[3.0] ||| Retch - SLArcher ||| [Video] [09/04/17]

The skilltree is about pathing to certain keynodes such as Point Blank, Druidic Rite, Forces of Nature, Phase Acrobatics, Arcing Blows, Alchemist and Elemental Overload. The deep pathing into witch-area probably needs the most explanation.

Alchemist grants 26% increased flask effect, which lead into 25,2% lightning conversion of vinktar and 37,8% total lightning-lifeleech (leg. Vinktar). With the physical to lightning-gem (50% conversion) and a corrupted quiver you are able to reach up to 95,2% lightning-conversion this way.

Elemental Overload on the other hand is a great addition, because Reach of the Council has only a base critical strike chance of 6% and the build isn't really made for heavy investments into critical strike multiplier on gear or tree. To maintain the buff of Elemental Overload a total critical strike chance between 10 and 20 percent is good enough, which is easily doable without heavy investments.

The other keynodes are about...

a) defences like Phase Acrobatics, or
b) damage through elemental penetration, like Forces of Nature and Arcing Blows, or through positioning like Point Blank,
c) utility like Druidic Rite for better gaining of flask charges and duration,
d) instant leech, because of Vaal Pact (in case you don't own a leg. Vessel of Vinktar).

On the way to those keynodes you are just taking nodes which are worth it, like most lifenode, some damage and jewel nodes. "Deal with the Bandits"-Quest should be completed with killing all for 2 additional skillpoints.

About the ascendancy-nodes: Endless Hunger is needed for the build synergy as already being mentioned. With Bane of Legends you are getting pretty much perma-onslaught while grinding and an advanced culling strike on top of it. Headsmen gives a 20%-more-multiplier, if you have killed recently. And finally: Overwhelm is kind of a useful king of the hill-replacement: Giving some utility through crowd control.

Pantheon should be used as probably intended from GGG. Use the nodes which do help you at your current setup or tasks the most and just switch them, if you are going for something else.

I am running mostly Soul of Solaris as Major God (finish Dungeon, Vaal City and High Gardens with a Divine Vessel for all bonuses) and either Soul of Yugul for general grinding (finish Waste Pool with Divine Vessel for the bonus) or Soul of Tukohama for bosses like shaper (finish Marshes with Divine Vessel for the bonus) as Minor God.

Tornado-Shot as main-attack, still one of the most powerful skills at the game. The linking provides great area-damage and still powerful single target damage, so you don't actually need a second 6-link. This setup is good enough to kill the shaper on it's own and one-shoting most bosses up to t15 without any other single-target-skill.

As said above, you don't need the 2nd-6-Link, but your single-target-damage will sky rocket with it. I am using it on my weapon-swap, as don't have a 6-link body armour. For stuff like guardians, shaper or uber-atziri/izaro i just switch my weapon.

and/or plus

Herald of Thunder with Curse on Hit and Poacher's Mark and/or Elemental Weakness. Poacher's Mark isn't a very common curse these days, but actually like made for this build. Because you are going deep into witch-area, your dexterity won't be too huge, so your accuracy won't be as well. That's why lowering the enemies evasion is very useful. Even more useful is the 100% increased flask-gaining, because of The Retch debuff and your general dependence on flasks. On top you are getting a passive way of frenzy charge-generation. Elemental Weakness is the better choice for bosses, because Poacher's Mark doesn't do a lot here. Getting both curses needs an additional curse-mod on gear of course. Drop increased area of effect, if you got the possibility. Using Herald of Thunder with Curse on Hit and increased Area of Effect grants a very reliable source of spreading your curse and - of course - deals some more elemental damage.




Wrath for obvious reasons, plus Blink Arrow for mobility and a Golem, because it's nice to have. Faster Attacks to buff both. Any golem works. If you are going with the Vaal Pact - tree the life-regen of the stone one won't have an effect though and you should'nt take it.




Usual cast when damage taken setup comibend with Vaal Grace (for getting increased duration linked with it). Vaal Haste instead of Grace would be ok as well, depending on what you prefer more: Speed, or defense. I prefer defense.

The most important thing about the slot is probably the enchantment. +2 projectiles to either tornado shot, or barrage is a huge boost. To choose between those is about chosing your preferences. If you are grinding bosses like shaper or uber-atziri a lot barrage will be the better choice, if it's more about general grinding then tornado shot.

For chosing the right base: Alpha's Howl provides some utility with less mana reservation and cannot be frozen. Rat's Nest isn't as great as being used at usual crit-builds, but it provides enough global critical strike chance to disregard it on any other slots. Starkonja's is a nice mix of defensive and offensive attributes.

A good rare providing resistance, life and evasion would work as well.

(Legacy) Reach of the Council is probably the most powerful choice here, because you don't have to use greater multiple projectiles. High base critical strike chance isn't needed and global critical strike multiplier is useless, so i don't recommend using a rare (mirrored) bow. Of course Brood Twine & Co. do have a lot more physical damage, but the investment isn't worth it.
If you cannot afford a legacy Reach or playing a temp league you should use GMP instead of slower projectiles and try to get any rare bow with high-phys-rolls or use Lioneye's Glare (probably drop point blank then).

A corrupted version of Drillneck not being used a lot, which is why they are pretty cheap at the moment. For my build it's the perfect fit, because playing into the main-synergy (up to 20% lightning conversion) as well as the usual synergy with pierce.

Weapon elemental and flat physical damage, plus life are the most important rolls here. Critical Strike chance doesn't hurt, but isn't needed. Just get some useful suffixes, like accuracy (you should get a least about 250 total from gear), resistance, needed attributs, or %-lightning-damage here.

Legacy Kaom's Heart is best in slot, but if you cannot afford one, or playing a temp league a non-legacy Kaom's Heart, Belly of the Beast or good rare body armour does the job as well. If you are using a 6-link chest, you don't need a second weapon setup of course.

Once again: Weapon elemental damage, flat physical and life, plus useful suffixes. Opal and Steel being the best bases, but other useful bases are fine as well.

I am going with gripped gloves here, because i don't like the gloves-enchantments too much. Flat physical, life and some resistance, accuracy or attack speed are great.

Must have, because the guide is more or less about The Retch and it's synergy-potentials.

"

The Retch does not drop and can only be obtained with the following vendor recipe, which requires non-corrupted items exclusive to the Talisman leagues: Feastbind, Faminebind & Orb of Fusing.
The modifier #% of Life Leech applies to enemies as Chaos Damage takes 200% of the actual life gained from leech and deals it as chaos damage to enemy that was the target of the leeching. Therefore, by default no damage is dealt if the player is at full health while leeching. This damage is not affected by damage modifiers as it is considered as reflected damage.
If Endless Hunger is allocated, then the damage will continue as long as the leech lasts, even once at full life. If combined with instantaneous life leech, then the total amount of potential leech is dealt instantly, including that above the player's maximum life.
Path of Exile Wiki

Some rare boots with movement speed, life and resistance are most likely the way to go. The enchantments above, plus flat-lightning are probably the best ones. If you don't need the resistance then Atziri's Steps are definitely worth a try.

There are various variations of nice jewel-rolls for the build. Increased maximum life is always something you want, but those are the most expensive ones as well. Just try to take some jewels with 4 useful rolls.

The 5 flasks above are my current setup. Vinktar as part of the synergy, Taste of Hate and Dying Sun as the most powerful companions. A shock-immune-slask is needed because of Vinktar, and i have chosen a Basalt Flask with Bleeding-Immunity as fifth, because the damage reduction is great and you need something for bleeding.

Good alternatives and something to think about are for example:



If you are going for the Vaal-Pact-Variation without a leg. Vinktar, you should use 2 non-legacy ones in a setup like this:

At rare slots the most important rolls for the build are prefixes, like life, flat physical damage and weapon elemental damage (like my current projects above). - Which is why metacrafting with Haku's "prefixes cannot be changed" is a solid way of gaining some great gear for the build.

I started as a pretty regular physical-based crit-bow-build with 90%-ele-conversion (physical to lightning plus the new cold-conversion nodes). Once i started mapping i bought a Lioneye's Glare - Bow for very few chaos, got some life and capped my resistance. With very few upgrades i played this setup till lvl90, while holding pretty much all my currency back. I got into red-tier-maps without any heavy investments, - just gear for a couple of chaos. Lioneye's Glare is a really powerful and very cheap solution to get into a league strongly.

My currency-generation was pretty much just farming and selling the stuff i found. As a regular working-guy i haven't got the time and desire to farm and flip items. While i haven't found a single exalted orb by drop for quite some time, i have been lucky enough to get some decent uniques being dropped early in the league. With those currency i was able to buy a legacy Reach of the Council (and some missing synergy-items) and started into a transition-phase from regular crit-build into my own build (lvl90-transition-Tree). Few days later i managed to go deeper into my own build by changing quite a lot. Even though i was still missing a 2nd 6-link, uber-lab, few tree-skillpoints etc. i was really satisfied with the result. Farming t15 wasn't a problem at all.

The idea about the current gear-setup is pretty much being prepared for all endgame-content with two six-links for barrage and tornado shot, plus getting as much life as possible with belly of the beast and life-rolls on all other slots. Plus i am now using wrath instead of hatred to push my lightning-damage even more.

Tree:

lvl95-Skilltree, Vaal-Pact-Variation

Gear: