Explosive Arrow Marauder (Updated for Release)

I use this build on my main character and I have 0 problems in going rare 73 maps with my friend. Currently I'm lvl 83 with 6,5k HP and 7k armour. The burning damage + offscreen-range + very high lifepool makes this build super comfortable to do in maps.

I even managed to 5L my Quill Rain, now it's time to find Kaom's heart ;-P



I modified the passive tree a bit, I don't know if this is better or worse, but nontheless I decided to go apeshit with life nodes. Probably going to take next the mara armour nodes and then just more life.

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEAAnEEswUtDjwOrRJpFCAUTRRxFm8XHBjbGS4ZhRo4GlUdFCFgJKon7SmlNug26TpSOtg64TwtQKBBqkOcSn1N2FBHUFBUSVXGWGNZ81uvXz9gS2EhZKNmnmegcXlyqXTtdPF6uHrvfNmBb4M4hO-HdojxjHaMz49GkFWYrZ2unjyeuaIAplenCKcwp4Ssqq6Ttz653cAaxBXE9sauxtjPZdDQ1I_dDd-_42rnUudj7DjvDu988B_yL_JF8932SPcy-Ov60vzF_go=


I used GMP on this for a very long time, but I think ele prolif and just one arrow is way better. With just one arrow even stacked 5 times, ele reflect doesn't hurt you at all.

I am thinking of going something like this:
Inner force + max life + max life %/s + blood magic gem
It would use vitality + determination + purity on the mana bar. Total 8.9% regen per second and 335% life. Around double the armor of the posted build.

There are some big sacrifices, though. You get blood magic instead of conc effect, which I like because the reduced AoE on conc effect is annoying. So that is -69% damage. You also lose EE but you don't really want that in a group.

I hear people are 1 shotting bosses with the posted build so 2 shotting them at the cost of more survivibility would be a pretty good trade. You would have over double the armor, around 11-12k hp with koam's, over 1k hp regen/s and 25% less damage from elemental with resists. You can choose to get 1 more endurance charge if you want.

You would have split arrow + chain + ranged attack totem + blind to reduce enemy chance to hit by 76.25%. So you pretty much take no damage from anything except super large elemental attacks. You would also take large damage from big physical hits but the enemy would only be able to hit you 1 time out of 3 hits because of blind, so you would have time to heal back up.

"

DeltruS wrote:

I am thinking of going something like this:

Spoiler

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgEAAdwCcQSzBS0MfQ6tEH8SaRRNFHUXHBjbGS4ZhRpsG_ohYCP2JKol3yfVJ-0ppTWSNuk64TwtQKBDnEd-Sn1M_03jTshQUFRJVvpYY1nzWkhfP2BLYSFlTWaeZ6BodGz2cXlyqXRBdO108XgNerh673zZguSDOITZhO-Hdojxiq-Mz5BVlKCdrqIApBmmV6cIqW6rxaxZrKquk69stfK3PriTud2-isAaxFjE9sWKxp7GrsbY1I_YTdpi4urjaudS52PuDu8O73zv8PAf8kXz3fZI-tL8xf4K_o8=

Inner force + max life + max life %/s + blood magic gem
It would use vitality + determination + purity on the mana bar. Total 8.9% regen per second and 335% life. Around double the armor of the posted build.

There are some big sacrifices, though. You get blood magic instead of conc effect, which I like because the reduced AoE on conc effect is annoying. So that is -69% damage. You also lose EE but you don't really want that in a group.

I hear people are 1 shotting bosses with the posted build so 2 shotting them at the cost of more survivibility would be a pretty good trade. You would have over double the armor, around 11-12k hp with koam's, over 1k hp regen/s and 25% less damage from elemental with resists. You can choose to get 1 more endurance charge if you want.

You would have split arrow + chain + ranged attack totem + blind to reduce enemy chance to hit by 76.25%. So you pretty much take no damage from anything except super large elemental attacks. You would also take large damage from big physical hits but the enemy would only be able to hit you 1 time out of 3 hits because of blind, so you would have time to heal back up.

I don't think that Fire Penetration is necessary if you use Windscream boots for double curse. You could just swap that for the BM gem for your build.

FYI you'll be losing a bit more damage than 1/3rd by dropping EE; since burn damage effectively checks resists "twice", going from 0% resist to -50% resist effectively increases the burn damage by 2.25.

Thanks for the reply guys, so would you suggest I just roll LA im im playing with two elemental characters?

I was thinking that because of random luck rolling with EE would be an overall DPS boost ( for the party).

any help appreciated, I just
a) dont wanna roll the same as another character in the party and
b) dont want to be another LA archer.

last question.....promise. Is the DPS of LA comparable to DPS of EA?

thanks

"

ktwilson wrote:

Thanks for the reply guys, so would you suggest I just roll LA im im playing with two elemental characters?

I was thinking that because of random luck rolling with EE would be an overall DPS boost ( for the party).

any help appreciated, I just
a) dont wanna roll the same as another character in the party and
b) dont want to be another LA archer.

last question.....promise. Is the DPS of LA comparable to DPS of EA?

thanks

No, it really isn't comparable IMO. EA is so damn overpowered compared to LA if you go for DPS that you'll laugh at all the LA rangers turtling through maps ;).

Even if 1 guy has +25% resist the other guy has -50%. It would probably outweigh the dps loss for the one with the gained resistances.

"

gilrad wrote:

FYI you'll be losing a bit more damage than 1/3rd by dropping EE; since burn damage effectively checks resists "twice", going from 0% resist to -50% resist effectively increases the burn damage by 2.25.

Hmm.. That may be true. Burn does 213.3% of the original damage with this build, you could say that explosive arrow has a 313.3% damage multiplier on any damage increases. So, having a 1.5 multiplier would be even more benificial than a normal build, since there are so many other large multipliers. I will see, maybe I could get into a group with no cold damage, and then I could drop 2 health nodes for EE and replace fire pen with conc effect. That way I'd deal very close to the damage in the posted build and curse immune fire resistant mobs still wont be annoying.

What I usually do is just have two skillgems setup:

Lightning Arrow + x-mp + chain + life on hit

Ice shot + x-mp + chain + life on hit

If I run with a party that primarily uses one element, I'll switch to another. If they use all three, well they're coming out on top anyway so it's no problem.

"

gilrad wrote:

What I usually do is just have two skillgems setup:

Lightning Arrow + x-mp + chain + life on hit

Ice shot + x-mp + chain + life on hit

If I run with a party that primarily uses one element, I'll switch to another. If they use all three, well they're coming out on top anyway so it's no problem.

This is basically why I don't understand the hate for EE at all, it's really an awesome keystone even for a group which has mixed elements.

Just to add to what I posted before: I am going to get a +2 to minion helm and put in raise zombie + minion speed + minion health + blood magic.

Updated build:
Drop fire pen for blood magic on EA.

My version of the build is actually perfect for summoning because it has good defensive auras for zombies, the enemies will be blinded so the zombies live a long time, and there is some downtime after casting explosive arrow and before enemies die. Zombies have massive hp and can each tank more than a decoy totem. They also actually do pretty good damage -- I just watched kripp kill merciless brutus in 8 seconds with 3 zombies and no damage passives. He had it linked to added fire damage and minion damage. I wont have those but I will have 4 zombies -- that should still be a ton of damage.

Overall I think this build loses almost nothing by adding in zombies. In groups, other members will be able to go full glass cannon because of how much you tank. I think in an ideal scenario you would have a tri-curse dual sporker to play with you -- he would put on flamability, temp chains, and ele weakness. He would also benefit from the elemental equilibrium, letting him shock more.

One cool thing about explosive arrow is that is does beastly damage just from the gems and passive tree -- the only thing you really need on gear is hp and resists. I expect new uniques to be very good options in the future. I also expect that this will let me run some really nice IIR/IIQ gear, as long as the gear also has HP.

I've been levelling my character with ele cleave. This build gets mostly hp nodes early so pretty much anything works when levelling. I've managed to get around 20 exalts from selling stuff, so hopefully I can get a 6 link quill rain soon.

EDIT: After testing, minions are not near as good as I thought.