[3.4] "Farrul's Hopeshredder" - Raider [Scourge Arrow/Barrage] [All Content] [6.5k+HP] [4.7M+ DPS]

Pros:
+ Extreme clear speed/single-target dps/movement speed. Also extremely fun to play. Dps is high with both Barrage and Scourge Arrow (with SA on Mirage Archer while Barrage-ing for most single-target encounters.) Insta-phase Shaper, Uber-Elder and Uber Atziri.
+ High evade/dodge/spell dodge/ele dodge.
+ Hopeshredder is extremely cheap at the moment, but perfect or very near-perfect rolls cost around an ex.
+ Uber Elder, Uber Atziri, Shaper, All Guardians, Uber Izaro and literally every other non-delve boss is a joke (dies in 2 seconds or less), all 3 delve bosses can be dangerous because you only have 1 try and they each have 1 shot mechanics and ludricrous hp at deep depths. They feel very comfortable to kill quickly or for challenges at depth 300-350, perhaps bosses with hard mods beyond that should be avoided.
+ High HP pool possible (easy 7k+) by swapping some jewels (and thereby sacrificing dps) to put more points into the Scion life wheel, or keeping the jewels and lvling to 100 (7083Hp at lvl 100, I currently have 6502HP at lvl 96.)
+ Flexible tree pathing possible, as we are not starved for dps or health.
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Cons:
- My specific gear is generally extremely pricey/not budget-friendly for end-game, but not this exact gear is necessary. You can change anything for anything you want, just be mindful of the changes you make or ask for assistance.
- I lied a little, you have to avoid a few maps mods and you occasionally will get 1-shot if you don't follow mechanics (shaper/etc) or in deep depths with for example, crit mods and ele pen. Also probably not HoGM viable unless you weapon swap Balefire for annoying ES builds

For tree and general setup just use the PoB link:
https://pastebin.com/tFVXR4Rh (Updated gear)

As stated before, the tree pathing is extremely flexible and allows for many variations. The only things I can think of to note is the fact that we put 1 point into the mana leech node wheel under herbalism, as that is all we need to sustain mana in all circumstances - and try to avoid taking Vaal Pact as it has the hefty cost of shortening your ability to run without needing to leech.

Raider Ascendancy:
I opt for 2 main setups regarding asencdancies.

1:
Way of the Poacher
Avatar of the Slaughter
Quartz Infusion
Avatar of the Veil

Occasionally, for the fun of it, you can swap or even permanently stick to:
2:
Way of the Poacher
Avatar of the Slaughter
Rapid Assault
Avatar of the Chase

The first setup allows for safer delving as you permanently have phasing and elemental ailment immunity. The additional dodge and spell dodge is nice too. You get chunky, non-dependent movement speed increases. It also allows for slightly more flexible quality of life flask setups. (i.e Alchemist Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline vs. a Quicksilver flask requiring an ailment immunity.) (This setup consistently reaches 4+M DPS/3.1+M Shaper/Guardian DPS.)

The second setup allows for noticeably faster movement speed than the first, but only after hitting a rare/boss or killing something. It still generally means you always have onslaught up, with 100% increased effect, and a huge chunk of additional attack dodge. The single target on barrage is dramatically increased with this setup and it feels very strong for normal content, but delving feels much smoother and safer with the first setup. (This setup consistently reaches 4.7+M DPS/3.6+M Shaper/Guardian DPS.)

Honestly just pick whichever you prefer, just make sure to keep Way of the Poacher and Avatar of the Slaughter for the frenzy bonuses.
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I chose Alira as a bandit reward for extra crit multi & resists. Personally I think it's the best option but you could go for 2 passive points as well.

Pantheons are very flexible, can use whatever you need at the time or whatever you prefer. I use Soul of Arakaali with captured Arachnoxia and Soul of Shakari with Capture Terror of the Infinite Drifts.

Weapon:
Scourge Arrow:


Be aware that any source of additional arrows (from gems or quiver/bow etc) only add an additional arrow to your initial charged hit, and NOT to the amount of pods that spawn or the arrows those pods fire. You may also want to swap Cold Pen for Added cold or another gem of your choosing, but Cold Pen feels very good against rares/bosses, especially while delving.

*Upon further testing with various gem setups, substituting Scourge Arrow for Tornado Shot (like I did when leveling) and added cold or cold pen for GMP, you clear content much faster, albeit losing dps against high hp rares in delves etc. It feels VERY good to use Tornado/Ice Shot, even though it is not quite as strong as Scourge Arrow and its stage multiplier. I also tested a Rain of Arrows setup (swap GMP for added cold/pen again) and it also feels very fast for clear, and even strong against high hp rares in delves with the use of vaal rain of arrows and barrage. Scourge Arrow, for now, is still the hardest hitting out of these options by a mile, especially against end-game content (Shaper/Uber Elder) in this setup. In my ideal setup, I use Tornado/Ice Shot setup for mapping and Scourge Arrow for Delving. You may wish to stick entirely to one and that's completely fine.
TLDR: Tornado Shot/Rain of Arrows/Ice Shot is amazing as well. Also, if you opt for Tornado/Ice shot then Rigwald's is your best-in-slot option at all times.
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Armour:
Barrage:


It is possible, if not preferable by many, to use Slower Projectiles instead of Hypothermia for Barrage because of the use of Elemental Focus, however because even in single target situations I consistently use Scourge Arrow, bosses are almost always chilled/frozen anyways. Both feel good, just pick your preference.
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Gloves:


I use enduring cry when there are tougher damage mods in deep delves, and never really any other time. (It's at lvl 17 because i lack the strength to lvl it more, but it does exactly what it needs to as is.)
I've been testing Vaal Impurity of Ice and it feels very good when there are many rares around such as in Rhoa delve rooms and some bosses if you feel it's needed.
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Helmet:


Hatred is required for our Watcher's Eye, so if you don't have a Hatred related watcher's eye it isn't as effective as Haste for example, as we don't have any physical damage to scale from. Herald of Ice feels absolutely amazing with the very heavy hitting initial shot from scourge arrow in dense packs. Vaal Haste for bosses though sometimes I don't really bother with it, usually just if I happen to have it up during a tough fight.
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Boots:


Blink Arrow still feels good without faster attacks so you can swap it out for another vaal aura perhaps, or anything else you prefer. CwDT and IC for mapping, but I occasionally take IC out when I use enduring cry in deep delves.

Hopeshredder:


Great synergy with Raider, especially after the degen nerf (from 400 per second per frenzy to 200) and the addition of 25% attack speed.

The bow grants us:
+ 393 Flat Cold Damage (117 [13 x 9 frenzies] Flat Cold Damage on top of the already huge 274 Flat Cold Damage from the bow itself.)
+ A total of 36% extra movement speed. (9 frenzies x 4%) (116% total movement speed unbuffed.)
+ A chunk of extra hit chance for a little more consistency.
+ 18% chance to AVOID ELEMENTAL DAMAGE WHEN HIT (3rd layer of defense beyond Evasion and Dodge).
+ The only source of life leech necessary to cap life leech, without needing any nodes on the tree dedicated to it. (The Blood Drinker passive node's life leech is incidental and not required for capping.)
+ +1 additional arrows for Scourge Arrow's initial hit and Barrage. (Corruption not necessary, just theoretically best. You could try for a t1 flat cold corruption too.)

Notes on Cold Degen per Frenzy:
The degen from Hopeshredder seems like a lot, but it is very comfortable to use it even without really investing in any regen. It is possible to drop 1 or 2 jewels and go for the life and life regen nodes near marauder/scion wheel if you are uncomfortable with the degen, and even slight regen investment is boosted heavily by Soul of Arakaali Pantheon with Arachnoxia captured.
Be aware that degen may become more dangerous if you get 10+ frenzies, for example with legacy frenzy corrupts from standard, or the unique delve ring discussed in the gear section below. I will need to test the interaction when I get more frenzies than the *9 I currently have. *(8 now, as noted in boots section.)

This bow has been under the radar even since its buff, and is heavily underrated for the quality of life it provides.
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Rare Quiver/Rigwald's Quills:


A rare quiver with life and high elemental damage/crit multi is best in slot for mapping with scourge arrow. An additional arrow is nice quality of life for your initial hit while clearing but be aware it does not affect the amount of pods that spawn or the arrows they fire.

I'm not sure why or how, and if someone could clarify I'd appreciate it, but Rigwald's Quills feel far superior with barrage dps on high-hp end-game bosses vs. a rare dps quiver with +1 arrow. It is still possible to kill shaper during 1 beam phase regardless of quiver, but it feels slightly faster with Rgiwald's. Any info as to why would be appreciated. (It shouldn't be the fork interaction, but I have a suspicion it has something to do with it.)
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Farrul's Fur & Farrul's Bite:


Aspect of the Cat grants hefty dps bonuses and even a little defense, and Farrul's Fur allows us to not have to sacrifice Herald of Ice to use this aspect.

In-Depth Aspect of the Cat Description:


It is possible to swap Farrul's Bite with another helm if you get jewelry with Aspect of the Cat on it, or you can drop the Aspect interactions all together and opt for a different helm/chest piece. (Starkonja's/Loreweave for example.)

Notes on Helmet Enchant:
You can opt for either the 40% damage/+1 pod at max charges scourge arrow enchant, or even a +1 barrage projectile enchant. The scourge arrow enchants however I think are more generally useful.
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Tombfist (2 Socket with +1 Frenzy):



Best in slot for both dps and life, however can get rare/expensive depending on availability. Socketing a searching eye (life + 2 flat cold rolls) and a murderous eye (life + flat cold + onslaught on kill) allows for Intimidating enemies on hit as well as a little extra movement speed and attack speed from occasional onslaught. Extremely good gloves.

Maligaro's Virtuosity gloves or even rares with +1 frenzy (both of which are very cheap even with decent rolls) is more than fine until these are achievable.

(Thanks to Zephya for suggesting the Tombfist gloves.)
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Darkray Vectors OR Bubonic Trail:



I originally opted for speed and a +1 frenzy offered by these boots and the interaction with having permanent frenzies from Farrul's Fur, however I decided to try out 2 socket bubonic trail with 2 extra jewels to squeeze out a little more life and dps at the cost of a little movement speed and dodge from losing a frenzy for our bow.

Notes on corruption vs. enchant:
Unlike the gloves, the corruption isn't necessarily best in slot. You could go for more movement speed or life via corruption/enchant or even elemental pen enchant for single target.
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Jewelry & Jewels:


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Flasks:



Pretty standard flask setup, and because we take Avatar of the Veil we don't have to worry about elemental immunity from flasks, and I sometimes use Soul of Shakari with Terror of the Infinite Drifts for poison immunity if I feel it's necessary.

Offenses:

If it's too small to read, just right click and open in a new tab. Barrage DPS on the left, Scourge Arrow DPS on the right.

Defenses:



Some things not shown in the image:
With Cat's Stealth active from Aspect of the Cat, and Farrul's Bite helm, we blind enemies consistently (easy to ensure on bosses with re-enabling aura at the right time), to total 72% evade chance. We also gain 15% chance to avoid all damage when hit from having Cat's Stealth active. Also, as stated in the Gear section, Hopeshredder provides an additional 18% chance to avoid any elemental hit-based damage.

We also total 216% movement speed, as opposed to the 116% in the image, with an Alchemist's Quicksilver flask of Adrenaline up. We can get a further 20% to total 236% from Onslaught from on-kill effects of abyss jewels. This implies you have the 1st Ascendancy setup (Phasing setup) detailed in the PoB section. With the Onslaught setup you can total 240% movement speed, even more with boot corruptions/enchant.

(This section is a work in progress. It's more of a reminder and a checklist for now. I've killed all encounters deathless before just didn't record because I didn't think I'd be making a guide lol. I will add a video for each encounter listed when I get time.)

Deathless Shaper Kill (3 & a half minutes):



Deathless Uber Elder Kill (2 minutes):



Deathless Uber Atziri:

Deathless Vaal Temple:

Deathless Hall of Grandmasters: (4ish minutes)



*Delve bosses.
*Shaper/Elder Guardians.
*Random difficult encounters.
*Concise Video Guide.

Zeypha's Headhunter + Tornado Shot Version:

"I am using this build but with a slight twist to fit my head hunter, the only thing I changed was that I use tornado shot as my main 6 link, because when you get lots of rare mods, tornado shot clears the whole screen and is much faster than scourge.
When I do uber elder (deathless), or any of the delve bosses where I can't reliably barrage freely, I change to scourge instead of tornado shot to supplement my single target with barrage.

Here is a super quick video of using barrage with slower projectiles instead of hypothermia, was I don't chill the bosses since i don't have scourge, therefore slower projectils is better in my set up.

Shaper with Slower Projectiles, Pure barrage: https://youtu.be/iqrywgNSh6U

Shaper with hypothermia (doing nothing), Pure barrage: https://https://youtu.be/EUdwJ8_ESXM

I could have popped vaal haste in the video for more damage, shaper would have died sooner had I not tried to face tank the beam haha.

I am in the process of uploading a few videos, with and without head hunter, to show off my variation of this build.

Has been a blast theory crafting and fine tuning the build with JordanIbanez"
-Zeypha

Didn't bother going deeper than 600 in depths for the challenge completion. Sulphite costs are too high to make it worth it, I believe delving at 300-350 is best.