Tanky and affordable quill rain CoC! (Updated to 1.2.0)

Thanks for the informative response. I'll keep fiddling with it as a side project.

Hey, I've been leveling a Ranger up to try this build, and saving up for a Tabula for once I get to around level 60, but do you know how viable it would be to link up a six link on Quill Rain to Lighting Arrow+GMP+Chain+Curse on Hit+Poacher's+Assassin's? Rather than using Frenzy, of course. I don't know whether or not anything else as a trigger would work, maybe you could use frenzy, or split arrow.

Also, how would it work if you used Maligaro's as your gloves and got more resists on your belt instead?

Actually. I was thinking that you could probably do something like Flame Totem+GMP+CoC+Blind+Poachers+Assassins. Maybe that would be better overall.

Hi there,

why iron reflexes and not acrobatics?

greetz

"

do you know how viable it would be to link up a six link on Quill Rain to Lighting Arrow+GMP+Chain+Curse on Hit+Poacher's+Assassin's?

Heh, I've been thinking of quite a similar thing and started using it already. I mean, you need dual curse for those two curses, but I don't have a 6l Quill Rain yet (if I had, I'd take off the Tabula for a better chest).

Atm, my 5l Quill Rain hosts Frenzy - GMP - Chain - Curse On Hit - Assassin's Mark, quite similar to what you suggested. The GMP+Chain means it penetrates quite deeply into packs, Curse on Hit has (on higher levels) nice increased curse effect, and if you tag every pack once with this attack, you will automatically sustain frenzy charges.
That said, I'd rather use ele weakness (or maybe Frostbite if you go pure Ice Spear + AB) than Poacher's Mark in most cases.

Poacher's Mark is an insane curse, and the life/mana gain on hit is exactly what this build wants. However, you cannot rely on it since you might meet curse immune rares/packs/maps, and you'd run out of mana instantly. The life gain is a pretty nice survivability boost, so if you really need it you could use that (like, have a second 6l Quill Rain with 1 more green instead of blue socket in weapon swap... or just manually cast it), but compared to other curses the benefits aren't huge enough. Sustaining frenzy charges is easy enough if you're using a bow, 4/5 of your flasks recharge on crit and thus are always full (and I'm only using my Diamond Flasks in dire situations or on bosses, so it's full when I need it anyway).

But yes, the plan for my char currently is to get a corrupted rare amulet with +1 curse to use that. I mean, after I 6l a quill rain and can use something else than Tabula...

"

Also, how would it work if you used Maligaro's as your gloves and got more resists on your belt instead?

I considered that, Maligaro's is a really powerful item. But I'm not sure if you'll easily find a better belt than Doryani's invitation. It doesn't have 90+ resists, but the increased cold damage, life leech, massive armor and freeze chance during your (permanently up) flasks is such a good deal that a rare upgrade would likely cost many, many ex. Which I simply don't have atm.

"

why iron reflexes and not acrobatics?

Well, I've tried acrobatics on multiple (ranger) chars now, and every time the game felt so much easier when I specced out of it and into IR. I mean, IR also makes your gear choices a little less limited and the duelist armor nodes useful, and it means you won't get oneshotted remotely as easy (24k armor with constant jade flask is more than 40% reduction to incoming phys damage for all but the biggest damage sources).

Aside from that, you really can't use Acrobatics and Unwavering Stance together. You could use Eye of Chayula (or Kaom's Roots, lol) to get stun immunity without removing evasion, but that makes the resistance (and life) requirements on the remaining gear even harsher (and also keep in mind that with the recent %life nerf for the entire tree, the Chayula penalty hits even harder). I mean, theoretically you could probably also play this build way less "facetanky" than I do (and built for) and just ignore stun immunity, but there's more to stun immunity than just being able to attack without interruption: The entire desync story hits you incredibly hard if you're not stun immune. Don't underestimate how many deaths to stun-desync you can avoid with unwavering stance.

thanks for the answers, really helping.

How do you deal with high life elemental resist bosses? EK? elemental weakness?

...I just shoot them. High resists means they take (at worst) only 25% of the outgoing damage. That's fine.

If you can, you should try to go into melee range with them, so all your GMP spells actually hit the boss ("shotgun"). It's not always the best (or easiest, in the case of mobs that like to wander around) choice, but it means 5/5 projectiles hit instead of only 1 to 3/5.

sorry just read the updated OP, all my questions are answered.

Very detailed and well written build, thanks!

PS: what about romiras banquet? http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Romira%27s_Banquet

Hey, would appreciate it if you could include your gear, so I can see what I should generally be aiming for. Thanks!

"

lui36000 wrote:

sorry just read the updated OP, all my questions are answered.

Very detailed and well written build, thanks!

PS: what about romiras banquet? http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Romira%27s_Banquet

Thanks!

I cannot use Romira's Banquet because I'm already using Thief's Torment as a very core element of the build.

"

sybren9 wrote:

Hey, would appreciate it if you could include your gear, so I can see what I should generally be aiming for. Thanks!

It's already included.

woops, must have missed it. Thanks!