[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)
" Yes Caustic Arrow (skill tree, and primary attack set up) works great if you are not planning on running MF. In a 6Link +3 bow you will do more damage because you can drop the IR gem. (Caustic Arrow - Rapid Decay - Void Manipulation - Concentrated Effect - Empower - Pierce/Slower Projectiles) Gearing non-MF Caustic Arrow:
Gearing Hidden Potential Caustic Arrow:
Last edited by ChronoExile#0033 on May 23, 2016, 11:35:23 AM
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" 1) Gratz! 2) I just finished that this week myself, as well as preparing my Standard stash for the merge. Took me about three weeks with the gluttony of unid and corrupt maps, and Atziri sets, I had built up. Whuff. 3) I actually burst out laughing at this line. Truth is funny. 4) Yeah, I listened to the podcast last night and it appears as though nothing significant is happening to CA. Scion's likely the only class to remain relatively untouched as far as Ascendancies go, so we should be golden for 2.3. 5) That looks beautiful, my friend. I think I'd make some adjustments to it for my own organizational preference (maybe), but I made some changes this weekend and it looks as though you're working from the previous iteration of the guide. Don't sweat that though, you can feel free to continue it and I'll make the edits again myself. It was just some minor clean-up stuff. Much appreciated, sir! <3 =) Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018. Last edited by Serleth#4392 on May 23, 2016, 12:33:28 PM
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Hi Guys
I was so late start perandus. But I want to achive fast min 12 challanges(for rewords: seraph footprint & weapon). Any tips/ help. Now I have already finished 3 and I close to 5. |
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1 - Kill Unique Monsters
2 - Kill Normal Bosses 3 - Kill Cruel Bosses 4 - Kill Merciless Bosses 5 - Clear Act 2 Interiors 6 - Clear Act 2 Exteriors 7 - Encounters I 8 - Vendor Recipes 9 - Kill Rare Monsters in Cruel or Merciless 10 - Create a Hideout 11 - Unseal the Labyrinth 12 - Use Currency items Those are probably the easiest to get done. Additional options: 13 - Complete These Quests 14 - Kill Argus in each difficulty Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
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" Thank you for the detailed response. I am looking forward to building this kind of char for next league. Spreading salt since 2006
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" I pulled all of the text from the posts on Thursday, so I did miss some of your edits. I decided to default back to your post one guide/suggestions/finished build and post two leveling. However, I did change the order so the FAQ is post three. This has the added benefit of being able to directly link to the FAQ when someone asks a question answered there. Check the FAQ(currently links to the 'tools' post, but you get the idea) You are correct it is easier to deal with the nested spoilers for leveling trees in their own post. I also realized this is likely the section to get the most attention for edits and changes, so not having to wade around the other sections of the guide while editing is just a smart call on your part. I will gladly go though and update the formatting of the leveling section to match everything else, it will just take a little more time. Also if there is anything you wanted to see format/change in the post let me know so I can incorporate it as I go. I am working on the FAQ section now, and it should be done by tomorrow. I'll post it as soon as it is ready. The spoiler contains the fully reformatted/reorganized post one. Feel free to compress/expand/use/remove/edit/discard any of this that does not match your vision for your guide.
Spoiler
Before We Get To The Guide…
The Item Rarity Gem and Degeneration Skills:
Area Damage Modifiers and Tooltip Damage:
A Scion/Shadow Build in the Ranger Section:
Passive Tree for the Ranger Start:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Table of Contents - [01.00] - Overview [02.00] - Media [03.00] - Bandit Rewards [04.00] - Skill Tree & Ascendancies [04.01] - Scion Ascendant Occultist/Deadeye [04.02] - Shadow Trickster [HC Option] [05.00] - Gearing [06.00] - Enchantments [07.00] - Gems & Links [08.00] - Finished Stats [09.00] - Tools [10.00] - Leveling (Post 2) [11.00] - FAQ (Post 3) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Overview - The purpose of this build is to effectively balance survivability, clear speed, and magic find while enabling you to solo up to mid tier maps (including Atziri). This guide is written to provide information to effectively balance these three elements. While the build can work in parties/rotations, and be an effective boss farmer, these are not the targets the build aims to hit. Pros:
Cons:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Media - Video version of this guide -- (June 14, 2015) Deathless Atziri Run with almost full MF spec - didn't *quite* have full res balance =( --- June 15, 2015. Inventory and Stash Management - Exactly what it sounds like! A video talking about stash and inventory management while mapping. Gorge Run - with a 3:40 clear speed. As you can see, it doesn't lag that far behind full-tilt dps builds. Only about 40 seconds, ish. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Bandit Rewards -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Skill Trees & Ascendancies - As of the Ascendancy launch the best class for this build is the Scion Ascendant, using the Deadeye(Ranger) and Occultist(Witch) nodes. The bonuses provided by the Ascendant are tremendous. Deadeye grants the build an additional arrow, a modified version of Far Shot, and 50% pierce chance. These three perks allow the build to drop the Increased Area of Effect support, gain some incremental damage, and drop the Poacher’s Aim unique jewel and still maintain 100% pierce chance. Occultist grants the build -15% chaos resistance on enemies you curse, and increased chaos if you have killed a cursed enemy recently(last four seconds). These two perks grank the build an effective 15% MORE damage when needed, and a conditional boost to damage and clear speed. The reason that you roll Shadow for Hardcore is simple: Trickster's Ghost Dance provides you with an additional 5% dodge and spell dodge, which is flat out massive. Advance further along that branch and you also get Shade Form, which provides you with flat evasion, flat ES and a multiplicative 20% MORE chance to evade attacks while not on full ES. Even with taking Acrobatics, this gives you a slight ES buffer of damage to absorb an initial hit and then an immediate subsequent boost to your defense. However, also keep in mind that you'll need to decide whether or not you are fine without the AoE gem for this variant, as there's no way to gain Increased Area of Effect for Shadow that's similar to the Scion or Ranger's Deadeye +1 Arrow mechanic. So while this variant is undoubtedly safer, you will also retain similar dps as you saw in 2.1. You can alternately still roll the Scion version and just drop damage for life & Phase Acro as well. I don't recommend running as Shadow for SC. There's no point compared to the benefits Scion offers. - Scion Ascendant Occultist/Deadeye -
[2.2]Scion Passive Tree
This is the base passive skill tree for the build. The posted tree takes Acrobatics, but feel free to adjust for your own play (Taking Phase Acrobatics, or go the Iron Reflexes route). - Shadow Trickster -
[2.2]Shadow Passive Tree
This tree will be the basis of what you want to do for Hardcore. Again feel free to adjust to fit your style of play. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Gearing - The goal of this build is to maximize magic find and survivability, so for gearing you are looking to get life, rarity, and resistances on the majority of your gear. The spoilers show examples of gear, some suggestions on gear progression, and crafting help where applicable. Do not use this section for Gems or Links, there is a section specifically for those after the gear section.
Weapon
Caustic Arrow scales with gem levels, so the best mods for the bow will be the Paragon’s (+1 level of socketed gems), Sharpshooter’s (+2 levels of socketed bow gems), and the master crafted (15 to 30)% increased Damage over Time (Requires a Level 3 Leo, Master of the Arena) prefixes. There are no suffixes we could have on the bow to increase damage, so Ideally your last three mods would be the elemental resistances. Having more elemental resistance on your bow opens up the possibility for more damage mods on your jewels. When shopping for a bow here are the suffixes the build benefits from having:
Crafting a +3 Bow with room for Damage over Time: There are three different methods for guaranteeing a +3 bow, and it all comes down to personal preference. All three methods start off with an item level 64 or higher white 6-link bow of your choice. Maraketh is the recommended base for the additional 6% move speed, and decent attack speed.
Method One
Original method from reddit:
Method Two
Second method from reddit:
Method Three
Method Three, Serleth’s Method
Quiver
With the Ascendant’s Deadeye and passives on the tree the build reaches 100% chance to pierce. This pierce chance is a big damage increase with the Drillneck mechanics, and also a quality of life bonus. The mechanics of Caustic Arrow cause additional clouds each time they pierce an enemy along its flight towards the terminus point. This means you can aim behind packs of monsters and still have multiple chaos clouds created during the arrow’s flight. While saving for a Drillneck any rare quiver with life and resistances is a good choice.
Helmet
Ideally you are looking for a rare evasion base helmet with the following prefixes, Life, Item Rarity, and either high values of Flat Evasion or Percent Evasion. For suffixes you will want Item Rarity and Elemental Resistance.
Gloves
In the completed build your rare gloves should be evasion base with Life, Item Rarity and either Flat Evasion or Percent Evasion as prefixes. The desirable suffixes are Item Rarity, and Elemental Resistance. Sadima’s Touch is a solid pair of gloves to use while leveling, but these will need to be replaced with a pair of rare gloves to help with resistances, and survivability. Aurseize are a solid option providing a good amount of rarity, and decent elemental resistance, the movement speed drawback can be mitigated with well rolled quicksilver flasks, and proper flask management. However, due to the changes in rarity tier of Aurseize it might be easier or more cost effective to just save for a good pair of rare magic find gloves.
Boots
Goldwyrm are the endgame boots for this build. They are the primary source of Increased item quantity, help with mana regeneration, and have a solid single elemental resistance stat. Goldwyrm recently had their rarity tier increased, so there has been a price increase for the boots. The 10% movement speed is not noticeable with good use of the quicksilver flasks. While saving up for Goldwyrm a good pair of rare magic find boots can be used.
Body Armor
Carcass Jack is the damage option for the build. If you can sort out your resistances, this is a great option to further increase your damage and clear speed. All of the stats on the chest are beneficial, except maybe extra gore, so if you can find a way to accomplish resistance balance with Carcass Jack go for it. Queen is a decent defensive option assuming you have both your resistances sorted, and enough evasion in your other pieces of gear to provide a bonus to movement speed. The build already runs Grace and has a lot of dexterity from the tree, so it should not be too hard if you wanted to run Queen. Less damage from Devourers and Drop Bears is a nice touch. Alternatively a rare chest with defensive rolls, life and resistances is a solid choice.
Jewelry
Andvarius is the core of the item rarity in this build, start with any ring you can afford and work your way up from there. Max implicit rolls on gold rings are 15%, and the max explicit roll is 70% Ventor’s Gamble looks good in theory, but the practical application of the IIQ/IIR map coefficient means you need to have a Ventor’s rolled with +7%IIQ and +40%IIR explicit mods. The math for these calculations can be found here. Any rare gold amulet with Life, and Item Rarity as prefixes. The desirable suffixes are Item Rarity, and Elemental Resistance. A rare leather belt with Life, and Armor or Energy Shield as prefixes. For Suffixes you want all three of the elemental resistances. Keeping an open prefix on the belt would enable the addition of Mastercrafted movement speed (Tora, Level 6)
Flasks
We use two Seething Hallowed Flasks, one Catalysed Divine or Eternal Flask, and two Chemist's Quicksilver Flasks of Adrenaline (superior to Ample as we can recover a use ~7.5 charges instead of per 10)
Jewels
The desirable mods on jewels for the build are:
Jewelcrafting
Full details provided by Nasty Toxic Surprisingly, the Crimson Jewels have the best chance to roll our desired affixes. Here is the source of the Crimson Jewel values. From the given page you can easily find the poedb pages for Int and Dex jewels to check my numbers for yourself if you want. source: http://poedb.tw/us/mod.php?type=42&attr=136 Jewel Affixes and Chance to be Rolled, by Jewel Color: %increased life: R 2.84% G 1.81% B 2.00% % increased Chaos Damage: R 1.14% G 1.04% B 1.14% % increased Area Damage: R 3.79% G 3.66% B 3.60% % increased Projectile Damage: R 3.03% G 3.66% B 2.88% % to all Elemental Resistances: R 2.27% G 2.20% B 2.16% % Damage over Time: R 3.79% G 3.66% B 3.60% --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Enchants -
Gloves
Word/Edict/Decree/Commandment of Light
Word/Edict/Decree/Commandment of Reflection
Word/Edict/Decree/Commandment of Spite
Boots
Helmet
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Gems & Links - Primary Skill:
What about before Ascending?
Before gaining Deadeye it is up to you if you want to run Increased Area of Effect or not. If you do decide to run AoE your gem links would be Caustic Arrow - Void Manipulation - Conc Effect - Increased AoE - Rapid Decay(5L) - Empower (6L). There are some situations where Empower should be used over Rapid Decay, and the explination can be found in the FAQ. Single Target added damage: This is strictly for leveling, if leveling as Caustic Arrow. Once you gain Deadeye, you can drop this setup. In a 4-Link we run Essence Drain - Controlled Destruction - Void Manipulation - Rapid Decay. Curse Setup & Terrain Breaker:
Damage Boost & Utility
Auras
Minion & Mobility
Further Options
Example Gem Links, 2.2
This is just here for illustrative purposes. There are many ways you can take the utility and support setups, and this is just one example. Bow: Caustic Arrow - Void Manipulation - Conc Effect - Rapid Decay - Empower - IIR Chest Frenzy - GMP - Faster Attacks - Curse on Hit - Vulnerability (unlinked) Grace Helmet Blink Arrow - Mirror Arrow - Faster Attacks - Flame Golem Gloves Vaal Lightning Trap - Blood Rage - Increased Duration - Artic Armor Boots Wither - Spell Totem - Faster Casting weapon swap In a Heathen Wand, or Haku Weapon, Portal - Faster Casting --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Finished Stats -
[2.2]Stats
2.2 final DPS values. Both of these screenshots are with:
* CA 21 * Empower 4 * 20/20 Concentrated Effect, Void Manipulation and Rapid Decay * 7 frenzy charges * Flame golem * Occultist's increased damage if you've killed a cursed enemy recently.
Level 92 Tree with 4.85k life and only two Shadow start damage nodes
Level 92 Tree with 4.6k life and Shadow all start damage nodes
 The rest of these stats are "outdated" but basically haven't changed since 2.0. I lost 100 life. Whoop.   In a finished build: 2.0 damage: 48k 2.1 damage: 36k 2.2 damage: 62k At effectively no radius penalty. Keep in mind if you're running this build from Shadow, you will likely want to keep the AoE gem. The only way to effectively see the same damage as a Shadow CA player is to get your hands on a corrupted +1 Arrow Drillneck, or be willing to sacrifice the AoE gem. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Tools - Vmoddin's PA Damage Calculator Effective IIQ/IIR map coefficient (C Value) calculator by Caliark. |
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Hi there!
1) - i've been reading this thread since it hit ~350 page and got some questions for those of you who started playing this build in the day of perandus start: was it difficult to acquire/buy +3 bow + drillneck early? Or how much did it cost? I'm afraid i will not be able to buy +3 bow till middle of the league, nor empower lvl 3 - so i'd really like to hear your stories and maybe some advices how to handle big prices of this particular items/gems? 2) - the changes ChronoExile proposed are really awesome - it's great job done, and if it will be incorporated by Serleth - the first page will shine :) 3) I've got 62lvl char in Std with drillneck and +3 bow - and after Ascendancy it shines, but another question - how's going the leveling when you don't have such items and switch to CA in 50/60? Is it really slow or are these only my concerns? 4) To clarify - i want to start as dmg oriented and slowly change to MF gear - is it wise, or maybe i should go diffrent way - first stack IIR + IIQ as much as possible and then when i save currency - buy some really good dps oriented items? What will you suggest? And finally - thanks to all active members of this thread for priceless advices! Cheers, S. |
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" 1 - I do not have a +3 bow in Perandus league, and my +2 is only a 5L. I was able to buy a Drillneck from Cadiro for about 1200 coins. As for generating currency, I am bad at managing a shop. I do not know how to price rare items, and generally only sell the 'challenge required' unique items. I just grind out a lot of maps, Alch and go up to T8/9 and vendor about 5/6 portals worth of rare items. Alterations stack up fast, and if you covert them to fus regularly getting the orbs for those big ticket items should not take too long. 2 - Thanks! 3 - I level as CA, but I tend to enjoy the slower pace, it gives me an opportunity to see the new content/league mechanic as I level, and I susally suplement CA with a trap set up or two. Because the cloud damage scales on levels if you have a low level gem when you switch over at 50/60 it might feel much slower than what you switched from. Keep an eye on poe.Trade to buy higher level CA gems, and 5-Link bows (ilvl64) this should help the transition into CA 4 - The guide suggests going damage first while getting some IIR on gear, and it is a really solid suggestion. Clear speed acts as effective IIQ, and the more items you drop, vendor, and sell, the quicker you will gain the orbs to buy the next upgrade. And as you start to upgrade into the MF gear the currency starts to snowball. Hope that helps. Also I hope others chime in as well, especially regarding question 1 and 3. I do not go for a 'finished' build most of the time in the challenge leagues, so having the perspective of a player who does would be a good counter point to how I play. |
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Hello again :)
@ChronoExile: Thanks a lot for sharing your experience - especially the third & last one :) @3 Generally i wanted an answer to my concern about clear speed - if you can manage to do this easily with +2 and 5l - and even leveling with CA - and it was going slowly but smoothly - then i can sleep well waiting for new challenge league :D ( i'm not so good in quick lvling, although i do use a quick lvling tricks ) @4 I read about 10th times the first page and can't remember a section about going dmg + stacking IIR on gear, then changing for even more IIR + IIQ - so thanks for the answer, now i know my thoughts were going in right direction :) Great thread, glad i found it. Cheers, S. |
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First, @ChronoExile
Thanks again for your hard work, sir. I'm going to wait until you have everything completed so I can merge it all at once and adjust the finished product. Also, since you have exited lurker-mode, your posts answering questions have been thorough and much appreciated as well. Now. " 1) Not really. The thing about this build is that it pays for itself extremely fast, in terms of hours played. You can be fully geared with a 6L +3 Bow, Drillneck, dual Andvarius and Goldwyrm in ~72 hours played. How you get there is answered by 3 & 4 3) It's kiiiiiinda slow, but maybe that's just the veteran in me speaking, who was used to levelling with Flameblast for about a year, which was significantly quicker because prolif was OP as &*($#. It's honestly not that bad though. I take time at the beginning of new leagues to really invest in levelling quickly, putting in 6-8 hour sessions for the first few days, and it typically goes like this: * Day 1: Level 1-60 * Day 2: Level 60-75 * Day 3: Level 75-80/85 (depending on how distracted I get, because typically at this point the guide thread explodes with questions and I'm spending a lot of my day here on the thread) * Day 4: Level 80-88 (depending, as above). By day 2, I have a 5L +2 bow. By day 3, I'm usually running at least Goldwyrm. By Day 4, I have the first Andvarius ring. Then between days 5-7, I pick up Drillneck and finish with the second Andvarius and have a 6L +3 bow. 4) The way I personally level is that I don't care in the slightest about MF until 60. I just try strike a reasonable balance between life and damage from the tree as I'm progressing with Firestorm / Flame Totem. At 60-64, I make the switch to CA and grab a +2 5L bow, and then I self-found my MF to begin with, still focusing mostly on damage and pushing to about 4k life. I alc gold amulets until I get something reasonable, and just use whatever IIR I find elsewhere, grabbing res on the tree to compensate (if necessary) so I can run more IIR, faster, and as I find gear that I can craft resistance onto with Haku/Elreon, I pull the res from the tree to invest in damage. Typically by the time I'm level 70, I have ~100 IIR on gear, completely self-found. This generates me roughly 0.2ex/hr or so depending on the exchange rates, meaning in the next 5 hours of playing, I have Goldwyrm. Five hours after that, I have the first Andvarius. I'm then ~16-20IIQ and 150-200 IIR. Now I'm looking at around more like 0.35-0.4ex/hr, so in the next six hours I have BOTH Drillneck and the second Andvarius. The 6L +3 bow will run anywhere between 7-9ex at this point, and I'm earning ~0.4-0.45ex/hr. Meaning roughly 15 hours after this juncture, I have the 6L bought. Then it's just crushing maps and earning money. Keep in mind, these ex/hr figures are quite literally just the RAW currency drops. As long as you're not spending too much trying to craft your gear or alcing too many things, this is roughly the pace you should achieve without even RUNNING a shop. As for my shop, I run it like this: Each bullet point is it's own tab. * B/o 1 fuse * B/o 1c * B/o 3 fuse * B/o 2c * B/o 5 fuse *..... etc, up to B/o 10c, with the fuse acting as 0.5 chaos. * SHOP Where the SHOP tab is for anything above 10 chaos. Over time, as you get used to pricing rares, you'll just get a feel for what items are roughly worth and you slap them into the shop thread and with the public API on premium tabs, everything's listed automatically. Now, you don't need to run with 20 tabs, but I recommend at least 11 (b/o 1-10c, shop). The important thing to note is, you don't NEED to get value for every item as an MF'er. It's unnecessary. You'll be dropping so many items worth selling that you can afford to list items at slightly UNDER their value in order to move them faster, and thus progress your wealth faster. Anyway, that's how I run it. Any further questions, don't hesitate to ask. Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018. Last edited by Serleth#4392 on May 24, 2016, 2:44:35 PM
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