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

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Viktranka wrote:

It's definitely tempting because you have all the defensives passively while PF has to press flasks.

Yeah im just wondering if CA dps will be enough for this league bosses. Single target dmg was always weak point of the skill. Maybe we'll get some buffs tommorow ;)

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Viktranka wrote:

Hello Viktranka =)

Personally, CA Raider with perma Onslaught and Phasing will boost its bossing capabilities and it will let you focus more on dodging boss mechanics.

This makes Raider a defensive ascendancy and a unique playstyle when comparing it to a CA Trickster/Pathfinder.

yeah CA is really really lacking on the DoT scale of things damage wise, im hoping of some tweak. we'll see shortly.

even still, you can push it upwards of 2 million sirus DPS with end game gear, without going overboard on full DPS stats even.

at the current state of the game i'd say 2 million is really the lowest you want to push, with 3 million being a very good spot. 4-5+ million, especially for DoT builds, is extremely good and will very easily and comfortably clear everything in the game.

Those Raider changes are right what this build needed. It's quite funny to me how primary nerfs to ascendancy are completely irrelevant for CA. Full breakdown:

Evade chance
No more +5% evade chance definitely hurts. 5% more chance doesn't fully compensate since it's multiplicative with base ~73% we already aim at. It's going to be harder to cap evade chance now, especially if you don't want to rely on (after buffs) -20% less evasion rating aura from Avatar of Veil. I like to have it as an extra buffer. 71% evade chance is what we should aim at now.

Permanent Onslaught and Phasing
99% of the time you have both buffs up, that 1% you don't is usually during bosses (i'm looking at you - Sirus and crew). Without extra projectiles it was sometimes hard proccing Onslaught if you got unlucky, leading to loss of huge chunk of movement/attack speed. It's not much, but in those cases it's very impactful. Also if you want to backtrack in map or spent too much time looting - you also benefit greatly.

This change also means Cursed Frenzy setup (CoH) is now no longer necessary. If you want you, you can exchange it with Despair - Spell Cascade or something if you want. Your choice, really. I know i'm still using old setup, until PoE 2 at least.

5% extra Dodge and Spell Dodge
Yes please. I just talked 2 days ago how important Spell Dodge is going to be next league and here we get free 5%. Even attack Dodge is welcome because now it's "easy" to fully cap it as well, just get extra 10% from Quartz Flask and Elder/Redeemer boots.

Nerfs that are irrelevant
Like most other ascendancies Raider didn't receive only buffs. Damage for attack builds got hit badly. Total 50% attack damage taken away from Onslaught path and 40% elemental damage. It was partially reallocated with buffs to Elemental Exposure aura (15% -> 20%) and Frenzy path (8% -> 10% attack damage per frenzy) which you'll almost never take anyway. None of this impact us in any way. We're only here for defence and QoL.

Frenzy path, better but still outclassed
Still gathering dust. It's now slightly better thanks to previously mentioned nerfs to attack damage. Quartz Infusion being ridiculous defensive notable also contributes to it being slightly more appealing. Ability to "easily" cap Attack and Spell Dodge allows to MAYBE ditch Onslaught path. To even consider that you'll have to go ham on frenzy charges and really want that frenzy generation from Way of the Poacher.

I don't think this path is that bad anymore, but it's so niche it might as well not exist. Maybe softcore farmer will like insane amount of speed Raider gives now.

SIDE NOTE: I'll try to do breakdown on atlas passive trees. I'm mostly doing it for myself to plan ahead, but sharing won't hurt anybody.

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Tetrad wrote:

Raider buffed! XD
Waiting for CA patch notes.


Gained:
• Permanent Onslaught
• Permanent Phasing
• 5% more chance to Evade Melee Attacks during Onslaught
• 5% more chance to Evade Projectile Attacks during Onslaught
• 5% chance to Dodge Attack Hits
• 5% chance to Dodge Spell Hits
• Nearby Enemies have 5% less Accuracy Rating while you have Phasing
• 50% increased Onslaught Effect

Removed:
• 10% increased Movement Speed while Phasing (irrelevant because of 50% increased Onslaught Effect)
• +5% chance to Evade Attack Hits (irrelevant~more chance to evade is better)

CA Raider is not affected by the removed Attack/Elemental Damage

Glad to see you're still here! I bumped your comment since this breakdown is useful

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Viktranka wrote:

I also prefer to play with Lunaris pantheon in general. Did you guys ever have problems wit stuns? I didn't when I played with molten shell + iron reflexes, but with evasion playstyle I was getting stunned here and there.

Honestly? Pretty much never. It used to be an issue sometimes before 3.2 when max evade chance Raider became a thing.

Since Raider rarely gets hit, you often have a little bit of ES which also gives 50% chance to ignore stuns (separate from chance to avoid stuns), plus 28% you get from Heart of Oak + small passive. Not to mention with Kintsugi + Wind Dancer you almost never drop below 50% hp. It's really not a problem.

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NoxKerena wrote:

Hey Danka, are you excited for the new Raider modifications? Also, what's your thoughts on Shocking Conflux on helm or Tailwinds on boots?

Shock's damage increase is additive with Despair and Wither increased chaos damage, no point of using it. Tailwind needs crit strike to trigger, has 10% if you do crit and action speed buff it gives is not necessary with how fast Raider is. You can already dodge pretty much anything.

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xMustard wrote:

always phasing and onslaught. even more evasion and dodge? less onslaught effect but eh that is literally the only "nerf"

having onslaught up always makes raider easily the most defensive ascendancy in the game. now that it isn't situational literally ever. god damn

and the frenzy tree is still ass, hahaha

Evade chance is more or less the same, or worse if you're like me and don't like to rely on now -20% less evasion aura. Onslaught effect is buffed, 50% on first notable is new, 100% on second one is still there. Effectively movement speed is the same but we're getting 10% inc attack and cast speed.

Both phasing and onslaught were up pretty much 99% of the time during combat, but it was a pain in the ass against some bosses with phases. Little big buff.

Honestly i thought that of all things Frenzy route is getting buffed, instead GGG removed ele/attack damage increases so it's more desirable if you want pure damage. Doesn't affect CA in the slightest.

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Botte84 wrote:

With the changes to Raider, is it still worth going Avatar of the Veil only for the ailments immunity, or is it more worth to go Way of the Poacher for frenzy charges?

Way of the Poacher absolutely not worth it past levelling. Elemental Ailment immunity and accuracy debuff is too valuable.

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Viktranka wrote:

Perma phasing and onslaught, streamlined abilities on the passives, and no more freezing flask "in case phasing drops", I think that's good news?

Does removing the +5% chance to evade affect the evasion cap?

Evade chance is more or less the same, or worse if you're like me and don't like to rely on now -20% less evasion aura.

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Viktranka wrote:

It's a 45% inc damage (30% you mentioned and 15% from small point that was changed to poison and will no longer be picked) 20% inc aoe loss and a gain of 5% more and 2 ascendancy points from what I had before. Inc damage is fairly easy to get though, while "more" is very hard. So I think this is a win.

It's definitely tempting because you have all the defensives passively while PF has to press flasks.

This should be damage nerf in pretty much all cases. Exception to this is if you focused really hard on damage. Instead you get a little bit of QoL in form of attack/movement speed.

I might've mentioned before but i considered Pathfinder the worst CA ascendancy class for some time now, maybe on pair with Champion thanks to Hardened Scars annoint. Not because it doesn't fit, but it didn't excel at absolutely anything you would want. Flasks aren't that important on this build, so the only big upside wasn't very relevant.

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xMustard wrote:

yeah CA is really really lacking on the DoT scale of things damage wise, im hoping of some tweak. we'll see shortly.

even still, you can push it upwards of 2 million sirus DPS with end game gear, without going overboard on full DPS stats even.

at the current state of the game i'd say 2 million is really the lowest you want to push, with 3 million being a very good spot. 4-5+ million, especially for DoT builds, is extremely good and will very easily and comfortably clear everything in the game.

You speak of millions while i feel comfortable at 500k tooltip dps... that's ~870k against Shaper/Sirus.

I find it hard to talk about DoT dps when people use different settings. I prefer to use tooltip because it's very easy to calculate rest from that point. Either way, as long as you can survive damage doesn't matter too much.

What do you think about the deadeye +2 mirage archer totem node (+3 with the support gem)? Would taking that node and the +2 proj along with the gale force nodes be good compared to raider?

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DankawSL wrote:

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xMustard wrote:

always phasing and onslaught. even more evasion and dodge? less onslaught effect but eh that is literally the only "nerf"

having onslaught up always makes raider easily the most defensive ascendancy in the game. now that it isn't situational literally ever. god damn

and the frenzy tree is still ass, hahaha

Evade chance is more or less the same, or worse if you're like me and don't like to rely on now -20% less evasion aura. Onslaught effect is buffed, 50% on first notable is new, 100% on second one is still there. Effectively movement speed is the same but we're getting 10% inc attack and cast speed.

ya when i first looked at the changes i didn't know you could hover over the nodes and see them in effect, i thought you just had to read the changes. and when i first read the changes i didn't get that the 100% onslaught buff effect was staying. i thought it was removed, dropping the full onslaught effect down to 50%.

so its effect is getting buffed...i mean sure, whatever, lol.

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Hils wrote:

What do you think about the deadeye +2 mirage archer totem node (+3 with the support gem)? Would taking that node and the +2 proj along with the gale force nodes be good compared to raider?

The DOT pools don't stack, so CA really isn't gaining much of anything from having more archers. I'm strongly looking at a Deadeye for Toxic Rain on a CA/TR build though.

Why Deadeye? For the mirage archers ascendancy node "Occupying Force"? I think it could work, and with the +2 additional projectiles could stack a lot of TR pods in the ground and can be a huge boost to damage, lets wait to patch notes for more details.

But also, Pathfinder TR is going to be very well too.

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Hils wrote:

What do you think about the deadeye +2 mirage archer totem node (+3 with the support gem)?

Good for toxic rain, not good for pure CA.

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xMustard wrote:

even still, you can push it upwards of 2 million sirus DPS with end game gear, without going overboard on full DPS stats even.

at the current state of the game i'd say 2 million is really the lowest you want to push, with 3 million being a very good spot. 4-5+ million, especially for DoT builds, is extremely good and will very easily and comfortably clear everything in the game.

Dunno, best I reached in the past with "POB my character" was 2mil clear 1.4mil Sirus dps on a pathfinder not raider.

Only characters I've seen with 4+ million were pre-nerf Tricksters with delve crafted +5 bows.

I could have been building it wrong, but the 2 million was with double cluster setup, +2 harvest neck and similar stuff. It wasn't perfect gear by any stretch, but to progress further I would have to do really heavy investments and a lot of them.

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DankawSL wrote:

I might've mentioned before but i considered Pathfinder the worst CA ascendancy class for some time now, maybe on pair with Champion thanks to Hardened Scars annoint.

Maybe time to revisit that CA Occultist I made back in the day... :/

i just meant in general for bossing you really want probably at least 2 mil for it to feel good

i prefer to get 3-4m on dot builds, just any generic dot build. cold DoT can't really reach that easily either, so i don't like that. some ignite and even SR builds can very easily achieve that without hardly any dps investment.
CA raider gets a hard pass on her damage because of the defensive layers, but yeah you should be able to get upwards of 2m dps in end game. around 1-1.5m sirus dps will feel slow but as long as you're proficient at the mechanics it'll be fine.

deadeye for TR does look good, at least for speed clearing maps. bad defenses but you're not going to be able to beat that coverage for mapping.

since this league looks to be much more of a bossing league (well, not league, but expansion) i doubt i'll be trying TR deadeye, but CA raider will shine as long as you can keep the damage up.

facing off vs 10 bosses at t16 level will take awhile to burn down with only like 1m dps. by that time you could get wrecked by combination of their spells