[3.13] Caustic Arrow / Toxic Rain Mines Trickster - From 40c to 100ex / All content viable

Hello and welcome to my first guide ever!


Goals achieved:

Uber Atziri - deathless
Video

Elder - deathless
Shaper - deathless
A8 Sirus - deathless
Video


The build received a lot of nerfs so I can't recommend it anymore therefore I will not update until I decide to play it once again.


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3.13 update

Spoiler

Well toxic rain itself has been buffed a little bit, but trickster's ascendancy "Patient Reaper" has been severely nerfed - it doesn't provide 50% increased DoT, and also no free dodge by "Escape Artist" ascendancy, but now it gives a little bit of attack speed and cast speed which doesn't really matter to miner build. I don't think trickster's nerf has completely killed the build and I think it is still pretty much viable, in PoB the numbers show endgame version lost about 50k DoT per mine, which is a nuisance, but this damage is enough for all the endgame bosses.



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Path of Building

Spoiler

Leveling tree
https://pastebin.com/SHbGfmMc

Endgame tree
https://pastebin.com/3nvxhbTq




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Pantheon and Bandits

Spoiler

Bandits - kill all

Pantheon:

Greater gods: Lunaris for mapping, Solaris for bossing
Lesser gods: Garukhan or Ralakesh



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Pros and Cons

+ Alch and go - there is no "no-no" map mods, only unpleasant ones
+ Safe bossing - throw some mines and you can run around while DoT does it's thing
+ Good survivability on mapping - due to trickster's Patient Reaper ascendancy and high dodge chance we sustain our health and mana pretty good
+ League start viable
+ Safe gameplay, also the safest gameplay in heists because we can throw a couple of mines under the door and hide while the mobs die
+ No need to aim AT ALL

- Hard to scale our DPS - while it costs close to nothing to deal decent damage, we need more and more expensive items to scale the damage
- Mediocre survivability on bosses - though we sustain maps pretty good because of recovering % of life and es on kill, we don't have such thing on endgame bosses, so we can only rely on health flask and endurance cry
- No life/mana leech, though it doesn't bother us too much on maps

About delving - I didn't do much delve this league so I don't know how good this build is for delving. Under depth 100 - feels fine, deeper - I simply don't know.


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Gear and crafting

Spoiler

Bow
Spoiler


Budget
Farm these cards in 9th act or just buy them

Then get these fossils and resonators:


In several tries you should be able to make bow with +1 to socketed gems and +2 to socketed bow gems, craft +% to chaos damage multiplier and this bow will carry you to the endgame, other mods are irrelevant, but if you catch +% to damage over time multiplier or bow attacks fire additional arrow this will be very good, however I do not recommend trying to get this on purpose because it's random and you can simply buy in better bow for a fair price a week later.

Non-budget endgame bow



Now this is gonna cost you. Find a synthesised base ilvl 82+ or make one yourself if you wish. The base itself doesn't matter because we don't really care about dps on it. It shouldn't be expensive, I got mine for like 20c. Link it, and ready your alts, augs, scourings and regals. Reroll untill you have +1 to socketed gems (NOT +1 TO SOCKETED BOW GEMS) and +% damage over time multiplier. Now the most important thing is that we need two open prefixes and one open suffix. If you hit both +1 to gems and +% damage over time multiplier, then go get craicic chimeral and beastcraft imprint of it, then do regals until you get open prefix or some good suffix if you want to. Now metacraft it and be happy. I crafted mine for like 15 ex, 7 ex was spent on craicic chimerals, about 5 ex on alts and augs with price augs 7:1 and alts 3:1 and 3 ex on metacrafting.


Quiver
Spoiler

Budget
Just get one with life and resists.

Non-budget
Life, resists and +% chaos damage over time multiplier (which means Hunter's influence), they aren't super expensive, but if you want to craft one - get hunter's base ilvl 80+ (preferably 82+) and use these:

I just bought this one on 2nd week of the Heist league for 1 ex and I'm satisfied with it


Boots
Spoiler

Now there isn't much we can get that will increase our damage. Just grab ones with life, resists and movement speed. Here's an example, I didn't need resists so I grabbed these ones.


If you want to go more expensive - get some chaos res


Armor
Spoiler

We have three options here

Budget and still very good - get one with life, evasion (because of ascendancy), and resists. Mine's here

I got it supercheap and I like every part of it. We don't need all these expensive stuff so this is almost perfect.

Carcass Jack - now it's still not expensive since we don't really need 6l body because even 5l Caustic Arrow clears T16 maps just fine. Carcass Jack will provide you good damage and increase AoE, however I don't want to use it because it doesn't provide much life.

Now if you got your resists capped with other things and you're ok with clearing maps with TR mines, you can grab this bad boy that will boost your HP to the max



Helmet
Spoiler

Budget
Just get life and resists, it should be fine for your right up to the endgame.

Non-budget
Get ilvl 85+ hunter influenced base, preferably ES-based, then get these

Roll until you have life and Nearby enemies have -9 to chaos resistance. You just saved about 6 ex, no need to thank me (though I'd appreciate it)
Example:


Belt
Spoiler

Budget
Life and resists

Mid-budget
Hunter influenced with life, resists and % increased chaos damage. Example:

+ to max life is better then % to max life, do not repeat my mistakes.

Non-budget
Hunter influenced stygian vise with life, resists and % increased chaos damage. It's not worth crafting because it will require hunter's exalted orb which is pretty expensive. The base itself costs about 3-4 ex so I just bought this one for 5 ex



Gloves
Spoiler

Budget
Life and resists

Non-budget
Hunter influenced with life, resists and +% chaos damage overtime multiplier. If you want to craft it get ilvl 80+ hunter influenced base and use these

Example:



Rings
Spoiler

Probably cheapest part - just life and resists. There isn't some good expensive alternative unless you want to max your chaos res.
Examples:


Optional:
Profane Proxy in left ring slot.

Amulet
Spoiler

Budget
Life and resists

Mid-budget
Hunter/Elder-based with Life, resists and +% to chaos damage multiplier

Non-budget
Life, resists, +% to chaos damage multiplier and +1 to all chaos/dexterity gems. +1 to both chaos and dexterity gems will cost veeery much so try crafting it if you dare or be satisfied with just one +1.
Crafting:
ilvl 82+ hunter-based amulet, preferably int-based because we have some problems with int and str.

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While crafting you can get some good amulets which don't really fit your build, but do great job for other builds. You may wanna sell them and get another base.

Annointment - Volatile Mines (Azure, Opalescent, Opalescent).


Flasks
Spoiler



Anti-bleed, anti-freeze and anti-curse flasks are essential.
Witchfire's Brew is a must, boosts our damage greatly.
You may want to play with just 1 life flask and use quicksilver flask, but I'm satisfied with molibity so I prefer extra survivability on dangerous encounters.
You really want to use quartz flask because the build heavily relies on dodge mechanics.


Jewels
Spoiler

Cluster Jewels:
Large Cluster Jewel - up to 9 passive skills, notables: Touch of Cruelty and Wicked Pall, the last one is up to you, I got Unholy Grace;
Medium Cluster Jewels - up to 5 passive skills, notables: Eternal Suffering on both medium cluster jewels, the other one is up to you, Flow of Life is a good choice but probably it's gonna cost you.
Small Cluster Jewels - not required, just use them as slots for normal jewels.

Normal jewels - get one with increased max life and +% (chaos) damage over time multiplier. You may wanna invest in one with "Corrupted Blood cannot be inflicted on you" and replace anti-bleed flask with one fitting you most.

Watcher's eye - Get one with +% Damage over time multiplier while affected by Malevolence, however Watcher's Eye isn't necessary

Now if you have your chaos resistance about 40-45 and you didn't invest much into ES. you can annoint your amulet with Cleansed Thoughts (Clear, Azure, Golden) and get Glorious Vanity with Bathed in blood of of X sacrificed in the name of Xibaqua, this will increase your survivability a little bit and also it gives permanent 10% to dodge attacks because all the damage bypasses the ES thanks to Divine Flesh and Escape Artist ascendancy point.





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Leveling

Spoiler

Start with Caustic Arrow linked with pierce support for clearing and use puncture to kill Brutus and Merveil. Take Swift Assembly support on lvl 4 and level it, take dash and use it for the rest of the game, take Mirage Archer Support and link it with Caustic Arrow. Get Blastchain mine support on lvl 8 and level it. Take Withering Step on lvl 10 and use it on bosses - tactic is to inflict DoT and run around withering them, also take smoke mine on lvl 10 - it will increase the mobility and it will help you to get throught some obstacles. I use it in endgame with dash but that's up to you.
Get Toxic rain on lvl 12 and throw away puncture. Link it with blastchain mine and swift assembly, that will be your single target skill until the rest of the game.
In act 2 grab Summon Skitterbolts and Herald of Agony.
In act 3 do the damn Siosa's quest and get 2 Vicious projectiles. Link them with Caustic Arrow and Toxic Rain, we will use it until we get awakened ones. Also grab Despair and Malevolence, throw away Herald of Agony. Since we have Despair we can self-cast it so you may wanna throw away withering step but I'd keep this one because it gives us mobility boost and phasing.

In act 4 get Cast on damage support, go back to Siosa and get Immortal Call, level it to lvl 3. Link them together ONLY JUST 2 OF THEM AND DON'T LEVEL THEM UP UNTIL YOU REALLY WANT TO.

That's it, you should be fine. If you have 5l early look for gem setup.




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Gem setup

Spoiler


Toxic Rain - Blastchain Mines Support - Charged Mines Support - Trap and Mine Damage Support - (Awakened) Vicious Projectiles Support - (Awakened) Void Manipulation Support

Later when you have +1 to gems and +2 to support gems bow you can swap Charged Mines to Empower lvl 3/4. Combination of bow with +1 to gems and +2 to support gems, +1 to chaos/dexterity gems amulet and Empower lvl 4 gives us lvl 29 Toxic Rain which is huuuge dps boost, and +2 to gems amulet gets us lvl 30 Toxic Rain, this, however, does not increase the damage dramatically so you might consider this just as a premium option.

Caustic Arrow - (Awakened) Vicious Projectiles Support - Pierce Support - Mirage Archer Support - Swift Affliction Support
In case you want to play 6l Caustic Arrow - add Void Manipulaton Support

Wither setup
Wither - Faster Casting Support - Spell Totem Support - Multiple Totems Support

CWDT Setup
Cast When Damage Taken Support (lvl 1) - Immortal Call (lvl 3)

Movement Setup
Dash - Second Wind Support

Auras (Linking is not required)
Malevolence - Summon Skitterbolts

I got rid of CWDT Setup in preference to Enduring Cry for additional life recovery on dangerous encounters and I use Smoke mine and, so I added those to Movement Setup

However we have problems with strength so my Enduring Cry is lvl 18 and I should thank my boots for having t1 strength suffix, otherwise it would be even lower.



I will add more info and videos later
Last edited by kucjlopo2d on Aug 24, 2021, 10:10:27 AM
Last bumped on Jul 21, 2021, 1:09:09 PM
Love the hp pool and crafting. Thanks!
Love the build, hope you make the update to 3.13 and add some videos, nice work!
@IsssueMan

I added info for 3.13, to cut a long story short - nerfed a bit, but still gotta be good.
Looks great! Might be playing this for Ritual :D

Good job on how detailed and organized you made it!
Stay inquisitive.
-
This has been a blast so far -- I had a nastyass bow I'd built back before multicrafting was nuked from orbit, intending for an ED/Cont, but hated it. So I converted that trickster over to this build and haven't looked back. I've hated literally every other TR build, but the mines makes this super fun. Holdin' down Q and R and dodging once in a while. Mirage archer CA buddy melting white mobs on even t16s. I'm hitting a wall on DPS on some bosses sometimes, and having a hard time with Minotaur (this is true across all my characters thooooooooo), but on the whole, really happy with this build. Thanks for this!
I want to rock right meow
"
This has been a blast so far -- I had a nastyass bow I'd built back before multicrafting was nuked from orbit, intending for an ED/Cont, but hated it. So I converted that trickster over to this build and haven't looked back. I've hated literally every other TR build, but the mines makes this super fun. Holdin' down Q and R and dodging once in a while. Mirage archer CA buddy melting white mobs on even t16s. I'm hitting a wall on DPS on some bosses sometimes, and having a hard time with Minotaur (this is true across all my characters thooooooooo), but on the whole, really happy with this build. Thanks for this!


I'm happy you're happy :D
Unfortunately, TR has been heavily nerfed in 3.15, but if it's still gonna be viable I might update crafting section later with new harvest methods.
"
kucjlopo2d wrote:
"
This has been a blast so far -- I had a nastyass bow I'd built back before multicrafting was nuked from orbit, intending for an ED/Cont, but hated it. So I converted that trickster over to this build and haven't looked back. I've hated literally every other TR build, but the mines makes this super fun. Holdin' down Q and R and dodging once in a while. Mirage archer CA buddy melting white mobs on even t16s. I'm hitting a wall on DPS on some bosses sometimes, and having a hard time with Minotaur (this is true across all my characters thooooooooo), but on the whole, really happy with this build. Thanks for this!


I'm happy you're happy :D
Unfortunately, TR has been heavily nerfed in 3.15, but if it's still gonna be viable I might update crafting section later with new harvest methods.


DANGIT!!
I want to rock right meow
Well, they nerfed DoT again, so forget it. It used to be a good build for sure.
Not 100% rip, but I think there are better mine skills now.
If you want to try playing mines, I'd suggest mana miner, yeah, it's nerfed too, but not as much as DoT skills.
Last edited by kucjlopo2d on Jul 21, 2021, 1:10:23 PM

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