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

I've been experimenting a bit this league because while playing the build again is a lot of fun, it's boring to feel "done". And while I have plenty of improvements left, upgrades are starting to feel preeety expensive(ult SC)

Last league I invested heavily into life regen to try and fix the rather lacking recovery in the build, but it's a lot of investment for not a lot of return. With veiled mods being as powerful as they are I decided to try out some ED gloves:


The idea is that a lot of what scales CA also scales ED. ED adds a lot of regen and because of our increased skill effect duration it gets to a pretty good duration and feels low maintenance. We also don't lose out on a lot of stats on gloves anyway so the opportunity cost is low. It's not like the build needs massive recovery, but the degens in endgame boss fights can feel pretty harsh.

Now the the setup actually does mostly nothing during mapping, I only bother with it for the map boss. It might as well just be backup gloves that you swap in for endgame bosses. However the difference it makes on boss fights... wow. a single application for me without any wither or anything is 1300 hp/s which is equal to the recovery a lot of leech based builds get and on maven invitations you can often keep a few stacks up which means you'll often be sitting at 3-6k+ hp/s. at 15 wither stacks 1 instance is 2500 hp/s for me.

I went for a tour of endgame content with it and it felt like it completely trivialized the endgame. I did each of the maven invitations rolled to 60%+ quant, maven and A8 Sirus. by the time I got to the feared I was so cocky that I did end up dying once, but it was mostly because I was limit testing and 2 ED stacks ran out while I was trying to tank shaper beam. The feared normally feels somewhat iffy for me on this build because the degens from shaper combined with the synthesis boss means most of the ground is "lava", however sitting on this much regen made moving around the fight feel so much safer.

On top of that it's another 300-600k DPS which isn't really much at all, but considering I only got it for the regen, it feels free. Assuming 100% uptime on both ED and CA then adding ED is adding roughly 15% more dps.

Overall I feel like the investment is fairly low, you spend 4 gem slots and make your gloves somewhat more expensive (but they're not as hard to craft as they might seem). But you don't really end up sacrificing any performance on your main skill. If you're using your chest as a 5link curse on hit setup then I don't really think it fits in though (lvl 21 despair applied with Bane comes out at roughly 10% more damage compared to ring despair on hit effect).

I'm not sure how much I'll continue playing this league, but if I do it'll be to try and hit +2+2 aisling unveil on these gloves.

"

gramz31 wrote:

I have a lvl 81 maraketh bow, but it is hunter influenced. Am I still able to craft on this or do I need it non-influenced. I know the guide says non-influenced but I see a lot of synthesized bows?

Uninfluenced is best because it has a smaller mod pool. When we use "cannot roll attack mods" and slam on +1 to socketed gems it's guaranteed. If you do it on a hunter bow you can roll %increased chaos damage over time, which might seem like a strong mod for us, but it's worse than the alternatives.

Synthesized bows have the same mod pool as regular bows, but just changes the implicit on the bow. Our best bow base is thicket because of the base attack speed, but it comes without an implicit so synthesized bows are the obvious next step.

"

gramz31 wrote:

I have a lvl 81 maraketh bow, but it is hunter influenced. Am I still able to craft on this or do I need it non-influenced. I know the guide says non-influenced but I see a lot of synthesized bows?

Synthesized or fractured items are separate from influenced. The item can only be either influenced or synthesized, not both.

The reason you want non-influenced bow is at the stage of "cannot roll attack modifiers and exalt slam" a non-influenced base has 1 outcome: +1 to socketed gems. Influences can add extra mods to the pool that are not attack mods, but not the +1 you want.

A hunter bow can roll "(60–94)% increased Chaos Damage over Time" as a prefix which is weaker than chaos multiplier in most gear setups, but theoretically it's not end of the world (you could have this mod and +3 from other 2 prefixes). It's much worse with for example elder bows that can roll "gems are supported by onslaught" and basically brick your attempt because it's a useless prefix (raider always has onslaught anyway).

Anyway this bow cannot roll liquefaction (35% dot multi suffix = needs lvl 82), so it's not the best base to craft endgame bow on.

Btw synthesized items only change implicits, they don't add extra mod to prefix / suffix pool. However they replace the implicit item might have, so for example synthesized maraketh bow will no longer have the +10% movespeed implicit, only a new one.

Hey there,

What Bow is better to use out of these 2. Have been away from the game for a while.



And is the rest of my gear still viable? Anything i can upgrade?


Just about to go through and make sure my gems and skill tree are all good.

Cheers.

Hi guys,

More of a general question, sorry if out of place.. But this is the guide thread I use and keep up with. (Its really good BTW thank you!)


Now that I have a few Chaos laying around, would be it worth while to get a Silverbranch for leveling? How far is it realistically useful?



I am still a sadistic SOB so I am learning and dying in HC as I go! I made it to blood aqueducts on my last run and must have got too comfortable because something 1 poped me somehow after sailing through the rest of the run. Tried to move to SC to experience more of the game, but my heart just wasn't in it the same.

Sorry for overall radio silence (once again). Most of the time when i get here questions are already answered so i don't see much reason to repeat same advice.

Right now i'm still playing on and off in SC trade league with my bleed gladiator. Primarly i'm discovering end game content since i didn't do much of it last league. I should hit lvl 100 in near future, it's only a matter of time. Once i get it i might play CA once again in SSFHC.

"

The_Rain_Man wrote:

Spoiler

Hey there,

What Bow is better to use out of these 2. Have been away from the game for a while.

And is the rest of my gear still viable? Anything i can upgrade?

Just about to go through and make sure my gems and skill tree are all good.

Cheers.

Welcome back, i still remember your name. It's been a while since you've been here.

Vicious Projectiles bow is still BiS. You can't obtain it in leagues anymore, so what you have there is a legacy item. Rest of the gear is fine. Of course there's new good gear you can make to get more damage and squeeze more tankiness. I have them in crafting section.

"

Jemmie13 wrote:

Spoiler

Hi guys,

More of a general question, sorry if out of place.. But this is the guide thread I use and keep up with. (Its really good BTW thank you!)


Now that I have a few Chaos laying around, would be it worth while to get a Silverbranch for leveling? How far is it realistically useful?



I am still a sadistic SOB so I am learning and dying in HC as I go! I made it to blood aqueducts on my last run and must have got too comfortable because something 1 poped me somehow after sailing through the rest of the run. Tried to move to SC to experience more of the game, but my heart just wasn't in it the same.

During levelling Silverbranch or any +1 bow gem weapon will give you HUGE amounts of damage. CA scales rapidly during campaign, around 30% more damage per level iirc. It's like another support gem. However it should be at least 4-linked. It makes levelling much easier.

If you're not easily discourage then sticking to HC shouldn't be too much of an issue. I did it the same way, getting further every league and learning over time based on my deaths. If you got to Blood Acqueducts, i'm sure you'll reach maps very soon. I just hope Kitava doesn't get you, it can be very deadly encounter as a first time.

"

During levelling Silverbranch or any +1 bow gem weapon will give you HUGE amounts of damage. CA scales rapidly during campaign, around 30% more damage per level iirc. It's like another support gem. However it should be at least 4-linked. It makes levelling much easier.

If you're not easily discourage then sticking to HC shouldn't be too much of an issue. I did it the same way, getting further every league and learning over time based on my deaths. If you got to Blood Acqueducts, i'm sure you'll reach maps very soon. I just hope Kitava doesn't get you, it can be very deadly encounter as a first time.

I made it to maps for about a day this week! Everything after A5 was pretty smooth sailing until Kit A10 which I managed to skin by.

Then I got caught being too comfortable in a map that had the trial in it and got caught in a nasty trap that I knew I should have not bothered with.

I am going to give it at least one more run. Then next season I may go to SC to really experience more end game. But starting right with HC I think really teaches you how to play "correctly"

The defense of this build is really great mate, i barely get hit by anything. Cleared most of the stuff with some basic items & some clusters. Im looking for a better bow which will greatly benefit me can u help me choose something ?

Hey Danka

if you have time would you try look at my gear to see if theres some places where i can improve i have 27 exaltet atm so i can easily buy something

Hi guys.
I'm kinda burned out with my ED/C Trickster in SSFSC and am really thinking about playing this build. I'm close to migrate all and just start from scratch.
Can you give me your opinions on the difference between those two builds?
How does the damage of CA compare to ED because that is one point a dont like about it.

I dont know I read the ascendancy notes and kinda like the ailment immunity and the phasing and so on. Dont know :D

"

Knvcted wrote:

The defense of this build is really great mate, i barely get hit by anything. Cleared most of the stuff with some basic items & some clusters. Im looking for a better bow which will greatly benefit me can u help me choose something ?

I already suggest a good and easy to craft bow in crafting section. In general bigger upgrades are expensive, so before that maybe you should upgrade your flasks first... Running with no quality white QS flask is just embarassing.

"

Soverak wrote:

Hey Danka

if you have time would you try look at my gear to see if theres some places where i can improve i have 27 exaltet atm so i can easily buy something

I don't really do gear checks anymore plus your character tab is private. I'm certain that if you read guide a bit you will find many upgrades without me telling you.

"

Boerz wrote:

Spoiler

Hi guys.
I'm kinda burned out with my ED/C Trickster in SSFSC and am really thinking about playing this build. I'm close to migrate all and just start from scratch.
Can you give me your opinions on the difference between those two builds?
How does the damage of CA compare to ED because that is one point a dont like about it.

I dont know I read the ascendancy notes and kinda like the ailment immunity and the phasing and so on. Dont know :D

I'm assuming "AzraChaos" is that ED character and i'm going to use it as reference point. Damage should be similar, but also won't require you to channel Blight in order to deal reasonable single target damage. You can use non-harvest gear videos. Damage showcased there can be easily achieved in ssf. Same goes for playstyle, you can easily see how it looks (at least with 3 arrows, might need to update it). ED is better at clearing dense maps which CA should be quicker/similar for anything else.

I don't know what else i can say since all information is all necessary information is already in the guide/videos.