[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

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ChronoExile wrote:
Spoiler
We are getting close to the end of the league, and previews have started for the 2.4.0 patch. The thread seems to be pretty quite at the moment too... so I think the time is now to start the list of potential updates/suggestions. Not sure how many changes will be happening to the passives, gems, or map mods that will effect the guide, but at least I can get these items on your change list early...

Housekeeping

I present more suggestions you are welcome to use or ignore
  • In the fourth question(Ranger Start) before the guide starts, Ascendancy is spelled incorrectly (Ascendency)
  • In the Jewels Spoiler, of Resistance has "8 top 10" and it should be "8 to 10"
  • In the Gloves Spoiler, "As you're progressing, you have a couple other options:" should be "As you're progressing, you can use:"
  • In the Skill Trees & Ascendancy(?), add Uber Lab information (Last two Ascendancy points, how to use Path of Ranger, additional tree(?))
  • In the FAQ(?), add gear swap/suggestion and life/damage benchmarks for Uber Lab
  • In the Gems & links section, the formatting consistency was bothering me, see below(I tried to change as little wording as possible, and just worked on formatting)(its own spoiler for ease of cut/paste)



Gems & Links



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- Gems & Links -


Primary Skill:
  • Caustic Arrow - Void Manipulation - Conc Effect - Rapid Decay - Empower (5L) - IIR (6L). This is the final gem set up for the completed build in a +3 Bow


What about before Ascending?

Before gaining Deadeye it is up to you if you want to run Increased Area of Effect or not. If you do decide to run AoE your gem links would be Caustic Arrow - Void Manipulation - Conc Effect - Increased AoE - Rapid Decay / Empower (5L) – IIR (6L). There are some situations where Empower should be used over Rapid Decay, and the explanation can be found in the FAQ.


What about if we're Shadow HC?
I won't bore you with the math, but because the Pierce gem will cover off the remaining 40-50% of that missing increased damage, it's actually better to use Pierce than it is one of either VM or RD if you're running the build from Shadow.

So your 6L will be (assuming you prefer AoE):

CA - AoE - Conc - Void - Pierce (until Empower 3) - IIR.

Otherwise, if you prefer the extra dps, then it's the same as it is with Scion (CA - Conc - Void - Rapid - Pierce (until Empower 3) - IIR.


Curse Setup & Terrain Breaker:
  • Frenzy - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Curse on Hit - Vulnerability. Faster Attacks or Lesser Multiple Projectiles are potential fifth link options, but neither is needed for the setup. You may also consider Enhance to benefit Curse on Hit, providing a slight boost to Vulnerability's effectiveness. I leave the decision up to you. Personally, I prefer the extra projectiles to make it easier to break barrels and spread the curse. If you decide to get a 6L chest, you can add the other one in.


Damage Boost & Utility
  • Wither - Spell Totem - Faster Casting. Wither is used to help weaken bosses, and the occasional tankier blue/rare or high chaos resistance mob. Wither totem is your friend. Increased AoE could be added as the fourth link, but is not required.


  • Blood Rage - Vaal Lightning Trap - Increased Duration – (Enduring/Rallying Cry). Vaal Lightning Trap is the only reliable source to create shocking ground, which provides 50% more damage, useful for bosses. Blood Rage allows us to automate our frenzy charge generation, as most monsters do not need to be cursed to melt. Enduring/Rallying cry is listed in brackets to indicate it's optional and at player discretion.


Why Blood Rage?
One of the more common questions asked in the thread is, "Why run Blood Rage if we're running a Frenzy - Curse on Hit - Vulnerability setup?"

Fact is, you'll only be cursing bosses and tankier monsters. This automates the frenzy generation and dramatically improves your clear speed.


Auras
  • Grace - Clarity – Enlighten. Grace and Clarity are the core auras. A level ~10 Clarity should be sufficient. The central reason we even keep Clarity in the final build is to make reduced recovery maps possible without having to reroll the map, or swap in a mana flask. Enlighten added mostly as QoL in order to provide a slightly larger mana pool in order to assist with reduced recovery maps. It is not required to have Enlighten.


What about Purity?
While levelling, and especially before you're fully geared, you may want to run any of the Purity auras to help out with res balance. If so, drop Grace, and ensure you take Acrobatics.


Other
Any other spare gem slots should be used to fit:
  • Flame Golem. This is the best damage boost golem option for the build.
  • Blink Arrow. Best movement skill for bow characters.
  • Portal. Quality of life! As you reach the final stages of this build, you'll see why Portal is so beneficial: it's very easy to run out of Wisdom scrolls. This 5-7 chaos gem allows you to sustain your Widsoms more reliably.


Gear Swap
  • Lastly, don't forget to level other gems in your swap gear. And keep special attention to when you're leveling Empower or Enlighten: you will want a Haku Weapon for this.




I forgot to thank you for doing this, and thought I should also mention that I'll include these changes closer to Atlas' launch when I do a full pass of the guide.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
"
Serleth wrote:
I forgot to thank you for doing this, and thought I should also mention that I'll include these changes closer to Atlas' launch when I do a full pass of the guide.


You are welcome. Thanks for the update, I'm just glad to help where I can.

Reading your post above this one, it dawned on me one of the reasons I do not have the same value to time ratio is a lack of knowledge for pricing items. Do you know of any resources to help 'rule of thumb' or broad strokes explaining mod combinations and their prices? I realize a lot of this comes from direct experience, changes during the flow of the league, and time and running a shop will be the best teacher, but any boost knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

Unrelated to anything else, I completed my map collection (what I used to call my atlas, until the new expansion made it confusing) for the Karuistone maps. Just waiting on the league end to get them all together.
Hi Serleth & all

I have question about what do You think start this build with Duelist.
Especially for fortify(good buff for def)?
I want reach 100lvl. But many time die.
I wonder how to make more survialable?

I also want change armor for Kaoma's Heart. I want to exchange clarity for arctic armor. Maybe use enfeeble(with kaoma maybe not enough space).
I want to also use hidden potencial(blue rings with life, coral amulet, gloves & belt) +
blood dance shoes.

PS: Maybe You have more tips how to make more survialable?

Best Regards
Last edited by Slimak1980#6366 on Aug 15, 2016, 8:44:55 AM
@Slimak1980

Fist this guide focuses on the MF potentilal of the build, so the things you are asking about are generally out of scope for the normal discussion here. I'll try to answer what I can and hopefully others will chime in as well.

- Duelist: The first 2-7 nodes are not very efficient for Caustic Arrow, and Ascendancy class is strictly defensive. While you will survive more hits, it might just be better to have higher damage out-put so fewer monsters are alive to hit you.

- Kaom's Heart: If you are alright with 6 less sockets, the chest is a reasonable choice for pushing higher character levels and higher content.

- Clarity v Arctic Armour: You should not be standing still very often with this build, so AA only reliably grants the chilled ground. It is helpful when monsters are chasing after you, but that is about it. While Clarity helps QoL when running reduced regeneration maps.

- Curse Selection: Feel free to try enfeeble. I would recommend it as your curse on hit, as the radius of Blasphemy will likely not cover the whole screen. Because this is a ranged build if monsters are getting into your blasphemy radius, the ranged element of the skill is not being leveraged to its fullest potential.

- Hidden Potential: Very strong with Caustic Arrow, but it takes it away from the MF build. Here is a Hidden Potential build, which also uses the Blood Dance boots, [2.1/2.2 WIP]Belton's In Depth Hidden Potential Caustic Arrow Guide. 35k+ DPS Atziri/Ubers/HC Viable. Not sure how up to date it is, but this was the first Hidden Potential build returned in a quick search.

- Additional Tips: This build relies a lot on the mechanical play of you. There is manual dodging, assessing situations, risks, etc. With solid player KSAs there should be no problem leveling the build to higher levels.

Hope this helps, at least a little.
After watching the interview with Chris for IGN I think a new era of endgame might be coming indeed. Specialize in maps / areas? Level up certain maps on the Atlas? Atlas zone-specific items? Yes please!

With only one caveat - I hope the Atlas upgrades / changes are reversible or are per-character, and not per-account.

Edit: oh and an obvious question: will our build be able to do the new top content (Guardians and the Shaper) or will it have to be used to finance another build that will be able to do so.

As someone who has never reliably farmed anything higher than T11 I am fine with both answers. I am sure that Serleth and other power players here will find that out soon enough, though...
Shavronne wrapped Kaom's waist,
with her gilded purple boots.
"You want my sockets?"
Last edited by Jadran#7994 on Aug 15, 2016, 12:46:21 PM
"
ChronoExile wrote:
Reading your post above this one, it dawned on me one of the reasons I do not have the same value to time ratio is a lack of knowledge for pricing items. Do you know of any resources to help 'rule of thumb' or broad strokes explaining mod combinations and their prices? I realize a lot of this comes from direct experience, changes during the flow of the league, and time and running a shop will be the best teacher, but any boost knowledge would be greatly appreciated.


No, there's no real guide to it. Probably the most time-efficient way of doing it was to copy-pasta the item data into poeprice.info to get rough estimates, and then simply roll that into your general experience of item prices.

Except that site went down.

The best I can do is give you a rough guide on how I do it.

* Non-accessory items with mid-tier life (60-75) and dual resistances (35-40) go for 2-5c, depending on the range of the rolls and how early in the league it's found. If boots with high movement speed, this can go up to 10c.
* Non-accessory items with high-tier life (75+) and high dual resistances (40+) go for 20-30c, up to 50c for high MS boots.
* Chest pieces are exceptions, as most builds run unique chests. Exceptions to the exception are pieces such as Zodiac Leather or Astral Plates that have also rolled mid to high evasion/armour (1.2k+, 90+ life, 40+ dual res) with an open suffix to craft a third resistance. These will go for 20c+ depending on the base and the combined value of the rolls.
* ES gear is priced differently. I have less experience with this and just manually price them as they come along.
* Non-unique defensive accessories are essentially worthless unless they have a minimum 60% resistance and 60+ life. You will get on average 1-3c for anything with less than these rolls.
* Non-unique defensive accessories with 80%+ resistance and 60+ life will go for 10-20+c, with significant variation for even minor improvements to these rolls. 70+ life (T1 life) will easily render it 15c, and 80% resistances on the explicit will guarantee an easy sale at 15c, probable sale at 20c+. On a Diamond Ring with room to craft an offensive affix, the value skyrockets potentially into exalt territory.
* Be mindful of the ability to roll offensive affixes on these items, namely flat damage and the % critical strike chance suffix. For three alchemy / two chaos, you can increase the value you sell the accessory by 35-50%.
* In all slots, base types are game-changers. While a Turquoise amulet with 70 life and 80% dual res with an offensive affix could sell for 25+ chaos, the exact same rolls on a Coral base will barely net you 10c. Similarly, a well-rolled pair of Hydrascale Gauntlets might go for 5c while the same rolls on Slink gloves will get 20+.
* If you're ever unsure of an item's value, price it. Particularly early in leagues where things are nuts.
* Routinely update your shop prices:

My shop method
Let's say I drop an item whose value I instinctively price at 10 chaos. Say, a pair of Stealth gloves with 70 life, 35% dual res, and a small flat physical damage roll. I list the item, and after 48 hours, it hasn't sold.

I move it from my 10c tab to my 9c tab.

24 hours later, no sale.

8c.

24 hours later, no sale.

7c.

Repeat until it sells.

If it gets to the 1c tab and doesn't sell, I either use it in a chaos recipe, store it for possible use on a character of my own, or flat out vendor it for alts.

This method of incrementally lowering prices ensures three things:

a) My shop is always updated, and my prices generally speaking will always be competitive.
b) Because no item gets stale, I'm constantly making space for new drops.
c) I eventually sell everything, even if it's just to the vendor, meaning everything I list makes me money, somehow.


Also, don't be afraid to be an asshole. If you list an item and immediately get multiple PMs about it, ignore them and/or be honest with them, letting them know you undervalued the item and are now going to price it more appropriately. But also make sure it's worth your time. If you get multiple pms simply because your item is 2 chaos cheaper than the next, fuck it, sell it. If it's because your item is listed half an exalt cheaper than its value, get what you deserve and re-list it.


@Slimak: If your goal is to hit level 100, this isn't the build to do it with, not unless you're willing to do Dried Lake runs or blue maps T6 or lower. Alternately, you need to rework it drastically, and do something akin to the Hidden Potential build Chrono linked and forgo MF while you pursue level 100. Chrono answered the rest of your questions essentially how I would have.

That said, I have pushed this build comfortably to level 94. I'm confident it can be done, but unlikely with MF gear, and it will require flawless play in order to not lose 2-4 hours trying to regain 10% xp when you die past level 94. Unless, like I said, you're fine doing low tier maps or nothing but Dried Lake runs, where you chances of death are essentially non-existent.

@Jadran: The Sextant is a 5-use item. So the properties that are added will fade away with use. It's less clear whether the Shaper's Orb has limited uses, but they have said that there will be a method you can use to essentially Scour the maps on the Atlas.

This leads me to believe they are per-account and per-league, but reversible.

My guess is, given that each entrance to the Guardians is preceded by a T15 map, that the Guardian fights will be at least T15. This essentially means that this build's ability to do those fights will be based entirely on the mechanics of the fights. I.e., we get absolutely demolished in Core and can't do it, T15 Daresso gives us fits, and T15 Kaom is doable.

If for whatever reason the Guardian/Shaper fights are lower-tier (which is possible, but unlikely), then we should be able to handle it.

In other words, be prepared to roll a new build to do those fights. I'll of course TRY to do it with this build, simply for being able to definitively say one way or the other, but my expectation is that this build will not handle the Atlas' final fights.

As well, given that the Guardian fights require the other T15s be completed, you will either need to pay for those clears, or reroll anyway.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
Last edited by Serleth#4392 on Aug 16, 2016, 2:55:35 AM
Serleth, thanks for the shop outline/guidelines. Post saved.

Also it is a shame the Gripped Gloves, from the news today, specify Projectile Attack. Maybe one of the 4 yet unreleased new base types will help the build. Lots of exciting new things to watch for.
Yeah, I had the same reaction. =(
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
Guardians are confirmed T16.

Expect to reroll for the fights.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
"
Serleth wrote:
Guardians are confirmed T16.

Expect to reroll for the fights.


Don't worry, I'll provide the kills with my shredder / bosskiller for those interested.

General rule of thumb: loot is all for the provider of the map / set.

Cannot speak for the price of a set or map obvously, nor which of the new bosses are easily doable. Hydra Guardian fight didn't shock me at all, tho. If it comes to the worst possible, I'll adapt accordingly (hi, chaosres).

sources:
- My small prophecy service thread, Uberlabs and Councils mostly.
- Endgame Grind (more than 40 Ubers, 20 T15 Daressos) with some stray Atziri's (which are really not a measure)
- flexible mind ^^

the more details we get, the better I can prepare for those epic fights, but I'm confident.
IGN: WildTortillaFart

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