bow (Quill Rain) explosive arrow witch

Ive been playing a witch using the quill rain unique bow (which if you didnt know, attacks wicked fast, but has very low pyhs damage) and using explosive arrow

so far in my 20's and seems to be a functioning build
Im adding fire damage passives, but these dont effect the fire damage in the skill description(or the dps), anyone have much experience with explosive arrow and know whats up?
Do these passives just not effect this skill? or is it just not showing up, at the moment I cant really tell if It does more damage.

...this is where damage numbers would come in handy (however in all over situations Id prefer they weren't there)


edit: I realize now that the ranger forum would probably be more help,
but technically its not a ranger build... D:

Yes fire dmg node do boost the DPS of the explosions but are not showed in the description of the skill.

It will change sometimes in the future but it's not on the top of the to do list for now. Same with Elemental hit by the way.

So for a Explosive arrow build you want fire dmg node, elemental boost and area of effect. All of them will help but not spell dmg node as it's not a spell, ele dmg with weapon won't work neither.

Explosive arrow with quill rain is a carnage.

I did a summoner/EA and it's pretty easy for solo( short vid here if you want to have a look ), note that some are complaining on EA for multi play ( see the EA arrow thread on the skill section ).

woops, i miss click sorry for the double post.

I have an EA witch too (level 63).

I personally didn't grab any additional radius nor fire damage up to act 2 ruthless beceasu I never felt the need for it. My main focus with the build was to take as much extra mana as possible while also grabbing all the ES nodes in the Witch area (CI included).

By experience I can tell you that additional radius is very noticeable when you stack 3 or more explosive arrows on a single enemy, so I would suggest to take it. If you want an example you can also check out my passive tree.

One thing that you need to remember: your weakness are single enemies, think about a way to deal damage to them (I use zombies after I encountered a rare with resist fire, hex proof and life regen xD)

I apologize for my English.

oh thanks for clearing that up maZon, yea my main concern was the +damage not showing up, so thats a relief.

as for single targets, as far as I know, elemental hit doesnt do damage based on phys damage of the bow, so It will be pretty good for single targets

I really didnt think EA would be as mana hungry as you said. but with multi projectile, I suppose you're right. from your items I can see that you REALLY went for lots of mana regen

now, im having trouble deciding if I want to get minion passives, (including instability, since all the + fire damage will add up) or get more energy shield.

I think Ill go half half, use maybe only 3 zombies and skeles. but ill figure it out as I go :)
thanks for the suggestions

I started a Bow Witch with EA/Quill Rain in mind this weekend and got her up to level 52, still chugging along.

One thing that I will have to say, in my previous experience with playing a DoT/Curse Ranger is having Hex Master + Temporal Chains really helps in keeping the mobs on the leash. I can just run through a few packs of mobs, cast 3-4 Temporal Chains, and drop some EA in them and they're butter :)

Single Elite bosses with Resist to Fire are the Achilles' Heel of this build though.