[3.9] Loate's "This Is Fine" EA Ignite Raider build guide (Shaper/UElder/UAtziri/Awakener8)

Awakener 8 (god these mechanics suck) - https://youtu.be/MsdlSipAweA
Uber Elder - https://youtu.be/2W2YtnwT6MM
Shaper - https://youtu.be/xpyLCItrPOQ
Uber Atziri - https://youtu.be/eSRNHDNLSCs
Cortex - https://youtu.be/kh1NtnrVHIE
T16 Colonnade - https://youtu.be/MwBehJJcraY
Random 83 Metamorph - https://youtu.be/wl3fqKOXXTk

Arrows! All the arrows! Arrows as far as the eye can see! AND THEY EXPLODE!! MAYBE NOW PAPA TORGUE WILL FINALLY LOVE ME

Oh yeah! So the thing with all these lovely murderhug projectiles is that thanks to the rework to Explosive Arrow, we're now incentivized to stack as many as possible before the explosion to create a giant Ignite that absolutely MELTS things, because each fuse gives +3% more Ignite damage.

Now, I know what you're saying, "3% more Ignite damage, pffft, stop bothering me with such tiny numbers you peasant," but it turns out that when you can stack ~50 arrows into something in under a second, those tiny numbers add up into a very large number. Specifically, 150% more Ignite damage, which, well. It's a lot. And since each fuse has 100% chance to Ignite, all that lovely base damage Explosive Arrow gives us per fuse ALL gets added to the final Ignite calculation.

Of course you do! It's actually pretty easy, we go Raider for the Frenzy charges, and then socket the Barrage and Greater Multiple Projectiles supports into our Explosive Arrow. Right off the bat, that gives us 8 arrows per attack, and with the amount of attack speed Raider gets, getting to around 5 attacks per second doesn't require much special investment on the tree, which means we can actually build some defenses. I mean, they're not GREAT defenses, but that's why we're playing this on softcore. This build is... probably not hardcore viable. At all.

https://pastebin.com/STs5RRJT

Sacrifices must be made in the quest for maximum fireation, and Elemental Equilibrium and Elemental Overload are simply too good for Ignite to pass up. Unfortunately, there are very few ways to scale Ignite's damage, and those two are the big ones. Trust me, it's worth it though.

(Quick note - until you can anoint Breath of Flames on a good neck, spend five points to path down to Primeval Force in the lower right to pick up the Ignite chance - having 100% chance to Ignite is super important for this build)

We want Raider for that sweet sweet gotta go fast attack and move speed. Pick up Way of the Poacher first, then Quartz Infusion followed by Avatar of the Veil (immunity to ailments is just too good, and we don't want to accidentally light ourselves on fire now, do we?). Finally, grab Avatar of the Slaughter for that last oomph of attack speed.

For bandits, kill em all. No one likes them anyways.

The great thing about this build is that all you need to get it going is a Quill Rain, a Thief's Torment, and a 5L. When you can, try to get a max rolled life gain on hit Thief's Torment and use Abrasive Catalysts (Fertile works but Abrasive is waaaaaaay cheaper) on it to bump it up an additional 12 life per hit.



Once you have those sorted, there are tons of upgrades you can get along the way (I'm assuming you know to cap your resists). For your chest, you have two options - Queen of the Forest to really zoomzoom, or Kaom's Heart if you want to, you know, not get comically oneshot by the occasional boss slam. I like going zoomzoom so I mostly use QotF, but you'll definitely want Kaom's for the Awakener fight (have I mentioned the mechanics of that fight really suck?).



I like using Atziri's Steps for my boots due to the big ol chunk of spell dodge on them, but a well crafted rare with life and movespeed+dodge is fine too. If you want to spend the megabucks, pick up one of those fancy new crafts with the Tailwind+Elusive mods on them so you can pretend you have three ascendancies. Get the Merciless lab boot enchant for "chance to avoid being stunned if you've killed recently," coupled with the nodes from Ranger start it'll put you at 101% chance to avoid being stunned as long as you've killed something in the last four seconds, so basically always while you're mapping.



For your helmet, Starkonja's Hood is always a good cheap starter, and you can usually find an appropriate enchant on it. A fossil-crafted rare with lowered fire-resist to nearby enemies (use Scorching fossils) along with life and resists will be a touch more DPS, but honestly I don't think it's a huge difference due to the attack speed on Starkonja's. Try to get the EA attack speed Lab enchant as well.



Gloves, amulet, and quiver should all be rares and are going to be where you sort most of your resists and life. Ideally you want a quiver with "adds an additional arrow," and if possible try to get added elemental damage with attacks on the quiver and amulet. You'll also want one source of added lightning or cold damage to proc Elemental Equilibrium (lightning is better since if the explosion crits it won't shatter corpses). I'm also trying to craft +1 to Dex gems on my amulet, but it's taking a while to get that along with a high life roll. The ideal amulet is +1 to Dex gems, high life, and increased fire multiplier, but that's gonna take some serious currency.




Belt is Dyadian Dawn, it's the best in slot bar none. You can use Abrasive Catalysts to up the Ignite burning speed, which is a nice DPS upgrade.



Flasks start out cheap (one life, four utility), and then as you get money you can upgrade into Dying Sun and Cinderswallow Urn (the Urn is actually pretty easy to self farm if you run your Jun missions - the Mastermind drops them pretty frequently).



Finally, for your jewel sockets, you're looking for life + any combination of attack speed, attack speed with bows, burning damage, and fire damage over time multiplier. If you can, try to get immunity to corrupted blood as well, but again, that's going to cost you accordingly (especially due to the Awakener fight's mechanics).

Your main setup, in order of importance, is Explosive Arrow->Barrage->Greater Multiple Projectiles->Combustion->Ignite Proliferation->Deadly Ailments. When your rich uncle passes away and leaves you his mirror collection, get the Woke™ versions of GMP and Deadly Ailments.

For auras, I like running Grace + Flesh and Stone at max level, and then a level 1 Precision. I have mine linked to Enlighten, but it's not necessary. I *think* you can probably squeeze in Aspect of the Spider or Arctic Armour with a level 4 Enlighten, but I still need to test further to see if it's viable (having a decent sized mana pool is nice for attacking at a distance, since even though Thief's Torment more than takes care of your mana needs, there's still flight time for the arrows, and Barrage spreads if you're not right up in the enemy's face).

Lastly, you'll want a curse on hit setup. I use Galvanic Arrow->Curse on Hit->Flammability->Culling Strike, because I like the innate pierce on Galvanic Strike (and the projectile speed from Quill Rain makes it cover most of the screen), but honestly you can use whatever you want. Again, once you're rich, you should get the Awakened version of Curse on Hit and socket in Elemental Weakness in place of Culling Strike (if you're using Kaom's, otherwise you can do it as a 5L in your body armor).

Utility skills are Blink Arrow for movement, and Steelskin for oh crap moments (though I usually forget to use mine). You'll also want a Cast on Damage level one linked to a level 7 Wave of Conviction (this can go in the same spot as your Steelskin along with Increased Duration).

Elemental Reflect and Enemies Avoid Elemental Ailments are the big ones. Elemental Reflect is self explanatory (you'll absolutely know on the first pack if you have it on an unID'd map), and with the way the new Awakening modifiers work, Enemies Avoid Elemental Ailments becomes Enemies Are IMMUNE to Elemental Ailments in red maps at Awakening level 4. Needless to say, not being able to Ignite lowers our DPS by a smidge.

Heh. So, remember how our whole goal is to vomit forth arrows like that one scene from 300? Turns out that when each arrow returns 60-72 life on hit, and you're launching ~50-60 per second, that's, uh, <counts fingers a couple times>, about 3300 flat life back per second. Coupled with the little bit of leech from the Shadow life node that triggers off each explosion, and basically as long as you have something to hit and aren't getting oneshot it's actually incredibly hard for you to die (you dodge and evade a lot of stuff too). This is where Kaom's makes a huge difference in survivability, because it'll allow you to soak something that would normally kill you with QotF and you can almost instantly get all your life back.

Things that will kill you are - any sort of degen/caustic ground and physical spells (I have a special hate in my heart for Vaal constructs, especially in Alva incursions, but those blade vortex demons can chunk you super hard out of nowhere too). You can facetank almost any Metamorph unless it uses one of those abilities.

I mean, probably? You'll want to avoid the Awakener fight and doing anything particularly stupid though, so for me it ain't gonna happen. PAPA TORGUE NEEDS HIS EXPLOSIONS

YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT EXPLOSIONS

Thanks for reading everyone, enjoy the build!