[1.2.0] Explosive Arrow - Mana based with maxed AA/MoM

Hello and welcome to Corin's Explosive arrow guide!

This is my first guide so it's far from perfect.

While preparing for the new 3 month league, I wondered how viable EA can be in the new Beyond environment. In the past I played Willywonka's explo arrow(blood magic), but I felt the character way too squishy and vulnerable to reflect. I knew that the build is cheap and effective, but I needed the solve it's problems. This is what I came up with:

Pros:


Cons:


Leveling:

You can level with EA, but due to it's higher cost it's not preferred(however you should start leveling EA and it's support gems as soon as possible). I leveled with searing bond and flameblast until lvl 70, but you can switch earlier if you have the gear/gems. While leveling, grab all the life and manaregen first. It makes leveling an easy task.

Example 58 point build for Searing Bond/FB leveling:


"Required" gear and getting MoM:

-You need one item with ~50% mana regeneration to be able to level AA all the way to 20
-Attack speed on gloves/rings is pretty good but not required
-You shouldn't get MoM until you have at least ~600 unreserved mana, wich requires a high ES chest/helm(~200) or a lot of mana on gear.
-lvl 3+ Empower for the 6th link
-3-6% dmg taken as mana and fire leech corruption helps but not required
-Quill Rain :P

Gems:

Main link(6l Empower):


2nd EA link(read The "9link" section):


Auras:


Curses:
If you get 3 curse, you can get a 2nd 5l and use split arrow+curse on hit for faster cursing.
Ideally your 3 offensive curses would be Ele weakness+Flammability+the one that supports you/your party the most. Poacher's Mark is pretty good for fast life/mana gain [thanks "nubtwofor" from the comments]


Utility:


Decoy Totem is sufficient and groups up tougher mobs(beyond packs), but you can use Flame totem+blind if you want to facetank :)

The "9link":

Troly's thread regarding this method:


TLDR: You are using two separate EA links:

The main link which proliferates the ignite:


and one with Faster Attacks and LMP/GMP for more aoe and faster fuse stacking:
You can replace culling strike.


Only the first Arrow that hits a target matters, the whole 5 fuse will use the first fuse's links. This way you can stack faster and get more aoe dmg.

Elemental Equilibrium:
Enemies you hit with Elemental Damage temporarily get +25% Resistances to those Elements and -50% Resistances to other Elements

EE is a cheap way to gain a lot of dmg. The only thing you need to do is avoiding fire dmg on your gear.


Final build:


Current build at lvl 80:


Current gear:


Endgame item options:


Videos:

Soon™

If you want to see the build in action visit http://www.twitch.tv/r0dina


Thank you for reading, post your comments, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!

How much life fo you have atm?

I only have 2200 hp... :(
I know I don't have many life nodes from the passive tree but I do have 15000 armour with max res and -33% chaos.

I'm level 78 scion with threbe curses, MoM eldtich battery and iron reflexes. Using determination, grace, clarity with roughly 600 mana leftover enough to run level 20~25 artic armour.

Wouldn't it take too long to cast all three curses then explosive arrow? I'm usijg curse on hit with eplitarrow chain and the curses (flammabilty, vulunabilty, ele weakness)
Also what does LMP does for the explosive arrow.? More range covered?

running the ele reflect maps is so dangerous and I make sure I don't do five stacks cause it hurts :0 and can't do no regen maps at all..

Is empower better than conc effect I screwed up with vaal gems on. All my items so I can't change it unless I buy new ones :( but my dps is still good enough to melt down with explosive and burning damages.

Thanks for the guide!

RiP. Carcass jack

RiP. Quill rain

Hello, I've been playing the same build for awhile, and I have a few passive points that are different from yours. I ran a -max res and reflect 73 maps and almost killed myself in 2 or 3 stacks explosion, even with 24 AA and MOM, so I don't think taking the fire circle north of witch area is a good idea. Anyway, here's my tree:



And here are my items:



I also keep another quillrain on swap just in case I run into curse immune mobs, also works really good for blood magic map:



With my set up I have about 5k health and 1.3k unreserved mana, which I'm trying to maintain at a 7/3 ratio. Personally I feel like 600 is a little too low, even with 370 mana regen. The 3rd curse I would recommend paocher's mark, not only it gives you life and mana on hit (works great with split arrow/chain combo), but also chance to get frenzy charges, which is awesome!

"

How much life fo you have atm?

I'm at 4289 now.

"

I don't think taking the fire circle north of witch area is a good idea.

If you're using conc effect you don't need like no dmg nodes at all :D

"

The 3rd curse I would recommend paocher's mark, not only it gives you life and mana on hit (works great with split arrow/chain combo), but also chance to get frenzy charges, which is awesome!

Yeah excellent idea! I choose vulnerability because I play with ppl who benefit more from it. I edit the guide for solo/party :)

"

Is empower better than conc effect

I had less problems on reflect using empower instead of conc effect. Conc effect is more dmg with quill rain tho.

Got myself this bow. The attack speed is really low compared to quill rain which can ruin my stacks and the life gain on hit with split arrow.. dps is really good with empower but I'm not too sure if its worth my currency to make this 6L
After all I can't. Get attack speed on it... :(

My empower is only level 2 and haven't mxed my explosive arrow yet still gives me +5 levels on ea and almost double dmg on the explosion. But I'm too scared of the ele reflect maps. Especially with my low life
I dont know how you guys have such high life. I do use conc effect for now.. does that mean I should prob takeaway some dmg up north and invest in life

Maybe I've been focusing on dmg too much
Here are my items

Yeah its hard to find the healthy balance between dps and survivability :D

Is resolute technique must have? I didnt consider it before I put all my passives om but after looking at both of your trees. I feel like I'm missing out ;;

I don't have any trouble runnming any maps except super extra careful with reflect map and bloodmagic, no regen ones

Hmmm thinking to try this build. Few question tho =)

For bandits i assume oak, kraitlyn for attack speed and kill all?

And what about a Cloak of Defiance? It will save you atleast 10 points, since u don't take IR .

And maybe with an alphas howl(if u have enough es on other gear to run high lvl aa) can run clarity + discipline + purity of fire for reflect?

Why you guys not use lmp or gmp ?
My current gem setup like this

Is this bad?

GMP realy a bad choise.