[1.3, BoTW S3/E10] The Arcane Archer - Chaos Arc by CantripN

Welcome!

Mandatory Track = Daft Punk - Derezzed
Honorary Mention to the Crit Song

Ever wanted to play a pure Chaos Damage build? I know I have.
To quote the wiki: "It is the rarest damage type and the hardest to get Resistance against. Chaos damage ignores energy shield, reducing life directly."
Chaos Damage cannot be Reflected in any way, shape or form (not even Atziri's Mirror phase), and very few enemies have any Resistance to it, none of them a high one (except a few snakes).

This build is all about Chaos. Our medium of choice? Arc!

Vid:
Gorge at 84 = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw-aPDb0Dr0
Chris' Sweet Voice telling you all about it on BoTW S3/E10.

Gear needed? Well, just one thing, but it's not cheap or common:

If you don't have a Voltaxic Rift, you can't play this build, simple as that. There are many other guides for Arc, pick one of those. You won't be one of the cool kids, though ;).

Bonus Points for:


The idea? Simple. Use any Lightning Spell, self-cast, and ignore resist and reflect fully.
Since you don't face reflect, feel free to exploit Crit Damage to the fullest.
This build doesn't and cannot reach 60K DPS, no, but it can get close to the DPS of a regular Crit Arcer, and has the clear speed of a much higher DPS Crit Arc build, and is safe and fun to play. What's more, there's several synergies to be had!

This build can use Spark / Ball Lightning / Lightning Tendrils / Discharge just as well. Spark with a Drillneck would use a slightly different tree, but would be OP.

Atziri's Promise adds a LOT of damage, and 13% Leech out of ALL your Damage :)
Rumi's Concoction gives you block. With a bow. Weird, I know, but see below!
Cherrubim's Maleficence adds quite a bit to all your needs, and is actually usable here. Still best to use CoD or Tabula +1, alas.
Victario's Acuity is the BiS item if you're going to use a Projectile spell instead of Arc, helping with Dex, Proj Speed, Proj Damage, and Power and Frenzy Charge supply.
Drillneck (offensive) or Rearguard (defensive) is BiS for Spark/Ball Lightning, again, for obvious reasons.
With Rearguard and a well rolled Rumi's you can even get 75% Block + 40% Spell Block! Even 75/75 with something like:

*For HC and/or Ball Lightning, use Rearguard!*

The tree has the Flask Effect / Duration nodes, so those 2 flasks and all others are boosted quite a bit.

Links:
Main Skill 5L = Arc / Faster Casting / Echo / Crit Damage / PCoC
6L adds Empower (2+), Added Lightning, Added Chaos, Culling Strike, or Life Leech (and/or any one of those instead of PCoC).

CwDT (1) / Enduring Cry (5) / Frost Wall (5)
CwDT (9) / Immortal Call (9) / Increased Duration / Vaal Haste or Vaal Grace or Vaal Spark
Auras = Reduced Mana / Haste / Clarity / Herald of Thunder
Arctic Armor, Lightning Warp. Duh.
If you use HoT on a 4L/5L, place Purity of Elements (for Ele. Weakness maps) or Portal there.

If you want to use Dual Curse or Curse on Hit in general (I do), go for one of:
Herald of Thunder / Curse on Hit / Assassin's Mark / Warlord's Mark (add Leech / Empower / Inc. Duration / Enhance / Increased AoE / Lightning Warp / Arc on 5L).
Arc / Curse on Hit / Assassin's Mark / Warlord's Mark (add Leech / Empower / Inc. Duration on 5L).
Ball Lightning / GMP / Curse on Hit / Assassin's Mark / Warlord's Mark
Split Arrow / Chain / Curse on Hit / Assassin's Mark / Warlord's Mark
Frenzy / GMP / Curse on Hit / Assassin's Mark / Warlord's Mark
Ethereal Knives / Chain or Faster Projectiles / Assassin's Mark / Warlord's Mark
If you use an attack to curse, consider Life-gain-on-hit.

USE VORICI TO COLOR THE BOW! DON'T FUCK WITH RNG, IT FUCKS BACK!

Fair warning, you will often kill things before their ES runs out, and parties will be confused :D

Leveling and Gearing:


Bandits:
Normal - Oak fo Life
Cruel - Kill All for Passive
Merciless - Alira for Power Charge

Tree Base for SC:


Late-game Tree:


For HC, simply grab the Life nodes in the area sooner, and add a few more. This build *is* HC viable, since you can't die to reflect, can get 5K Life by 80-90 and have extreme range and leech. My deaths with it were all avoidable (at least once I got the bow).

Oddly enough, this turned out to be one of the more effective Arc variants out there, and benefits greatly from good gear (though it works with just the bow and crap gear).

One problem you have, even more so than other casters, is DEX. You need 212 DEX to use the Bow, so be sure to grab the 30 DEX nodes and get some on gear - wasn't as hard as I expected it to be.

-----

My IGN = Wild_Magic_Surge (on Rampage) for any questions.

Since I don't have a 6L Cherrubim's (or any other 6L on Rampage), I chose a 6L +1 gems Tabula. My DPS is higher as a result, but my Life and safety is slightly less. I assure you it's viable with both, and as usual, Lightning Coil / Cloak of Defiance / Belly of the Beast / Voll's Protector are all perfectly viable.

Since you lack Spell Damage on gear (mostly) and have almost as much Cast Speed, for this build, Spell Damage nodes > Cast Speed nodes. I'll even retrain the Witch starting area to Spell Damage later.

In a perfect world, use a Void Battery or a good Rare Wand + Saffel / Rathpith in the off-hand for spellcasting bosses.

The colors on my bow are an accident. Most people will not have more than 3-4 off color on the bow, sorry.
-
Page 12 has a variant by anakkk.

Current Stats (91):
DPS = ~19K (no Power Charges), ~27K (7 Power Charges = normal).
Life = ~4700

Gear:


Current Tree (91):


Standard Gear that's good for this:


*Art Credit: "The Avengers - Hawkeye", by theDURRRRIAN*

Looks very interesting. I'd love to see a video of it in action!

Edit: Also, looks like we will have herald of thunder next patch. It might work well here.

"

ViperThunder wrote:

Looks very interesting. I'd love to see a video of it in action!

Edit: Also, looks like we will have herald of thunder next patch. It might work well here.

Tomorrow, I promise. Mathil sold me his belt, so even more Life:

If Herald of Thunder is a replacement for HoI, I'll use that. Better yet, if it works like it looks, and it's a separate thing, I'll use it instead of Arc to apply curses and passively-leech life :)

---

In case anyone wants to know, DPS without Empower gem at all is 19425. That's still more than enough, meaning a 6L with Arc 20 + Empower 3, things that are attainable. Without PCoC on main skill (5L), you keep that DPS, just use the curse more often (or keep PCoC for comfort and give up some DPS).
With a CoD, colors are a lot easier, btw, as the others will have a hard time rolling more than 4 x B even with Vorici's help.

Updated a bit. Will post a Vid later tonight, something like Crematorium, perhaps?

I'm playing on a 4 year old laptop :(

Turns out using Action! drops my ingame FPS by like 20-30, making gameplay risky. For now, Gorge video will be up shortly, and anyone who wants to see any other map upto 78s can come see me ingame.

Hello All,

I apologize in advance if anything I say is bad.

How about going CI? here is my skill tree idea:

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgMABUIOSA5cD6sPxBBYEHsRDxEvE54V1xZAFr8YahslHRQdTx3ZH8cpTyoLKworeCycLL8tHy9vNbk7fEGWQ1REq0V-RwZLrkyzUDBVrlZjWAdca13yXypfamNDZJ1mnmr6bRltbHBScLtw1XRVdhF4L3zlfjN-WX6vf8aCEIKbhEiFfYauiEKJ04w2jRmOZI9Gj6aP-pUgm6Gio6SRpyusmK6ztUi297b6uMq-OsHFwfPDbdDQ0PXZE9lb2V_bGtte2-fdjN-K37DgEuQi53TpAuv17BjyHfLh8-r0cfem99f60g==

One problem is I used an extra 2 skill points than the original...

Anyway, my pathing allows for easier access to some +chaos dmg nodes (if that even works with the build) if someone wanted to use it and to another aura node cluster. I was able to keep the dex the same. biggest problem I see is the manaloss. oh ya, and str...

Even though I am familiar with the game, I have not seen enough of it to know the high end items; I can only progress so far with self-found mostly-solo playing (major lag issues in groups).

@MeBug - Your tree isn't a terrible way to do it on CI. Question is, what's the benefit? You'd have less DPS, less auras, no AA... If you'd suggested low-life, I'd see the benefit, but for CI, can't quite see it.

One way to make it perhaps viable with CI would be to get a HUGE amount of ES and use the Soul Strike quiver, allowing you to regain your ES almost instantly without need for Leech. Since you don't take Reflect damage (except HoI, and Herald of Thunder should fix that), other than Burning Ground or actual attacks, you're going to be regenerating almost constantly.

--

Vid is up. As you can see (by huge FPS drops), I'm gonna have a hard time making decent vids.
It does show off the clear speed nicely, though, and there's a Reflect pack followed by an Ele. Resist pack on the map.
Will upload the HD version tomorrow.

"

CantripN wrote:

@MeBug - Your tree isn't a terrible way to do it on CI. Question is, what's the benefit? You'd have less DPS, less auras, no AA... If you'd suggested low-life, I'd see the benefit, but for CI, can't quite see it.

One way to make it perhaps viable with CI would be to get a HUGE amount of ES and use the Soul Strike quiver, allowing you to regain your ES almost instantly without need for Leech. Since you don't take Reflect damage (except HoI, and Herald of Thunder should fix that), other than Burning Ground or actual attacks, you're going to be regenerating almost constantly.

--

Vid is up. As you can see (by huge FPS drops), I'm gonna have a hard time making decent vids.
It does show off the clear speed nicely, though, and there's a Reflect pack followed by an Ele. Resist pack on the map.
Will upload the HD version tomorrow.

I lost dps? I thought I kept the damage and speed nodes and even added 2 nodes of 20% crit chance. I also did not drop auras, except the much low mana would screw stuff up...

I did not know of the quiver which would allow for near instant regen of es. that would make it so much better, could drop the focus on hitting all of the es regen speed nodes. and it would certainly be a no-life build

@MeBug - Nodes are well and good, but you won't be able to handle all the auras and still have mana left to cast Arc, nevermind the Mana Regen to support it, or AA. With some seriously focused gear, perhaps.
Don't get me wrong, CI can do it, I just think Life does it better.

I had an idea looking at how this build is laid out. I thought a hybrid life/ES build using the unique chest armor "The Covenant" (http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/The_Covenant) would be surprisingly powerful with our chaos arc build. The covenant effectively gives us a 7 link by attaching a level 15 added chaos damage to arc.

In addition, we get blood magic, meaning that we don't have to pick up Eldritch Battery or any mana nodes. The primary downfall of blood magic, the difficulty of running auras, is side stepped because we are hybrid life/es, meaning we don't have to worry about life as long as we have enough to not die to chaos damage. By running warlords mark to leech to life, and atziri flasks, we should be able to sustain the arc drain on our life pool. Unfortunately, we can't run arctic armor.

To sustain our energy shield, we pick up the Soul Strike quiver to give us a nearly instant start to our ES regeneration, with 195% faster start to ES regen. I chose to forgo most of the ele damage in the original tree in favor of chaos damage thanks to the added chaos effect of The Covenant. Because of this, I drop Herald of Ice. Clarity is not needed because we are blood magic.



In short: we essentially trade arctic armor and the utility of life flasks for a larger hp/es pool and more damage.

I compared your build with the one on reddit and I like yours more. Spark and discharge are both quite annoying to party with.
Arc is unarguably stronger than any other lightning spell, both on dps and survivability. And I don't think you have any problem maintaining power charges. The clear speed is better too.


Just one question, what chest did you wear on the video? Your survivability is impressive. If you wear a tabula then it is even more impressive.

I'll definitely give this build a try after leveling Mathil's foil duelist to lv90