[3.18] ShakCentral's Toxic Rain Raider For Everyone

Welcome everyone! This guide covers the overview, leveling, and endgame concepts for playing a Toxic Rain Raider, including a Path of Building import for reference and advanced information. This is the second build in a seven-part series (details in the Introduction below) titled Class Builds For Everyone.

I recommend reading the entire guide, but you can reference the Contents for navigation or use the Intro links to join our Discord and Twitch communities. Thanks for reading!

Current Guide Version (See Changelog in "Contents"): 0.1





GIGANTIC DISCLAIMER : This guide is very much a work-in-progress at the moment. This forum guide needs some additional formatting and mouseover item links. The PoB has leveling and endgame trees for SSF and Trade along with Skills and an Item Set for both versions, but is lacking the starter endgame items and nearly all of the advanced Notes info. Updates will be coming ASAP as they are completed. Thank you for your patience, and enjoy!





Contents

Spoiler

Table Of Contents

Contents
🏹 Getting The Most Out Of This Guide
🏹 Changelog

Introduction
🏹 About the Author
🏹 Class Builds For Everyone
🏹 Content Links

Build Overview
🏹 Path of Building
🏹 Useful Third-Party Links
🏹 Main Build Mechanics
🏹 Passive Masteries
🏹 Keystone Passives
🏹 Class and Ascendancy, Progression, and Playstyle
🏹 Scaling Damage and Defenses
🏹 Videos

Leveling
🏹 Leveling Preview
🏹 League-Starting vs Mid-League Leveling

Endgame
🏹 Ascendancy Points, Bandit Reward, and Pantheon Choices
🏹 Endgame Item Basics
🏹 Skill Gems and Links

F.A.Q. and Hardcore Tips
🏹 Frequently Asked Questions
🏹 Hardcore Tips




Getting The Most Out Of This Guide

Regardless of your PoE experience, I recommend reading this guide entirely to understand the build's core concepts before importing the Path of Building.

This guide covers the basics to give you a strong knowledge base. Once you've read it, import the PoB. It has leveling and endgame skill trees, labeled gem links, multiple item sets, and a detailed Notes section that expands on many of the concepts discussed here.





Changelog

The preview (above "Introduction") displays the current guide version. The most recent forum Changelog is in the spoiler below; same-version PoB changes are listed in the PoB Notes.

Previous changelogs can be viewed here: https://bit.ly/shakcb4e

Spoiler

Current Version - 0.1 || https://pastebin.com/BMqacMFt



[ CHANGELOG ITEMS ]




Introduction

Spoiler

About the Author

I've played PoE since open beta in 2013; I played off-and-on for years, but almost exclusively since 2018. I love helping new players get into the game as smoothly as possible.

I enjoy casters and fondly remember endless Dried Lake farming with pre-nerf Vaal Spark.





Class Builds For Everyone

I'm working on a build guide series that will provide a proven, powerful build for each of the game's classes. The guides are focused on helping newer players, but all seven have been tested and are capable of defeating a wide range of endgame bosses and mapping content.

My goal is for each build to be simple to understand, smooth to progress, and powerful to play. Completed guides are listed below, and you can use the links to join me live for the creation process!

🏹 CB4E Ep. 1 - Intro and Leveling: https://youtu.be/Bd6LWrs28_E

🏹 Other Class Build Forum Guides:

❄️ Cold DoT Occultist For Everyone
🔥 Righteous Fire Trapper Inquisitor For Everyone
🛡️ Shield Crush Slayer For Everyone: Coming soon!
Lightning Trap Saboteur For Everyone: Coming soon!
🪓 Earthshatter Berserker For Everyone: Coming soon!
🩸 Phys DoT Ascendant For Everyone: Coming soon!





Content Links

This guide has grown beyond the forums into a helpful, welcoming community. Find us here:

🏹 Click here to join the Discord! This is the best place to be. We have a large group of skilled players, and updates usually hit Discord first.

🏹 I recently became a Twitch Partner and stream Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday around 9pm EST. Click here to catch me live or see the VODs!

🏹 My YouTube has videos on Cold DoT, crafting, SSF progression, and more.




Build Overview

Spoiler

Forum Guide Covers: PoB Import | Main Build Mechanics | Playstyle Preview | Class and Ascendancy Choices | Scaling Damage and Defense | Videos

Path of Building Covers: PoB Setup & Configuration | 3.17 Updates | Flask Suffixes |




Path of Building (PoB)




Reminder: this forum guide contains critical build information that the PoB builds upon. Please fully read the forum guide before moving on to Path of Building.

Current PoB Version => 0.1 || https://pastebin.com/BMqacMFt





Useful Third-Party Links

🏹 Path of Building allows you to import the pastebin link above and simulate your entire build in a sandbox environment.

🏹 Craft of Exile is a great tool for looking up item mods and "practice" crafting items.

🏹 PoEDB is a powerful database of everything PoE, from modifiers to league mechanics.

🏹 The PoE Wiki is a great place to gain a broader knowledge about many PoE topics.

🏹 The Trade Site lets you trade almost anything in PoE, whether items or currency.




Main Build Mechanics




Chaos Damage: Chaos is a damage type that bypasses Energy Shield and directly damages the enemy’s life. Some monsters with high Energy Shield can be trivialized by Chaos Damage.

Damage over Time: DoT builds have high "DPS uptime". They often deal damage while moving, making them especially effective at surviving tough situations.

Armour: Armour mitigates physical damage from hits, solving an important defensive need. Endgame equipment will prioritize both Armour and Evasion.

Evasion: Evasion gives a chance to evade attacks without taking damage. Evasion functions on an “entropy” system (read more here if you want) to avoid long streaks of good or bad luck. In short, if you have a 75% evade chance, you will be hit once every four attacks, but you won’t have unlucky streaks of multiple hits in a row.

Spell Suppression: Evasion only grants a chance to evade attacks; spells cannot be evaded. Spell Suppression gives a % chance to halve the damage taken from spells. This can (and should) be stacked to 100% to halve all incoming spell damage.




Passive Masteries




Passive Masteries are a new type of skill point introduced in patch 3.16. Masteries provide niche build benefits in locations across the passive skill tree.

To select a Mastery skill, you must first allocate a Notable skill in the same cluster. In the Path of Building passive trees, take note of any allocated Masteries as these provide many important benefits. Masteries can be visually identified by the bright circles in the center of skill point clusters.




Keystone Passives




Keystones are skills on the passive skill tree. Most keystones alter a game mechanic and have both a benefit and downside.

While many builds use 1 or more Keystone passives, Toxic Rain doesn’t need any and this version is Keystone-less.




Class and Ascendancy, Progression, and Playstyle




Class and Ascendancy: The Ranger is a natural bow-using class. Raider is popular and powerful, getting speed, damage, and defense in abundance through ascendancy points.


Progression: We level as a Chaos damage bow build from the start, transitioning straight from Caustic Arrow to Toxic Rain.

In the endgame we'll reach 100% Spell Suppression and 100% chance to avoid Elemental Ailments, while stacking both Evasion and Armour to become very difficult to kill. There are many ways to upgrade the endgame build and many items are not mandatory, giving experienced players leeway for preference.


Playstyle: We clear maps with “self-shot” Toxic Rain and place Toxic Rain Ballista Totems for single target damage. Sniper’s Mark and Molten Shell are automated via Mark on Hit and Cast When Damage Taken respectively. Because we stack skill effect duration, Blood Rage lasts for a long time and gives us leech, attack speed, and frenzy charges.




Scaling Damage and Defenses




Below are some simple ways to scale the build's damage and defenses. This is not a complete or thorough list; it's a broad overview to assist in decisions for item crafting/trading.

Damage : Here are some of the simplest ways in which you can scale up the build's damage-

🏹 Skill Gem Levels (Mainly TR and its support gems)
🏹 Skill Effect Duration
🏹 Projectile Damage
🏹 Attack Speed
🏹 Chaos Damage
🏹 Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier
🏹 Damage over Time
🏹 Damage over Time Multiplier

Defense : Here are some of the ways in which you can scale up the build’s defenses-

🏹 Evasion
🏹 Armour
🏹 % Chance to Suppress Spell Damage
🏹 % Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments


Mistakes To Avoid : Here are some commonly misunderstood modifiers or skill gem aspects that don't scale or only partially scale a Toxic Rain build-

🏹 AoE (kind of; better clear but lower single target)
🏹 Additional Arrows (Same reason as above - only a clear speed boost)
🏹 On-Hit / Hit-Based Damage (life/mana on hit are still good)
🏹 Flat Chaos Damage
🏹 Poison




Videos




Videos will be posted here with 3.17 footage!




Leveling

Spoiler

Forum Guide Covers: Leveling Preview | League-Starting vs Mid-League Leveling

Path of Building Covers: Vendor Recipes | Gems & Links | Leveling Uniques and Starter Mapping Trade Links |





Leveling Preview

Toxic Rain leveling is smooth and safe. You’ll use Chaos skills in a bow from level 2 onward, and TR feels good all the way through Acts 1-10 with no required uniques.





League-Starting vs Mid-League Leveling

There are no mandatory leveling uniques for the build. The build also scales well with gem levels, allowing for a tested and smooth league start.

If you have existing currency or items, there are several uniques that make the leveling process even much quicker. These include (but are not limited to) Quill Rain, Tabula Rasa, Wanderlust, Goldrim, Lochtonial Caress, Karui Ward, Thief’s Torment, and Hyrri’s Bite.



Endgame

Spoiler

Forum Guide Covers: Ascendancy Points, Bandit Reward, and Pantheon Choices | Equipment and Modifier Basics | Skill Gems and Links

Path of Building Covers: General Endgame Notes | SSF | Trade | Crafting





Ascendancy Points, Bandit Reward, and Pantheon Choices

Spoiler
Ascendancy Points

Lab 1: Rapid Assault. Permanent Onslaught is a huge quality of life boost for the rest of the game and a damage boost via the attack speed increase.

Lab 2: Quartz Infusion. Phasing is amazing and yet another quality of life layer, while Spell Suppression will provide a defensive layer against spell damage.

Lab 3: Avatar of the Chase. Take everything great about Onslaught, double it, then add a bonus defensive layer. It’s really good.

Lab 4: Avatar of the Veil. We only get half the benefit of this Ascendancy, but 50% Elemental Ailment avoidance is more than enough reason to take it.


Bandit Reward

Kill all Bandits for 2 skill points.


Pantheon Powers

Click here to learn how to upgrade Pantheons or view the Divine Vessel vendor recipe.

Pantheon Choices:

🏹 Any Major Pantheon is reasonable. Brine King is a good default option for stun immunity.
🏹 Gruthkul, Tukohama, Ralakesh, and Shakari are all options for Minor Pantheon based on preference.

Notes:

🏹 Upgrades are character-bound, so don't waste extra Vessels on upgrades you won't use.
🏹 They can freely change in town/hideout. Swapping them can be useful.






Endgame Item Basics

Spoiler
This section briefly describes the endgame equipment for both the SSF and Trade versions.

Actual crafting advice and methods are in the PoB Notes.

SSF

🏹 Bow: Quill Rain or +3 Bow Gems Thicket Bow.

🏹 Quiver: Hunter Quiver with Chaos DoT Multi and Attack Speed.

🏹 Body Armour: Armour/Evasion base with Life, Resists, Suppression, and/or Ailment Avoidance.

🏹 Helmet: Armour/Evasion base with Accuracy, Life, Resists, and/or Spell Suppression.

🏹 Boots: Armour/Evasion base with Movement Speed, Life, Resists, and/or Spell Suppression.

🏹 Gloves: Hunter Armour/Evasion base with Chaos DoT Multi and Attack Speed.

🏹 Amulet: + Gem Levels, Life, Resists, possibly “-7 mana cost” Craft.

🏹 Ring 1 & 2: Life, Resistances, Attributes, Attack Speed if possible, and “-7 mana cost” Craft.

🏹 Belt: Life, Resists, Attributes.


Trade

🏹 Bow: Hunter Thicket Bow with +1 Bow Gems / +2 Support Gems, Chaos DoT Multi, and Attack Speed.

🏹 Quiver: Hunter Quiver with 2 DoT Multi mods and Attack Speed.

🏹 Body Armour: Armour/Evasion base with Life, Resists, Attributes.

🏹 Helmet: Hunter Armour/Evasion base with -12 Chaos Res, +1 Socketed AoE gems, Spell Suppression.

🏹 Boots: Armour/Evasion base with high Movement Speed and Life, Resists, and/or Spell Suppression.

🏹 Gloves: Hunter Apothecary's Gloves with Chaos DoT Multi and Culling Strike.

🏹 Amulet: Hunter +2 gems with -7 mana cost craft.

🏹 Ring 1 & 2: Life, Resists, and -7 mana cost craft.

🏹 Belt: Hunter Stygian Vise with Life, % Life, and Resists.

🏹 Jewels: Watcher’s Eye for damage, Replica Conqueror’s Efficiency for mana cost.






Skill Gems and Links

Spoiler

Both SSF and Trade share Helmet, Glove, and Boot gem links. The Bow and Body Armour TR links are listed in order. Trade players can use the SSF 6-links while farming Awakened gems / Empower, and SSF players who acquire them can use the Trade links.

Shared Links

🏹 Helmet: Determination - Vaal Grace - Defiance Banner - Vitality

🏹 Boots: Dash - Second Wind | Cast When Damage Taken - Molten Shell

🏹 Gloves: Blood Rage - Enduring Cry | Mark on Hit - Poacher’s Mark

6-Links

🏹 SSF Bow: Toxic Rain - Ballista Totem - Vicious Projectiles - Void Manipulation - Efficacy - Increased Duration

🏹 SSF Body Armour: Toxic Rain - Withering Touch - Mirage Archer - Efficacy- Vicious Projectiles - Void Manipulation

🏹 Trade Bow: Toxic Rain - Ballista Totem - Awakened Vicious Projectiles - Awakened Void Manipulation - Efficacy - Empower

🏹 Trade Body Armour: Toxic Rain - Withering Touch - Mirage Archer - Efficacy- Awakened Vicious Projectiles - Awakened Void Manipulation





F.A.Q and Hardcore Tips

Spoiler

Frequently Asked Questions

🏹 This section will be populated as I receive repeated build questions!





Hardcore Tips

If I were to play this build in Hardcore, I would lean even harder into Armour stacking and Molten Shell. I'd be careful about my map modifiers and not run a lot of increased damage mods. I’d strongly consider playing a very similar tree to the SSF version, but leaning more into Life and possibly swapping to the Champion ascendancy.


Cold DoT For Everyone: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2661120
Last edited by ShakCentral on May 11, 2022, 4:19:08 PM
Last bumped on Aug 16, 2022, 2:19:25 PM
Reserved
Cold DoT For Everyone: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2661120
reserved
Cold DoT For Everyone: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2661120
reserved
Cold DoT For Everyone: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2661120
Based guide
nice guide
Third.

Shak is the best.
Hey, you mention that Blood rage gives us leech, I always assumed it was not the case since TR has very low hit damage, is that the case ? Thanks for this guide anyways
Using these leveling links for now if it helps anyone:

CA + Pierce + Void Manip
into
TR + Vicious Proj + Mirage Archer + Void Manip (clear)
"
Todlike wrote:
Hey, you mention that Blood rage gives us leech, I always assumed it was not the case since TR has very low hit damage, is that the case ? Thanks for this guide anyways


I'll probably remove the leech mention. You're correct that any leech amount would be extremely small, and even with a lot of hits and fast attacks it probably would be insignificant compared to life on hit.
Cold DoT For Everyone: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2661120

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