[3.9] [Updated] Caustic Arrow CI Trickster - Very tanky, fast mapper, safe playstyle

"

Viktranka wrote:

Asked it in the other CA thread, didn't get a reply, so hoping for better luck here: How do you deal with downtime? I mean after you apply the caustic ground what do you do since the puddles don't stack?

I played bane Occultist previous season and it had similar problem, after applying dots there was nothing to speed up the damage, clear was great, bossing was horrible. Is this spec gonna feel similar?

Well, I dodge stuff :p This build has pretty good single target when you invest into good bow and empower what can compete with other non-dot skills (even though you are still doing nothing). Ideally, you want to ensure your wither totems are always up, so I guess that is something you can focus on while DoT is ticking.

The bossing with this build is definitely not horrible, 2M dps is pretty respectable (but except like half on budget).

Just got to level 70 with this build. Currently loving it. I was wondering how you run your aura set up, because for me even with a level three enlighten and all the mana reserve nodes I cannot run discipline with purity of elements and malevolence and with arctic armor as well.

"

ThomasTheGreat14 wrote:

Just got to level 70 with this build. Currently loving it. I was wondering how you run your aura set up, because for me even with a level three enlighten and all the mana reserve nodes I cannot run discipline with purity of elements and malevolence and with arctic armor as well.

Sorry for super late reply, but well, the main build is not using Purity of Elements, so maybe that is why.

Small to relatively big update to the build:

30th July 2019
- Removed Witchfire Brew flask
- Removed Vaal Cold Snap
- Removed Vaal Haste
- Changed Wither setup to self cast
- Added Infused Channeling to Wither setup
- Added Frenzy + Curse on Hit + Despair setup
- Removed Phase Run
- Added Dash

The reasoning for these changes is that now our damage output can be 100% sustained at same level for entire duration of boss fight (e.g we do not depend on flasks or vaal effects anymore at all, so now it is just pure DPS).

Also, Infused Channeling gives us 10% more chaos damage, and 10% less chaos damage taken, what means, well, we now deal more damage, and take less damage :d And also it gives us something to do while CA is ticking on ground while bossing.

I removed Phase Run mostly because we shoot reasonably often, and just Dash + Blink Arrow is more than enough for movement (and also I was kind of running low on sockets). And also, when mapping we get some frenzy charges every so often from Cold Snap, but losing them is not that good (even though now we can sustain them with Frenzy).

Updated PoB is already in main post.

Thank you! Appreciate the reply, and love the build. Currently lvl 86 now.

"

FadeXF wrote:

"

thedeathbeam wrote:

"

ThomasTheGreat14 wrote:

Just got to level 70 with this build. Currently loving it. I was wondering how you run your aura set up, because for me even with a level three enlighten and all the mana reserve nodes I cannot run discipline with purity of elements and malevolence and with arctic armor as well.

Sorry for super late reply, but well, the main build is not using Purity of Elements, so maybe that is why.

I think you should consider adding it. I have been watching ES gear pricing this entire league... start to now... (work from home too so I run chest, boots, gloves specifically on instant timers) and I can say with no doubt that the type of gear you need that is + int (suffix gone right there) with high ES and open slots for extra damage crafting is very VERY rare... so freeing up resistance is feeling like a near "must" now that we build into int for extra ES. (There's a ton of "fake" high ES items that have no spare spots - in fact that makes up 99% of today's market - what I mean by that is there are 150+ ES gloves with bench crafted prefix ES or %ES - these are trash items, in my opinion, since they take the preffix and remove 20-30% damage crafts.)

In order to run 4 auras, you need to wait for level 3 empower which is late blood (level 93+) but very very worthwhile.

Food for thought anyways - it's your build... I just live here =)

I guess that makes sense, as its not ES meta (and people are kind of scared of ES since the "nerfs") the supply for good ES items is pretty low. But also, imo damage mods on items come last and are not that important (outside of like helmet, because eber's is op, and weapon ofc) and by losing 1 aura for purity of elements, you are probably losing more damage than you gaining from freeing some suffixes. And also, the resists can be capped just from jewellery, so its not big issue imo, or at least I never had much issues capping resists that I would ever consider purity aura.

But also, its up to everyone how they build this char, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, so if someone is having trouble capping resists, sure, Purities are an option.

Now that you mentioned auras, I remembered I wanted to replace Arctic Armour with Flesh & Stone, so I updated main build with this change. Here is updated Pastebin:

https://pastebin.com/KAVCTRZB

Main post was already updated too.

"

FadeXF wrote:

"

thedeathbeam wrote:

Now that you mentioned auras, I remembered I wanted to replace Arctic Armour with Flesh & Stone, so I updated main build with this change. Here is updated Pastebin:

https://pastebin.com/KAVCTRZB

Main post was already updated too.

Oooo - I REALLY like Flesh and Stone in this build... I managed to retire Purity of Elements... so the price was losing Eber's:

Spoiler

I wasn't willing to drop the amulet I crafted - but that would be the obvious place to pick up resists maybe next league... I found that I added about 36k raw damage (standing still) by taking on the 40% damage to caustic arrow enchant and it took me about 200C to roll the helm for the resists.

I'm working on

Spoiler

which is 84+ and possibly if I get super lucky I'll get + AOE damage, ES, and all 3 resists... we will see how that goes!

I feel a LOT tankier with Flesh and Stone... it's a great addition.

I didn't realize that the only purpose to Ebers is for 20% chaos resist decrease in a small cone directly in front of you... and honestly when you get to around 500k+ I find not a lot of mobs get close... so using a rare helm to shore up resists (with the 40% damage) is actually a good solution here. I find on bosses I am nowhere near them for a solid 90% of the fight so losing that debuff for me feels totally fine. I notice the extra 35k damage way more than using Ebers.

I do like how there's so many slight variations and different subtle ways to play this though.

Yeah, Flesh & Stone is sooo good (even though I personally still prefer just running Aspect of Spider).

And yeah, Eber's is not doin almost anything for mapping, it is purely for bosses (and it lasts like 10 seconds, so its easy to maintain it). But yeah again, personal preference.

Oh I wanted to ask, I am super confused by your golem setup in helmet, is it actually doing anything?

Also, small update to the build:

- Replaced Dash with Frostblink
- Increased Immortal Call level to level 9
- Added Wind Dancer (and dropped some other nodes in return)

Because IC has quite long cooldown, its better to just have it at higher level for more damage reduction.

For Frostblink change, imo it feels a lot smoother than dash, and also applies chill, what is nice (on top of our cold snap).

The Wind Dancer change is biggest one in this update (and I think also very very good). The benefits of Wind Dancer are:

- 20% less Damage taken if you haven't been Hit Recently
- 20% more Evasion Rating if you've been Hit Recently

These 2 have great synergy with our hybrid ES/evasion defenses, because we evade stuff a lot, and then when we get it, it is for 20% less. And if we get hit after, we heal a lot more from ghost shroud (or simply we will not get hit at all because of increased evasion, if the hit is an attack).

With this change, we go from 1600 ES gained when we get hit, to 2065 ES gained when hit, what is pretty huge change imo (and around 2% increased projectile/attack evade chance).

Thanks to this I was also able to improve leveling trees a bit, so overall, the build should be slightly better now.

Main post is already updated with all changes and pastebin link.

Hi,

Correct me if I'm wrong but.. I can find only Perfect Agony keystone, not the Wind Dancer anywhere, does it get changed when you use "Brutal Restraint Timeless Jewel" ? Is this a core jewel for this build to work?

"

rinseo wrote:

Hi,

Correct me if I'm wrong but.. I can find only Perfect Agony keystone, not the Wind Dancer anywhere, does it get changed when you use "Brutal Restraint Timeless Jewel" ? Is this a core jewel for this build to work?

Yeah, it gets changed to Wind Dancer if you use Brutal Restraint with Deshret on it near Perfect Agony keystone.

And no, it is not core item at all, it is just nice defensive boost, and definitely worth getting if you can, but if not, its fine.

"

thedeathbeam wrote:

"

rinseo wrote:

Hi,

Correct me if I'm wrong but.. I can find only Perfect Agony keystone, not the Wind Dancer anywhere, does it get changed when you use "Brutal Restraint Timeless Jewel" ? Is this a core jewel for this build to work?

Yeah, it gets changed to Wind Dancer if you use Brutal Restraint with Deshret on it near Perfect Agony keystone.

And no, it is not core item at all, it is just nice defensive boost, and definitely worth getting if you can, but if not, its fine.

Thank you for replying, that jewel is.. well I don't know a bit overpriced in standard? a couple of hundred exalts? How far will I do without this jewel?

"

rinseo wrote:

"

thedeathbeam wrote:

"

rinseo wrote:

Hi,

Correct me if I'm wrong but.. I can find only Perfect Agony keystone, not the Wind Dancer anywhere, does it get changed when you use "Brutal Restraint Timeless Jewel" ? Is this a core jewel for this build to work?

Yeah, it gets changed to Wind Dancer if you use Brutal Restraint with Deshret on it near Perfect Agony keystone.

And no, it is not core item at all, it is just nice defensive boost, and definitely worth getting if you can, but if not, its fine.

Thank you for replying, that jewel is.. well I don't know a bit overpriced in standard? a couple of hundred exalts? How far will I do without this jewel?

I added it just recently, I played like 2 versions of this build without it, its not needed at all (all those videos and content done in main post are without the Jewel, and also without Wicked Ward), just take more ES/damage nodes instead.

And yeah, in Standard its probably because the Legion mechanic is not core yet, so only timeless jewels there are in standard right now are from dead HC players I guess.