[3.7] Hopeshredder Slayer, Barrage + TS/Scourge Arrow. Ridiculous damage and leech.

EDIT: Heres what I am at currently at lvl 90 doing red maps (1 day played, Im a slow boi): https://pastebin.com/rRiE0FJf

The empty jewel socket is a Timeless Karui jewel. These things insane and are very fun as well. It gives me around 60 strength (so 30 life! and easy fix if u need str req), 5% chance to deal double damage, 5% chance to generate endurance charge on kill, 20% fire res and some other garbage. I would DEFINITELY recommend getting and experimenting with timeless jewels.



PoB concept: https://pastebin.com/j85xBfKL (the gear in this PoB is based from https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2232085 build, should check out that too if you want a Raider variant with easy Frenzy generation!)

TL;DR Stupid amounts of leech (without a doubt always at leech cap), 2M ish shaper damage on somewhat of a budget (the PoB calculations are without proper +projectiles gear), likely 10M+ with good investment, 200% speed, 6k life, acro, 70% evasion.

Just a note, I calculated all these PoB things from some build I had lying around in 3.5 and gear with that some of which I changed. Things like the Abyss jewels are obviously going to change.

The 2 mil DPS number is with a random shaper +1 quiver, nerfing many of the abyss jewels in the link but still having a 6 link. Just having a head enchant, Dying Sun and not changing the jewels gives you 6M damage. Adding in stuff like +1 bow, +2 quiver, better jewelry scales the damage to ridiculous levels.

Things to consider:

-Ascendancy. To me the only reason to play slayer is to play with Brutal Fervour. Sure you could do crazy damage with Bane of Legends/Overwhelm but the defensive benefit of Brutal Fervour is just way too good. Masterful Form could also be a solid defensive option if you invest in some endu charge generation (the on kill one on tree is decent but likely not enough for stuff like uber elder). I believe Bane/Brutal Fervour is the best general option. Besides, Hopeshredder is 6% crit base anyway so its not as good of an upgrade when compared to say Lioneyes.

Things in tree: The mini-raider frenzy nodes dont seem to be worth it. Even at 8 frenzy charges for 5 points I have more valuable things to get on the tree damage wise and survivability wise the evasion is pretty bad. The only real advantage over anything else it has is the movement speed. Same thing for the endurance charges, but I would only consider that if you took Masterful Form and didnt have any way to generate endu charges.

Other things to consider on the tree: Farsight cluster (just barely not as good as other clusters with my random ass gear, might be good for others), Finesse/Heart of the Oak/Ballistic Mastery/Aspect of the Eagle (basically ranger start nodes, just barely worse and more points than Revenge of the Hunted and Forces of Nature when combining life and damage), From the Shadows (free phasing!), Phase Acro

-Why hopeshedder? Its the best flat ele bow out there + it gives insane amounts of leech so even a tiny hit on anything will give you leech cap no matter what. The degen is easily outset by your leech. Only problem is...

-Frenzy generation on pure single target. For clearing Ice Bite + Blood Rage will obviously do the job. On single target, I was actually considering just using Frenzy instead of Barrage thanks to the buff but according to PoB (which might still be broken for Frenzy btw) barrage just scales so much better. Options include Farruls Fur (yay for div card), Ralakesh (might be enough cos of DPS you get) and Red trail + golden rule (big investment).

I'm also leaning toward a SA slayer but thinking I'm going with a slightly higher base crit bow and bane of legends and brutal fervor. I'm trying to build around doing all map mods. You think hopeshredder would do enough ele to kill you reflect maps?

Can that work as a league starter for 3.7? I'd like to do a SA slayer for leaguestart but I have no idea how pricey this build is. Are there cheap options until you can afford the better stuff? Is that necessary even?

I've heard SA is a good bow skill to leaguestart with, if you know of a better option I'd love to know about it.

^^ I was also wondering the same thing as above, I'm a returning player since beta.. (before maps existed) I'm relearning all the gear if by chance anyone has a small budget/starter idea for gear or stat priorities early/midgame I'd truly appreciate that.

"

bahamut458 wrote:

I'm also leaning toward a SA slayer but thinking I'm going with a slightly higher base crit bow and bane of legends and brutal fervor. I'm trying to build around doing all map mods. You think hopeshredder would do enough ele to kill you reflect maps?

Without a doubt. Hopeshredder will likely one shot you the with your first SA/TS cast in to a big pack. Doesnt matter how much leech you have when you instantly die.

If you go lioneyes conversion variant you can do 1 reflect mod (ele reflect by removing all conversion from signal fire + tree or hrimburn, phys reflect by having conversion on) but thats an altogether different build. But very inefficient.

I would never play a bow attack build if you wanted to do all maps. No leech and reflect are just garbage to do.

"

CheesyCaker wrote:

Can that work as a league starter for 3.7? I'd like to do a SA slayer for leaguestart but I have no idea how pricey this build is. Are there cheap options until you can afford the better stuff? Is that necessary even?

I've heard SA is a good bow skill to leaguestart with, if you know of a better option I'd love to know about it.

Absolutely. If you arent the absolute top top fastest guy in the league, Hopeshredder will be readily available and is very cheap to buy, its not a popular item at all.

The likely most expensive item will be Lioneyes Fall and you can play the build perfectly fine without it (just pick the 0.4% life/mana leech node). None of the uniques are mandatory and even the "basic" ones like Starkonja, Darkray Vectors arent expensive at all. You can swap out Shroud for any chest you like.

But if you want to push it, bow builds always have amazing scaling potential with $$$. +1 frenzy Tombfists, +projectiles on quiver/bow, barrage head enchant, dying sun, Farruls, Hatred watchers eye...But thanks to amazing base flat damage from Hopeshredder and gems, you can start off even cheap.

"

^^ I was also wondering the same thing as above, I'm a returning player since beta.. (before maps existed) I'm relearning all the gear if by chance anyone has a small budget/starter idea for gear or stat priorities early/midgame I'd truly appreciate that.

I suggest leveling with Toxic Rain (+Mirage archer, lesser poison, faster attacks/void manip) + Herald of Agony (with links or triple herald). I would use this all the way to maps but you can switch earlier if you get a good unique bow with actual damage.

As far as mapping, the only REQUIRED unique is hopeshredder. Pretty much everything else can be rares. I would still buy Atziris and Darkray Vectors because those are probably 1 chaos uniques both.

"

Netukka wrote:

"

bahamut458 wrote:

I'm also leaning toward a SA slayer but thinking I'm going with a slightly higher base crit bow and bane of legends and brutal fervor. I'm trying to build around doing all map mods. You think hopeshredder would do enough ele to kill you reflect maps?

Without a doubt. Hopeshredder will likely one shot you the with your first SA/TS cast in to a big pack. Doesnt matter how much leech you have when you instantly die.

If you go lioneyes conversion variant you can do 1 reflect mod (ele reflect by removing all conversion from signal fire + tree or hrimburn, phys reflect by having conversion on) but thats an altogether different build. But very inefficient.

I would never play a bow attack build if you wanted to do all maps. No leech and reflect are just garbage to do.

"

CheesyCaker wrote:

Can that work as a league starter for 3.7? I'd like to do a SA slayer for leaguestart but I have no idea how pricey this build is. Are there cheap options until you can afford the better stuff? Is that necessary even?

I've heard SA is a good bow skill to leaguestart with, if you know of a better option I'd love to know about it.

Absolutely. If you arent the absolute top top fastest guy in the league, Hopeshredder will be readily available and is very cheap to buy, its not a popular item at all.

The likely most expensive item will be Lioneyes Fall and you can play the build perfectly fine without it (just pick the 0.4% life/mana leech node). None of the uniques are mandatory and even the "basic" ones like Starkonja, Darkray Vectors arent expensive at all. You can swap out Shroud for any chest you like.

But if you want to push it, bow builds always have amazing scaling potential with $$$. +1 frenzy Tombfists, +projectiles on quiver/bow, barrage head enchant, dying sun, Farruls, Hatred watchers eye...But thanks to amazing base flat damage from Hopeshredder and gems, you can start off even cheap.

"

^^ I was also wondering the same thing as above, I'm a returning player since beta.. (before maps existed) I'm relearning all the gear if by chance anyone has a small budget/starter idea for gear or stat priorities early/midgame I'd truly appreciate that.

I suggest leveling with Toxic Rain (+Mirage archer, lesser poison, faster attacks/void manip) + Herald of Agony (with links or triple herald). I would use this all the way to maps but you can switch earlier if you get a good unique bow with actual damage.

As far as mapping, the only REQUIRED unique is hopeshredder. Pretty much everything else can be rares. I would still buy Atziris and Darkray Vectors because those are probably 1 chaos uniques both.

Tyvm. Im doing it.

I'm doing your build too, because I always wanted to try this skill. Thanks for sharing. How is it working for you as Slayer? Is it a fun experience for you?

Also what are your thoughts on increasing clear speed (QoTF viable?) and MF gearing?

Also following your build!, currently working towards hyrri's ire for my chest. Is that what you would reccomend using up until farruls?, Also replaced infused channeling for added cold damage because i was reaching full stacks/ out of mana before getting the channeling bonus. In regards to tornado shot links would you use TS-Mirage-GMP-AddedCold-EDWA-IceBite??

Also interested in what setup you'd use for TS.

Does the PoB calculate the barrage damage as having frenzy charges? It looks like if you take the frenzy charges off barrage then frenzy beats it pretty easily.

Thanks in advance, I think I'm going to run this as TS/Frenzy.

Frenzy outdamages barrage with 7 charges, but with +1 projectile barrage outdamages frenzy.