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

"

Japan wrote:

A stupid question but can this build be played as league starter as a advanced newbie? My mate is looking for a build and this looks good for him

Of course, it's a beginner friendly build. Easy to follow, very cheap, tanky without overkill damage so you can actually learn what bosses do. The only thing my guide doesn't do is teach you how to play the game.

My friend says your build doesnt suck, he plays your glad bleed.. while i try to respec raider and i say your build sucks.

Without wither totems 750k dps goes to 350k. Why? because we arent long neck templars. Aint nobody will cast wither totems versus random map mobs. So mapping is 350k with your op gear sir.

And with mirage archer its even less, though without it mapping would be even more slow.

I want to like this build but im not sure it has enough dps for such new content and bosses and stuff.. :(

"

webas wrote:

i try to respec raider and i say your build sucks.

I don't get this comment cuz the only build I see you having atm is a completely different one, it's a cold hopeshredder barrage build? So how can you say a build sucks if you haven't tried it.

And no, you don't put totems while mapping.

I reached ~2mil+ mapping dps in past leagues on a caustic arrow build which was more than enough for normal mapping, now if you want a 100% delirious t19 farmer then sure, this isn't a build for that. I heard self-poison golden rule assassins are in fashion now after aura stackers got nerfed. Or you'd want maybe self-curse headhunter bladevortex, unless that got nerfed, I'm not sure.

"

DankawSL wrote:

Became a popular unique recently for reasons unknown to me so... here we are.

A lot of trickster and assassin builds were using it since wind dancer was put on the tree. I would imagine it having good synergy with the new Deadeye's wind ward too. Anyway I didn't realize they nerfed the spawn rate of the prophecy, sucks for SSF... For trade league there's always an option to tailor some rare chest with nice mods.

I found 2 questions whether this is bugged atm, but no reply at all:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3017558/page/1#p23782039
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3017928/page/1#p23783021

"

Viktranka wrote:

A lot of trickster and assassin builds were using it since wind dancer was put on the tree. I would imagine it having good synergy with the new Deadeye's wind ward too. Anyway I didn't realize they nerfed the spawn rate of the prophecy, sucks for SSF... For trade league there's always an option to tailor some rare chest with nice mods.

Yup i was using it on my trickster as well, its op with Wind Dancer.
Didnt know drop rate of prophecy was nerfed either, that sucks... I didnt see it for myself yet either and im spamming prophecies whenever i have coins.

great build thank you, also harvest can reroll suffixes in +3 bow so it gets insanely good

"

SpeedyMN wrote:

great build thank you, also harvest can reroll suffixes in +3 bow so it gets insanely good

How do you do that?

"

webas wrote:

Spoiler

My friend says your build doesnt suck, he plays your glad bleed.. while i try to respec raider and i say your build sucks.

Without wither totems 750k dps goes to 350k. Why? because we arent long neck templars. Aint nobody will cast wither totems versus random map mobs. So mapping is 350k with your op gear sir.

And with mirage archer its even less, though without it mapping would be even more slow.

I want to like this build but im not sure it has enough dps for such new content and bosses and stuff.. :(

I can see right away that this build is not for you. If you don't have patience to at least look up video before posting or do any bit of research, i doubt you'll like performance against bosses.

To clear some things up - I don't think any experienced player is insane enough to claim that bow which costs ~1-2ex in crafting materials and rest being life and resistance gear to be "OP gear". Kintsugi is excluded since prophecy is bugged according to some people so prices skyrocket this league. Damage output is enough to kill everything that's not a boss or rare almost instantly in high tier maps, no Wither Totem/Despair required.

Mirage Archer is so slow it barely boost clear speed. It's honestly close to useless for this build.

Of course build should be able to handle new content. As long as you can survive, nothing should be problematic.

"

Viktranka wrote:

Spoiler

A lot of trickster and assassin builds were using it since wind dancer was put on the tree. I would imagine it having good synergy with the new Deadeye's wind ward too. Anyway I didn't realize they nerfed the spawn rate of the prophecy, sucks for SSF... For trade league there's always an option to tailor some rare chest with nice mods.

I found 2 questions whether this is bugged atm, but no reply at all:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3017558/page/1#p23782039
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3017928/page/1#p23783021

Drop rate being reduced was my guess, not the first time GGG adjusted rarity without saying anything. Ryslatha's Coil that i used in my bleed build since before the buffs used to be a common unique and now it's close to Shav's / Kaom's rarity. Bugged prophecy is another good explaination for ridiculous prices.

I'm aware that Wind Dancer boosted Kintsugi's popularity. I know Octavian was spreading the word back in 3.7 how good it is (while i adviced to use Divine Flesh). However there's something i cannot understand no matter how i try:

Why Kintsugi suddenly became amazing only because of Wind Dancer? It's not like Kintsugi suddenly offers more protection than before, both stats are multiplicative. If your build had at least those 6k life and good avoidance, then Kintsugi already mitigated majority of oneshots.

I think i already know what the answer is going to be but i still want to hear it.

"

SpeedyMN wrote:

great build thank you, also harvest can reroll suffixes in +3 bow so it gets insanely good

There's a lot of things Harvest can do, if i were to list them all i would run out of 50k character limit very, very fast. Not to mention how much confusion it would cause to people who aren't very advanced in crafting.

I am at awakening 7, almost 8. Did two sirus, maven pure breach lords, guardians and I am flying in t16.

I really appreciate the depth of your guide. Everytime I would think about a different armor, skill or item the guide had it.

I understood the layers of defense and how the damage work.

Your guide clearly explained the tradeoffs and how to get for instance Pierce in different places.

Thanks to your guide I did my first two bows myself, this is a first for a league starter.

I am very thankful for this guide. I learned a lot and I am having a ton of fun with it.

One suggestion would be to consider a medium ring thread of hope near golems blood so you can get endurance charges and frenzy charges on kill and save a ton of skill points.

Something that also helped a lot to me before I had bonkers dps is to have vitality online for bosses. They have way more life and the flasks can empty if you are bad like me.

I am a softcore player that don't even read the map mods and I'm almost lv 95. This is a very impressive build that carries me all the way.

BTW delve is soooo easy with this.

Thanks again for the build mate, it is perfect for me.

"

DankawSL wrote:

Why Kintsugi suddenly became amazing only because of Wind Dancer? It's not like Kintsugi suddenly offers more protection than before, both stats are multiplicative. If your build had at least those 6k life and good avoidance, then Kintsugi already mitigated majority of oneshots.

I think i already know what the answer is going to be but i still want to hear it.

I'm not an oracle but usual reasons for something skyrocketing in price is X famous streamer made a build with Y item and 10,000 copy pasta players followed.

Same happened with Vertex helmet, it was a mega cheap good ES helmet I used on my Occultist at some point then 2 Trickster builds started recommending it, got popular, it skyrocketed in price. Same with Devoto in Legion because someone made cyclone build with it, and recently since Trickster got nerfed, Remi's Toxic Rain Pathfinder jumped in popularity and it recommends Devoto so here we are. Same happened with Storm's Secret ring (w/e the name of the Herald of Thunder one), it was cheap until someone was like "look at my autobomber video" and then everyone followed. Or last season the Minotaur's chest when carrion golem Elementalist was a thing and specific guide recommended that chest.

It's kinda like 1,5 years ago I told someone if he wanna play with armor (iron reflexes) and phase acro he can use perfect form, that was before thread of hope existed, that build got decently popular and used that perfect form to this day even though there are maybe other options, and then another guy literally copied that build together with that perfect form without even asking.


Most softcore players don't have 6k life though so I would assume Kintsugi alone wouldn't be noticeable but when someone thinks they can get reduced a hit in half that suddenly looks "big" at least on paper.

Btw while talking about chests the new maven drop seems kinda weird, doesn't have many things on it, but the things it has seem quite potent. I dunno what to think of it: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Doppelg%C3%A4nger_Guise
Probably won't try it because I tend to never play crit builds... Even though I played with weird chest options like Perfect Form, Cherrubim, Sporeguard and the Craiceann one.
Is 25% phys and chaos reduction worth losing a chest slot, assuming price isn't a problem (it probably is, but anyway)?

"

DankawSL wrote:

Why Kintsugi suddenly became amazing only because of Wind Dancer? It's not like Kintsugi suddenly offers more protection than before, both stats are multiplicative. If your build had at least those 6k life and good avoidance, then Kintsugi already mitigated majority of oneshots.

I think i already know what the answer is going to be but i still want to hear it.

As a Sabo who relied on evasion/dodge, Kintsugi was always an amazing option and I've always seen in evasion/dodge related builds. I remember back in Blight I used it when Wind Dancer was on a Timeless jewel even. I don't know if Deadly Rivalries got nerfed, but I got 5 in about 200-300 coins.


As for the build it has crazy disgusting map clear in my experience. Even grouping up with 5 other people rolling a Witchbrew plus Dying Sun and you just watch whole screens melt after a few seconds. For virtually 99% of the game content it feels just amazing, speedy and all around great.

My biggest issue has been boss dps. When you get to higher end such as Maven T16 bosses or even Conqs it's just surprisingly slow. The Maven heals outpace the Caustic dot in most cases. Being able to land Wither basically makes or breaks your damage and anything with heavy AOE obliterates the totems so fast I feel way more like a totem build than I do a bow or dot build. Looking at alternative builds I felt a bit better (saw the Pathfinder Toxic Rain Phoenix clear and it's about the same speed as this one) but I still am unsure about this build with such a boss heavy new atlas mechanic. The good news at least is the defenses are on point and you do feel incredibly tanky at evasion and near dodge cap and huge damage mitigation on hits.