[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

Musings of a Wayward Magic Finder

Read sections of interest. Skip the rest :-)

Why wayward? Well, I've been playing a Dual Incinerate Totem Magic Finder lately, for variety, and in case Poison Arrow is nerfed. Don't tell Serleth!

Darkshrine League:
Spoiler

After reading the GGG announcement about Darkshrine I was underwhelmed - seemed like a bunch of recycled content with no cool rewards/challenges.

But I decided to give it a go... and it's a blast.

The Darkshrines are really cool. You sacrifice a rare item in a Darkshrine and then various outcomes occur depending on the affix selected from the rare you offered. Among the cool things that might happen:

* An item in your inventory becomes 20 quality. I've gotten nearly all my gems to q20 this way.
* Dailies are reset. I've sped up Master leveling quite a bit in this fashion.
* One of the Warbands tribes spawns in your instance. GGG seems to have up-ed the loot dropped by Warband members. This outcome is nice b/c it means quite a bit more loot.
* All unequipped items in your inventory are scoured. For each rare that's scoured, an alch drops; for each magic item that's scoured, a transmute drops. Use this to mass scour and generate alchs for item level 75+ jewelry.
* Other cool outcomes are also possible.


Procurement:
Spoiler

The Procurement program was designed to help make trading in POE easier. When run, Procurement scans your inventory and stash and then allows you to update your trade thread in the POE forums. It even has the capability to bump your thread if you want.

Initially, I was skeptical about Procurement. I read somewhere that it scans all your tabs across all leagues and if you have a lot of tabs it takes forever to run.

In practice this isn't true; Procurement is configurable. You can adjust it to scan just the stash tabs you want it to scan. You can also configure it to scan/update just for one league or as many leagues as you like. Finally, it can auto-price items based on stash tab; for example, if you organize your stash tabs by buyout price, you can simply drop new items into the appropriate tab, run Procurement and have it bump your thread. Trading couldn't be easier.

To get procurement to work in this fashion you'll probably need a bit of programming/web scripting savvy. Procurement stores its settings in XML files. You'll want to edit the XML files to get it to work the way you want.

Edit Settings.xml to configure which league(s) and stash tabs it should scan.
Edit Buyouts.xml to set buyout prices for each tab.

Procurement even works if you log in using Steam. It does this by using a session ID to access the forums.

If you're interested in Procurement, there's a forum thread for it located here.


Dual Incinerate Totem Magic Finding:
Spoiler

Awhile ago there was some discussion in this thread about alternative Magic Finding builds in case Poison Arrow is nerfed in the next major patch.

It now looks as if Poison Arrow will probably survive the patch largely unscathed so the following discussion about Dual Incinerate Totem (DIT) magic finding isn't as useful as it otherwise might have been.

I've been playing DIT magic find in Darkshrine since the league began. It's a blast; so long as you don't mind the totem playstyle I recommend giving it a shot for variety.

DPS is very nice. My tooltip DPS with level 21 Incinerate gems is just over 7K. But because of the way Incinerate works (4 stages, each successive stage adding 100% of base damage) and because it's a dual totem build, the actual DPS is somewhat over 56K.

Needless to say, clear speed is very nice. I haven't benchmarked this build against my Poison Arrow character but I'd say the two builds are very comparable in terms of clear speed and magic finding effectiveness.

I describe my DIT character "TwoTotems_" underneath Fendril's Dual Incinerte Totem thread. My post is here; the post begins with the words "Let's hope this build remains viable."

Advantages of DIT Magic Find:
* You can swap out of magic find gear and perhaps respec a bit to achieve incredibly high life, armor and DPS (the DPS really jumps with appropriate gear). This might allow you to more easily kill very high level bosses (for example, if an achievement/challenge requires you to do so).
* Dual Flame Totem can be used to level pretty much eliminating the need to respec once you switch to your main skill (Spell Totem + Incinerate).
* High DPS
* High life regeneration. This makes it possible to completely ignore degeneration ground effects.
* Reconfigure for Righteous Fire - if you want to drop magic find and go all out nuts for DPS, you can regear/respec for Dual Incinerate Totems plus Righteous Fire. Needless to say, DPS is crazy high. But you lose a lot of survivability doing this; I tried this briefly and didn't like it.
* Totems - playstyle is very safe making it easy to level while magic finding.

Drawbacks of DIT Magic Find:
* Totems - some people hate this playstyle.
* Probably needs a 6-link to work - In softcore you could just use a Tabula until you get a nice 6-link chest. But in hardcore, you probably wouldn't want to do this.
* Harder to gear than Poison Arrow - you need a q20 Incinerate Totem, Rain of Splinters jewel, and a 6-link.

At any rate, if you're looking to play a different magic find character, either for variety, or, hypothetically speaking, because Poison Arrow is nerfed (again it doesn't look like this will happen), DIT is very nice; but, the nerf-hammer could hit Incinerate in the next major patch, so DIT may or may not be viable in the future.

So which do I like better? Poison Arrow or DIT?

Well, I like both, actually. Because of gearing issues, I think Poison Arrow is the better choice for Magic Find at the moment. But DIT is really fun too if you can overcome gearing issues and if you like totem builds.
Last edited by hankinsohl#1231 on Nov 22, 2015, 6:11:38 AM
"
kazeshinii wrote:
Can i really get the +2 to level of socketed bow gems on this bow? i paid 2c on it and the ilv is 69 but i used more than 50 alts and i can't get the +2 to level of socketed bow gems stats.



After seeing your post I relized how lucky I am. I bought a normal 5l ilvl 69, then got +2 bow gems mod by only 1 transmutation orb :D
But Leo's DoT craft mod stops at 15% , sadly :((

Btw, ty for your guide Serleth. I'll follow your build on next league.
Thanks, maple =)

And once again hank, your contributions here are always appreciated. Solid post, bud.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
"
Serleth wrote:
And once again hank, your contributions here are always appreciated. Solid post, bud.

Thanks Serleth.
"
dMo87 wrote:
Hi Max,

I use this Build i the Darkshrine league, so i might be able to give you some tips.

First of all (depending on your budget) try to either 6L your +3 Bow or buy a 6L and transfer your PA Combo to the bow. The Cloud-DMG significantly profits from the +3 boost. Second I would loose either IIR or IIQ gem in your 6L combo and replace it with inc AOE.

The next step is to optimize your cursing. like written in the guide either use a CwDt + Vulnerability + IC + ID Combo, or try cursing manually. Either way you need a Vulnerability gem which means you gotta lose Enfeeble.

My gem setup looks the following atm:
Spoiler



Note that i am leveling another Poison arrow in case corrupting goes wrong and Empower offslot till i finally get a 6L.

For further infos on gems look into the "Gems & Links" section of the guide which would be a good start to begin with.

Regarding your skill tree I would recommend reading the "Level 89 Tree and Analysis of Why We Go Jewel-Based" section of the guide.

Edit: I forgot to mention that you shouldn't wreck your 5L if you are not sure to get either 5L or 6L - but that should be taken for granted...





Thanks for your reply i have updated my skill tree and gems and 6l my bow.
i find the build is a bit slow on killing and moving quick any chance of upgrading any thing on the build and getting more rarity with more life?

Spoiler



Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAwIAAF4A7gMeBS0FtQX5BiMILgzyD6sVIBa_GYoZjhm0G8gfQSP2JIsmlSpNKlss6S2DLlMwfDWSNj031D7PPydDMUM2RwZHfkkTSshNklFHUq9S7FVLWhph4mKsZU1n_GwIbIxtbG5pbqp07XXLdoJ59n11hMWE2YazieCMNo19jX6Nv5MflwabJpuNm7WdqqEiokC0xbTRtfK7TbvjvTa95r6nwuzDM8M6xKLIDM2Y0NDTb9N-1fjYvdrB2-fdX-OE5ljo1upi6xTtP-2D73rxivT49qP-ug==
Last edited by max1982#6617 on Nov 23, 2015, 3:45:06 PM
I'm a relatively new player, so I have some questions.

I had this ranger left over from when I played a year or so back, so I decided to spend a couple lucky finds from my Witch and buy some gear for it. I'm not left with much, so I'm hoping I can get this working.

My tree is a bit screwed up because I started following someone else's guide, then switched to this one. But I don't think it's a total loss, I do have 11 orb of regret (and 3 refund points I can pick up from quests I haven't done yet) if I really must use them.

Hopefully my ranger is viewable to the public, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Questions:

1. Since I don't have a 6L (and I doubt I'll be getting one any time soon, on standard the cheapest 6L white bows are still many exalts) I have to run a culling strike+IIR for bosses. I'm trying flame totem right now, but I'm not impressed with its performance: there's too much of a delay between casting it and it firing. Could I run another lower level Poison Arrow linked to the culling+IIR? If I did this, does the "new" poison cloud replace the old one? (ie. am I guaranteed that the new poison cloud will cull the boss, instead of the old one killing it?)

2. At present, with 6 frenzy charges up, my tooltip DPS is only 10k. I would really appreciate some suggestions on what I need to improve.

3. I can't manage to get RGGBB on my bow. So I'm running: PA + fproj + Empower(lvl2) + sproj + conc. Would I be better off running a different skill combo in the bow?

4. Blood Rage vs. Frenzy: you say to run both. I'm trying that. However, my life regen is JUST shy of the Blood Rage degen. I'm not seeing anywhere close that I can pick up even 0.4% life regen. Suggestions?

5. I should NOT pick up piercing nodes until I can afford a Drillneck, correct? And a 6L should be a priority over Drillneck, yes?

Thanks!
@Max

You need to put your PA setup IN the bow, buddy. You're missing out on like... 7-10k dps probably? Because neither your PA nor your Empower are taking advantage of the +gem levels.

Drop Sadima's for rare gloves with life / IIR.

Amulet needs replacing with something similar, with life.

Switch to a leather belt instead of rustic.

Pretty basic stuff.

Tree looks fine though you can spec out of the ranger 10% proj nodes for scion life if you find you're lacking in survivability.

Also if you pick up Soul Siphon you won't need a mana flask at all. That will let you get a second Quicksilver in that slot which will improve you movement around maps.

"
SpidaFly wrote:
1. Since I don't have a 6L (and I doubt I'll be getting one any time soon, on standard the cheapest 6L white bows are still many exalts) I have to run a culling strike+IIR for bosses. I'm trying flame totem right now, but I'm not impressed with its performance: there's too much of a delay between casting it and it firing. Could I run another lower level Poison Arrow linked to the culling+IIR? If I did this, does the "new" poison cloud replace the old one? (ie. am I guaranteed that the new poison cloud will cull the boss, instead of the old one killing it?)

2. At present, with 6 frenzy charges up, my tooltip DPS is only 10k. I would really appreciate some suggestions on what I need to improve.

3. I can't manage to get RGGBB on my bow. So I'm running: PA + fproj + Empower(lvl2) + sproj + conc. Would I be better off running a different skill combo in the bow?

4. Blood Rage vs. Frenzy: you say to run both. I'm trying that. However, my life regen is JUST shy of the Blood Rage degen. I'm not seeing anywhere close that I can pick up even 0.4% life regen. Suggestions?

5. I should NOT pick up piercing nodes until I can afford a Drillneck, correct? And a 6L should be a priority over Drillneck, yes?


1. No, degenerative skills can't cull. That's the reason why we go with Flame Totem. Culling requires a "hit", and degen effects don't hit. Attacks and most spells do.

2. The central damage increases for the build are gem level (hence the +3 bow and Empower), and Drillneck. So until you can get a +3 bow pretty much you just gotta keep leveling that Empower. And of course the usual node stuff on the tree. Like you say your tree's not that bad off, if you switch your pathing through the Scion Eva wheel down to duelist, spec out of Charisma and the eva/life nodes adjacent to it, you'll end up with around a net +4 extra points to use which can carry you to the more efficient scion life and get you another jewel socket for damage affixes.

3. No.

4. None. That's how the build functions. You use seething two hallowed life flasks for your proper healing during battles and an eternal catalyzed flask for situations where you have more time and can afford a more prolonged recovery and to combat the BR degen.

The frenzy gem setup is largely to curse bosses and keep your charges up during prolonged fights. Otherwise blood rage is what sustains your charges precisely so you don't have to stop and use Frenzy. It improves the clear speed. The sacrifice is the slight degen.

5. Correct on both counts.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
Last edited by Serleth#4392 on Nov 23, 2015, 5:34:18 PM
Man, the thread has grown long ^^

Just a heads-up for us Caustic Arrowers: Various feedbacks indicate trouble with tougher enemies for single-target damage. Talisman might have just the medicine we need for that. For tougher fights and / or very mobile mobs, there's perhaps means to simplify the fights:

The new skill "Wither" is said to apply a stacking debuff on enemies in an area, slowing their movement speed and increasing the chaos damage taken. The level one stats of Wither are: -30% movement speed +10% damage taken on affected monsters, that is one stack.
I have not yet figured out the primary and secondary durations, anyone with an idea? The quality bonus is yet to be discovered, too.

IIRC, that 10% chaos damage taken is equal to a 10% more modifier, similar to the one we use from Slower Projectiles and Concentrated Effect.

My plan will be to test the following setup asap:
Spell totem - Wither - Increased Duration - Faster Casting in a neat 4Link. This will hopefully be helpful for either a more fluid levelling (gems not maxed, lower links in bow, not +3 bow with empower) or for faster bosskills in high maps.

Yet we don't know:
- the quality
- how many stacks are applicable with one totem / selfcast
- the scaling with levels

IGN: WildTortillaFart
Last edited by Chronodroid#6060 on Nov 25, 2015, 1:35:23 AM
"
Various feedbacks indicate trouble with tougher enemies for single-target damage.


Source?
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
Enduring cry - when do you use it for defense?

Do you spam it every so often in case of a burst? Only when you see a boss/big pack coming?

Thanks.

Report Forum Post

Report Account:

Report Type

Additional Info