Marauder - [2.0] Raquinvil's Blood Magic Explosive Arrow Marauder - Forum

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Brief Introduction With Awakening several support gems were changed to be More damage multipliers instead of Increased damage multipliers, this opens up a new opportunity for gems like Explosive Arrow. This guide is a work in progress and I will add more to it as I progress through the current content. Suggestions and comments posted on this thread are extremely welcome! Pros - Cheap - Great AOE - High health pool - Good mobility Cons - Lower single target damage - Only starts picking up tempo after lvl 55-60 - Auras reserve life Explosive Arrow mechanics Explosive arrow fires a shoot at an enemy that deals some impact damage, but more importantly it places a fuse charge on him. This fuse charges can stack up to 5 and last 1 second before modifiers, duration refreshed by the application of more charges. Applying more charges after the 5 stacks limit only refreshes the duration. When the duration expires the fuse charges explode, dealing damage to the enemy that had the charges and nearby enemies. Each charge on the stack increases not only the base damage of the explosion but also the area of effect range, that can be further modified by passive skill points and gear. While the initial hit may deal any type of damage (for example added damage from rings), the explosion is pure fire damage classified as an area of effect projectile. So fire damage, elemental damage and AOE nodes and support gems can modify the interesting part of this skill. Iron grip does not apply to Explosive Arrow fuse charges as they only deal fire damage and Iron Grip only applies the increase to physical damage. Additionally the explosion is not affected by weapon damage modifiers like Weapon Elemental Damage, Quill Rain penalty, etc... If the explosive arrow pierces an enemy the fuse charge won't be applied to him, only when the arrow doesn't pierce a mob or hits a wall/terrain the charge is applied. Explosive arrow and fire resistance The fire resistance of a mob can be reduced by the use of curses like Flammability and Elemental Weakness, reducing the mob fire resistance, and through gems like fire penetration that reduces both the fire resistance and the fire resistance cap. The difference on the second case is that, for example, if you encounter a mob that has 125% fire resist, after the resistance cap it will have 75%. Applying a flammability level 1 125-25=100% fire resist so the effective resistance will still be 75%. If we have Explosive Arrow linked with Fire Penetration gem level 1 (18% penetration) we lower the mob's resistance cap instead, so 75-18=57% fire resistance. Since Explosive Arrow charges only deal fire damage, the Fire Penetration gem is one of the most important gems no matter the setup. The higher the levels of both the curses and the Fire Penetration gem, the higher the fire resistance reduction. Gear Non-Jewellery slots: Since we are strength align most of the gear should have armour (a few pieces mixed with evasion to ease the socket colouring). Avoid energy shield as it will increase the degeneration from Blood Rage and won't add to survivability because we are always taking damage from blood magic. 1) Cap resistances 75% to fire, cold and lightning (135% if you are in your hideout) 2) Maximum Life 3) Armour ratting 4) Strength On boots try to get at least 20% movement speed if possible, it will increase your clear speed a lot. Interesting uniques: - Helm: Black Sun Crest (+1 to all gems, stats % increase, cheap), Geofri's Crest (+1 to all gems and high resistances, -no life), Devoto's Devotion (attack speed bonus, movement speed and dex) - Boots: Blood Dance (dex, frenzy charges on kill, more life regen, -no max life and resists), Brinerot Whalers (projectile damage and immunity to shock ground, -no max life and resists) Weapon: Quill Rain - Cheap best attack speed bow available with low requirements; the less weapon damage penalty doesn't apply to Explosive Arrow fuse charges or Fast attack speed bow with +2 bow gems and +1 all gems Quiver: Hyrri's Bite - cheap, increased AOE, attack speed and great stats boost Jewellery and jewels slots: 1) Cap resistances 2) Maximum life 3) % Elemental/Fire damage 4) Attack speed 5) Strength Add dexterity if you are needing it to level up your weapons on this slots (jewels are the easiest option as they can be hot swapped) Gems and links Multi-target setup: Explosive Arrow - GMP - Increased AOE - Fire Pen. Single-target setup (optional 4-link): Explosive Arrow - Fire Pen. - Conc. Effect - Slower Projectiles Other relevant support gems: - Empower - higher levels means higher base damage and better supports - Faster Projectiles - increased projectile damage applies to explosive - Culling - useful on certain bosses to speed up the fight, now has increased damage with levels (can also be used with a totem with increased rarity for example) Golem (choose one): - Chaos golem - Fortify - Minion Life (- Minion Resists) Damage reduction, tanky and keeps enemies distracted - Flame golem - Minion life - Minion Speed/Fire pen (- Minion Resists) Increased damage, ranged, also fire damage based Support skills: Blink Arrow Blood rage - Increased duration Cast on damage taken - Molten Shell - Increased Duration (- Blood Rage) Rallying Warcry - Enduring Warcry - Increased Duration (Cast on damage taken - Immortal Call - Increased Duration) Interesting curses: - Elemental Weakness (recommended for parties) - Flammability (recommended for solo) - Enfeeble (great while tackling challenging content) - Temporal Chains (good for cast on damage taken) Auras to use when required only: Purity of Fire / Lightning / Ice Bandits Normal - Oak Cruel - Kill all (Kraityn if not using Quill Rain) Merciless - Kraityn Skill Tree 87 points - lvl 66 - http://poeurl.com/zteh6fl 95 points - lvl 74 - http://poeurl.com/zteD0Z3 [2.1] Tri-Elemental Crit Trapper https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1534482 [2.0] Explosive arrow Blood magic Marauder https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1343673 [1.3.1] Tri-Elemental Trapper (not updated yet) https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1199527 Last edited by raquinvil on Jul 26, 2015, 11:23:57 AM	Posted by raquinvil on Jul 21, 2015, 9:03:42 AM Quote this Post
Current Gear Videos Level 66-67 farming: - lvl 66 - Links and Gear - https://youtu.be/vtEZjMP4HlU - lvl 66 - The Aqueduct - https://youtu.be/dedPSkk1npM - lvl 66/67 - The Dried Lake - http://youtu.be/sovmdO5djig Changelog: 21/07/2015 - Basic guide created; Added gear and some farming videos. 24/07/2015 - Updated the gear section, removed piercing related gear and added small section about it in the end of mechanics (many thanks to zyzzarzaz2 for the suggestions). 26/07/2015 - Updated the gems section, fire pen. has priority over slower projectiles. Added another small section on mechanics about fire pen. (again thanks to zyzzarzaz2 for the suggestion) [2.1] Tri-Elemental Crit Trapper https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1534482 [2.0] Explosive arrow Blood magic Marauder https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1343673 [1.3.1] Tri-Elemental Trapper (not updated yet) https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1199527 Last edited by raquinvil on Jul 26, 2015, 11:12:03 AM	Posted by raquinvil on Jul 21, 2015, 9:03:51 AM Quote this Post
A piece of advice from a fellow EA player. Regarding items: Drillneck is useless for the build, because Explosive Arrows that pierce enemies do not leave a fuse on them. Hence pierce should be completely avoided. Devoto's Devotion is a very good option for the build. The only downside it has (10% reduced physical damage) is irrelevant. For boots, two good options are - Blood Dance (Frenzy charges on killing mobs meaning you can drop blood rage, and 1% life regen + movement speed per charge. Also, some dex. The downside is they have no life.) - http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Brinerot_Whalers (projectile damage is nice as it applies to EA, but the best is immunity to shocking ground - these boots could be kept in inventory as a switch for maps). Regarding skills: Fire penetration is better than Slower Projectiles even in AoE setup because of better effect on mobs with high fire resist. E.g.: if a mob has 50% resist, you will be doing 50% of your damage. - Lv.20 Slower Projectiles will increase it to 65% total (50% + 0.3 * 50%) - that's 30% more - Lv.20 Fire penetration will increase it to 87% total (resist is 50-37=13) - that's 74% more Fire penetration becomes worse only on mobs with negative resists, but is better by a huge margin on resistant mobs. Less duration is also a good support. With Quill Rain, you will have somewhere around 3.5-4 APS, and will apply five stacks in about 1.5 seconds. Then you'll have to wait 1 second for detonation. This is 2.5 seconds total to apply your damage. Lv.20 Less duration cuts the waiting time by ~50% (~55% with quality), so you'll apply the damage in 1.5+0.5=2 seconds. The less shots you fire, the more effective the gem is (because waiting for explosion becomes a bigger part of the damage application cycle). You can use Frost Wall + AoE setup instead of single-target setup. Mechanically, Frost Wall allows you to stack your arrows on it, just like a mob. Cast it near your target and try to stack arrows so that multiple explosions overlap. Consider using Blink Arrow as a movement skill. With Quill Rain it is almost instant. ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ ᕙ༼ຈلຈ༽ᕗ _(͡๏̯͡๏)_ ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (∩ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)⊃━☆ﾟ. * ･｡ﾟ, /╲/\╭༼ຈຈل͜ຈຈ༽╮/\╱\ ಠ_ಠ ( ⊙ ʖ̯ ⊙ ) ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ (•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■)	Posted by zyzzarzaz on Jul 24, 2015, 5:54:08 AM Quote this Post
" zyzzarzaz2 wrote: Regarding items: Drillneck is useless for the build, because Explosive Arrows that pierce enemies do not leave a fuse on them. Hence pierce should be completely avoided. Devoto's Devotion is a very good option for the build. The only downside it has (10% reduced physical damage) is irrelevant. For boots, two good options are - Blood Dance (Frenzy charges on killing mobs meaning you can drop blood rage, and 1% life regen + movement speed per charge. Also, some dex. The downside is they have no life.) - http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Brinerot_Whalers (projectile damage is nice as it applies to EA, but the best is immunity to shocking ground - these boots could be kept in inventory as a switch for maps). You are correct about Drillneck, I had tested this yesterday with Projectile Weakness curse and noticed what you are describing. Removed the references to it and added more info about pierce on the mechanics part of the guide. Those boots are interesting and are now listed up as options, specially the Whalers, but I can't afford to drop the resistances that come from my current set for now. " zyzzarzaz2 wrote: Regarding skills: Fire penetration is better than Slower Projectiles even in AoE setup because of better effect on mobs with high fire resist. E.g.: if a mob has 50% resist, you will be doing 50% of your damage. - Lv.20 Slower Projectiles will increase it to 65% total (50% + 0.3 * 50%) - that's 30% more - Lv.20 Fire penetration will increase it to 87% total (resist is 50-37=13) - that's 74% more Fire penetration becomes worse only on mobs with negative resists, but is better by a huge margin on resistant mobs. Yes, I know that, the only case where Slower Projectiles is stronger is when the mob is extremely resistant to fire and is over capped. Certain mobs or more often maps that have fire resist and/or elemental equilibrium with mobs that are already fire/elemental resistant. Since I'm not using a 5 or 6 link I opted by having both, as you can see on my gear (helmet for single target and bow for multiple targets). " zyzzarzaz2 wrote: Less duration is also a good support. With Quill Rain, you will have somewhere around 3.5-4 APS, and will apply five stacks in about 1.5 seconds. Then you'll have to wait 1 second for detonation. This is 2.5 seconds total to apply your damage. Lv.20 Less duration cuts the waiting time by ~50% (~55% with quality), so you'll apply the damage in 1.5+0.5=2 seconds. The less shots you fire, the more effective the gem is (because waiting for explosion becomes a bigger part of the damage application cycle). You can use Frost Wall + AoE setup instead of single-target setup. Mechanically, Frost Wall allows you to stack your arrows on it, just like a mob. Cast it near your target and try to stack arrows so that multiple explosions overlap. Consider using Blink Arrow as a movement skill. With Quill Rain it is almost instant. - Less duration is interesting, but it's only useful in certain cases. I'm self-casting the curse for example and I only curse after applying the charges. The time it takes me to reposition and curse is usually the fuse timer. In groups that you don't have to curse the timer isn't an issue, all you have to do is start attacking the next pack while the previous one has the charges ticking. - Frost wall is interesting, but from using it with other skills, coupled with it's cooldown mechanic now feel it slows me down more then helps. There is another advantage of this skill though, to counter Elemental Equilibrium map mod! - Already using blink arrow, but forgot to mention it, added. Overall thank you for your input and if you spot anything else that doesn't feel right warn please! :) [2.1] Tri-Elemental Crit Trapper https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1534482 [2.0] Explosive arrow Blood magic Marauder https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1343673 [1.3.1] Tri-Elemental Trapper (not updated yet) https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1199527 Last edited by raquinvil on Jul 24, 2015, 5:41:54 PM	Posted by raquinvil on Jul 24, 2015, 5:38:40 PM Quote this Post
Fire Penetration is actually better than Slower Projectiles in any case because penetration does not work like reduced resistances in this game. Even mobs which have overcapped resistances, like 150% for example, have an effective fire res of 75% (just like players). If you have 30% fire penetration, you don't care for the overcapped resistance and chunk right through the effective fire resistance of the mob and he will be considered to have 45% fire resistance in this case. Considering this more than doubles your damage on a mob with 75% fire resistance, it is without a doubt the best support you can get to increase your fire damage on any skill, especially EA.	Posted by Vadler on Jul 25, 2015, 9:14:02 AM Quote this Post
Does aded fire dmg from rings and ammys work on EA?	Posted by Vulgar_Display_Of_Power on Jul 25, 2015, 11:17:34 AM Quote this Post
" Vulgar_Display_Of_Power wrote: Does aded fire dmg from rings and ammys work on EA? +% fire damage will affect the explosion and any ignite caused by the fuse charges. [2.1] Tri-Elemental Crit Trapper https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1534482 [2.0] Explosive arrow Blood magic Marauder https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1343673 [1.3.1] Tri-Elemental Trapper (not updated yet) https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1199527	Posted by raquinvil on Jul 26, 2015, 9:43:43 AM Quote this Post
" Vadler wrote: Fire Penetration is actually better than Slower Projectiles in any case because penetration does not work like reduced resistances in this game. Even mobs which have overcapped resistances, like 150% for example, have an effective fire res of 75% (just like players). If you have 30% fire penetration, you don't care for the overcapped resistance and chunk right through the effective fire resistance of the mob and he will be considered to have 45% fire resistance in this case. Considering this more than doubles your damage on a mob with 75% fire resistance, it is without a doubt the best support you can get to increase your fire damage on any skill, especially EA. Found it https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/59271/page/2#p751660 The penetration works by lowering the mob resist cap, while curses reduce the resistance the mob has. Changing the gems suggestions and thanks again! [2.1] Tri-Elemental Crit Trapper https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1534482 [2.0] Explosive arrow Blood magic Marauder https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1343673 [1.3.1] Tri-Elemental Trapper (not updated yet) https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1199527 Last edited by raquinvil on Jul 26, 2015, 11:08:39 AM	Posted by raquinvil on Jul 26, 2015, 9:44:40 AM Quote this Post
best way to level up? Last edited by danteafk on Jul 30, 2015, 12:42:55 PM	Posted by danteafk on Jul 30, 2015, 12:40:18 PM Quote this Post
" danteafk wrote: best way to level up? Personally both on cruel and later on Merciless, Dried Lake is great. The mobs there aren't fire resistant, the packs are big and you have clear line of sight for mobs out of the screen. Shoot one direction 3 times and then 3 times another direction and keep on moving, doing a circle around the map and killing Voll on the way. I have a video on the guide showing a Dried Lake run at level 67. Skip the mirror arrow unique mob, he isn't worth the trouble xp/hour wise. On merciless, Dried Lake is really nice up to level 81-82, then the penalty starts kicking in really hard compared to 74-75 maps. [2.1] Tri-Elemental Crit Trapper https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1534482 [2.0] Explosive arrow Blood magic Marauder https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1343673 [1.3.1] Tri-Elemental Trapper (not updated yet) https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1199527 Last edited by raquinvil on Aug 1, 2015, 7:39:51 AM	Posted by raquinvil on Jul 31, 2015, 9:20:08 PM Quote this Post