[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

Heya. While I find the guide very useful, if a very confusing when we have to consider IIQ + IIR and what optimal values would be (personally I'm shooting for maxing everything as much as possible and this will include an IIQ gem). However I think there is a way to further the DPS a little bit, however this only works at very high gem levels.

In and of itself, concentrated effect has a huge DPS boost like no other gem has. Assuming a q20 gem at level 24 (you can go up to 26 with an empower level 4 and by corrupting concentrated effect to level 21 but we'll ignore those for now and think level 20 + empower level 3) gives you 72% area damage. However because of the very small area it would create, an increase area of effect is necessary. Now assuming it has q20 that also increases area damage by 10%. I totals out at 82% area damage. However it's 2 gems so it's fair to say that the area damage gained per gem is 41%.

Now I believe there are alternatives to this combo but again, only for very high level gems (which you can simply level on the side). First we get the iron grip gem. Now we'll ignore the bonus strenght damage as that specific part only applies to physical damage, but it also has a base extra projectile damage that affects this gem. Now at level 24 this gem gives 46% extra projectile damage which does applies to poison arrow, add q20 and that's another 10% on top for a whoopin 56%. Next we add culling strike and again, we ignore the fact that it won't cull anything, however it also has an increased damage bonus and at level 24, that's 46%. Now it won't benefict from damage bonus with quallity but as we've determined that a the combo of concentrated effect + increased area of effect is 41% per gem with quallity on both already added, it still beats the value of a single gem. So we get 102% extra damage compared to 82% extra damage.

It's a minor 20% damage optimisation and your AoE will only be so very slightly smaller but definitly still big enough as long as the poison arrow has 20q.

@Elhazzared
Empower only boosts the level of active skill gems, not support gems.

Also, Concentrated Effect gives "more" damage whereas quality on Increased Area of Effect as well as the bonus from Iron Grip both give "increased" damage; "more" is not the same as "increased."

In damage calculations, "increased" is additive whereas "more" is multiplicative as explained here: http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Modifiers

Long story short - Concentrated Effect provides a substantial boost to damage, much, much greater than that provided by Iron Grip.

If you want to try different gem combinations to see what's best, Serleth provides links to two Poison Arrow Damage calculators in the second post of this thread.

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Waterhorse wrote:

Hey!
First of all the guide works perfectly, but i stopped a little bit in the new league, i cant really decide how to progress in gear. I have 50~ chaos atm and a sire of shards at lvl77, already have a +2 5l bow, but i dont know, should i buy a lvl2 empower, or a drillneck/andvarius?

Edit: i bought a lvl2 corrupted empower, now i should get drillneck right?

Yeah if you're running with a level two empower I'd go for a Drillneck. Then +3 bow.

@Elhazzared

Hank (thanks, buddy) covered the response succinctly. That confusion means the math is off.

I gotta go to work so I don't have time right now to get into full details regarding the math, but the guide isn't intended to be built for Standard; it's meant for fresh economies and challenge leagues, thus the IIQ gem is not taken into consideration.

Concentrated effect is a required gem because of the multiplicative damage bonus, not increased. Same goes for slower projectiles. Which leaves, in your 6L option, only Increased Area of Effect as the swappable gem (CE, SP, Empower, IIR all required, as far as an MF setup goes).

Essentially what it translates to is that your available gems to utilize in AoE's place are Iron Grip (20/20 provides 48% increased projectile damage compared to the 35% boost we'd get from Pierce) or IIQ, as culling strike caps at a 38% increase at level 20.

At that, I would only say that removing AoE is an option if you have Carcass Jack and a 20% PA.

As it stands while you're constructing the build, a level 20 AoE provides a 39% area boost. Without the quality on PA even this feels a little bit small.

A 20% PA and Carcass Jack provides 30% AoE, meaning removing the AoE gem at that point is only a net differential of -9%, which is tolerable.

Thanks for the guide, so far doing good on 1M league and 1 shotting most packs. If possible, could you give me few tips regarding gear or the tree?



And this is my gear, currently I have 21/204(+55 from gem) (Haven't found an empower to use, so was using iir gem, and all my currency is being saved for a second andvarius):

Thank you for clearing out the multiplicative and addictive bonus for gems which I wasn't aware of.

This means a carcass jack is indeed an unavoidable piece for me in the near future, granted, I only need 5L so that makes matters slightly less complicated.

The costly thing will of course be the bow, something like 15ex+.

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Elhazzared wrote:

Thank you for clearing out the multiplicative and addictive bonus for gems which I wasn't aware of.

My pleasure. Glad I could help.

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Elhazzared wrote:

The costly thing will of course be the bow, something like 15ex+.

If you have access to level 8 Catarina, you'll be able to craft a 6-link +3 bow for much less than that. See the FAQ section in the first post of this thread for more details.

@spekatju

The tree is pretty self explanatory. There's a full workup about the progression in the guide OP. Continue adding life, if you don't need the resistances swap the scion nodes from the res side to the proj damage side, get frenzy charges, fill out the rest of the Acro branch. Whatever you feel you need most.

Gear wise, it looks like you have enough MF to get an Andvarius, then +3 bow, then Drillneck, then last Andvarius.

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One more thing. I'm running low on wisdom scrolls but I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. I shouldn't bother picking up all the rares right? What kind should I pick up from now on? Obviously jewelery, belts, bows, wands, what else? Is there a list of all the things that are worth picking up to not waste scrolls?

Get a portal gem if you don't have one. Because you will be picking up literally all the rares that you can fit. For the first 1-2 portals of the map you can pick up whatever, but if you notice that you're likely to run out of portals, prioritize everything that isn't a 2h'er with the exceptions of bows and staves (for +3 rolls).

I've been MFing full-tilt since Ambush/Invasion and I've never had a scroll problem. Portal gem solves a lot of it, but you should also be vendoring all the scraps and whetstones you find in addition to keeping no more than one full stack of transmutes and vendoring every excess transmute you find.

As it stands, I have three full tabs of scrolls in Standard and I've been forced to actually stop picking up scrolls.

If for whatever reason you still find yourself depleting, run your Museum maps or do Archives runs for the Scholar card.

manaegd to get a super brodeal com an andvarius for 20c, so got it and took aurseize off,dunno if that was better, but I got more iir and more mov spd. Just need to upgrade my ammy for some res to cap some there is left.

One last question, should I regal my bow now, or craft no atk mod on it first? Still newbie in crafting.