[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

i finally worked up the motivation to level, and while early on it was kind of miserable (leveled as EK, felt so weak) when i hit 54 i put on a 5l thicket bow with +2 gems (that's it) and started laughing in sadistic glee as i one shot every single mob while running past. it's like totems, but they die almost instantly. AHA! HAHAHAHAHAA! anyway, having fun so far. we'll see what the drops are like when i hit maps in 4 levels...:D

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Serleth wrote:

They're probably doing something else with their tree to compensate instead of doing it on gear.

for this reason I specced Mana Flow(duelist start) instead of Soul Siphon(shadow start), it adds another 20 INT which makes gearing a lot easier. I only ~30 INT on gear.
I'm also running Clarity, Grace and AA for the higher tier maps. Only have around 100 mana unreserved but it works fine unless -60% regen. Enlighten is gonna hit level 3 soon. incorporating that should make sustaining even easier.

378 IIR 104 IIQ Talisman softcore - all resist capped 73%+ doing solo maps to T12, Cloud DPS 26k AOE, EQUIP FOR SELL BUT NEED GOT NICE OFFER NO LOWBALLS :) ( contain jewels with resist, IIR and DMG )

Question for OP or other people who are good at theorycrafting with skilltree

I got a drop of the intuitive leap jewel.
Do you think there would be value in putting this in the tree somewhere in a jewel socket?
I would lose a socket for HP/damage but I was thinking perhaps this could make up if I save points elsewhere or get a skill for 1 point instead of 3.
For instance, using it near the acrobatics would allow me to take phase accrobatics for 1 point instead of 4. Not sure thats worthwhile tho but just checking if people have other good ideas.

From what I can see, there's no good use for it for this build.

Even if you wanted to "save" points to get Phase Acro... you'd probably want the extra regular dodge anyway.

The sort of builds that get Phase Acro are Uber builds and HC builds, or if you're REALLY making a push for level 92+. Otherwise it's pointless to get for SC, and even then the only boss that comes to mind where it makes a noticeable difference is Crematorium. Might help for Ambrius, too, but that's about it.

That's my opinion on Phase, anyway.

Thanks Serleth for the Atziri tips, I'll try to improve myself if I got the courage to purchase more Midnights.

For those who have problems with int, there is a simple tip: Do not level Vulnerability and Wither more than level 10. Vulnerability bonus to DOT does not change with level and neither does Wither bonus to DOT. The only advantage of leveling Vulnerability is the duration (you can gain 2s, but in 2s almost every pack is dead anyway). Leveling Wither is a bit better because it increases AOE of Wither and reduce the MS of mobs even more. But there is really no point leveling them to max level. You can easily save 30 int with this advice.

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wichtounet wrote:

But there is really no point leveling them to max level. You can easily save 30 int with this advice.

Good call on Vulnerability.

But quality on Wither gives it increased duration, possibly allowing you to build more wither stacks; so level Wither if you can afford to do so (you'd get q20 Wither by leveling it to 20 and using the recipe).

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hankinsohl wrote:

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wichtounet wrote:

But there is really no point leveling them to max level. You can easily save 30 int with this advice.

Good call on Vulnerability.

But quality on Wither gives it increased duration, possibly allowing you to build more wither stacks; so level Wither if you can afford to do so (you'd get q20 Wither by leveling it to 20 and using the recipe).

For the occasions when you need to use Wither on mobs, you won't really need the extra stacks (with few exceptions, namely Union of Souls).

Further, Wither + Vaal Lightning Trap trivializes the duration.

The maximum level of int you *need* for this build is 111 (Conc, AoE). Anything above that is just gravy.

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Serleth wrote:

The maximum level of int you *need* for this build is 111 (Conc, AoE). Anything above that is just gravy.

Agreed.

But if you have the excess int necessary to level Wither, why not?
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You'd benefit from Wither quality only in cases where the boss (or some really tough rares, I suppose), does not die within 2 seconds (or a bit more if you're using Increased Duration). Then the increased Wither duration may or may not help out depending on how the math goes. It would depend on how fast your spell totem is actually casting Wither (0.25 second base cast time but spells cast by totems have 30% less cast speed and then Faster Casting comes into the mix) and whether you are using Increased Duration as well. I haven't run the numbers... might be interesting to see how it pans out.

Anyhow, if the numbers align, and you do get an extra stack, that's 7% more damage.

And of course there's the possibility that whatever DPS the boss is putting out destroys your spell totem in under 2 seconds in which case the increased duration is all for naught unless you can get a replacement up in time.

Edit:
Frenzy charges likely come into play too, as they'll increase your (and your spell totem's, I believe), cast speed.

If only the quality on Wither has a positive, why don't you simply use a q20 level 1 (or low level) Wither ? They are cheap as hell.