[3.0] The Demented Xoph Berserker Build Guide [Rain of Arrows, Barrage] [Softcore, deeps]

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kompaniet wrote:

i'd argue that revenge of the hunted is better than ranger life/evasion starter passives. also why not take acrobatics? it's only two points away.

It is a good compromise to get life and some damage. But know that the Ranger starting points are double dip damage (with burn). I think both options are solid. Acrobatics is generally not necessary cause the leech is just nuts. It's hard to die unless you get 1 shot. Id say try without first and then try with Acro. In certain specific situations Arrow dancing may also be good.

Positioning is very important with this build. You need to be as close as possible to the target to maximize the arrows that hit the target and of course for point blank. The Empire's grasp is a must against targets that get knock back.

But know that you can also die really fast if you fail to leech. After all we take 10% increased damage. For example I wouldn't dare to go in the Overgrown ruins boos room. There's just too much stuff going on there. It could be done but some serious skills would be needed.

gl

yes but i meant the four life/evasion starter passives for ranger. not the projectile damage passives. you can get revenge of the hunted for the same 4 points.

why not assassin's mark instead of flammability? then you'd get power charges as well.

i was planning to go with maligaro gloves for generic mapping. i'm not too fond of switching out equipment as it slows down the gameplay too much.

haven't tried blasphemy+curse since the nerf. is it still worth it? i use for the time being while leveling.

i had plans to go with grace or anger + heralf of ash instead.

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kompaniet wrote:

yes but i meant the four life/evasion starter passives for ranger. not the projectile damage passives. you can get revenge of the hunted for the same 4 points.

why not assassin's mark instead of flammability? then you'd get power charges as well.

i was planning to go with maligaro gloves for generic mapping. i'm not too fond of switching out equipment as it slows down the gameplay too much.

haven't tried blasphemy+curse since the nerf. is it still worth it? i use

for the time being while leveling.

i had plans to go with grace or anger + heralf of ash instead.

Ah yeah lol you are right about nodes. :)

For curse I am honestly not sure. My guts tell me that Flammability will be better. Test it out, see what feels better. The ignites will be bigger with flammability + double dip. Every hit will be bigger (not just crits) and you don't need to sustain the charges. Since we are essentially melee range I think blasphemy should be fine. Tho I can't say for sure as I only played this league with passives that enhance curse area. Try it; After all it doesn't require you to use an additional skill to get the curse up. Siosa is cheap.

One thing worth noting is that the Diamond flask has diminishing returns. The sweet spot is around 55% crit chance. http://i.imgur.com/w8p7FyK.png

Use empire's grasp for general mapping. ;) Try both, you'll see what I mean. They actually (pseudo.) add damage. Since they pull target towards you you hit them more often and it helps with point blank. The opposite is true with any other gloves. You hit less and you'll need to re position a lot. Empire's grasp really make this build.

For Grace and Anger again you'll need to try it yourself. First see if you are ok with manual applying of curses. Will you have enough slots? We are using Kaom's heart. Arctic armour is also nice. If you go for Grace or anger you will loose 1 aura and use more sockets overall. My guts tell me that Arctic armour is quite good since it reduces the BIG hits. Remember those are the most dangerous to us. It can also reduce reflected damage.

yes i will test all that stuff. i am still leveling in merciless mode.

why not frenzy instead of barrage as single targets? frenzy linked to power charge on crit is pretty nice. frenzy charges and power charges vs single targets.

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kompaniet wrote:

yes i will test all that stuff. i am still leveling in merciless mode.

why not frenzy instead of barrage as single targets? frenzy linked to power charge on crit is pretty nice. frenzy charges and power charges vs single targets.

Try and just follow the build. I have spoken to my resident theory craft advisor and he said that Flammability is best. Blasphemy should be ok since we use point blank. Barrage is the number 1 damage skill for bow. Feel free to experiment tho. This build is a crit build but with ROA we focus on big ignites. You really don't need more than 55% crit if you use the Diamond flask consistently. Barrage is different. We focus on many small and fast hits. it is not hard to see that this skill can output the most damage. Ignites with barrage are not that important, since hits are smaller. We also get the full advantage of using barrage since we are in melee range from the target. Most arrows will hit the target. And It's here that the Empire's grasp falls into place. But know that you need the xoph items for this build to work as intended. Especially the bow, as it provides us with prolif!

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Greengroove wrote:

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kompaniet wrote:

yes i will test all that stuff. i am still leveling in merciless mode.

why not frenzy instead of barrage as single targets? frenzy linked to power charge on crit is pretty nice. frenzy charges and power charges vs single targets.

Try and just follow the build. I have spoken to my resident theory craft advisor and he said that Flammability is best. Blasphemy should be ok since we use point blank. Barrage is the number 1 damage skill for bow. Feel free to experiment tho. This build is a crit build but with ROA we focus on big ignites. You really don't need more than 55% crit if you use the Diamond flask consistently. Barrage is different. We focus on many small and fast hits. it is not hard to see that this skill can output the most damage. Ignites with barrage are not that important, since hits are smaller. We also get the full advantage of using barrage since we are in melee range from the target. Most arrows will hit the target. And It's here that the Empire's grasp falls into place. But know that you need the xoph items for this build to work as intended. Especially the bow, as it provides us with prolif!

thx for the reply. barrage it is. i was just curious.

i'll skip xoph's amu though. it's pretty expensive. got all the other items.
with signal fire quiver + xoph's bow i have 100% fire damage conversion anyway.

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kompaniet wrote:

thx for the reply. barrage it is. i was just curious.

i'll skip xoph's amu though. it's pretty expensive. got all the other items.
with signal fire quiver + xoph's bow i have 100% fire damage conversion anyway.

Note that the Xoph's Nurture bow doesn't have the best DPS output for single target. Chin sol should be much better, but I'm not sure how much damage you loose without the conversion. If I were you I would try farm xoph's domain till I get the amulet and then bless it. The splinters are not that cheap but if you run a lot of breach you also get a lot of loot and currency.

160c is not cheap but it's very doable if you play enough. The amulet is also something nice to add to your collection.

As an alternative you could try http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Blast_Rain

Not as good as Barrage but it provides the 50% fire conversion. Remembet to use it at point blank range and definitely use Empire's grasp!

Then you'd probably want to switch phiz proj damage to conc effect. That might be very hard to get colors for. If that is not possible at least try to use slower proj instead of phiz proj damage.

i went ahead and bought xoph's amulet. when i wrote my previous post i thought it was still 3-4 exa.

got this so far at lvl 64.



maligaro gloves as backup and kaom chest available in 4 levels.


a funny thing i noticed is that if i put arctic armour in empire's grasp gloves it reserves 35% mana instead of 25%. it's somehow affected by the knockback gem but i don't know why so i had to move it out of there.

nice build. back to the game for me :)

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kompaniet wrote:

I went ahead and bought xoph's amulet. when i wrote my previous post i thought it was still 3-4 exa.

Awesome! You can use the Maligaros gloves on bosses that can't be knocked back. I'm not sure what they are tho.

does avatar of fire prevent atziri's promise unique flask from adding extra chaos damage? i am guessing that it does.

since avatar of fire converts half the lightning damage from vaal lightning trap into fire and discards the rest does it still work? do enemies still get shocked by the fire damage?

i can't decide which bow i should attemppt to 6l first. i think chin sol is more important but i'm not sure.