[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

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ProGTO wrote:

Hey man, So I've been grinding gear to switch to CA and finally got some. Adjusting to the new style is very hard, and I'm constantly getting hit alot, tried iron reflex but thats even worst so switched back to acrobatics. Could you check my character and seen what I'm doing wrong and where I should aim to improve? Also mana seems to be a problem as well, what can I do to improve that?

Thanks as always!

Flasks. You need two seething flasks. That will bail you out of a LOT of situations.

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Hvakhshathra wrote:

I got Drillneck for 2c (is it how it is now? that's a huge price drop!), %18 Goldwyrm for ~7c and Voll was kind enough to give me a decent stat Carcass Jack while I was farming exp so I am a bit off to a good start (my IIR sucks though). But enough about me, let's go straight to the notes and questions:
1-First I'm sorry my question come out strange a few pages ago. I was looking for a good enchant for boots and got confused that wiki didn't mention the movement speed while I knew there was one. Anyway, I didn't knew it was already mentioned in the OP so thank you for the (in-advanced clarification) and nice update for the guide by the way.
2- In 2nd day of the league I noticed players already going for Uber Atziri and doing T12 maps while I was struggling to finish cruel. That got me thinking we need a league starter. Not a general leveling guidelines but a full-blown league starter. I know this opens the door for a lot of debates but we have some excellent contributors here and I'm sure we (I really mean you) can work something out that we all can benefit from.
3- In a 5L bow why the priority of extra damage over IIR? In the period we are "forced" to use a 5L we mainly lack currency the most wouldn't you agree?

a) There's a Prophecy that guarantees a Drillneck drop. That's the reason for why it's so cheap this league. Unless Prophecy is incorporated into the core game, do not expect this to be the case next league.
b) No problem!
c) What do you mean exactly by league-starter? I need clarification on this.
d) Clear speed = effectively IIQ. That's why we prioritize damage, and why I recommend going for an Andvarius before Goldwyrm. If you have the IIR, your increased clear speed by going damage in your fifth link will offset not running the IIR gem. The reason it's more beneficial to do it this way is because the more stuff you're killing per minute, the more chances you have for IIR to apply.

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Serleth wrote:

Waiting for Andvarius prices to come back down to something reasonable

Yeah, it's crazy how prices went from dirt cheap day 1/2 to through the roof day 3 for the rings.

I bought a cheap one day 2 and paid premium price for my second ring day 3; probably due to adjustment from Perandus with plentiful uniques to Prophecy, where uniques are once again - for the most part - quite scarce.

Nice to hear that Drillneck is so cheap - I'll likely try for a +1 arrow corruption.
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I'm rocking 18IIQ/300-ish IIR now, just farming Dried Lake while pushing to 80.

No reasonably-priced 6-link Marakeths available yet (there's one for the crazy price of 4ex); I'm also shopping for a high evasion chest with life and resists - nothing quite good enough to purchase on the market ATM.

Huge bummer that fuses are 3:1.

Yeah, alt-farming's a big portion of this build. Alts lead to fuses, and fuses lead to exalts.

That said, the fuse:ex ratio isn't terribly different from Perandus. It was about 110:1ex at this point last league, currently sitting at around 125-135:1ex.

So while it's crappy if you're looking to convert to chaos, it's actually still reasonable if you're looking to convert to exalt.


I ate the bucket and got two Andies for 55c total. And one of them's well-rolled at 15/66. So, while I probably could've saved a few bucks if I waited another couple days, that was also a couple days I'd have been farming with less than 40% IIR.

I can easily make back 55c in alts in that time, and then some, now that I'm running one of the Andies.

I need a few good jewels though if I'm to run both, either that or invest in Survivalist and the 18% res nodes in Scion while I wait to get decent jewels.

What is recommeneded once you achieve Deadeye with a 5L. Drop AOE for IIR?

I do not have an empower yet.

AoE for Pierce/Slower Projectiles, depending on whether you have Drillneck yet. Which is pretty cheap to get, so get Drillneck then use Pierce instead of AoE.

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Serleth wrote:

AoE for Pierce/Slower Projectiles, depending on whether you have Drillneck yet. Which is pretty cheap to get, so get Drillneck then use Pierce instead of AoE.

Damn your response times are phenomenal!


For the gems linked with CA, what is your recommended order for quality?

Manually GCP your Caustic Arrow (unless you're comfortable waiting to buy a 20/20 failed corruption). Everything else, use the 20% vendor recipe. No particular order. Don't bother with Pierce/Slower Proj though, you'll want to save that GCP for Empower.

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Serleth wrote:

What do you mean exactly by league-starter? I need clarification on this.

I meant those builds that described as league-starters. You know, fast clearing with no special gear requirements (and will probably will suck at late game without them). Now we have something that will push us to late 60s and early-to-mid 70s. But if we have a well planned "alternate build" that will push us to 90 in almost the same time we spend on our current leveling alternate skills we will have faster access to higher tier maps, a buff to our main build gems exp and maybe some fast currency access as well. (or that's how I believe it would be). And don't tell me you can do all that, you don't count. This is for average players like me.
Edit: Of course something that is not so far from our tree to use as less spec points as possible to avoid too much currency investment.

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hankinsohl wrote:

I'm rocking 18IIQ/300-ish IIR

I used to like you Hank :p

"You don't count."

=D

I mean, maps in 10 hours... kinda slow, don't you think? ;)


Thing is, it isn't the levelling skills that are resulting in slow progression, at least, not exclusively. Part of the reason is that we're doing things like Frostbolt with only 9 points invested on the tree that impact THAT particular skill's damage, but a vast portion of it comes down to raw experience as well.

While I'm a good player and I can hit 80 on day 2-3, I'm not the kinda guy that can hit 90 on day 3. I honestly don't know what these players are doing in order to get there, but without a doubt it isn't solo. There's party play involved that allow quests to be completed faster, they often skip the side-quests until they're already in their 80s then go back and run them quickly, sharing map pools, etc.

If you're looking for a build that you can run that will *easily* dovetail into this build with less than 15 regrets, you aren't going to find it.

If you want to get a setup that will crush your way to 90, then respec, you need to plan an entirely different build and expect to invest 45+ regrets in order to get it done. Something this Bladefall Totem setup which requires a full blown respec.

I've designed this build specifically to swap around 60-70 to CA and be effective in doing so. I hit level 80 last night (end of day 3).

I'm not saying this to be disparaging, but it doesn't really matter what skill you use, there's a lot of player skill and experience involved in being able to get to level 80 and compete with the ladder, and to a lesser degree to do it as quickly as I did (which honestly isn't even competitive, imho). It's irrelevant what build you run if you don't have the player capacity to be able to push content quickly.

And yes, while I'm an experienced player, I don't do anything special in order to achieve 80 on day 2. I pick a skill, and I just hammer big packs down, ignore rares for the most part, kill the bosses, do some side quests, make sure my level is somewhat comparable to the zone that I'm in, and push the moment I'm -3 levels.

I'm trying to strike a balance between levelling quickly, and the respec cost of doing so. Namely, I'm trying to get it so that you can switch to CA ~60 using nothing but quest reward points, and thus save all your currency to start building the MF.

While I'm definitely open to suggestions on improving the process and providing a speed-leveling option that DOES require a bit more of an investment, it is my personal belief that as you become a better player, the current options I provide don't take that long at all. As I alluded to, I was within the mapping threshold (level 62-64) at the end of a 10-11 hour playing session, and that was with a LOT of distractions going on (IRL stuff, smoke breaks, food breaks, answering questions here, etc.) It can be cut down to probably about 8 hours with some focus and preparation, using the skills I already have suggested.

With that in mind, and again I want to stress here that I am not trying to be disparaging or condescending or anything along those lines, I'm inclined to believe that the issue is more about what's happening for you as a player and how you're going about leveling, rather than what build you're using to do so.


Again, open to suggestions entirely on trying to smooth the process out.

Thank you for the detailed replay.
First of all don't smoke, vape :p although I got a massive horizontal expansion due to that so be warned :/
In all seriousness;
If your build wasn't the best I found (for my play-stile) I wouldn't stick around for three leagues and a chunk of standard before them.
I tend to start off mapping by T6+ as soon as I get my hand on them so that what I meant by getting a handful of maps by the time of swapping. And by too much respec I meant not too much over an exalt (considering how cheap the are early in league start plus what we get from drops/vendor). Plus for a 20+ ex invest-required build an extra exalt (for example) is something I'm willing to pay. It comes to weighing the pros/cons of such act. This build is great, but a mid-to-late game great. So the sooner we are farming T8+ maps the better. And this is where you come in. The experience you mentioned. To see if I have a valid point and thus decide to make plans in accordance, or if it's not then continue as it is. So again, the idea is to: be able to start at least T6+ mapping, leveling the gems faster and gaining some currencies faster in an equivalence to what we will make in the same time spent (in our current state) as we wouldn't be THAT MF'ing anyway.
Once again thank you very much for your guidance.