[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

Hey man, can you help me? This is my first time playing poe and I'm having some problems with this build's progression.

So, I'm currently lv54 SC running flame totem/firestorm. I'm currently in act 1 of Merciless and having trouble killing mobs. When can I switch to CA? I can't find any bows to use and my dps is not enough to progress so I'm stuck. I have ~40% spell damage on my wand and additional spell damage on my shield, what am I doing wrong? What links and gems should I be using with firestorm/ fire totem?


Edit: Also, I'm following your leveling passive tree and reached the end of it, now looking at the full passive tree, I'm stuck on where I should put my points, can you provide me with some guide on that as well?

Thanks.

"

Serleth wrote:

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.

Does compatibility mode overcome this?

@ProGTO

Click on your name top left here on the forums, go to Privacy Settings in the menu on the right underneath your portrait, and uncheck "hide characters" so I can see exactly where you're at.

@Hank:

No idea. Not going to do that.

Bought from Nessa at lvl 2 in Lioneye's Watch at the very beginning :)
Good sign!

Does the cloud damage SRS (e.g. those summoned by Kaom)?

Funnily, that's something I've never paid attention to. But given that it damages SRS in Haku missions, I'd say yeah.

"

Serleth wrote:

@ProGTO

Click on your name top left here on the forums, go to Privacy Settings in the menu on the right underneath your portrait, and uncheck "hide characters" so I can see exactly where you're at.

@Hank:

No idea. Not going to do that.

Ok, it done.

Edit: Gotta leave for an hour right now, so I'll be back.

I have been leveling with frostbolt almost exclusively - but I have been using it in a tabula rasa i found in act 3 normal. it's currently (lvl 52, act 3, cruel) at roughly 5k damage, without chain. my char should be accessible, if you want to look.

granted, the ball was slow, but faster projectiles helped. then again, i was running through the levels mostly, keeping a trail of monsters behind me. one projectile shot to the back usually hit a lot of them, so that was ok.

i always leveled a flame totem gem along. swithching the flame totem gem and the new spell gem in the tabula rasa was funny - i might level with flame totem, next time. but without using the passive skill points accordingly, flame totem never really got close to the new spell.

that might seem obvious - but on second thought, it might not be. because although i used some damage nodes, i did not use many, instead went var on the tree, without branching out too much.

in a nutshell: i am happy with the new spell, although it's name escapes me. ;-) that's probably in a very large part due to tabula rasa, but then again, you can never trust anecdotal evidence very much, so you'll probably know how to sort this.

/edit: edited the new skill's name into the first sentence

"

ProGTO wrote:

"

Serleth wrote:

@ProGTO

Click on your name top left here on the forums, go to Privacy Settings in the menu on the right underneath your portrait, and uncheck "hide characters" so I can see exactly where you're at.

@Hank:

No idea. Not going to do that.

Ok, it done.

Edit: Gotta leave for an hour right now, so I'll be back.

Gem links are your main problem. You have only faster casting linked to Firestorm, and nothing at all linked to your flame totem.

You should look to replace Faster Casting with Spell Echo on Firestorm, and add Elemental Focus at the very least. Concentrated Effect or Controlled Destruction as well.

For Flame Totem, you're looking to link Faster Casting + Lesser Multiple Projectiles + Elemental Focus.

For a bit of extra oopmh, you should add the spell damage ->>> harrier nodes near Scion Start.

However, I've noticed you are level 58, which means you should be able to switch into CA now instead. But just keep in mind the above principles for future builds. Gem links are critical to scaling your damage.

So for now, you can pick up a 5L bow for 1-2 chaos, and then use alterations/augments on it to get +2 bow gems, which is a prefix. Make sure you don't waste augs if you have already rolled a prefix (poeaffix.net will help with this).

From there, continue on with the guide as directed.

"

Serleth wrote:

"

ProGTO wrote:

"

Serleth wrote:

@ProGTO

Click on your name top left here on the forums, go to Privacy Settings in the menu on the right underneath your portrait, and uncheck "hide characters" so I can see exactly where you're at.

@Hank:

No idea. Not going to do that.

Ok, it done.

Edit: Gotta leave for an hour right now, so I'll be back.

Gem links are your main problem. You have only faster casting linked to Firestorm, and nothing at all linked to your flame totem.

You should look to replace Faster Casting with Spell Echo on Firestorm, and add Elemental Focus at the very least. Concentrated Effect or Controlled Destruction as well.

For Flame Totem, you're looking to link Faster Casting + Lesser Multiple Projectiles + Elemental Focus.

For a bit of extra oopmh, you should add the spell damage ->>> harrier nodes near Scion Start.

However, I've noticed you are level 58, which means you should be able to switch into CA now instead. But just keep in mind the above principles for future builds. Gem links are critical to scaling your damage.

So for now, you can pick up a 5L bow for 1-2 chaos, and then use alterations/augments on it to get +2 bow gems, which is a prefix. Make sure you don't waste augs if you have already rolled a prefix (poeaffix.net will help with this).

From there, continue on with the guide as directed.

Ok, big thanks for the help man! You're awesome!

Glad to help out =)