[LLD] Kboom - Explosive arrow Templar

This is the base of the build with 18 points, from this tree you can branch in many ways and pick whatever you prefer - RT, EE, Holy Fire - depending on how you want to play the build

https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgUAfA6nVVugQ8hPBGjyogDwH-Fz73w8BZo7gpuQVScv7DiWdHxL

This is the skilltree I am currently using

https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgUAGjgnLzwFQ8hG108EVylZ81ugaPJxhXKpfA58S3zZgpuLjJBVlnSaO6IAp1WsqrFCtobAGuFz7DjvfPAf8xH3Mvnd

Bandits - Help Oak

Main attack

The Explosive Arrow gem has to be in an item with a corruption of +1 to gems and linked to empower and fire penetration, what other stuff you link to it is up to you, but those 3 are mandatory

Items which can get this corruption and be used with a bow/quiver are boots, chest armour and gloves

From my experience there are 4 effective EA gem-link combinations

4L - Explosive Arrow + Empower + Fire Penetration + Molten Shell
4L - Explosive Arrow + Empower + Fire Penetration + Stun
6L - Explosive Arrow + Empower + Fire Penetration + Curse on Hit + Curse1 + Curse2
6L - Explosive Arrow + Empower + Fire Penetration + Curse on Hit + Curse + Blind

The last 2 are only realistically achievable with a tabula rasa; in my current setup I have EA as a 4 link in my boots, linked to Stun

The first setup is useful if you want to self cast molten shell for added defense and you can't squeeze it anywhere else. This combination offers the benefit of +3 Molten shell

I find the second combination useful when pinning your opponent against a wall and spamming the wall with arrows. Since the explosions go off quite rapidly, you have a good chance to stun you opponent.

The third setup is a classic curse on hit - dual curse setup. The curses you'll most likely end up using are Elemental Weakness, Flammability, Temporal Chains and Punishment.

The last setup is usefull if you have gloves with curse on hit, in this case you can add blind instead of one of the curses. Both curse on hit and blind have a mana multiplier of 100% so they won't increase the mana cost. You can also replace blind with molten shell to have the benefits of the first and third setups combined.

CC (crowd control)

Bear Trap + Increased Duration + Multiple Traps

I use bear traps for CC because (the way I play/built this char) the most reliable way to kill your opponent is to stack arrows in walls/pillars while the opponent is in range of the explosions. Opponents tend to move, so thats why you lure them into bear traps. You should try to place your traps next to walls or objects where you can stack arrows.

Utility skills

Mirror Arrow, Blink Arrow, Rain of Arrows, Smoke Mine

Mirror Arrow is optional, the other 3 are absolutely necessary. Those gems are so popular there is no need to go into depths regarding their usage RoA - Detrap, Smoke Mine and Blink - movement.

Some words on mirror arrow - this skill can be used in 2 ways - confuse your opponent, which is good for survival, but your foe also receives flask charges for the kill so don't overuse. The second way you can use it is to bait your opponent - shoot the mirror arrow so that there is a wall/object behind the clone where you can stack arrows if your opponent flickers/engages the clone.

Alternative dual curse without tabula

Ice shot + Curse on Hit + Curse1 + Curse2

Auras, Buffs

Clarity, Arctic Armour (level 1)

Clarity is a must have for the mana regen, Arctic armour is nice to have at 20q for the movement speed bonus and chill effect. Unfortunately my gear is pretty bad ( atleast the jewellery part ) so I can't use it, unless in CTF when taking the flag - super effective.

(Optional) Freeze check gem setup

If you have another item with +1 gems and can spare the sockets you can use

Cold Snap + Empower + Cold Penetration + Added cold damage

To freeze check your opponent. Strategy is same as with Bear trap - try to freeze/chill when opponent is standing near a wall then stack arrows in the wall. With 20q added cold and 10% chance to freeze from passive tree you should be at 50% chance to freeze.

EA is very mana hungry ( thanks Obama ), so I need 2 rings with -7/-8 mana cost of skills.

The rest of the gear I am trying to get resistance and life, and damage (ias, fire damage, all damage (leo mod)) if possible.

Bow



This item is absolutely required, corruption included.

Quiver



You also need a quiver with +1 arrows, Hyrri's Bite or Rearguard

Hyrri's - AoE, ias, a ton of dex/str/int
Rearguard - Block/spell block, DPS (proj damage affects EA)

Helmet



I settled for this 3 res eva helmet

Chest



Quite a bit of options here. Tabula, Evasion rare or Cloak of Flame.
Currently I'm using the evasion rare.

Cloak of flame offers some mitigation and ignite chance (not that good for the way I built), but I find my rare way better especailly against non-RT chars

Gloves



Life and attack speed is all you need, ideally I'd craft X% chance to avoid chill if it had a suffix open

Boots



This is where I keep my EA socketed, cannot be frozen is pretty much required, chill is still very annoying.

Rings



Don't laugh please, I kinda run out of currency and could not afford to master craft 2 nice rings. Ideal would be

coral/two stone
---
life
mana
-mana cost
---
ias
fire damage/all res
multimod

Ammulet



Nowadays I'm using chayula, the other obvious choice are ungil's and atziri's foible

If you don't need full stun immunity (you can craft X% chance to avoid stun on helmet) and dual curse you can use a rare with smth like

almost any base
---
life
mana/movement speed
all damage (leo mod)
---
fire damage
all res
multimod

Belt



This is a really nice belt, stun threshold reduction and -flask charges used are 2 of the best mods (atleast for me) you can get on your belt. If I had the money to spend I'd try to craft something like this

leather belt
---
all damage (leo mod)
life
movement speed
---
-flask charges
stun threshold
multimod

Flasks



I have a single seething, 2 staunching and 2 warding jade's

Jade's are great against non-RT melee and ranged chars, seething is a must against melee (cyclone, molten strike) and staunching's because fuck puncture

This build plays best against melee, trappers are manageable, casters are hard to deal with and ranged is quite hard depending on your opponent (almost no chance against a good ranged char).

The strength of the build is that EA doesn't give a crap about your opponents defenses - block/spell block, evasion, dodge, spell dodge you simply cannot mitigate/avoid the explosion.

The general playstyle is to lure your opponent into a postion which is very bad to them ideally next to a wall. EA wallstacks kill very fast - comparable to cyclone/molten strike. Against melee players who just go balls in its a game of who can use their seethings better, or whether the opponent can be stunned/stun-locked.

Against trappers you detrap and hope to lure them into a bear trap near a wall or if they position inefficiently with LW you just abuse the walls.

Ranged opponents are a major PITA for this build, including other EA chars, I'm thinking on ways to deal with them - possibly +1 arrow storm cloud on swap with TS.

Firestormers are quite hard - cant lure them into a trap as your traps get insta destroyed. You can only win if they position badly - it happens.

Pros:
- versatile (dual curse, single curse/blind, burn damage focused, wallstack focused, ...)
- very high wallstack DPS output
- ignores all defense except fireres ( penetrates 18-20 fireres )
- cannot be frozen, cannot be stunned ( depends on how you build it though )
- very fun to play, fast paced, etc.

Cons:
- expensive ( seriously it's so expensive I feel entitled to some demi's just because of what I paid for my +1 quill rain )
- lack of immediate damage - arrows take some time to explode if you stack them on your opponent, not ideal when you want to finish a kill etc
- vulnerable in the open
- bad for the events in the current season - can't kill fast unless opponent rushes, dependence on maps - some are great, some very bad

Monstacookie - guildmate with an EA build on Torment, we discussed our builds quite a bit, he was of great help.

You can focus on burn damage by taking holy fire, and possibly using Searing Touch on swap before the explosion goes off

You can take EE - with dual curse you will be reducing enemy fire resist by around 100% which is very good, EE is not good for wallbangs though as the explosion will give +50% fire negating the dual curse almost completely

Some other crazy build no one has thought about. Shadow high explosives ? Crit EA ?

2/3/2015 - Initial version