[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

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Serleth wrote:

So yeah. That guy's an idiot. Conc Effect wins, all day.

Thanks for explaining it! I appreciate it a lot :)

One thing I have been trying to do for a while is plan out a version of your (final) tree that's a bit more efficient. One thing we both know is that jewels are incredible, but I don't think you quite go ham enough on them. For example, we take a bunch of +10% projectile damage nodes around the tree, but don't take the jewel node proceeded by two +4% proj damage nodes. If we respec out of those +10% nodes and take the jewel, we only need to get +22% damage on the jewel. Anything beyond that makes it worth it. This is really easy to do, even if you are just crafting your own mediocre jewels.

The same idea translates into other parts of the tree too, although it depends on how good your jewels are. The chaos wheels are all pretty trashy - for example, the Entropy wheel is only giving us 9% damage per point spent. If you spec out of that, you get 5 points. Spec out of Master of the Arena and you have 6 points. Spend those on the two nearby jewel nodes, fit in good jewels, and you can gain something like +10% life in trade for -1% regen while retaining the same or better damage.

There's a lot of weird stuff like that, another thing I managed to do was trade 5% life, and 1% regen for +5% MS and the entire Acrobatics wheel by avoiding method to the madness (and its nearby jewel slot) altogether. It just comes down to how great your jewels are.

Yeah a lot of that min-max efficiency stuff is for pushing beyond level 88. The only reason I don't do it is because this guide is meant to be achievable for decent players with average playtime investment, which typically runs anywhere between level 80 and level 90.

It's the 90+ tree that's able to get that efficiency sorted.

Regen's there for Blood Rage and that's not optional for the way I've put together the guide. If you aren't using BR, then yeah, you can drop MotA but otherwise it stays.

The top right chaos cluster is largely about the intelligence nodes you get on the way, which ends up freeing an affix on jewel slots or gear. You would otherwise need to get int on jewels/gear in order to compensate for the lost intelligence and that means you're sacrificing possible damage/iir/resistance slots. So for the MF build, that's also not optional.


Keep in mind a lot of this guide is to cater to those without as in-depth an understanding of the game and the small tradeoffs they can do to min-max the potential of the build. I'm trying to make the guide as accessible as possible, which means sacrificing some efficiency in order to make it easier to follow and, less expensive. As you say, a lot of it comes down to GG jewels and that gets hefty on the Wraeclastian Savings Account.

Yeah, more points make stuff like the above extra easy, but in the examples I gave I was making sure I wasn't spending anything more than you had already allocated. Still, it makes sense that you want it to be easy to follow and not made just for those with GG jewels.

Is mota really required for blood rage? I know that having it allows you to keep it up without any real degen, but I'm not entirely sure how much -1% degen is actually going to impact us in terms of effective health. I've gotten away with -2 and even -3% degen before, but I've never tried it on a character that can't leach. Maybe you're right and dropping it is too harsh on our hp.

One thing I did see is that we actually could drop the Soul Siphon cluster for the Primal Spirit cluster. We lose -5 MGoK and 3% max mana, but gain +20 int, +20 str, 20% mana regen, and 20% flask charges gained. This is probably a good idea to do even if you don't need the extra stats, but it goes a long way towards fixing any stat issues we might have. We could take it a step further and get the 8% mana node behind it, which allows us to spec out of the 15% stun recovery node behind Heart of Oak.

You literally cannot spec out of the stun recovery node. You need Heart of Oak for the 1% regen, for the same reason dropping MotA isn't an option. There's no other way to get access to Heart of Oak.

When you can't leech, dropping that regen ends up being a big deal when that degen stacks with a crit puncture or you get vuln cursed at the wrong moment, etc. Can't tell you how many times I've dropped to sub-500 health and without the extra regen there for when degenerative effects stack, those last-second saves would be regrettable rips.

It's all about buying time for your flasks, and to keep your flask charges up. Otherwise you'd have to constantly spam at least one life flask.

As for MGoK, it's more of a playstyle preference I guess but if you want to run three life flasks and two utility flasks, then dropping Soul Siphon isn't an option. Just run a 60% reduced recovery map. You'll see why. Without Soul Siphon, you'd need to carry a mana flask with you. If you're running a level 81 map and don't have Soul Siphon for the MGoK, you're forced to drop a granite... which you don't want to do in high tier maps, and that means you'd have to spend chaos rerolling the map. Which ends up being a currency sink. So as you can see, multiple reasons to keep Soul Siphon. But like I said, if you're fine carrying a mana flask instead, then so be it, it's a reasonable option to do as long as you're okay with one less utility flask slot.

You can drop that node because you no longer need Heart of Oak's last node to link up the rest of your tree. Here's the tree, for some visualization:

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwIAAF4A7gMeBS0FtQYjCC4M8g-rFSAWvxmKGY4ZtBvIH0Ej9iSLJJ0mlSpNKlss6S2DLlMwfDWSNj031D7PPydDMUM2RwZHfkkTSshNklFHUq9S7FVLWhpaUmHiYlpirGVNZ_xsCGyMbWxuaW6qdO11y3aCefZ7w311gl6ExYTZhrOJ4I19jX6Nv5MflwabjZu1naqhIqJApcuomrTFtNG18re2u029Nr3mvqfC7MMzwzrEosgM0NDTb9N-1CPV-Ni92sHb591f35jjhOZY6mLtP-2D73rxivT49qP-ug==

You're still keeping the heart of oak notable, you're just swapping out a 15% stun recovery node for an 8% mana node. You can only do this if you go with Primal Spirit instead of Soul Siphon, though.

-60%/no regen maps can be a problem, yes, but I don't think it makes sense to drop 20 str, 20 int, 20% flask charges gained, 20% mana regen, and 5% max mana just so you don't have to go through the effort of swapping one of your life flasks for a mana flask during the rare -60/no regen map run. Especially given we're playing MF anyway, so it's not like we'll be constantly running top tier maps where -60% regen is even possible.

Misinterpreted you there, my bad (re: Oak).

You don't need the strength, nor the flask charges, or the max mana. The regen would only be significantly beneficial and enough to offset the lack of MGoK if you also ran a higher level Clarity, so basically the extra max mana is negated anyway.

So you're pretty much only gaining slightly easier gearing options with the +20 int, compared to not ever needing a mana flask with Soul Siphon. Which when you want to run dual Quicksilvers, as an example, is a drastic improvement on your clear speed. It shaves off literal minutes from maps where you have to backtrack through areas. Even the extra flask charges gained doesn't offset those moments.

With Soul Siphon, the options are much wider. Like how you can run a significantly lower level Clarity, or outdrop DROP Clarity in favour of something like Artic Armour. MGoK also makes running no-regen maps significantly easier. You would need to run a mana flask for emergency situations but you'd barely touch it as long as the pack density was reasonable. Which means charges aren't ever an issue, either. And even with the extra flask charges gained, if you didn't have MgOK, you'd probably want to run two mana flasks just in case you had to spam shots.

Trust me, bud. I've thought this through. The benefits of the MgoK far outweigh Primal Spirit. It just opens up way more options and generally makes life WAY easier than to not have it. The only tradeoff is the intelligence requirement factor. Otherwise Soul Siphon is better in every way possible.

HI, great guide.

I used your build for 1M flashback, and I must say I enjoyed it a lot. I changed a few things, mainly in terms of defence.

- I decided to go with IR and Rearguard instead of acrobatics and Drillneck.
Currently I'm at 13.4k armour, 24% attack block, 12% spell block + Arctic Armour.

- My tooltip cloud dps is 17595 in a +3 bow with lvl 20 PA, lvl 2 Empower, 7 frenzy charges, and fire golem.

- I'm not using Blood Rage to generate and maintain charges, only Frenzy.

- I also decided to use a mana flask instead of investing in mana recovery on tree

- as for MF I'm at 95/301 IIQ/IIR. While using IIQ gem instead of iAoE the area of effect suffers a lot but I plan to counter it with +1 arrow Rearguard in the near future.

nvm

@EvilPayaso you forgot dem boots sir. How do you stack 95% IIQ? Can only see around ~60% on your gears :> just for interest.

I got this build pretty much finished. Currently Im at 68 / 294 pre-flask, and 81 / 348 post flask. Still want to trade some IIQ for some more IIR, propably by getting a new helmet (or should I just leave it like that?). Not sure where the best IIR/IIQ balance sits.

What Im finding most difficult is to keep the Divination flask effect up, as it always recoveres my mana faster than I can spend it (slow bow *sigh*). I mostly just use it for rare mobs and bosses and keep the effect up for ~6 sec by continuously shooting PA. But it’s dangerous as I can’t move.. So Im trying to find a handy solution there to optimize the divination flask usage (suggestions?).

I also chose not to go with Greed’s armour, as the bonus of Carcass Jack is just too good to turn down (12% more damage, 20% fx radius, life, allres, lots of evasion/es and quiete flexible colors).

That’s the tree (Im using an Inspired Learning jewel for fun and some xtra clearspeed)


And my gears look like this. Improvement suggestions are very welcome!

Boots added.

15% form Greed's + 9% from Ventor + 28% from legacy goldwyrm + 43% from 20/20 IIQ gem = 95% iiq