[3.15] Crimson Bow Gladiator, RoA + Puncture | Pure Bleed Build | All Content | In-depth

April 16th, 2021 - Ultimatum League changelog

League starts in few minutes, i'll give an update on Cruelty buff soon.

EDIT: It does not work. Well, there goes 20-30% of build's damage.

First impressions from a standard-player-perspective:

1) With a legacy elder-mod-bow you seem to deal insane single-target-dps now. Not too sure why though, seems like the calculations for bleed dps have changed in some way, because i haven't changed anything about my passive tree or support gems yet.

2) Mana reservation can be an issue, if you are going for pride, malevolence and flesh and stone now. Not only Flesh and Stone is now 35%, but the reduced-mana-reservation-malevolence-mod lost it's mana-tag, so it can't be increased to 30% by catalysts anymore. A small pro-node of Versatile-Stance gives -10% reservation for stances now though.

In the end i'm league starting with this build in SC trade league. My internet is currently too unstable to attempt my usual SSFHC start, so might as well embrace SC for the first time since 3.5 Betrayal league.

"

basta1982 wrote:

Spoiler

First impressions from a standard-player-perspective:

1) With a legacy elder-mod-bow you seem to deal insane single-target-dps now. Not too sure why though, seems like the calculations for bleed dps have changed in some way, because i haven't changed anything about my passive tree or support gems yet.

2) Mana reservation can be an issue, if you are going for pride, malevolence and flesh and stone now. Not only Flesh and Stone is now 35%, but the reduced-mana-reservation-malevolence-mod lost it's mana-tag, so it can't be increased to 30% by catalysts anymore. A small pro-node of Versatile-Stance gives -10% reservation for stances now though.

#1 - I see no reason why it would deal silly amount of damage but... I'll take your word for it. I'll test it sometime later when i attempt Blighted maps in standard.

#2 - Personally i'm more concerned about losing max tier Elreon's ring mod. That allowed to completely remove mana costs, which is... no longer possible i think? Or it's somewhere between 1-5 mana cost and that prevents you from reserving 100% of your mana pool.

I already thought that Flesh and Stone is overrated for ranged builds so i'm not too worried about the nerf. Same goes for reduced mana reservation for Malevolence since Herald of Purity has nearly the same damage increase (lvl 21 HoP 13% vs 20% Malevolence) at half the cost plus gives free meatshields and which only backfire in Incursions. So overall my preferred mana reservation aren't affected almost at all.

"

DankawSL wrote:

In the end i'm league starting with this build in SC trade league. My internet is currently too unstable to attempt my usual SSFHC start, so might as well embrace SC for the first time since 3.5 Betrayal league.

"

basta1982 wrote:

Spoiler

First impressions from a standard-player-perspective:

1) With a legacy elder-mod-bow you seem to deal insane single-target-dps now. Not too sure why though, seems like the calculations for bleed dps have changed in some way, because i haven't changed anything about my passive tree or support gems yet.

2) Mana reservation can be an issue, if you are going for pride, malevolence and flesh and stone now. Not only Flesh and Stone is now 35%, but the reduced-mana-reservation-malevolence-mod lost it's mana-tag, so it can't be increased to 30% by catalysts anymore. A small pro-node of Versatile-Stance gives -10% reservation for stances now though.

#1 - I see no reason why it would deal silly amount of damage but... I'll take your word for it. I'll test it sometime later when i attempt Blighted maps in standard.

#2 - Personally i'm more concerned about losing max tier Elreon's ring mod. That allowed to completely remove mana costs, which is... no longer possible i think? Or it's somewhere between 1-5 mana cost and that prevents you from reserving 100% of your mana pool.

I already thought that Flesh and Stone is overrated for ranged builds so i'm not too worried about the nerf. Same goes for reduced mana reservation for Malevolence since Herald of Purity has nearly the same damage increase (lvl 21 HoP 13% vs 20% Malevolence) at half the cost plus gives free meatshields and which only backfire in Incursions. So overall my preferred mana reservation aren't affected almost at all.

Might have been just a very lucky outcome as well, because i have only played a few maps/bosses and afterwards cared about my chaos-dot-build. Like i said haven't really seen a reason as well, was just my first impression. Elreon from crafting bench is just lower yes, it's now -7 to -6. Not a big deal for me at least, but i have always only used a warlords -15 body armour anyways.

Today i didn't encounter a lot of connection issues so i progressed nicely. Hit maps and having no problems doing any ultimatums. Vaal RoA almost completely trivializes it thanks to heavy slow and constant damage. All you do is run in circles and while rares are really tanky - bleedsplosions carry that part of the problem rather easily. I only just started mapping so overall outcome is expected. I'll definitely hit a wall sooner or later.

Considering how tanky rares are in ultimatums and how much enemies there is, using Ensnaring Arrow on them is quite hard. Purity Sentinels (Herald) are lowering damage output in this way. However, despite that they're very useful. I'm capable of doing stone circles without risking my life only thanks to them. Plus long term i'll set up classic build so inability to ensnare enemies not going to be a problem. Besides, bleedsplosions are doing their job just fine and i still have couple of upgrades to their damage planned.

"

basta1982 wrote:

Might have been just a very lucky outcome as well, because i have only played a few maps/bosses and afterwards cared about my chaos-dot-build. Like i said haven't really seen a reason as well, was just my first impression. Elreon from crafting bench is just lower yes, it's now -7 to -6. Not a big deal for me at least, but i have always only used a warlords -15 body armour anyways.

There's also a possiblity that damage felt stronger if you played a weaker build earlier/afterwards, or simply forgot real damage output if you didn't use that character in a while. Happened to me before.

Classic build (which i'll obviously use once again) needs Farrul's Fur so i can't use such chest unfortunately. It simply makes mana reservation a bit pain in the ass if i were to maximize it like before.

Any idea how to craft this and what are the best mods for it ?

"

DankawSL wrote:

There's also a possiblity that damage felt stronger if you played a weaker build earlier/afterwards, or simply forgot real damage output if you didn't use that character in a while. Happened to me before.

Yeah, most likely been the case. I am really looking forward to tweaking some of the new bleed-stuff into the build in standard, if possible, but sadly lacking time atm and already being pretty busy with adjusting my chaos-dot-build for 3.14. Somehow it's kinda sad seeing so much new bleed-stuff for the first time since ages, while the most powerful mod has been deleted from the game.

"

JaxRC wrote:

Spoiler

Any idea how to craft this and what are the best mods for it ?

I already gave an answer to this in my initial assessment after patch notes. Best way to craft is to sell it to the closest vendor.

Mod is good initially when your character is still growing and you have little physical dot on your gear, but reliable crafting cost is simply high. Later on when you'll get cluster jewels, hunter quiver, maybe gloves later etc. the mod is less valuable... and it gets worse every single upgrade. Later it's not even worth considering.

Simple high physical damage bow you can easily buy 6-link bow base for is only slightly weaker than Phys DoT Multi elder prefix early on, only to be equal or outclass it as the time goes on - while also being significantly cheaper to craft.

"

basta1982 wrote:

Spoiler

Yeah, most likely been the case. I am really looking forward to tweaking some of the new bleed-stuff into the build in standard, if possible, but sadly lacking time atm and already being pretty busy with adjusting my chaos-dot-build for 3.14. Somehow it's kinda sad seeing so much new bleed-stuff for the first time since ages, while the most powerful mod has been deleted from the game.

To be honest, most of these "bleed buffs" are very underwhelming or something you can only consider using in softcore. It's just one big nerf, except for Assailum which i believe benefits from 100% more bleed damage removal (reliability increase). Maybe in PoE2 with new skill gem system stuff like Corrupting Fever gets more use. Build is already packed with gems as it is, little room for adjustments.

I'm "sorta" following this as i level right now, only lvl 70, but why is Artillary balistca not used much? I was leveling it on 2nd weapon set, and started using it to see it work, it clears a LOT faster than shrapnel. shrapnel does better on single target, but i find myself using the art ones more and more.

Is it just cause shrapnel is more phy damage and lots of mobs resist it? Because right now art ones is half the damage output as seige ones, only difference is they do fire vs phy damage.

Not using any special gear, just drops i find atm. on 4L

"

DankawSL wrote:

Build is already packed with gems as it is, little room for adjustments.

That's true. I always felt i could do more on the gloves-/ballista-slot, making it a real 6, 7 or even 8 slot (essences, shaper-/elder-mods), but with harvest gone that's pretty much impossible to do anymore and the impact would not have been huge as well.