[IN DEPTH] 2.2 Crit LA/Blastrain Voltaxic - Hardcore/SC Viable

Thanks for a nice guide.
Started a toon after finding a bow and having fun with it so far.
A bit squishy but i have not min-maxed at all and so far is only level 71 and havent gotten the two jewels so far.

Was looking at the skilltree and wondered if fangs of the viper is not worth taking instead of maybe a single life node?
Seems like a decent swap?

20 % increased psycical damage
20 % increased chaos damage
5 % runspeed
10 Dexterity.

Wouldn't that give a flat increase in dps plus more runspeed is always nice.

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Virtuella wrote:

Thanks for a nice guide.
Started a toon after finding a bow and having fun with it so far.
A bit squishy but i have not min-maxed at all and so far is only level 71 and havent gotten the two jewels so far.

Was looking at the skilltree and wondered if fangs of the viper is not worth taking instead of maybe a single life node?
Seems like a decent swap?

20 % increased psycical damage
20 % increased chaos damage
5 % runspeed
10 Dexterity.

Wouldn't that give a flat increase in dps plus more runspeed is always nice.

It would work fine, 20% increased chaos damage is a nice little bonus for 1 point so if you feel comfortable with your health pool then absolutely snag it.

Thank you for this build. I picked up a lot of usefull information here.
The biggest problem I am having righ now is not the offense or defense thanks to you, it's the fps drop as soon as I'm adding chain to my LA :(

Try adding "-nosound" to the steam launch options or the shortcut you use to launch the game, turning off the sounds sucks but it makes a pretty big difference. I also can't play this build over my wifi, need to be wired.

Luckily everything just blows up so I haven't had too much trouble with the choppy behavior.

"

BaalGruf wrote:

Thank you for this build. I picked up a lot of usefull information here.
The biggest problem I am having righ now is not the offense or defense thanks to you, it's the fps drop as soon as I'm adding chain to my LA :(

It's a problem for me as well. If LA slows down your game, use Split Arrow instead. I actually find that clear speeds with SA are comparable to Lightning Arrow anyway!

Split Arrow + Weapon Elemental Damage + Faster Attacks + Chain + Added Lightning Damage + Void Manipulation

Why on earth do you take Master of the arena?

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Dstry wrote:

Why on earth do you take Master of the arena?

Blood Rage, life regen.

Not really sure what else to say on this. If you're playing hardcore it would be fairly difficult to run blood dance and lightning coil. Also blood dance is an ineffective dps loss.

Is this the same build as Mathil's Voltaxic? Or more life , more dps? differences? Thanks im not sure which one to go.

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monkuar wrote:

Is this the same build as Mathil's Voltaxic? Or more life , more dps? differences? Thanks im not sure which one to go.

This is what Google is for...

Mathil's Build Thread

Mathil's Voltaxic Tree

Passive Tree for This Build

They are different builds. Mathil goes for dps, says screw it to life regen and takes Vaal Pact despite not needing it for protection against reflect, and ignores Acro while taking Arrow Dancing since he loves to manually dodge (I don't recommend Vaal Pact or Arrow Dancing for most players). This build grabs more life, takes Phase Acro, and ignores Vaal Pact and Arrow Dancing, so I'd say this build is much better for hardcore.

Suggestion: This build takes six nodes specifically for leech and Mathil's build takes four. Try to get it down to two leech nodes on the tree (the first node heading to Vitality Void and the life/mana leech node to the left of that). This becomes easier if you take Charisma (basically a compromise; five points total for leech and extra mana or a potential extra gem slot) and link Enlighten to at least Wrath. Or there's Rallying Cry for mana sustain and a little extra damage.

On another note, Cherrubim's Maleficence is quite good here too and makes it even easier to ignore Vitality Void. And if you're a Standard player who loves Voltaxic and survivability, you might want to level a Duelist to prep for the Champion Ascendancy class with its perma Fortify. Or there's the Deadeye Ranger with its Chain +1...

What stats are we looking for in a bow after we are done with storm cloud. Just elemental dps?