[2.5] Burning Arrow Proliferation Raider. Fully working league starter build. Up to twin Tier 15.

I will be updating the build with the upcoming 2.6 Legacy league, including the new Threshold Jewel that doubles ignite damage from Burning Arrow.

Since it's not Breach, Xoph's Nurture is much harder to acquire so I will be experimenting with different bows, and see how it works. Obviously without Prolif, clear speed is not going to be as good however even with a Chin Sol, I can reach substantial dps so I wouldn't be worrying too much.

Why do I want to make changes/alternation to the build? 2.6 provides new skilltree, new jewels and with buff and nerf to many uniques and its very exciting to play around.

The core of the build will not be touched too heavily, however I will consider CI version as well, maybe for a more endgame version of the build.

Pros:
-Very simple and fast map clearing.
-Quite cheap for starting out.
-Good scaling with not so expensive uniques.
-Breach destroyer, can get the most out of breach portals while mapping.
-Fairly survivable, even more if sacrifice damage.

Cons:
-Need basic understanding of archery playstyle. ( I'l talk about this later )
-Flask need to be managed to obtain good result. (Also will be talked about)
-Can be very squishy if pushing out of your character's league contents
-Vulnerable to 1 shot mechanic.
-Atziri or ignite immune bosses in general are very unenjoyable.
-Very heavy on budget if pushing for endgame content.

In this section I will talk about gearing, and how did I get from a league starter to a 6l Xoph's Nurture in a few days. Of course luck is part of the process, however it is because I was persistent enough for it to be on my side.
Here is the current gear setup. This is not definitive and Darkray Vector should be replaced with a 30% Movespeed rare with tier 1 life roll.


Gear progressions:
I started Breach League on this character so you can imagine leveling with rare bows and Lightning Arrows throughout Normal to Merciless.
At Merciless I bought a 5l white armor for 1c and a Chin Sol which also cost 1c and started doing Dried Lake.
Get a Surgebinders and use it as soon as possible, these goes for as low as 1c for maximum of 7% ele damage per frenzy roll. As a Raider frenzy charges are always at maximum and both Lightning Arrows and Burning Arrows benefits greatly from ele damage.

As soon as I can afford Xoph's Nurture I went ahead and bought the cheapest one for around 20c. This is funded by trading a lot and knowing what is good to trade early on in the league.

To upgrade the build, I went for Ngahamu Tiki first, for the insane DPS boost and nice life and res.
After that I aim for a Belly of the Beast for life and res, to boost survivability.

A Drillneck with fire leech corruption is optimal since I achieved 100% pierce with pierce gem.

Emberwake Ruby Ring is not neccessary, if you can't cap resists. However this ring allows Xoph's healing properties to be more effective when you can ignite more and thus gain more life back. This ring is actually made for a more defensive purpose on this build. Without it you can get much higher burns with added fire, weapon elemental damage rare rings.

Doryani Invitation fire version is best in slot for Burning Arrow because of the damage, leech and ignite when on flask. You can either get this earlier on, but I recommend not getting it until you have Belly of the Beast because it can get pricey with so many Flameblast builds around these days.

As I've mentioned earlier this build needs to be played with an archery playstyle. Facetanking is the last option, and more often than not you are off-screen killing things. Running around constantly, often hitting while travelling is much more efficient.

For Breaches, find a good place against the wall, and keep off-screening from there. It is also very effective to open a breach close to a pack of still proliferating corpses as the breachspawns dies much quicker and created more chain reactions.

For single target, I'm currently running a setup specialized for single target with Scorching Ray + Spell Totem + Vaal Lightning Trap.

Scorching Ray lowers fire res with stacking debuff while Vaal Lighting Trap shocks the target. That is a lot of increased damage, especially for burn.

Flask is essential for any builds, and in particular for Ranger since we started so close to many powerful flask nodes that will enhance whichever flask we uses.

Chemist's Silver Flask of Adrenaline is very essential in this build as it substitute Quicksilver flask for movement speed, but also for attack speed boosting. With a horrible base attack speed of 1.25, even with maximum frenzy charges you won't be a machinegun and can surely use the help of Onslaught. Make sure to roll enough Reduced charges uses for 2 usages of flask as this keeps the flask up all the time.

Witchfire Brew is the Best in slot stibnite flask, with both offensive and defensive usage. Increased DoT, level 21 vulnerability blasphemy and smoke clouds. However the price is very steep this early on in the league and often goes for 40c on good roll.

Chemist's Jade Flask of Reflexes: THE flask for any evasion based build, sadly enough I was only able to get Ample's which is a poor man Chemist in some way. Increasing Evasion by a large number, good amount of charges meaning you can sustain it much better and have it up more often if not all the time.

A 50% instant lfe flask with bleed removal is probably the best option because it allows you to be greedy with your Jade and Silver Flasks. You won't have to worry about Elemental status ailment after you have Avatar of the Veil.

The last slot for a flask can either be Atziri Promise for extra damage, leech and chaos res, or Dying Sun for better aoe and extra arrows (not very sold on this one because its too expensive for what it does to the build).

Overflowing Chalice is also a nice flask to have, however Atziri's promise is probably the most effective option.

FLASK USAGE: Very important that is how you manage your flask, to achieve the highest of effectiveness. Don't overuse flask, or panic instant flask. when entering a mobpack you generally wants to use your utility flask only when they can hit you (jumpers, ranged or caster). No need for all flask up when shooting melee enemies that can't hit you back as flask are mainly for defense. Silver Flask should be used to navigate through packs, because its your poor man quicksilver flask.

All these flask usages stuff are for pushing higher tier maps. For t1 to t7 maps go nuts.

41 points You can respec out Essence Sap later.
85 points If you feel the need for more defense, go into Scion life first and take Shadow nodes later.
120 points

2.6 proposed skilltree




Bandit is Oak-Kraityn-Kraityn.

Ascendancy: Avatar of the Slaughter first. Followed by Avatar of the Veil.
Explanation for Ascendancy choices: Avatar of the Slaughter gives frenzy charges generation and all that goodness, which is marginally better when used in conjunction with Surgebinder (56% > 40% from Avatar of the Veil). It helps with leveling more.

http://poeurl.com/7sf

This is about what I ended with in Breach League. Not really an update on gear because most of them stay the same.


I don't have time to play too much this league so there is no legacy league version. However I'm interested in the new threshold jewel and will give it a try.

While leveling on a 4 links and without Xoph I recommend:
Lightning Arrows + GMP + WED + Faster Attack

Burning Arrow is the main skill here, and should be at least 5l before you want to use in mappings. Burning Arrows + GMP + Pierce + WED + Added Fire

For 6l there are options but I'd go with Fire penetration over faster attacks or increased Burning Damage
Burning Arrows + GMP + Pierce + WED + Added Fire + Fire Penetration

Quality priorities should be for GMP first for better attack speed. Burning Arrow quality only increases Burn duration, which is not detrimental but is nice to have, and is very cheap to buy given nobody actually uses it in endgame.

Anger + Herald of Ash is the aura combination. Herald of Ash in particular synchronized perfectly with this build, because its burn damage is scale alongside ignite burn. With the Ghostflame MTX you will be able to witness double burn which is quite fun and satisfying.

For defensive purpose, a setup of CWDT + IC + Temp Chain + inc Duration is the most probable option. Temp Chains also means that whatever get ignited stay ignited and prolif for longer which benefits offensively as well.

For single target, Scorching Ray + Spell Totem + Vaal Lighting Trap + inc Duration. Applying both shock and fire pen debuff is very powerful on single target.

For mobility, Blink arrow + faster attack.

For more utility, a combination of Vaal skills like Vaal Haste, Vaal Grace and increase Duration.

So far, I have done deathless runs on twin t15, and considering pushing it against guardians and shaper. To do so, I have to figure out a way to beef up while having better single target.
One of the way to do it is by using Kaom Heart and Xoph's Blood for the extreme life boost.'
Xoph's Blood also converts 100% phys to Fire, giving me option to go for single target DPS setup with Barrage + Emberwake (basically fire poison).
Phoenix will still be a bitch, and probably hard to kill, however other guardians should be totally doable.