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

Hi

First thanks a lot for the guide, for a new player like me it was really super easy to follow and I learned a lot about the game while playing it.

Overall I really love the build, the phasing, movement speed and general tankiness makes it super enjoyable to play. Another great advantage of this build is the fact that you're not locked up in place while dpsing which makes it super fun to play vs bosses. This is my first league and I've done every guardian / red elder guardian / shaper / red elder deathless. I died a few times on Uber Elder so I called someone for help because I was scared I wouldn't be able to do it, but that's just because it was my first and I was struggling with mechanics and need more practice, not because of the build.

Anyways, I got a lvl 4 empower earlier today (first empower I've ever vaaled lol, how lucky), and I crafted this earlier



Only level 16 Vicious Projectiles is a bit sad but I spent like 1000+ alterations and never got lvl 20 once, got lvl 18 once but I ended up not getting another suffix while regaling so yeah.

Other stats are quite nice though so I'm not sure if I should continue crafting it ? Is +2 socketed support gems better than 40% chaos multi ?

On a side note ; what do you think about Enfeeble ? I've got a pair of Windshriek boots which allows me to apply another curse and I'm using a 4-link setup with Enfeeble - Blasphemy - Grace - Enlighten. Also Windshriek gives a bonus to curses area of effect so i'm pretty much applying Enfeeble to my whole screen. Enlighten with Grace / Enfeeble allows me to use Grace / Enfeeble / War Banner and still have 143 mana, with some mana regen on rings, mana is ok if I time caustic arrow correctly.

I just feel like Enfeeble is just too good for this build, mainly the accuracy debuff and also I think the -30% damage apply to spells aswell which are our biggest threat ?

Downside of this is that I lose Blink Arrow but honestly I run so fast I don't really mind.

Sorry for the long post, and again thanks for the guide!

Hi
I really been enjoying this build, and it's been very fun. However I'm at end game and my dmg output is not nearly the same as the guide. I been looking at pob builder and everything and honestly am at a bit of a loss as to what I am missing.

I am sitting around 300k ish even with all my gems upgraded and everything. How is the guide getting 750k? What is the glaring difference that I am not seeing?

wither stacks. you probably don't have wither set to 15 stacks while the pob guide probably does.

Yeah, okay. This makes a lot more sense now. Thanks

Nevermind. Found answers.

New league is right around the corner, new DoT focused aura has been released which means potential buffs. Meanwhile, i'm not excited for it at all. Another ridiculous powercreep is being added to the game, another league of the same format like the last few, another side content that seems to have all previous league specific loot thrown into it for no reason. It just feels blank, and makes previous content to also feel the same way - it takes away the reason to run them.

I dunno, i would be more excited to have another breach/abyss/harbinger type league instead. Simple type that allows you to play the game, not a side mini-game. I am completely disappointed.

Anyway, the new DoT aura might shake things up a bit. Following the big nerf to Raider's survivability through Div Distillate changed in 3.5, the aura further amplifies that. It's probably going to give enough damage to be mandatory for the end game - instead of Grace, making it MUCH harder to hit evade chance cap. It's still going to be possible with expensive gear (2x 5% evade chance ring, high evasion equipment). Regardless, Raider as a default ascendancy choice took a hit.

I have two potential ideas to make it possible to use both auras at once, obviously requires specific piece(s) of gear to make it possible. Running 100% increased evasion + Stibnite flask might also fix the evade chance issue. We'll see, i'll test ideas overtime.

I'm definitely going SSF HC this league. As usual, i will be updating the guide as fast as possible after the patch notes are released.

Off-topic, Apex Legends is a really fun game.

"

Fatkids wrote:

Spoiler

Hi

First thanks a lot for the guide, for a new player like me it was really super easy to follow and I learned a lot about the game while playing it.

Overall I really love the build, the phasing, movement speed and general tankiness makes it super enjoyable to play. Another great advantage of this build is the fact that you're not locked up in place while dpsing which makes it super fun to play vs bosses. This is my first league and I've done every guardian / red elder guardian / shaper / red elder deathless. I died a few times on Uber Elder so I called someone for help because I was scared I wouldn't be able to do it, but that's just because it was my first and I was struggling with mechanics and need more practice, not because of the build.

Anyways, I got a lvl 4 empower earlier today (first empower I've ever vaaled lol, how lucky), and I crafted this earlier

Only level 16 Vicious Projectiles is a bit sad but I spent like 1000+ alterations and never got lvl 20 once, got lvl 18 once but I ended up not getting another suffix while regaling so yeah.

Other stats are quite nice though so I'm not sure if I should continue crafting it ? Is +2 socketed support gems better than 40% chaos multi ?

On a side note ; what do you think about Enfeeble ? I've got a pair of Windshriek boots which allows me to apply another curse and I'm using a 4-link setup with Enfeeble - Blasphemy - Grace - Enlighten. Also Windshriek gives a bonus to curses area of effect so i'm pretty much applying Enfeeble to my whole screen. Enlighten with Grace / Enfeeble allows me to use Grace / Enfeeble / War Banner and still have 143 mana, with some mana regen on rings, mana is ok if I time caustic arrow correctly.

I just feel like Enfeeble is just too good for this build, mainly the accuracy debuff and also I think the -30% damage apply to spells aswell which are our biggest threat ?

Downside of this is that I lose Blink Arrow but honestly I run so fast I don't really mind.

Sorry for the long post, and again thanks for the guide!

A bit late reply, i know. +2 support gems is slightly better, but also costs more. It is implied by expensive version.

Enfeeble will completely disable Despair curse that gives great amount of dps. Many scary rares are hexproof, map mods exist that nullify/reduce effectiveness, barely works against shaper/guardians. The monsters might not be in range of the curse anyway, losing the damage potential. Also the primary/easiest way to be evasion capped is through Watcher's Eye mod for Grace aura. Overall, i see no reason to change the reliability for uncertain but stronger buff. It might change next patch, who knows.

The build was designed to be as reliable as possible in pretty much any situation. Any map, any mod, any enemy.

interestingly enough this build can work almost fully intact with the new skill soulrend. depending on soulrends numbers it could be better than caustic arrow itself. mostly since it specifies that it provides a deadly but short-lived damage over time. this implies the damage over time is more powerful, but doesn't last as long - which we all know isn't necessarily a game breaker.

so the way it sounds soulrend will have higher dps but a shorter duration. duration is easily overlooked by just casting slightly more often, so the higher dps from a stronger base damage over time (if it has it in comparison to caustic arrow) it could prove better to have a higher damage applied to kill things quicker.

again it can work exactly as the build is, except swapping out "bow" passives for something else. since the spell will be tagged projectile you can still use it with a bow with vicious projectiles etc.


im not necessarily saying it'll be better, but it could be a contender to caustic arrow itself. just depends on the numbers, so something to consider!

Hi All,

I see some of you do not have the Ascendancy skill "way of the poacher".

Would you mind telling me how you generate Frenzy balls without it?

Hi,

just wanted to once again thank DankawSL for this awesome build! Really had (and still have) a lot of fun with the character. In particular, zooming around with onslaught and phasing is quite enjoyable :D

I especially liked how I could see the progress I made while getting better and better gear. I started the League with an Arc Witch, where progress was pretty much "you can do red maps right after story, but further than that requires some pretty hard to get gear" (namely shaped daggers etc.). Progression with the CA raider was much smoother. By now, my gear is pretty good although far from perfect, but the only big thing I'm missing is a Vicious Projectiles (or even +5) Bow. Done Shaper multiple times, and Elder isn't really much of a problem. Had two Uber Elder attempts which both failed. I think it's still possible to do, but frankly I'm probably not good enough at the game to defeat the encounter with this build (margin for misplays is too small). Also, high tier Incursions still give me trouble because it takes me too long to kill the Architects and rare mobs, but oh well. Meanwhile, I can easily zoom through tier 16 maps without any real danger, even from the Syndicate, and managed to make it to lvl 92. Could probably be even higher, but this being my first real league I wanted to try out different playstyles as well.

On the topic of the new league: I'm actually excited for the new Synthesis maps. What I'm worried about, though, is that this introduces just another progression system. We'll now "have to" do maps (if only to get Sulphite and "Memory Shards" or whatever they'll be called), Delve for some stuff like socket recipes (and fossils if you don't want to rely on the market) as well as Synthesis at least for the chance at "broken mod" items and probably some other crafting-related stuff that is locked behind encounters there. I'll sadly have significantly less time to play next league and I'm really worried if I'll have the chance to enjoy the new content with these constraints...

Can I use this exact build as a template for Toxic Rain or even Scourge Arrow since Caustic Arrow's bossing potential is really weak compared to the other 2