[3.24] fezz's Toxic Rain Champion - Step-by-Step PoE Build Guide for Beginners & Casuals

Hey man, awesome guide! TR was the first build i started this game with, back in rituals, but that's the first guide i read that told me alo of the "whys" of this build! thank very much!!
I have a question tho, is the champion tankness so above Raider? i did play deadeye for scourge, and would get oneshot for any jumping mob that passed through evasion lol
But i do like evasion builds cause i'm a dumbass, so is it possible to Raider or pathfinder not be so squish compared to champion?

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Plyte wrote:

Just an FYI, the bow crafting guide is a little out of date. With the DoT Multi nerfs on bows, T1 attack speed beats out T1 DoT Multi by far.

Hm ... you're not wrong about the fact that AS is actually better, but I wouldn't say it beats DoT "by far" - at least PoB doesn't tell me so. Do you have more insights?

PS: I appreciate the feedback!

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xanrae wrote:

Thanks again for the great guide - the web page format is a nice improvement from the Google doc for 3.17. I've followed the guide almost 99% and having a blast in the Sentinal league.

Milestones reached this time include hitting level 90 with not many deaths and beating the Betrayal boss for the first time ever - I used to nope out of that mechanic as the intervention bosses used to destroy me. I'm now moving onto red maps and the first one I ran was pretty smooth.

Hoping the RNG gods will be good to me so I can finish off the crafts to help with the damage scaling for T16 maps.

Great to see that you have success with the guide!

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Gargarvore wrote:

Hey man, awesome guide! TR was the first build i started this game with, back in rituals, but that's the first guide i read that told me alo of the "whys" of this build! thank very much!!
I have a question tho, is the champion tankness so above Raider? i did play deadeye for scourge, and would get oneshot for any jumping mob that passed through evasion lol
But i do like evasion builds cause i'm a dumbass, so is it possible to Raider or pathfinder not be so squish compared to champion?

Raider/Pathfinder scales slightly (!) better in terms of damage, but Champion outperforms both in terms of defenses by a lot (pretty much each Champion Ascendancy provides defenses). In the late endgame, Champions uses both Armour and Evasion, so you have Evasion as well ;)

My notes about following the build through Act 10.

Apologies for the stream of consciousness nature, was just making notes as I went.

Probably need to do a pass as to what items the filter is higlighting at lower levels. RBB seems an odd choice and there were others like that.

Minor - Key items are red, which I get. But if I already to have one (Rustic Sash for instance) you might be inclined to not pick up the next one that drops even though that one happens to be a rare. (just noticed that I almost passed up a Rare Rustic Sash because of this).

Spectral Helix is better than Shattering Steel, but definitely has a different feel which some like and some don't. However, I think for newer players Shattering Steel is probably better because it has easier damage projection. I noticed things like the Act 2 Bear Slams be pretty dangerous verses helix whereas I wouldn't interreact with it using Shattering Steel since I can keep them at a distance.

I've very rarely found and Enduring Mana Flask when I wanted it or had the spare orbs of alteration to roll it. If you have an RRG then run Leap Slam + Faster Attacks + Lifetap and two mana flasks instead of 2 Quicksilver Flasks.

If you have another RRG then Ancestral Protector + Maim + Culling Strike is really nice for bosses and tankier rares.

Herald of Ash is better for clear than Herald of Purity and I believe comparable in damage and also won't accidentally get you targeted by abilities that you didn't expect. Herald of Ash definitely helps with Spectral Helix clear. Either way you need to pick one since you won't have the mana to run HoA/HoP, Vitality (3), War Banner.

The main reason to swap Viscous Projectiles and Onslaught is that VP reduces your attack speed. The extra damage is good for bosses but the lower attack speed is bad for clear.

I wouldn't aug my axe until I was sure my RES is good since you can use that Suffix to apply a RES from the crafting bench including a double res after you've gotten the recipe from your first from the Labyrinth by making it to the antechamber before the final (3rd fight) with Izaro.

Mana sustain option while still using Splitting/Shattering Steel/Spectral Helix - Viridian Jewel alt spam for the prefix (0.2-0.4)% of Physical Attack Damage Leeched as Mana. (most likely only avialable when leveling 2nd char, Heist can be a good source of jewels).

Buy several gems and level them in your offhand section feels like it is in a weird spot, would think you would want to pick them up as they become available. Need GGG, RGG to level everything listed. Might also note that if you forget it is not the end of the world as they do level up while in the vendor's inventory (though not as fast as if they were on your person). But I also feel like it is an okay spot for the info because you probably won't have the extra currency to purchase everything until this point in the game.

I would get Charisma and the Mana Reservation Efficiency mastery much earlier so you can start running Determination in Act 3. Which probably is going to mean running a Heavy Belt (+STR) and a Amber (+STR) Agate (+STR/INT) Amulet. Phys damage just starts becoming more of problem and Determination fixes that.

You want a Sapphire Ring (+% Cold Res) for Merveil, want a Topaz Ring (+% Lightning Res) for the Chamber of Sins and The Vaal Oversoul, and this is a newer recommendation but you also want to get +% Fire Res somewhere on your gear before The Vaal Ruins. The new enemies GGG has populated with do quite a bit of fire damage. Some of those enemies use Explosive Arrow which does fire damage if you get hit with enough fuses.

Did you mention Orbs of Binding for item crafting? I know they are pretty rare, but might be worthy of an informational section.

Act 3 4L Vendor Search Regex g-g-g-r|r-g-g-g|g-r-g-g|g-g-r-g|g-g-g-g|nne Can also Orb of Binding Evasion gear which will be the easiest to colour with chromatics.

Unskilling Fury Bolts could make you under the STR cap you need for your other gems, especially if you are leveling Determination. Just a note since someone might remove and go crap I don't have enough STR.

Yugul is somewhat dangerous if you don't have the damage or defenses to deal it since it is resistant to chaos damage.

Thank you for your guide, it's the first time I completed Act 10 and it really helped to reduce the feeling of overwhelming information that this game throws at a newbie.

It probably took me more time than it should and I had a few troubles (died a few times) and I was over-leveled for most of the time due to going to slow. Some of the bosses that "resist chaos" were tough to kill.

I also couldn't find decent gear with blue sockets for Malevolence, Despair and Flame Dash so I didn't use them for the most part, I wasn't sure if it was worth to use the currency I had to try to craft my own so I decided to save it for later. But I picked up a Searing Bond by chance and I thought it worked pretty well, I was dropping ballistas, dashing through a mob and then dropping a searing bond totem that lit them on fire while arrows rain from above. It worked well for me.

My last bow also isn't a thicket bow, I picked a GGGG steelwood bow that seemed better and used it since act 8 or so.

One question I have is that your PoB string doesn't seem to work for me. When I try to import it I can see the notes but the tree is empty (no nodes selected).

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kungfuPT wrote:

Thank you for your guide, it's the first time I completed Act 10 and it really helped to reduce the feeling of overwhelming information that this game throws at a newbie.

It probably took me more time than it should and I had a few troubles (died a few times) and I was over-leveled for most of the time due to going to slow. Some of the bosses that "resist chaos" were tough to kill.

I also couldn't find decent gear with blue sockets for Malevolence, Despair and Flame Dash so I didn't use them for the most part, I wasn't sure if it was worth to use the currency I had to try to craft my own so I decided to save it for later. But I picked up a Searing Bond by chance and I thought it worked pretty well, I was dropping ballistas, dashing through a mob and then dropping a searing bond totem that lit them on fire while arrows rain from above. It worked well for me.

My last bow also isn't a thicket bow, I picked a GGGG steelwood bow that seemed better and used it since act 8 or so.

One question I have is that your PoB string doesn't seem to work for me. When I try to import it I can see the notes but the tree is empty (no nodes selected).

Are you using Path of Building Community Fork? If not, I recommend using that (I just tested the PoB and everything looks fine)

I have attempted to get into Path of Exile for the better part of the past few years. Every league it was the same story -- tried to follow some general build guide on YouTube, then failure. I never made it past Act 4 in the past.

By the time I started this league, I had almost 100 hours in Path of Exile. 100 hours and I never even beat the game. That is how disrespectful this game can be with your time if you don't have the proper help or know what you are doing.

With this guide, the campaign went from being a confusing slog to very enjoyable, especially when I hit level 33 and actually got to use Toxic Rain. I beat almost every boss without dying a single time. I had zero issues in any of the labyrinths. Most importantly, I felt very ready to transition to mapping when the campaign was over. For the first time after trying and failing repeatedly to do so for several years.

This guide was clearly a labor of love, and I think it should be a stickied post on the subreddit and this forum every single league. Path of Exile has a major new player retention/attraction issue. This guide is what GGG should explain in-game, but do not. It is, in my opinion, an actual solution to having a new person play and enjoy Path of Exile.

Of course, I do think there were some areas and things within the guide that could be slightly changed to make things even smoother than they already are. I think my biggest confusion was bouncing back and forth between the build in PoB and the build in the screenshot at the top of every act page on the guide. PoB seemed significantly easier to use (and probably easier for you to update).

My suggestion is to actually encourage using PoB because I think it is easier to use than the screenshot. I would do that and say "ignore literally everything on the screen that isn't the skill tree" because I think that is what makes PoB overwhelming -- the skill tree makes complete sense to follow, even when I was brand new to the game.

I think one additional area the guide could potentially improve in is to have a basic overview of what my character should optimally have by the end of each act, i.e. what should my gem setup be, how much health should I aim for, etc.

Obviously PoE is very variable and I think you did a great job accounting for that.

With this guide I did not struggle with health or mana really at any point. I did however get lucky early on and got a Belly of the Beast which made leveling even more comfortable. I also got extremely lucky and got an exalted orb while leveling. This allowed me to purchase a very solid bow once I got into mapping. Obviously that is luck based, but damn it was really awesome how well all that flowed with your guide.

TL;DR: Your guide kicks major ass, and I wish you were a developer at GGG because they lack, in a very serious way, this type of insight into attracting new players. That being said, PoE has always overcome its flaws because of its community. In my opinion, using this guide as a new player should be just as standard as downloading a loot filter or Path of Building. Otherwise, this game can be quite unenjoyable.

Please let me know how I can continue to help support this guide in the future. I really appreciate the effort and love you put into this. I finally made it to maps and I am still in disbelief about it!

I started looking at this guide because I wanted to try something different that was not squishy. The quality of this build guide is amazing - For a newer player, this would be invaluable.

I've been following trying so I could at least offer some suggestions. The only thing I can think so far is maybe a little more explanation on the gems and the links... for instance one of the first things is:

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Link Onslaught Support with Splitting Steel & Chance to Bleed Support

Maybe something like:

Link Onslaught Support with Splitting Steel & Chance to Bleed Support - Onslaught support will give you a 20-39% chance on a melee kill (it goes up with the gem level) - to get a buff that will increase your attack, cast, and movement speed by 20% - This will only trigger off of hits, Damage over time effects will not give you a chance at the buff. There is also a 10% chance every time you hit a rare or unique enemy with a melee attack you will be granted the buff.

A lot of the interactions between skills and supports are not real "Obvious". I know it's listed on the gem, but if this is for new players explaining some of this may be helpful. I know it's a big undertaking, but I am sure you would get some help if needed.

Keep up the GREAT work.

Playing other build atm, but LOVE your guide and the work u put in.
Will try TR on my next char AS soon AS I rip 😁