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

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Going with this build right now and highly disappointed in damage. I have a +3 5L bow and my damage to a tier 2 map boss is so shiet i could say im struggling. I know I have a lot room for improvement, but tier 2 boss, come on. With curse and wither stacks. +3 is very close to an ultimate weapon, I thought I could at least clear the low tier map bosses efficiently.

You don't follow the levelling tree to closely. You should have ~32k tooltip dps right now while your current setup has ~24k. Your CA gem level is still only lvl 17, Wither Totem isn't at it's full strength yet (max 10 stacks atm). Despair is low level as well. I don't see Frenzy setup yet either, so there's high chance that you don't have charges up against bosses (~21k dps).

That being said, this build doesn't have insane amount of single target DPS (as mentioned in cons) and Raider has a little bit of rocky start at the beginning compared to other classes that gain %increased damage. As you progress, you will gain the damage necessary to kill everything quickly as you can see on videos.

I'm leveling this build somewhat twinked to see how its progress at the end of Delve league.

I cannot find in your guide what you want to do with bandits.

Did I somehow miss it? I'm old so that's possible.

Hope i'm not too late. Passive tree section includes bandits:

Bandit Reward: Oak (recommended) OR 2 passive points

Adding that info to levelling guide is not a bad idea. I should've done that earlier tbh.

Oops - I picked Alira just because I was there.

When I do this as League Starter I'll pick Oak.

Thank you!

So I've been using this build for the last 10-ish days and I'm enjoying it immensely.

It's only my 2nd league (1st one being Harbinger a while back) and it really allow me to get back into the game painlessly. It was probably a bit easier than standard considering not only I've joined months into a league but since I've found Tabula and 2 exalts before level 70 I was able to quite easily gear up initially and it snowballed from there.

I've been sticking to the recommended tree for the most part with some tests here and there when I felt like it, but ended up pretty close to what your level 90+ tree is (just with 2 jawels, but without Skill Effect Duration nodes.

Only big differences are using Queen of the Forest over Kintsugi (I don't play HC and haven't die in good 20 levels, so I didn't feel like the defensive bits were worth it in comparison) and the fact that I'm still using Mirage Archer. I kinda like it in Delve to help me with things that get on my ass while I'm shooting elsewhere or in situations when I'm forced to kite more than Id want to - this way I can stand and do a shot once every few seconds while still getting Caustic Ground while running around. I'll probably switch it soon enough by adding either Concentrated Effect or Damage on Full Life and removing Swift Affliction for it, but I have trouble deciding which one should I go (blue or red).

Oh and QotF'd reses allowed me to go quite heavily into MF while remaining pretty tanky still (over 6k albeit with -60% chaos res) which in turn got me pretty rich, especially considering how inexperienced I am and the fact that I've only played for less than 2 weeks.

I'm not all that far content-wise, those since I play self-imposed SSF when it comes to maps so I've only reached tier 10 and am only approaching depth 200 in delve.

Since I'm kinda overgeared for the content I'm doing I haven't had the drive to upgrade those last few days, but if you were so kinda and point some points where I should improve I'd be even more thankful that I already am! I was thinking: better AS bow, some decent res/life boots and using that leeway (probably along with upgrading that shitty Ventor's Gamble)to put on abyssal gloves or helmet (prolly gloves, since that int on helmet is pretty damn nice). Maybe getting a belt with those flask utility mods, since I kinda feel lack of those.

Either way once again thanks for both the build and a very detaild and informative guide - it made (re)learning PoE a breeze!


Edit: one more thing - how exactly does the Wither/Despair work with one-another? I was under the impression that you can only inflict one curse, but eemies seem to retain those Wither blue balls around them even when cursed with Despair. or am I seeing it wrong?

Hey, i'm glad you're enjoying the build so far. You've made quite big progress considering the long break.

Your gear is great, MFing setup also good. Kintsugi isn't necessary for SC or until red maps so you're generally fine. Your damage also outscales the content you're running so Mirage Archer is also OK (but i still prefer GMP).

What i would do right now is:

#1 - Replace jewel in duelist starting area with The Green Dream/Nightmare and respec into onslaught path. Your current gloves are nuts and it would be shame to replace them.

#2 - Flask changes (as usual). Reduced flask charges used on Jade flask, it should solve your problems with flask uptime entirely. Considering your current flask setup, once you respec to onslaught you'll be at ~94% evade chance so Watcher's Eye won't be necessary.

#3 - Use level 20 gem -> lvl 1 gem 20% quality recipe on your gems. It's going to pay off in the long run. After ~2-3 hours of farming you'll be back to your old dps values.

#4 - Due to your MF gear you have problems getting 155 intelligence. I think capping Wither at level 13 and Despair at level 11 might help you (numbers aren't random). 38 int less required.

#5 - After you do all previous points, i would craft/buy a better bow. Normal or elder influenced one, depending on your budget.

#6 - Besides those... I guess helmet with CA enchantment would be great. Conc Effect as 6th gem is probably better choice because you already have +1 arrow quiver.

Everything else gear wise is fine, really. It's all about min-maxing at this point, depending on preferences. As for your question, Despair is a curse and Wither is a stacking debuff. Both can be applied on an enemy simultaneously.

One more thing, there's a chance you're not using Div Distillate properly. The MF and 4% resist part stops the moment your mana is full. With low AS bow and 20% quality on the flask, the mana might be filling up to fast. Just keep an eye on that.

Thanks a lot for such a detailed reply. Allow me to reply/ask for clarifications point by point:

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#1 - Replace jewel in duelist starting area with The Green Dream/Nightmare and respec into onslaught path. Your current gloves are nuts and it would be shame to replace them.

So while all the other bits of the build seemed easy enough to understand and pretty self-evident once explained I'm at a loss what the point of The Green Nightmare/Dream is here. It wouldn't have any res nodes around it so I guess it's not for Frenzy Charge generation which leaves that 5% Cold To Chaos. How exactly would that work? Even if we dealt any reasonable cold damage (but we don't, right?) wouldn't that 5% be applied to just attack skills? I'm so confused.

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#2 - Flask changes (as usual). Reduced flask charges used on Jade flask, it should solve your problems with flask uptime entirely. Considering your current flask setup, once you respec to onslaught you'll be at ~94% evade chance so Watcher's Eye won't be necessary.

To be honest the flash issue is mostly of my own making. I used to run like 2 strong flask utility mods for hours upon hours and I got in a habit of playing piano on my 1-4 keys. I'm working on getting back into a habit of drinking responsibly.


Anyway - once again thanks a lot for taking the time! Have a good one!

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#3 - Use level 20 gem -> lvl 1 gem 20% quality recipe on your gems. It's going to pay off in the long run. After ~2-3 hours of farming you'll be back to your old dps values.

Damn, I can't believe I haven't though of it before, since I used it for all my CA things already and the temporary losses in efficiency are indeed negligible considering my gear/content ratio. Great tip!

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#4 - Due to your MF gear you have problems getting 155 intelligence. I think capping Wither at level 13 and Despair at level 11 might help you (numbers aren't random). 38 int less required.

I mean, that helm I have is good enough either way right? So the only int thing I would consider axing is that one jewel. Shouldn't I go for that next jewel slot up top with 2*10 int leading to it anyway? That would cap me no problem.

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#5 - After you do all previous points, i would craft/buy a better bow. Normal or elder influenced one, depending on your budget.

Yeah, the bow was one of the first things I got and since it cost like 60c for 6L I just went with it despite it's AS shortcomings. I have just over 10ex cash atm, so idk what should I go for - I'm still pretty clueless crafting-wise, just only working on what to vendor/what to sell/that to vaal skills, with actually making things coming up next on my to-do list. Any specific things you;d suggest on top what is written in the guide?

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As for your question, Despair is a curse and Wither is a stacking debuff. Both can be applied on an enemy simultaneously

Gotcha! I could have sworn I triple checked it and Wither had a "Curse" keyword there, but evidently it does not. Huh.

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One more thing, there's a chance you're not using Div Distillate properly. The MF and 4% resist part stops the moment your mana is full. With low AS bow and 20% quality on the flask, the mana might be filling up to fast. Just keep an eye on that.

O yeah, I do know that, but keeping it up, especially on the move like in delve corridors and running through maps is a struggle. Adding quality to it was a bit of a mistake as I was just maxing it on all the flasks and assumed it will affect duration. It was at 20% before I realized by mistake. That being said I don't notice it becoming any more difficult to manage - it's about as shitty. And speaking of DD - does it work on things such as delve chests, lab troves etc? As in should I keep attempting to burn some mana, pop it and only then open those?

Excellent guide. Hard work.
One thing is confusing for me. On some levelling passive trees you have allocated Heavy Draw passive, but Deadly Draw on others. Which is better? Or should I finally take both?
Thanks for that guide :)

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Emnelrith wrote:

Spoiler

Thanks a lot for such a detailed reply. Allow me to reply/ask for clarifications point by point:

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#1 - Replace jewel in duelist starting area with The Green Dream/Nightmare and respec into onslaught path. Your current gloves are nuts and it would be shame to replace them.

So while all the other bits of the build seemed easy enough to understand and pretty self-evident once explained I'm at a loss what the point of The Green Nightmare/Dream is here. It wouldn't have any res nodes around it so I guess it's not for Frenzy Charge generation which leaves that 5% Cold To Chaos. How exactly would that work? Even if we dealt any reasonable cold damage (but we don't, right?) wouldn't that 5% be applied to just attack skills? I'm so confused.

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#2 - Flask changes (as usual). Reduced flask charges used on Jade flask, it should solve your problems with flask uptime entirely. Considering your current flask setup, once you respec to onslaught you'll be at ~94% evade chance so Watcher's Eye won't be necessary.

To be honest the flash issue is mostly of my own making. I used to run like 2 strong flask utility mods for hours upon hours and I got in a habit of playing piano on my 1-4 keys. I'm working on getting back into a habit of drinking responsibly.


Anyway - once again thanks a lot for taking the time! Have a good one!

"

#3 - Use level 20 gem -> lvl 1 gem 20% quality recipe on your gems. It's going to pay off in the long run. After ~2-3 hours of farming you'll be back to your old dps values.

Damn, I can't believe I haven't though of it before, since I used it for all my CA things already and the temporary losses in efficiency are indeed negligible considering my gear/content ratio. Great tip!

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#4 - Due to your MF gear you have problems getting 155 intelligence. I think capping Wither at level 13 and Despair at level 11 might help you (numbers aren't random). 38 int less required.

I mean, that helm I have is good enough either way right? So the only int thing I would consider axing is that one jewel. Shouldn't I go for that next jewel slot up top with 2*10 int leading to it anyway? That would cap me no problem.

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#5 - After you do all previous points, i would craft/buy a better bow. Normal or elder influenced one, depending on your budget.

Yeah, the bow was one of the first things I got and since it cost like 60c for 6L I just went with it despite it's AS shortcomings. I have just over 10ex cash atm, so idk what should I go for - I'm still pretty clueless crafting-wise, just only working on what to vendor/what to sell/that to vaal skills, with actually making things coming up next on my to-do list. Any specific things you;d suggest on top what is written in the guide?

"

As for your question, Despair is a curse and Wither is a stacking debuff. Both can be applied on an enemy simultaneously

Gotcha! I could have sworn I triple checked it and Wither had a "Curse" keyword there, but evidently it does not. Huh.

"

One more thing, there's a chance you're not using Div Distillate properly. The MF and 4% resist part stops the moment your mana is full. With low AS bow and 20% quality on the flask, the mana might be filling up to fast. Just keep an eye on that.

O yeah, I do know that, but keeping it up, especially on the move like in delve corridors and running through maps is a struggle. Adding quality to it was a bit of a mistake as I was just maxing it on all the flasks and assumed it will affect duration. It was at 20% before I realized by mistake. That being said I don't notice it becoming any more difficult to manage - it's about as shitty. And speaking of DD - does it work on things such as delve chests, lab troves etc? As in should I keep attempting to burn some mana, pop it and only then open those?

I meant this jewel slot, there's 18% all resistances on the right. You don't need to allocate the points to gain the benefits. It's for frenzy charge generation obviously.

Flasks - i also spam them way too often (mostly because of Div Distillate), but i never had any issues with my setup. Not even in 50% reduced flask charges maps. Druidic Route, Primal Spirit and reduced charges on flasks allow for A LOT of mistakes.

Intelligence - that's what i had in mind, that jewel just... feels like a wasted potential. Would be awesome to replace it and since you're going to relevel the gems, it's a perfect opportunity. Shadow's jewel slot is also a great option.

Bow - With 10ex i would invest into elder bow tbh. There are few cheap +3 7-links with ~1,5 AS that were put on sale recently. Some are corrupted with wrong colors, but you can bypass that with Vorici 8.

Div Distillate - just wanted to be sure you actually know how it works. With low attack speed it can be hard maintain it sometimes. To your question, nope. IIQ/IIR that player has doesn't work on chests, only monsters. IIQ/IIR from map works on everything tho.

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welniax wrote:

Excellent guide. Hard work.
One thing is confusing for me. On some levelling passive trees you have allocated Heavy Draw passive, but Deadly Draw on others. Which is better? Or should I finally take both?
Thanks for that guide :)

Heavy Draw for CA in general and Deadly Draw for TR levelling. The latter scales with attack speed and that node not only is better for damage but also makes shooting arrows much smoother.

Heavy Draw is final destination regardless (level 71, after respec).

December 1st, 2018
General:
* Fixed few typos i've found

FAQ:
* Added new question: "How about additional Toxic Rain setup?"
* Rewritten "How about Mirage Archer?" to be easier to understand.
* Changed "How about scaling Herald of Agony minion?" to reflect my current view on it. No longer gives instructions how to include it in build since it's definitely not worth it.

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Betrayal is now one week away and GGG shared some interesting info today. First is Multiple Totems support that's definitely going to replace Faster Casting in Wither Totem setup. Still waiting for full patch notes before doing changes tho.

The second is introduction of new additive multiplier for cold and chaos DoTs. It's going to appear on passive tree and gear as well, so there's very high chance that build's main passive tree is going to change as well. If not, then i bet that new optional one appears. Overall seems like a buff primarly for classic build than CA only.

Commenting on today's changes, i've went ahead and added a question that i'm sure is going to appear next league. Also slightly changed two other questions that i wasn't happy with.