[2.3] Explosive Arrow Build - Uber viable - 100 hc/sc proof - Scion, Witch, Duelist, Mara versions

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ricesteam wrote:

I'm having a weird issue with Frost Wall. My EA goes through it most of the time or doesn't explode on it. I doubled check to make sure I have no pierce anywhere. Does Frost Wall have to be a certain level? Is this technique some kind of unintentional bug? What am I missing?

Gotta put 2 walls up

Hey everyones, I've been playing EA for the past few months and I just hit 98! It has been a blast. I figured I'd share my experience (hopefully it will be helpful for someone).

My character can be considered as a slight variation of Peyter's, however, there are some distinct differences which result in some differences in game play. Notably, I do not use: Elemental Overload or Elemental Equilibrium. I also very sparsely use curses.

I do not use:



EA is very capable of destroying packs of monsters in T15 maps with one or two fuses due to shotgunning explosions. The trouble with EA is the single target damage. The use of EE, curses and ignite are good solutions, but can be troublesome if you play in groups (I do). So in this post I will speak about single target damage when one forgoes EE and curses.





I rely on (in order of preference):

1) I exploit the current state of explosive arrow's interaction with map features to focus on air bursts or instant explosions. For example, Phase 1 Malachai in Core (standing in the doorway allows you to shotgun the boss area):



2) Frost Wall + Spell Echo; FW is notably buggy and unreliable in that EA shots will more often than not pierce it. Adding echo helps, however in some cases, arrows will still mostly pierce.

3) Weapon swap to my secondary Quill Rain setup for ignite.





Of the above, only the first point needs elaboration. A number of things allow EA to instant explosions: collisions with walls, differences in terrain height and standing near certain objects.

Wall shots: Atziri Trio [link]
Differences in terrain: Abyss Map [link]
Standing near certain objects (trees, wheel barrows, pillars): Sarn Arena [link]

Bonus on wall shots/ frost wall: a pretty reckless Atziri run [link]. You can shotgun her split phases either from where I did or the pile of bodies below [link]. Alternatively, one or two volleys from the ignite bow (where ignite is swapped for Elemental Focus, see below for gear) is sufficient for each of her phases.


I have found air bursts to be a very viable strategy. From memory, there are features in every map T11-T15 which allow this (except Phase 2 Malachai in Core, however it is still possible to complete Core as EA [link].






Tree/ Gear






Edit: Core Malachai video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZZ1gB2DHZI, so Core viable! I screwed up and Shadow Play only recorded the last 5 minutes. Phase 1 ins't particularly interesting anyways though.

@Polygone,

Awesome post + gear.

I have some questions:
- Don't you use a golem?
- Do you really think celestial punishment is worth it?
- What about savagery? I really like more duration on my frenzy. However I don't use GMP+Frenzy so...
- Have you tried zerk\ele instead of zerk\raider? I have raider as well but allot of people seem to go ele.
- How does you tree look with heart of oak/quickstep? I guess something like this:

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAAAANhN8pc7KJSgm10DltpiqJpuPWh0GFZaUnvDYEO-gPnoSsiDCUGHPye3PipN_gqDzADuR-LYvTwtLOki4oNfxq6GsxUgpDkLYcT2DF_2oy2Dr2wn7XKpHKfvehm0aPIGDqyq9zJTpecK036-p_Af1HxZ8-oYfNkKm311ZU11y6IACfYaOHIP-Ot2rP66vTa3tgSzkFVxhWae890Ucc9-R36NfsBmJy965vrSaGXZfA48hNlDMTwFY_0Wb4IH3786Ur_V2sGf3-98RtckquNq20-8n1O7dO2aOzbp4MMYkQUtgpsabCW8na4DdZErWHdfBA==

allright i did some changes in my gear
new gloves:
and new helm:

got EE and my dmg is way higher than before, even ST seems to be good, but still need to find way to make it better, maybe 2nd setup (bow+quiv) just for ST?

try to upgrade yr bow and get a 6th link

eventually go for emp 4

some skills goes over the roof after 20, example PA

http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Explosive_Arrow

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foojin wrote:

@Polygone,

Awesome post + gear.

I have some questions:
- Don't you use a golem?
- Do you really think celestial punishment is worth it?
- What about savagery? I really like more duration on my frenzy. However I don't use GMP+Frenzy so...
- Have you tried zerk\ele instead of zerk\raider? I have raider as well but allot of people seem to go ele.
- How does you tree look with heart of oak/quickstep? I guess something like this:

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAAAANhN8pc7KJSgm10DltpiqJpuPWh0GFZaUnvDYEO-gPnoSsiDCUGHPye3PipN_gqDzADuR-LYvTwtLOki4oNfxq6GsxUgpDkLYcT2DF_2oy2Dr2wn7XKpHKfvehm0aPIGDqyq9zJTpecK036-p_Af1HxZ8-oYfNkKm311ZU11y6IACfYaOHIP-Ot2rP66vTa3tgSzkFVxhWae890Ucc9-R36NfsBmJy965vrSaGXZfA48hNlDMTwFY_0Wb4IH3786Ur_V2sGf3-98RtckquNq20-8n1O7dO2aOzbp4MMYkQUtgpsabCW8na4DdZErWHdfBA==

Hey foojin,

- I don't use a golem because the benefits are so, so marginal. Not having one is just one less thing to worry about, and an additional socket. Also, its one less risk in chain maps.


- Celestial punishment isn't really important, in fact you can drop celestial punishment and that entire cluster and grab more life or end/frenzy charges very safely without severe reductions to damage.


- Savagery is great, as is the charge durations... its a bit of a QoL thing I grab sometimes. I use the charges mostly for the regen and not damage. I do have Frenzy+GMP but its hardly important and unless I'm wearing blood dance, I don't generally bother with keeping up/maintaining charges. The damage w/o charges is plenty already in a three person party w/o charges or curses, so when clearing trash it doesn't even matter. Frenzy charges, however, are a nice bonus for bosses. The benefit is not in terms of damage as most fights start and finish very quickly h owever the regen is amazing for longer drawn out boss fights (Daresso, Malachai).


- I got Beserker because of the leech and Raider for the slight charge generation and onslaught on full charges. I considered elementalist for the reduced ele damage taken (because of reflect) and the fire penetration is nice, but my choice is Raider because it feels most widely beneficial in all situations.


- The tree you linked to is pretty much what I would use. You can also drop Bloodless- I spec it for convenience against other players.

Would a +3 gems thicket bow with atk speed work instead of a quill rain? Or is this setup strictly for single target?

I am considering to switch to EA build and i was wondering if i have no leech life on my 6L, will i 1 shot myself to pack with reflect, assuming the map mods are fine.

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mtallmere wrote:

Would a +3 gems thicket bow with atk speed work instead of a quill rain? Or is this setup strictly for single target?

Strictly in the sense of damage per volley, a +3 does more, however, it is much less effective because you can't stack as many fuses as quickly. So your explosions happen at much longer intervals and also you're much less mobile. Technically, you could shoot the first fuse with a +3 bow and weapon swap back to quill rain to stack fuses. This counts as having stacked the first fuse. In practice, however, this doesn't work well and is unwieldy+clunky to use.

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Xafniko wrote:

I am considering to switch to EA build and i was wondering if i have no leech life on my 6L, will i 1 shot myself to pack with reflect, assuming the map mods are fine.

Unless you have Vaal Pact, you will certainly (occasionally) blow yourself up because of reflect. Purity of Fire helps, and having a big life pool... but in the end, you will do way more than enough damage to kill yourself to reflect.

Hey guys, might be a dumb question...but when you attack do you individually click each time to shoot or hold a button. If i hold the button, the attacks are much much faster, but the fuses never go off. The opposite is true for single click spamming.