[1.2] BM Explosive Arrow Scion Revamped, Cheap, Safe, Easy!
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With the 1.2 patch came a lot of changes, and having not played EA before this i'm not sure if they were for the better or worse for the spec, all I know is that it's still a strong, cheap, reliable and tanky build, and that's good enough for me.
A few of the major changes from previous patches are: 1. A lot of the max res from the tree got removed, in my opinion this removes some of the advantage marauder used to have for BM based EA specs, and I think Scion is currently the best BM based EA class. This makes ele reflect a little more dangerous, but since the mod got nerfed on rare monsters your only real problem is going to be from the map mod. Never ever attempt ele reflect mod and -max anymore! 2. Curse on hit was reworked, into something that is in my honest opinion, completely broken. 100% chance to apply curses, plus FREE increased curse effect on top? sign me the heck up. We use Rain of arrows in combination with curse on hit and two curses for nearly instant, low mana cost cursing, that has the added benefit of giving us stronger curses, win-win-win situation. 3. Fire and burning buffs? GGG u cray. I guess I can sort of see the rationale, seeing as most cold skills and some lightning spells got buffed, but burn prolif was already a very dominant force, and instead of nerfing or changing the mechanics behind it, they only nerfed the biggest perp (Flameblast), and I would argue burn prolif is still one of the strongest specs. Freeze builds may be slightly more safe due to the crowd control, but Burn prolif damage is unparalleled. Anyway, enough talking and let's get down to the spec. Here is my 100 Point build:
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http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAAvryC5JARiq9KyD8nbqoqTbXyFSA1kiLiLOnYvUfi3Q3-CtCBW6_8xbc-pDlOKmegQYcppYd2-ehKfYLHKPrr7riTpwiPRp2um6EabBJp99cWbxccrJgkqnF58Ww6WDbpIbBVxuNq-tI092ael4XAGi6UkFVZ86eErKoaOHKpJ-182fcy_EvqGGwW-OuHGRRxpzDfvwPGFCD9C1BHJa0YkQn2NthJGyqN7FV4LxhqfOVYB5itGGWa4EWdU1JW-u4Oo4oj9k2SjX0=
Complete with: BM, EE, RT, IR, Dual curse, 188% life, 35~ all resist, 80% flask life recovery, 117 fire dmg, 105 burn dmg. The next points spent are almost exclusively on life, with 6 more 5% nodes available without travelling at all, and the combat stamina cluster only 1 point away for momre life, regen and armor, giving this build well over 200% life and plenty regen to sustain your skills. Skill explanations: Explosive arrow: Your main link in an explosive arrow build is obviously gonna be; you guessed it explosive arrow, and nothing much has really changed here frmm previous explosive arrow specs. Explosive Arrow* - Chance To Ignite - Elemental Proliferation - Fire Penetration - (Increased burning damage*) - (Empower/Rarity/Conc.Effect) You'll want to try to get quality on both explosive arrow and Increased burning damage as a first priority once you can afford it, as the 30% increased ignite chance is invaluable Mapping with a 4L works fine, and once you get a 5L you'll breeze through them like it aint no thang. Rain Of Arrows: The new addition since 1.2, this attack is in my opinion the best delivery mechanism for a curse on hit setup. It's AoE all by itself, so you don't have to waste links to get it to hit everything, it scales with your attackspeed, which we'll have plenty of thanks to a quill rain, it's low mmana cost, because for some mindnumbing reason Curse on Hit has no ana multiplier, and doesnt even use the mana casting the curses normally would. The cherry on top is that, because Curse on hit - RoA- Flammmability is only 3 links, you can add in either Enfeeble or elemental weakness, depending on if you feel like you're lacking in damage. (Quality preferred on both) Oh yeah, it also applies elemental equilibrium for you, so you can stack fuses ->rain of arrows and the mobs are double cursed and weak to fire, then you can follow up with Split Arrow Your main source of both life sustain and EE stacking, split arrow is linked Split arrow - Chain - LGoH - (Blind/Faster attacks/Culling if in a party) Faster attacks for more sustain, Blind is really helpful once you get dualcurse because of enfeeble and prevents a lot of damage. Culling is for if you have a lot of rarity and your group doesn't have a culler. Stack fuses - > rain of arrows -> explosion -> split arrow will be your normal rotation, this applies EE for both the initial hit and the subsequent burn and allows you to maximize burning damage, enough to easily oneshot map bosses with prolif. CWDT setup Cast When damage Taken - Enduring Cry - Immortal call* - Increased duration* Pretty standard, you'll want quality increased duration and immortal call, level the CWDT to whatever you see fit, Mine is lvl 1 but lvl 5~ might work too. Just prevents those situations where offscreen rhoa/leaper packs charge in and 1shot you before you can react, as long as you can tank one hit to trigger it you're golden. Finally, if you're using anything but a Kaom's you'll have one slot left for links, honestly I don't really care what you put in there. Single target is unnecessary for this build, and I can't think of many skills that would be useful anyway Gearing Choices Gearing for this spec is very easy, the only really required items to get started are 1: A quill rain, and 2: One item with either added cold or added lightning. 3: This one is more of a negative requirement, but you DON'T want any gear with added fire on it, this will screw up your EE. For the quill rain, anything will do, try to get one with decent rolls but they honestly don't matter at all, one can be picked up really cheaply and very early on in a league, usually around a chaos. The item with added cold/lightning is gonna be either a quiver, ring or amulet. If you're partying, it helps to have on each of cold and lightning that you can swap around to take the most advantage of EE. Beyond those things, get any armor you can, either pure AR, pure EV or AR/EV since we have IR, and just get life, any resists you need to be capped, as well as any %FIRE (NOT flat) you want. Picking up rarity should also be fairly easy with this spec, since you have a lot of resist from the tree you can afford to sacrifice some for rarity, I'm sitting at 107 right now and it really helps a lot to get some cash in your stash. Levelling: This is the way I recommend you level up in terms of skills and gear used, as well as passives allocated. If you're an experienced player you can probably forego a lot of the life i pick up early on, and go straight for more damage, but you have to make that call.
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1 - 10:
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Passives
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http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAAvryC5JARiq9KyG6qtfI1kti9_go=
Once you get past hillock, get inside and pick up split arrow, you won't be using it for a long time but it's good to start lvling it early on, just stick it in a weapon swap or something. Pick up some iron rings from the vendor if you want, and look for any two handed wepoan, use spectral throw to get to tidal and then get your quicksilver flask and freezing pulse. Muling a shadow to tidal for a second quicksilver, you also have the choice to get a fire trap which is recommended but not strictly necessary. Use the vendor recipe on either a wand or sceptre with a blue and green socket for +1 to fire gemms (Magic wand/sceptre + Ruby Ring + Alteration, make a ruby ring with a red skill and iron ring if you don't have one) to put your fire trap into Fire trap + Freezepulse your way to brutus, and once he's down pick up flameblast and stick it in your wand/sceptre too. 10 - 24
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Passives:
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http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAAvryC5JARiq9KyG6qtfI1kti9_gq3PsauPC3E9ift_EtsFocZrKpZ88AaZp760jbp42qQVQ==
24 - 40~
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Passives:
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http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAAvryC5JARiq9KyG6qtfI1kti9_gq3PsauPC3E9ift_EusqmwWcqlZ84cZ9zLAGuoYkFVmnvjr-tIUcTbp378kquNqFm8abJ2uEmkXHHF5
You'll want to go towards holy fire as soon as possible (burn dmg near templar) and then work your way down to Blood magic. Oncce you get blood magic you can start running either 3x health potions 2x Quicksilver or 4x Healthpotions 1x quicksilver, swapping in a granite for an HP pot as soon as you can. You have the choice of going dual totems here after you get BM, but one SB and flameblast is just fine and saves a few respecs. 40~ - 50~
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Passives:
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http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAAvryC5JARiq9KyD8nbqoqTbXyFSA1kiLiLOnYvUfi3Q3-CtCBW6-3PqQ5TirGrimlPC3E9ift_EusqmwWcqlZ84cZ9zLAGuoYkFVmnvjr-tIUcTbp378kquNqFm8abJ2uEmkXHHF5
you'll want to come down and grab IR, this will give you a lot of tankiness. 50~ - 60~
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Passives:
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http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAAvryC5JARiq9KyD8nbqoqTbXyFSA1kiLiLOnYvUfi3Q3-CtCBW6-3PqQ5TipBhyml-eiCxyj66-6YrbiTpwidrhpsEmkWbxccJKpxeTbp42r60maewBqQVVnzrKpyqSftfNn3MvxL6hhsFvjrhxkUcd-_GGU=
At this point you can probably start considering speccing into explosive arrow once you get a 4L and a quill rain. Come up towards ele equilib, and join the passives all the way up to holy fire. This lets you spec out of the 3 points under marauder that used to connect you, use these points to get EE and RT. You may have to get the Agility node too to wear your quill rain. 60~ ->
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Passives:
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http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAAvryC5JARiq9KyD8nbqoqTbXyFSA1kiLiLOnYvUfi3Q3-CtCBW6-3PqQ5TipBhyml-eiCxyj66-6YrbiTpwidrhpsEmkWbxccJKpxeTbp42r60maewBqQVVnzrKpyqSftfNn3MvxL6hhsFvjrhxkUcd-_GGWPRpuh99esmPFsIbA095eFLpQ22EkbKo3sVTpYVcY=
At this point you should be explosive arrowing, the next big place to go is the Witch fire cluster. Start with the right side, then pick up the left one. After this you can get dual curse. This is pretty much the core of what's required to make the build work, the next few points are mostly life, filling out Quick Recovery and thick skin first, then you can grab the Arsonist nodes next to BM if you want more damage, or Bloodless and Herbalism if you want more life. By this point if you got this far, you should pretty much be able to decide for yourself where the last points should go as you're well into the high 70's, but nonetheless here's my super-endgame take on it.
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http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAAvryC5JARiq9KyD8nbqoqTbXyFSA1kiLiLOnYvUfi3Q3-CtCBW6_8xbc-pDlOKlb6Z6BBhyml7g6Hdvnoo4pKfYLHI_Yo-k2SjX3r7pitmuC4k0WdpwhTUo9Gna6boRpsEmn31xZvFxwYZayYJKpxefFsOlg26TbYIbBVxuNq-tJJGzT3Zp4qjZeFwBrsVS6UkFVZ86eErKoaOHKpJ-182fcy_EvqGGwW-OuHGRRx378DxqcwFCBQRxiR_QslrQn2g9v-j_JFOuGmV03jeC8YanzlWAcNH5y-PCjGrhynDF9TpQ==
MY GEAR: Coming PROS + CONS: Coming REFLECT: Coming Last edited by OverlordCharlie on Aug 29, 2014, 11:04:56 AM
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Reserverino
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Looks interesting so far, would be good if you can add a Video.
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Do you run any auras/buffs with this build?
Edit: nvm ignore me... it's bm Last edited by PremiumX on Sep 7, 2014, 11:54:42 PM
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Not sure why this is getting buried. I have played this build since Nemesis and agree that with the current tree, it's as good as ever.
My thoughts on the tree
The one thing I'd like to point out is that you have a weird start for this build. Why would you opt to go for the 10% Melee Damage node into the three 18% Resistance nodes? The resistances are good, but you won't need those until way down in Merciless, especially if you have access to a Goldrim and other levelling gear. Even if you don't have a Goldrim, just get one; they're dirt cheap and can last you a long time.
So instead of your start, I prefer to take the +10 Life and the three regen nodes, then Shaper, then work my way down to IR. I have made it a habit of taking that keystone early so I don't have to worry about it later. The reason I take this alternative start is because the Scion start sucks as it is, no reason to waste a point on a node that is going to be COMPLETELY useless. Having 10 Life (30 at 200% increased Life) and 1.2% Life Regen for 4 points might not be the most efficient route, but all of those stats will benefit you more than 10% Melee Damage. This also may be personal preference, but at some point you seem to opt for the Skittering Runes cluster. Personally I would skip that, and instead take the Ash, Frost & Storm cluster. That's 40% Elemental Damage for 4 points, and it's essentially like having 40% increased Fire damage AND 40% increased burning damage. Again, this is only my opinion, but it seems like the better choice.
Dealing with reflect
Unfortunately, reflect is likely the biggest weakness of this build. This is also partially the result of the fact that we don't have the option of using auras or AA, since we're using Blood Magic. However there are a few things you can do to minimize the risk.
For one, make sure your fire resistance is capped at all times, starting from Cruel and on. Barbarism is a MUST with the removal of Elemental Adaptation and the Marauder max res nodes. Second, Ruby Flasks. In my opinion it's best to always carry one of these in a setup of Life - Life - QS - Granite - Ruby, just in case you need to deal with a tough elemental reflect pack, and of course, in elemental reflect maps. Which brings me to my third and most vital step in dealing with reflect - don't be a fucking idiot about it. Don't go doing -Max + Elemental reflect maps and expect to get by with 55% fire resistance and a single Ruby flask. Don't be too proud to roll over that particular combination of mods. If you run a reflect map with elemental weakness, make sure you're overcapped to the point you won't feel it. Lastly, even in reflect maps with no other dangerous mods, be careful. Be smart. Don't go 5-stacking mobs willy-nilly, you will eventually blow yourself up.
Notes on using Vaal Gems
The main post doesn't seem to mention any use of Vaal skills, which is a shame considering how many free sockets you end up with. My two main suggestions would be Vaal Grace and Vaal Rain Of Arrows, both linked to an Increased Duration gem.
Vaal Grace is just awesome, providing ~33% (at level 17) chance to dodge attacks AND spells for a mere soul cost of 48 souls in Merciless. There is no reason not to use this. Vaal Rain of Arrows is often overlooked, but I would argue that it synergizes greatly with this build. You can use it to keep mobile packs locked tightly together while you stack 5 fuses on something and watch everything helplessly burn. Very big advantage against chaos snakes and those fucking gulls. Also a nice defensive option against certain bosses. I cannot recommend this thing enough. Currently I'm using my 4-linked gloves to hold Vaal RoA, Vaal Grace, Smoke Mine and Inc. Duration. This gives me a lot of extra defensive options as well as quite a bit of utility.
A final note on gear
Under no circumstances should you listen to clowns claiming a Quill Rain isn't the best bow for this build. Ignore these people, and go look for a Quill Rain. While a 4-link certainly does the job, even in maps, I feel a 5-link is necessary to comfortably play this build. Rolling the colours might be a bit iffy, but it's not as hard as rolling off-colours on a Shav's, for example. Quill Rain has a low dexterity requirement, which means it's easier to roll off-colour sockets. I managed to roll my Quill Rain with BBRRG in ~45 chromes, which is about 3 chaos worth of chromatics in Beyond. Quill Rain is love, Quill Rain is life. Respect the Quill.
As for quivers, EA is somewhat picky about what quivers fit best. Serrated, Broadhead, Two-point, Spike-point, Fire Arrow and Penetrating are all implicitly useless. The added phys damage does nothing for us, running Resolute Technique means we never miss but also never crit. Flat added fire damage and projectile penetration are just flat-out terrible implicits for this build. This leaves Sharktooth and Blunt Arrow quivers. These have implicits that can actually be somewhat useful. If you're going to look for corrupted quivers, the only corruption worth your time is 1% Fire Damage Leech. Hyrri's Bite might be an interesting unique to consider until you find something more solid - or are able to afford it. I'm sure I don't need to point out what mods you need on a good quiver; I'll do it anyway. Life, resistances, projectile speed, in that order of importance. And a final tip, if you're running an undead map, or a unique map like Coward's Trial or Acton's Nightmare, consider swapping in a Pyre ring just for that map. It'll make your life infinitely easier, but make sure you swap it back out once you're done. That's my input so far. Hope it's of some use to OP and anybody who's considering this build. It's an amazing build, very solid and cheap, and can definitely carry you a long way. I'd say only Atziri is somewhat of a no-go since for some dumb reason she can't be ignited, but other than that this build can go very far. Try it. It's going to be a welcome break from all the FOTM crap that's going around. Would anybody like some... POUNDCAKE?
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