[2.6] Explosive Arrow Pathfinder W/Videos -HC Endgame Mapping, Grandmasters, T16 Guardian Guides

Hello Guys,

Here an update of my previous post,

I've killed the shaper with 2 avoidable deaths on my second try:

- One on Teleport Slam : bad timing for blink arrow, too soon.
- One on "suicide mission" : when the shaper unleash the bullet hell of cold projectiles (aka wiki) I need to activate a vortex ball outside of the zana safe zone.

The change :
- More experience with the shaper
- Use of the flame golem instead of stone golem
- Change the life leech on the AOE bow to a culling strike ( more easier to kill monster from the portal)
- Use of the atziri potion for the more dmg and for leeching a bit.

Screenshot:



I was lucky and looted the Dying sun :D

My stuff:


My tree:



Atlas progression:



Bonus 122/126.

As you can see I miss only 4 maps:

- The Perandus Manor
- The Putrid Cloister
- The Vinktar Square
- Vaal Temple Map

Planned to be done as soon as I have the resources.

If I can reach the 126/126 I'll post a screen here ^^

Again thanks you for this marvelous build / guide dingis!

Cheers!

Has anyone tried using a different ascendancy?

Hello

My Pathfinder is level 80 and followed the passive tree exactly except blood magic (only have few life nodes left to get) because I was worried about life regen and didn't have quill rain (only 5L, im poor) until today to try it out. I dropped blood magic gem in to imitate the passive and my life went down pretty quick. My chest is carcass jack playing softcore.

I tried life leech gem alongside it but didn't help much. I don't have leech gear on my items.. yet. Would it help? as I think most leech would only happen when explosion goes off so my life will still go down.

What would be cheapest way to sort out this issue :)

thanks for tips

"

bubba42124 wrote:

This may have been covered earlier in the thread but I don't know of a way to search just this one forum thread so ill ask it here. For AOE what do people think of Elemental focus of slower projectiles. The standard 5 being EA, GMP, Fire Pent, Less duration, Inc AOE and then either slower proj or Ele focus. I am leaning toward ele focus as there is not really much burn damage for clearing packs. thoughts?

I actually only used inc aoe as a 6link, I would replace that with ele focus if you want to go that route. I put slower proj as one of the standard 5 I guess. Especially if you get dying sun

the aoe burn does help with reflect though. it's really a toss up and I haven't done the math.

"

Has anyone tried using a different ascendancy?

an elementalist a while back. If you're gonna stick with this build, the investment and pay off are better on pathfinder, but ele is easier to start. That movement speed and status immunity Are really hard for me to give up now. But you're fine to go on any other ascendancy, since the core of EA is solid in the end without taking ascenancies into account. Champ, and berserker are pretty decent choices, but I'd take ele over them. I would try berserker in SC for fun though

"

Hello

My Pathfinder is level 80 and followed the passive tree exactly except blood magic (only have few life nodes left to get) because I was worried about life regen and didn't have quill rain (only 5L, im poor) until today to try it out. I dropped blood magic gem in to imitate the passive and my life went down pretty quick. My chest is carcass jack playing softcore.

I tried life leech gem alongside it but didn't help much. I don't have leech gear on my items.. yet. Would it help? as I think most leech would only happen when explosion goes off so my life will still go down.

What would be cheapest way to sort out this issue :)

thanks for tips

the blood magic gem comes with a mana multiplier that's not on the blood magic key stone, and EA's mana cost is one of the biggest in the game already. The blood magic keystone also has the highest life nodes right behind it, At level 80 and with that life you shouldn't have a problem with regen.

Great! Thanks so much for your reply and build I will spec blood magic next level. This is my first char past normal and loving it :D

Hi,

I'm currently lvl 95 and thinking of dropping EE in favour of other stuff:
You could use Xoph's Blood, Veteran Bowyer and Scorching Ray debuff.

So,
- 20% fire pen
- ash debuff
- (clunky) SR debuff

VS.

- EE

I'm mostly interested in dmg vs bosses.

any thoughts or has anyone tried that before?

Your combination would add up to:
20% flat fire pen
20% increased fire damage taken from the Ash debuff - this is basically 20% more damage, but only on enemies that hit you first
24% pen from Scorching Ray - realistically you will never stack this up, takes way too long and probably makes you lose DPS in the end because you're not firing arrows and need to constantly refresh it.

What do you lose from it:
50% fire pen with EE
60% double dipping fire damage from Ngahamu Tiki amulet
Bleeding immunity from Master Surgeon
Gem sockets for Scorching Ray + any supports you add

So basically you will have less fire pen even with maximum Scorching ray debuff that's just a chore to use anyway and you won't have it on trash either. The Ash debuff is nice, but doesn't make up for the previous point and 60% fire damage from Ngahamu Tiki is nothing to scoff at either.
In the end I really doubt it's worth it.

One question - how do you deal with bosses that are 'cannot be ignited' e.g argus? I can take them down but takes 2-3mins at the moment.

Using elemental weakness but doesn't seem to help that much

"

Inkaflare wrote:

Your combination would add up to:
20% flat fire pen
20% increased fire damage taken from the Ash debuff - this is basically 20% more damage, but only on enemies that hit you first
24% pen from Scorching Ray - realistically you will never stack this up, takes way too long and probably makes you lose DPS in the end because you're not firing arrows and need to constantly refresh it.

What do you lose from it:
50% fire pen with EE
60% double dipping fire damage from Ngahamu Tiki amulet
Bleeding immunity from Master Surgeon
Gem sockets for Scorching Ray + any supports you add

So basically you will have less fire pen even with maximum Scorching ray debuff that's just a chore to use anyway and you won't have it on trash either. The Ash debuff is nice, but doesn't make up for the previous point and 60% fire damage from Ngahamu Tiki is nothing to scoff at either.
In the end I really doubt it's worth it.

To add to that, burn damage doesn't benefit from penetration(and probably the ash debuff, I think the taken part of that means a hit not degen, but don't quote me on it), but it will benefit from lowering resistance. prioritizing that over just penetration is better for boss damage over all.



That's generally the weakness of this build.
Argus is about luring him to a wall and using gmp EA for the overlap. it's kinda annoying but that's the quickest way to do it.
Regular atziri is not a problem once you're at good gear.
Phoenix just takes a while.
Uber atziri is not doable unless you're really good at avoiding all damage.

First sorry for bad english.
Can anyone tell me what is wrong with my build. I have a problem with killing a elite not to mention the boss on the mid tier maps