Grahnja's Tanky Triple Curse Explosive Arrow Guide(EA, EB, AA, MoM). Burninate things! Nem/HC
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Hey I'm Grahnja and this is my guide to burninating. This build utilizes powerful defensive nodes and the high base damage on explosive arrow to create a powerful triple curse build great for solo or party play.
Intro I started this build as a way to effectively run Explosive Arrow without using Blood Magic. The end result is a strong solo or party character that became very tanky due to arctic armor + Mind over Matter. The defensive aspects of this build combined with its range make it VERY safe, while triple curse and explosive arrow allow you to deal high amounts of damage and provide utility to your group. I am currently running this build in nemesis at level 85 and I personally find it to be a very strong and enjoyable build to play due to the mix of tankiness, damage, and utility it lets me play with. Pro’s
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- High Damage from EA with little gear or passive point investment. - Very tanky due to MoM + Arctic Armor. - Triple Curse is great for solo and amazing for grouping. - Very high range allows you to avoid most large attacks (this combined with your tankiness makes it very hard to die). - Fairly High HP Pool (I currently have 5500 HP) - Negates most explosive arrow reflect damage (have not tried with empower). -Max + Ele reflect will deal damage to you but at -22 max res it was still fairly hard to deal damage to myself, just remember to play cautiously around big packs. Plan accordingly for these maps! (solutions in gem section). Con’s
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- 50% reduced regen maps are very commonly run, and can be a pain with the high cost of triple cursing, arctic armor, and explosive arrow. I use to sustain my mana in these maps - Curse immune monsters can cause some issues, try igniting a nearby enemy that is cursed to take them down faster. - Fairly specific gear requirements (nothing too outlandish though. I spent less than 4 exalts on everything I needed, and the 5L Quill rain with the right colors was the majority of my cost.) Getting enough mana and mana regeneration to run arctic armor and explosive arrow may take some effort. Skills and Passives - Lets take a brief look at the skills and notable passives we will be using.
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EB (Eldritch Battery) - [Converts all Energy Shield to Mana]
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Allows us to run our mana intensive abilities like arctic armor and explosive arrow. In addition, EB give us the mana pool to effectively use Mind over Matter.
Mind Over Matter - [When hit, 30% of damage is taken from Mana before life.]
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This passive allows us to use our massive mana pool and regeneration to soak damage. I use the unique chest "Cloak of Defiance" to get this passive. The chest saves us the 12-14 skill points spent getting to the passive while also providing an additional 10% damage reduction and giving a nice boost to our mana regeneration.
AA (Arctic Armor) - [Reduces damage taken from physical and fire attacks.]
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This is the first time I have tried using arctic armor, and I am in love with it. Arctic armor allows you to tanky most rapid fire physical and fire attacks, Voidbearers, flame alchemists, flame sentinels, and tentacle miscreations all have their damage completely negated by a high level arctic armor.
As a bonus, Arctic Armor allows us to fire into reflect packs without fear! With a level 19 explosive arrow and a level 18 arctic armor + 80 fire resist (+5 max comes from Purity of fire) I take no damage from large reflect packs. I have NOT been able to test this using a 6 link so please be careful if you run this with an empowered EA. EA (Explosive Arrow)
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Explosive arrow is a skill with very high base damage that scales very well with support gems, allowing us to tailor our passives and our gearing choices around survivability and mana regeneration. This skill costs me ~250 mana per second on a 5 link and is normally used with blood magic, but out high mana regeneration allows us to run it off of our mana pool, giving us access to auras and additional support gems.
Whispers of Doom - [Enemies can have one additional curse]
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This passive gives us an additional curse, and also gives us a node that make our curses permanent. I run Windscream boots in conjunction with this so I can use 3 curses. With so many curses you can drop enemies to negative resists and deal massive damage, cripple them with temp chains and enfeeble to faceroll some of the hardest foes, or employ some combination of offensive and defensive curses to fit your needs. I currently have 6 curses that I swap between depending on the situation.
Passive Tree - This is my current build at level 85 (104 Points).
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http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgAACGeTOr0nGDz56ILHQYco-rc-6-7-CriTeqryRedjpwgMfZrgOuGI8drdna6PRhB_RZ2mV6xZGmwSadDQxp5N4zGeGYUXHJuhz2X-jySqcXn311XGNumsmONq-tIUsGaeFy8A_TowwBqG0RdQdFU5UlnzkFUksEwtfM68N6yqp4SApIIe6-RObXKpGjiIQtsLXypYB3zZ7DjBxTrYf8ZN2CepflkRlhzcnjyMdlptcLuTJ4FvJDzZE9xXBLOnXC9vHpQUTfAfSVGsP4M4ogDvfA== I currently plan on filling out the life and life regen nodes I am touching and taking Elemental adaptation as I progress towards level 90. Bandit Rewards Normal - Help Oak for +40 life. Cruel - Kill all for passive skill point. Merciless - Kill all for passive skill point. Gearing
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Here is my current gear setup
The chest is mandatory for mind over matter, it has no health but still provides an immense survivability boost. Windscreams are highly recommended for triple curse, but you can get away with two curses if you have great boots to use. As a general rule of thumb I looked for pieces with high life and Mana/Intelligence/Energy shield that had good resists while looking for rings and an amulet that provided large amounts of mana and mana regen. With 400 int I currently receive ~4.3 mana per point of energy shield and ~2 mana per point of int or mana from gear (int being slightly better as it will further increase the mana we receive from ES) Active and Support gems.
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Auras
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Purity of Fire, Purity of Lightning, Clarity. Link these to reduced mana of course!
Notable alternatives Include Purity of Ice as a replacement for Purity of Lightning if you are doing an added cold damage map. Vitality if you have the max resist from other auras already. Explosive Arrow
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I run the common burn damage proliferation EA setup that allows you to cover the entire screen in fire. The high damage on explosive arrow allows you proliferate huge burns onto enemies. Quality on explosive arrow is 1% chance to ignite per 1% quality and is very useful. I recommend buying a quality gem early to level it or GCPing a high level explosive arrow up to 20%. Do not use the vendor recipe, all of EA’s initial damage (and therefore the ignite damage) comes from its level!
Explosive Arrow (G) Chance to Ignite (B) Elemental Proliferation (B) Increased Burning Damage (R) Fire Penetration (R) Notable alternatives include: You can run life leech if you run a map with -max and ele reflect. Replace fire penetration in this case. Curses
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Elemental Weakness
Flammability Enfeeble Temporal Chains Vulnerability Note : Increases Burn Damage Conductivity - If you have a shocker in your group. These are the 6 curses I use. Obviously I only use 3 at any time but I always have 5 in my primary slots. Link any 3 that you want to an increased area of effect or faster casting gem. Totems
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Spell Totem
Summon Skeletons Faster Casting Devouring Totem Skeleton totem is great in a pinch and is what my group needed. Devouring totem is very effective as well at regenerating your health and is especially useful against necros. Notable Exception: You can run a CoDT setup in these slots if you want. AA + Additional Curses
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I run arctic armor, extra curses, and purity of ice out of extra slots in my chest and bow that I do not use. You can run a single target explosive arrow (swap out elemental proliferation for a concentrated effect) or a curse on hit split arrow w/pierce in an additional 5 Link if you want.
Leveling I leveled as spectral throw until 70 where I switched to this build. I may add some more information here later after I do some research on leveling with EA. That’s all for now! I will try to keep this guide updated as I explore the build more. Thanks for reading my guide and I hope you enjoy the build! Last edited by Grahnja on Nov 21, 2013, 4:39:41 AM
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As a former EA user, this build looks delicious!
Burninate everything! |
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Ran maps with this guy.. He kills things before i do anything to it.
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Curious what you feel are the priorities for quality gems?
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I like EA and Quill rain I started as witch
Im using only 4L : EA, Fire Penetration, LMP, Item Rarity I can clear solo all areas specially where are large packs With party its harder and my DPS don't shine. Only problem is reflect mobs and thorns Then its instant death of me :( Sometimes is the puncture issue too because I kite lot In big open areas its dangerous to spamm arrows because arrows can hit reflective mobs off the screen (then i die :/) Probably i need to start using burning damage too ;) I have not taken EB (maybe in future) So looking this build and you gear I cant see where you get your defense. what is you life pool or you relay on AA and "meat shield" only? |
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" Great Question! In Order from most important to least: 1. Explosive Arrow 2. Increased Burning Damage 3. Elemental Weakness 4. Fire Penetration 5. Chance To Ignite Everything Else. Quality on explosive arrow is pretty mandatory because it gives 1% chance to ignite per quality, increased burning giving 0.5% chance to ignite comes in second, while ele weakness comes in third for the addition resistance reduction. Last edited by Grahnja on Nov 25, 2013, 11:54:50 PM
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" Yeah I find its hard to always notice your DPS in parties since the health buffs they put in place. " For reflect I use arctic armor and purity of fire to negate the damage completely (make sure your fire resistance is capped!). I run Purity of lightning for 5% additional lightning resistance to deal with thorns. " Burning Damage is the way to go! I only have 19% increased fire damage from a quality gem and a ring. I use holy fire and the increased burning damage gem, combined with a high chance to ignite to deal massive amounts of damage with a proliferated burn. The burn is a degen reflect and does not get reflected! " Its awesome! " I use the mana from eldritch battery combined with the passive "mind over matter" from my chest piece. It allows me to use my mana as a shield first. Arctic armor soaks a lot of damage as well. I have 5550 Life currently at level 89, and I couldnt be happier with how tanky I have felt since using eldritch battery, Mind over matter, and arctic armor together | |
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Do you use max level arctic armor? Just wondering what you do to sustain it. I've seen some use Lightning Warp tp get around to avoid the mana drain. Do you just have enough regen or toggle it off for running?
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thanks for explanation it makes sense
can you make picture of you defensive stats? Are you gems in max level? |
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is the stun-lock issue?
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