[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

let me tell you that I completely understand you. My philosophy is quite conservative given PoE is a video game and such, but my time is limited (as is my motivation). After the first gruesome (but very valable) lessons of RNG in this game, I decided to never gamble for crucial parts again. I'll never attempt to 6L something over selling fuses to buy chaos/ex to buy a 6L directly. I'll never gamble to chance skyforths by using hundreds of chance orbs at league start, I rather sell them at reasonable rates in bulk to amass chaos instead and upgrade my gear. I will try to corrupt spare parts if I see an optimization opportunity, like spare quivers or that amulet with a bad implicit, yet I'd never do so with a crucial part of my equipment when I have no adequate replacement.

this means that I won't enjoy the "youtube" moments of 1 fuse = 6link, but it also means that I won't be pissed because after 3587 fuses my item still has only 4 linked sockets. and tbh, the latter feels worse than the prior could be worth to me, that's just how my personality "works" and I know it. I don't gamble IRL, I find it gross. This somehow shines through into other parts of my life ^^.

So TLDR, instead of hoping for that one lucky punch, I amass what I have and buy what I need directly.

There are only two reasons imho to avoid 6Ling something yourself (typically):

* Time available
* Need to be "first" to something, like Uber farming.

Example and some stats:

I'm currently working on 6Ling a Pledge of Hands for my next build. Lowest price as of yesterday was 7.5ex, with fuses at 160:1ex, that places the value of the item in fuse-equivalent at 1200 fusings. Which just so happens to be roughly the *cough* "average expectation" to 6L an item.

I've 6L'd over 70 items now in PoE.

2/70 - 2300 and 2800 fusings
1/70 - 1350 fusings
67/70 - 1100 fusings or less

Average 6L cost - 850-900 fusings.

As mentioned, if you don't have the time (or drive) available to re-farm fusings in the event of a nightmare 6L (less than 5% of the time), that's completely understandable.

However, presuming you do have the time (and drive) available, you should do a cross-comparison of the cost of the item you want in terms of its 6L market value with its fuse-equivalence price, and if the value of the item is greater than or equal to 1250 fusings, you should do it yourself.

On average, over time, you will save currency.

I used to keep a list of how many fusings I've spent on 6Ling items, but that died somewhere last year, so we'll just go with the above information and do a comparison to the cost of a Vorici 6L AND the cost of an item presuming it is valued at 1300 fuse equivalent.

For the sake of this comparison we will also be using a Standard fusing ratio of 115:1ex

1500/115 = 13ex (Vorici)
1300/115 = 11.3ex (guesstimated average 6L item cost on the market, in Standard, for common uniques or non-GG rare items).

Since the above average 6L value of 850-900 includes the two nightmare 6Ls, we will use the lower end of the average value to calculate the rest of the 6Ls cost.

2300 + 2800 + 1350 + (850 * 67) = 63,400 fusings = 551.3ex

Versus

70 6Ls * 11.3ex (average cost of straight up buying 6Ls) = 791ex
70 6Ls * 13ex (Vorici method) = 910ex

Difference: 239.7ex savings (358.7ex versus Vorici)

This is conservative, given that approximately 9 of my 6Ls have occured in 200 fusings or less, and an additional 10 or so have occurred in 600 fusings or less, but you get the point.

By 6Ling items myself, over time, I've saved enough currency to buy 8.5 pairs of Skyforth boots (currently priced at 28ex in Standard).

Yes, you will occasionally lose currency, but over enough 6L attempts you will beat the odds. Significantly.

For the record, this isn't just my own confirmation bias here. Every time this topic comes up on reddit, there's a wealth of people who go "Oh, I tried 6Ling an item. Once. And I spent 3,000 fusings. So never again."

And then there's a minimum five other people that chime in saying their experience roughly matches mine: 800-950 fusings average per 6L, with a minimum 40 6Ls attempted.

Pledge / Kaom's / Acuity / Essence Worm for uniques, Taste of Hate in flasks.

Also with Basalt and Granite flasks.

BV - Empower - FC - Crit Strikes - Poison - AoE/Conc

Hatred in Essence Worm.

Leap Slam - Fortify - Culling - Faster Attacks.

Vaal Haste - Lightning Golem - Flame Dash - (?? Decoy??)

Secondary CoH BV with Enfeeble and PcoC

Tree

Amulet will have spell damage and crit multi while the secondary ring slot is just resistances/life. Will probably need a Prismatic (or single-res other ring with a prismatic explicit) and two 40%+ rolls.

Will probably adjust as I go along but that's the base I'll be working with.

I figure I might drop the whole utility setup listed above and instead opt for a Warcry linkage with CWDT for T15 bosses. We'll see how potent the build gets using the original concept first, though.