats but sacrifices some Assassin benefits This is not recommended for this build but some people like to play Scion. -Pre-Path of the Shadow passive suggestion. Path of building Pastebin - https://pastebin.com/uFQsRgF7 -Post-Path of the Shadow passive suggestion. Path of building Pastebin - https://pastebin.com/7AcsHk18 Pantheon
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These can be changed on a whim so use what you need.
-Major - Soul of Lunaris Capture Thraxia - Spider Lair Map Capture Sebbert, Crescents Point - Moon Temple Map Capture Lycius, Midnight's Howl - Lair Map or -Major - Soul of The Brine King Capture The Forgotten Soilder - Conservatory Map Capture Puruna, The Challenger - Atol Map Capture Nassar, Lion of the Seas - Reef Map -Minor - Soul of Gruthkul Capture Erebix, Light's Bane - Cemetery Map Requirements
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-Strength on your gear. A small amount to make sure your gems are maxed is needed. Gem Setups
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For Damage -Toxic Rain > Faster Attacks > Vicious Projectiles > Swift Affliction > Mirage Archer > Free Slot -Herald of Agony > Minion Damage > Vicious Projectiles > Damage on Full life > Faster Attacks > Free Slot (Since mana reservation only allows for a 5-link Herald use this slot for Vaal Grace, Arctic armor or Blink arrow.) For Defense -CWDT(8) > Immortal Call(10) > Ice Golem(10) > Despair(11) -Vaal Grace -Arctic Armor For Utility -Spell Totem > Wither > Faster casting > Free Slot (Consider totem resist Or place your Vaal Grace here) -Blink Arrow Bandits
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Bandit Choice Kill all for 2 skill points or Alira. Which ever you prefer. Alira is always a good choice to take some resist pressure off gear, the crit is a bonus to the build as well. Gearing and Stats
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For gear as always in PoE the first goals you should have is getting resist cap and over 4.5k life pool for those unavoidable one shots and big boss hits. After that you focus on damage and a defense mechanic of choice. This build so far is using some evasion with acrobatics and phase acrobatics.
Prior to the launch of the league these are the items I'm considering. -Bow - Lioneye's Glare. -Chest - Consider Cherrubim's Maleficence, Six link Rare. -Quiver - Consider stat rare, Maloney's Nightfall. -Belt - Consider Stygian Vise, Doryani's invitation(Physical), The Retch. -Helm - Consider Starkonja's head, Rate's Nest, stat rare. -Boots - Consider Atziri's Step, stat rare. -Gloves - Consider Haemophilia, stat rare, The Embalmer. -Rings - Consider stat rare, Essence Worm, Mark of the Elder. -Amulet - Consider Carnage Heart, Impresence(Chaos), stat rare. This is my current gear starting red maps. (I've been unlucky so far so this is low budget gear)
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This gear can do normal Atziri and Uber Izaro with ease.
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Enchants They might have added some more Enchants in Delve I will update accordingly. -Helm 30% increased Blink Arrow Cooldown Recovery Speed 30% increased Despair Curse Effect -Boots 16% increased Attack and Cast Speed if you've Killed Recently 0.6% of Damage Leeched as Life and Mana if you've Killed Recently 8% chance to Dodge Spell Hits if you've taken Spell Damage Recently 80% chance to Avoid being Stunned if you've Killed Recently -Gloves Preference. Jewels Watcher's Eye Rare jewel with %life > Damage over time / Chaos Damage / Crit / Attack Speed / Damage / Phy with bows / Flask -Witchfire Brew https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Witchfire_Brew -Atziri's Promise https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Atziri%27s_Promise -One Mana or Hybrid flask. For flask it's important to keep at least one mana or hybrid flask. For no/low regen maps Leveling Tips and Uniques
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Leveling a ranger can be really easy if you get the Quill Rain early. My favorite setup just for fun is getting a Quill rain and throwing split arrow and just blasting my way to Level 40. I like to use and experiment with skills that are fun while I'm leveling. -Make sure to have some of your end game skill gems in your secondary weapon slots. -Make sure to throw in Blink arrow. -Don't forget to add Heralds and Aura's as they become available. Leveling Uniques to consider Quill Rain - https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Quill_Rain Tabula - https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Tabula_Rasa Goldrim - https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Goldrim Blackheart - https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Blackheart ♥ we all go tissues ♥ Last edited by weallgotissues#4890 on Sep 12, 2018, 11:20:58 AM Last bumped on Dec 23, 2018, 11:47:55 AM
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I'm looking forward to more development on this build as information is released.
Now I just need an appropriately Skavenesque name ... Edit: Do you think it would make sense to drop some bow passives (eg. Heavy Draw) to add some chaos damage, like Atrophy, maybe Force Shaper? Last edited by Saevan#0638 on Aug 28, 2018, 2:51:41 PM
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" I'm not a fan of Atrophy but I've been staring hard at Force Shaper and Dirty Teqniques. As far as taking away heavy draw it kind of depends. The 3.4 skill tree isn't out yet so we will have to wait but for now Heavy draw gives us inc phy dmg and ailments vs just chaos damage. So if you wanted to buff poisons more I would say keep the Heavy draw. If you wanted to focus more on the Toxic rain skill doing the damage then having more chaos damage would probably be better. I can't really predict what is going to work better. I foresee the use of some regrets in the future to test it out. =O ♥ we all go tissues ♥
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Looks interesting.
What do you think of less duration on Toxic Rain for quicker explosions? I think herald of Purity might make it easier to survive by giving us extra meat shields(that is how I am planning my build anyway) |
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" I think that it would work well if the "Hit" from those explosions stack poison as well. The build takes so much added Damage over time that the effect might be strong enough to kill things pre explosion and adding more damage to that might be good as well. I think it all depends on what you are trying to buff more. The Hit, the Dot, the AOE of the spell or the poison on the build. ♥ we all go tissues ♥
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Looking forward to this build as this is exactly the character I was going to roll as a league Starter. I am wondering if something like a quill rain would do better for this skill or a high physical damage bow? Any idea?
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" If you were going to focus on just poison then quill rain would probably be a good choice but what I'm going for with this build us to synergize the damage between toxic rain and poison so a high physical damage bow such as https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Lioneye%27s_Glare is something I'm looking into. ♥ we all go tissues ♥
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I followed your previous guide in Incursion and it was very good..
So..why did u choose toxic rain and not the caustic arrow? I believe CA will be better. |
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Seems nice. Will try it in Delve
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" There are so many CA builds out there and I like to try different/new things. It's the same reason I went flame trap and not arc trap last league =P I might still use CA as a single target type option in this one. ♥ we all go tissues ♥
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