My final Explosive Arrow Witch build !

Theory about future 0.11 patch :






Hey there !

First time i ever write a guide pretty much, but several people asked me for infos about this build so i ll try to explain what i think is my "final" version of the Explosive Arrow witch. I know that there s already plenty of EA guide but i d like to share my own vision of it.
I don t pretend it s the best EA build possible, it s just an effective one i enjoy playing with !
My english won t be perfect, sorry for that >(*_*)>

- Why i think it s the final version of the build ?

Well, i play an EA witch since nearly a year now. I started looking at this skill back in closed beta when we had to farm maps in Vaal pyramid. I didn t like playing my freeze pulser there, too much corners, and small hallways. I tried different skills and found EA pretty fun.

I made a witch, and started to crunch numbers to see how to make it work. it was decent untill i discovered THE ONLY required item for this build : Quill Rain bow. When i understood that the damage of the explosion wasn t dependant of the initial hit, all became more fun and clear :)
Back in these days, the explosion wasn t considered projectile damage, and i was poor. It was simple : 4L with EA + reduced mana + GMP+LMP :p Go to vaal pyramide, spam , loot repeat.
I was using elemental hit with faster attack + add lightning for single targets. It was enough.
We were able to make chars, at this time with very low defenses, CI was easy mode, didn t need auras more or less.

Then, EA explosion became projectile dmg also, so no more GMP+LMP. Tried ranger, with proj. dmg : failure :p


I then stopped playing for a while, waiting the open beta to start over. I made a CI witch with LMP+faster attack+EA...well not that good.
I then rerolled a fireball witch to test, and discovered how burning damage works, and then BOOM ! EA witch back in the work :p


All this to say, as one of my favorite video game char says : BURN ALL THE BABIES !!!!!



-Basic idea of how to make damage with Explosive Arrow :


The build revolves around burning damage mostly. Yes, the explosions itself is VERY powerfull, but powerfull explosion = high burning damage.

Pros of the build :

-Crazy AoE damage
-AoE covers a LOT of space.
-High mobility
-5 usefull auras
-Cheap to stuff
-Easy to level up
-Not heavily gear dependant
-Strong during the levelling process. From level 19 to very late game, it works.

Cons of the build :

-VERY WEAK to elemental reflect (more infos later)
-Nearly no armor
-Somewhat low HP, compared to what people want to achieve. Not really suited for Hardcore in it s currnt form.
-HEAVY mana consumption.
-+dex items will be a must if you choose to follow my passive tree.

My 105 points current build :




I won t post a 20/40 or so points, as i think it s pretty straight forward. passive tree doesn t contain hard to understand mechanics, and no real order on the points you invest i think.
Maybe i can help by saying that taking Eldrich Battery early on helps with EA mana cost. Somewhat rushing to resolute tecnique can also helps, let s say before Act 2/3 cruel.
However, you need to get something while witing the level 31. I personnaly took a silverbranch and +2 poison arrowed my way to normal docks till lvl 31.

Once you decide to make the final switch to a full and working EA build, you ll need THE ONLY mandatory item for the build :



That s it. Your final weapon that will carry you everywhere :) A double +dex quiver will help also.

You can consider wearing a



For some times, to counter the early lack of chance to ignite of your gems, and burning duration. 4 link the chest BBBG it and let s roll !

Explosive Arrow + chance to ignite + Elemental Proliferation + Increase AoE

You can replace increase AOE by concentrated effect if you lack some damage.

That s pretty much it, you can climb your way up to maps with only cheap 4 link stuff ! One thing to take care tho : MAX out your fire resist ! If you can afford to max only one; then it s fire resist or you ll explode on reflects.

As i said, the build is has some cruscial weaknesses, here s how i counter them :

Countering the lack of armor :

As an EB user with a HUGE need of mana, you have near to ZERO armor. But, it s allright, as GGG kindly gave us one of the most powerfull but misknown skill : ARCTIC ARMOR

This skill is simple amazing. You'll be IMMUNED to what some people consider the most dangerous mobs out there : Voidbearers and hentai tentacle titty boob bitches.

With a lvl 8 AA, a buffed voidbearer packs with multiproj will do NO damage to you. The higher you can afford AA, the better, tentacle bitches will still do some damage, but VERY reduced, until a point where you will be able to walk in the gatling spread laughing.

AA also helps a lot for swarms of low damage mobs like monkeys or ribbons. EA has a 1 second timer before it detonates, so you have to survive the assault during this second.

Arctic Armor has a HUGE drain of mana. The drain while moving is augmented by Inner Force and ADDED to the drain while not moving so take care when you level up this gem.

While AA will protect you for small hits, it won t do shit versus big physical hits like rhoas, brutus, elite soldiers charges etc. 2 solutions, stack boring crap ton of HP or dodge them with quicksilver. The high attack speed of the bow allows you to kite, hit and run, so if you take rhos/soldier/brutus/vaal hits, it s your fault, or a desynch :p
Furthermore, a quality arctic armor will give you a runspeed buff, wich really helps.

Countering the ele reflect :

As a lot of you may know, this build can molest your char on ele reflects mobs.
The solution i have : Ruby flasks...simple huh ?
Not really tht simple in fact. depending on the type of mobs, you ll have to learn how much damage you ll do to them and adapt. A pack of merveil spawn or zombies will take an INSANE damage from you due to their inexistant fire resist, and thus, reflect you an equal insane damage. goats or skeletons will reflect less damaage, but still enough to kill you (one shot you) if the pack is big enough.
Don t be shy, and each time you see a ele reflect pack, USE A RUBY flask !!! Cant insist enough on this. It s you key to survive this.

Then, there s the offscreen reflect...well don t know what to say about this honestly. You will die against these. You can still use a preventive ruby flask when you blast out range but still it s very dangerous. You can also try to get a quill rain with the minimum of projectile speed to shoot less far and diminish to chance to hit off screen reflect.


Playstyle of the build :

First of all, i can show you my stats and items.

DPS : not really relevant at all but here you go. Defense, can be intersting to see where it can go with poor stuff like i have.



Then the stuff :




You might think blah blah it requires a 6L, but NO ! 5 and 6 links are for the fluff. You will be able to ONE SHOT most of the low level map bosses ( When i say one shot, i mean 5 stacks + curse and burning), with a level 20 EA most of the mob pack will die simply with the explosion.

Quill Rain : Best bow you can have for this build. I use it for a single target focused arrow.

Carcass JAck : HP,all resist, mana, radius + aoe damage...what else :) This is where i put my AoE oriented EA. Using LMP will destroy packs of mobs, and somewhat reduce the damage of each individual explosions, making off screen reflect a bit less dangerous.

RainbowStride : LOT of mana, all resist, RS. No HP but it allow me to level Arctic Armor 1 or 2 level higher wich counter the lack of HP honestly.

All rares : Random low level stuff. Most of them were found in meciless ledge. Amulet is very good tho. Wearing an astramentis is very good to, but i would loose a bit of fire resist, wich i want to overcap at all cost.
As you can see, nothing amazing on rare items. No godly ones. My goal is to replaced the helmet with a +HP high ES one to go even further with AA, and the gloves can be updated easily.

i might consider a Dream Fragment at some point, for even more mana but still waiting to drop one :(



As for the way to play the build, it s a bit different of the other i think. What makes me really love this skill is you have to "dose" you attacks. EA can stack 1 to 5 fuses, but you don t need to go to 5 every time. You have to learn and remember wich mobs need X number of stack to die. Open maps like died lake, you will need more stacks than a crypt maps potentially, because lost arrows will detonate on wall and damage enemies.

I really think it s one of the most fast paced build i tried. Very active, run all the time for your life, count the stacks in your head, curse with flammability before the arrow explode, shoot an other pack of mob while the first one is burning, pull more into the inferno ele proli created with ded corpses on the ground, cast/uncast arctic armor to handle mana regen etc etc.


My point of view on Elemental Equilibrium

I know a lot of EA user that take this keystone. I really hate it personnaly. EA itself already deals a crazy amount of damage, you don t need to add EE to kill fast. And worst, it destroys your damage in most of the cases. You can t team with an other fire user, or someone with anger aura. You can t have add fire damage on your gear or it will kill the fun.

Double curse can be something to consider tho. Don t forget that fire pen or flammability curse helps A LOT on the damage. ddebuffing mobs's resists is really good.


One thing you might want to avoid also, is the +fire dmg on gear. First for EE if you really want to use it, but also for the reaction of the mobs from burning.
With a 20% quality EA + 43% (i think) to ignite on hit, most of the mobs will start to flee because they burn and poliferate a stupid dot created by you initial arrow, before the explosion. It can be a safe way to play, as mobs won t aggro you while fleeing, but i really think it s boring most of the time. Serpent construct for exemple, when they burn it s a nightmare :p They run everywhere, and unstack themselves, making the detonation to hit less mobs.



I think i have said pretty much everything i wanted to say about the build. Not a glass canon build, not tank, but a very mobile and fun way to play imo.

I hope the text is readable, and it can helps some of you to try and play this :)

have fun !

Great and complete guide !
I'm going to try EA some time and I saw a BM witch thread but the
passive tree links didn't work.
Yours is a great alternative.Not taking EE makes your gameplay very easy
also.I see that you spent a lot of points in mana reduction so probably you
don't have mana issues.
I dropped Cloak of Flame in a map so I have one of the two basic uniques.
Quill Rain is cheap also.

So... Bookmarked and to be tested :)

"

Slagmaur wrote:

Great and complete guide !
I'm going to try EA some time and I saw a BM witch thread but the
passive tree links didn't work.
Yours is a great alternative.Not taking EE makes your gameplay very easy
also.I see that you spent a lot of points in mana reduction so probably you
don't have mana issues.
I dropped Cloak of Flame in a map so I have one of the two basic uniques.
Quill Rain is cheap also.

So... Bookmarked and to be tested :)

Thanks, glad it helped !

And yes, i have mana issues. Counting the 22% reduction cost, my Aoe cost 140 mana per arrow. I sometimes have to turn off arctic armor (lvl 12 one). 50% regen maps : forget AA and go slowly to regen between each packs :)

Thx for the guide bro, will definitely give it a try somedays.

Quill Rain will eat your mana alive. I ran Quill Rain with blood magic and it ate my health like it was nothing. That with high health leech/regeneration. keep that in mind when playing with Quill Rain.

"

deadlylag wrote:

Quill Rain will eat your mana alive. I ran Quill Rain with blood magic and it ate my health like it was nothing. That with high health leech/regeneration. keep that in mind when playing with Quill Rain.

Yes, i also rtied a blood magic templar version of this build but there s a lot of downside to it :

-no auras, or at least not vitality/purity/clarity/grace/discipline like i have

-Very risky. 140 mana per shot, at roughly 4 shot/seconds = 500+ life wasted per attack session.

Blood Magic can be an alternative, but even more risky than my build i believe :)

I'm having a blast as a Explosive Arrow Witch.

My current gear:



And build:



Updated gear, take a look! :D

It's probably a noob question but why Quill Rain is the best bow for this build ?

I like your build but there are two things I dont understand here.

1.) Why not link AA to Reduce Mana and just use portal scrolls? Would this not let you level it alittle higher?

2.) You so freaking close to double totem's? And puting AE on Ranged Attack totems will stop you from geting killed by Reflect right?

This are just the two questions I have.

Edit: I'm just thinking mybe seting up the aoe AE on ranged totems and keep the single target for bosses on yourself. Would this help at all with Reflect?

"

Leminorair wrote:

It's probably a noob question but why Quill Rain is the best bow for this build ?

Because EA stacks 5 arrows and then kaboom !
With QR insane APS you stack those 5 arrows way faster than with any normal bow.
Also the less damage on it doesn't affect EA.

"

Balthizar1903 wrote:

I like your build but there are two things I dont understand here.

1.) Why not link AA to Reduce Mana and just use portal scrolls? Would this not let you level it alittle higher?

2.) You so freaking close to double totem's? And puting AE on Ranged Attack totems will stop you from geting killed by Reflect right?

This are just the two questions I have.

Edit: I'm just thinking mybe seting up the aoe AE on ranged totems and keep the single target for bosses on yourself. Would this help at all with Reflect?

2.If you put EA on a Totem it doesn't work as it should.
Totems stop attacking when you cast another totem or when destroyed.
EA needs up to 5 stacks of arrows to get the biggest possible damage.
The totem won't stop at 5.