[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

Well I ran that a lot earlier than I should have(level 87). I was able to borrow a lvl 20 CA gem, so I gave it a shot. The clear up to the boss room is fine, a little stressful due to the timer, but as long as you are paying attention to charges, flasks and the map it plays out with little issue.

At my stage of gear the boss took a long time. With empower, and the rest of the supports leveled I see it being easier. I did my best to avoid the add portals, but near the end I panicked a little and triggered two of them, and that was my invitation to struggle town. Killed him with one portal to spare, but with more practice I'm sure I can complete it will less issue/death.


I might drop the quicksilver for an elemental flask, or another life flask for the boss fight, but I'm not sure at the moment. Also in posting those I realized not all my flasks have quality, and I have not yet crafted life on my helm. I should fix that.

This has nothing to do with magic find... or with Caustic Arrow...

It's strictly about rolling a second character other than CA-MF.

Hence it's spoilered.
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Caveat: Blight does have huge problems. But it does have a unique play style which I think is really fun.

If you're looking for a Tier 1 clearing skill, stop here. Blight is definitely no where near this level ATM (I think - but with great gear maybe it'll get close to Tier 1).

Yet, it's a playable skill I think/maybe better than average.. Read on if you're intrigued.
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I'm a contrarian at heart - which likely accounts for my quixotic attempt to create a playable Blight build. So far, it's a draw. The Windmills seem to be killing me just as often as I'm killing them :-)
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OK - if you're still reading, here's why I think that Blight is fun.

It's a totally unique play style.

What you do, is cast briefly at mobs. And then run on. The mobs you've hit take a huge degen buff that will kill them. Even yellow mobs will die in time.
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To survive, you'll need to combine Temporal Chains with some sort of hinder. This stacking slow debuff means that most mobs won't even hit you. And it means that you'll be able to out-run melee mobs and hopefully get out of the way of ranged mobs.
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My testing thus far indicates that self-cast, huge AOE, with cast speed and skill duration emphasis is the way to approach this build.

So you're going to be rolling Witch/Occultist - and you're going to go CI.

For the skill tree - you're going dual curse (I think), and you're going to grab every single skill duration, AOE and curse buff node on the tree. You'll also need to take Energy Shield, chaos damage, and damage over time nodes. Take jewel nodes too if convenient.
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Tentatively Recommended Gear:
Chest - Beast Fur
Weapon(s) - dual Breath of the Council
Other stuff - Energy sheild/resist gear - try for corrupted belt with increased AOE
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Check out my character Cyren in Standard for my attempt to get this build to work so far.

But ignore gear somewhat - I've got Singularity equipped ATM which I think is a mistake because Hinder's don't stack - the build has a short-lived intrinsic hinder from Blight, which, coupled with TC may be enough - and if not, an Abyssal Cry would almost certainly plug any need to slow mobs more than TC does.
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Again, a Blight build is really counter-meta. Even with huge investment in AOE, the build lacks quite a bit in clear speed.

On the upside though... it's a really unique play style. You need to get pretty close to mobs, cast, and then move.

The DPS is good enough that less than a second of casting will eventually kill most mobs, even yellows. So clear speed is hindered by AOE but isn't as bad as you might think.

For bosses - it's the same, except that you'll want to drop a wither totem.

Cast just outside of melee range - and them move quickly to avoid big hits. Meanwhile your Blight/Wither DOTs tick for decent DPS. And Temporal Chains plus hinder means that the boss will have difficulty getting into melee range with you.
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Once I hit on a complete tree/gear selection I'll post a build guide in the Witch forum.
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One last remark...

Originally I thought that Blight would be great as a totem build - that seems to be wrong.

The trouble is, is that with decent investment in cast speed, Blight stacks to 20 layers very quickly. Meaning that 2 totems casting blight is kind of pointless.

Meanwhile, totems take a DPS hit over self cast.

Self cast Blight is far better than totem-Blight.

For packs, just self-cast Blight briefly and move on. They'll all die after a bit of time. And they won't damage you due to TC/hinder.

For bosses, drop a Wither totem and cast Blight until you need to move. This seems to be pretty effective.
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Bottom line:

Blight is fun. And is (at least) sot-of playable. I just wish that the AOE was doubled so that pack clear speed was better. And I think that if you like chaos damage, probably Essence Drain/Contagion is much better.
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Edit: Breaches are crazy and are a unique type of encounter. High level breaches are really challenging.

I haven't tested my Blight Build in Breach league at all - so all my ideas may totally fall apart there.

But the double-slow of Temporal Chains plus some sort of hinder (not sure what's best yet - intrinsic but sort-lived Blight hinder or Abyssal Cry or Singularity mace) means that incoming damage is remarkably quite low.

So I think that this will work well in breach - after I level my main toon to 90 I'll probably work on my Breach, Blight toon - Leprosy_ - but there's a bunch of gear I'll want (6-link Beast Fur or ES chest is the big one) - so maybe I'll roll a CA magic find toon to fund the build.
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Final remark as someone who values concise and accurate communication.

Blight - look it up online - is a *PLANT* disease - it poses no threat at all to animal life.

And this is telling - GGG, IMO, invested so little time in "Blight" that they even fucked up when naming the skill.

Many other degenerative nouns come to mind which would obviously better convey the DOT decay mechanic of this skill: Leprosy, Decay, Rot, Wane, etc.

I'm a programmer - and in my career as a programmer I've observed that if you cannot concisely convey the purpose of whatever you're doing - then you are fucked. Those around you will be working towards other objectives and will fight you due to the confusion and meanwhile your own efforts will be muddy and misguided.

"BLIGHT" has all of the problems mentioned above in *fucking* spades.