[3.16][HC][ON BREAK] Caustic Arrow Raider, DoT Focused | Tanky | 6k+ Health | All Content | In-depth
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Really interesting build. Read it because of crafting section. But in 3.5 the crafting will be changed. Will wait for updated guide :)
To argue with a fool means to sink to his level.
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Thanks for the fantastic guide! I'm new to the game, so I really appreciate the level of detail, especially in the leveling section.
Question about end-game skill tree choices for the non-ED build: can you help me understand why we grab the "Exceptional Performance" node and its two prereqs? I was thinking about getting more damage by instead spending those three points to grab "Toxic Strike" (below "Druidic Rite", but getting there via the dex pathing node from the right). I thought this was particularly nice because we can get the nearby life nodes ("Thick Skin") while we're in this area as we find places to spend those mid/late 90's skill points: However, I'm sure you chose those increased skill duration nodes over that section of the tree for a reason, and wanted to learn why. I can't figure out how it helps if we can't stack the CA "clouds" and are already firing so fast that we're hitting multiple times during the CA duration. Thanks in advance! Last edited by chadam189#2916 on Dec 3, 2018, 4:05:11 AM
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December 2nd, 2018
Videos: * Added 4 new Shaper Guardians videos: Minotaur / Phoenix / Chimera / Hydra * Added T16 Shaped Scriptorium ============================= It was about time to add those guardian videos tbh. I especially like the way you properly fight Minotaur once you get onslaught path. At certain point, everything is nearly faceroll. I also recorded another deathless UElder kill but it was such poor showcase of skill, i didn't add it. Might record again soon (since i spawned another one). From 8 minute fight it turned into ~6 minutes only. " The most important parts of the crafting guide will still be relevant even after the update. I'll update everything over time, once we know all possible crafted mods. " Skill Effect Duration affects CA, Wither Totem and Immortal Call. It's a massive offensive and QoL improvement. With longer CA duration you can effectively cut off monster's path or spawn points (delve/breach) over a larger area. It will also give you more damage any time you're forced to dodge and the degen expires before you shoot again. Also gives longer grace period before Wither stacks start to expire (lowering dps). Duration is not to be underestimated. I don't take Toxic Strike or Thick skin because jewels are better. Period. (longer reply is in FAQ) https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3053600 - My Guides
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Hey, thanks for posting this up. I played it the last month of the league and had a blast with it. I also appreciate how it taught be how to dodge things!
I think this line is mostly filler.
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This league is coming at the perfect time, where I should have some time to really play, so I'm going to give it a shot. Really looking forward to what changes might come with the build, and the new crafting system, some of those Veiled mods look good!
Thank you again for the super in-depth and just all-around great guide. Can't wait to play it in league and see it grow with the new changes! |
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I really enjoyed playing this build for the last month of softcore Delve. I never accquired a +3 bow or finished linking Kintsugi, but it was really solid and zipping around Delves was great. Every major upgrade, whether getting a +2 6L bow, optimizing res/gear, finishing ascendancy made it more and more indestructible and fun to play.
Onslaught makes it just silly. I can phase/face-tank huge packs, dropping arrows here and there and then looting as I backtrack through maps. The one thing I couldn't figure out was something more exciting to do with Frenzy links. Running Poacher's Mark with Blasphemy is a nice QoL boost, especially since I smash Phase Run, eating up Frenzy charges. I switch to Despair aura for bosses. CoH Despair with Frenzy is easy, but I'd like to maximize it's ability to hit/curse/debuff/etc. large quantities of mobs + single targets without having to aim much, or utilize an entirely different skill given another reliable means of generating Frenzy. Hopefully there will be some changes to Frenzy charging in the next patch, but I'm curious if anyone has experimented at all with some alternates to this build, especially for Delving. |
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3.4 Guide Archive Post #1
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 Overview ====== Starting with the most important question: "Why Raider of all classes?" For powerful defensive abilities, QoL features and speed. When damage is not a problem, these are more valuable qualities than slightly higher dps number. That's why i believe this is the best ascendancy choice for life based CA. This build features easily acquirable 6000 life, very high evasion with up to 95% evade chance cap, 46/40% dodge/spell dodge. It's also immune to all ailments and can run absolutely any map mod. Any incoming damage can be easily solved with two instant life flasks healing you back to full life. Capable of clearing all content in the game. Everything with possiblity to use some magic find gear. I've been pushing Caustic Arrow to the limit every league for almost 3 years now. I'm certain that this version is strongest, safest and most versatile of them all. Pros + Cheap starting cost, great league starter + Very easy to play + Tanky end game, over 6000 life and very high evasion + dodge + Fast without flasks (over 80% ms, high AS) + Flexible build, adjust how much you want to go MF / damage / tanky + Can run any map mod, including "No regen" + Capable of clearing all end game content + 79% max res while mapping (Divination Distillate) + Permanent flask uptime while mapping (except bosses) Cons - Mediocre single target damage - Slightly expensive end game gear - Weak against physical spells NOTE: CA will be popular this league and i know that some streamers plan to use it as well. Expect increased end game gear costs or even a simple 6-link bow. 
Passive Tree and Bandits
There are two basic trees you can use:
Level 93 - Base passive tree This is the recommended path for majority of the players, focuses on scaling Caustic Arrow only. Budget and beginner friendly. Guide will be focused on this tree. The Frenzy ascendancy branch is later changed to Onslaught branch for defensive purpose. If you've reached level 93 using this tree, start picking up closest jewel slots. Level 96 - Classic tree Old school tree for experienced players. Focuses on generic chaos/DoT increases to scale Caustic Arrow and Essence Drain. The latter skill is used in second weapon slot to further increase damage output. This playstyle has it's own section at the end of the guide's main post. Beware, it's really expensive. Bandit Reward: Oak (recommended) OR 2 passive points Ascendancy: Avatar of Veil (Phasing) + Avatar of Slaughter/Chase (Frenzy/Onslaught) Frenzy path is default. Reliable, standalone, easy to gear up. Always start a character with it. Onslaught path is very strong end game option. Best used for pure mapping, but it still works great against end game bosses. Slightly more expensive, optional, lvl 90+ only. Other Ascendancy Classes
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Allright, i get it. You dislike Raider for some reason, probably not enough damage. There are alternative ascendancies using the exact same passive tree. Starting with the best one:
 Trickster Ascendancy: Patient Reaper -> Prolonged Pain -> Swift Killer -> Ghost Dance Balanced passive tree (Level 95) - CA focused tree Classic tree (Level 97) - CA+ED Classic tree You can use Weave the Arcane instead of Ghost Dance. Both are viable choices for the last point. Highest damage output out of all ascendancy classes. Suitable for both new CA only and CA+ED old school version. Lower defence and speed than Raider. Unfortunately, using Divination Distillate is absolutely impossible. Use Dying Sun / other utility flask instead. Kill all bandits for 2 passive points, since Trickster's Patient Reaper should mitigate small hits/degen on it's own. ==================================================================== NOTE: The next 3 ascendancies do not have innate frenzy charge generation like Raider or Trickster. Without easy charge on kill generation, the build doesn't have the same smooth feeling. Check Onslaught Path in Levelling/Progression section on how to obtain it.  Pathfinder Ascendancy: Nature's Reprisal -> Master Toxicist -> Nature's Boon -> Master Alchemist Base passive tree (Level 93) - Same as Raider's Great middle ground between Raider and Trickster. Almost as high damage as Trickster while having elemental ailment immunity like Raider. Flask recharge is incredible as well. You can sacrifice one of the Master nodes to take Nature's Adrenaline node for additional speed.  Champion Ascendancy: Unstoppable Hero -> Fortitude -> Conqueror -> Worthy Foe Base passive tree (Level 97) If you hate dying, here's your choice. Perma fortify makes Champion strongest against big hits. Taunt branch is also great for clearing packs of mobs. Low QoL with great defence and decent damage. You can use Inspirational and First to Strike, Last to Fall nodes instead of Taunt branch. Gives massive conditional damage and defence.  Deadeye Ascendancy: Gathering Winds -> Far Shot -> Endless Munitions -> Fast and Deadly Base passive tree (Level 93) - Same as Raider's Good option for mapping. Great offensive QoL features with good damage. Quite weak defensively. You can pick Ricochet as 4th point if you prefer. Gives higher damage output at cost of mobility. 
Pantheon
Major God: Soul of Lunaris
Nuff said, straight up has the best synergy with the build. Others barely do anything except few specific cases. Minor God: Soul of Shakari OR Ryslatha OR Garukhan All three of them are pretty good, but my personal favorite is Shakari. Having full ailment immunity simply feels great. Use it only if you upgraded it. Ryslatha is 2nd most useful minor god, i use it for any end game boss encounter. It's great for labyrinth as well and overall best choice if you don't want to look at pantheon ever again. Garukhan is also great option for defence during mapping. Additional evade chance is very powerful combined with high evasion. 
Gem Setups
Main Skill (GGGGBR):
Caustic Arrow - Void Manipulation - Swift Affliction - Vicious Projectiles - Concentrated Effect 6th Link: Damage on Full Life OR Empower lvl 3/4 Your primary damage setup. First 3 support gems have no real downsides and should always be included in the build. Conc Effect and Damage on Full Life have downsides, which one you prefer is up to you (i recommend first one). Empower has no downside but requires level 3 or 4 to be worth using. Costs a lot of money or time. In case you feel that your damage good enough, you can use Greater Multiple Projectiles for clearing instead of Swift Affliction. Wither Totem (BBRR): Wither - Faster Casting - Spell Totem - Increased Duration Free 90% more damage against bosses. Place the totem and let it do the work. It also slows their movement speed, so keep that in mind against some bosses. Cursing Setup (GGBB): Frenzy - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Curse on Hit - Despair Use it to curse tanky rares, bosses and whenever you need to refresh your frenzy charge duration. CWDT Immortal Call (RRR): Cast when Damage Taken lvl 3 - Immortal Call lvl 5 - Increased Duration lvl 20 Standard CWDT setup. Immortal Call is useful against random bleeding from bosses / lab traps. Not a mandatory setup, but very much recommended. Aura: Grace / Vaal Grace Grace gives huge amount of additional evasion. Vaal Grace allows us to cap Dodge / Spell dodge, and is best used during abyss/breaches/harbingers etc. Vaal Grace can be linked with CWDT Immortal Call setup for longer aura duration, it will not trigger automatically but still benefit from Increased Duration. Movement Skill: Blink Arrow These are the only mandatory gems and we still got 5 free gem slots. How you fill the rest of them is your choice. Optional Setups
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Withering Rain (GGGR):
Toxic Rain - Mirage Archer - Withering Touch - Increased Duration Optional setup to Wither Totem. It's much worse when it comes to raw damage increase and reliability. However this setup can be used in any situation for additional utility/damage which is not possible with totem. Mana Balancing: Clarity If your mana regeneration is too low, this can fix your problems easily. Even if you don't have mana management problems, it's great to have Clarity for some mobile bosses like Pheonix Guardian. Bestiary Aspect (Delve): Aspect of the Crab Any source of damage mitigation is great for evasion characters. With very high evasion numbers it can easily act as permanent 20% physical damage reduction. End game only, otherwise low mana pool might cause troubles. Cursing Setup (GGGGBB): Frenzy - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Curse on Hit - Despair - Enhance - Culling Strike If you're rich, that's probably best 6 link body armour setup. Enhance for that extra damage from Despair. Culling strike is for finishing the bosses, but i personally hate it. Essence Drain Swap (BBBGGR): Essence Drain - Efficacy - Controlled Destruction - Void Mani - Swift Affliction - Empower Used in classic version of this build. To learn more, head to the Classic CA+ED Build section. Fortify: Vigilant Strike with The Vigil threshold jewel Only usable if you have melee weapon swap. Gives ~35 second long Fortify, awesome bonus for hard hitting bosses. Without threshold jewel the duration is only ~12 seconds, but it's enough if you facetank a monster. Best used in classic build. Golem: Stone Golem OR Flame Golem OR Chaos Golem Stone Golem is most useful with his taunt and high flat health regeneration. Flame golem for the damage, Chaos golem if you want to try some phys dmg reduction shenanigans. Golems tend to die quite often in high tier maps, but are very useful in early mapping or against labyrith traps (stone golem). Portal Gem If you have a free gem slot, why not? Best socketed inside 6-linked cursing setup instead of culling strike. 
Equipment
My current gear / TL;DR:
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Weapons: +3 CA Bow (self-crafting recommended, see crafting section) Quiver: Life and Resists, late game get one with increased AoE (Elder) or +1 arrow (Shaper) Armour: Kintsugi Helmet: Life and Resists, 40% CA dmg or 30% CA duration enchantment Boots: Life and Resists or Atziri's Step unique, 8% chance to Dodge Spells enchantment. Gloves: Life and Resists, of Spite enchantment Belt: Life and Resists, Leather / Heavy Belt with Elder mods if possible Rings: Life and Resists, can be Ventor's Amulet: Life and Resists, Agate/Lapis/Marble rare preferred, can be Bisco's Flasks: 2 Life flasks, 3 utility flasks recommended. Flexible, use what you want. Get Dying Sun if you hate MF flask. Witchfire brew sucks in the long run. Jewels: Life and damage on all of them, very efficient if you have at least 3 good mods. Watcher's Eye unique with +5-8% to Evade is invaluable (BiS) once you get respec to Onslaught path. Notes: "X Mana on Kill" and "X% mana regeneration" mods are bad, they make it impossible to use Divination Distillate. Aim to have ~160 strength and intelligence, so you can use lvl 20 gems. It's good to cap elemental weakness curse (113% with MF flask) Below you will find the gear explained in-depth. Piece by piece. +3 CA Bow
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The first core item of this build. Caustic Arrow's cloud has very limited options when it comes to increasing it's damage output. Additional levels are the only way to make your bow actually benefit the build in the first place. CA setup socketed inside +3 bow easily increases the damage output by ~40-50% more compared to a normal 6-link. To make it clear, on the bow we NEED: * +1 Socketed Gems (prefix) * +2 Socketed Bow Gems (prefix) Anything else besides those two affixes is just a bonus. There's one suffix you can't have on the bow, "Mana gained on kill". It makes using Divination Distillate impossible. I recommend to self-craft the bow as it's the cheapest way to do so. Plus, you can directly upgrade the +2 6-linked bow into +3 once you acquire currency. Elder versions of the bow can roll few amazing QoL mods on top of +3 bow gems, but crafting one is extremely expensive and you shouldn't bother with it until there's no other significant upgrade you can make. Bow crafting and elder versions of the bow are fully covered in crafting section. +3 ED Staff (Classic)
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Used in Classic ED+CA Build, check it's section at the end of the guide's main post. The second and last core item of this build. Reasoning for this is pretty much the same as +3 CA Bow above. It might be a core item, but most likely you won't be using it until late game. It's way more expensive than a bow, major pain in the ass to craft and you might want to level CA gems in the weapon slot. For those reasons it's one of the last upgrades you'll do, around level 90. Stats we NEED on the staff: +1 Socketed Gems (prefix) +2 Socketed Chaos Gems (prefix) +53-68% increased Spell Damage (prefix, crafted by Catarina lvl 6) You can also mastercraft cast speed and mana regen, but it's not necessary or worth it. Better stick to getting high spell dmg roll. Again, it's probably better to craft one than to buy it. Staff crafting is fully covered in crafting section. Armour
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Kintsugi My personal choice of body armour. I use it to mitigate potential oneshots from bosses, and it saved me multiple times in the past. Additional 50% evasion if you get hit is a really nice bonus for mapping. The "20% Less Damage Taken if you've not been hit Recently" also works against degens (LAB TRAPS!) until you've been hit. Kintsugi is a mandatory end game body armour for Raider. Combined with with very high evasion + dodge, the unique passive acts as 25% more life. It is true for many bosses. Before you reach the end game, you might want to use Carcass Jack or Cherrubim's for additional DPS. If you're non-Raider ascendancy, you might want to consider Queen of the Forest instead. You will find more explainations below. Optional Armours:
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Carcass Jack Best chest for start of the league. Good amount of additional damage, life and some resistances. Also boosts the AoE which is a bit small without high gem level. It's still inferior in the long run and should be used only for league start. Cherrubim's Maleficence Best choice if you want more damage. It has up to 80% increased chaos damage, giving around ~15% more damage in the final build. Has a lot of life as well, making it OK defense wise. Can be used instead of Kintsugi in the end game, but i wouldn't recommend it for hardcore characters. Queen of the Forest Option for non-Raider ascendancies. Movement speed is our primary way of moving around the map and dodging skills. Raider has enough speed on her own, allowing the use of defensive chests. Others ascendancies don't have that luxury, so you should consider using it. The Brass Dome The only mod this chest really has is "Take no Extra Damage from Critical Strikes". Nothing else, but it's so powerful on it's own to earn the spot in this list. Mandatory chest to run Hall of Grandmasters, unless you have Kintsugi with "50% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes" vaal implicit. Quiver
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A rare pierce quiver with life and resistances. Later on you'll want to craft or buy elder/shaper quiver. Something like the first one i linked, the more life and resists the better. Shaper quivers can roll +1 arrow. It's quite rare mod, so getting one with high health is going to be damn hard. Crafting 55-64 life from Tora should be enough. Shooting 2 arrows feels a bit weird at first, but it's a huge QoL and effective AoE increase. Elder quivers can roll increased AoE, highest affix grants 13-15%. It's cool alternative if you dislike 2 arrows. However, those quivers are mostly used for it's frenzy charge generation - it's used in onslaught path of this build. Elder/shaper quivers are fully covered in crafting section. Helmet, Gloves and Boots
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Packed into same category, as you want same thing from all of them:
* Life * Resistances * Open Suffix (optional) * Movement Speed (boots only) Evasion based preferred, especially the helmet (can achieve really high evasion). Atziri's Step unique boots are amazing defensive option if your resistances allow it. That's pretty much it, what's left is to look at the enchantments: Gloves: of Spite Nothing else is useful, really. Boots: 8% chance to Spell Dodge if you've taken Spell Damage Recently. Best late game enchantment, once you get onslaught path. Before that, 80% chance to avoid stuns is better. Helmet: #1 Option - 40% increased Caustic Arrow Damage #2 Option - 30% increased Caustic Arrow Duration First gives ~7% more damage, second gives 20%+ increased duration. Both of them are great, pick one based on preference. Belt
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Once again, life and resistances. Strength is also a desireable stat. Leather Belt is the best base, with Heavy Belt being an option.
I also have to remind that elder influenced belts are absolutely amazing. They can roll few VERY good mods: * 8–10% increased maximum Life (prefix) * 8–10% increased effect of Flasks on You (prefix) * 16–20% increased Life Recovery rate (suffix) * 13–15% to all Elemental Resistances (suffix) And that's not even all of the good mods. If you ever accumulate enough money to buy/craft it for yourself, i recommend getting one. Rings and Amulet
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Like majority of other gear and little more: * Life * Resistances * Strength and Intelligence Attributes to reach ~160 requirement for lvl 20/21 gems. You'll need quite a lot of intelligence to hit the recommended value, 65 to be precise. Lapis or Agate amulets with one high intelligence suffix should fix the problem entirely tho. There's one mod the jewellery cannot have, "X% mana regeneration". It will make upkeep of Divination Distillate much harder or even impossible. You can use Clarity or mana flasks for encounters with high mana consumption. Once you hit the end game, i recommend buying a good Marble amulet. Life regen is really helpful in mitigating degens / small hits. Elder rings have an amazing mod "+(4–5)% chance to Evade Attacks". Combined with high evasion it's completely broken. Jewellery also have best unique items for magic finding. Well rolled Ventor's Gamble is great addition to this build, even if you don't want to focus on MF. Shaper amulets fall in the same category since they can roll 10% IIQ. Combined together they give great IIQ+IIR mix without hurting your defences too much. Magic Finding has it's own section. Flasks
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This is the setup i run personally and recommend it for everyone. 2 life flasks to quickly heal from 0% to 100% health in a single hand motion. 3 utility flasks which you use every ~6 seconds. The mods on those flasks combined with Raider ascedancy and Soul of Shakari allow for complete ailment and curse immunity during mapping plus very high evasion. For life flasks, i recommend 1 Bubbling and 1 Seething with bleeding/freeze/poison immunity for emergencies. Utility flasks should have "Reduced Charges" mod on them, it's undoubtly the best affix for flask uptime in maps. For additional effects, curse/bleeding immunity and increased evasion rating are the only good options. Flask setup is flexible, you're not forced to use what i recommend if you don't want to. Adjust it to your liking. From unique flasks: * Divination Distillate - for MF and 4% max resistances. Allows you to run "no regen" maps without changing a setup, at slower pace. You might want to use mana flask for some bosses/breaches/fast mapping instead. * The Writhing Jar - Great flask for end game bosses. Allows you to generate fortify and onslaught before the fight starts or to refresh frenzy charges during waiting phases. * Witchfire Brew - Good flask if you start out the build, but as you progress with the build it starts to feel like a dead weight. Especially against bosses, where the flask overrides the Curse on Hit setup and will "delete" the curse once you're out of blasphemy range. * Dying Sun - Screw quiver/bow crafting, here comes the ultimate AoE flask. Never used personally but i'm certain it feels great for clearing. Expensive, but not nearly as the crafting can be. Jewels
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There's not much to discuss, you want any 3 out of these 6 mods on your jewels: * 5-7% increased maximum life * 9–13% increased Chaos Damage * 10–12% increased Damage over Time * 10–12% increased Projectile Damage * 10–12% increased Area Damage * 8–10% increased Damage Life on the jewel is especially valued, get it if you can. Getting a jewel with all 4 good mods is kinda impossible, but finding one with 3 mods at once should be easy. Be sure to look out for other mods that can be beneficial for you: * 14–18% increased Evasion Rating * 7–13% to Chaos Resistance * 4–6% increased Rarity of Items found * Any resistance / strength / intelligence mods Watcher's Eye is an expensive jewel you want to acquire once you reach the end game maps. It has "+5–8% chance to Evade Attacks while affected by Grace" mod, which provides incredible defence boost if it's combined with a very high evasion chance. Together with Onslaught path, it's possible to reach 95% evade chance cap. Mods from strongest to weakest: * +5–8% chance to Evade Attacks while affected by Grace * +6–10% chance to Dodge Attacks while affected by Grace * +10–15% increased Movement Speed while affected by Grace * Unaffected by Enfeeble while affected by Grace * 30–50% chance to Blind Enemies which Hit you while affected by Grace 
Levelling and Progression
Caustic Arrow levelling (Act 1-10)
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I've tried to be beginner friendly in this section, but didn't want to write essay either. If you're a veteran, i'm sure you can get all important information without reading guidelines. Please do read the short section starting from Blood Acqueducts tho.
Gem Progression: Caustic Arrow - Pierce - Void Manipulation - Vicious Projectiles You'll get Void Manipulation at lvl 8, Vicious Projectiles at lvl 18. Use Pierce Support gem until you pick up pierce nodes on passive tree, around level 40-45. After that use Swift Affliction (buy from Siosa) for final setup: Caustic Arrow - Vicious Projectiles - Void Manipulation - Swift Affliction Toxic Rain - Mirage Archer - Withering Touch - Increased Duration Additional setup for bosses. Shoot Caustic Arrow, then keep attacking with Toxic Rain to apply debuff that increases the damage. Repeat every 2 seconds. Siege Ballista - Use in 2 acts, extra damage against bosses, you can throw it out after Decoy Totem - Great defensive skill against bosses, if you have necessary strength for it. Despair : Curses enemies to increase damage. Use on bosses, tough packs, rares etc. Blink Arrow : Your movement skill Grace : Your aura, grants additional evasion. Purity of Elements : If you really need resistances. Use instead of Grace if necessary. Gem Rewards: * lvl 2 - Caustic Arrow * lvl 3 - Mirage Archer (Medicine Chest side quest) * lvl 4 - Siege Ballista * lvl 8 - Void Manipulation * lvl 10 - Blink Arrow * lvl 12 - Toxic Rain * lvl 18 - Vicious Projectiles * lvl 24 - Grace, Despair * lvl 31 - Swift Affliction (Siosa's side quest) Passive Tree Progression: Level ~9 (Act 1) Level ~18 (Act 2) Level ~29 (Act 3) Level ~45 (Act 4-5) Level ~59 (Act 6-8) Level ~71 (Blood Acqueducts farm) Level ~71 (After Respec) Bandit Reward: Oak (recommended) OR 2 passive points Ascendancy Order: Way of a Poacher (1st Frenzy) -> Avatar of Veil (Phasing) -> -> Avatar of Slaughter (2nd Frenzy) Important reminder: Don't forget to level additional CA gems in your weapon slot. They still level even if you don't use them. General levelling guidelines: First and most important to remember - when searching for equipment, your priority on them is Life and Resistances. Links are equally as important, be sure to look out for correct socket colors. This applies to all acts. Act 1-3 should be very easy in general. That's where you slowly shape up your main skill. Majority of the necessary gems are rewards from quests. The ones you can't, you can buy from a Nessa, Yeena and Siosa as you progress through the main story. In act 4 it's important to have good resistances, especially fire resist. Outside of that, it should be a breeze. It's a good idea to enter Labyrinth after you find waypoint inside Crystal Veins. Should be trivial at this point. Act 5 is where things get little bit tougher. Monsters out there are quite dangerous and it's recommended to have capped fire and lightning resitances. It's also a time where bleed removal life flask becomes necessary. I suggest to farm Chambers of Innocence until you reach level 45 and then face the Innocence himself. Next boss is Kitava, 1600 life is enough to tank all of his abilities. Once you arrive in act 6, check your resistances. If they're below 60%, you should pick up Purity of Elements from Clarissa (act 3) - use it instead of Grace aura until you solve the resistance problem. It's recommended to have them capped before the final boss. Act 7 is quite easy. Beware of ghosts inside the Crypt, they can hit quite hard. Act 8 features Deodre, the hardest boss you encounter during levelling. It's relatively safe if you have 2500 life, but that might be hard to acquire. After that, the act is going to be trivial. It's good to have freeze removal flask for Lunaris area, in case you don't have it already. Kill the final boss of this act and proceed to Blood Acqueducts. Preparing for maps: The area with a long stream of blood is where you'll spend next 1-2 hours. It's a great place to farm experience. Farm until level 71 and then respec the projectile nodes at ranger starting area. Look for gear upgrades and slowly replace your gems to recommended final setups. Before you proceed, you need a Tabula Rasa which you can farm in Blood Acqueducts OR you can buy 5-link bow with ilvl 64, high attack speed base if possible. The second option is better in general. On your newly purchased 5-link you can craft +2 bow gems with alteration/augmentation orbs. You should roll it within ~100 tries, still a bit RNG dependant. The 5-link CA setup is: CA - Vicious Projectiles - Void Manipulation - Swift Affliction - Concentrated Effect Now you're ready to get into maps. Finish last 2 acts and defeat Kitava. 4000 life is enough to not get one-shot in this fight. Toxic Rain levelling (Act 1-10 + twink speedrun):
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This levelling path is recommended if you want to get to maps ASAP (twink).
It's pretty much the same as Caustic Arrow, with few minor differences in passive tree, gem setups and bonus twink gear. For general guidelines, check the levelling method above. Gem Progression: Caustic Arrow - Pierce - Void Manipulation - Vicious Projectiles Use until... Toxic Rain - Mirage Archer - Void Manipulation - Vicious Projectiles Your levelling skill until you switch to CA. Siege Ballista - Use in 2 acts, extra damage against bosses, you can throw it out after Decoy Totem - Great defensive skill against bosses, if you have necessary strength for it. Despair : Curses enemies to increase damage. Use on bosses, tough packs, rares etc. Blink Arrow : Your movement skill Grace : Your aura, grants additional evasion. Purity of Elements : If you really need resistances. Use instead of Grace if necessary. Gem Rewards: * lvl 2 - Caustic Arrow * lvl 3 - Mirage Archer (Medicine Chest side quest) * lvl 4 - Siege Ballista * lvl 8 - Void Manipulation * lvl 10 - Blink Arrow * lvl 12 - Toxic Rain * lvl 18 - Vicious Projectiles * lvl 24 - Grace, Despair Passive Tree Progression: Level ~9 (Act 1) Level ~18 (Act 2) Level ~29 (Act 3) Level ~45 (Act 4-5) Level ~59 (Act 6-8) Level ~71 (Blood Acqueducts farm) Level ~71 (After Respec) Bandit Reward: Oak (recommended) OR 2 passive points Ascendancy Order: Way of a Poacher (1st Frenzy) -> Avatar of Veil (Phasing) -> -> Avatar of Slaughter (2nd Frenzy) Additional twink gear: * Quill Rain That's it, this little beast will carry you all the way to the maps in speed of light. Obviously, you can use other standard items like: * Tabula Rasa * Goldrim * Wanderlust * Hyrri's Bite (Int/Str) * Karui Ward None of this is necessary tho. Quill Rain paired with TR is just silly. Early Mapping
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If you're here, i assume that you have at least lvl ~72 and CA gem lvl 17. Curse on Hit setup and Wither Totem should be included in your build as well. If you don't have all of them, you might find single target damage disappointing. This build is dependant on levels, especially if you're starting the league. Don't rush the content.
Before you begin mapping, it's wise to pack as many CA gems to level as possible (if you didn't already). Once they hit lvl 20, you can corrupt them with Vaal orbs for a chance to get lvl 21 gem. You can have up to 13 gems levelling at same time, as CWDT setup isn't very useful until red maps. White maps: They shouldn't be a problem at all. Most map mods are trivial, running them blue is completely viable. No real danger outside of few bosses like Pen, Grotto or Spider Lair. For this map tier, you have 3 very simple goals: * 6-linked bow with +2 gems (ilvl 64+) * Carcass Jack / Cherrubim's Maleficence (optional) * Divination Distillate (optional) It's possible that you've acquired money for all of them before killing Kitava. If not, simple unid chaos recipe should do the trick. From body armours, you should buy the one that's cheaper. Carcass Jack is better as a league starter, but usually costs more than Cherrubim's. Divination Distillate might be a bit hard to use early on thanks to low CA mana cost, but with smart mana management it's possible to use it's full potential. Acquiring the bow is very simple. Buy ilvl 64+ 6-link bow, then spam alts/augs to roll +2 bow gems (prefix). You should get it within ~100 alts. The links on the bow should look like this: CA - Vicious Projectiles - Void Manipulation - Swift Affliction - Concentrated Effect - Damage on Full Life Yellow maps: This is where you'll spend quite a lot of time, recommended level is 80-90. This map tier isn't too risky, but some map mods might be deadly without proper defences/damage. Gear goals for this tier: * +3 gems 6-linked bow * Level 21 CA gem * Empower 3/4 * General gear upgrades The +3 bow is the primary goal in yellow maps. You should craft it by yourself, as it's the cheapest way of acquiring one. Check crafting section for full details how to do it. You should get level 21 CA through vaaling all the gems you're levelling, once they're ready for it. If you're unlucky and didn't get one, i recommend buying it. Once you get the bow, the next upgrade should be Empower gem. Level 3 is easily enough for majority of the content. Level 4 would be ideal, but it costs massive amounts of money. Price is very high early on and drops over time. You can try collecting The Dragon's Heart divination card too, but that might be tricky sometimes. Empower replaces Damage on Full Life OR Concentrated Effect, your call. Do not forget about your other gear, it's equally important. Get more life and resistances, good jewels, 40% CA damage helmet and all the good stuff. In short, upgrade it whenever you need, whenever you can. End Game Mapping / Onslaught path
Spoiler
If you got this far, you should be around level 90 and have lvl 27/28 CA gem. You're about to discover true potential of this build. The final upgrades are within your reach.
Red maps: That's where mapping becomes tough. The high evasion/dodge starts to fall off, monsters can hit hard, map bosses become tanky. Your damage should carry you through most maps easily, but the bosses combined with some map mods can be too scary. The 2 following goals of this map tier will fix all these issues tier: * Kintsugi * Onslaught Path * Watcher's Eye with +4-8% chance to Evade Attacks. In that order. It's best to acquire Kintsugi as soon as possible. It's a cheap and underrated unique. Gives massive defensive boost for your character. Despite very high evasion and Kintsugi on top of it, some maps might still give you a lot of troubles. Watcher's Eye should solve these problems. However, alone it's not that great. It's best paired with the next upgrade: Onslaught path: It has few downsides, but majority of the time they're non-existent. It's almost a pure upgrade to frenzy path. The more damage you have, the faster you go, the stronger onslaught path becomes. What it does in nutshell: * Makes you nearly invincible against attacks * Gives more speed * Worse frenzy generation and upkeep Since with onslaught you don't generate frenzies on kill anymore, you need another source. Without it the build doesn't have the same smooth feeling while mapping. Pick one of them: * ilvl 84 Elder Quiver: (7–10)% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Kill * ilvl 84 Elder Gloves: (7–10)% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Kill * The Green Dream: 18% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Kill (duelist jewel slot) * Precursor's Emblem: 10% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Kill Jewel is the easiest way to get them, but you lose decent amount of life/damage you would get from normal jewel. Cheapest way would be crafting the Quiver, but you lose potential for +1 arrow. The ring is new Delve league only unique. Not the most efficient option but it's decent. Finding a good mod combination to make it worth is going to be hard. The best option but also most expensive of them all is crafting Elder Gloves. That way you can have a jewel slot and +1 arrow quiver at same time. 7-10% change for frenzy is required to have reliable upkeep. 4-6% chance can sustain charges only if you speedrun the maps, otherwise you will lose charges very often. End Game Bosses/Maps Guide
Spoiler
As a rule, you're capable of killing pretty much any boss deathless. Scary red maps, end game bosses, all of them. Some of them are not worth the risk tho. Learn to skip them. +3 6-linked bow is required.
Shaper: Required gem setups: Decoy Totem Optional setup: Temporal Chains - Blasphemy Shaper himself isn't an issue, but the portal phase is problematic. The spawned monsters have too much health to die quickly. Decoy totem should be enough to protect Zana. Using The Writhing Jar for the talking phase is also recommended (otherwise you might lose frenzy charges). Shaper Guardians: You shouldn't have many issues with them. Chimera and Phoenix are the easiest. Hydra's turrets can be deadly if you don't watch out. Minotaur's lightning gates apply deadly debuff that can easily be a death sentence. Elder: Required gem setup: Frost Wall Once you get to know his moves, he's very easy. In first phase you should prioritize killing spawned minions, so they won't drop decaying ground (phys degen). Damage elder whenever you don't have to focus minions. Second phase, just protect Shaper with Frost Wall (see video). Third phase can be tricky and even deadly, but overall try to burst down the Elder while killing mobs to recover flask charges. Elder Guardians: They shouldn't be a problem. All of them have some scary attacks, but you can avoid them easily. Using Purity of Lightning against Eradicator is wise idea as well, his damage can be spiky sometimes. Uber Elder: WILL UPDATE LATER, check description of my video against this boss Uber Atziri: Required gem setup: Purity of Fire, Purity of Lightning, Vigilant Strike Required gear: The Writhing Jar, The Vigil, Topaz/Ruby Flask Thing with Atziri is, that she's mostly a mechanical fight. You can dodge almost anything... until RNG screws you over and you die. It's possible to kill her without getting hit at all (we got lots of speed after all), but you want to be prepared for anything. Vigilant Strike gives long lasting fortify, Kintsugi reduces damage by another 20%, Purities gives 4% resist each. It won't save you from everything, but gives you chance to actually take a single hit and live. Not sure which resistance flask is more important, so choose it yourself or take both (1 life flask left). As for Alluring Abyss itself, the zone can be really dangerous. Take it slow, don't tank mobs (rare soldiers hit super hard). It's nothing too hard. Vaals are probably the hardest part to be fair. Use The Writhing Jar to fortify and refresh frenzy charges in waiting phase. Trio is pretty easy, see Vaal Temple below. Disable Grace and start using PoF/PoL for Atziri, also fortify yourself between phases. Vaal Temple: Shouldn't be a problem. Additional speed, double damage mod, temp chains or twinned are probably too risky. Titty bitch -> Dual strike dude -> Cyclone. You can kite dual striker with Wither totem easily. Beware of Titty bitch's physical blade rain, it's good idea to remain mobile until it's on cooldown (after she casts it). Breachlords: Elemental breachlords are weak enough to be killed with ~22 level CA. Uul-Netol is more dangerous, CWDT-IC setup is required to prevent one shots. Chayula's domain might give you big troubles. It's doable tho, be sure to kill rare mobs as you go. Boss can be really dangerous, equipping Ming's Heart / Chaos resistance breach ring is a good idea. Hall of Grandmasters: Required gem setup: Scorching Ray Required gear: The Brass Dome Easy for the most part. The tough part are few exiles that can deal absurd damage in short time. Lethal map purely thanks to them. CI forces us to use Scorching Ray against them, Balefire unique is the easiest way to get the setup. Use it in or even 2 of them in a weapon swap. You need chaos resistance yourself, at least make it positive. Be elemental weakness capped. Poorjoy's Asylum: Considering CA can't off-screen mobs and shatter / explode corpses, it's a scary map. Those DD assholes are capable of killing you in split second. I generally avoid this map. Uber Lab: This might not be the safest build for a full key run, but kills Izaro quickly enough for it to be possible. Kintsugi's amazing for lab traps, or you can also use QotF if you prefer. 
Map Mods
As i already mentioned before, we can run pretty much anything... within common sense. So no Twinned Core with LMP + Turbo + -10% max res + 2x 100% bonus ele dmg, or anything like this. We're not immortal RF guardian.
I only mention actual deadly mods that you really gotta watch out for. Triple increased damage and stuff is obvious anyway. Dangerous mods: * Player Dodge chance is Unlucky / Monsters have #% increased Accuracy Rating This is actually one of the hardest mods. Very noticeable in high tier maps or breaches etc. Onslaught path negates the problems for the most part, but frenzy path is going to have hard times. * Monsters have #% increased Critical Strike Chance / +#% to Monster Critical Strike Multiplier With high evasion, attack should almost never crit you. Spell on the other hand can still hit hard. * Monsters fire 2 additional Projectiles Scary mod on some bosses and monster types. Some monsters are still able to shotgun, like few new Oriath monsters. * Area contains two Unique Bosses This is dangerous mod in some maps as you know. You should be able to do majority of them quite easily. Some can be done safely only with enough damage. * #% increased Monster Movement Speed / #% increased Monster Attack Speed / #% increased Monster Cast Speed Speed might be deadly in some boss encounters. The faster boss is, the less damage you deal and the more time you spend kiting him. With temp chains + speed you might not be able to kite at all. Watch out for such combos. * Players are Cursed with Vulnerability Negated during mapping thanks to warding flask, but not against bosses. Can be very deadly if you receive bleeding. * Players are Cursed with Temporal Chains Not a problem most of the time, but worth mentioning. Mod can be easily negated by Timetwist ring, if you're against a tough boss. * Players cannot Regenerate Life, Mana or Energy Shield Not a deadly mod, but worth mentioning. You can do it easily. The key is to run through map quickly, queue up as much mana from Divination (spam flasks, don't let mana reach max limit) and confront the boss. Unless it's a tanky/staged one, you should kill him before your mana runs out Besides that, typical damage mod combinations shouldn't be understimated. Everything applies like to every other build out there. 
Classic CA+ED Build
With CA changes in 3.4 it's no longer necessary to use additional ED setup in 2nd weapon slot. The opportunity cost is now too high for the benefits you get, but it's still possible. You can squeeze ~55% more damage that way. (or ~40% with +3 7-link bow)
Pros: * Higher damage output * Higher life regen * Easier to acquire Intelligence (it's something!) * Awesome active playstyle (warning: personal opinion) Cons: * Incredibly expensive (but not as much as +3 7-link bow) * Slightly less life (~10%) * Significant gear limitations * Might be too mechanically intensive for some people If it's worth trying using it, it's up to you to decide. If you're still interested, read further: What changes compared to normal build: * +3 Chaos Staff in weapon swap, Essence Drain setup * No elemental resistances on Bow/Quiver - otherwise your resists might be negative after you swap weapons * Level 96 - Classic tree - Huge changes on passive tree. Focused on scaling DoT/Chaos/Global damage through tree and jewels to benefit both CA and ED. * Speaking of jewels, there are only 4 mods that truly benefit this build. %max Life and DoT/Chaos/Global damage increases. Much harder to acquire them * Must use Wither Totem, cannot use Wither Rain (MA disappears on weapon swap) * Skill Effect Duration nodes are NECESSARY for this build to work. Two more things: 1 - Keep in mind that you can deal damage with both of the skills at same time. CA's cloud doesn't disappear after you switch weapon, same goes to ED's DoT debuff after it hits the enemy. 2 - ED projectile has to hit enemy while you wield Staff, otherwise it flies through enemy like nothing happened. That's about it. These might appear trivial but it's a massive difference in gearing up. I don't think i need to explain playstyle, check out one of my 3.2 videos. The only difference is that in 3.4 CA's duration is going to be short and ED's is going to be long. Have fun https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3053600 - My Guides Last edited by DankawSL#2030 on Dec 5, 2018, 10:59:17 AM
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3.4 Guide Archive Post #2
Spoiler
 Note: Most videos have timestamps and commentary on the run in description - what went wrong and what to improve. 3.4 Build Videos Shaper kill Guardians: Minotaur / Phoenix / Chimera / Hydra T13 Elder kill T16 Shaped Scriptorium T15 Shaped Siege (~100% more monster life) T16 Uluman lich Azurite Mine: 300 depth Delve run 300 depth Abyssal City 300 depth Vaal Outpost 300 depth Primeval Ruins 200 depth Delve run (monster level 78) 3.1 - 3.3 Build Videos
Spoiler
Uber Elder deathless - requires a lot phys degen mitigation to be possible.
Shaper kill - Pretty easy with correct gem setup Chayula's Domain clear - on the razor's edge. Timer part is hard, boss himself can be lethal. Uber Atziri - deathless despite lots of mistakes. Working on more reliable way to tank mini-flameblasts and stormcalls atm. T16 Vaal Temple T15 Elder T16 Shaper Guardians: Minotaur / Phoenix / Chimera / Hydra Elder Guardians: T12 Constrictor / T13 Purifier / T15 Enslaver / T13 Eradicator T15 Sunken City / Turbo + Dmg T15 Basilica T11 Waterways / No regen - example how you run that mod, more or less Hall of Grandmasters, 5 runs - after learning what to watch out for, it's actually quite easy. It's good idea to wear Brass Dome / Ahn's Contempt for this map (Danzig almost oneshots, almost) Uber Lab, full key run All videos from 3.1 patch, frenzy path 
Delve League
This league introduced Azurite Mine. Unlike maps, it scales infinitely and pushing it's limits requires a different strategy than you would normally do.
This section will help you improve your setup to get as low as you possibly can. It also covers fossil crafting and what mods you should aim for. Monsters
Spoiler
A short guide what to watch out for. Focusing on the monsters that seem innocent but hit like truck.
Unstable Weta This is the most dangerous enemy of the mines, period. These little insects will take your life if you're not careful. It's all about the delayed corpse explosion that chunks really hard, the cold degen ground also depletes health rapidly. They aren't too much of an issue when escorting the crawler because of your speed. You will have to avoid them a lot during mine exploring and azurite deposit encounters. I follow few easy rules: #1 - Watch your step, always. #2 - If you're exploring in the darkness, run through them the moment you kill them or don't move until they explode. #3 - During azurite encounters, don't move and facetank them. Explosions can't hurt you (they can with 100% increased AoE) You can see this strategy in my Delve run videos. Monsters with projectile spell Living azurite, golems, big spiders, spectral phantasms - they all share same quality. They shoot not very intimidating rocks/projectiles at you that are... spells. That's complicates things a little bit, only spell dodge works against them. Easy way to avoid the damage is to pop Vaal Grace when you meet them. That applies to living azurite and golems mostly. Also applies to monsters in Vaal Outposts (constructs/chaos casters). Azurite Widow, Cavestalker and Turong Your usual big, rare monster. Do not underestimate them. If poe.db data is to be trusted, all new monster types have physical damage converted to elemental. The lion, shrieking bat and big blue spider have 100% conversion on their basic attacks, making extra phys as ele mod INCREDIBLY deadly. See a rare monster? Avoid it at all costs. Most of the time you won't get hit, but when you do... you get chunked really damn hard. I advice to not go through biomes with more than 1 damage mod at a time. Bloodlines mod Rare monsters covered, time for blue ones. Bloodline mod in delves is really dangerous. The amount of mods that can spawn is really small. Union of Souls, Otherworldly and Herald of the Obelisks is pretty much everything you'll ever see. The last one is especially deadly, never stay near the slain bloodline pack. Chances that it spawns lightning ball or lightning "ground" thing are quite high. Necromancer's Ritual The necromancer is surprisingly deadly. I don't know why, but his blood geyser deals insane amounts of damage rapidly. Once he's about to take care of you yourself, use Vaal Grace and stay mobile to avoid it. You should also try to stay away from zombies, just in case. Exile Camp 6 rogue exiles. When you see the tents, quickly use Vaal Grace and prioritize Orra Greengate (archer) so she won't pin you down. Kite the rest of the exiles, half of them will die to a random CA degen before Orra dies anyway. It's easy encounter in general but being pinned down can easily mark your death. You can't move, but you can use blink arrow. Other dangers are kind of obvious. Not going to cover them as you probably learned to avoid them anyway (like the massive screen wide explosion ball). Equipment
Spoiler
Before i begin, there's very important note about the Azurite Mine itself. Deep down, the mine has mods just like the maps. With one big difference:
Azurite Mines mods only empower monsters. They do NOT change player's stats in any way. It might be small difference overall, but it's big for gearing up: * You don't need to be elemental weakness capped * There are no monsters that can curse (AFAIK) * Bleeding doesn't exist in mines with maybe few exceptions. (No corrupted blood) One more thing before i begin, you won't be able to use all possible changes/setups, some of them overlap. They're all optional and might give you the ability to push little bit farther than you would with a standard setup. I personally got to 341 depth in HC without any real changes to the core build: Quicksilver flask of Reflexes Because curses are absent in delves (from what i know anyway), you can change your movement speed flask to give you additional 60-100% evasion instead of curse immunity. Even tho you should have 95% evasion chance, having extra above cap for 50% accuracy rating mod or accurate monsters is always welcome. Witchfire Brew Considering that enemies are close to you majority of the time, this flask is a really good offensive option. Can replace Staunching Jade flask, since you should have anti-bleeding life flask anyway and corrupted blood packs/rares don't spawn in delves. Impresence (Chaos) Following the same logic as Witchfire Brew, but instead of the flask you would use this amulet for cursing the enemies and have additional Blasphemy - Despair setup. It will have higher AoE and damage than the flask. Cospri's Will and Enfeeble Blasphemy Enfeeble - Blasphemy - Vaal Grace - Enlighten lvl 3/4 Again, same logic. Since monsters are close to you, curse auras will be very handy. Unfortunately, many blue monsters are rares have Hexproof mod PLUS you can only have 1 curse on enemy, leaving Despair to never be used (Blasphemy overrides any curse). That's where Cospri's Will body armour comes to the rescue - Hexproof bypass and additional curse. Should be really reliable, even against 60% less curse effectiveness mod. Enlighten is necessary, otherwise your mana pool is going to be too low. Withering Rain (GGGR): Toxic Rain - Mirage Archer - Withering Touch - Increased Duration In delves, Wither Totem is useless except the bosses. This setup allows for little bit extra damage and slow utility against hordes of monsters. 50% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes That's right, it's an insane implicit, obtained through using vaal orb on a body armour. Since the build doesn't require 6-link and has 5 extra free gem slots, it's relatively cheap thing to get. Still you have to get lucky to roll that mod. You can also get some other useful mods like 40-50% increased damage, 4-6% maximum life and +1% all maximum resistances. This mod is AMAZING to have in both mines and normal maps. Massively reduces chances to get one-shot. You can potentially use Ahn's Contempt instead (or even both!), but you'll probably lose your CA enchantment in the process. Up to you to decide. Elder influenced boots They have 2 very strong mods: * 7-10% chance to gain Endurance Charge on Kill (prefix, T2: 4-6%) * 9-10% chance to Dodge Spell Hits (suffix, T3: 3-5%, T2: 6-8%) While the scariest monsters in delve deal elemental damage, physical damage can be really deadly as well. Endurance Charges will boost your physical mitigation by a little bit until you get hit - Immortal call will consume them for up to 2 second long physical immunity. 6% chance to gain charge should be enough for delving, since there's A LOT of monsters to kill on the way. The more the better obviously. Spell Dodge is always useful, since you can't have Vaal Grace up permanently. Should be treated like a bonus, endurance charges are more important. Those boots are also great for mapping, but getting a good pair is going to be really expensive. Fossil Crafting
Spoiler
Bow crafting with fossils is covered in normal Crafting Section. This section focuses on anything else worth crafting besides the bow.
Additional resources: Fossil Cheat Sheet PoEDB.tw Elder Leather Belt Method: Aberrant + Pristine Fossil mods: 20-30% increased Chaos Damage (prefix) With this method it's insanely easy to roll a decent belt in ~10 tries. Pristine fossil sremoves majority of bad mods and makes rolling Life + Life Recovery rate really common. In case you crafted a good RF belt, you can sell it for money and buy another base and try again. Helmet Method: Aberrant + Pristine Fossil mods: * Nearby enemies have -9% Chaos Resistance (suffix) * 1% Life Regeneration (suffix) * 2-3% increased maximum Life + 15-25 maximum Life (prefix) Same as leather belt, except selling is probably not an option here because of an enchantment. Reduced chaos res is a really good against any curse resistant monster (bosses, hexproof, 60% less curse effectiveness). Huge boost to damage output, high chance for 100+ life helmet. Jewels / Abyssal Jewels Method: Aberrant + Pristine (optional) Fossil mods: 13-19% increased Chaos Damage (suffix) Jewels have a really high pool of mods, so prepare for a lot of failed attempts. Just keep spamming Aberrants until you hit 5-7% maximum life. Adding Pristine is probably not worth it, however it will crafting easier for sure. It's probably the cheapest way to get a decent jewel in hardcore right now. This method also allows Abyssal Jewels to be a decent option, since they're easier to craft than normal jewels (smaller affix pool) AND you can finally roll 2 damage mods that will actually boost your damage permanently. (10-14% damage when using 2-handed weapon + fossil 13-19% chaos damage) Shaped Quiver, +1 Arrow & Life Method: Corroded + Metallic + Serrated / Pristine Fossil mods: 1% Life Regeneration (suffix) First two fossils block majority of the prefixes. Serrated fossil should massively increase chances of rolling +1 arrow on top of low prefix pool. Pristine fossil is optional to Serrated, gives higher chance of hitting good suffixes but isn't nearly as good at hitting +1 arrow itself. Don't get your hopes up tho, hitting both prefixes at same time is still rare, or you might hit low hp roll. In the long run, it's best way to make +1 arrow quiver with over 64 life that you can mastercraft. In case you want elder influenced quiver, this method can also be used for that purpose. Amulet Method: Aberrant + Pristine + Aetheric/Corroded (optional) Fossil mods: 20-30% increased Chaos Damage (prefix) Rolling amulet is going to be tough. They have a lot of potential mods and you probably know from your experience that finding a good rare jewellery is hard. Pristine helps a bit with that, Aberrant gives you the damage. I advice to only use it on Marble amulet or elder influenced Agate/Lapis. You can also try blocking some undesirable mods with Aetheric (less attack mods, more caster mods) or Corroded (no elemental mods, more poison/bleed), but i'm not sure how effective it's going to be. Elder Gloves Method: Aetheric + Pristine + Metallic (optional) Fossil mods: * 1% Life Regeneration (suffix) * 2-3% increased maximum Life + 15-25 maximum Life (prefix) Aetheric fossil will drastically reduce chance of bad prefix spawn, allowing for much higher chance of hitting "7-10% Frenzy charge on kill". Pristine as always for life and no evasion. Metallic will further reduce chance of spawning bad prefixes, but that shouldn't be required. Elder Boots Method: Pristine Fossil mods: * 1% Life Regeneration (suffix) * 2-3% increased maximum Life + 15-25 maximum Life (prefix) Elder boots can roll really great stuff, as you probably read in Equipment section above. Simple Pristine spam is definitely the best, since the prefix pool on boots is really low. Hitting high life, movement speed and endurance charge on kill is going to be tough tho. 
Path of Building + Tooltips
PoB code:
https://pastebin.com/s7vQSea7 This PoB is based on my character from Bestiary HC league. Some items are slightly different from the original for easier damage calculation and recommended gem setup. It also has CA+ED Tooltip bow for classic version of this build. It features 8 different skill trees, Raider Frenzy is default. You can change them at any time for quick comparison. Number indicates required level for that tree. You have to change bandits manually, Oak is default. In Calcs tab, "In Combat" calculation shows tooltip dps. "Effective DPS" shows fully buffed damage with 15 stacks of Wither and Despair. Tooltips (if you don't use PoB)
Spoiler
  That's fully buffed with 6 frenzy charges. The damage on CA can easily go over the 150k value if you invest into damage on gear. Same goes for ED in classic build.  Defence fully buffed. Such a long list i couldn't fit everything in. Realistically, the evade chance is around 70% using Frenzy path and 95% using Onslaught path (doesn't show more evasion tho). Phys damage reduction is 2-10% depending on Soul of Lunaris. 
Magic Finding Setups
One of the perks of Caustic Arrow, being able to go MF. You should be using any of the Ranger's ascendancies for that purpose, other ascendancies aren't nearly as good. Let's get started:
Pool of MF Items: * Divination Distillate (always used) * Ventor's Gamble * Bisco's Collar * Sadima's Touch * Greed's Embrace * Shaper IIQ Amulet * Rare IIR Jewellery There are few MF items i didn't list. I have a very good reason for that, it's called opportunity cost. Items like Perandus Blazon just don't give enough benefits to justify wasting important life/resistance slot for them. Goldwyrm is great, but it's 60% increased mana regen will make Divination Distillate upkeep impossible. I've prepared 3 setups for most common cases: Semi-MF Items: 2x Ventor's, IIQ Amulet Max IIQ: 48% Max IIR: 170% The optimal setup that allows you to clear all content without neglecting your defences too much. You can be Ele Weakness capped, don't lose too much life and still use Kintsugi. This is what i personally recommend if you want to go MF. Unfortunately, finding good Ventor's Gamble and IIQ amulet is going to be expensive. However, with Divination Distillate it's a perfect mix of decent IIQ and IIR. Don't forget about ~60% mana regen from gear, you'll most likely need to have it on amulet. Full MF Items: 2x Ventor's, Sadima's Touch, Greed's Embrace, IIQ Amulet OR Bisco's Max IIQ: 79% / 79% + 50% Bisco's Max IIR: 220% / 220% + 150% Bisco's Recommended full MF setup. High IIQ with a very decent IIR number. You should still have decent health and defense despite everything. Unfortunately it will have low movement speed. You should use Chemist's Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline to counter that. This setup isn't suited for running high tier maps. It might be hard to cap ele weakness, lower HP pool, no Kintsugi, lower evasion. You can try it, but i can't guarantee your safety. It's a mapping setup, don't try T16s or any hard bosses. You get 60% mana regen from Goldwyrm so you don't need it on jewellery. Cheap MF Items: IIR Jewellery, Sadima's Touch, Greed's Embrace Max IIQ: 49% Max IIR: ~200% In case you don't have money or want to invest a lot. Should be relatively cheap. Same potential as semi-MF, but inherits downsides of full MF. Just read the full MF setup for info. 
Crafting Section
How to craft your own +3 bow / staff, +3 elder bow / quiver. To remind:
Magic items can have 2 affixes: 1 prefix and 1 suffix Rare items can have 6 affixes: 3 prefixes, 3 suffixes To check what mod is prefix or suffix, enable Advanced Mod Descriptions in game (Options -> UI) Additional resources: Poeaffix.net PoEDB.tw In case your masters don't have required level for crafting, ask a trusted mastercrafter. You can find them on forums under Trading -> [your league] - Shops. They'll require a small fee for their services. Example of a mastercrafter +3 Bow crafting
Spoiler
Average cost: 6-link ilvl 64+ bow, 2 exalts, ~200 alts, few regals, few scours, few tens of augs, at least 5 alchs. Requirement: Catarina 8, Tora 7, Leo 3 NOTE: Fossil crafting method is currently the cheapest way to craft +3 bow. It's not 100% reliable, but should cost only a fraction of classic method in the long run. Classic method: Step 1: Spam alts/augs until you hit +2 to Socketed Bow Gems (prefix) Step 2: Add a suffix with augment orb if it doesn't have already Step 3: Regal and pray for another suffix. If it's a prefix, scour the bow and return to step 1 Step 4: Craft lvl 8 Catarina's "Cannot roll attack mods" Step 5: Slam the bow with exalted orb for guaranteed +1 Socketed Gems Step 6: Use Tora 7 to remove the crafted mod, and then use Leo 3 bench to craft "15-30% increased Damage over Time". If you're not satisfied with the DoT roll, repeat this step Fossil crafting:
Spoiler
Requirement: 6-linked bow ilvl 64+
Method: Corroded + Metallic + Prismatic Step 1: Spam 3-fossil combo until you hit +2 Socketed Bow Gems AND +1 Socketed Gems Step 2: Craft "15-30% increased Damage over Time" (prefix) at Leo 3 OR "7-12% increased Attack Speed" (suffix) at Tora 7 NOTE: Bows with ilvl 83+ have MUCH lower chance of hitting +3 gems due to additional prefix. Useful suffixes you might want on the bow: * +#% to Fire/Cold/Light/Chaos Resistance * #% increased Projectile Speed (makes CA feel more responsive) * +# Life gained on Kill * #% increased Attack Speed Bow bases, from best to worst: * Maraketh (+6% MS) * Steelwood / Reflex (+4% MS) * Highest base attack speed * Lowest base attack speed +3 Chaos Staff crafting (Classic Build)
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Average cost: 6-link ilvl 55+ staff, 4 exalts, few hundred alts, few regals, few scours, few annulment orbs, 5 blessed orbs, 4 chaos. Requirement: Elreon 8, Catarina 8, Vagan 8 Crafting Method: Step 1: Spam alts until you hit +2 to Socketed Chaos Gems (prefix) Step 2: Regal the staff Step 3: Use annulment orbs to delete 1 or 2 mods, so only +2 to Socketed Chaos Gems remain. If you annuled the +2 Chaos gems, scour the staff and go back to step 1. Step 4: Once you only have +2 to Socketed Chaos Gems on the staff, craft "Can have multiple Crafted Mods" at Elreon 8 bench. Step 5: Craft "Cannot roll attack mods" and "+(27 to 32) to maximum Mana" at Catarina 8 Step 6: Craft "Cannot roll caster mods" at Vagan 8 Step 7: Slam the staff with exalted orb for guaranteed +1 Socketed Gems Step 8: Remove crafted mods and craft "(53 to 68)% increased Spell Damage" at Catarina's bench Note on the steps 1-3. Ideally you want to roll +2 socketed chaos gems as a single mod on the staff, so you would have to remove only 1 mod. However, from my experience hitting +2 chaos gems is so hard that it's worth trying your luck to remove 2 mods. It should cost less in the long run. You can also craft "Can have multiple Crafted Mods" and create the staff like mine, but it's your choice if it's worth it. Costs 2 ex, and probably few divines for high spell damage roll. Staff's base doesn't really matter, but you should have one with block for that little bit extra defence. Elder/Shaper Quiver crafting
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Let's start with a quick look at good exclusive mods:
Elder: * 13–15% increased Area of Effect (prefix, T3: 7-9%, T2: 10-12%) * Projectiles Pierce an additional Target (prefix) * 31–35% chance to Avoid being Stunned (suffix, T3: 15-22%, T2: 23-30%) * 7–10% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Kill (prefix, T2: 4-6%) Shaper: * Adds an additional Arrow (prefix) * 7–10% increased Movement Speed (prefix, T2: 3-6%) * Attacks have 20% chance to Maim on Hit (suffix, T2: 15%) * 9–10% chance to gain Onslaught for 4 seconds on Kill (suffix, T3: 5-6%, T2: 7-8%) Shaper quiver with +1 arrow is definitely a better choice overall. Elder quiver is mostly used for frenzy charge generation (onslaught path), but the 15% AoE is pretty good too. I recommend simple alt spamming until you hit +1 arrow/frenzy on kill/AoE, aug for suffix, regal and craft life at Tora 6. You can also multicraft the quiver for additional good mods. Or you could chaos spam, but i'm not a fan of it. Be sure to check if there are good quivers for sale, especially elder ones. Useful non-elder/shaper mods you might want on the quiver: * +#% to Fire/Cold/Light/Chaos Resistance * #% increased Projectile Speed (makes CA feel more responsive) * +# Life gained on Kill * #% increased Attack Speed * Projectiles Pierce 2 Additional Targets (Deafening Essence of Misery) +3 Elder Bow crafting
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That's literally the last upgrade you should do for this build. Crafting one takes huge amount of currency on top of having to 6-link the bow yourself. Only craft it if you have no other upgrades to get. The fastest way of crafting is through Shrieking Essence of Dread spamming. It guarantees +2 bow gems prefix, massively increasing the chances of getting desirable mod combination. You can also use the basic +3 bow crafting method, but it's very unreliable. The chances to hit +2 bow gems and another good mod is really small. However, you do have many more chances to rolling these mods, so it evens out somehow. What can you roll on elder bow: * Socketed Gems are Supported by Level 20 Vicious Projectiles (prefix, T3: lvl 16, T2: lvl 18) * Adds an additional Arrow (suffix) * 16–20% increased Area of Effect (suffix, T3: 5–10%, T2: 11–15%) * Culling Strike (suffix) The only prefix here is a chase mod. It's creates a 7-link inside a bow, effectively becoming 45-49% more damage multiplier assuming you also have usual +1 and +2 gem level prefixes. +1 arrow is the second best mod you can roll, it's a huge quality of life and effective AoE increase. The following crafting method is designed for both suffix (+1 arrow) and 7-link crafting. Note that ilvl 80 is required for highest lvl Vicious Projectiles (PPAD) and ilvl 82 for a chance of additional arrow suffix. Essence Crafting Method:
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Step 1: You need ilvl 82 elder bow, doesn't have to be 6-linked
Step 2: Spam Shrieking Essence of Dread until you hit your desireable mod Step 3: We need at least 1 prefix and 1 suffix open to craft the bow to +3. Ideally 2 prefixes to craft DoT damage (unless you hit 7-link) Step 4: If you don't have at least 1 prefix and 1 suffix, remove a mod with an annulment orb. You can craft prefixes / suffixes cannot be changed if you want to protect a particular mod (2 ex for crafting, Haku / Tora 8 respectively) Step 5: Craft "Cannot roll attack mods" at Catarina 8 Step 6: Slam the bow with exalted orb for guaranteed +1 Socketed Gems Step 7: Remove crafted mod at Tora 7 and craft "15-30% Damage over Time" at Leo 3 OR "7-12% increased Attack Speed" at Tora 6 Alt -> Regal Crafting Method:
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Alteration spam:
Step 1: Spam alts/augs until you hit one of the desireable mods, that includes +2 Socketed Bow Gems Step 2: Add a suffix with augment orb if it doesn't have already 7-link crafting: Step 3a: If you hit at least 1 desireable prefix, regal the bow Step 4a: If you have +2 bow gems and 7-link mod, go to next step. If not, scour the bow and return to step 1 Step 5a: Craft any prefix at Tora's bench and slam the bow with exalted orb for guaranteed random suffix Step 6a: Remove crafted mod at Tora 7 and move to Crafting finish Suffix crafting: Step 3b: If you hit at least 1 desireable suffix or prefix, regal the bow. Chances to hit right mod are higher if it's a suffix Step 4b: If you have +2 bow gems or Vicious Projectiles mod, and a desired suffix, go to next step. If not, scour the bow and return to step 1 Step 5b: If you have 2 suffixes and 1 prefix, go to step 7. Step 6b: Craft any prefix at Tora's bench and slam the bow with exalted orb for guaranteed random suffix. Afterwards, remove crafted mod at Tora 7. Crafting finish: Step 7: Craft "Cannot roll attack mods" at Catarina 8 Step 8: Slam the bow with exalted orb for guaranteed +1 Socketed Gems Step 9: Remove crafted mod at Tora 7 and craft 15-30% Damage over Time at Leo 3 OR 7-12% Attack Speed / 10-30% Projectile Speed at Tora 6 Fossil Crafting (suffixes only)
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Requirement: elder bow ilvl 82
Method: Corroded + Metallic + Prismatic Step 1: Spam 3-fossil combo until you hit +2 Socketed Bow Gems AND desired suffix Step 2: If you also hit +1 Socketed Gems prefix (+3 gems total), go to step 7 Step 3: You need 1 free suffix in order to craft +3 bow. If you don't have one, use Orb of Annulment to remove a random affix. Step 4: If you removed one of required affixes from step 1, scour the bow and go back to the beginning Step 5: Craft lvl 8 Catarina's "Cannot roll attack mods" Step 6: Slam the bow with exalted orb for guaranteed +1 Socketed Gems Step 7: Use Tora 7 to remove the crafted mod, and then use Leo 3 bench to craft "15-30% increased Damage over Time". If you're not satisfied with the DoT roll, repeat this step NOTE: ilvl 82 is required for highest chance of hitting good suffix. Bows with ilvl 83+ have MUCH lower chance of hitting +3 gems due to additional prefix. Therefore, only 82 is worth crafting at all. Some additional notes on the bow crafting: * While 7-link is a chase mod, you shouldn't neglect +1 arrow. It might sell for quite a bit of money or you might simply use it yourself. It's really awesome to shoot CA with 3 arrows. * It's better to craft first, then 6-link the bow with fusing spam / Vorici 7. * Keep looking at the market. Which method is cheaper entirely depends on it. Chase Shaper/Elder/Vaal mods
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In case you want to min-max the build. I only listed chase mods or very useful ones that will really benefit the build one way or another.
Chase elder/shaper mods for bow and quiver are already covered in their own crafting sections are aren't included in here. Armour
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Body Armour - Vaal implicits:
* You take 50% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes * (40–50)% increased Damage * +1% to all maximum Resistances * (4–6)% increased maximum Life Considering we're using unique body armour and don't need it 6-linked, this is a great opportunity to acquire very powerful vaal implicits. Both 40-50% damage and 50% reduced crit damage mods are chase mods, for offensive / defensive purposes respectively. Next up is +1% to maximum resistances, really powerful when combined with Div Distillate for total 80% max resistances. However, not nearly as strong as previously mentioned mods. 4-6% max life is always good to have if you don't have anything better. Boots - Elder mods: * (7–10)% chance to gain an Endurance Charge on Kill * (9–10)% chance to Dodge Spell Damage First mod is INCREDIBLY powerful, but also hard to get with decent life and movement speed. If you can afford it (so few hundred chaos for rolling decent pair), it's a silly not to have it. Spell dodge is also great for general mapping/bossing when Vaal Grace isn't up. Gloves - Elder mods: * (7–10)% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Kill As you probably know already from Onslaught path, this is the best option for frenzy charge generation. Gloves - Vaal implicits: * +1 to Maximum Frenzy Charges * (4–6)% increased maximum Life You probably won't be vaaling gloves, but i think it's worth mentioning. Glove enchantments are quite shit and/or you might use other type of frenzy generation. Maximum charges is free ~3% damage and life is always good. Jewellery
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Belt - Elder mods:
* (8–10)% increased maximum Life * (16–20)% increased Life Recovery rate As mentioned in the in-depth equipment section, elder belts are amazing. Max life is great as always. Life Recovery rate mod increases life regeneration which i value quite a lot. Really worth it if you have additional life regen on gear. Belt - Shaper mods: * You take (21–30)% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes While Elder belts are best choices overall, this single Shaper mod is incredible too. Can be great option for HoGM, especially if paired with body armour vaal implicit. Amulet - Elder mods: * (1.6–2)% of Life Regenerated per second * (3–5)% additional Physical Damage Reduction * (13–15)% increased Area of Effect * Projectiles Pierce an additional Target Life regen is definitely the chase mod here. Second best mod is 3-5% phys damage reduction, which should be paired with endurance charges and Crab aspect (assuming it's available) - otherwise it's not that good. AoE is also good but it's usefulness falls off with additional arrows. Pierce is really nice in case you have only 2 pierces total. Amulet - Shaper mods: * (8–10)% increased Quantity of Items found * 1% increased Damage per 15 Dexterity I don't think i need to explain. Item quantity is a chase mod. The damage mod should give ~20-25% damage, nice bonus but not worth using the amulet for that purpose only. Amulet - Vaal implicits: * Enemies can have 1 additional Curse * +1% to all maximum Resistances You probably shouldn't Vaal amulets, but if you find a good amulet with crappy base and get lucky... Well, the additional curse mod beats any other shaper/elder mod. Ability to use enfeeble / temp chains against bosses is amassive defensive boost. +1% max res is also really great defensively, but not nearly as bonus curse. Ring - Elder mods: * +(4–5)% chance to Evade Attacks While you should be using Watcher's Eye with similar mod, this is also an option. Not really worth it money wise tho, because rolling amulets/rings is damn hard. Bow, Quiver and Jewels
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Bow - Vaal implicits:
* Bow Attacks fire an additional Arrow * (9–11)% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Kill * Socketed Gems are supported by Level 10 Faster Projectiles You probably won't be vaaling the bows since elder bows exists, but who knows... Additional arrow is obvious. Frenzy charge on kill would allow you to drop elder gloves. Faster Projectiles gives little bit of extra damage (~25-29% increased) and has 110% mana multiplier for easier mana management. Quiver - Vaal implicits: * Bow Attacks fire an additional Arrow More arrows, more AoE. No other explaination needed. Jewels - Vaal implicits: * Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you * (4–5)% increased Area of Effect * (4–5)% increased Damage * You cannot be Maimed * You cannot be Hindered In case you have excess of jewels, you can vaal them for one of those 5 nice bonuses. Corrupted Blood one allows you to drop staunching utility flask and replace it with something else like (not like there is much but still). AoE and Damage are obvious. Cannot be Maimed/Hindered are also pretty good for some monsters. 
FAQ
Q: Is this build good for a new player?
A: Yes. Assuming you understand basics of Path of Exile, this build should carry you through whole content. Caustic Arrow is really strong right now and that means forgiving, allowing you to be slightly inefficient and still have a great time. Q: How about Mirage Archer? A: Mirage Archer has few very annoying flaws for general mapping. It messes up flask uptime and doesn't even contribute to clear speed that much. It has troubles clearing a whole pack of monsters too, so you will end up attacking afterwards anyway. With that in mind, Greater Multiple Projectiles is simply better. However, Mirage Archer has few good uses. If you disconnect often, it might save your life by killing monsters during 6 second period. It's really good for maps with "Cannot regenerate" mod. You should also use it for speedrunning through zones, when you only want to refill the flask charges on the way (act carries/labyrinth/prophecy farming etc.) Q: How about additional Toxic Rain setup? A: Not possible. Toxic Rain has huge mana consumption that has no place in a build with subtle mana balancing for Div Distillate purposes. It just doesn't click. If you want additional damage, take a look at classic CA+ED build. Q: How about scaling Herald of Agony minion? A: This build does not focus on poison and therefore Herald of Agony isn't going to be very reliable or powerful tool. The opportunity cost is simply too high. Primary issues are virulence stack generation and high mana reservation cost (4-link+) or underwhelming damage (3-link or worse). You can convert the build to include the scorpion, but it's not worth it at all. Q: How about Abyssal Cry? A: You won't need it for clearing monsters quickly. Only useful for Null Portals or some bosses with adds, but that shouldn't be necessary. Q: What is Caustic Arrow's cloud scaling with? A: It's a degeneration area that scales off DoT / chaos / projectile / area / global damage increases. It's not a poison and doesn't scale with it. It's not an attack itself, but the gem has an attack tag allowing it to be scaled with chaos / DoT increases with attack/bow skills. I know it's a bit confusing, but it's exactly what i said. Q: Why don't you pick X node on the passive tree? A: Because jewels are better, period. I provide level 93 tree that's as efficient as possible, many people won't even reach it. If you're above that level, it probably means you have resources to make or buy good jewels that will be worth using over the nodes you have in mind. Q: What do you think about Impresence amulet? What about Despair aura? A: It's a good amulet that's usually quite expensive. It's main attribute is 0 mana reservation for Despair and really good stats. However it's not worth it's cost. Everything should be dead before it gets into range of Despair Aura. For bosses we use Curse on Hit setup. The stats on amulet are good but it's possible to craft better one with Essence of Envy on better base. Q: Why do you link Vaal Grace with CWDT? You can't trigger it! A: It's linked so it can benefit from Increased Duration. You save one gem slot that way. CWDT won't trigger Vaal Grace, and that's for the better. It's best to manually activate it when you need it the most. Q: How do you maintain Divination Distillate uptime? A: Shoot CA, use utility + MF flasks, shoot again if mana regen is high enough. You get full benefit and refill flask charges that way. The only problem you can have is mana regen balancing. Before you have a 6-linked CA with high attack speed, it's really tricky or even impossible to maintain Divination uptime. In case you have problem with not enough mana regen, then use Clarity / 20% quality on MF flask / shoot less often / get mana regen on ring. Q: Why do you take Master of the Arena node on passive tree? A: For life regen and little bit of strength. Life regen is great for mitigating small degens for DoFL and defensive purposes. Strength for easier gearing and that little bit of life you get. Q: I have troubles progressing through acts / maps, what can i do? A: Get more life and resists on gear, that's the most common answer to this question. If you've followed the guide, the damage shouldn't be a problem at all. That's true especially in maps. Not having enough defense is a common mistake among new players. All you gotta do is buy or find gear with high life and/or resistances on them. 75% resists is pretty much required starting from act 5. When it comes to life, the more the better. Q: Is it good for party play? A: Should be OK for ~3 man party. 5-6 is doable but not that great. ===== These are questions i've been asked a lot by random people i've spoke to in game. Keep more questions coming. 
Changelog
To do list (for myself mostly)
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* Better formatting for the guide, second wave (colors in big sections, i guess?) ON HOLD, kinda looked bad when i tried. Maybe later.
* Explore lower level despair/wither gems to save up on intelligence. 11/13 lvl when i looked up last seemed as great numbers (max 120 int) * Add pure mastercrafting cost in crafting section. ON HOLD, not sure if it's worth it. Might split average cost into crafting and meta-crafting * How about you finally do that video guide? * Proof read every single time there's a new big update. Videos: * Added 4 new Shaper Guardians videos: Minotaur / Phoenix / Chimera / Hydra * Added T16 Shaped Scriptorium December 1st, 2018 General: * Fixed few typos i've found FAQ: * Added new question: "How about additional Toxic Rain setup?" * Rewritten "How about Mirage Archer?" to be easier to understand. * Changed "How about scaling Herald of Agony minion?" to reflect my current view on it. No longer gives instructions how to include it in build since it's definitely not worth it. November 17th, 2018 Levelling and Progression: * Added bandit rewards in levelling sections for easier reference. November 8th, 2018 General: * Added image headliners for all sections * To do list is now merged with changelog. October 28th, 2018 Delve League: * Added new shaped quiver fossil crafting method - Serrated instead of Pristine for higher chance of hitting +1 arrow. Crafting Section: * Elder bow crafting received minor improvements/fixes October 11th, 2018 Crafting Section: * +3 Bow fossil crafting now has a proper text guide * +3 Elder Bow fossil crafting now has a proper text guide * Minor fixes / adjustments in both bow crafting sections. October 8th, 2018 Equipment: * Added warning to avoid X% mana regen on gears in TL;DR and Jewellery. * Removed Leo's DoT from +3 bow section, since it's no longer a must have. Crafting Section: * Useful Shaper/Elder/Vaal mods dump completely revamped and it's name is changed * It lists "Chase Shaper/Elder/Vaal mods" that you might want to include in your build. FAQ: * Updated some questions to include my current opinion / knowledge on them. * Added new question: "Why don't you pick X node on the passive tree?" September 30th, 2018 Delve League: * 2 new encounters added to Monster section. * Fossil crafting is finished. All the possibilities in 1 place, except fossil bow crafting. September 28th, 2018 Gem setups: * Removed Purity of Ice setup (you can just avoid those wetas in the end). * Withering Rain finally received proper commentary. Videos: * Fixed Primeval ruins link, now it leads where it's supposed to. NEW SECTION: Delve League * What to watch out for in Azurite Mines and how to push build to the max * It's not complete yet, but should be tomorrow * Equipment section is done, Monster section will get few specific encounters to watch out for. * Will include Fossil Crafting section, it's going to be repetitive (Pristine + Aberrant all day) September 26th, 2018 Videos: * Added 2 new videos: #1 - 300 depth Vaal Outpost #2 - 300 depth Primeval Ruins September 24th, 2018 Videos: * Added 3 new videos: #1 - T16 Uluman lich #2 - 300 depth Delve run #3 - 300 depth Abyssal City run September 16th, 2018 Passive Tree: * Added additional line to normal 93 tree, to pick up nearby jewel slots if you reached designated level. Videos: * Added 2 new 3.4 videos: #1 - T15 Shaped Siege (~100% more monster life) #2 - 200 depth delve run (monster level 78) September 15th, 2018 Equipment: * Updated my current gear with exception of bow and jewels (bow is unrealistic for average player). Videos: * Slightly reorganized videos, divided into 3.4 and 3.1-3.3 version until i finish recording everything. * Added 2 new 3.4 videos - T13 Elder and Shaper kill. September 13th, 2018 Gem Setups: * Aspect of the Crab returns - Delve's bestiary rooms will start dropping rare items with aspects on them next patch (as was intended). It's comeback time! Levelling Section: * Added Toxic Rain levelling * Minor change in lvl 71 respec tree, now picks up Bravery instead of Master Fletcher (2 points both) Tooltips: * Updated to match current build (last time updated in 3.1) September 12th, 2018 General: * Guide was polished after a major update * Added minor stuff here and there that i don't really remember Other Ascendancies: * Added note to indicate that 3 following ascendancies don't generate frenzy charges passively. Gem Setups: * NEW SETUP: Purity of Ice (Delve league) * Additional defence against the weta's, their ice spikes and cold degen ground. * Grace / Vaal Grace isn't linked with CWDT Immortal Call anymore. It can still be linked if you want to. * Stone Golem is now optional. He died too often in high tier maps and i using him like 2 leagues ago. Still great for league start and against lab traps. CA Levelling: * Received many small updates over last 2 weeks. * Gem rewards are fixed now * I'll look at the guide again when i'll be adding Toxic Rain levelling. Crafting Section: * Added Fossil Crafting to +3 Bow / +3 Elder Bow. * The Fossil Crafting is NOT finished, as i don't have enough experience yet. It's still there as an option. * +3 Elder Bow received major revamp shortly after 7-link +3 bow crafting was confirmed. Focuses on 7-link and +1 arrow crafting, not both at once tho. August 31st, 2018 - Delve league General: * The guide now focuses on scaling CA purely instead of CA and ED. * The old playstyle can still be found in... NEW SECTION: Classic CA+ED Build * Experience old gameplay, min max your gear to push your dps to the limit. * That extra dps isn't really necessary to beat all content in the game. * You can find it at the bottom of guide's main post. Overview: * Remade from scratch to reflect all the changes that happened since Abyss league. * Still has old vibe in it. Pros/Cons: * Slightly changes to reflect new direction of the guide and 3.4 balance changes. Passive Tree: * Now has 2 different Raider skill tree's for 2 different playstyles. CA only and Classic. Other Ascendancy Classes: * NEW ASCENDANCY - Pathfinder. Actually pretty good. * Shiny ascendancy portraits have been added for easier navigation. * All passive trees have been updated to reflect new diection of the guide. * Deadeye now uses Fast and Deadly by default, with option to use Ricochet for more damage. * Champion now uses Taunt branch by default, with option to use other 2 passive nodes. Gem Setups: * Caustic Arrow's setup now uses reworked Vicious Projectiles support by default (old: PPAD) * Caustic Arrow's setup now has options for 6th support gem, as well as GMP swap for clearing. * Essence Drain setup is now optional. * NEW OPTIONAL SETUP: Wither Rain. Not sure how useful it is yet. Replaces Wither Totem. Equipment: * Majority of the sections have been updated to reflect new direction of the guide. * Jewellery no longer requires ~60% mana regen. That's due CA's mana cost reduction. * +8% Evade Watcher's Eye is now VERY much recommended once you reach Onslaught Path. * Elemental resistances on bow and quivers are now a desired mod. (no weapon swap penalty) * Added Atziri's Step as a possible boots choice. (thanks to resists from Quiver/Bow) Levelling/Progression: * Whole section has been updated to reflect new direction of the guide. * Elemental bow and CA twink levelling have deleted. * NEW SECTION: CA Levelling (Act 1-10). No longer needs twink gear! Videos: * Now states the sad truth, the videos are outdated now. PoB Link: * PoB link has been updated to reflect all changes to the guide. * Section has been updated to reflect new direction of the guide. Magic Find Setups: * Section has been updated to reflect new direction of the guide. * Goldwyrm is no longer usable thanks to CA's lowered mana cost. (60% mana regen) * Cheap and Full MF setups now use Sadima's Touch instead of Goldwyrm. (painful change) Crafting Section: * Minor changes to intro. Now recommends using Advanced Mod Description instead of 3rd party sites. * Elemental resistances on bow and quivers are now a desired mod. (no weapon swap penalty) * Elder Bow crafting now focuses on creating +3 gems 7-link bow with option to craft additional arrow/AoE. * Useful Shaper/Elder/Vaal mods dump is still almost useless. Keep reading. FAQ: * Section has been updated to reflect new direction of the guide. * Removed few outdated questions, added some new ones. Changelog's... changes: * Due to massive changes to the build and already long changelog, i'm removing previous patches from it. * You can still find whole changelog prior to 3.4 update on page 17 inside archived guide. Final words ======== I'm really glad i've made this guide. I've spent tens of hours at this point, improving and polishing it to be the best it can possibly be. It wasn't the guide alone that improved over time, but the build itself too. I'll keep updating it for as long as i can. Of course, a big thank you to all people who are lurking and people who contacted me one way or another. No doubt that this guide wouldn't be the same if it wasn't for you, giving me a reason to do my best. Thanks for checking out the build, i hope you've had fun using it! https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3053600 - My Guides
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Hey bud, great guide! I've been looking over things a lil bit and I spose I have a question related to frenzy generation - why not use Blasphemy + Poacher's Mark? I'm no expert when it comes to this game to be sure, but I ran that combo last league for frenzy charges to great effect. I suppose the curse is limited to enemies inside the aura, but after a few levels that radius gets pretty big, it would combine with phasing for easy mobility around crowds, and at lvl 10 you're already looking at a 25% generation chance, let alone all the other bonuses the curse offers. Seeing as how you're only gonna be generating them off of mobs it doesn't seem to get in the way of the wither totem; hell you could just hotswap wither/PM on the totem for single target/clear respectively.
Not sure if this has been asked before, and again I'm no expert, just throwing this out for consideration. Last edited by Arcanus444#7491 on Dec 5, 2018, 2:56:57 PM
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December 5th, 2018 - Betrayal League
Spoiler
General:
* Guide renamed to "Caustic Arrow Raider, DoT Focused | MFing | 6k+ Health | All Content | In-depth" * Since the build no longer uses Div Distillate as a core item, removing Semi-MF part was important. * Many minor improvements everywhere, too long to list plus i've forgotten most of them already. Passive Tree and Bandits * Default bandit reward are now 2 passive points. * CA focused passive tree was replaced with a new one that doesn't focus on Frenzy charges anymore. * Classic Tree received no changes. * Other Ascendancy classes got their trees updated as well. * Removed mentions of Divination Distillate and Frenzy charge generation, as they're no longer are core parts of the build. Gem Setups: * Dread Banner is a new mandatory gem. * Mana Balancing setup (Clarity) is now "mandatory" setup. Renamed to Bonus Mana Regen. * Faster Casting has been replaced with Multiple Totems in Wither Totem setup. * Cursing setup renamed to Cursed Frenzy setup. The commentary adjusted to reflect changes to the passive tree. Equipment: * 30% CA Duration helmet enchantment is now default. * 40% CA Damage helmet enchantment is optional, and ONLY possible if you picked up Skill Effect Duration nodes on passive tree. * Divination Distillate is no longer core item of this build. Replaced with Dying Sun as an end game goal. * Removed any mentions of "mana on kill" and "X% mana regen" being bad for the build. * Added recommendations for "X% mana regen" in TL;DR and Rings/Amulets sections. Levelling Section: * Twink Toxic Rain levelling and End Game Mapping / Onslaught Path has been removed. * Added bonus twink gear to Caustic Arrow levelling. * Updated levelling passive trees / bandits / ascendancy to reflect changes to main passive skill tree. * Early mapping renamed to Mapping Progression, also includes red maps now. * Minor adjustments to Mapping Progression based on recent changes to the build. Mostly still the same. Classic CA+ED Build * Updated majority of the section to reflect current changes to the build. * Added "Frenzy generation during mapping". Path of Building * Updated PoB to reflect changes to the passive tree/gear (gems are still missing). Magic Finding * Added Goldwyrm to MF item pool, cannot be used with Div Distillate. * Added small section, "How to effectively use Divination Distillate". * Adjusted max IIQ values to reflect Sadima's Touch nerf. FAQ * Minor adjustments to a lot of questions. * Most notable change is the stance on Toxic Rain as an additional setup. With changes to Div Distillate, it's now possible to use it with some significant changes to the tree. Classic CA+ED Build is still preferred. * Added "(Classic) Wouldn't Blight be better for bossing?". * Removed question how to use Div Distillate properly, moved to Magic Finding section. Changelog's... changes: * Due to massive changes to the build and already long changelog (i actually hit 50k char limit during the update), i'm removing previous patches from it. * You can still find whole changelog prior to 3.5 update on page 50 inside archived guide. That's a lot of changes, again. GGG really did buff this build by a LOT, around 30-35% more damage than previously. CA+ED build have never been this strong, i'll definitely use ED again this league. It sucks to lose maximum resistances from Div Distillate tho, i no longer consider it core item of the build. Still remains as an option. There's still a lot of work to be done, but i cannot do it until PoB receives another important update (gems) and i also need to know all the possible crafting options. Until then - it's finished. " "I actually replied to your reddit thread glappoid (that you deleted later). I'm sure you've seen my message there. The point with cursing is that you DON'T need it against normal enemies. They should die almost instantly, except really tanky rares. Cursing normal monsters is a waste of time, just run through their corpses. With newest changes to the build you can use phase run all you like as the build doesn't focuses on frenzy charges anymore (outside of the bosses). You can still generate charges through means i've listed before (they're in classic build section now), other possibilities simply use too much resources, like 35% mana reservation of blasphemy. Blasphemy Poacher's Mark will also override Despair, the other bonuses besides charges are not very important. In fact, the curse disabled Divination Distillate effect in 3.4 version of the build. https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3053600 - My Guides Last edited by DankawSL#2030 on Dec 5, 2018, 9:27:58 PM
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