[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

Hi Serleth

And finali what You choose for lvl: frostbolt, firestorm or ...?

I'm going with Frostbolt. It's pretty solid, but I'd probably go with Firestorm/Flame Totem/Searing Bond as my recommendation still.

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Serleth wrote:

I'm going with Frostbolt. It's pretty solid, but I'd probably go with Firestorm/Flame Totem/Searing Bond as my recommendation still.

How is Frostbolt working out? Are you using in conjunction with Vortex and Ice Nova?

I understand why we do the first multimod. But if we ARE going for dual resistances, why do we need to remove the multi mod before adding the resistances? What is stopping us from ONLY bench scouring the "cannot roll attack mods" and the random suffix and then replacing them with resistances? Please excuse my confusion :)

Been leveling with flame totem/firestorm, very excited! Thanks all!

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dwperry wrote:

I understand why we do the first multimod. But if we ARE going for dual resistances, why do we need to remove the multi mod before adding the resistances? What is stopping us from ONLY bench scouring the "cannot roll attack mods" and the random suffix and then replacing them with resistances? Please excuse my confusion :)

Been leveling with flame totem/firestorm, very excited! Thanks all!

Bench scour is an all or nothing craft. You cannot pick which master crafted affixes to remove.

Ahhhhhh thats what I was missing. Thanks for clearing it up!

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hankinsohl wrote:

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Serleth wrote:

I'm going with Frostbolt. It's pretty solid, but I'd probably go with Firestorm/Flame Totem/Searing Bond as my recommendation still.

How is Frostbolt working out? Are you using in conjunction with Vortex and Ice Nova?

I personally found it to be terrible, to be honest. The frostbolt projectiles are so slow that it it's very ineffective at dealing with fast bosses like Darresso. They get caught on terrain, don't do great damage alone, needs LMP for decent coverage... Using the vortexes well definitely takes some thought which can be fun, but compared to the mindless ease of firestorm + flame totem, it just seems worse.

Before cruel malachai I switched to firestorm and FT, and despite those gems being ~2 lvls below the frost counterparts, things were wayyy easier. It's possible I just didn't use the gems properly, but playing in HC it just wasn't cutting it. Maybe with a fully linked build it can do good damage, but as a leveling skill I think it's quite bad.

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echelontee wrote:

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hankinsohl wrote:

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Serleth wrote:

I'm going with Frostbolt. It's pretty solid, but I'd probably go with Firestorm/Flame Totem/Searing Bond as my recommendation still.

How is Frostbolt working out? Are you using in conjunction with Vortex and Ice Nova?

I personally found it to be terrible, to be honest. The frostbolt projectiles are so slow that it it's very ineffective at dealing with fast bosses like Darresso. They get caught on terrain, don't do great damage alone, needs LMP for decent coverage... Using the vortexes well definitely takes some thought which can be fun, but compared to the mindless ease of firestorm + flame totem, it just seems worse.

Before cruel malachai I switched to firestorm and FT, and despite those gems being ~2 lvls below the frost counterparts, things were wayyy easier. It's possible I just didn't use the gems properly, but playing in HC it just wasn't cutting it. Maybe with a fully linked build it can do good damage, but as a leveling skill I think it's quite bad.

I feel like the DPS is horrible with frostbolts =/ This is the slowest I have ever leveled in well over a year.

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hankinsohl wrote:

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Serleth wrote:

I'm going with Frostbolt. It's pretty solid, but I'd probably go with Firestorm/Flame Totem/Searing Bond as my recommendation still.

How is Frostbolt working out? Are you using in conjunction with Vortex and Ice Nova?

It's REALLY good, to the point where I haven't even bothered using it with Ice Nova since level 20 or so. I'm decimating white packs, and with Frostbite + Frost Bomb for the -resistance, it's just murderously good as long as you're not too underlevelled (and thus, so would be the gem).

It's honestly kept pace with Firestorm. The only reason I would prioritize Firestorm levelling is because Searing Bond / Flame Totem takes advantage of the DoT / Projectile nodes respectively.

The only complaint is what others have mentioned: fast movers are a problem. You have to Facetank them. Capital F.

But that's true of Firestorm as well.

I find dropping a Decoy totem solves the issue pretty well, though.

I mean, I finished up to Merciless Docks (including the Sulphite quest) in a day, so it's going well.


I wouldn't be surprised if the issue some people are having here is that they either weren't running the setup in a +1 cold wand, or they didn't change the gems out from the flat added stuff to the multiplicative gems and/or they didn't transition to a 4L with said multiplicative gems when they had the chance.

I'm clearing 7.5k dps at level 58 in a 4L with Controlled Destruction, Spell Echo, and Elemental Focus. Level 58 char, white packs are getting one-shot in Docks (level 64 zone).

Not that this necessarily means anything, but my first frame time attempt was successful.

Will report back with ~10-20 attempts.

Nope, just got lucky.

0/10 since then. Frame time farming is no longer, unless you're on an XP machine where background pre-loading is still occurring.