[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

I'm guessing you're setting that up for HC?

Your tree:
286% damage
217% life + MoM
No jewels

My Shadow HC tree:
457% damage + 60% from jewels = 510% damage
172% life + 30%-35% from jewels = 202-207% life

You're sacrificing an incredible amount of damage just to run over to pick up MoM and an extra 10-15% life.

Raider's also the least efficient option to run from Ranger. The only applicable perks you're grabbing are some Phasing and MS. Onslaught does nothing except for a bit of ED cast speed help, the evasion rating is tolerable.

I pick Trickster due to its balance of defensive mechanics and its ability to provide some extra damage as well. If you're going to insist on running MoM, Trickster's even better for you defensively due to Weave of the Arcane, which gives 8% damage reduction for 4 seconds after spending 200 mana, mana regeneration and 20% chance to recover 10% mana when using a skill, and 20% maximum mana.

You're honestly going to have an incredibly hard time killing things with that tree.

All those points you're spending going towards MoM would probably better served elsewhere. You can run Cloak of Defiance if you're really insistent on MoM, and rework so as to not need the tree for MoM, and instead grabbing Mana Flows down in duelist, jewel sockets (you can get damage, life and mana rolls for two points each), etc.

Also, I didn't do much investigating of the Pantheon system given that it wasn't complete for the Beta. I'll be updating the guide with recommended Pantheon powers sometime in the first week of 3.0, probably.

Just some notes for myself:

so you have 510% damage and 200% life.

i can get 200% life, 400% dmg and MoM. poeurl.com/boaj MoM with 1500 mana means 1500 hp, which is endgame: 6k normal-life + 1500 MoM-life.

1) do you think 100% less damage is worth 1.5k life(MoM)?

2) i didnt play this build in endgame, do you really need that extra 100%? feels like damage overload?

i was planning to take raider because i want that 40% moveSpeed.

Cloak of Defiance - yeah id love to get that on ssf hc, but then i have far less mana :/

New CoD will have flat mana on it as well, fyi (100-150).

I would still REALLY go Trickster if you're going to MoM, it just synergizes so much better. A Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline will compensate easily if you're fine taking up a flask slot for movement, and if not honestly it's not a slow build with 30% MS boots.

1) Yeah, that's a much more reasonable tradeoff, but remember (you may have factored this? was unclear) that Grace will eat into your mana pool so I'm not sure if your 1500 accounts for that? Otherwise you're looking at 750.

2) With CA being buffed for 3.0, I think you'll probably be able to get away with -100% damage but bosses are also getting tankier, which could present a problem. Tree looks a lot better for what your goals are, though I still have to recommend Trickster for MoM. Survivability in HC, especially if you're SSFing, is going to do you more favours than MS to get around quicker. Blink Arrow will bail you out of situations when you need it.

Overall I think 400% damage should be okay, especially with Rapid Decay (Swift Affliction in 3.0) getting a slight buff as well as the CA gem itself getting roughly a 38-40% base buff, you'll probably be dealing similar damage levels to what we currently get in 2.6, which I found pretty comfortable up to T12 maps before I started to have to break out the Mad Skillz against certain bosses. =)

But also, I was running at 5k life and playing SC, so. Playstyle's a lot different.

Only way to know for sure whether that'll be good damage for you come 3.0 is for me to run some quick high-level tests on my build in Standard on Friday. I'll probably do Sulphur Wastes, Maze and Overgrown Ruin as test maps for that, as those are relatively tough bosses to handle.

I leveled Trickster to 75 in beta and got some experience to share. As i plan on playing HC i can see how life will be major concern, currently im at 3.5k(+450 items worth) at LVL 75, still missing around +30% of Life Nodes worth as well as almost all Life Jewel slots. As sad as it is, anyone planning on playing HC will most likely be forced to skip Growth and Decay cluster, as well as 2/3-Frenzy nodes in favor of early Jewel/Life nodes and drop Master of the Arena node.

Blood Rage skill with Trickster is not needed, as you can easily sustain Frenzy charges with Frenzy+GMP + Swift Killer ascendancy. Im now thinking about adding additional layer of Defense in a 4-link with Enfeeble+AoE+Blasphemy+Enduring Cry to at least somehow help myself staying alive in case of an emergency.

DPS wise with 5-link +2 bow, aside from bosses anyone pretty much gets melted, bosses (some) will take some time, but im thinking with addition of Empower and all-Frenzy charges nodes that will not be such a big concern closer to lvl 85.

i was planning on not running grace, because i dont feel it increases my evasion chance that much, assuming i have a decent high evasion chest?

i might take your advice on going shadow instead. tempting. i really wanted that 40% raider movespeed from onslaught + phasing too :/

as shadow i could get 6k hp, 400% damage, 1000 ES, 1500 MoM-mana (without grace). i think this will be it

Grace is a pretty big bonus to evasion once you factor in the evasion % from the nodes on the tree and the increased evasion % per frenzy charge node.

That said, as a MoM build, you might very well be better off without it if you can compensate with well-rolled eva gear.

****

I'm adding a change log near the top of the thread to make it easier to skim the important changes on a league by league basis. Currently still ongoing but it covers the big things for this league.

Has anyone got experience at leveling this build?

How are you going to level it? I mean what skills to use before Caustic Arrow, and when to switch to Caustic Arrow.

Thanks :)

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lazycalm2 wrote:

Has anyone got experience at leveling this build?

How are you going to level it? I mean what skills to use before Caustic Arrow, and when to switch to Caustic Arrow.

Thanks :)

Literally asked just as I removed the out-of-date leveling section. You have hilarious timing, good sir.

So, pretty much any spell that deals projectile damage would be a decent option to level with as it dovetails nicely with the projectile damage nodes the end-game build picks up. I have used Fireball, Frostbolt, Magma Orb and Ethereal Knives, and enjoyed all of them but personally felt like Magma Orb worked quite well in a +1 wand, eventually switching to a 4L with Slower Proj / GMP on swap.

It's really up to you on that front, but Flameblast and Firestorm are also good options.

Before 3.0, I wouldn't have recommended switching until level 55+ to Caustic Arrow itself (in a +2 5L bow), but it's received a pretty healthy base damage buff for this patch.

In Beta, I switched to CA around level 50 in a +1 5L bow and it felt about as comfortable as level 60 +2 bow did in 2.6 and prior.

Other people have come in here reporting that while it's a bit of a slow starter, it's MUCH more comfortable to level with straight away in 3.0 than it's ever been.

Personally, I'd probably still level using a spell until you pick up two CA-related damage clusters (namely, Fury Bolts and Method to the Madness), then make the switch there if you find a +1 bow you can quickly 4L.

Hey, thanks for the quick reply! :) much appreciated
Keep up the good work