[3.25] Scourge Arrow Poison Prolif Pathfinder - Fast, tanky, fun to play

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H_Espenhein wrote:

Whats the best way to roll the flasks? They seem hard to hit :)

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Neabsera wrote:

I kinda want to make a shoutout to my own PoB which I think is the more traditional, and I wanna say more well rounded version of the build which currently comfortably runs Grace, Herald of Agony, Defiance Banner and Purity of Elements. Atm i'm in the process of crafting a ~20 % mana reservation efficiency helmet (10 % from essence and 7-12 % from new implicits (eater of worlds)) which will allow me to drop Defiance Banner for Malevolence without needing a Malevolence reservation neck which is hard to get with good offensive suffixes. This way I don't need to do the whole blessing stuff which is not only a 3 link but also incredibly annoying to press every 10 sec.

I tried this version of the build for a day but imo it's a nightmare to setup if you league started with Scourge Arrow (which I also wouldn't recommend despite getting a darkscorn and +1 quiver + SA enchant very early, just go Concoction until you've got those 3 and a good Circle of Agony too maybe) and did not feel tanky at all, I almost ended up quitting until I made some changes which I outlined below.

People vastly underestimate how much evasion you can stack with Grace (I'm at ~82 % evade chance with just a jade flask and a +inc evasion affix on my quicksilver flask) and also how stupidly strong Spell suppression is; having 100 % spell suppression is functionally as good as somewhere between 13-15 % max res which this build spends MASSIVE ressources to get (flask slots to get ele res capped, many skillpoints to get more max res and the keystone itself). I 100 % stand by the decision that you should just go spell suppression INSTEAD of this whole setup - ofc. the jewel would allow you to go for both but you simply don't need it. I have done every content in the game, all the new endgame bosses, uber elder, the feared, everything and i'm quite happy with my build so far. There are some changes I'm going to make regarding getting Malevolence in there and maybe getting 2 min frenzy charges in there too but still.

Biggest changes from my build to OPs:

get a -15 chest so you dont need a mana flask anymore, this one is huge
you can swap out infusion (which becomes incredibly awkward to keep up once you get enough attack speed) for deadly ailments as long as you hit the lowest tier of -mana costs on helmet implicit (20 % less mana cost on attacks)
I got lucky by also hitting endurance charge generation on my chest (+ some very good prefixes for Ghost Dance) which enables a very juicy immortal call + cwdt setup but you can just woke orb the -15 mana cost mod with phys dmg taken mod from Redeemer and be fine too

get lifetap support on all of your supporting skills, this allows you to run no regen without a mana flask and reserve all of your mana, i cannot overstate the QoL difference this makes

get Ghost Dance + Grace, I'm sitting at ~4,3k life and 1,1k ES with well over 80 % evade (95 % during vaal grace), you've got to keep a little bit attention to very high DoT-zones on the ground but apart from that nothing ordinary oneshots me anymore - not that i'm testing my luck either, you should always dodge stuff and orb walk like an ADC in League in my opinion, it's just the safe way of piloting any ranged / caster build imo.

get 100 % spell suppression, also the gain 3 life flask charges node whenever you suppress a spell (which is always) is broken for all forms of content

I'm not a big fan of the ballista totems either, they eat a lot of gem slots, fill the screen with way too much arrows and clutter, have low duration and honestly don't even apply wither all that well or do much dmg (at least once you get to red maps, i found them very good early - also I want to shout out that one guy who plays a pure ballista totem version of Scourge Arrow and is or almost is lv 100 (?), which might be better than all of what i'm saying right now, i simply haven't tested it yet, definitely check that one out if you don't mind playing totems instead,
I think instead of reserving another 6 link you could get something like alt quality Withering Step + Plague Bearer + Enhance + IncAoE + Inc Duration + lifetap which gives you the ability to immediately apply 10 wither stacks at the press of one button, also giving you huge AoE for plaguebearer and making the spells free of course.

also and this is the biggest, get 2 Forbidden Flesh/Flame with the Tailwind node from deadeye (which gives you Tailwind at 250 % effectiveness), for the purposes of a poison build that has a very high apm it's functionally a headhunter and I love it a lot, a good early game option is Occupying force (+2 mirage archers) but it's a bit awkward to pilot

The tailwind node would also allow you to not pick tailwind hunter boots which also gives you the ability to use the new implicit currencies on a normal pair of boots instead. You can get something like 60 % ailment resistances on there in total (35 % with essence) HOWEVER you will need an absurd amount of resistances on your gear to make that work if you want to drop Purity of Elements aswell (I'm already only frost res capped by my Taste of Hate flask which thankfully has 100 % uptime). This would give you another 50 % aura, probably Determination but the better option might actually be just a cheaper purity of ice/fire/lightning instead which gives you some more max res and easier capping on resistances but more importantly swap out some reservation nodes for more dmg or life, which imo is huge - this might be my next goal after fitting in Malevolence who knows

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Neabsera wrote:

I agree about elemental flasks being good in general but I also don't like the Petrified Blood + Leech cluster + Strength of Blood part in your build, not only does Petrified Blood not work against oneshots which is most of the time you're dying EARLY at least until you get some gear at what point you only die to "not paying attention and not pressing your life flask when you could have".

I also didn't like all those leech nodes when I tested it, the effect of the leech clusters turns off completely whenever you press your life flask and are back at full hp, and the leech duration is ridiculously short so if you only kite for a full 2 seconds you already lose your whole benefit, also you spend like 10 points to get the setup and have to run a worse Timeless Jewel for it that has nothing going for it apart from phys to fire dmg taken. 10 points is a ridiculous amount of points in this build, and getting 27 % or what less dmg taken from it seems almost not worth it considering it straight up will not be up sometimes or your map has minus or no leech on it.

I'm willing to try it again since I tried it only for a day after I hit 94-95 but I was very underwhelmed when I did.

I frankly don't think that this new jewel is worth it either, you say well spell suppression only works on spells but spell damage is 99 % of the things that will kill you late game and a ridiculous amount of dangerous skills have a spell tag, you don't die to physical hits late game, not as an evasion based character with over 4-5k life and a Taste of Hate and a Darkscorn and other sources of phys to x % conversion that is just not a concept. I have levelled a Pathfinder to 100 in the past 10 leagues so far and the introduction of spell suppression literally makes you invincible once you get a decent amount of physical to x % conversion so you don't get oneshot and have your base 70-80 % dodge.

I'm not saying your build is bad or anything it's just very specific and shouldn't ever be advertised as a league starting build, I'll promise to check some of the interactions out a bit more but i'm very apprehensive to spending a lot of skillpoints for certain interactions because they often end up being sidegrades or straight up downgrades like i believe strength of blood is because 27 % less dmg taken for 10 skillpoints only when you facetank leech something and havent pressed your life flask but also lose 30 % of your HP for that is just not good enough in my opinion.

But again I'm willing to test it out again and report back to you.

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Neabsera wrote:

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