[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

"

Serleth wrote:

I recently tried leveling as CA again from scratch. Make no mistake about it, it's not as fast as other leveling.

It was a pain until I had about... 130% damage off the tree. I was using a 5L Silverbranch for the +1 bow gems. I was using it to level my current ranger, so the order of nodes I got will be different than you but just for illustration if you wanted to PoB the numbers yourself, I got Method to the Madness, Entropy and the ranger starting proj damage nodes, which I think was somewhere between level 20 and 30. Then it started to feel okay. Once I also had Growth and Decay, it started to smooth out.

From Scion, since Dirty Techniques no longer helps us out, the trek is longer. Fury Bolts + Method + Entropy, which is probably mid-40s or so.

If you have the currency, get a corrupted Empower 3 and use that as your 6th link.

It's worth noting I did have to grind areas to roughly keep equal to zone level in order for CA to feel comfortable. Until I hit 51 and was able to swap into a +2 bow. Then I cranked my way to Blood Aqueducts pretty smoothly.

I personally always just recommend Firestorm leveling or something like that.

Anyway, once you get Entropy next, it'll start to feel better. From there go directly to Growth & Decay, picking up Blood Siphon if you need more life, then Written in Blood into Atrophy, then start fleshing out the rest.

I rolled an Occultist this time around (no MF) and rushed straight to the jewel socket. Put in Hidden potential and only pick up blue gear as you level. At level 36, buy a silverwood prophecy and upgrade your Silverbranch to Silverbough. Had no problem leveling using CA this way, but I still wouldn't recommend it because other skills are just better until you get all the AoE.
I'm hybrid life/es, tho I might reroll to ES completely to run a few more auras on life. So far, so good though.

"

educed Caustic Arrow's impact on graphical performance, with a variety of optimisations.

Not that I ever noticed issues, but neat.

I used this build for my first character in almost 2 years, made my way to 70 and started farming the MF gear as I could. It slowly snowballed to where I am at now lvl 80. I'm working my way up from 3k life to a higher % and hitting a couple missed % nodes and jewels.

Since this is my first character in a long time, I'd really like to explore higher tier maps at some point transitioning this build from MF to endgame. While still giving myself the option to swap down to MF gear for things like lower level map farming etc.

How would you segue this build to something endgame viable with less map MFing focus? I was debating going QoTF with the evasion + life combo nodes to try to really rack up my evasion, since all my current gear is evasion based.

The simplest solution is obviously swap Goldwyrm/Andvarius rings for life/res, then use either Carcass Jack or Cherrubim's Malificence while getting a second +3 bow (just easier than always recolouring) to swap IIR out for Slower Proj.

In all honesty with the build's playstyle, the extra 1,000-1,500 base evasion from QoTF isn't really going to make a significant difference in higher tier maps, so much as fully investing into Phase Acro will.

Now.

If you're willing to put the time in to swapping between gear sets, the Hidden Potential jewel is the way to go.

With all magic items slotted everywhere except the chestpiece and the +3 bow, with decent jewels you will be able to be overcap on all resistances by at least 22%.

The difference in dps between the two methods is 85,000-ish with Slower Proj/Carcass and standard rare gear (all frenzy charges up, Vulnerability applied, but no Wither) and 111,900 with Hidden Potential and all magic gear (except bow, chestpiece).

Not a small difference (nearly 30,000 dps with Frenzies/Vuln).

Changing Carcass out for a perfect 80% Cherrubim's adds another 4,000.

Thanks for sharing this.

I'm at 5,1k HP, 19% IIQ and 278% IIR
Can't say i'm satisfied with this build:
1) What gain should i expect from my IIR/IIQ stats? I feel only slightly faster chaos recipe gathering, that's it
2) Well it's not super tanky hardcore build but sometimes it really feels as "last sentence in suicide note" Is my HP too low? ES is ~500 btw and i think it could be better. Evasion rating is around 15k. Should i try investing in pantheon powerups? Like 10% chance to evade projectile stuff is great but i dont believe its that significant right?
I play rare t6-8 maps and ignore bosses most times.

Thanks in advance

"

TideSofDarK wrote:

Thanks for sharing this.

I'm at 5,1k HP, 19% IIQ and 278% IIR
Can't say i'm satisfied with this build:
1) What gain should i expect from my IIR/IIQ stats? I feel only slightly faster chaos recipe gathering, that's it
2) Well it's not super tanky hardcore build but sometimes it really feels as "last sentence in suicide note" Is my HP too low? ES is ~500 btw and i think it could be better. Evasion rating is around 15k. Should i try investing in pantheon powerups? Like 10% chance to evade projectile stuff is great but i dont believe its that significant right?
I play rare t6-8 maps and ignore bosses most times.

Thanks in advance

1) Speaking in terms of strictly mapping-only profits, 125-133% compared to a normal clear speed build. So if you were to get 75ex per month with dps, you would see between 90-100ex with MF.
2) 5100's fine. I'm typically doing T13s at that point. Pantheon powers aren't required but will provide a bonus. See OP for details. You just gotta get used to the playstyle and timing your Seething pots appropriately. If you feel you're struggling defensively, swap a Quicksilver out for a Stibnite.

Other than some quality of life improvements (such as an extra arrow and pierce), what's the big difference between Trickster and Ascendant? Do I loose too much damage going Trickster? Thanks a bunch!

Assuming you take Swift Killer (as I recommend), damage output is roughly the same, assuming identical jewels.

Ascendant is SLIGHTLY better on damage. Ascendant is easier to gear early on (due to early access to resistance nodes), has better clear speed (due to the QoL you mention), and can flesh out the tree faster (due to the extra points).

Trickster's the more defensive option due to the Ascendancy choices. Patient Reaper provides a solid boost to life regen, buying you some time to react and flask out while also improving the effect of any duration-based life flasks, Ghost Dance's 5%/5% dodge/spelldodge is not to be underestimated and given how often you won't be on full ES, it also provides a very nice boost to evasion via Shade Form. You could go even more defensive at the cost of dps if you dropped Swift Killer for Weave the Arcane, reducing incoming damage for 4 seconds by 8% for every 200 mana spent (roughly every 4 arrows). Pretty drastic increase to survivability overall.

Hence Trickster's recommended for HC. It's a bit tougher to get going, and it's slower on the clear speed, but end-game the defensive options outweigh the QoL for HC players.

But there's not much point in doing that for SC. I've made a new MF'er in Harbinger, just got her to level 89 yesterday. I opted for Eramir out of bandits and the only thing I have left to get are four more life nodes and the build is done, 240% IIR (before IIR gem) + Bisco's (trying it out, for Science), 5350 life. Way more than enough for SC (I usually cap at around 5200, but I'm pretty decently geared this time around).

I see, makes sense! I guess you followed the Scion tree you suggested (your chars are private).

I started as Shadow/Trickster but probably going to roll a Scion then. I appreciate your answer!

Yeah pretty much. Only real difference between what I did vs what the guide says is I took the two passive points from Eramir in order to get a jewel faster. But I'll be respeccing that later on (keeping the jewel, but banking two passive points from leveling) for Oak regen to help with reduced recovery/vuln/desecrated ground, etc. maps. Which is just a personal preference thing, Kraityn's better overall imho for the build but I like to MF a bit lazier. =)