[3.0] HOWA Spectral Throw / Molton Strike AssRaider

+ Cheap to start with!
+ No gem swapping!
+ Whirling Blades!
+ Not a Berserker!
+ You do damage on more than 5cm around your character!
+ no extra work for Frenzy and Power Charges!
+ Whirling blades!!!!111
+ Shocks and freezes all around!
+ Does not (really) use expensive flasks

- Not the tankiest build around (only 5k life at the end)
- Is not the cheapest build if you really want to make it shine.
- Vaal Pact (Lab can be annoying)
- Can't run reflect maps (Single Monsters are no problem)
- Can be a strain on the fingers to play, but that is subjective.

Impossible: No Leech, Elemental Reflect,
Extremely Annoying, but doable if you really want: No Regen, immune to elemental ailments
Annoying: Too many damage mods at once, chance to avoid ailments, ele equilibrium

Cast your Harbinger once every session.
Run in Mobs, Spectral throw a few times, whirl to next pact, spectral throw a few times, repeat
Boss: Place Decoy Totem, use Molten strike until dead
Always keep your flasks up vs Bosses. ALWAYS. You will die if you don't.
Also keep Fortify up against bosses. Also helps against dying to bosses.

https://pastebin.com/W3fCPW2K

Leveling trees are in the bottom left corner of pastebin:

http://poeurl.com/bAM0

We are a Scion, but with uber lab we completely disconnect from the Scion start and it basically is a pure Ranger tree.

The two notables we use are Vaal Pact (self-explenatory) and Point Blank. The latter is simply a massive single target dps boost for Molten Strike. If you don't need that or do not like the gameplay with it, you can easily remove it, the three dex nodes leading to it and the Thick Skin life wheel (22% life) and move those points into Cruel Preparation (the three life points in the Witch area), it's the exact same 8 points, it's either 5% res and 50 int or 2% life, 30 dex and Point Blank, the choice is yours.

Otherwise, it's pretty straight forward, you try to get every single life in the area, every single crit/multi in the area, the lower part of the Claw Wheel (massive crit/multi and mana leech, the only mana thing on the tree), some elemental attack nodes, the two extra frenzies and a few jewel nodes, all while grabbing as much int and dex as possible, with the focus on int.

Ascendency Order:
Normal: Traval towards ranger
Cruel: Take Raider and travel towards Shadow
Merc: Take Assassin
Uber: Take Path of the Raider

You can also switch around and take assassin first, it doesn't really matter while leveling. The important thing is to have Raider and Assassin when you've done Merc Lab.

Single Target (Chest (4R2B)):
Molten Strike - Multistrike - Elemental Damage with Attacks - Elemental Focus (4L) - Ruthless (5L) - Concentrated Effect (6L)
Ruthless does nothing for the balls, whereas Conc does nothing for the hit.
If you want a 5 and 6L which is significantly weaker for either, but affects both the hit and the balls, you can take Added Lightning and Lightning Pen instead, but you'd need 3R3B then instead of 4R2B

AoE Clear (Helmet (2G1B1R)):
Spectral Throw - GMP - Added Lightning - Elemental Damage with Attacks - Ice Bite (from Helm) - Innervate (from Helm)
If you use that Helm (see later), this takes care of frenzy charges.

Aura1/Curse (Weapon (3B)):
Herald of Thunder - Curse on Hit - Conductivity
The Ascendency will take care for Power Charges, so no need for Assassin's Mark.. If you play in a group, either run AM or hope that someone else (like a support) does.

Movement (shield (2G1R)):
Whirling blades - Faster Attacks - Fortify

Aura 2/Utility 1 (Gloves (2B1X linked + 1B unlinked)):
Flame Dash - faster Casting - Portal | wrath
Portal not required, I just like it. It's easiest if you link it so the top left socket is unlinked, and the rest is the 3L (not that hard manually fusing it, should be in around 10-20 fuse no problem. You can use fusing again if you 4L it, the lock is only on a 6L), and then just use vorici 3B recipe, as the fourth color doesn't matter (portal is white), otherwise you pointlessly burn chromatics for no reason, for 3B on high level armor or evasion item you need retarded RNG. I tried it and burned about 400 chromes before I gave up and just did vorici. I had almost countless 2b1g or 2g1b and even one 3g, but never a 3b.

If you would get a green one as your fourth, that would be the spot if you like to use blood rage (e.g. you are using a different helmet)

Utility 2 (Boots (3R+1X depending on golem))
CWDT - Decoy Totem - Increased Duration - Golem
Technically you could also do 2x2L, link golem with CWDT and Totem with Duration, but it doesn't interfere if you have it in a 4L

Kaom's
If you use Kaom's Roots, you have to get rid of something. in that case I'd do the following:
Shield: Decoy Totem - Inc Duration | Portal/Wrath
Gloves: Whirling Blades - Faster Attacks - Fortify - Wrath/Portal

If you put Wrath in the shield, make sure it is a 2L/1L, so it is not linked to Inc Duration, which would screw with your mana reservation. In Gloves it doesn't matter.

This would also mean that you won't have a Golem and Flame Dash if you use Kaom's.

I used one Fertile Mind (near Vaal pact) to convert 70 dex into 93 (23 on the jewel itself) int.
You could do the same on the right side of the tree, there it would be 50 dex into 66-74 int.
You could also use "Static Electricity" Jewels instead, as they are dirt cheap.
Or you could use some juicy Rare jewels with Int/Crit multi/attackspeed or life/resists, depending on what you need/want. If you use Wise Oak, jewels might be a place to balance lightning/cold res.

All Jewels are a rather strong boost for dps, whereas Static electricity is the weakest of all choices, Fertile Mind is stronger in both mentioned positions. Rare jewels depend on how good the jewels are. A real GG 4 stat jewel most likely will be stronger than both unique jewels, but Fertile Mind will be stronger than an "average" 2-3 stat Jewel. Static electricity is stronger than a jewel with only one beneficial stat.

Both Arakaali (Major) and Yugul (Minor) help if you have reflect problems. If you don't have any problems against single reflect monsters (you shouldn't run reflect on a map anyways), any Major is fine, and for the minor god I would suggest Ryslatha for Lab and Tukohama for everything else (Bosses mainly).

Bread and butter of the Build. I have no idea if and how that would work without it.
Costs: ~2-4c for low roll, ~40-50c for high roll.


Lets us ignore accuracy. Incredibly strong for this build. Start using it with level 11 and
Costs: 12c for a low roll, 25c for a high roll (only life matters, and it's not even a big range (30-40 life).


An extremely well rolled rare amulet (e.g. one with Int, Crit, Crit Multi, WED, Life and Lightning damage to attacks, or maybe even corrupted with attackspeed/WED) is a lot stronger for damage, but you will get massive problems with the strength requirement for the WED gems, therefore I list astramendis as required. If you get your strength required otherwise, feel free to use a rare amulet with better DPS stats. Otherwise use Astramendis at least for leveling starting with level 20.
Costs: 30c for a low roll, 80-100c for a high roll.


Our Phys Reduction is rather low without flasks, so I recommend using these

With this I go from ~20% to ~70+% phys reduction.
Additionally, we are a crit build, so we need a

this takes care of bleeds.

CHEST


We want to use a 6L Molten Strike eventually, so Kaoms is no option. Belly is the next best.
High life, some resists, Armor evasion, all we need from a Chest.
Alternatives: Tabula for 6L, Any Armor or Armor hybrid chest with high Life and resists. Rare Chests can get better resists but lower life than a Belly. We want At least Armor Hybrid as we need 4R2B in our setup. Armor/Evasion can become a bit unlucky with coloring, it took me around 400 chromes until my belly was properly colored....


HELMET


Our 6L for Spectral Throw. Good Life, some resists. Frees us from Blood Rage, as Ice Bite gives us Frenzy Charges for trash.

Alternatives: Any Rare Evasion or Evasion hybrid Helm with High Life and Resists. Any other Unique Helm, like Rat's Nest, Starkonja, Devotos... Whatever you like. If you do not take tempests, helm slot is flexible.


BOOTS


Wait what? A build that actually uses these crap boots? well, 1-120 to attacks is a shitload of damage, so yeah.


gives us the 6th frenzy, which is 30 movement speed. #GottaGoFast. Also gives lightning res, which makes it easier (cheaper) to get damage rings without needing to rob fort knox. Reduced frenzy charge duration is annoying though.

Wake are actually the highest dps option, but they hardly give anything else. DRV still don't give life, but a 6th frenzy which is at least a bit of damage, and some more defenses than Wake.

Alternatives:
Kaom's Roots. Gives us a crapton of life, temp chains/freeze immunity and a lot of armor for the cost of loosing all chance to evade entirely and a 4L, meaning we have to get rid of some skills and rearrange all of the links.
Any kind of Life/Res/movementspeed Rare.


GLOVES

Rare. Either Gripped (evasion, Proj dmg) or Spiked (armor, melee dmg) with Life, Resists, attackspeed, lightning to attacks.
If you use Kaom's Roots, use definitely Spiked.
I would anyways vote for Spiked, because armor > evasion - if you do not a full evasion build, which this isn't.


RINGS

Rares with Life, resists, lightning to attacks, elemental damage with attacks, INT. Diamond or Opal Base would be best.
The more of these attributes the ring has, the more expensive it will be.
Life and Resists are first priority for Rings though, everything else is "just" bonus damage.


BELT

Rare with Life, Armor, Elemental damage with attacks, Resists, Str.
You might eventually need the str off the belt for your gem requirements (not at the beginning) otherwise just get as much as life and res as possible. Armor is bonus, so is WED.
If you are extremely rich, get an essence crafted one with int.

Wise Oak: for lightning pen. Maybe for Lightning AND cold pen (if you balance the resists), but lightning is more important.
Vessel of Vinktar: Both Penetration and Attacks are strong increases. If you use Vessel, switch your "of heat" flask to "of grounding". And be aware of Freeze chests if you do.
Atziri's Promise: Solid DPS increase via extra damage as chaos.

We only have room really for two unique flasks. So which is best?

=> Second best and also Budget option is Promise + Oak.
=> Best option is High roll attack vessel + Oak. Total DPS difference if all flasks are up between Promise and a High roll Attack vessel is about 2%.

You decide if that is worth the currency. It's also way easier to keep Promise up than it is to keep Vessel up, but Vessel also gives massive amounts of leech.


Blood of the Karui
Best Life Flask as soon as you have >3k life, which usally you should have in Maps. Use whenever you want to use a life flask, like in lab.

Lots of Options. Molten Strike Projectiles (best for Boss damage), Molten Strike Damage (Second best for Boss damage), Spectral throw Projectile Speed (best for Area Coverage), Whirling Blades Attack Speed (#GottaGoFast), Flame Golem Buff Effect (some minor damage increase), Herald/Wrath reduced mana resevation (helps if for some reason you have mana problems, which shouldn't be the case).
I personally have Whirling blades attack speed... I don't even know why. MS projectiles helm was 3ex, WB attack speed helm was 3ex.... I just decided for the WB one.

Increased attack and cast speed if have killed recently. Hands down the best overall.
Honorable mentions are:
inc crit chance if have killed recently
Damage leeched as life/mana if have killed recently
added fire damage if have killed recently

Theoretically we want to keep the implicit on the gloves (melee/proj damage), or the corruption, so no enchant here.

If you do not know what to do with either your currency or your luck you could do the following:

corrupt the astramendis with +1 curse
Actually use a rare amulet as I stated above. Good luck with getting the strength required.
corrupt this rare amulet for +1 curse
corrupt gloves with elemental weakness (offensive) / temp chains (defensive) on hit
corrupt belly with +1 all res
corrupt boots with +1 frenzy
get an abyssus (for the multi, not for the flat phys) with molten strike projectiles enchant - the multi on abyssus is a ridiculous dps increase (PoB states for a 400k dps molten strike (initial hit) a +90k dps gain), but only for single target. It is a decrease for clear (because ST would not be 6L anymore) so it would be a "switch in" helmet for bosses, if you like to yolo on the increased phys dmg taken.

1) Get Ahn's Heritage and 2 Fragilitiy jewels to gain perma onslaught and +3 to all max res, then change raider to deadeye for more proj speed, an extra projectile and a bit of a counter for Point Blank and use again blood rage to gain frenzy charges, at get a crapton of accuracy on the jewellery (that is the point where it becomes expensive) to counteract the loss of "your hits can't be evaded"
Result would be a quite a bit tankier character (+1k base armor, +60 base hp, +3 max res) for the cost of some dps via ascendencies, jewels and not being 100% hit anymore. I haven't done the math on it, just an idea.

2) change the tempests mind to Yifeban's Trickery. More damage for Molten strike, Random Curse on Hit, Shocked ground when hit (even moar damage for molten strike), but at the cost of free frenzy and power charges at trash and quite a bit of life, while still being expensive AF because no one knows that item and it is a tempest only unique, so most likely only be obtainable via divination cards.

First: If you do have the currency, get a Blood of the Karui Flask. It costs around 1ex (surprisingly), but it will save your ass more than any other Life Flask. If you don't have it, have at least a catalysed eternal and a seething divine. Replace the unique flasks with the life flasks, keep your magic flasks.
Second: Use Minor God "Ryslatha" for Lab.
Third: don't stress it. This is not a lab farmer Build, so we don't need to rush more than needed. Check your traps, time your whirls properly. don't get killed.

Izaro: place decoy totem. nuke what you need/want to kill with molten strike. If he spawns adds, whirl away and clear quickly with ST - if you do not have the damage to just nuke him down.
If he is beefed, whirl away from his big hits / goddess barrage / whatever is trying to kill you.

I facetanked merc izaro at lvl 68 (with belly, wake of destruction, howa, 2x6l, etc... so it might not be representative if you don't have all that^^) and Uber Izaro at lvl 78 @ 4.5k life. Just make a safe run and place your decoy totem, then nuke him down. Piece of cvake.

For the trees see above, section "Pastebin / Skill Trees"

Start as a Scion. When you reach Lioneye's Watch, you already have the two skills you will use on this build. Isn't that awesome?

Equip (if you have it): Tabula Rasa, Lochtonial Caress, Wanderlust, 2x Elreon Rings, Goldrim, 2x Last Resort (OP leveling claws, you will use them until lvl 22), 3 Quicksilver Flasks (one with additional resistances).

Every now and then during leveling, unequip your elreon jewellery and try out how the mana feels. If you still go out of mana too fast for your liking, continue using elreon jewellery. If the mana leech feels good enough, replace your elreon rings with proper life/resist rings.

As you do quests and gain access to gems, make sure that you level at least (even if you are not using them immediately)
- two added lightning damage
- two elemental damage with attacks
- one ruthless
- one concentrated effect
- one Assassins Mark

If you have a Tabula, run both of them in it to have a 5L for both. Links would be: WED (lvl18), LMP (lvl8?), Added lightning (lvl8), Ruthless. Before these gems, you can use lesser poison, chance to bleed, whatever support you have access to.

You will start oneshotting everything with molten strike until you get access to LMP, which will cause your ST to become your main clear skill, and MS is only used for tough rares/bosses.

At lvl 4, start using Decoy Totem for Big monsters / Bosses.
At lvl 5, put Hidden Potential in the Jewel at Scion Start.
At lvl 8, equip Wurm's Molt (helps with str for the very early levels)
At lvl 10, start using Whirling blades and Flame dash
At lvl 10, put Static Electricity in the Jewel slow near Vaal Pact.
At lvl 11, equip Lycosidae
At lvl 16, start using herald of thunder
At lvl 18, link Whirling Blades to Faster Attacks
At lvl 20, start using astramendis.
At any point after that, use any life / resists belt instead of the Wurm's Molt, if you find one. Rustic Sashes do almost nothing for us, Heavy/Leather Belts are what we want.
At lvl 22, equip hand of thought and motion. Also replace the Static electricity (the jewel near vaal pact) with a Fertile Mind.
At lvl 24(-ish), mastercraft your elreon rings with int.
At lvl 24, start using wrath.
At lvl 28, equip Wake of destruction
At lvl 31, link Whirling Blades to Fortify
At lvl 38, split the 6L damage setup. Link ST with GMP, added lightning and WED. Link MS with Multistrike, WED, Conc, added lightning and Ruthless. Both are your endgame setups.
At lvl 38, start using your Herald - Curse on Hit - Assassins Mark combo.
At lvl 46, equip your 6L Belly. Use a Belly with less than 6L only if you feel too squishy overall. But generally, during levelling, a Tabula is superior to a Belly except if you do have a 6L Belly, obviously.
At lvl 50, equip Blood of the Karui.
At lvl 60, equip the Tempest's Binding and put your ST setup in it. you now have a 6L ST!
At lvl 65, equip darkray vectors.
At lvl 68, start using Hand of wisdom and Action (and Kaom's Roots if you want to use them)
At lvl 73, finally replace Lochtonial Caress with your Gripped or Spiked Gloves of your choosing. Your Gear is now complete (in theory), the only thing left is the Grind for more levels and thus skillpoints, maybe the perfect enchants for your Gear. You can now finally play the game!