[3.0] [SC] [Trickster] Caustic Arrow CI Ninja T16+

Pros :
1) Fairly cheap right now (in Harbinger league) because ES, + 3 bow and the uniques used are (or at least were when I did the build) disregarded by many
2) Smooth gameplay, great clear speed
3) Immune to many map mods
4) Very good survivability
5) Easy to gear (in Harbinger League)
6) Easy mechanics
7) Able to do eventually all game content (although not as fast Dark Pact)

Cons :
1) Dps sucks even with BIS gear (you need a second 6L ED single target for Shaper and Uber Atziri)
2) Leveling sucks without leveling gear (unless you cheese it by going ED)

This build focus on a high shield pool combined with a low cooldown and high recharge rate, and a lot of ways to evade/dodge attacks and spells.

My current stats are :

- 115% faster start of recharge, which gives a total cooldown of 0.93 sec.

- Recharge rate is 51%/sec, so a full recharge takes 1.9 sec.

- Evasion is at 55% (64% while not on full ES) without flasks and 76% (80% while not on full ES) with flask.

- Dodge chance is 8/5% without flasks and 20/17% with flasks.

So basically, all you need to do is not take damage for 2 seconds to regen most of your ES pool.

CAUSTIC ARROW
With +3 bow and lvl 4 empower we get a lvl 28 Caustic arrow.

Base damage of lvl 28 Caustic arrow is : 1684

Gems (+1 to all support gems from the bow):

- Damage on Full Life : 1.5
- Void Manipulation : 1.4
- Concentrated Effect : 1.55
- Swift Affliction : 1.45

Total increased damage :
With passives and gems we get around 570% increased damage, so 6.7 multiplier.

Total Damage before buffs & debuffs
1684 * 1.5 * 1.4 * 1.55 * 1.45 * 6.7 = ~53'000 DPS

With buffs & debuffs
With 4 power charges and 4 frenzy charges : 65'000 DPS
With Vulnerability : 87'000 DPS
With both Witchfire & Sorrow of the Divine : 100'000 DPS
With 20 stacks of Wither : 200'000 DPS
With Socked Ground : 240'000 DPS

DPS against bosses
Normal bosses : 190'000 with all buffs & debuffs, 45k without any buff and debuff.
Guardians & Shaper : 165'000 with all buffs and debuffs, 40k without any buff and debuff.

So, as you can see, there is a huge gape between unbuffed dps and fully buffed dps. Expect around 60k to 80k dps against Guardians and Shaper, or any other monster that has a lot of chaos resistance.

ESSENCE DRAIN
Links : ED + Decay + Controlled Destruction + Efficacy + Void Manipulation + Swift Affliction

Total ED dps with decay should be at least 67% of your Arrow DPS, up to 80% additional total DPS depending on your passives, jewels and gems level. For my char lvl 20 Decay gives more dps than lvl 3 Empower, but it can vary depending on your passives and jewels.

Everything up to T16, including Guardians should not pose any trouble. Although, Guardians fights will take a few minutes because the dps sucks. I managed to do Hydra Guardian, with 8 mods, one of them being no regen.

Uber Lab : this build facerolls uberlab, but it will sometime be hard to go full key run, because CA will kill things you don't want to kill. To fix this use ED as main single target, it will slow down a bit the fight, but it remains a very safe one, Izaro has slow attacks, you always have time to regen your shield in between.

Guardian of the Phoenix : an easy fight, dodge the tornadoes, little phoenix should die instantly with one arrow, and wait until the Guardian dies. ED is not required for this fight and will only make it shorter (not easier).

Guardian of the Chimera : the easiest one in my opinion because he only has 'attacks', and you will by default avoid them 90% of the time. The build can afk during the smoke phase and tank it. Be carefull with adds, use vaal lightning trap and potions to burst them, and you should be fine. ED is not required for this fight and will only make it shorter (not easier).

Guardian of the Minotaur : you can facetank him and sidestep when he slams or burrows. The only way to die to him is to get stuck in the lightning or to not get out of the rocky rain (any other attack will not oneshot you and you will have time to regen the shield before the next one). ED is not required for this fight and will only make it shorter (not easier).

Guardian of the Hydra : it is in my opinion the hardest one for this build, but if you are used to the fight and positioning yourself around the Guardian you should be fine. This fight is all about being able to keep the right positioning and adapt it to the frostbolts.ED is not required for this fight and will only make it shorter (not easier).

Shaper will test the limits of the build dps. Dps is so low, even with BIS gear, that you will need to pop all cool-downs to kill the adds or Zana will die. If you do not use ED to support your single target DPS, you will need a perfect (I'm not joking) management of the orbs during phase 2 and 3 to have a chance to beat him because the fight will last an eternity.

Uber Atziri is fine up until Atziri herself and does not require ED until Atziri. Vaals are totaly manageable as long as they don't end up stacking in a corner (if they do, its still doable, but you will end up dying). As I said, fight will last long, so a perfect gameplay is required. However Trio will be a joke, the build destroy it completely (even if, as often said, you have to expect a long fight). Just kill them in the right order (ranged -> dual striker -> cycloner) and abuse the movement speed and dodge/evasion combined with the shield recharge rate to beat them. Trouble comes with Atziri. Altough the build has enough dps to take care of the healing phase, you will not be able to cheese the phases. Expect a total fight time of about 5min of bullet hell were you can't do any mistake. Be careful when you use ED, the cast time will be highed than a caster because you do not have any casting speed. Precast ED during the clone phase to be safe.

Sorry, CI is missing, it you should take it too
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/3.0.1/AAAABAYCAAFvAdEDHgPuDXwOSA5cD6sQexEPES8RUBGWE20UCRa_GFYZihslHU8dvh3ZH0Ei6iL0JIsmiCj6KwozhzW5Ow09X0NURX5GcUlRSbFLrkyDTLNSU1KvV8lauVxAXGtd8mBDYlpn_Gh0aoxq-mwLbRluPXDUdIF1nnaCf8aAs4LHgwmESITFh8uIQosOi3qP-pFHkyeXBpeVl_SbtaEioS-iQKLZpyunm6yYr-uw2LQMtNG1SLcwu02-Or6AvorBAMHFwzrDbcSiyAzIFMrTzxXQH9fP2VvaYtsa3V_fmOL36QLquutj7BjviO_r8NX0cfT49Uv1b_fX-Tf5pPno

Major Gods :

- Brine King : stun immunity and freeze immunity are the budget option. It is the one I'm using right now. Getting stun immunity from gear would probably be best in the long run because Lunaris and Solaris have very good bonus depending on the fight you will face.

- Solaris : probably the best option for maping

- Lunaris : best God for end game bosses

- Arakaali : nothing useful here

Minor Gods :

- Abberath : because of the way this build works defensively, it can be a good choice for some maps or bosses in order to be immune to burning ground and have reduced ignite duration

- Soul or Ralakesh : again, it is situational. If you will face enemies that apply bleeding (like Atziri) or that maim (like Chimera), those are just example, its a good option

- Garukhan : savage hit doesn't work with ES and the second bonus will rarely be active

- Yugul : reflect freeze can be a thing, same for reduced cold damage taken, but well, there is much better

- Tukohama : can maybe be used against Minautor, but that's all I can think about

- Gruthkul : most likely useless for this build

- Ryslatha : even more useless

For Jewels look for anything with {chaos = dmg = dot > aoe = projectile} + {%ES} + {any defensive stat that you lack > (%es recharge start/speed)}