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

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Harsher wrote:

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Amazing build/guide. As an inexperienced late-game player, I found it incredibly indepth and well sorted for finding info I needed and skipping info I didn't.

Best PoE experience I've had so far (and highest level). All my friends were jealous of my superior -totally transparent- build, prior to their untimely passing.
Very surprised to see updates at start of the league with info many others keep to themselves for advantages to their in-group.

I never post on the forums. Logged in just to say thanks and good job.

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enforcer85 wrote:

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I have been playing PoE for almost a year, always hc always wanting to try a bow build. The stats seemed easier to understand playing Jugg builds and they where of course much tankier than bow builds. I got to say i have been dreading the day i had to understand all the stats and stuff that i need too in order to start with a bow character.

This guide has it all, thank you so much for making this so easy to understand and follow. It really makes it possible for someone like me who doesnt understand much about bow builds. More often then not guides usually dont take the time to explain why you do certain things.

Ive had tons of questions since i started leveling and i have always found the answer written in this thread. Thank you ever so much, and finally a HC build that is possible without tons and tons of currency.


Best regards

Thanks a lot for the kind words!

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pundit_ninja wrote:

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Hi, I just wanted to ask, why don't you advise using mirage archer instead of GMP for clearing.It seems to be a lot better than reducing overall damage, and it might even be worth keeping, for lazy people like me, in boss fights, as opposed to switching in Swift Affliction again.

FAQ
Q: How about Mirage Archer?
A: If you feel that your damage is good enough, feel free to use it. However remember that you have to maintain mana for Divination Distillate. With that in mind, it's not the best support for this particular CA build. Try Greater Multiple Projectiles instead.


To add to this, i'm currently using Mirage Archer myself despite what i say in the guide. Reason for that is simple - i've had few disconnects lately so while my defences are great to not die most of the time, MA might give me an edge in a situation i could die to.

Currently, it doesn't really add too much to clear speed. Most of the time it just clears single or two mobs from a pack i didn't manage to clear or shoots at packs that i can't see yet. With 7-link +2 bow, my mana consumption is high enough that MA doesn't really hurt my Div Distillate uptime.

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Searzist wrote:

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I was curious if you had any suggestions on how to increase damage. I h ave a +3 bow, 40% helm enchant, several level 21 gems(dont have L4 empwoer yet), but my damage, esepcially on bosses is super bad. Like I think a shaper would take 15 minutes lol.

This is a DoT build that has a set base damage, great for trash mobs and much worse for bosses. You can only scale damage up to a certain point. I did mention in Cons that it has mediocre single target. Despite everything, it can still clear all content. Also have in mind that i didn't focus on scaling highest DPS possible but survivability instead.

Also, there's 1 big issue in your setup. Your Wither Totem doesn't have faster casting and you didn't spec into onslaught yet. That means your totem applies stacks at half the rate it should be at this level, effectively lowering your boss damage.

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LMTR14 wrote:

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wouldn't have asked if I knew the answer already. this game's manifold character building are in fact nothing but fronts and pitfalls as there are only a few actual roads to beating the game. for the longest time I played only my own builds and got absolutely nowhere obviously. it's not like the rules of this game are in plain sight after all - and neither do I have any interest in reading through forum posts and reddit shit to find out what is actually going on. some things you do in your build don't make any sense to me intuitively, but for this league I put my trust in your build and it better be worth it. after all these years and uninstalling and reinstalling this fucking game for at least 30 times I really do want to at least SEE the end of it once.

This is going to be my last post on this matter.

It seems to me, that you simply don't enjoy this type of game. In PoE you make a character, you hit a wall, you learn, you break the wall, and when you're finally done - repeat. It seems to me you're stuck at step 3. You can find majority necessary information on the wiki, you just don't want to.

You want to beat the game without any effort, that's all. Many newer games allow that. PoE isn't one of them. I seriously advice you to question if you truly enjoy PoE. If you do not, then please, don't force yourself to "beat it". That's my real life advice. I may be right about your issue or may be wrong, i can't know for sure. I only hope it'll help you.

If you have any QUESTIONS about the build or in-game, please let me know.

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linua wrote:

I was trying to 5 link my Kintsuge and 6 linked it. Now I have a 5 link bow with +2 and a 6 link body. Should I move my CA to body?

+2 5-link and normal 6-link have almost the same damage output. My advice? Sell Kintsugi and with the money you got, buy a 6-linked bow. This build really doesn't need the 6-link on the body armour, i don't even use the 5-link i have on my Kintsugi (i prefer 4+2 setup personally).

Anyway, with the money you get from the sale should easily fund almost everything this build needs.

Hi! I have this doubt: may worth using blight + spreading rot instead of wither? and what gem would replace vicious projectiles if you get a +3 7-link?

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currently using this with kinda makeshift of your build working pretty well

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gluxel wrote:

Hi! I have this doubt: may worth using blight + spreading rot instead of wither? and what gem would replace vicious projectiles if you get a +3 7-link?

Sure, you can use Blight with Wither totem at the same time. However the Wither setup has to stay, it gives way too much additional damage at literally no cost. The primary problem with the jewel is that there's only 1 suitable jewel nearby (3 points), second one is whole 5 points away. You could potentially use 1 jewel, second is probably not worth it.

I give 6 different support gems for CA. Last link is Empower or Damage on Full Life. Eventually you could use Efficacy, but i don't think it's worth losing higher damage potential on bosses (where DoFL shines).

just made a 6link of this going to test it out :) that dps boost could be good

also got a
At a pretty good price compared to the 19ex it's selling at right now


Question how do you feel about an ammy with chaos leech on it for life?


Current unbuffed dmg at lvl 72

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fluffyhamster wrote:

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just made a 6link of this going to test it out :) that dps boost could be good

also got a

At a pretty good price compared to the 19ex it's selling at right now


Question how do you feel about an ammy with chaos leech on it for life?


Current unbuffed dmg at lvl 72

That's some nice gear you have there, perfect combination of Watcher's Eye mods too.

Leech only applies to hits, doesn't work for DoTs.

Ya I figured as much so I never attempted to make with leech

I did, however, make better rings and neckless then I did have tho.





few things I added to build to push out more dmg.


Sadly I've not had any dice on uber labs for helm enchantment but working to get it.

Currently sitting at 200k dot dmg per sec unbuffed and 240k buffed


Due to the small lack of speed since i went for immune while using flask i added

Got little bit of speed on Quiver



I do however suggest for mapping with faster enemy clearing switching out VM support with Mirage Archer so it will help you auto clear faster

You do take a dmg hit by doing that but so far you can't beat the extra help MA gives with his auto attacks for spreading CA.

Is it advisable to just do a map boss once for atlas completion and for the rest of the time just farm the map several times as MF CA. For instance, I will kill Burial Chambers boss once, but when I want to farm BC, I'll just kill all the mobs without entering arena, rinse and repeat.

As the build warned, single target is pretty mediocre. Bosses don't die fast enough, because unlike TR, CA DOT doesn't stack.