[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

I'm not sure I'd agree with clear speeds over MF even then. I get a LOT more rare drops to turn into chaos recipes than my friends running pure dps builds. The only advantage I can see for the pure DPS builds is the ability to farm uber Atziri for big currency drops - and even that is seriously subject to RNG.

Also, I *like* to find stuff. With this build, I get a lot more of that.

Now if I could only find Tantalo, the little wretch!

Keep an eye on global and trade 820. People will share/sell Guardian finds.

@grim: I think I have about 40 deaths... I too solo'd Malachai early for the challenge... and back when they said soloing Malachai without flask issues was a good benchmark for running the lab...

... I don't think I agree with that... I haven't really gone back to Malachai since, but Izaro seems much easier... even with the traps in Phase 3, I think positioning is much easier with Izaro than Malachi

@Serleth: thanks for the loot tips... what are your feelings on mastercrafting an extra mod onto decent gear before sales?... I did that a few times early on with iffy success... finally just started adding notes to GG items with a mod slot open instead of wasting my money... saying global crit or flat dps is still an open mod... but lowers likelihood of being sorted to top of lists...

I don't really have a survival set... I just always play in my MF set... I think next league I might push to reach 90 faster... I'm 91 now, and after about 85-87 I just let it happen when it did... gained most sizeable XP gains doing Zana rotation every day and now a little from lvl 8 masters...

I started following some pretty aggresive selling strategies off of reddit this league... funnelling prices down to 1c before just vendoring... good way to keep stash clean... but a big waste of investment when I have 80 tabs (50 premium) and 50-60 are empty... have 10 with tabwide pricing... currency tab (awesome)... 3 tabs each for chaos/regal recipes (1 with jewelry and 3 sets, 1 for 1x3 weapons and 18x chests, 1 for 12x gloves/boots/helmets), 3-6 tabs for hammers (starting at lvl 1 and taking a few weeks to build map pool to turn into chisels and cut down)... collected agates/leather belts this league... used to collect and sell gems before this league... but quit about a week into this league when I dropped my sub-chaos tabs

First PA MF guide I checked out, it's pretty good. I was running FT MF but did the swap so I wanted to drop a line here to let people know that Zerker is pretty great for this too (it's pretty great for anything):

Here's the tree (the Warcry Ascendancy notable is okay too); BM for lazy mode. It looks like low DPS but it's zerker.

And the gear:



I don't know if there's a thread search function so I'm probably echoing someone, but is the IIQ gem discussed anywhere? And AoE vs Conc. Effect? Would love to read through it, thanks.

"

Piros wrote:

@Serleth: thanks for the loot tips... what are your feelings on mastercrafting an extra mod onto decent gear before sales?... I did that a few times early on with iffy success... finally just started adding notes to GG items with a mod slot open instead of wasting my money... saying global crit or flat dps is still an open mod... but lowers likelihood of being sorted to top of lists...

I don't really have a survival set... I just always play in my MF set... I think next league I might push to reach 90 faster... I'm 91 now, and after about 85-87 I just let it happen when it did... gained most sizeable XP gains doing Zana rotation every day and now a little from lvl 8 masters...

I started following some pretty aggresive selling strategies off of reddit this league... funnelling prices down to 1c before just vendoring... good way to keep stash clean... but a big waste of investment when I have 80 tabs (50 premium) and 50-60 are empty... have 10 with tabwide pricing... currency tab (awesome)... 3 tabs each for chaos/regal recipes (1 with jewelry and 3 sets, 1 for 1x3 weapons and 18x chests, 1 for 12x gloves/boots/helmets), 3-6 tabs for hammers (starting at lvl 1 and taking a few weeks to build map pool to turn into chisels and cut down)... collected agates/leather belts this league... used to collect and sell gems before this league... but quit about a week into this league when I dropped my sub-chaos tabs

Items definitely move faster if you mastercraft something useful onto it first. Fact of the matter is most people don't search for items with *missing* affixes in order to mastercraft things themselves. So, eg, if you have a dual res item with no life but an open prefix for it, it's a lot less likely to move than if you mastercraft life on it, due to the nature that people will almost always search for that item with life already on it.

I highly recommend mastercrafting affixes, but only if you have the top version of that affix available to craft.

A survival set isn't really necessary until around level 91 actually. That's when levelling really starts to slow down and you need to be pushing t12+ if you want to level with any sense of speed. So for what you want out of it for this league, it's fine, but if you're going to push levels, I definitely recommend swap gear.

I do some of the same thing with my selling strategies. It's part of why I have ~11ex banked only a few days after completing 40/40. I didn't bother with chisels or chanceables this league, and there's quite a few things I just keep forgetting to do early on that are actually really valuable to get currency early. One of the things to do early in a league is make sure to speed-level both Vagan and Elreon, and sell the signature affix items (-cost of mana, hits can't be evaded). Early league, for example, a Vagan kris goes for 15-20c. That's basically 1/4-1/3rd of an exalt you could be getting every day.

"

I don't know if there's a thread search function so I'm probably echoing someone, but is the IIQ gem discussed anywhere? And AoE vs Conc. Effect? Would love to read through it, thanks.

This guide is largely geared toward challenge-leaguers rather than Standard, but if you want to include IIQ, this is what you do:

C = (1 + IIQ/100) * (1 * IIR/100)

Whatever nets you the higher value, is the one you use. Typically it will be IIQ unless you have a low IIR value for whatever reason OR if you've scaled a lot of IIQ on your gear already.

I don't recommend using both, because you will lose a damage gem, and clear speed is effectively like IIQ. You don't want to be too slow on your map clears.

As for AoE/Conc, Conc is not an optional gem. You use it. Period.

One of the reasons this build goes Scion is for the Deadeye +1 arrow, which allows you to not even care about the AoE gem. If you're running this build from another Ascendancy for whatever reason, I recommend keeping AoE in. The area simply becomes too small otherwise and your clear speed suffers, which is bad, for the aforementioned reason.

That said, if you're willing to invest in a +arrow Drillneck, that also solves your problem. Last I checked, a +arrow Drillneck runs ~10-12ex.

Sweet idea, didn't even consider the +1 Dneck!



Now next patch I'll have 3 projectiles, which is pretty dandy.

Also, I think 200 IIR and 100 IIQ is what I'll run with (that's without flask). Swapping aurseize for sadima's gives 5% movement speed, which is in the spirit of what I'm trying to do with my character.

Thanks for the really quick reply! Time to make some returns now...

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7thFullMoon wrote:

Sweet idea, didn't even consider the +1 Dneck!

Now next patch I'll have 3 projectiles, which is pretty dandy.

Also, I think 200 IIR and 100 IIQ is what I'll run with (that's without flask). Swapping aurseize for sadima's gives 5% movement speed, which is in the spirit of what I'm trying to do with my character.

Thanks for the really quick reply! Time to make some returns now...

I've been using the +1 Drillneck for a while now, with the Deadeye also giving +1, so 3 arrows in total. It's really nice - even in the wooded areas on, say, Springs, seems I can always thread at least one arrow through the foliage and that's enough to pop mobs. It's not that expensive, either, I think I paid 4ex and I've seen them for 3 now.

I know I only paid 3ex max for my +Arrow Drillneck... maybe even 2ex... I watched the prices and waited a few days... especially in Perandus where prices seem to be dropping fast, people seem to post at least a .5ex lower (I read somewhere that poe.trade rounds to halves and wholes, at least with tabwide pricing, so that's probably why)

I won't say I all of a sudden like the Labyrinth... but I've done 10-15 runs in the past 90 minutes, and I really like today's layout, and portals/statues aren't bad, and I don't even mind poles/burning anymore (altho trying to ignore burning outside of izaro is a bit rough...)

I think part of it is being able to track my completion times on the ladder... got my time down from 6:33 to 5:15 with some luck... without whirling blades... just our regular gear + Seven League Step... thats 15th place on the ladder... dont think I could ever do 3 minutes tho(my 5:15 already includes SSD and --nosound)

So far, only got totem enchant... still need aura/curse/trap (and 2 easier boot enchants i'll worry about later)

Too bad life calls... hopefully get a few more runs in before reset...

...

It's crazy how, after a while... the content on screen barely matters in the labyrinth... it just becomes UUU L UU door, UR UR UL UL door, Izaro, UR UR UR door, L UR UR UR exploit door, UR UR UR UR door, Izaro, UR UR UR UR door, DR UR DR UR UR UR door, UR DR UL UR DR UR UL UR DR UR UR UR door, Izaro, done... spam quicksilver and seething flasks throughout, use Blink Arrow on annoying checkered spike traps that try to slow you down (to clear 2-3 rows without getting skewered)

UPDATE: finally made progress... got Aura and Curse enchants back-to-back... so now 9/12 done with enchants and 5/6 done with helm enchants... still no CA/Vuln/Flame Golem enchants tho...

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Piros wrote:

UPDATE: finally made progress... got Aura and Curse enchants back-to-back... so now 9/12 done with enchants and 5/6 done with helm enchants... still no CA/Vuln/Flame Golem enchants tho...

I think the enchants system is completely inadequate right now, particularly for the helmet slots. There's so many skills available to get buffs for that it's incredibly difficult to get anything for it solo.

In PSc there's only 15 rare helmets available with a CA damage enchantment. And most of them are shit, with a minimum price of 45 chaos.

Enchants should be a bit more deterministic. Ie., equipped skills provide an additional 10% chance to receive an enchant for that skill. Or something.