3.8| Stress Free PoE - DEADITOR, "EH"? |Clear the Atlas with YOUR Items at YOUR Pace (SSF & Co-op)

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Wrecker_of_Days wrote:

Change of plans! And it's good news for those that love this build!

Good news indeed! :)

I also have some good news. My "Miss Catpaw" is now level 61. No trouble with Maligaro and his pets, Gruthkul, Greust/Ralakesh, Arakaali (one dicey situation due to extremely stupid positioning on my part), and Doedre.

I finished the second labyrinth (which was also a breeze) and decided to move the Jugg ascendancy ahead because I was curious...

Result: IT WORKS!!! :)
In combination with the self-damage caused by Gluttony whenever you use a movement skill, Oskarm will indeed generate endurance charges up to the charge limit.

Now I need to pick a movement skill that I like and get into the habit of using it every once in a while so I can keep those endurance charges up.

She's also wearing Queen of the Forest now and using EH on a five-link. Still hardly any mana problems. Those two curses do the trick rather well, and it's only after some thoroughly miserably manual aiming on my part (shooting into columns etc.) that I occasionally hear her "I have nothing more to give". Typically, regen kicks in so fast that I don't even have time to chug a flask, though.

Please excuse me now, I need to beat up some monsters.^^

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Wrecker_of_Days wrote:

Change of plans! And it's good news for those that love this build! (Bad news for those that wanted a Caustic Arrow guide instead.)

I'm likely keeping this build now with the following 3.9 news of Ballista Support:

"We've made a number of changes to Ranged Attack Totems:
Ranged Attack Totem skills are now called Ballistas, with the existing support gem being renamed to Ballista Totem Support.
All Ballista skills start with 3 maximum totems, as does Ballista Totem Support.
Ballista Totems place much faster than other totems, letting you quickly deploy your full power.
Ballistas are all placed quite close to your character now. This makes your positioning important, however it isn't a large disadvantage as most of the Ballistas have a long firing range.
New passives have been added to the passive tree specific to Ballistas and other Attack totems, letting you gain additional Ballista totems."

So, adding Ballista Support to EH will be everything I needed to be able to play this build without triggering any of my symptoms, increasing survivability, along with improving the already great damage. And the "hitting issue" that I, but nobody else, seemed to experience will disappear because I won't be aiming at all.

So? Happy days :).

That's indeed good news. Makes me so happy to know that my Scion doesn't have to retire. I'm excited to see the changes.

Does she keep her bow or isn't a bow necessary for ballistas? may be a stupid question, but I have zero experience with ballistas.

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Korpivaellus wrote:

Nice,i was plan to play ballistas in next league.
I love u builds so this gonna get chance to show what it can do ;)

Thanks Korpivaellus. I appreciate the note. That's very kind and encouraging :)! Thank you.

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SamothD wrote:

Spoiler

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Wrecker_of_Days wrote:

Change of plans! And it's good news for those that love this build!

Good news indeed! :)

I also have some good news. My "Miss Catpaw" is now level 61. No trouble with Maligaro and his pets, Gruthkul, Greust/Ralakesh, Arakaali (one dicey situation due to extremely stupid positioning on my part), and Doedre.

I finished the second labyrinth (which was also a breeze) and decided to move the Jugg ascendancy ahead because I was curious...

Result: IT WORKS!!! :)
In combination with the self-damage caused by Gluttony whenever you use a movement skill, Oskarm will indeed generate endurance charges up to the charge limit.

Now I need to pick a movement skill that I like and get into the habit of using it every once in a while so I can keep those endurance charges up.

She's also wearing Queen of the Forest now and using EH on a five-link. Still hardly any mana problems. Those two curses do the trick rather well, and it's only after some thoroughly miserably manual aiming on my part (shooting into columns etc.) that I occasionally hear her "I have nothing more to give". Typically, regen kicks in so fast that I don't even have time to chug a flask, though.

Please excuse me now, I need to beat up some monsters.^^

Awesome SamothD! I'm glad it worked! Good theory-crafting! That's exciting :). Enjoy beating up monsters.

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Caligula_Exile wrote:

That's indeed good news. Makes me so happy to know that my Scion doesn't have to retire. I'm excited to see the changes.

Does she keep her bow or isn't a bow necessary for ballistas? may be a stupid question, but I have zero experience with ballistas.

Thanks Caligula_Exile:). I appreciate it. I'm excited too! It was the perfect fit and fix for this build for me.

Your question isn't silly at all. The Ballista skill will require a bow. So we'll have to have a bow and quiver equipped...well unless they change that part of the skill for 3.9...but I doubt they will. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a difference between Totems and Ballistas.

Really love this guide, thank you for that!

I was wondering if a Quill Rain might be stupidly overpowered for this build? We don't deal physical Damage so we can ignore that on the Bow and the 100% attack speed are actually insane.

Am I missing something, is there a better option out there?

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Itsjustme90 wrote:

Really love this guide, thank you for that!

I was wondering if a Quill Rain might be stupidly overpowered for this build? We don't deal physical Damage so we can ignore that on the Bow and the 100% attack speed are actually insane.

Am I missing something, is there a better option out there?

I thought the same, but when I equipped Quill Rain, I was seriously underwhelmed. I guess the "40% less damage" applies to Elemtal Hit as well, not just to physical damage directly from the bow. :(

I'm currently running Nuro's Harp for the giggles (lots of chilled ground and consecrated ground you can jump to after getting hit - could be nice with Point Blank, too), but actually Stormcloud / The Tempest seems to be the best unique bow option.

Lioneye's Glare was also underwhelming, as was Death's Harp (I thought the extra arrow, crit chance and crit multi would do more).

Voltaxic Rift might be nice, but I don't have that one (SSF player).

However, by far the best option should be a rare bow with + gem levels, high attack speed and good crit., plus ideally some flat elemental damage to boot.

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Itsjustme90 wrote:

Really love this guide, thank you for that!

I was wondering if a Quill Rain might be stupidly overpowered for this build? We don't deal physical Damage so we can ignore that on the Bow and the 100% attack speed are actually insane.

Am I missing something, is there a better option out there?

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SamothD wrote:

I thought the same, but when I equipped Quill Rain, I was seriously underwhelmed. I guess the "40% less damage" applies to Elemtal Hit as well, not just to physical damage directly from the bow. :(

I'm currently running Nuro's Harp for the giggles (lots of chilled ground and consecrated ground you can jump to after getting hit - could be nice with Point Blank, too), but actually Stormcloud / The Tempest seems to be the best unique bow option.

Lioneye's Glare was also underwhelming, as was Death's Harp (I thought the extra arrow, crit chance and crit multi would do more).

Voltaxic Rift might be nice, but I don't have that one (SSF player).

However, by far the best option should be a rare bow with + gem levels, high attack speed and good crit., plus ideally some flat elemental damage to boot.

Hey Itsjustme90,

Thanks for the encouraging post! I'm glad you're liking it! I'm excited to add Ballista Support to it in 3.9. I'm with SamothD on both accounts. The issue with Quill Rain is 40% less damage. That kills EH. Now, I don't pay attention to uniques at all so I can't really suggest any specific bow on that front. And so but a bow with Crit Chance, Crit Damage, + to Bow gems, Elemental damage, Attack speed...that'd be your best bet.

If you look at my bow, it SUCKS. But it was the only 6 link I had and...I'll try rerolling it someday ;). I'm quite content with my damage 95% of the time with that bow.

Anyway, hopefully SamothD's suggestion helped and thanks again for the kind words. Post again if you need anything else.

I thought I might post a little progress report, so here goes:

I finished the acts without dying, not even to A10 Kitava. There were some narrow escapes, I admit, but I wasn't prioritising life from the tree above the absolute minimum (~300 life/act) and I'm using a somewhat awkward leveling tree because I wanted to check out the interaction with the Jugg ascendancy first. So yeah, my Lady Catpaw was not really at full power.

To make things even better, I totally forgot about running the Merciless Labyrinth before facing Kitava. /facepalm
Well, yolo, I guess. I lived. :)

After running that lab (it was a breeze once again!) and getting the Deadeye ascendancy, not much seemed to change on the surface. However, I now have an additional arrow and an additional pierce (my quiver already pierces 1 additional target). This made it possible to get rid of Lesser Multiple Projectiles for better clearspeed and replace it with Slower Projectiles - much more oomph against stronger enemies, and I can still obliterate trash mobs thanks to the combination of 2 arrows, 2 pierces, and EH's on-hit area of effect.

I also experienced my first death - in the Temple of Atzoatl. It was a rare enemy with extra life, life regen, and corrupting blood. I was still running LMP, i.e. many small hits, which built up charges of corrupting blood on me in no time. And since that son of a gun regenerated so quickly, my staunching flask ran out, and slowpoke me failed to notice that and portal out in time. :(

I now make more damage in one hit and have two staunching flasks just in case.

As usual, the Omnitect wasn't a problem at all, even with some life and attack buffs plus regen on it. (I need one more room to get Alva to max level, that's why I often end up with rooms that make the Temple more difficult)

I have started mapping, and everything is fine so far. The last skill point I used went into Point Blank. This should help a lot. After all, enemies I can pelt with arrows from afar aren't that dangerous in the first place, but I reckon some extra damage against those who run right into me won't be bad.

I am yet to try Delve and Syndicate...

Due to the three uniques and my mediocre SSF gear, resists are not stellar. Got Fire/Cold/Lightning each at ~85%. This means that maps with Ele Weakness curse will be a factor. Chaos resist sits at -40ish, which is okay given that I must overcome a total of -75% (60% from the acts, 15% from the gloves).

The movement skill I ended up using is... Lightning Warp. This is because it practically doesn't have a cooldown any more when leveled up and paired with Faster Casting / Swift Affliction. However, getting enough INT to level it all up will be hard if not impossible, and I dunno how well a Lvl 16 Lightning Warp performs against Lvl 20 movement skills in terms of cooldown.

The build is still really fun to play, and I still have a lot to look forward to:
- finding a better amulet/helmet/quiver for optimised resists, attributes, and DPS
- finding and/or crafting a bow with good mods
- maybe using two EH setups in two bows, one for trash clear and one for bossing
- running the last lab and changing from leveling tree to final tree, which will eliminate a truckload of useless waypoint nodes
- trying out Delve and Syndicate Encounters