[3.13]🏹 Poison Barrage-VF / Scourge Arrow / TR PF | Bottled Fortify | The Tankiest Ranger + High DPS

So Darkscorn no longer needed, VF tops it?

Hey guys, thinking about league starting with Scourge Arrow Pathfinder but can't decide between the more classic build with plague bearer, and this version ?

I guess this one is way tankier but less damage ?

Also, will you guys league start with this build ? If you have ever done it would your recommand it as league starter ?

Thanks :)

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aerial wrote:

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My_Lego wrote:

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WolfieNa wrote:

Best bang for the buck is Dying Sun with +3 arrows, before you've got another (permanent) +1 from quiver or bow.

Why exactly are the extra arrows that valuable? Don't they just allow you slightly easier placement of pods?

most damage comes from initial projectile, so you get more coverage this way, don't need to wait for pods to clear all trash
but for bosses all you really need is +1 projectile to ensure all pods hit

Ok, fair enough. I read it as a single target increase and I couldn't make sense of it.

Similarly wondering what thoughts are on the new/reworked projectile weakness, vs despair or the reworked vulnerability.

Also, the tree paths pretty much right next to the 3 cluster node that causes marked enemies to take 45% increased damage with hits and ailments, 5% curse effect, as well as granting culling strike. In light of that does it make the sniper's mark more attractive than hexes? Or would the ideal be managing to up curse limit, like awakener orb a mana chest and curse chest, and using sniper mark in addition to a hex? Or just hex for mapping and mark for bosses?

I think marks will be better vs single target (obviously), than hexes (curses). So you always wanna pop that against big bosses, this is pretty much nobrainer. And weather you have automatic curse vs trash, thats purely qol for clearing, most of the time not needed. The difference in health between trash and bosses is gigantic in this game, and for clear you really need just a fraction of what you need vs bosses.

That triple node you are referring to costs 4 points (1 extra travel), grants 5% inc curse effect (works on marks?) 45% inc damage with hits & ailments and culling strike vs marked enemy.
Level 20/20 sniper's mark will grant "enemies take 40% increased damage from projectiles", not mitigated by boss penalty.

Vulnerability now has 20% faster ailment damage, which is pretty nice too.

@aerial, @lures,
Thank you for the interesting discussion. Do we know the application priority if a hex and a mark are applied at the same time, one as hex/curse on hit and the other (mark) is manually casted?

@aerial
I don't think it would be 4. The version of the build I am looking at goes roughly East-West passing a Strength node just north of Crystal Skin. It also goes East-West one row south passing things like Farsight and Toxic Strikes.

When that southern E-W row turns south heading for the cluster jewels, there is only 1 node separating it from where the northern row turns north to head up towards Profane Chemistry.

The 1 node separation is that travel node. If you allocate that node you can then refund the 10str node just north of Crystal Skin making that 3 cluster, in this version of the build, only cost 3 for the cluster.

To me, that amount of increased damage taken on a target, plus culling strike, seems super worth it.

And @WolfieNa, no idea about those mark/hex interactions, which may make an additional curse/mana cost chest worth it? Despair is already big damage, Sniper's mark also seems like a huge boost.

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aerial wrote:

I think marks will be better vs single target (obviously), than hexes (curses). So you always wanna pop that against big bosses, this is pretty much nobrainer. And weather you have automatic curse vs trash, thats purely qol for clearing, most of the time not needed. The difference in health between trash and bosses is gigantic in this game, and for clear you really need just a fraction of what you need vs bosses.

That triple node you are referring to costs 4 points (1 extra travel), grants 5% inc curse effect (works on marks?) 45% inc damage with hits & ailments and culling strike vs marked enemy.
Level 20/20 sniper's mark will grant "enemies take 40% increased damage from projectiles", not mitigated by boss penalty.

Vulnerability now has 20% faster ailment damage, which is pretty nice too.

Aren't the Marks from HIT damage? Which we don't scale since we get all our DoT scaling from base damage. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, cause this would solve one of our weakest points, boss damage.

Snipers
Enemies afflicted by Sniper's Mark grant charges to Life and Mana flasks when hit, and cause projectiles that hit them to split towards other enemies.

Poachers
Enemies afflicted with Poacher's Mark will always grant a frenzy charge when slain, and are more susceptible to physical damage. They always grant a small amount of life and mana when hit.

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passiontrix wrote:

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aerial wrote:

I think marks will be better vs single target (obviously), than hexes (curses). So you always wanna pop that against big bosses, this is pretty much nobrainer. And weather you have automatic curse vs trash, thats purely qol for clearing, most of the time not needed. The difference in health between trash and bosses is gigantic in this game, and for clear you really need just a fraction of what you need vs bosses.

That triple node you are referring to costs 4 points (1 extra travel), grants 5% inc curse effect (works on marks?) 45% inc damage with hits & ailments and culling strike vs marked enemy.
Level 20/20 sniper's mark will grant "enemies take 40% increased damage from projectiles", not mitigated by boss penalty.

Vulnerability now has 20% faster ailment damage, which is pretty nice too.

Aren't the Marks from HIT damage? Which we don't scale since we get all our DoT scaling from base damage. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, cause this would solve one of our weakest points, boss damage.

Snipers
Enemies afflicted by Sniper's Mark grant charges to Life and Mana flasks when hit, and cause projectiles that hit them to split towards other enemies.

Poachers
Enemies afflicted with Poacher's Mark will always grant a frenzy charge when slain, and are more susceptible to physical damage. They always grant a small amount of life and mana when hit.

Good point on sniper scaling damage from hits. I am not that familiar with poisons but isn't the poison based on the damage of the hit to begin with? Or is that totally marginal?

As for Poachers, seems like the regularity with which we hit using the MA/BR link setup it is a really easy way to cap frenzy charge generation, so maybe poacher's is really the way for easy frenzy on bosses. Heck, poachers can also completely solve your mana problems on a boss as long as MA is constantly hitting it, no? I totally slept on poachers but that doesn't seem bad at all.

Hey can anyone give me a gem progression for auras and frenzy charging while levelling? I'm trying to optimize my act 1-4 using caustic arrow and TR w onslaught on mirage archer and barrage for single. I'm using herald of agony and precision for auras. Any opinions or improvements to make my time more efficient?