[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

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

is PA going to be nerf soon?!

Unlikely.

From Rory:

"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.

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."

"

Serleth wrote:

Unlikely.

From Rory:

"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.

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."

Still scary thought for a guy who hasnt even used it long enough to enjoy it lol

"

Xexist wrote:

Still scary thought for a guy who hasnt even used it long enough to enjoy it lol

poison arrow builds are strong, and they're mostly great because you can build super tanky while keeping all the damage, but its pretty boring.

i often don't find myself playing my PA char at all because its just...so meh

I don't get how people can think PA is boring.

One pack is dead before I even have a chance to fire my next arrow.

Oh, and the map is done in 3 minutes.