[2.6] Explosive Arrow Pathfinder W/Videos -HC Endgame Mapping, Grandmasters, T16 Guardian Guides

Hello everyone :)

I've been playing the game on and off for a while now, and got back to being addicted to it this expansion :p However I am a bit new to the forums and min-maxing builds so please bear with me and if you have some helpful input, it would be greatly appreciated.

On to actual post, I come seeking aid. I very much like the idea of this build, but everyone keeps saying that it is dead due to the ignite changes. I am currently making a character to test the original build and see how it performs with the nerfs. Even if it is not the best, I hope it will still be enjoyable.

Has anyone tested out making some changes to the build in order to try and get more "Burning damage" from the tree and using "Elemental Damage with Attacks", "Burning Damage" and "Immolate"? I suppose it would be pretty similar to a Scorching Ray build, but for EA.

I've also been toying around with Path of Building to see if I could come up with something decent, here is the code: https://pastebin.com/A8ifVkKY

I'll be honest, I'm using Elemental Equilibrium not really fully understanding why it's good, it seems to me that the first explosion does very good damage but the following 4 will be reduced(?).

For now I'll continue leveling my Pathfinder and see how that goes before pursuing different setups.

I really love the idea of being a Pathfinder and messing around with potions to maximize the build, and the idea behind EA. This is probably a futile attempt to try and bring something dead back to life, but I really like it and if someone else shares the enthusiasm, feel free to help out!

Thanks.

"

coredumped wrote:

Hello everyone :)

I've been playing the game on and off for a while now, and got back to being addicted to it this expansion :p However I am a bit new to the forums and min-maxing builds so please bear with me and if you have some helpful input, it would be greatly appreciated.

On to actual post, I come seeking aid. I very much like the idea of this build, but everyone keeps saying that it is dead due to the ignite changes. I am currently making a character to test the original build and see how it performs with the nerfs. Even if it is not the best, I hope it will still be enjoyable.

Has anyone tested out making some changes to the build in order to try and get more "Burning damage" from the tree and using "Elemental Damage with Attacks", "Burning Damage" and "Immolate"? I suppose it would be pretty similar to a Scorching Ray build, but for EA.

I've also been toying around with Path of Building to see if I could come up with something decent, here is the code: https://pastebin.com/A8ifVkKY

I'll be honest, I'm using Elemental Equilibrium not really fully understanding why it's good, it seems to me that the first explosion does very good damage but the following 4 will be reduced(?).

For now I'll continue leveling my Pathfinder and see how that goes before pursuing different setups.

I really love the idea of being a Pathfinder and messing around with potions to maximize the build, and the idea behind EA. This is probably a futile attempt to try and bring something dead back to life, but I really like it and if someone else shares the enthusiasm, feel free to help out!

Thanks.

The numbers aren't good enough on EA's ignite to make it worth while, and that delay on the explosion makes it too clunky to get consistant explosions over a long period of time. boss fights will take a while and over all it's not fun to do from my beta experience.


However, I am likely going to roll an EA pathfinder in hardcore soon, I did find a potential single target replacement that I want to give a try, and that's molten strike with oro's sacrifice and trying to get as many molten balls as possible (dying sun + the flask effect jewel + pathfinder + helmet+ 2 wildfire jewels), it is however pretty pricy in HC but if you've got enough to test this out here's my pob data.

https://pastebin.com/aywyUwTq

This is using the gear I had on my last EA character. The plan might end up being using vinktar instead of rumi's and acro, potentially vaal grace to get a huge amount of uptime on dps against a boss without getting hit if my damage is good enough.

I think berserker gets bigger damage, but I think still clears slower while being squishier since you can't vaal pact , raider gets slightly less damage and 1 less ball. if pathfinder's damage is still good enough, then I'd rather play with that than zerker. but that's just me.

This is my tentative tree to use right now for hardcore. Not sure if I'm set on acro or not and how to balance defenses for hardcore, so I'm hovering over 150k per ball dps on shaper/guardian on a 6link oros assuming frenzy charges and active flasks. no shock or anything like that. Assuming 3+3+3+2+2 which is around 2.1 mil shaper dps. I personally wouldn't do shaper in HC with it, but I wanted to see the scaling on the highest targets. The build should clear the same as before but now you have this for bosses. No EE and veteran bowyer instead of master surgeon for Oro's


That's what I would like to try, but I'm have been slacking and don't have the stuff to get this rolling in HC right now. If you're in SC you can remove potential defenses or life for more damage, there are plenty of nearby damage nodes on the tree.

That seems about the simplest way I can scale damage from this side of the tree. I couldn't find the correct bow to do barrage instead of molten strike oros. Molten strike oros ends up being the closest thing to EA in terms of scaling single target dps (projectile fire area damage with high base fire damage).

Hey dingis - did you ever update this build? Obviously ignite is still shit but I'm wondering if you ever found a good single target swap of some sort. Man I miss this build ...

YEA !! Buff for ignite in 3.3.0 single target dmg ????

"

BigGeorgesCZE wrote:

YEA !! Buff for ignite in 3.3.0 single target dmg ????

Wanna know that too

Hey guys, I'm waiting for tree changes and what they're going to do with EE. The reason why I went with pathfinder over elementalist before was because it was easy to get enough damage just from tree and jewels. I need the updated tree and calculations for new ignite.

Things might be good again but it's hard to judge right now.

Things to look out for.
New upgradable boots shown https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2147651 should give you perma onslaught on blood magic so that's extra speed.

It is likely that you're gonna want to replace rearguard with a quiver with elemental damage with attack skills (ilvl 80 shaper one with additional arrow) or Maloney's Nightfall. you'll likely want blind on hit somewhere anyway (gloves can roll those). this also means no need to rumis. if you can get enough damage with rumi's and rearguard, that would be the safest bet though but I'm not sure right now.

Since projectile and area damage don't affect ignites, Fire damage and increased damage should affect both. 3 grand spectrums give you 36% fire damage each which is arguably the best you're gonna get, but they have no life.

An elder belt with increased effect of flask on you should put you at an extra arrow on dying sun.

Stormfire is an interesting ring because it can proc combustion before the actual explosion. it also means you can actually use the lightning enchant on boots if you haven't killed recently to give you some more base damage for the ignite. would need to test that though.

Last thing to look out for is double corruptions if you can get the +2 to druation and +2 to area gems on a good chest that could also be crazy damage. Potentially there might be a crazy double corruption on bow that can go on quill rain if you want to risk it.


Without the tree and knowing how EE is changed it's really hard to tell how far you can push EA as pathfinder at the moment though.