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

After six-linking the bow i got + 1 gems and dexterity with alteration, regaled it for fun and hit the VP mod. Now... should i start over because VP is not at level 20 or call it a day and craft +2 support gems and feel lucky i spared to slam an exalted orb?

call it a day. level 20 over level 16 is like a 4% damage difference?? if that

Your leveling section talks about getting a 6l bow in white maps, isn't that a little optimistic on the affordability side? Especially early league?

with 5l u can clear all content but slow :)

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xMustard wrote:

Spoiler

interestingly enough this build can work almost fully intact with the new skill soulrend. depending on soulrends numbers it could be better than caustic arrow itself. mostly since it specifies that it provides a deadly but short-lived damage over time. this implies the damage over time is more powerful, but doesn't last as long - which we all know isn't necessarily a game breaker.

so the way it sounds soulrend will have higher dps but a shorter duration. duration is easily overlooked by just casting slightly more often, so the higher dps from a stronger base damage over time (if it has it in comparison to caustic arrow) it could prove better to have a higher damage applied to kill things quicker.

again it can work exactly as the build is, except swapping out "bow" passives for something else. since the spell will be tagged projectile you can still use it with a bow with vicious projectiles etc.


im not necessarily saying it'll be better, but it could be a contender to caustic arrow itself. just depends on the numbers, so something to consider!

The build was designed to be versatile for any DoT skill (Classic CA+ED build), so sure, why not. Obviously it won't give you extremely high dps since it's not meant to, also won't be very league start viable since all the good DoT nodes are around shadow's area. Travelling is going to take a while.

Since it's a spell, i doubt projectile->DoT scaling is going to be present.

Also, does CA really need that extra damage? Maybe single target at best.

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PugJack wrote:

Spoiler

Hi All,

I see some of you do not have the Ascendancy skill "way of the poacher".

Would you mind telling me how you generate Frenzy balls without it?

Frenzy-CoH-Despair setup. Also Frenzy on Kill elder gloves for mapping if you can make them.

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Eunbunnie wrote:

Can I use this exact build as a template for Toxic Rain or even Scourge Arrow since Caustic Arrow's bossing potential is really weak compared to the other 2

Toxic Rain, yes, but i really disliked it when i used it personally. CA's clear is faster once you invest. Single target is not as bad as it seems, as opposed to TR moving to dodge doesn't decrease your DPS and you can keep Wither Totem/Frenzy charges up. CA's playstyle is just safer and you can focus more on defence.

Also, you mentioned Scourge Arrow - which is completely different from both CA and TR. This suggest you don't know how the skills are usually built around.

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Taubenichts wrote:

Spoiler

After six-linking the bow i got + 1 gems and dexterity with alteration, regaled it for fun and hit the VP mod. Now... should i start over because VP is not at level 20 or call it a day and craft +2 support gems and feel lucky i spared to slam an exalted orb?

Since it's lvl 16, i would leave it at max roll chaos DoT multiplier. Not worth spending 1ex imo. You can use Leo's exalt bench for fun (T3 research).

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aaFormina wrote:

Spoiler

Your leveling section talks about getting a 6l bow in white maps, isn't that a little optimistic on the affordability side? Especially early league?

It's not. You'll get majority of the money from drops (Humility, random chaos). Rest can be easily farmed with chaos recipe. I've done this basically every league in HC, and sometimes even before i hit maps (pre-elemental hit buff leagues).

I just wanted to tell Dank thanks for putting so much time into this build. It not only helped me master this character, but it provided a ton of extra info of PoE itself. I got my first Shaper kill with this build (not too mention my first Shaper ATTEMPT and I did it DEATHLESS)! This will most likely be my league starter in 3.6, I'm curious to what, if any, changes will come from patch notes. Cheers!

Hey guys, i just started a character with this build as i'm considering playing CA for league starter on 3.6.

Started it on a fresh SSF run, and everything was great up until mid of act3. After that, damage just was not there, even on a 4L (CA - pierce - void manip - vicious proj). Piety was slow, Dominus was realy slow and Malachai was horribly slow.

Did i do something wrong? I was using the 4L CA and a 2L Toxic Rain with TR-Mirage Archer. Did not have Wither Totem as i did not have the right links for it.

I'm not a new player, i have played several characters to above level 90, have killed Shaper, farmed Uber Lab, but this build was realy bad for me on fresh start.

Again, did i do something wrong?

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Krazy_X wrote:

Spoiler

Hey guys, i just started a character with this build as i'm considering playing CA for league starter on 3.6.

Started it on a fresh SSF run, and everything was great up until mid of act3. After that, damage just was not there, even on a 4L (CA - pierce - void manip - vicious proj). Piety was slow, Dominus was realy slow and Malachai was horribly slow.

Did i do something wrong? I was using the 4L CA and a 2L Toxic Rain with TR-Mirage Archer. Did not have Wither Totem as i did not have the right links for it.

I'm not a new player, i have played several characters to above level 90, have killed Shaper, farmed Uber Lab, but this build was realy bad for me on fresh start.

Again, did i do something wrong?

My experiences are much different. I always find act 2 -> act 3 piety (lvl 28) the slowest. After that 4-link CA + 2-link TR pretty much carries everything. Based on your level 34 CA character, you were simply underlevelled - levels are VERY important for skills with base damage. I usually have lvl 37-38 at that point. Also, you should complete normal labyrinth somewhere mid act 4 (it's trivial at this point).

If you want to rush content, you should be using Mirage Archer in CA setup when not fighting bosses. It's a tedious thing to do, bad for beginners and doesn't introduce you to the build's playstyle. For those reasons i don't mention it in levelling section.

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DankawSL wrote:

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Krazy_X wrote:

Spoiler

Hey guys, i just started a character with this build as i'm considering playing CA for league starter on 3.6.

Started it on a fresh SSF run, and everything was great up until mid of act3. After that, damage just was not there, even on a 4L (CA - pierce - void manip - vicious proj). Piety was slow, Dominus was realy slow and Malachai was horribly slow.

Did i do something wrong? I was using the 4L CA and a 2L Toxic Rain with TR-Mirage Archer. Did not have Wither Totem as i did not have the right links for it.

I'm not a new player, i have played several characters to above level 90, have killed Shaper, farmed Uber Lab, but this build was realy bad for me on fresh start.

Again, did i do something wrong?

My experiences are much different. I always find act 2 -> act 3 piety (lvl 28) the slowest. After that 4-link CA + 2-link TR pretty much carries everything. Based on your level 34 CA character, you were simply underlevelled - levels are VERY important for skills with base damage. I usually have lvl 37-38 at that point. Also, you should complete normal labyrinth somewhere mid act 4 (it's trivial at this point).

If you want to rush content, you should be using Mirage Archer in CA setup when not fighting bosses. It's a tedious thing to do, bad for beginners and doesn't introduce you to the build's playstyle. For those reasons i don't mention it in levelling section.

Hey, thanks for the reply. Yeah, i was a bit underleveled for Malachai (didn't even have the level 36 life flask; did not have bleed removel as well).

I'll get some levels and rerun Malachai to see what it is like at level 37-38. I'm stull considering CA as league starter (unless patch notes gives us some surprise candy)

Thanks again (i will let you know once i get to it).

Hey Dankaw, just wanted to say thank you for this build. After a long break from PoE, your build really caught my eye, and I've been having fun leveling it. (Although it was cut short with the end of betrayal) I did have a couple of questions.

-- I couldn't quite figure this out, and it's probably stupid... but how are you using both wither and despair with a one curse limit?

-- I was also looking at an occultist caustic arrow build that focused on Chaos DoT multiplier nodes and using two Spreading Rot jewels with vaal blight for two 25% increased damage buffs. It had built in wither curse with occultist, and could probably even add despair. It seemed to help with the single target dps problem CA tends to have. I was just wondering what your thoughts were on this type of build since you are the resident caustic arrow expert. :) Here is the pastebin:

https://pastebin.com/1Vthf2Ws

Thanks so much! I look forward to running CA as my starter for the upcoming league!