[3.16][HC][ON BREAK] Caustic Arrow Raider, DoT Focused | Tanky | 6k+ Health | All Content | In-depth

I've had a great time with this build - my first bow character. I ended up taking it to L97 with 7k life, 2.5m DPS and completing all content.

I'm only ever play in soft-core because I enjoy playing fast and loose! In softcore going with QOTF and more movement speed nodes is a no brainer. Delving/Mapping with +270% MS and permanent phasing is amazing.

The fact that despite all this, I didn't die between levels 94 and 96 is a testament to how well the defensive layers stack to make the build very tanky.


A few random tips:

- In terms of increasing damage, with my Gear/Skills/Tree etc:

+1 Caustic Arrow LVL ~= +35% DOT Multi ~= 100% INC Damage.

- Re: Flasks, given that you're mashing them all together every 4.2 seconds it doesn't really matter which mods you get where. Jade with movement, Quartz with attack speed or evasion and Quicksilver with curse immunity work just as well as the matching pairs and are a lot cheaper to buy.

- If you're clearing maps/delving at a level where you have plenty of DPS, swapping in Mirage archer is a good option to allow you to run through more packs.

- Jewels are a good place to sure up your resistances. 3 mod jewels including life, 1 damage roll and a resistance are cheap and let you focus more of your other gear on damage/life.

- Spell dodge is awesome! 95% evasion, 75% dodge makes you practically immune to physical hits, so spells are the main thing that can hurt you. Unless you're rolling in currency, stick with an enchanted/corrupted Atziri's Step because its close to best in slot. Get in the habit of using Vaal Grace every metamorph/boss etc. Also, 10% chance to dodge spell hits is a craftable prefix on chests.



or something similar is available pretty cheap, if you don't mind having a non-6L chest.

Many thanks to DankawSL for an awesome build and a very well written guide.

Here is my flask setup

since I have a mana flask, im thinking of crafting 'aspect of the spider' to the belt and use it instead of clarity to boost damage (maybe :P), how cha think bout it?

So i bought a headhunter, cool vaal too, does anyone have tips on how to improve game-play (mapping-wise) with it, cause i don't think its effects cost 90 ex, i could've roll a perfect quiver with this amount of currency.
So i know there's a temporal chains setup and we can actually get at least 2 slots for inspired learning, but have anyone actually got a working build with this, or is this just an expensive toy for us?

hey man, i follow your guide for year now, my favorite league starter always!!
Awesome job, and the details!!!
I`ve been trying my self on HC mode, but always get killed by Piety or some boss that don`t give me time to react =/
Any tips or things i can change in the build? or is just a "git good" problem?

"

MrShika wrote:

Spoiler

Here is my flask setup

since I have a mana flask, im thinking of crafting 'aspect of the spider' to the belt and use it instead of clarity to boost damage (maybe :P), how cha think bout it?

Spider gives roughly 7% more damage. The utility it gives (30% reduced ms) is more impactful than the damage. Crab is still better for defence since EHP is the only thing evasion builds lack.

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TWERQEN wrote:

Spoiler

So i bought a headhunter, cool vaal too, does anyone have tips on how to improve game-play (mapping-wise) with it, cause i don't think its effects cost 90 ex, i could've roll a perfect quiver with this amount of currency.
So i know there's a temporal chains setup and we can actually get at least 2 slots for inspired learning, but have anyone actually got a working build with this, or is this just an expensive toy for us?

HH scales hit builds the most. DoT based builds are only really affected by extra speed/defence from it. IMO it's not worth for any build that doesn't clear more than whole screen in single shot.

"

Gargarvore wrote:

Spoiler

hey man, i follow your guide for year now, my favorite league starter always!!
Awesome job, and the details!!!
I`ve been trying my self on HC mode, but always get killed by Piety or some boss that don`t give me time to react =/
Any tips or things i can change in the build? or is just a "git good" problem?

No matter which Piety you're facing it's definitely "git gud" option. She can be threatening since this patch tho. There's only lightning storm which can't really be dodged and deals hefty amounts of damage. It's best to invest in some lightning resistance. Even single Topaz Ring should make the whole fight much, much easier.

really like the build, was looking for something bow-related that wasn't iceshot this patch. I have been scratching my head at how POB states that you have 75% ev chance at about 14k ev rating, while i'm at 71% at 26k ev rating. Maybe POB is acting up?

also first time posting so im sorry!

"

TWERQEN wrote:

So i bought a headhunter, cool vaal too, does anyone have tips on how to improve game-play (mapping-wise) with it, cause i don't think its effects cost 90 ex, i could've roll a perfect quiver with this amount of currency.
So i know there's a temporal chains setup and we can actually get at least 2 slots for inspired learning, but have anyone actually got a working build with this, or is this just an expensive toy for us?

From experience, CA won't get a lot of benefits from HH. All the "phys as extra" and crit buffs don't really increase your DPS. Also any build with HH by itself without self-cursing or at minimum Solstice Vigil, will feel pretty lackluster compared to streams/videos of maxed out juicing characters. It's a definitive overall boost, but because it's random + hard to maintain over 20 buffs, it plays more like The Gull on steroids.

Toxic Rain, which has far more effective AoE and hits, actually works pretty good with self-cursing and full juice investment into the maps, Your tooltip hit DPS can get into six digits easily, will actually crit, and Mirage Archer will go nuts if you steal Soul Eater.

Personally I think you will get more out of Headhunter on a different build, basically anything that hits and scales with crit, even better if it's converted phys damage. If you are used to playing with Mirage Archer (auto attack), I can attest to both Winter Orb and Blade Vortex being great choices that will absolutely shred the game with self-curse setups.

In the vanilla-HH-meantime, to get the most you definitely want to be running all your maps with +mob sextants and beyond, even better with a master mission and any +mob scarabs (breach, harbinger, ambush, perandus, legion). Make sure your loot filter is only showing items you want to pick up, and consider skipping out on <alch currency that may take too much time to pick up.

"

Zynthiel wrote:

I have been scratching my head at how POB states that you have 75% ev chance at about 14k ev rating, while i'm at 71% at 26k ev rating.

Is your jade flask up?

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Viktranka wrote:

"

Zynthiel wrote:

I have been scratching my head at how POB states that you have 75% ev chance at about 14k ev rating, while i'm at 71% at 26k ev rating.

Is your jade flask up?

yeah, even with the jade flask up, I am about 10% removed from the POB values of the build

"

Zynthiel wrote:

"

Viktranka wrote:

"

Zynthiel wrote:

I have been scratching my head at how POB states that you have 75% ev chance at about 14k ev rating, while i'm at 71% at 26k ev rating.

Is your jade flask up?

yeah, even with the jade flask up, I am about 10% removed from the POB values of the build

Imported your char into pob, says 83% with jade flask.

Go to config and tick -> do you have onslaught? That should account for avatar of the chase.

From the FAQ:

"

Q: How do i know that i'm evade chance capped?
A: Check your character sheet (C) and find estimated chance to evade attacks. With flasks activated you need ~73% to be capped. That's assuming you have onslaught buff active which enables Raider's 30% more chance to evade. That buff is not included in those calculations.

I did not include 15% less monster accuracy while phasing debuff as it should be treated as an extra buffer against certain monster/map mods.

Looks like you're more than good according to these outlines.