[3.10] Brittleknee's Scourge Arrow Trickster - All Content! Delirium Ready!

Cold Scourge Arrow
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Rapid Infusion
50% increased Effect of Infusion
5% increased Movement Speed while you have Infusion

Calamitous
10% chance to Freeze, Shock and Ignite
30% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills
15% increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments

Unwavering Focus
40% chance to Avoid being Stunned while Channelling
Channelling Skills deal 25% increased Damage
15% reduced Mana Cost of Channelling Skills

Precise Focus
50% increased Critical Strike Chance while Channelling
+30% to Critical Strike Multiplier if you've been Channelling for at least 1 second

Rapid Infusion
50% increased Effect of Infusion
5% increased Movement Speed while you have Infusion

Devastator
20% increased Attack Damage
20% increased Damage with Ailments from Attack Skills
Enemies killed by your Attack Hits have a 15% chance to Explode, dealing a tenth of their maximum Life as Physical Damage

Corrosive Elements
15% increased Elemental Damage
Cold Skills have a 25% chance to apply Cold Exposure on Hit
Fire Skills have a 25% chance to apply Fire Exposure on Hit
Lightning Skills have a 25% chance to apply Lightning Exposure on Hit

Doryani's Lesson
0.2% of Elemental Damage Leeched as Life
25% increased Elemental Damage

Prismatic Heart
+10% to all Elemental Resistances
30% increased Elemental Damage

Blanketed Snow
Damage Penetrates 10% Cold Resistance against Chilled Enemies

Cold to the Core
1% increased Cold Damage per 25 Dexterity
1% increased Cold Damage per 25 Intelligence
1% increased Cold Damage per 25 Strength

Cold Conduction
Enemies Chilled by your Hits are Shocked
Enemies Shocked by your Hits are Chilled

Chilling Presence
Nearby Enemies are Chilled

Blast-Freeze
20% increased Cold Damage
Freezes you inflict spread to other Enemies within a Radius of 12

Stormrider
10% chance to gain a Power Charge when you Shock a Chilled Enemy
25% increased Cold Damage with Hits against Shocked Enemies
25% increased Lightning Damage with Hits against Chilled Enemies

Fettle
+20 to maximum Life
10% increased maximum Life

Surging Vitality
8% increased maximum Life
Regenerate 0.5% of Life per second
Every 5 seconds, Regenerate 10% of Life over one second

Adrenaline
6% increased maximum Life
15% increased Maximum total Recovery per second from Life Leech
6% increased Attack Speed while Leeching

Prismatic Dance
30% increased Evasion Rating
+1% to all maximum Elemental Resistances

Natural Vigour
30% increased Evasion Rating
8% increased maximum Life

Shifting Shadow
20% increased Evasion Rating
+20 to Dexterity
10% chance to Blind Enemies on Hit

Untouchable
30% increased Evasion Rating
3% chance to Dodge Attack Hits
3% chance to Dodge Spell Hits

Aerialist
3% chance to Dodge Attack Hits
3% chance to Dodge Spell Hits
5% increased Dexterity

Darting Movements
5% increased Movement Speed
5% chance to Dodge Attack and Spell Hits while moving

30% chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments
3% chance to Dodge Attack Hits
3% chance to Dodge Spell Hits

No Witnesses
10% chance to gain Elusive on Kill
25% increased Elusive Effect

Pros:
This build can do all content! Though not extremely impressive in Delves 400+

• Bosser - Has cleared all Boss content including Red Elder, Shaper, Uber Atziri, Uber Elder, All Delve Bosses, Mastermind and the briefly-lived Synth bosses.
• Mapper - With the doorway fixes or perhaps a Rain of Arrows setup, this isn’t the worst mapper in the world.
• Forgiving - Stacking dodge and evasion results in a very forgiving build. If you’re still learning the mechanics of the game, this build will allow you to learn damage patterns without being one-shot as often since you will evade or dodge most of the damage monsters do. Smaller hits that do come through are easily leached through.
• League Starter - You can start this build for around 100-120C, which is a pretty decent setup. You can also level Brands if you have a witch friend or can buy the gems which is ezpz leveling.

Cons:
There are, however, a few drawbacks to the build which include the following:

• Occasionally Squishy - If anything strips your defenses, you are dead considering you have about 4-4.5k life on a good day. This rarely happens, but can happen more frequently on maps with: “Dodge Change is Unlucky” for obvious reasons.
• Gem/Gear Swaps Required - Its not a true all-in-one character, but with some swaps it is easily done. Some people, however, dislike keeping track of ‘this ring is used for this boss’ or ‘this gem is needed during this phase,’ so I thought I’d go ahead and note that here!

Scourge Arrow is a very powerful skill. Like Volatile Dead and other similar abilities, its AoE damage is powerful enough there is no need for single target as well. With the upcoming changes to Scourge Arrow’s projectiles, there will be no more annoying clipping through doorways and hallways, leaving it up to you if you’d like to add in a Rain of Arrows secondary link for clear.

With proper investment you will do plenty of damage for bosses and can offer bossing services if you so desire. In groups, you will shine with a proper support.

Having never played Scourge Arrow before I wanted to do something a bit different. The new Trickster Ascendancy was a desirable base for the build, as the new defenses were incredibly powerful and could be properly augmented/complimented with passive allocation and gear. Not to mention the Ascendency was left open-ended enough for other skills that were non-DoT to shine as well. While not the highest damage a Trickster Scourge Arrow build could offer (*cough* Eternity Shroud), I believe this build achieves a proper balance of damage and defense. Fun enough for those who like big DPS numbers and safe enough for those who are new to the game.

Trickster is a Great Ascendency. You’ll be picking up the following:

• Swift Killer
• Ghost Dance
• Escape Artist
• Harness The Void

You can level this build one of two ways: A.) Storm Brand or B.) Rain of Arrows

Brands are incredibly fast to level, make quick work of the leveling content and can scale easily with minimal points invested.

Leveling Rain of Arrows & Scourge Arrow is straightforward as well, though a little bit slower but allows you to get used to pod placement.

Major:
Soul of Lunaris - Stun Immunity comes from Ghost Shrouds so Soul of Lunaris adds a defensive layer by providing even more avoidance.
(Soul of Solaris is also acceptable.)

Minor:
Ralakesh or whomever you prefer. Yugul is great for Aul/U-Elder.

Help Alira for that sweet, sweet multi, all-res, and mana regen.

Hyrri’s Ire, Zodiac Leather

• PoE Wiki Page: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Hyrri%27s_Ire
• Highlights: Good source of flat cold damage, Attack Dodge, Spell Dodge, Evasion

Hyrri’s Demise, Sharktooth Arrow Quiver

• PoE Wiki Page: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Hyrri%27s_Demise
• Highlights: Added flat damage per stats, some attack speed.

Atziri’s Step, Slink Boots

• PoE Wiki Page: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Atziri%27s_Step
• Hightlights: Spell Dodge, Movement Speed, Evasion

Lioneye’s Fall, Viridian Jewel

• PoE Wiki Page: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Lioneye%27s_Fall
• Highlights: Allows conversion of claw nodes into crit, crit multi and leech nodes for bows.

Scourge Arrow:

• Scourge Arrow, Infused Channeling, Mirage Archer, Hypothermia, Elemental Damage with Attacks, Cold Penetration.

Defense/Debuff:

• Cast When Damage Taken, Steelskin (or guard skill of choice), Frost Bomb, Vaal Cold Snap.

Movement:

• Blink Arrow, Faster Attacks, Faster Projectiles, Portal

Utility/Curse:

• Cast When Damage Taken, Bladefall, Curse on Hit, Elemental Weakness.

Optional Rain of Arrows:

• Rain of Arrows (Vaal Okay, too), Mirage Archer, Added Lightning, Added Cold, Critical Strikes, Elemental Damage with Attacks.

Diamond, Stibnite, Jade, Quicksilver and Life Flask.

You may use Atziri’s if you prefer the extra damage and leech.

Dousing MUST be on your Instant Life Flask. Thicc ignites will chew through your energy shield/life extremely quickly.

Aside from the Unique, you will want as much added cold damage as you can manage. Also you will want a source for Onslaught for mapping from the Searching Eye Jewels.

No Lioneye’s Fall

• Without Lioneye’s Fall, you will need to pick up Vitality Void to improve your Leech. You can also take some added cold damage since you’ll miss out on the Crit/Multi nodes associated with the Jewel use as well.
• Path of Building: https://pastebin.com/UJXNTmDN

Hopeshredder for Bossing

• To use Hopeshredder for bossing purposes on a Trickster, you must accommodate the cold degen with some passive tree adjustments (You must take Survivalist), a non-optional belt enchant (120 ES/Sec), and an essence worm so you can use Purity of Ice.
• Path of Building: https://pastebin.com/u45TgS9e

If I play this again, I'd definitely want to explore the Dex-stacking hub-bub. I think it could be very synergistic, but I did not have the time or currency this past league to explore it. I did however, get a decent watcher's eye and a +1 Quiver, so all in all I think it was a successful league.

The bow I created this league wasn't the absolute best in slot for the build, but I thought it was a compromise for those who didn't want to deal with Hopeshredder but wanted to do decent damage. Depending on if you go for the RoA setup or not, it can be relatively cheap to add to your build due to only needing to mod it, rather than buy a linked base and crafting from there.

Aside from the previously listed Hopeshredder swap for bosses if you decide to go that route (see Early Gearing - Budget Setups for more info), there are a few things to move around as you are able.

Dream Fragments, Sapphire Ring

• PoE Wiki Page: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Dream_Fragments
• Why: Freeze and Chill immunity for U-Elder and Aul fights until your damage is better.

Pyre, Sapphire Ring

• PoE Wiki Page: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Pyre
• Why: Making sure there is 100% corpse removal from deeper delves (450+) The degens left by various corpses will one-shot you depending on mods since you cannot evade them.

Barrage 20/20

• PoE Wiki Page: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Barrage
• Why:This is the one way to kill Atziri and U-Atziri. Directly swap your SA gem for Barrage on her encounter and single target her and use RoA for Zombie phases. Otherwise, you can just put your pizza-dodging skills to the test by placing a single pod and let Mirage Archer (hopefully) kill a clone for you. You will die if you even take a single projectile worth of damage from your own pod during split phase.

Is +1 Arrow Really worth 20 Ex on a Quiver?
Yep. It absolutely is if you can afford it and truly enjoy min-maxing. The spore-pod distribution changes with the added arrow, and by aiming closer to your character, you can create a V-shape cone of pain around an enemy that results in significantly more single target DPS.



Why do you have to enchant ES/Sec on your belt, can't you use Soul Tether?
It's definitely an alternative if you're running Hopeshredder. Its also a definite budget alternative. However, this build already struggles to hit Elemental Weakness cap on resists, not to mention belts have huge potential for stats and other damage. A well rolled belt can have Cold %, Elemental % and Elemental Damage with Attacks%, which is absolutely bonkers. Both will solve the issue of keeping ES up during boss encounters, but the bottom line is investment and how much you're willing to put in on it.

Is this build good for Delve?
Unlike Ranger, Duelist or Scion variants of Scourge Arrow, this build becomes particularly susceptible to the degens left behind by monsters at depths of 550-600+. While a Pyre ring can and does help with corpse removal, some of the degens are actually environmental, like the spore bursts in Fungal Caverns. You'll have to take a considerate amount of care in not stepping in bad.

Survivability

I wanted to address some of the issues that have popped up in the first few pages or replies.

This is not an immortal build, and I've never claimed it is. While I can't save you from being tilted about being oneshot, I can try and explain how and why it happens and what you can do about it.

Firstly, here's a spreadsheet to look at while you read. Numerically, it reflects the mechanics I reference below (thank you Xayazi):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15KUNNtRDJgGmS2SGRB-p4ZFyKfgc4unF8L4jTRDHC9c/edit#gid=0

• Tricksters Have Layers - The most important thing to realize is that Trickster's survivability is largely conditional, in an If A then B sort of way. The most notable is the Ascendancy itself. Ghost Shrouds are granted, but if for some reason you care taking multiple hits in a short time, even if those are absorbed by Steelskin, you will deplete your Shrouds. Not having your Shrouds immediately reverses the 6% reduced Damage taken and the 3% Evade chance, 10% Movement speed, 10% Spell Dodge, 18% Attack Speed. More significantly, however, is that you will LOSE YOUR STUN IMMUNITY. Your ES and Health % are at a low percentage due to high reliance on secondary defenses, meaning once your ES is gone, any medium to large-scale hit will Stun you. If you're Stunned, then you might as well be dead. So, tl;dr if you don't have ES, you will die.
  

• Monster Mods and You - Understanding and recognizing monster mods isn't just for HC. You have to be weary of monsters and their mods if your goal is to die as little as possible. Some of the most dangerous are those which increase Monster Accuracy, which negates our secondary defenses and makes weaker. Accuracy and Crits, Precise, Deadly, Physical and Substantial Physical are all auras to be weary of. All either reduce the effectiveness of your secondary defenses or increase the incoming damage substantially. While one alone is not usually enough to kill you, a combination of any of these on one rare, or a group of rare monsters can quickly turn a normal map into a shit-fest. Learn the auras, learn to keep your distance or make sure you're fully flasked and anticipating and special attacks the mobs may have. So, tl;dr if you don't pay attention, you will die.
  

• Map Mods and You - If you're trying to hit higher levels (95+) and do not wish to die, you will need to defensively roll your maps. In the meta of THICC 8-Mod, 132% Quantity Mega-Juiced Maps are what ever person will tell you to run, if you run these maps, you're gonna die. Just like monster mods can stack up against you, so can map mods. You can preemptively remove yourself from a deadly situation by never setting foot in the map to begin with. The most notable map mods to avoid when trying to level are Dodge Chance is Unlucky/Increase Accuracy, Reduced Flask Charges, Crit Chance/Crit Multi, Ele/Vuln Curses, and Cannot Leech. Ignite on Hit can potentially be dangerous in combination with some of these mods due to the ability of a particularly hefty ignite to completely burn away your ES. So, tl;dr don't roll maps that stack the odds against you.
  

• Movement is Crucial - The last way to improve survivability is to improve your movement and fluidity in the game. You should very rarely plant your feet on this build, unless you want to roll the dice. By planting you're feet you're directly placing yourself in harms way no only for attacks but ranged spell and the like. In Legion, a lot of the monsters have ranged attacks, from the Vaal Hatchet Toss to the Eternal Spear Throw, staying on the move means the monsters will be trying to attack where you were versus where you are. Use your movement skills and movement speed to circle, kite, and distract (blink arrow leaves a clone) monsters to your benefit. So, tl;dr don't expect to live through everything if you're not avoiding the avoidable damage.
  

So, all in all, the stacked Shrouds, Dodge, Evasion, Blind, Phasing, etc all work in conjunction to give you the best possible chance at survival. You will be able to survive a LOT of the "Ah, shit" moments that happen. But, if you're not paying attention at all to what is going on around you, from basic mechanics to maps and monsters, then everything that goes into making this build tough will not save you. Played well, this can be one of the tankiest and forgiving builds you will ever play.

Hopefully this section helps.

Bossing:

• U-Elder (Deathless): https://www.twitch.tv/videos/411573121
• Aul, Crystal King: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/417845208
• Minotaur: https://clips.twitch.tv/ConcernedAgileEelChefFrank
• Chimera: https://clips.twitch.tv/RenownedQuaintClipsdadNerfBlueBlaster
• Hydra: https://clips.twitch.tv/SuspiciousTenderHeronBudBlast
• Chicken Nugget Guy: https://clips.twitch.tv/CrowdedMotionlessMuleDancingBanana
• Purifier: https://clips.twitch.tv/CrackyAntediluvianOpossumHotPokket
• Eradicator https://clips.twitch.tv/AffluentClumsyAubergineEagleEye
• Constrictor: https://clips.twitch.tv/AmusedGorgeousMuleTheThing
• Enslaver: https://clips.twitch.tv/SmellyAwkwardBananaPJSugar

Defenses:

• 4K LiFe IsNt EnOuGh To PlAy: https://clips.twitch.tv/MiniatureBoldHorseradishCoolStoryBob

More Videos on the Way!

Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/brittleknee
Twitter - https://twitter.com/brittlekneetv
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/brittlekneetv
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brittlekneetv/
Discord - https://discord.gg/36mXkFq

Thank you to RedXY, as this build would not have been possible without you.

Thank you to my followers, subscribers, patrons, and to all of you who have stopped by and said hello on stream, or on the other guides.

Archived updates posted at the top of the guide at the beginning of a new league will be moved here at the league’s conclusion.