Withering Rains Pathfinder 3.4 (Toxic Rain Dual Herald featuring Siege Basista)

Attempt at viable Toxic Rain build using Pathfinder and would like some advice :) I am focusing more on Pod DoT and poison. Still WIP! UPDATED and attempt at Witch version below (which went CA, so I'll add that when she's done)

Forge of the Phoenix Pre-Update


Pros
- It doesn’t even feel like a DoT; everything just dies
- Super fast movespeed
- Inexpensive, save Impresence (Oof, it skyrocketed)
- Excels at Delves (so far)
- Can do reflect maps

Cons
- Can’t leech DoTs so have to focus on regen/no Vaal Pact :S
- Cannot do no regen maps (OK, it can, but it's slow)
- Super fast movespeed makes me dizzy
- Not Deadeye, so Blink Arrow hurts a bit


Bandits/Ascendancy


Current Gear


Gems



Siege Basista DPS


*Notes:
- Working on mana sustain without a pot in Delves: went Vaal Clarity

PoB:
https://pastebin.com/MHtNvZ1b

Witch Version w/Blood-Magic-but-good-luck-getting-a-five-green-socket-Covenant: Crap ST DPS, so I tried an Asenath's Chant w/ED version too.



Covenant Caustic Arrow Occultist

Soon

would you have any advice for leveling gear for this build? I am extremely interested in Playing this build. but am still learning the ropes as far as what to use prior to the gear you've listed here, any help is appreciated!

What about voltaxic rift and replacing a gem with added lightning dmg ? seems like a pretty good stacking chaos dmg

"

What about voltaxic rift and replacing a gem with added lightning dmg ? seems like a pretty good stacking chaos dmg

Oh wow, I didn't even register the conversion on that-- thanks! I'll look into it.

"

would you have any advice for leveling gear for this build? I am extremely interested in Playing this build. but am still learning the ropes as far as what to use prior to the gear you've listed here, any help is appreciated!

I'm only at level 75, so it's still a work-in-progress: it may still suck, but I won't know yet, so use this build at your peril-- you may want to do one that is well-established :P

Leveling bow builds is usually like:

But that is usually for 2nd + toons. Gearing starter builds can be rough as no one can afford a tabula and we all just use whatever rares drop.

Good Luck :)

I'm using swift affliction and less duration on my 6L (no faster attacks or deadly ailments, though I think deadly ailments might be better). Both cause the spore pods to explode faster. Maybe less duration isn't necessary since I already have swift affliction.

EDIT: less duration feels really bad with mirage archer, makes it absolutely useless. Going to drop it, but don't know what to replace with yet

"

PandoraBot wrote:

I'm using swift affliction and less duration on my 6L (no faster attacks or deadly ailments, though I think deadly ailments might be better). Both cause the spore pods to explode faster. Maybe less duration isn't necessary since I already have swift affliction.

EDIT: less duration feels really bad with mirage archer, makes it absolutely useless. Going to drop it, but don't know what to replace with yet

I got stuck on the less duration part of Swift Affliction also affecting our DoTs, but it still has highest support damage in PoB, and we are constantly reapplying.

Thanks, that Faster Attacks is like crack-- it's really hard to give up when the skill is so fast :P

I think Vile Toxins will be the Boss sub-in gem. Still testing.

I was theory crafting and doing research and i found your guide. After reading, watching and playing Toxic Rain, i decided to scale DOT, Chaos Damage, Poison Damage.

My 6 link will be
Toxic Rain-Vicious Proj-Void Manipulation-Swift-Affliction-Added Chaos-Efficacy/Conc Effect as my 6th link.

Conc. Effect scales the DOT area damage and the area explosion damage. But how the decreased area might lead to less DOT stacking on bosses.

Added Chaos for more upfront damage and it scales poison really well since its a flat chaos increase.

Void manipulation to scale the DOT base damage since its chaos damage. It also scales poison as well.

Im using a wither with spell totem. But i think your set up with siege ballista n dual herald can apply wither with withering touch support just as good.

For mana issues, im using a vaal clarity + vaal haste for bossing and a mana flask to sustain occasionally while mapping.

Alternatively you can spec into essence sap tree node to get some mana leech.

Im using phase run and a quartz flask for dodge and spell dodge, i plan to add vaal grace into the mix later on for more dodge.

But my end goal is to use thief's torment to sustain mana and life in the end game when i get get better resist in my other gears. Since im using thief's torment i can reserve more mana by going offensive(haste) or defensive(grace) or arctic armor.

Paste bin of my theoretical build with mid tier gear?
https://pastebin.com/zKMytsG5

I would love to have a discussion with you since its been a week+ since the league has been out. I just got back into PoE and start this starter 3 days ago.

"

Slyvanus wrote:

I was theory crafting and doing research and i found your guide. After reading, watching and playing Toxic Rain, i decided to scale DOT, Chaos Damage, Poison Damage.

My 6 link will be
Toxic Rain-Vicious Proj-Void Manipulation-Swift-Affliction-Added Chaos-Efficacy/Conc Effect as my 6th link.

Conc. Effect scales the DOT area damage and the area explosion damage. But how the decreased area might lead to less DOT stacking on bosses.

Added Chaos for more upfront damage and it scales poison really well since its a flat chaos increase.

Void manipulation to scale the DOT base damage since its chaos damage. It also scales poison as well.

Im using a wither with spell totem. But i think your set up with siege ballista n dual herald can apply wither with withering touch support just as good.

For mana issues, im using a vaal clarity + vaal haste for bossing and a mana flask to sustain occasionally while mapping.

Alternatively you can spec into essence sap tree node to get some mana leech.

Im using phase run and a quartz flask for dodge and spell dodge, i plan to add vaal grace into the mix later on for more dodge.

But my end goal is to use thief's torment to sustain mana and life in the end game when i get get better resist in my other gears. Since im using thief's torment i can reserve more mana by going offensive(haste) or defensive(grace) or arctic armor.

Paste bin of my theoretical build with mid tier gear?
https://pastebin.com/zKMytsG5

I would love to have a discussion with you since its been a week+ since the league has been out. I just got back into PoE and start this starter 3 days ago.

Thanks for your input! I see we have all the same skill gems (TR> Vic Proj> Void Manip> Swift Affliction) except the last few.

I tried Added Chaos Damage, but it doesn't scale DoT so I replaced it with Deadly Ailments. Whether the 10% increase to DoT damage and #% increased damage with ailments is worth it, I'm not sure. In my testing I somehow forgot the explosion of the pods LOL, I was just looking at initial hit and effect on poison. I'll have to redo that because flat chaos. Thanks

I am hearing contradictory information on Conc Effect, so I removed it from my testing. I saw these two perspectives:

--"Modifiers to area of effect don't affect the area in which the pods land, only the pods own aoe. Unlike similar skills, increasing your aoe will actually increase your shotgunning against single target. Conc effect is a no-no because of its less area modifier, unless you have some very high aoe increases."
--Some dude on reddit

--Angry_Roleplayer, whose guide is here(https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2208830 says conc is good to go. He has a section outlining the different damage types.

I don't have a six-link yet, so I haven't sussed that out entirely yet-- any insight you have would be great.

Lastly, I see you have Efficacy, which is a staple of an Essence Drain Build, but I honestly thought we couldn't use it with attack skills because of the line "supported skills deal #% more spell damage"; this made me think the gem had a Spell tag. The only other DoTs I can think of are RF (fire DoT) and Cold Snap (Cold DoT), which are both spells. Does that mean we can use this gem? That skill duration is kinda a big thing for me, as I only get a toon to around level 92 before rerolling, so I won't be making it over to the skill duration nodes ^^

For mana I ended up grabbing a leech node, which is pretty awful because we can barley leech, but it works fine except for in Delves. I tired Vaal Clarity, but I'd just rather have Vaal Haste (Or Skellies for Delves).

I had to go regen as lifeleech was not happening in a significant way-- still looking to get life gain on hit somewhere.

I am also a massive phasing fan, and so I have that on a jewel. Usually I get one jewel that is Phase/Onslaught, but currently I'm just potting onslaught, as I don't forsee getting a Dying Sun ever :P

I have to update this page and my PoB, the one in this post is old. It's interesting you went Dendrobate. I initially had Maloney's too, but am trying Drillneck. We should look at that later.

Thanks for your reply :)

Hi, been bz playing the game so I saw your video on the Phoenix guardian. I haven't reach guardians yet currently on t12-13. I've changed my setup quite abit largely due to my inexperience. I've died quite a few times when i had 4.4k-ish life. Decided to get more defensive by swapping to a kintsugi to prevent those 1 shots. Added an CWDT n immortal call setup to be safer.

Since I dropped dendrobate the poison wasnt as good anymore because there is a significant drop in poison duration. Due to that, I respeced my skill tree for a more life and DOT focus Toxic Rain.
I dropped poison entirely and focus on DOT, i swapped out added chaos for swift affliction for more DOT and run a blood magic support with Mind over matter on the tree.
I dropped embalmer for a tombfist for the maim. The maim slow + wither + TR slow is really obvious.
Since im using a thief's torment my mana and life recovers super quick. With the addition of a instant hybrid flask and some flask nodes, I
haven't died since and the scary big hits isn't as scary anymore.

Damage wise it still feels great, I hope the damage continues to hold up as I approach T16 and Shaper. I plan to improve my jewels to have more damage over time in the endgame. Since I have MoM n blood magic support now, i was hoping to get a coming calamity to scale my herald of agony for bosses. Having 45% leftover of my mana should be defensive enough.

As you said in your reply, the added chaos dont do alot if you don't scale chaos damage and poison damage. I've looked through angry roleplayer's post too. I've tested conc effect myself and the aoe reduction is manageable when dont have additional arrow on your helm enchant or your quiver. As soon as I have it the pod spread was widen and the aoe overlapped less which reduces the single target against bosses. I might run a dying sun at the end but only after i get my impresence so that I can reserve despair instead of having it on witchfire's brew.

As for flask I'm using a quartz and a silver with anti freeze and curse. I just like my dodge, phasing and onslaught on demand and it's more reliable if you have extended boss fights. Planning ahead for shaper and uber elder

Efficacy's more mage over time multiplier works with toxic train's pod DOT despite having the spell tags due the efficacy having the duration tag
:) I have 2 duration cluster on my tree so my pod DOT last 1.7 secs even with swift affliction. I will try swap around with increase duration gem and blood magic support to see how my mana sustain is with thief's torment.

I tried going without thief's torment and instead use 2 rings with life and some resist for more life. But the mana sustain is so bad that I switched back. I will post my pastebin when im back. I'm on vacation now xD

Update us if you decide to try shaper and uber elder. It is fun having someone to discuss builds and the game

"

Nepenthess wrote:

I tried Added Chaos Damage, but it doesn't scale DoT

Incorrect :P

https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Poison