[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

Can you please fix the 2.6 skill tree?

Thanks in advance.
"
buckwildg wrote:
Can you please fix the 2.6 skill tree?

Thanks in advance.


You're probably confused because of the break between Scion & Ranger.

That's because of the last Ascendancy points which are allocated to "Path of the Ranger", allowing you to put points at the Ranger start.

The tree is fine.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
Hey,

Is there a reason you don't take Aspect of the eagle?
2.6 changed it to flat damage instead of phys now.

Thanks

p.s. Used this build for breach and now legacy and it is great.


Edit - Nvm checked it out and see that it only increases the damage of the hit not the cloud
Last edited by Grimraith#1947 on Mar 9, 2017, 1:04:46 AM
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Nick42 wrote:

I leveled from level 4 as caustic arrow and I found it actually very smooth in legacy league. Maybe it was the AoE change, or perhaps something else, but this is the most powerful I've ever felt as a low level caustic arrow user.


Seconding this. My starter was a FB totem build and it was so boring it almost made me quit the league. Didn't want to do the usual leveling skills again so I went with CA from level 4 on with a foil Silverbranch which I upgraded to +3 at 36, beelined damage passives and having a blast, pun unintended. Never once ran into a situation where I felt I lacked damage, aside from single target being a bit iffy.
Last edited by Anaphyis#7754 on Mar 9, 2017, 12:42:04 AM

Thoughts on this amulet compared to a good rare one?
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Derpking69 wrote:

Thoughts on this amulet compared to a good rare one?


What that amulet is essentially doing is asking you to make a sacrifice: do you want to get less loot from rare mobs and bosses, in exchange for more currency from normal packs and more even distribution of loot from magic packs? Or would you rather have more consistent MF across the board?

While that might be beneficial for say, a dried lake VS build, the amulet is deceptively trash for a map MF build, due to the nature of diminishing returns.

Even then, let's take a look at a regular zone.

Boring Math Example Stuff You Can Skip If You Want
BEFORE YOU READ THIS SECTION: Please note that these are arbitrary values meant to exhibit an approximate estimation of how the game functions and in no way reflects the actual values of drops you get from mobs.

For arguments sake, let's say a normal mob will drop 2 items, magic 4, rare 8 and unique 16.

For rarity, we will give normal mobs a 5% chance of a rare or better item, magic 10%, rare 25% and unique 50%.

This means under normal circumstances, a normal mob will drop 0.1% rare items, magic 0.4%, rare 2% and unique 8%. Which, for Dried Lake runs, seems vaguely reasonable estimations.

With MF values of 20/300, raw drops will be 2.4 items, 4.8, 9.6 and 19.2 with expected rares % of 0.14%, 0.56%, 8%, 32%.

For the purposes of this comparison, that means normal mobs will drop 2.4 items of which 0.14% will be rare (0.00336 items) and magic mobs will drop 4.8 items of which 0.56% will be rare (0.027 items). In more clear terms, for every 100 normal and magic mobs you kill, you will see 0.3 rares from normals and 2.7 rares from magics.

Conversely, adjusting the estimations for that amulet and assuming you drop 50% overall rarity (20/250), versus normal mobs you would drop 4.4 items with 0.135% rarity (every 100 mobs 0.59 rare items) and magic monsters 9.6 items with 400% rarity (every 100 mobs, 6 rare items).

As you can see, you basically double the amount of rares you see versus normal and magic enemies. Seems legit, right?

Now, because your total amount of drops from rares and uniques is significantly higher, and as is the % rarity you get from them, that 50% drop in base MF means that instead of seeing 3.4 rares from every rare mob and 11.2 rares from every unique, you DROP DOWN to 2.7 rares from rare mobs and 10.8 from uniques.

Now, you have to factor in that there's approximately 750 enemies in any given map, 600 of which are normal, 125 of which are magic, 25 of which are rare, with 1-3 uniques spread in there (exiles, invaders, what have you).


The result from the above is basically this, in any given zone with a normal distribution of enemies:

Normal MF:

White mobs: 1.8 rares
Blue mobs: 3.4 rares
Rare mobs: 85 rares
Unique mobs: 11 rares
Total: 101.2

Amulet MF:

White mobs: 3.54 rares
Magic: 7.5 rares
Rare mobs: 67.5 rares
Unique mobs: 10 rares
Total: 88.5

Notice how the majority of your rare item drops are coming from rare mobs, and that the 50% base IIR drop reduces the total amount of loot you get by ~13 per zone.

Now tack on map IIQ/IIR, and the difference only continues to widen.

The central reason to be using that amulet is not for the rarity increase, but rather the IIQ increase versus normal mobs. While you will actually see less rare items overall, you will see more currency items which will partially offset this.

But even then, remember that the majority of your currency drops actually come from magic packs.

If that IIQ was versus magic mobs instead of normals, even at a reduced value, that amulet would definitely get more consideration.

TL;DR: It's a trap. Don't use it if you're actually MFing. It's built more for Dried Lake speed farmers than anything.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
Last edited by Serleth#4392 on Mar 9, 2017, 4:50:45 AM

Would this chest piece be good?
"
Derpking69 wrote:

Would this chest piece be good?


Yeah if you can fit the res balance and don't mind the AoE coverage without Carcass Jack. It never used to be but now it has significantly better damage rolls.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
Am confused about 1 thing in MF. To farm for currency like ex etc.. do we need to have high IIQ or IIQ and IIR. I been reading around a lot and cant seem to find an answer to this. I'v Gone through half of the posts on the thread and other forms and No direct answer to this,

At the moment i got 62% IIQ and 237% IIR with 70% on the gem. If i should go flat IIR or go with Both.



Any suggestions, Am ok with res i can handle T11 and 12.
"
max1982 wrote:
To farm for currency like ex etc.. do we need to have high IIQ or IIQ and IIR.

To find only more currency, all you need is high Quantity.

high Quantity, zero or low Rarity = more currency, lots of white items, almost zero blue, yellow and unique items;
zero or low Quantity, high Rarity = less currency, fewer items in general (but inside them, more blues+yellows+uniques)

Thats why you want a balance, to still have good currency drops and also good item drops (those blue+yellow items translate into currency in the end and also good uniques = currency, from sale)
Last edited by mobutu#5362 on Mar 10, 2017, 4:44:30 AM

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