Caustic Arrow

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Waves_blade wrote:

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soul4hdwn wrote:

You mean redundancy? Yes, sorry

No, thematic.

Once you trap it, it stops being poison arrow, something that you shoot from your bow, and starts being poison trap, something you throw. Doesn't feel right having a bow but be throwing traps instead. Or setting mines.

Could just be me tho.

I agree 100%. As a Diamond Supporter and a fan of ranged bow users, I've flagged with Rory my dislike for using Traps as a bow user.

In relation to PA in general, I agree that the DPS is rather low, but we should also consider the full impact of using PA as the main source of damage. PA is often compared to other DoT skills like RF or Fire Traps, but note the following:

- PA is one of the safest skills to use.
- it is used from safety of range.
- Poison Clouds don't need to "hit" anything and there for you avoid reflect/CB/lightning thorns etc and other on hit events.
- RF builds require proximity to be effective putting them in danger.
- Trap builds have trap CDs, can be destroyed and limitations to deal with.
- Voltaxic Rift has really changed the mechanics to dealing Chaos damage, so needs to be considered for changes.

I don't think PA should deal anywhere near the same level as DPS as RF or Traps. The problem is PA is a DOT... a degeneration effect... thematically it should require time, but the issue is people expect it to help clear full party maps as much as any other direct damage skill. It shouldn't.

In map groups parties move from pack to pack burning down packs ASAP, but this isn't the style of PA. PA isn't a "clear as quickly as possible" skill. In solo play PA is used more to start the degen on one pack, find/move to the next pack while one pack degens, degen on the next pack, and loot while packs are in degen.

Finally, GGG have recently implemented the DOT passive changes, who knows what other DOT changes they have coming up: perhaps passive tree balancing, new support skills, new modifiers on items or new uniques... all of which might offer avenues to boost PA damage.

Cheers

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Kaysee wrote:

I don't think PA should deal anywhere near...

I agree, and I don't think most people want it to do insane damage either. Somewhere around 4-5k DPS is reasonable given a level 20 gem, level 3 Empower, a +3 bow and the standard support gems. Yes, it is very safe to use but you can't stack the poison cloud. There aren't too many options either for additional damage while your poison cloud ticks. A burning damage Fire Trap is pretty much your best choice, and that doesn't do much damage anyway.

Also, I think the threat of certain nemesis mods are overstated when making an arguement against PA doing more damage. Corrupting blood is easily dealt with by a staunching pot, thorns and reflect are somewhat mitigated by being able to life leech, anyone can kite or get out of the way of a fractured or volatile blood, storm heralds are annoying for everyone, but if you can kill them in seconds they are a joke. And rares with the proximity shield mod are the least of anyone's worries.

Stopped playing my Poison Arrow Remote Miner at 77, had around 3.5k chaos DoT which is good for solo play but in party play and against anything with chaos resist the damage is just so shit, I try to use Fire Trap in chaos resist situations but...I'm obviously not specced into Fire damage so it's DoT numbers can only go so far. I've hopped back onto one of my older characters since.

Meanwhile, Searing Bond gets 400% damage increase.

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Kenzorz wrote:

Meanwhile, Searing Bond gets 400% damage increase.

and no longer stacks

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soul4hdwn wrote:

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Kenzorz wrote:

Meanwhile, Searing Bond gets 400% damage increase.

and no longer stacks

Oh, you mean just like Poison arrow which doesn't stack?

I think it would be perfectly reasonable to have this stack, just like its melee counterpart, Viper Strike. Maybe not to 4, because Poison arrow obviously offers more safety by being ranged. But still, it would help a lot in its damage, but because you'd still have to set it up and keep enemies in the cloud, I don't think having it stack would be OP.

Hey guys,

Do you know if Point Blank affects the cloud damage? Also, Chin Sol?

No.

The cloud is an effect independent of the projectile. Thus, it has no change based on Point Blank (Or any modifiers to projectile damage).

Currently your best bet are Chaos Damage/DoT passive skill nodes, and ConcAoE skillgem, if you want to increase the dot of PA.

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AfroComrade wrote:

No.

The cloud is an effect independent of the projectile. Thus, it has no change based on Point Blank (Or any modifiers to projectile damage).

Currently your best bet are Chaos Damage/DoT passive skill nodes, and ConcAoE skillgem, if you want to increase the dot of PA.

Strange, i seem to recall GGG actually using projectile damage as an example to highlight the DoT changes in the patchnotes.

But to answer the original question, Point Blank does not work because it affects Projectile ATTACK damage (a specific mod) and does not affect the cloud DoT.

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Cuddlepaws wrote:

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AfroComrade wrote:

No.

The cloud is an effect independent of the projectile. Thus, it has no change based on Point Blank (Or any modifiers to projectile damage).

Currently your best bet are Chaos Damage/DoT passive skill nodes, and ConcAoE skillgem, if you want to increase the dot of PA.

Strange, i seem to recall GGG actually using projectile damage as an example to highlight the DoT changes in the patchnotes.

But to answer the original question, Point Blank does not work because it affects Projectile ATTACK damage (a specific mod) and does not affect the cloud DoT.

Projectile Damage affects Poison Arrow DoT.
Point Blank does not, for reason you've stated.

This skill embodies so much that is wrong with the clusterfuck of a damage multiplier system in PoE.

Is the DOT applied in an aoe cloud? Yes. Does raised aoe damage raise the DOT damage though? No.
Does concentrated effect lower the aoe? Yes. Does it raise the damage? ...maybe??
Does nonspecific projectile damage raise its damage over time? Yes. Does the raised projectile damage of point blank however raise the dot? No.
What would a newbie intuitovely think raises the damage over time?
Why, increased spell damage of course since it's flat damage, independent from the weapon, right? Just like every single other spell that doesn't work off of your weapons damage in the game, right? Does it do that? No.
Instead, you may only raise its damage with that handful of ultraspecific damage over time and chaos damage nodes peppered all over the giant skilltree, specifically designed to benefit a grand total of 2 skills only and have fun linking support gems to amass that nonspecific "projectile" bonus damage in hilariously inefficient ways like linking faster and slower projectiles at the same time.

What a mess.