[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

Guys, thoughts on how to change up items in this build to make it good in teamplay?

I'm assuming it would just be switching out MF gear for tankier and more damaging gear.

EDIT: also sorry if this has already been asked, but have you guys thought of including some sort of CwDT set up like Ice Shot, Temporal Chains etc.?

For SC, I do a cwdt vulnerability setup.

There isn't much you do to adjust for teamplay, though you would need to set up a culling skill, probably Flame Totem - IIR - Faster Proj - Culling Strike in order to MF while in parties.

Without spoiling the final boss fight of A4, it's important to note (for now) that degen skills don't work on a specific section of the fight. Hopefully this is fixed for release but as of right now if you plan on going PA as early as possible (early to mid A4N), you will definitely need a Flame Totem in order to get it done.

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Serleth wrote:

I might take Lumps idea and recommend EK/FT until then. We'll see. I want to finish out the "I'm going to insist on leveling with bow skills"-leveling guide first, then reroll and test it all out so I can put the official Serleth stamp on things.

Yeah, I might do the same, even though it feels weird lvling a ranger that way...but if we plan to switch to PA early, I guess it doesn't matter if we start EK/FT.

I haven't looked here in a few days, but you basically granted my wish of a final jewel based build. Thanks for all of your hard work.

I started testing another new character, this time using Flame Totem + EK (I did not use Fire Trap because I felt it really was not needed with this combination, everything died extremely fast) and so far it feels much better for boss fights, killing them faster using the flame totem (fingers crossed for no nerf!).

It was much faster this route for me than the traditional bow route both times that I did it, even when I did not use the flame totem. I was going at a pretty leisurely pace and hit level 21 in about an hour,not too bad. And from there it is an enjoyable experience leveling with EK all the way up to ~50 (probably even 64 is fine to try to just go straight for a +2 bow or if you do not find a 3 or 4 link +1 gems bow) with the exception of the longer than average boss fights.

One thing that really sped it up for me was like Lumps said dual wielding daggers (or a dagger and a scepter) that had added elemental damage to spells on them. I think I found two decent ones around level 30 (I just dual wielded wands with elemental damage to spells on them before that) (just one decent mod with damage to spells is enough to have a fast clear) and this allowed me to use whirling blades to travel and to clear much faster

With that I think I have my leveling planned out, going to test a bit of the higher content now to see if I can find any suggestions for that.

Perfect, thanks for your feedback, Raven.

I suspect that Lumps' leveling route, or a hybrid variation, is the one that we'll end up recommending. It's a bit clunky doing the bow recipes, though it is doable.

You have to go to Nessa to buy them but:

Confirmed. Mara can mule both EK and Flame Totem.

I've seen the bossfights, what part of the last one is not working with PA?

you can put that in spoiler tags if you like ^^

I'm surfing on the EK-FT wave, easy as cake with dual daggers / wands and 2 mana pots. Whirling Blades is a nice side effect for the rather slow movement in normal, also you wouldn't need to look for MS boots at all.

But I think I'm taking a break now 'till Friday, fresh motivation :)

thank you, your bug report got a bump :D

I have tested my lvling idea yesterday (had only 2-3 hours yesterday so finished at piety) and as i think taht even after the lightning tendrils (LT) nerf, firetrap + LT feels opieOP and IMO is the fastest way to lvl (it is so good i even think i might lvl with it till late 50).

The idea is to have both fire trap and LT in separate +1fire and +1lightning wands/sceptres (sceptres would be better if u have enogh strenght (agate amulet!) since elemental damage scales with both explosion and burning ground of fire trap while spell damage works only for explosion).

links would be:
fire trap - Trap and Mine Damage (Sharp and Cruel) - fire pen (if u can get one)
LT - Added cold (we unfortunately dont get nice gems to support LT it would be good to get Faster Casting and added lighting but Added Cold for extra CC is ok.

Progress:
- You need to make a mule witch to kill hillock (pickup white items from hillock and chests on your way to have extra scrolls of wisdom), buy LT and Firetrap, check vendors for +1wands/sceptres and int amu
*You need to get int amu ASAP (and by asap i mean like lvl 2-3 would be best) to be able to lvl LT smoothly
- Make a ranger check vendors for +1wands/sceptres and int amu
- If u didnt get +1 weapon (and u did not :P) equip 2 wand put gems anywhere.
- Starting from Shipyard Graveyard (lvl 11 area) u can drop res rings (and since u get lvl 11 u can buy them from Nessa) Get 1 Topaz/1 Sapphire ring ASAP to do +1 Recipe (Magic Wand/Sceptre + ring + 1alt)
-Since now u are melting machine.
-Do Chambers 1st to get Herald of Ice and Thunder

Things to consider:
- You need to go this way on the skill tree to have sufficient int. (It is the same pathing we have in final PA build)
- You need to do 2 passive points quest to have enough int at lvl 20+.
- You need 2 flasks of mana to be able to sustain it (Or get clarity if u can)
- Spec into more int if needed.

Now why i think this is the best way to lvl. With EK you need to constantly look for a better weapon and chain belt to make it better and better. With Firetrap+LT you get +1 weapons and you can forget about upgrading them untill starting maps + it is melting both bosses and normal monsters really fast.

Edit: Added info about skill tree being same as we want for PA