[2.3] Explosive Arrow Build - Uber viable - 100 hc/sc proof - Scion, Witch, Duelist, Mara versions

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xodrul wrote:

I think it depends on how you plan on generating frenzy charges or if you even care about them..

Raider makes it easy and not reliant on blood dance, plus onslaught for ridiculous atk speed
Elementalist provides some nice elemental damage buffs and elemental dmg reduction but you'd need to use a frenzy gem
Slayer would probably want to use a life leech gem.. I don't really see a benefit to this one over the other 2, maybe someone else can elaborate on that.

pretty much that.

Personally i run Berserker and raider.

Hi,

What do you think about using The Taming Prismatic Ring with this build?

Slayer give you 30% increased damage against uniques and rares and 15% increased attack and cast speed while leeching. As for the leeching itself, it can come free from Berserker. No need to use life leech gem. I think Raider is maybe overrated for this build.

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lussiano wrote:

Slayer give you 30% increased damage against uniques and rares and 15% increased attack and cast speed while leeching. As for the leeching itself, it can come free from Berserker. No need to use life leech gem. I think Raider is maybe overrated for this build.

For some reason I was looking at as if he meant going Duelist and then Slayer. I still don't think its better than Scion-Raider because onslaught should be up more often if not always and gives higher atk/cast speed and movement speed.

The only consideration for me is whether to go Raider or Elementalist. I would just set up Frenzy/GMP/CoH/Curse to keep charges up. I do like the Elementalist buffs from Scion Ascendancy. I considered going Witch Elementalist but getting damage/fire leech is not easy without using the gem.

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IamPeyter wrote:

Maybe interesting for some to watch, RaizQT made a video about EA.

I dont agree with alot of things in his build BUT its one way to play EA and i am sure alot of u will also ejoy his version.

His video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbLIzz-dNjg

Things i dont agree with that i saw on the first glance and why (most of which have already been discussed in this thread but ill roll them out again):

Not taking EE at all or soon. EE is and always was elementary to EA due to it being one of the highest damage increase we can get, in some cases even higher then elemental overload.

Taking VP. It ruins our regen while also making our leech clunky (only bursts of life) but grants us security against reflect in exchange. With the old reflect i would 100% agree because it would be unplayable without but with the current reflect we can just go ahead an ignore reflect, our life pool is way to high to die to it without making a huge mistake by ourself.

Not enough ppl talkin about it - cmon raiz :-o this thread got pretty big and alot of ppl went with it to 100.

Did some testing and you can for sure kill yourself to reflect with just a double curse support when offscreening (fortify, reflect ring and ruby flask on). One time you wont have a ruby up when offscreening and thats gonna be the end of your character. This will never happen with VP. But at the end of the day fortify in general is very nice. I prefer the faster version of scion vs the tankier duelist even thou i play hardcore because i feel like were already tanky enough in the scion version :)

I agree about EE being useful later, not so much early on :D
Thanks for posting the video. Never saw this thread before so yeah i guess thats where the "not enough ppl talkin about it" comment came from hehe.
Thanks again, gl

Loving the build so far!!

My equip:



Anyone has tried to use the new essence worm rings?? running PoF may be a good idea to diminish the fear of dying to off screen reflect. So far i'm doing good with a ruby flask of chemist but i had some close calls. Is hard to preparare for offscreen reflect :(

Also any thoughts on Celestial Punishment?? the ignite chance is nice, but i'm not sure if the 25% is worth it, considering that it would be only useful for bosses; any other mob we ignite is dead for sure.

Also i would love some advice on what piece to upgrade of my gear, so far i'm using one of the ring slots as a flexible slot to switch various things.

I have a couple questions with this build. Hopefully they have not been answered. I don't think there is a way to search certain threads. :(

1. How would this handle against single targets? Main damage is with GCP, so most arrows would miss right? I could see replacing it with another on bosses, but what about rare monsters?

2. What is the point of rain of arrows? I understand to kill enemies in the back, but it's not linked to any support gems, so would it even do any damage?

3. When would be a good time to switch over to Blood Magic? A 5 or 6 link EA would melt mana so I can imagine it would be scary to switch over.

EDIT: One more question, would it be necessary for EA to be at 20%?

Thank yall hope you are taking care and staying safe.

Is there a reason 55 is the magic level to swap to EA for leveling? Still running firestorm in my tabula and approaching 55ish.

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Edock wrote:

I have a couple questions with this build. Hopefully they have not been answered. I don't think there is a way to search certain threads. :(

1. How would this handle against single targets? Main damage is with GCP, so most arrows would miss right? I could see replacing it with another on bosses, but what about rare monsters?

2. What is the point of rain of arrows? I understand to kill enemies in the back, but it's not linked to any support gems, so would it even do any damage?

3. When would be a good time to switch over to Blood Magic? A 5 or 6 link EA would melt mana so I can imagine it would be scary to switch over.

1. For mapping it's great against a lot of single target enemies simply because the explosions will all hit at the same time after stacking tons of arrows on a pack, so if a rare is in a pack of mobs (which it usually is) it will just get blown up in a single explosion after applying 2-3 volleys of arrows. You're right in assuming that on bosses which usually have no mobs around (Izaro/Atziri) you can switch out to something like concentrated effect instead of increased aoe for more ST damage. In my experience GMP is still nice to have in just because it mostly eliminates the need to actually aim.

2. The point is to use it with curse on hit so you can apply a curse (flammability) to mobs. The reference to hitting mobs in the back is that using Frenzy + CoH + GMP + (curse) can't hit mobs in the back because they won't pierce or chain. Damage plays no part in using this skill setup; it's just to curse mobs.

3. Anecdote time! So I switched to BM at like level 40 right before fighting Malachai. I would NOT recommend doing it this early. I couldn't keep my health up at all and had to constantly spam flasks just to not kill myself. I'd say wait until around level 55-ish, when it's best to switch to EA anyway for reasons like availability of decent gear and having higher leveled gems. Switch to it basically whenever you think you can sustain the mana (health) cost of using it around 3-4 times a second and still have a little bit of regen to get some extra health back. A stone golem helps with this early on, I'd recommend it.

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EDIT: One more question, would it be necessary for EA to be at 20%?

Nope, not at all in my experience. Of course it will help some with damage as you'll get the burn going after a big explosion of damage, so it is significant. However, it's not at all needed and it just some nice gravy on top of the already delicious meat of the build's damage. More important than having the gem at 20% quality is having it at level 20, as the extra base damage makes an absolutely unreal difference.

So I decided I need a second weapon in addition to



Why? Because I want to kill stuff like Ambrius and Atziri fast, and GMP is not helping. And swapping gems feels stupid.

Since reflect is not the issue here, I think links may be like EA-FirePen-ReduceDuration-Empower-ConcEffect-SlowerProj/ChanceToIgnite.

And yes, I clearly don't understand how you can link empower onto AoE link and not get rekt by reflect, with only lvl 21 EA and 81% fire rez from lvl 21 Purity and +2 gem level unique ring I get hit for like 4k when I faceroll too much in a maps. That's solo, non playable for groups it seems or you must be very careful.

So I took chance to ignite support (49%), alongside with q20gem (20%), nodes (10%) and a few jewels (got 5*3% atm). I have 94% chance to ignite now, gonna be 97% soon if I won't reep and 98% if I will be lucky with corrupting next series of gems. And it's even better then I thought it would be. Any leftover monsters in pack that would annoy me so much for staying alive are now always dead from ignites. And no additional damage to skill itself = no risks on reflect. :3

But I still want moar damage for some bosses, had to dance thru whole phases on even 70 Atziri with GMP one, so bad.

So question is: what's gonna be better for pure single target damage - one moar Quill Rain OR crafted +3 bow levels one? I know there are people loving theorycraft much more then I do in here, help please. :>