[2.5] Grocery's Caustic Arrow Scion! HC Viable!
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This is a more offensive minded build. For a more defensive minded variant with perma fortify, while still taking decent damage nodes, check out my Duelist Guide here
For a Shadow variant check out my Shadow Trickster guide here The first thing to note about this build is that it has stacks life, jewel slots and tons of chaos damage/DoT. This build utilizes many of the gems out in 2.1 including void manipulation and rapid decay as well as many other gems that have multiplicative modifiers. I am sure that this can do Uber Atziri as most poison arrow builds can do it in 2.1. I am currently wearing semi-MF gear so my stats would be even higher if I went for pure damage/defenses and dropped ventor's as well as my other mf pieces. This is a moot point as I am just messing around on Standard while I wait for Perandus. For leveling, I would go with Searing Bond/Flame Totem. Make sure to pick up CA early and use it if you get a +1 or +2 bow while leveling. 2.2 Video Guide here! Here is my Youtube Channel where you will find all sorts of guides/boss videos/atziri encounters. 2.2 Talent Tree The main part of this tree you will see is that I take quite a bit of life 200%+ with 5 jewel sockets which should have life/damage on them. With regards to Ascendance class options, we take 1 ranger Ascendancy class, Deadeye. It gives us quite a bit of damage, an extra projectile and 50% pierce chance. We do not have to run increased AoE because we have 2nd projectile and very high pierce chance (100% with the ascendancy boost and pierce gem)! Below are online talent tree plans - they are all missing 7 to 9 talent points due to exiletools not being fully up to date See the Summary for Ascendancies we take below! Deadeye - Ranger (always taken) - 50% chance of projectiles Piercing - 20% increased projectile speed - fires an additional projectile - far shot giving 30% increased damage at range (not sure this works with the degen effect of CA Trickster - Shadow (Optional) - 30% increased recovery rate of life, mana and ES iuf you have killed an enemy with a DOT recently - 20% more chance to evade when on full ES - 20% increased damage when not on full ES - 100% increased mana regen if you have used a movement skill recently Occultist - With (Recommended) - 20% increased maximum ES - 1% ES regen per second - cursed enemies have -15% chaos res - 20% increased damage if you've killed a cursed enemy recently Please note that I do not take phase acrobatics. Physical Damage is the most dangerous damage type nowadays and that should be avoidable as CA. It is not needed unless you are planning doing Uber Atziri in my opinion. If you are planning on doing Uber, I would either drop a jewel node+a damage node or two and pickup Phase Acro. My Current Gear on Standard (IDEAL)
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My Current Gear on Perandus
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Gear Choices/Reasoning
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Bow +2/+1 bow will be best in slot due to how poison arrow/casutic arrow works. 21/20 will be ideal with a level 4 empower Chest/Armour I am using lightning coil to stay as safe as possible from physical attacks. This grouped with taste of hate should keep you safe assuming you play smartly. I find evasion to be in a weak spot considering how hard physical damage hits, so I decided to sacrifice and use a coil over any of the other good unique options. A regular evasion chest is also fine, Carcass Jack, Daresso's etc are all good options. LC is BiS though. Quiver Drill Neck is for the pierce chance and the added damage it gives. It is not necessary though. A rare quiver is fine, but Dneck is BiS. For those of you on perma leagues, Rigwald's Quills will be a very, very good option. It can be better than Dneck at times due to the forking. If you get a +1 arrow quiver, it would be pretty awesome as you will shoot 3 CA's out at once. Boots I prefer rare boots. I don't like blood rage or blood dance on a Caustic Arrow character. I'd rather not waste points on life regen for Blood Rage and I'd rather have life/res/30% ms on by boots. You can use Blood Dance though, I'd just rather not. Helm Rare Helm with res/life/evasion is best Gloves Rare gloves with res/life/evasion is best Rings Rare rings with HP/Res is going to be best here. I am using Ventor's because I am messing around on Standard until Friday. Belt Heavy or leather belt depending on what you need. HP/Res/Flask/Strength if needed is what I go for. Amulet Go for the main stats you need first on the implicit and then get your standard Life/Res/Evasion! UBER ATZIRI
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For Uber Atziri I would probably go the way of hidden potential and crafting some nice blue items. It will give you the highest possible dps while keeping yourself res capped. Lightning Coil will be hard to pull off with that setup. You can do Uber without hidden potential, it just makes it go quicker if you have more dps, which hidden potential offers. Gem Choices
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Caustic Arrow (Poison Arrow) 4L: Concentrated Effect + Void Manipulation (NEW GEM) + Empower Level 4 5L: Pierce 6L: Rapid Decay or Increased AoE Pierce now has a more multiplier, so I would use it more often than I did before. It is an amazing gem that gives more damage than slower projectiles now. Concentrated effect, Void Manipulation, Rapid Decay, Pierce (in 2.2 only) and Slower projectiles all have a multiplicative modifier, hence the wording MORE, and not increased aka additive. Empower will obviously be a huge boon as well. If you do not have empower level 4, do not fret! You can level one in an off-weapon. Level 3 is generally when I start using it. Frenzy 4L: Curse on Hit + Vulnerability + GMP 5L: Chain 6L: Faster Attacks Pretty standard curse on hit setup to get the awesome vulnerability curse up on mobs. Should be standard. Auras Grace + Clarity + Enlighten Pretty standard for a poison arrow build. Grace is needed to give you more evasion and clarity to make life easier. If you can do without Clarity you can run some other aura or arctic armor. It is entirely up to you. CWDT CWDT + Immortal Call + Increased Duration I am using CWDT with immortal call and increeased duration. It WILL save you. Wither I use Wither with Spell Totem with Faster Casting and increased duration because it is a huge damage boost on bosses. Flame Golem Standard as it gets. It gives you increased damage! Currently using it with spell totem in my chest with wither. Vaal Skills Vaal Grace for the defensive aspect. Vaal Lightning trap + Increased duration for OP OP OP shocked ground Blink Arrow Self explanatory, movement skills are nice. Blood Rage Not sure I want to use this, but you can if you want. Frenzy is enough for me and I like having regen as PA/CA. As such, you can use if needed be and I would link with increased duration and faster casting. If you want to go Blood Rage, go for the Scion life regen nodes. Bandits
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Normal: Oak for the HP Cruel: Talent Point Merciless: Kraityn for the Frenzy Charge Videos
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More videos will be posted as time goes on! For my current builds, thoughts and videos. youtube.com/andypistone www.twitch.tv/GrocerySC Last edited by Grocery on Dec 4, 2016, 7:15:57 PM Last bumped on Feb 15, 2017, 3:46:55 AM
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A 2.2 website "online" skill tree is available too - http://exiletools.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwYB
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" Unfortunately it counts the ascendancy nodes as passives and doesn't give you additional passives for the Scion nodes. As such, it gives you 9 less possible talent points. This is what I will be using, but foraying into the jewel node below piercing and the chaos nodes at the shadow start. I might drop some life for the shadow chaos nodes until high 90s. For my current builds, thoughts and videos. youtube.com/andypistone www.twitch.tv/GrocerySC Last edited by Grocery on Feb 29, 2016, 4:56:49 PM
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I don't get why you don't just connect your Scion pathing to the duelist area and get a second ascendancy (occultist).
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" I don't disagree. It is an option and this build will have many of them. Trickster is another good option too. If the player is using Frenzy GMP Chain Vuln then Occultist is VERY good. It is a playstyle thing. I definitely do it quite a bit, so I would heavily consider it. I went ahead and added the Occultist and Trickster options. Again, multiple talent points missing due to the way exiletools works vs the offline planner. Thanks for the heads up! For my current builds, thoughts and videos. youtube.com/andypistone www.twitch.tv/GrocerySC Last edited by Grocery on Feb 29, 2016, 7:36:44 PM
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Hi Grocery, and what about taking "Piercing Shot" nodes, gaining 26% Increased Projectile Damage (106% to 132%), and 50% chance of projectile piercing (50% to 100%). That leave a free socket (assuming that piercing can't give more than 100%), for Slower Projectile. Maybe droping some eva, or life.
Thanks for all :) Ps: Now i'm running a CA build (in a scion) and want to make the build more OP, we all together can make this much better! :)) Pictures talk more than me.
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" You could definitely do that! I don't plan on it YET because I want to see what pierce is at 20/20. If it is only a minor difference, then we don't need to take those nodes. If it is a big difference we will take the nodes and drop pierce for slower proj. Remember that the pierce gem gives a more multiplier now, so we would hit 100% pierce and still get a damage boost. the question is whether the damage boost +4 talent points is better than slower proj! For my current builds, thoughts and videos.
youtube.com/andypistone www.twitch.tv/GrocerySC | |
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Does playing a scion over a ranger bring something actually useful and important?
With the "ascendant-ranger start" build, it takes only 3 points to fully connect the tree. In this case, 3 points don't seem that much of a benefit of that whole split tree thing. With the other builds, you get to the ranger starting point anyway, so you could do the exact same thing as a ranger and work your way backwards towards scion area. So, do you consider the scion ascendancies superior? Deadeye+occultist > pure deadeye? That perma fortify in your duelist build could be extremely good, but here, I can't see what makes this scion version special. | |
" I hope this answer is not too all over the place, sorry if it is. Got a lot of thoughts on this, so thanks for the question! Deadeye with the Scion Ascendancy gives you the 50% projectile piercing (baseline, not based off distance traveled) which can let you get 100% pierce without using the gem and going on the tree for piercingnodes or taking the gem and gaining the 4 points from the tree you would have otherwise taken. This could save you 4 passive points and You keep 100% pierce at all times for your drillneck dps boost. With the Scion to Ranger start option you save 3 points and a 4th if you want to drop master of the arena. The Deadeye/Occultist will give the most damage, Deadeye/Trickster the most balanced and Deadeye to Ranger the most defensive. Scion is about options in my opinion. If you have the currency to go HAM on 3/4 prop jewels you can alter the build a bit and get more jewel slots than any other class. I did not want to put that into a tree because it is specific to players with higher levels of currency that we won't have at the start of the league. That is one of the pros of Scion v Ranger. Further the occultist or trickster mixed with the deadeye is very good. I don't want to paint this as black or white as this is still theoretical and ranger will still be VERY good. Ranger might be better than the Scion to Ranger start, but I don't know for sure on that. Just trying to be honest. I prefer Scion (deadeye/occultist) v Ranger. The duelist with perma-fortify is probably my favorite though. For my current builds, thoughts and videos.
youtube.com/andypistone www.twitch.tv/GrocerySC | |
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I see. Those jewels could be godly, yes. Guess it all comes down to personal preference and playstyle.
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