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

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SevDestroyer wrote:

This is probably my favorite build I've ever used. I only have one issue. That is the syndicate. Any tips on dealing with these guys?

Also any reason why you dont invest into phase acrobatics?

Try to circle around them. That way you can dodge majority of skills, reapply CA, curse them and maybe place totems if you have time. Additional duration (helmet enchant) is also very useful against them/monsters they spawn.

Phase acro is rushed the moment you hit maps. In order to think about avoidance/mitigation you first need life/ES to back it back.

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Relnerad wrote:

Spoiler

I'm just wondering: why do you list Evade chance with Grace as the key stat for the Watcher's Eye jewel? (While dodge isn't rated as highly.)

Since both only apply to non-spell, I am assuming that this is the case because dodge bonus is only applied to the fraction of the chance of being hit after evasion has been considered (more exactly, True Dodge Chance = Dodge Chance * (1 - Evade Chance).

So given a potential 90-95% Evade chance, then Dodge chance doesn't really matter as much.

Conversely, as Evasion suffers from diminishing returns, the added flat evasion % really adds a lot to our evasion. With max 8% from the jewel and 25% from Ascendency, our raw evasion score need only reach 62% to be able to reach the 95% evasion cap?

Given all the above, which secondary stats are most beneficial on a watcher's eye? I am thinking that it is between movement and (still) dodge. Could you please share your thoughts on this?

Thanks.


And a few other questions:
1. What is the maximum spell dodge we can get? And what gear is required for this?

2. As an alternative to Master Fletcher (2) and the 4% max life nodes under Thick Skin (2), what do you think about instead choosing the Jewel socket just above Acrobatics? Doing so (and choosing 1 of the 4% max life nodes) should allow you to gain: 11% max life (more than the 8%) and *4% dmg +20% dmg (jewel + nodes before jewel socket) ... which I think is better than the +36% dmg from the suggested nodes? I'm not sure. Could you please comment on this? (Note: I am assuming that all the 2-req Jewel nodes - 3 of them are already chosen --- levels 95-100).

3. As added utility on Frenzy (for bossing), would you perhaps recommend another 6-link setup improving on the 4-link Frenzy setup?
---> Frenzy + GMP + CoH + Despair + Blind + Culling Strike

Again, thanks.

Getting enough evade chance (76%) to max it with Raider's onslaught bonus requires additional investment. Jewel with it's 8% additive chance makes it really easy. Having evasion overcapped is still good for monsters with high accuracy.

Primary reason to cap evade is based on very simple math. Let's say you have 90% chance without the jewel and 95% with it. Without Watcher's Eye you're getting hit 1/10 times. With the jewel you're getting hit 1/20 times, essentially doubling the amount of defence you have. I ranked all Grace Watcher's Eye mod in equipment -> jewels.

Your other questions:
1 - 75% is the cap. Build has access to cap it using Vaal Grace for limited time. Permanent maximum spell dodge is hard to acquire and requires special investment. You can get close to that cap using Atziri's Step with 16% + 6% corruption and Quartz flask (10%) for total 72%. Other items are not worth using pretty much. You still get capped if you get hit (5% from Lunaris Pantheon).

2 - Jewels are always better. However, have you forgotten about the cost? The gain is minimal, it's simply more convenient for everyone to pick nodes on the tree. Plus you can spend money on other gear. Classic build focuses on jewels to gain both damage and life, since it's the only way to get reliable values.

3 - In order to reliably blind enemy with this setup you would have to spend half of the time standing and shooting Frenzy. Why would you do that when you can spend that time manually dodging attacks/spells instead? Not like you need more evade chance anyway (check Minotaur video).

I've managed to Kill The Shaper for the first time with this build (Elder followed quickly after that) Great build all around, But i don't know which bow to use which is better

I have both and i do more damage with 40% non-chaos damage DOT, Should I recraft the other bow to have that instead of those on the other bow.

My pastebin: https://pastebin.com/m9bFyyLD

Love the build,

Reach lvl 93 and have near ultra engamegear,

Done : Red Elder, Uber atziri, 4 guardians (2 death on Phoenix, was too close when he slammed ground), deathless Shaper, deathless pale council and xoph was a joke.

Now I am doing some try to find even smoother way to map and I try Alpha's Howl + aspect of the crab. I will tell you if I find it good for mapping.

dib

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sikodude wrote:

Spoiler

]I've managed to Kill The Shaper for the first time with this build (Elder followed quickly after that) Great build all around, But i don't know which bow to use which is better

I have both and i do more damage with 40% non-chaos damage DOT, Should I recraft the other bow to have that instead of those on the other bow.

My pastebin: https://pastebin.com/m9bFyyLD

You need Empower in order to use elder bow. The point of the mod is that CA socketed inside the bow is supported by Vicious Projectiles by default. By socketing the same support gem, you gain almost nothing.

Change sockets to GGGRRB and use Empower lvl 3/4 instead of Vicious Projectiles on the elder bow.

You should also quality your gems, i personally use level 20 -> level 1 20% quality recipe. Sucks for first hour but damage is nearly the same after that.

And please, for the love of god throw out Atziri's Promise. It doesn't do anything but give you chaos res. Vaal Grace should be included in the build.

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dibdib2 wrote:

Spoiler

Love the build,

Reach lvl 93 and have near ultra engamegear,

Done : Red Elder, Uber atziri, 4 guardians (2 death on Phoenix, was too close when he slammed ground), deathless Shaper, deathless pale council and xoph was a joke.

Now I am doing some try to find even smoother way to map and I try Alpha's Howl + aspect of the crab. I will tell you if I find it good for mapping.

dib

Aspect is amazing. Honestly, i've been dying to try using Basalt flask + Aspect + endurance charge on kill boots / talisman. Easy 47-55% physical mitigation during mapping. On evasion character, this amount of mitigation? Insane.

Mana feels like it would be troublesome so a lot of mana regen (~60% or sth) and ditching Clarity is necessary. Dread Banner probably needs to go too, or Grace + Banner + Enlighten combo to reduce a bit of reservation. Many options here.

Right now elemental/spell damage feels like the biggest issue. Loreweave seems really appealing that way, but also losing evasion + less damage from Kintsugi hurts.

Decisions, decisions...

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DankawSL wrote:

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sikodude wrote:

Spoiler

]I've managed to Kill The Shaper for the first time with this build (Elder followed quickly after that) Great build all around, But i don't know which bow to use which is better

I have both and i do more damage with 40% non-chaos damage DOT, Should I recraft the other bow to have that instead of those on the other bow.

My pastebin: https://pastebin.com/m9bFyyLD

Spoiler

You need Empower in order to use elder bow. The point of the mod is that CA socketed inside the bow is supported by Vicious Projectiles by default. By socketing the same support gem, you gain almost nothing.

Change sockets to GGGRRB and use Empower lvl 3/4 instead of Vicious Projectiles on the elder bow.

You should also quality your gems, i personally use level 20 -> level 1 20% quality recipe. Sucks for first hour but damage is nearly the same after that.

And please, for the love of god throw out Atziri's Promise. It doesn't do anything but give you chaos res. Vaal Grace should be included in the build.

That makes things a lot clearer, Thank you for input i don't know how i forgot that i have Vicious on the bow silly me.

My 2 cent,

with aspect of crab AND Kintsugi, no need to run basalt inmho, it's more than enough to handle ALL damages who one shot

here my set up for flask, Always up to go pack from pack :

So with quartz flask I think it's better to manage spell damages, wich are the hardest to handle. And witchfire brew it's amazing for me, big DPS boost and smoke cloud, still more Evasion, I love it


To be honest i nearly never use the banner, even if it's real good cauz everything die before I think to use it xD


And with this gear and set up :

I have 254 mana left with banner up and 327 without, witch is enough to map for me.

But this is only tries, when I deal with end game bosses I maxxed dps and life with this gear :

Hello, great build and well put together guide :)

Quick question about respecting out of 'Way of the Poacher' and into 'Quartz Infusion'. Do I do it right after I get 'Avatar of the Chase' or wait until I complete Uber Lab?

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DankawSL wrote:

You still get capped if you get hit (5% from Lunaris Pantheon).

Ah, forgot about the Lunaris Pantheon. Thanks. :)

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DankawSL wrote:

In order to reliably blind enemy with this setup you would have to spend half of the time standing and shooting Frenzy. Why would you do that when you can spend that time manually dodging attacks/spells instead? Not like you need more evade chance anyway (check Minotaur video).

Blind would require a 4s rotation instead of the 10s one with Despair + Frenzy, true. I guess I agree that it isn't worth the mobility opportunity cost.

What about culling strike though? Is it worth having Culling Strike to help with the last 10% for bosses? 5-link vs 4-link requirement and the loss of 1 free slot. What are your thoughts on using Culling Strike?


As always, thanks for answering my questions.

Help, everything was going great, things were just melting almost instantly then all of a sudden things slowed way down. For example I just reached maps a couple of levels ago, monsters died very quickly. Now not so fast. I went back and tried 'Canals' just to fore something to compare to and it is now taking a couple of seconds for Caustic Arrow to kill.

Can someone take a look and see if I have done something stupid? The only big changes that I have made is switching to a 6-link +2 bow (going back to the original was still slow compared to a couple of levels ago) and selecting 'Phase Acrobatics'

Thanks in advance :)


Edit--- I figured it out, my selected Caustic Arrow got switched to one that I was leveling up, not the one in the bow

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dibdib2 wrote:

Spoiler

My 2 cent,

with aspect of crab AND Kintsugi, no need to run basalt inmho, it's more than enough to handle ALL damages who one shot

here my set up for flask, Always up to go pack from pack :

So with quartz flask I think it's better to manage spell damages, wich are the hardest to handle. And witchfire brew it's amazing for me, big DPS boost and smoke cloud, still more Evasion, I love it


To be honest i nearly never use the banner, even if it's real good cauz everything die before I think to use it xD


And with this gear and set up :

I have 254 mana left with banner up and 327 without, witch is enough to map for me.

But this is only tries, when I deal with end game bosses I maxxed dps and life with this gear :

I will probably ditch basalt once i get endurance charge on kill boots because they're AMAZING defensive boost that works well with crab aspect. Still want to try out regardless. I hate Witchfire with passion, the flask keeps deleting my CoH Despair. Who cares about trash mobs, they die instantly anyway and half of the rares is hexproof.

Dread Banner allows for easy evade cap without a lot of evasion gear + works as a safety net against accurate mobs or when you don't have jade flask up (guardians). For 10% mana reservation? Totally worth it. Never place it, keep it forever on your back.

Well, have fun testing the crab.

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Skua99 wrote:

Hello, great build and well put together guide :)

Quick question about respecting out of 'Way of the Poacher' and into 'Quartz Infusion'. Do I do it right after I get 'Avatar of the Chase' or wait until I complete Uber Lab?

Does not matter too much, i recommend doing it as soon as possible (after merc lab) to get used to the phasing. That's also what i say in the guide.

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Relnerad wrote:

Spoiler

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DankawSL wrote:

You still get capped if you get hit (5% from Lunaris Pantheon).

Ah, forgot about the Lunaris Pantheon. Thanks. :)

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DankawSL wrote:

In order to reliably blind enemy with this setup you would have to spend half of the time standing and shooting Frenzy. Why would you do that when you can spend that time manually dodging attacks/spells instead? Not like you need more evade chance anyway (check Minotaur video).

Blind would require a 4s rotation instead of the 10s one with Despair + Frenzy, true. I guess I agree that it isn't worth the mobility opportunity cost.

What about culling strike though? Is it worth having Culling Strike to help with the last 10% for bosses? 5-link vs 4-link requirement and the loss of 1 free slot. What are your thoughts on using Culling Strike?


As always, thanks for answering my questions.

Regarding blind, i really meant that you would have to be standing and shooting half of the time. Blind support doesn't guarantee blind, gives only 10% chance.

I mention it in the guide, i dislike Culling Strike. The only targets worthy of culling are guardians/shaper/uber elder. Everything else will die from CA in ~1 sec anyway.

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Skua99 wrote:

Spoiler

Help, everything was going great, things were just melting almost instantly then all of a sudden things slowed way down. For example I just reached maps a couple of levels ago, monsters died very quickly. Now not so fast. I went back and tried 'Canals' just to fore something to compare to and it is now taking a couple of seconds for Caustic Arrow to kill.

Can someone take a look and see if I have done something stupid? The only big changes that I have made is switching to a 6-link +2 bow (going back to the original was still slow compared to a couple of levels ago) and selecting 'Phase Acrobatics'

Thanks in advance :)

CA gem that you level in your other gear jumped into place where you shoot your 6-linked CA on your skill bar. It happened when you were switching the bows. Game always tries to fill skill bar with skills you didn't discard yet.

EDIT - my previous minor edit somehow deleted the last reply. Restored it right now.