[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

I haven't decided yet. In part because I'm waiting to see what new gems might come out.

I'm also going to test a couple different variants of things in the couple weeks for existing skills.

I can say definitely crit FT with Sire of Shards is about on pace with clear speed with PA, so that's the leading choice for now as much as I hate Flame Totem.

PA will probably be fine though. The only thing I can see them doing immediately is changing the quality on PA to damage rather than AoE coverage, and reverting the 10% buff they gave it during Beta.

Usually meta builds last for at least 2 challenge leagues. So I anticipate we'll be fine for the next bit.


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Edit: Looks like PA's going to be untouched. But don't take it to the bank.

From Reddit:

Greendude:

"

Any reason why you guys didn't opt to make Poison Arrow part of this new system and instead removing old buffs like Projectile Damage %?

It makes much more sense to scale a "poison cloud" with % poison damage than it is with % projectile damage since the cloud is not a projectile.

I feel like the projectile damage buff to PA was more a temporary bandage to allow the build to become viable, but now we have the full blown poison element supported. Thoughts?

And Rory's response:

"

There were a few reasons, my personal main reason was that people are using and enjoying Poison Arrow at the moment; A mechanical rework would cause confusion and potential dismay if players build for the old mechanics without realizing the new options that are available to them.

There are other reasons like problems with Poison stacking with poison arrow clouds, the values we wanted to put on Poison passives, and more.

We're adding general support for Damage over Time and Chaos Damage that will apply to Poison Arrow as well, for those that want to invest in the skill further.

In other words, it looks like the implication here is that with the changes to Poison as described in yesterday's manifesto post, they're probably going to leave PA (the gem itself) untouched while they balance out the differences between chaos and poison damage; PA gets an indirect buff by having more support options.

So they'll give us a chance to investigate poison/chaos damage in general and then rebalance afterwards.

At least that's my interpretation. Don't quote me.

Hey Serleth, just I've updated some more of my gear. I'm now using a +3 6l Thicket with a lvl2 empowered. My PA shows 14367.8 chaos damage per second. I think I'm at the point where I need to start investing in some life% gems and removing some of the life nodes from my tree, what do you think would be my best route from this point?



Not the best bow. I wish it had dual resist, but it does get the job done. I figure I can scour it later and add resist to it when I build up some more currency

Yeah not a bad plan, you have two jewel slots to work with. Insofar as you get jewels with minimum life + one damage roll or life and one resistance so you can start moving out of the scion resistance nodes or clotch & chain and transfer them over to the projectile damage side.

Ideally you'd get tri-affix to make that even more worthwhile (obviously) and allow you to start switching points into the frenzy charges as well. You're definitely on the right track with your planning.

I am about level 53 or so in act 3 Cruel, I feel very... weak, not just in squishiness (which I am) but I am not 'feeling' the power I was expecting to. Things just dont melt and die instantaneously like I was expecting. I mean they die fairly quick, but not quick enough to prevent them getting a hit or two in. Now I realize I am bother underleveled, probably undergeared, but I do at least have a 4L +2 bow and I just expected the dmg output to be higher. I am right about the 1000 dps from poison dmg. I *do* have the +dmg clusters already.

Is my expectations unrealistic here or does the damager really ramp up alot in later levels? or is it simply that it doesnt get feasible until you are running the 5L with empower?

Am I missing something?

(This is not a criticism at all, genuinely curious)

Can you unlock your characters so I can see them and analyze gear / tree?

Hank and El got it covered.

Damage actually ramps up latter. Pa starts off by not gaining much, but as levels go along it starts gaining more and more to the point where you start seeing later one that even gaining a level in it is a massive boost. The trade off is that earlier levels are not as good.

If you can get empower at level 3 which should cost you about 1 ex (assuming you are on standard) then I'd advise you to do so. You'll notice a huge difference.

"

Xexist wrote:

4L +2 bow

I would purchase an iLevel 64+ white, 5-link bow (I got one for 1c in the 1M league) and then transmute + alt/aug until you get +2 to socketed bow gems (I believe that this costs, on average, about 60ish alts - I got very lucky and got it on alt #5). Moving from 4-link to 5-link will help a bit.

But as Elhazzared notes, PA damage is OK but not spectacular until you level the gem and augment the damage with a +3 bow/empower/drillneck.

You can, however, substantially boost damage while leveling if you're willing to (temporarily) forgo magic find.

To do this, purchase a Hidden Potential jewel (I paid 13c for a +21 jewel which I later managed to divine into +24) and then equip a bunch of magic items. This is what I did on my character DarkFog. In case you're interested, this is DarkFog's gear:

With all those magic items, each kicking in 20 to 25% increased damage (I'm getting 8 * 24 = 192% increased damage - 92% better than drillneck!, at a fraction of drillneck cost), you can do very nice DPS with junk gear even with a 5-link, +2 bow. And by making sure to get high life and high resist on most of your magic items your character will have high life and capped resists (if you decide to do this, leave your bow magic, don't regal it into a rare).

Note: Since your profile is set to private, we cannot see your gear/gems/tree. Consider setting your profile to public for best advice.

But...
You won't be able to magic find at all with such a setup.

In a 3-month league I probably wouldn't use Hidden Potential unless I was pushing for levels beyond 85 because the loss of magic find is not worth it. But in the 1-month I went this route because I was much more interested in simply getting 20/20 challenges as fast as possible even at the expense of magic find.

Hey,

maybe you can give me some advice? What should be my next step regarding to items?

Currently i am using this:



and bought this:



What should ne my next step?

Furthermore: Does Chaos Damage count as Elemental Damage? Therefore, would it make sense to take the node "Trickery" ?

What Gem would you take away if you want to use Item Quantity? Increased Effect of Area?

Greets

Big thanks to those that responded. I am in the 1M league. Will take the advice into consideration :)

"

frky wrote:

Hey,

maybe you can give me some advice? What should be my next step regarding to items?

Spoiler

Currently i am using this:

and bought this:

What should ne my next step?

Furthermore: Does Chaos Damage count as Elemental Damage? Therefore, would it make sense to take the node "Trickery" ?

What Gem would you take away if you want to use Item Quantity? Increased Effect of Area?

Greets

For your gear: depends on how much quantity you want to stick with and if you want to sacrifice survivability to get it done.

If you want full res balance + MF, you need a rare tri res chest or Carcass Jack, dual Andvarius rings, a rare tri res belt, and rare gloves with dual res and rarity.

You will probably need to find room for intelligence on either your amulet, helmet, or glove slots. +20 should more than cover it.

For the bow, if you want to craft one like mine:



* Multimod
* Two resistances
* Leo DoT