[2.0][Video] Clad's Endgame Poison Arrow (40K Cloud Tooltip, Uber, Expensive)

After many requests for a comprehensive build guide, I've finally decided to take a weekend and write this up. Please feel free to leave questions/comments and I'll do my best to answer them all. Many thanks go out to Prosperity Guild for their support, Lendoria for his master service, and anyone who's visited my Twitch stream and theory-crafted, watched, chatted, asked for Uber Service, etc.

http://www.twitch.tv/cladcladclad
- Please follow to be notified when I'm running Uber Service, shooting terrorists/zombies, or listening to 90s hiphop.
Crafting a +3 Bow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OphDnjgLOTM
WB Uber Kill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW12oYGFnIk
WB Deathless Uber: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zu6rJYBiHbI


Pros:

Cons:




Self-buffed with Rallying Cry into a shit-load of monsters =) Without Rallying, with 8 frenzy charges, cloud tooltip is 33.5k.

Character Sheet - Defenses with Grace, and Purity of Lightning, our only two auras.




Bow/Quiver:
What more can I say about the +3 Bow Crafting method that hasn't already been said? Head over to the YT link below if you need a rundown on how to craft one.
Crafting a +3 Bow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OphDnjgLOTM

In my opinion, Maraketh Bows are the best base - I think 6% move speed is more important than the .10 difference in attack speed on Thicket Bows. I played PA for three leagues straight, and my eyes lit up when GGG announced these Maraketh bases. While it's very easy to craft +3 on bows now, getting 40+ lightning resist and attack speed with your augment/regal is still incredibly rare. This is pretty close to ideal when it comes to Lightning Coil usage (which we cover later).

The Drillneck is self-explanatory for our build - it increases our projectile damage by your character's total Pierce Chance (that means we can cap 100% pierce with Drillneck's 10% implicit, the Pierce nodes on our tree, and the Pierce Gem). The quiver will NOT increase our projectile damage further than 100% if you over-cap Pierce chance, so aiming for 90-100 is completely fine.


The other Uniques:
Lightning Coil is BIC defensively for this build, but that doesn't mean you ABSOLUTELY need one, especially in the softcore leagues. You can easily opt for Carcass Jack, Queen of the Forest, or a high EVA Rare with life and resists.
The Coil really shines in Uber runs; just as much on trash as on Trio and even Atziri's spears. It mitigates physical damage which is one of the most dangerous things in the Alluring Abyss (if you're not quite adept at avoiding Atziri's spells). Combined with a low level CWDT/IC/Inc.Duration setup, and +4 max lightning resist from our Purity of Lightning aura, you will be able to survive trash snakes, Trio's AOE Rain, and Atziri's spear chuck.

+1 Frenzy Charge Blood Dances are BIC for this build. Aim for high % Chance to Gain Frenzy Charge on Kill, and they allow us to be extremely lazy with our Frenzy Charge generation/monitoring. Not only that, but they provide sweet ass move speed per Frenzy (we aim to have 8 charges) and life regen, which makes us even tankier.


Jewelery/Belt:
The three pieces below cost me 16ex to craft. I think after a certain point, you can afford to dump that much currency into crafting some very nice novelty pieces that push DPS to the limit. In this case, Leo's mod for Rings and Belts (15% increased damage) provides a very nice boost in DPS. I don't recommend doing this until later in the league when you can afford to spend that much. These pieces pushed my DPS from 32k to around 38k. It's not needed, and it can give you some issues if you're trying to cap resists, but I felt it was worth it in my case.

You can use regular rings and belt - aim for Life, Resists, Mana Regen, and Stats if your gems require it. Doedre's Damning is a good alternative for +1 curse if you can't afford a corrupted ammy.

+1 Curse Ammy is very nice if you're trying to gain frenzy charges while double cursing Vulnerability and Temporal Chains ( explained in gems/links section). Replace that ammy with the latter for Atziri as you don't want Temp Chains reflected to you while you're running for your life. Can still work if you're good at managing your Curse Removal pots.


Aim for high Life and Resists on Gloves and Helm. I prefer a nicely rolled high evasion Helmet in this case. You may also need Intelligence on the helmet slot depending on your jewelery.


Jewels:

Aim for any Life + Damage mods on your jewels. Cobalts will give you the highest chance to roll the AOE/Damage affixes we need.
Here's a quick rundown on what works for our build:


Flasks:
Use a Hybrid if you like to cover the screen in Poison and need instant mana to achieve that. Use a Topaz flask for sure if you're using Lightning Coil for even higher Physical Damage mitigation. Aim to have Bleeding Removal, Freeze/Chill removal, and Curse Removal.



http://poeurl.com/zwWipYF @ level 98
- Acrobatics/Phase Acrobatics rules.
- Skill Effect duration nodes help both our Poison Arrow cloud duration as well as our CWDT/IC set up, our Rallying Cry, our Vaal Lightning Trap, and anything else I forgot about.
- Entropy is a nice damage boost as well - well worth the 4 points.
- 6 Jewel slots with potential for 7 at a higher level - I'm only level 93.
*Arrow Dancing is only for Uber Atziri's spear - for mapping, I respec those two points into the Scion AOE nodes, or you can opt for damage from the Fury Bolts wheel and the Piercing Shots wheel.


Normal - Oak for 40 HP
Cruel - Kill Errrrbody for Skill Point
Merciless - Kraityn for Frenzy Charge


Poison Arrow:
6L


If you only have access to a 5L:
PA > Empower > Pierce > Conc Effect > Slower Proj.


Curse On Hit:
I currently use a 5L setup, and I swap out Temp Chains for Culling Strike during Uber Atziri. It's nice to cull her split phases and her last 10% as well, and I don't like Temp Chains being reflected back to me.
The ideal COH setup will be in a 6L:



Other:
Auras: Grace and Purity of Lightning for our Coil.
Flame Golem gives us a nice tank and a slight damage boost for PA cloud.
Vaal Lightning Trap is great for bosses/rares.
Rallying Cry for mana and slight damage boost.
CWDT/IC when shit goes wrong. Manually cast Enduring Cry to extend IC duration to about 4 seconds thanks to Increased Duration and Skill Effect nodes on tree.






Thanks a ton for reading. This build is by far my favorite in terms of potential and play style. I've done it for three straight leagues and still enjoy it. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or comments.

<3 Clad

Reserved.

Reserved.

Reserved.

Drop Primal Spirit for Soul Siphon instead and you can dump the hybrid flask for something else. Errrthing dies so fast your mana plops right back up to cap anyway. Only poo part will be fixing that +20 int unless you've already planned for it.

Ok this is what i dont understand with people making builds claiming to be "something" viable without mention the amount of investment needed to actually make it "something" viable.

You have:

-lvl 4 empower
-lvl 21 poison arrow
-almost perf crafted +3 bow with 30% dot
-almost ideally perf jewels
-+1 frenzy blood dance

Do i really need to continue? no...

So my point being, if you title your build, just put in parentheses how many exalts you actually need to get 40k cloud DPS.

Give us, the 99% poor, a real idea of what kind of build we can actually get within respectable amount of time... STARTING FROM SCRATCH U KNOW...

Cheers.

"

Serleth wrote:

Drop Primal Spirit for Soul Siphon instead and you can dump the hybrid flask for something else. Errrthing dies so fast your mana plops right back up to cap anyway. Only poo part will be fixing that +20 int unless you've already planned for it.

That 20 strength and int from Primal Spirit makes it a lot easier to gear. But mana on kill is pretty nice too.

"

gtrans wrote:

Ok this is what i dont understand with people making builds claiming to be "something" viable without mention the amount of investment needed to actually make it "something" viable.

You have:

-lvl 4 empower
-lvl 21 poison arrow
-almost perf crafted +3 bow with 30% dot
-almost ideally perf jewels
-+1 frenzy blood dance

Do i really need to continue? no...

So my point being, if you title your build, just put in parentheses how many exalts you actually need to get 40k cloud DPS.

Give us, the 99% poor, a real idea of what kind of build we can actually get within respectable amount of time... STARTING FROM SCRATCH U KNOW...

Cheers.

This is labeled as an uber-capable build that reaches very high DPS and requires level 90+. I never labeled it as a budget build. It should be pretty clear that it requires a significant investment. There are plenty of budget PA builds out there.

Great write up. Fills the expensive endgame version of all the cheap budget pa builds.

"

Skyforth wrote:

Great write up. Fills the expensive endgame version of all the cheap budget pa builds.

Thanks bub!