[1.2] Gram's Crit Explosive Arrow | Rampage League

Hi guys!

This build is a new take on Explosive Arrow, one of my favorite skills. At the moment I don't have a completely perfect set of gear or gems, but Atziri was a breeze. Crit Explosive Arrow is extremely strong, and fairly fast and fun to level with. It also has low gear requirements! I can clear 78 maps easily with a 5L, and now that I have a 6L it's even easier.

As far as gear is concerned, you will want to prioritize global crit, global multi and mana regen. Getting a +3 to bow gems bow is very important as well, as Explosive Arrow does not scale off attack damage of any type. The only things that scale Explosive Arrow's damage are fire damage and elemental damage, so getting extra levels is vital to increasing total dps. Explosive Arrow also does not benefit from Bow Critical Strike Chance or Bow Critical Strike Multiplier, since the explosion part of the skill does not count as an attack or spell. The ideal bow is a fast base such as a thicket bow. Barring that, get yourself a Death's Harp! The math heavily favors crit multi, since there is no fire damage scaling in this build. You will crush with it.

Since you won't be using Elemental Proliferation, Lesser Multiple Projectiles is an essential support gem for dealing AoE damage. The most crucial support gem to use, however, is Reduced Duration; Reduced Duration will reduce the time between the shot and explosion, and since the critical chance is only rolled on the first fuse of the stack you will want to avoid stacking Explosive Arrows unless you're trying to kill a boss. Power Charge on Crit and the Crit Multi support gems are great as well. I was toying with the idea of using Assassin's Mark instead of Power Charge on Crit, freeing up a link... but I don't think that it's viable against bosses. The power charges are essential to raising the critical chance of the explosion.

Leveling with Explosive Arrow is actually very fast! Just Explosive Arrow + LMP will get you to maps. Eldritch Battery is important to get early on because of the mana cost of Explosive Arrow, but once you have these you should find yourself breezing through the game. Only take Vaal Pact when you have some sort of fire leech, as it's pretty much pointless without leech.

Atziri:



Video:


Passive Tree:


Bandits:


Gear:


Updated Gear!:


Questions:

How does EE help in this build? I am a noob but i dont see any other ele damage to start off the minus resist.

Edit: found you added cold damage on your ring

question: With single target, do you use a different ability? drop lmp for something else? or just use your regular explosive arrow?

Sorry if a noob question, never played Explosive Arrow before. I did think about it recently though and going to try yours out. Thanks for the guide, and video is awesome.

With how Explosive Arrow's damage is multiplied by the number of charges on an enemy, how is that calculated with the burning damage? Will the burn damage be calculated with one individual charge or the total explosion damage of all the charges?

If it's the latter, wouldn't Quill Rain provide more damage overall? Even though it has no +level to gems, it attacks at 3 attacks per second, allowing you to deal (523–785)*3 damage per second (or (586–879)*3 with Empower) compared to (734–1100)*1.69 or (820-1230)*1.69 damage per second with that +3 Thicket Bow.

What should I gem this with?

Would a quill Rain work well for this build?

EDIT: Just noticed that someone beat me too it lol.

What do you suggest as a 4L for this build? Looks like fun, but I don't have much currency to roll a 5L Death's harp yet ^^

DID YOU ACTUALLY REGAL A + TO GEMS? Thats nuts and soo lucky.

Grats on Atziri Kill! I did a Crit Explosive Arrow Character back in Nemesis, but with Remote Mine because I was too scared of reflect. Was clunky, but one shot bosses. Nice to see a "proper" crit EA build!

Couple of questions, does % elemental damage and projectile damage increase explosive arrow damage, and does the 2% life leech from the blood drinker node apply to explosive arrow? Also does % critical chance from a bow add to the critical chance of the explosive effect from explosive arrow? Like if i had a thicket with +1 & +2 and crit chance, would that add to the crit chance of explosive arrow? Or only global?

Im considering turning my witch into a crit explosive arrow build, and am trying to figure out which nodes would be the least important to drop.. ill gain 40% mana regen and lose 8% mana if i use the far right witch start and drop the 3 node dreamer cluster, but the % es i gain from the witch start would add to mana anyway so i wouldnt lose much, but i still need to drop a few nodes since im only level 85, im thinking about just leaving out the herbalism cluster until i level more, and just picking them up as i go, so i dont miss out on damage

please pm me when you see this if you have time so i know to check, id love to hear your input regarding this idea