[3.4] Caustic Rain [Why not both?]

Fast Clear
Flask effect and duration
Good single target (Shaper killed deathless)
Labyrinth is farmable
*Can run almost any map mods
HoGM viable* post below explains how/why

Porcupines
Can't clear corpses
*Can't run No leech + No regen (can run either but not both)
Blink is slow

unavailable~

Map Playstyle - caustic will clear all white, blue and rare monsters, use toxic rain for the really beefy uniques

Boss Playstyle - Shoot a caustic arrow, then spam with toxic rain. Rinse and repeat. Mirage will help keep caustic clouds on bosses for the duration :D

Bow:


Before having +1 quiver and Dying sun, replace your Swift Affliction with


For more damage against bosses you can swap Efficacy with



Chest:


For more reliable leech, swap Efficacy with

or



Helmet:


Gloves:


Boots:


*You can opt not to run Herald of Purity and instead put Culling Strike, or Withering Touch

Gear


Flasks


Jewels
Socketed above Blood Drinker

Socketed at Scion start, 28% Chance for Frenzy on kill and 9% chance to dodge attacks

For Regular jewels, anything with life + chaos damage or to fill out missing resists
For Abyss jewels, flat life and onslaught on kill for 1, rest flat life and any damage mods (damage over time with two handed weapons preferred) but utility is just as viable (movement speed, blind, dodge, etc)

Enchants
Helmet: Caustic Duration
Gloves: None or defensive (of light or of Reflection)
Boots: Attack Speed on Kill, Regen, or Movement Speed

Items Explained
+3 Bow - mandatory, you can fossil craft or try the other method :) - this is the hardest part imo

Cospri's Will - 60% chance to poison a cursed enemy + 20% chance to poison from Agony + 30% chance to poison from Tree, sure. Also makes Hexproof maps bearable and allows us to use CoH Gloves (30-40 stacks on bosses easy) the Chaos resist and high evasion are just a bonus at that point

Tombfist - I find these to be mandatory, the extra jewel socket(s) and utility make them far greater than any other glove (a decent alternative could be Haemophilia for corpse explosion, but bleed chance is about 50%)

Quiver - Any +1 Pierce and +1 Arrow quiver with good life (Essence crafting with Miserys can net you a +1 or +2 pierce which will allow you to remove the pierce nodes from the tree)

Devoto's - Solid helmet, a rare could be just as good (High life and resists)

Amulet - Any good int or all attribute base amulet helps, especially leveling. Life and resists are what we look for

Rings - Steel rings are probably best to craft, unless you need resists. I find chaos resist to be niche but nice (can get +30-40 easily)

Belt - Stygian with life, resists and any flask mods (duration preferred and life recovery from flasks) - you can also fill out any attributes you would need

The Green Nightmare - not mandatory, but is a very big quality of life, since we run the Tombfist we are stripped the jewel socket for blood rage (we don't really want it either, because we don't have enough regen to sustain)

Spreading Rot - Vaal blight grants 20% increased Chaos damage during the duration, so lets make it stronger and last longer - the flat chaos damage is decent enough to warrant using it as well

Don't forget, you can make use of essences (chaos damage on jewelry) and fossils to better craft things if you are having trouble finding any!

Good Alternatives:

Good if stacking poison, otherwise nah
Great damage boost, and flat life (Is a great chest, no lie)
Solid starter quiver, has what we want early
Great flask before Dying Sun, leech and chaos resist go a long way

Helpful Uniques
Quill Rain
Silverbough (Fated is also great)
Infractem

Tabula Rasa

Goldrim

Karui Ward (Fated is also great)

Wanderlust

Meginord's Girdle

Blackheart

Kikazaru

Le Heup of All

Thief's Torment

Normal Lab: Nature's Reprisal
Cruel Lab: Master Toxicist
Merc Lab: Nature's Adrenaline*
Uber Lab: Nature's Boon

*For leveling only, swap to Master Alchemist (10 respec orbs) at maps

Notes:
-Follow the links above in order, for leveling.
-Early on, Vaal clarity or clarity leveled up a bit will help with mana
-Thief's torment is nice for the life and mana on hit, otherwise if you need resists le heup is perfect
-Decoy totem and linking agony and purity with withering touch can help on bosses before a wither setup

Bandit: 2 Skill points
PoB : https://pastebin.com/fCJ67Jmg

Level 90 Tree : https://poeplanner.com/AA4AAOkADjIAAHGbjQgu7YMZjgBe0359df66u-PEoqfU_sgknWJa73ruDqOKI_aNfU2SMHxRRzfU7T-VBdnGMpR_Aqbgjb_UIzBx3ahLeDpCBbUajVsmf_sGcC4jen_C7LTFYqxsjJ2qNj3rY7VIES92gsgMtNEWvyaVYeJVS4w22-dsCPGK_MWAIj9sDY2Hdkp99qMVILUIcaGPT7EwJT8tgxm0vqdlTb02dcvqYs2YjX5DMdrBdO0FLXrvLlPTbyzphrMA7ipNR-Ii4qQ5PydKyIqvkBF7w26qtfI1kti9yNzBSf4dX5hZbc8yAAAAAAA=

Leveling -

lv1-25

lv25-50

lv50-75

lv75-90

lv90 + 22 skill pts

lv90 extra resists

lv90 no extra jewels

Found a few upgrades and changes while trying to min/max, so here's where I'll post :)


-For 6l Toxic Rain, swapping Efficacy with Withering Touch has felt a lot better for bossing. Each pod I believe has a chance to proc a wither stack on arrow hit and pod explosion hit. I still use wither totem, but in places I can't reliably keep it up throwing a few toxic rains has helped keep damage up for caustic.

-Withering Touch vs Added Chaos Damage on Toxic Rain - both are good, but the utility from withering felt stronger. Both will add flat damage to the attack which will help with mana leech, so it's really just preference :P

-Unset ring bases (atleast 1) can open up a socket for CwDT so we can run enfeeble/cold snap.

-Running Bubonic Trail boots and using the 4 different abyss jewel types is 40% increased global damage, as well as providing 1 or 2 abyss sockets. Using an unset ring will allow a the use of a 2 socket pair!

Pantheons:
-Major-
Soul of Solaris - great for single target bosses ie. Shaper, Elder, Map Bosses, Lab, HoGM

Soul of Lunaris - Best for delve, and mapping in general

-Lesser-
Soul of Garukhan - Favorite one, use it most of the time.

Soul of Shakari - Best lesser node for Lab traps and Constrictor Guardian

Soul of Grythkul - Best lesser node for delve, since mobs can swarm. Decent for maps too

Soul of Ryslatha - An OK choice for harder/longer boss fights. I use for Uber Elder. The increased recovery really helps when you're not using an instant flask

Gear Upgrades:
A direct upgrade from a +3 bow would be a +3 7l bow, you could find a +5 bow but they are more expensive and in my opinion, not worth it. Your 6th link is Efficacy for clear and Concentrated Effect for maps. The damage is against Shaper/Guardian for reference

Caustic DoT with Eff(unbuffed): 170k
Caustic DoT with Conc(unbuffed): 210k
Caustic DoT with both(no mirage/unbuffed): 270k

A fully buffed, 7l Caustic (charges/Blight/wither/flask): 625k



Really helps boost our damage output, and gives us a semi-useful corpse clear.
Finding a Hypnotic/Ghastly jewel that is helpful is hard, so look for utility/resists/life here (Hypnotic can atleast roll DoT with 2hand)



Easily crafted using fossils, abberant + pristine + (corroded), find a base with an enchant that is useful and try to craft yourself. Otherwise you can buy, but they get expensive


Allows us to modify gem links by socketing either a herald, or blink arrow.