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

To be honest. Instead of mirage archer i took chain hit its kinda working better for me than with mirage archer.

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seventhaxis wrote:

I continued using it on the assumption that it was helpful to have the accuracy reduction, but I was also assuming that I missed something integral to bump my evade chance. I'm only at 55% when not using Vaal Grace or flasks. Any ideas why it seems to be so low? Or maybe it's not and I'm misunderstanding the evade cap/mechanics.

You're only meant to be capped with the flask (jade of reflexes) and with 30% bonus from avatar of the chase. I have no idea whether this shows on in game spreadsheet, you can check it on pob by ticking the flask and "do you have onslaught".

Yea, banner is just to increase your evasion you never put it down because generosity disables buff from put down banner.

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CodenameTanchi wrote:

To be honest. Instead of mirage archer i took chain hit its kinda working better for me than with mirage archer.

Tbh I'm not sure why would you use mirage archer in the first place, using arrow nova or gmp could increase your clear if you need to, or any other gem that increases clear (chain, pierce, etc.) I only ever used mirage archer when I played toxic rain.

Most of you guys might not know but i also have guide for Blight league mechanic. GGG made some changes to towers this patch and i obviously shared my thoughts right away. I finally started testing them a bit and so far my predictions are on point. Yesterday i checked out utility towers and results are hilarious and broken. KILL THEM WITH UTILITY. It only takes 650 points to completely stunlock whole lane. (Empower 3 + Seismic 1)

Great example of strength of both towers

I don't know who was in charge of these changes but currently seismic tower completely trivializes the content. It already did before but you couldn't fully stunlock enemies. Now you get it by default.

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Moridin79 wrote:

Spoiler

^^^ I couldn't disagree more. I'm finding post patch much more enjoyable. The killing of mobs being discouraged in a game like this makes absolutely no sense. Kiting overtuned mobs away from interrupting your rogues was beyond annoying.

Loving the build though, having a lot of fun with it. Thanks for the guide.

You're free to hold that opinion. I know plenty people like it, majority of people in fact. HOWEVER. I dare to say it's objectively worse decision for all. Let me explain:

#1 - Obviously people who liked mechanic suffer due to this change. It's still a large portion of playerbase. I think it's mostly people who lean towards hardcore and like taking risks.

#2 - You're happy about the change, but in the long run it doesn't matter for you. Heists were already trivial if you bothered levelling your crew and gave them gear. Increasing gear drop rates alone would likely solve all your issues with alert level. You wouldn't be able to loot EVERYTHING but a good chunk of it.

#3 - GGG is already on it's way to rebalance alert level from opening chests. After recent change you can open basically everything, so it's natural response to this. Alert level reductions from different sources being multiplicative already suggests you won't be able to take everything without investment. If you liked picking everything, you're going to be unhappy... again.

#4 - So who actually benefits from this change? Maybe newbies and necromancers. If you only hated alert level raising from guards, i guess you're gonna like it too. Based on that i bet there's more people who are hurt by this move than not.

These changes feel mostly like an attempt to prevent people who hate alert mechanic from dropping the league, at cost of enjoyment of majority of people who'll still play regardless.

To note: this change is likely in GGG's favour since more people playing = more money. What i meant is that i estimate more people are impacted by this negatively than positively, therefore worse. Plus it absolutely makes mechanic lose it's charm.

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Lord_Banshee wrote:

Spoiler

Managed to farm enough chaos in a few Heists to nab a 6L Null's Inclination.
Am also using, since I need 212 Int to run it, Soulrend (another Chaos Duration Projectile) linked up with Greater Volley Support. If anything, it's humorous watching 5 parallel lines of death lance forth, especially since I hooked up the Hextouch Despair duo to it. Works wonders down all the corridors we face.

My question is: "Are the packets of CA DoT different and stacking to the Soulrend DoT, or do they interact with the other?" I just wanted something else while I'm waiting to refresh the CA, and Soulrend looked like it would scale much better than the Ice Shot I was using. I'm about 1/3 thru Act 9 (level 67) and at 40k DoT dps with CA and 5700 DoT dps with Soulrend.

Managed to catch a Tabala Rasa drop, and cashed that in for my Kintsugi. 86% Evade chance with Jade Flask. Happy newbie, but need more to cap.

Still using Frenzy, and am experimenting with Poison Support with it.
Also use two of these in the 4L (so far) Kintsugi: Arrow Nova, Barrage Support, Mirage Archer. AN+MA gives me a 5-point star-burst and a friend. AN+BS gives me a pair of 7-point star-bursts. MA+BS is the classic, submachine-gun Heist setup, with "my little friend", focused and decent for bossing. If I'm facing nothing but small mobs, I might swap in Void Sphere for the lulz.

Yep, still have the Wither Totem, but not using the Multiple Totems as I need space for these Soulrend shenanigans and I usually bring two Siege Ballistas to draw aggro and fire down corridors anyways.

She is a delight to play.

I really don't know to say to this. To answer your question - yes, Soulrend and CA stacks, they both deal damage at the same time.

You can go on right with your intriguing setup but i can assure you that you'll encounter problems very soon, around yellow maps. Having more things doesn't equal significantly more damage. You're currently crippling yourself.

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HeronLinn wrote:

How can dread banner+generosity trigger wind dancer?

I never said it triggers Wind Dancer. It allows to cap evade chance against monsters on screen despite 40% less evasion rating from that Keystone.

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seventhaxis wrote:

Spoiler

I also have this question and I PMd the OP asking for help understanding. I'm probably doing something wrong, but I don't see any benefit in my character sheet when placing a banner that has just been through hordes of monsters. I made sure to only have it hooked up to Generosity, as the guide says too.

Any help from anyone is greatly appreciated.

I much prefer to answer on forums, so everyone else can see it and maybe someone else helps before i do.

Dread Banner is not reflected on character sheet, same goes for 30% more evade chance from onslaught. You wear it ALL the time and never place it. If you want to see it's AoE, then place it on ground with 0 stacks. Generosity increases AoE and effect of accuracy debuff aura. Atm you need roughly ~65% evade chance on character sheet with Dread Banner + Generosity at 20/20 gems. But the more evasion the better since monsters on the very edge of the screen and outside of it might be unaffected by Dread Banner.

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Tetrad wrote:

Spoiler

If you read the Leveling and Progression > Mapping Progression > Red Maps > it says "Wind Dancer should only be used when combined with Dread Banner - Generosity combo to maintain 95% evade during mapping."

The only benefit you get from dread banner when linked by generosity is the "Nearby Enemies have (15-21)% less Accuracy Rating".

Having a Dread Banner - Generosity combo only reserves 10% unlike Flesh and Stone which is 25%, this will give you more room to reserve Malevolence, Clarity@Lv10, Dread Banner and Aspect of the Crab for endgame/min maxing.

With the combination of Raider Ascendancy + Vaal Grace, you'll be Attack and Spell dodge cap @75%.

With the combination of Raider Ascendancy + Dread Banner - Generosity + Wind Dancer, you will be Evade Cap @95%. (i don't think you can see this in-game but only in PoB if im right)

There is also a synergy between Wind Dancer + Kintsugi for a total of "40% less Damage taken if you haven't been Hit Recently".

In short, you are stacking multiple defensive layers (Atk&DodgeCap/EvadeCap/PhysReducCrabBarriers) as you progress, making this build tanky.

Hope this helps :)
PM @DankawSL or @Viktranka to confirm this correctly, haven't played for months, I might miss some updates.

Glad to know you're still you're still here! I'll send you that PM with a list you asked.

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seventhaxis wrote:

Spoiler

Very helpful, thank you! I continued using it on the assumption that it was helpful to have the accuracy reduction, but I was also assuming that I missed something integral to bump my evade chance. I'm only at 55% when not using Vaal Grace or flasks. Any ideas why it seems to be so low? Or maybe it's not and I'm misunderstanding the evade cap/mechanics.

Passive Skill Tree

Current Gear

I don't do gear checks as a rule, because all necessary info is already in the guide. I will only tell you that evade chance is the least of your problems.

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CodenameTanchi wrote:

To be honest. Instead of mirage archer i took chain hit its kinda working better for me than with mirage archer.

But... i don't even suggest Mirage Archer outside of levelling. It's linked with Toxic Rain which doesn't even work with chain.

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DankawSL wrote:

I don't know who was in charge of these changes but currently seismic tower completely trivializes the content. It already did before but you couldn't fully stunlock enemies. Now you get it by default.

I heard the lightning tower is blasting after the buffs, is it stronger than the old strat of spamming meteor towers?

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Viktranka wrote:

I heard the lightning tower is blasting after the buffs, is it stronger than the old strat of spamming meteor towers?

Meteor spam was never truly good. It leaked plenty of monsters due to targeting. People are just lazy. Arc tower was always supreme to Meteor as an all purpose tower. It's the best clearing tower and was capable of clearing up to 6 lanes by itself, no leaks. Single target was decent, pair it with Seismic/Chilling Tower and you can kill bosses too. People now only discover how good Arc tower truly is, always has been.

Currently Seismic is so broken you simply place it, then just add Meteor/Arc and you're good to go. If you have phys immune enemies you place Arc and Chilling tower because they're reliable. Everything supported with Empowering III tower.

If anything this patch broke balance for blight towers. Everything that was already good is now just straight broken.

Thank you for your kindness in responding.
Yeah, I know what I'm trying is suboptimal; I wanted to see if I can drape more Despair quicker in big mob parties.
Once the waves of Conquerors appear, then it's time to jettison the toys and go with what we know works.
Got my CoDT-Steelskin all ready. Got Multiple Totems, Dread Banner, Generosity and Vaal Blight in bank. Just caught an 18% Vaal Grace. Currently cooking Malevolence. Also, a pair of CAs for when it's time to upgrade them. Once I start crafting a +3 bow, then it's serious bizniz. :)

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DankawSL wrote:

Glad to know you're still you're still here! I'll send you that PM with a list you asked.

Yea im just reading forums/watching poe highlights recently just to fill the void of missing this game.

Looking forward for the list :) and thanks again Dan.

Hey guys, apologies if this has already been answered somewhere...

I get that the premise of the build was HC and SSF viable, but I was curious what the higher end items would look like for this build if anyone has a decked out character they can share with me? Thinking about if we would want to cluster, get other prime stats. Haven't ever made a Caustic Arrow build so I'm a little fuzzy on what actual stats would go towards upping the dps without losing too much survivability.

The biggest upgrade I already know would be getting a double DoT 1/2 bow. Maybe amulet we would also get +dex/+chaos or whatever the combo we can get is. Not sure about the rest of the gear though

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jsuslak313 wrote:

Hey guys, apologies if this has already been answered somewhere...

I get that the premise of the build was HC and SSF viable, but I was curious what the higher end items would look like for this build if anyone has a decked out character they can share with me? Thinking about if we would want to cluster, get other prime stats. Haven't ever made a Caustic Arrow build so I'm a little fuzzy on what actual stats would go towards upping the dps without losing too much survivability.

The biggest upgrade I already know would be getting a double DoT 1/2 bow. Maybe amulet we would also get +dex/+chaos or whatever the combo we can get is. Not sure about the rest of the gear though

Look at the crafting section in the guide for the "endgame bow" "hunter amulet" "hunter quiver" and a few other items that would be chase items to craft once you have the mats and have been farming end game for a while. You can look at my level 100 raider on standard if you want as well, but I did sway away from this guide a bit in some sub-optimal ways due to personal preference, so keep that in mind and follow the guide not my passive tree and gems.

got it thanks!