Trenan's "The Best" Explosive Arrow Build(No Quill Rain)

I hate the fact that I'm stuck at work and not able to be at home leveling up this build, it sounds very interesting

First of all, loving the build! I'm thrilled that someone took something as awesome as Explosive Arrow and built around it, rather than just going LA like most archers. I have a couple of questions though, in regards to alternative defense/DPS buff mechanisms.

First, what do you think of an alternate build that swaps Ice Shot totem for a Skeletotem? I'll admit, I love Ice Shot (and am working on a Shadow/Ranger build focusing on it), but I wonder about methods to stack more damage on the +fire you use. Since we're already into the witch and templar trees, would it be viable to pick up Minion Instability (which deals fire damage) and even a few +minion health nodes if we can afford them and/or gem +Minion health on the skellies (or Faster Casting) and just let them run out and suicide/distract the enemies? They'd also have the advantage of putting bodies between you and nasty LMP-casters trying to maul your face. Downsides include Projectile Weakness not stacking with the Skellies and a lack of a second type of elemental damage, leaving us dependent on Fire and Phys (both of which will be addressed in Second).

Second (and related to first), I must disagree with a negative analysis of Whispers of Doom here, predominantly because I agree so strongly with your choice of Projectile Weakness. It's a great curse, but it leaves you with issues against most enemies with Elemental Resistance, particularly Fire Resistance. As a solution, take Whispers of Doom and and Elemental Weakness along WITH Projectile Weakness. This will add damage even on enemies WITHOUT resistances, as Ele Weakness can take a resistance negative, and I say Ele Weakness because the only thing you loose from not running Flamamability instead is Burn chance. I don't really like Burn damage, as it ticks too slow to keep mobs from eating face before they die, and this feels like a bust-y build. Elemental Weakness would also stack with MI damage, if Alternate #1 of this post is also taken, along with any other sources of elemental damage that we have, including auras, uses of Flame Trap if desired, etc.

Again, I wish to stress that I love your build and think that it works wonderfully the way it is. I raise these points as possible alternatives that I would love your opinion on : ) Keep kicking butt and burning things!

EDIT: Spelling and typos

SECOND EDIT: I statted out a possible build incorporating some of the alternatives I suggested (and shifting off of CI to health, though that is simply personal preference) Any suggestions on this setup?

I am curious why you would connect an lmp and a gmp, instead of just an lmp and a chain. Is there a reason for this that I am missing?

Same damage reduction, and you get 6 additional tgts much more reliably than with gmp. (due to spread vs smart tgting)

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I am curious why you would connect an lmp and a gmp, instead of just an lmp and a chain. Is there a reason for this that I am missing?

Same damage reduction, and you get 6 additional tgts much more reliably than with gmp. (due to spread vs smart tgting)

It is because Explosion arrow wont make another charge if it's a chain. So any additional attacks with the chain are just the base damage with no charge attached. Same thing with pierce and fork.

I'm currently an EA marauder trying to convert to a similar hybrid build like this that relies on both physical damage on fuse damage. Sick of waiting for fuses to explode :p. Here's my current tree.

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEABS0GDgn2DjwOrRQgFE0UcRjbGS4aOBpVHRQhYCWtJ-0pTymlNug26TpSPAVAoEGqQ5xG11BHUFBUSVXGWGNZ818_YEthIWP9ZKNmnnKpdO108Xrmeu982X1TgpuDOITvhymLjIzPj0aQVZ2Anrmf36IApwinMKeErKq53cAaxtjPZdDQ1HzUj9rd3QXfv-Fz42rnUudq7DjtIO8O73zyL_Pd9kj3Mvjr-tI=

Is Iron Will a smart choice to spec into since I don't have additional projectile damage nodes available like the ranger? I can't seem to get enough dps (currently 264 with lmp loh and faster attacks). My thicket bow does 42-124 damage and I have a 45% blackgleam and a ring with 11% increased fire damage. Can anybody link an ideal bow for this build, I'm at level 72 and can't figure out how to get high dps on the physical damage from the EAs. In the first post you mentioned you can 3 shot them, but it takes me about 10.

How is this build able to survive the leveling process with no health taken?

Do you rely entirely on kiting? Or do you get a nice chunk of ES early on through gear/nullification?

Also how do you deal with Physical and Elemental Reflect with no Armour and low sustain?

this build seems interesting. What kinda of damage output do you estimate?

Doing this build right now in HC. Already died once by accident lol. Currently in the 30s. You have to spend whole time kiting because of the low HP. I find it entertaining to kite whole game and spam decoys every few steps because of my 300 hp LOL. Gonna try the build completely and maybe later ill put some input.

Just wondering if this spec would do well with this explosion arrow type of build.

Just to Clarify Since I am taking CI In this build I will obviously be running Blood Rage for the Fury charges and the Life steal.

Also Plan on running Discipline and Clarity as my passives.

@schisist:

I'm currently lv32 with no life nodes taken (besides a single +10 str node), it's absolutely playable. :) Just have to be... more careful lol.

Though the reason why this build takes no life nodes is because of CI. :)