[3.16][HC][ON BREAK] Caustic Arrow Raider, DoT Focused | Tanky | 6k+ Health | All Content | In-depth

My feedback on the build:

It does exactly what it says, it is highly mobile and is super safe, never felt that safe in PoE in a long time, especially in Metamorph League where shooting and running around is a BIG plus to survivability.

It does hit a ceiling in terms of single target (had a really rough time killing a Delve Boss - non Aul - and Guardians are taking a fair amount of time to go down aswell even with pretty good gear) but it clears like a charm. I pushed it to level 94 and T16 maps.

Thanks OP !

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Morgoth2356 wrote:

Spoiler

My feedback on the build:

It does exactly what it says, it is highly mobile and is super safe, never felt that safe in PoE in a long time, especially in Metamorph League where shooting and running around is a BIG plus to survivability.

It does hit a ceiling in terms of single target (had a really rough time killing a Delve Boss - non Aul - and Guardians are taking a fair amount of time to go down aswell even with pretty good gear) but it clears like a charm. I pushed it to level 94 and T16 maps.

Thanks OP !

Yeah it's somewhat hitting a ceiling but that can be pushed quite far with just enough currency. I'm currently sitting on theoretical 1.7m shaper dps. (15 wither stacks, etc), with probably enough headroom for 2m (aspect of the spooder, +2 dot multi amulet, double dot multi quiver) but thats simply not needed, cause it kills anything in reasonable amount of time.

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Vyr75 wrote:

What about killing Sirus with this build?...

Can be done comfortably. Only thing that can kill us are storms and the ground degen. Have 11 kills of which 4 were deathless so far.

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DankawSL wrote:

Spoiler

Unless you show your usage on a video, i won't budge from my opinion. There's not a single case where i see it being useful during combat. It's not like i'm biased. I actually play out the situations in my head and every time i can use the buff, it's always a situation where i won't get hit anyway.

I share your view for mapping purpose, though i like the selfcast for sirus/shaper/(u)elder fights, where it gives a nice speedboost to dodge beam/slams in case flask charges are down, though similar can be done by blinkarrow/flamedash. For mapping i recommend the cwdt version.

I also upgraded to dedicated mapping/bossing weapon swaps and running arrow nova support. Let's me drop the pierce nodes and the extra proj from dying sun is enough to not care for more additional arrows. I also would like to present Kaoms leather belt.

My gear so far, somehow i have hit a wall and cant kill Awakener, i always get to the last phase and thats it lol.
i have around 5.4 k HP and 800 k DPS.
I have a hard time also killing bosses which do Magic skills ....best example would be the erradicator boss.
Anything to improve except to get more HP.

i got a rare maraketh bow with damage over time multi and a lighting damage(prefix) how i get +1 gems to it?

Have anyone tried this build for HC in 3.9 yet? Is it working for metamorph?

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TsunadeSan wrote:

If anyone can be bothered to take a look at my character (Swagnader) thats playing this build and give me a pointer towards my next somewhat big upgrade that I should take, I'd be grateful. Also the build is playing really good and its satisfying being this tanky and strong damage wise on a ranger.

There are watcher's eye jewels that work with our malevolence aura. You can boost damage or get perma bleed immunity (what I did) using that. Empower lvl 4 would be a nice upgrade to damage. I'm saving up for empower 4 currently. Or you can chip away at more damage by finding replacement rings with open prefix/suffix for %damage/%chaos damage rolls. 16% is possible with I think 4 chaos. Belt/amulet swap with damage could work too. 6L gems with quality? Check out my gear on "Landing" to get some ideas. Currently sitting at 6.5k life, 362k resting DoT tooltip and 2.8 second pool duration.

RIP #2 this league scored. As usual it was very, very unfortunate set of events. I have replay recorded this time, but i was talking with my friend and he got recorded as well. Want to remove sound from the video before i upload it. EDIT: Already uploaded:

RIP clip

Full situation recap if you're interested:

One more thing - i really don't want to do gear advices. They always take a lot of time and half of the time i suggest what the guide already says.

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N0cturnaI wrote:

Spoiler

Ty for the great guide, love it

I'm trying to craft a endgame bow. After spending a ton of currenzy I have decided I'm going for +an additional arrow or chaos damage over time instead of both. Have an additional arrow on my quiver. is the third arrow only for clearspeed or is it helpful for boss fights? If is not helpful I will craft chaos damage over time. And how strong is the 30-35% cdot when I pick all cdot notes and get it on my other gear?

thanks for help

Extra arrow give better clear, it's not as big upgrade compared to 1 -> 2 arrows but still very noticable. Also makes getting onslaught on bosses much easier.

Chaos DoT multi is roughly 15-20% more damage. Closer to 15% if you have a lot of it.

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llllHAVOCllll wrote:

Spoiler

Thanks for the build, been having fun with it but I have 1 questions though, would you say using empower is better than damage on full life? seeing how just by not at full life you instantly lose that damage whereas on empower it's more consistent even though at rank 3 it deal a little less damage compare to full life damage.

5% damage is loss is nothing comapared to potential damage loss from DoFL when it's not active. More or less same damage. Empower is also necessary for +2 support gems mod to work.

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NoxKerena wrote:

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My question is... I notice there is Chaos damage Multiplier and Damage over time Multiplier that can show up for bows and quivers... Do you think Damage over time Multiplier > +1 skill level gem?

Non-crafted DoT multipliers are suffixes, +X gems are prefixes. You can have both at the same time. In case you have to choose, +X level is always better in these cases.

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Djohne wrote:

Hey i wanna try this build out you think this build is capable for killing awakener?

You can find multiple people, including a video inside the guide with deathless Sirus.

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Cromi38 wrote:

Hey so if we do all of the crafting where exactly are we gonna go for our resistances?

That's where you need to find the answer yourself. Everything depends on your gear and how good your craft is.

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Galantiz wrote:

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Hey! Just wanted to know, how does this helmet fit to this build in comparison to yours one?. Already have enough of resists.
P.S. I realy enjoy playing this build! Thank you for such monumental work!

Starkonja's is fine for starter, but it's awful in the long run.

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tom333 wrote:

Spoiler

I share your view for mapping purpose, though i like the selfcast for sirus/shaper/(u)elder fights, where it gives a nice speedboost to dodge beam/slams in case flask charges are down, though similar can be done by blinkarrow/flamedash. For mapping i recommend the cwdt version.

I also upgraded to dedicated mapping/bossing weapon swaps and running arrow nova support. Let's me drop the pierce nodes and the extra proj from dying sun is enough to not care for more additional arrows. I also would like to present Kaoms leather belt.

For Sirus in particular i can agree, because you can't attack him freely. That's like one exception, similar how Frost Wall is used against Elder. I had no troubles upkeeping onslaught with any other boss.

Weapon swap is fine if you have two weapons. I don't account for that possibility in the guide tho. I personally dislike Arrow Nova and prefer GMP instead. Arrow Nova feels too inconsistent for me.

This leather belt is something i would personally love to have. Never managed to do so tho, not in trade or SSF.

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KOLACIC1 wrote:

Spoiler

My gear so far, somehow i have hit a wall and cant kill Awakener, i always get to the last phase and thats it lol.
i have around 5.4 k HP and 800 k DPS.
I have a hard time also killing bosses which do Magic skills ....best example would be the erradicator boss.
Anything to improve except to get more HP.

There's only so much money can do this league, and this is not the type of build that allows you to kill bosses quick enough to ignore mechanics. You have to actually learn the fight instead, and the build should allow you to do so as with any other boss.

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Joyobroto wrote:

i got a rare maraketh bow with damage over time multi and a lighting damage(prefix) how i get +1 gems to it?

If those are the only mods on the item, use beastcrafting recipe "Add suffix, remove prefix". Then jump to step 4.

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sinhviencodon wrote:

Have anyone tried this build for HC in 3.9 yet? Is it working for metamorph?

FYI, i'm running this build in SSFHC every league since a year now.

Found something interesting. The +1 to chaos gems does in fact bring my CA from lvl 27-28 with base chaos damage going from 4503-5073. However, this does not translate to increased DoT damage in the tooltip. It stays exactly the same with or without the amulet equipped. Figured I'd share that since it's interesting. Am I missing something?

EDIT: Didn't even submit this post before discovering what the issue was. I had to remove and re-socket the CA gem in my bow to see the damage increase in the tooltip. Cheers.

EDIT EDIT: New development. Looks like you can snapshot the dps boost by swapping to that amulet, replacing CA gem, then swapping back to a dps amulet. The snapshotted tooltip boost reverts back when you load into a new area. Boss fights????

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DankawSL wrote:

Spoiler

RIP #2 this league scored. As usual it was very, very unfortunate set of events. I have replay recorded this time, but i was talking with my friend and he got recorded as well. Want to remove sound from the video before i upload it. EDIT: Already uploaded:

RIP clip

Full situation recap if you're interested:

Spoiler

Metamorph oneshot me from 5,5k hp (i wasn't on full hp due to no-regen map mod). It was T14 Jungle Valley, boss' EK hit me at the very edge of the spell. I already tanked the same spell earlier and it took only 2,5k hp. Kintsugi was up in both cases. What killed me were 2 rares with extra phys and extra sub phys auras, one of them died right after me.

Ways to avoid the death and what went wrong:
* Kill that one rare before i died, would've survived otherwise
* Keep safer distance. Let's be honest, i wasn't focused because i was talking. Basically on auto-pilot.
* Probably not do metamorph in no-regen mod. I usually avoid the mod because it's annoying.
* Could've play it safe and not go for body part. You will see my hesitation in replay.

The big "how can i be so unlucky" part:
The easiest way to avoid this death in particular was to have more damage. Unfortunately i did not have many corroded fossils, so i was wearing +1 bow with +1 arrow for long time and was working on upgrading it to end game bow...

* I had only lvl 20 CA gem, unlucky RNG when vaaling. ~35kk xp away from next set
* My Empower was 14kk xp from reaching level 3. That's ~3-4 maps or so.
* My T3 gem room was ready to corrupt it right away.
* I needed few more Betrayal missions to fight Catarina for +2 support gems mod. Technically i already got them, only had to run it which i intended to do after corrupting Empower.
* In short, i was half an hour from getting massive damage boost.
* I also unveiled Elreon's mod shortly before death (-X mana cost for skills), so i was ready to include Aspect of the Crab in my build (i found 2 beasts!) which would definitely save me.
Deja vu? Exact same thing happened in Legion.
* My friend called me right before i started this particular map.

So yeah, RNG at the worst time possible strikes again. When all stars align, i die. This is my PoE experience in a nutshell. Makes for a great name tbh. I still have plenty of great gear (low on chaos res tho) so i'll try again.

I have also noticed that after completing a map, and I try to spawn a metamorphed boss, the metamorphed boss has a reasonable damage that can kill you which is intended since it is a "Boss League". But what annoys me the most are those spawned mobs encircling the boss which are my usual suspect on some of my unexpected deaths. Although I know that it is avoidable by prepping totem+CA degen+staying away from the spawn area just before it spawns, there are just instances that I almost die to those things instead of the boss. I don't exactly know if that was also part of your RIP#2.

Anyways thanks for the build updates again Dankaw. Don't give up :D

For someone like me who dislikes the totem playstyle and started using and enjoying withering step what would be a recommended substitute for those open 4 gems (instead of the wither setup).
Thanks!

also got this item which is quite nice i think