[2.0] Saruman's Hybrid Explosive Arrow Single Player Map MF'er (20/250+ IIQ/IIR) + Videos

WELCOME TO MY EXPLOSIVE ARROW MAGIC FINDER WITCH BUILD

I spent a lot of time finding the perfect combination and fit for magic findings, and I think I found a perfect fit for my playstyle which is:

a) Stay safe
b) Clear high level maps fast, running full MF gear
c) Grind gear like crazy, setup your shop, and enjoy economy at its best
d) Relatively cheap build, being able to progress nicely, without hitting a wall

Some of the highlights I'm proud this character managed to do are killing Abaxoth in lvl75 map, in full MF gear; slaying all high lvl map bosses, except Core map, without much trouble.
Still haven't attempted Atziri, but I think its pretty "doable" with this build.
Important thing to notice is, I'm playing casualy, so someone who can invest more time from a start, can get this build going smoothly in a week max.

GUIDE

My main goal was to create high eHP and MF character, that will run 80+ lvl maps without much hassle.
I was actually playing, before respecing to Resolute Technique, a Crit version of this one, but when I crafted +3 bow, there wasn't a reason to stay with Crit, due to huuuuge damage Explosive Arrow does at lvl26 ...

Also, before getting your hands on a first 4L's, for Curse on Hit setup and Explosive Arrow, level yourself with Flame Totem, its beast in early stages.

We utilize HP and ES combined, also called as Hybrid. Currently, my setup is having 8644 eHP.

For our defense, we purely want to stack as much Energy Shield as possible, but, for going more MF, players are viable to swap some of the gear pieces, for those generic MF uniques; more on that later.
Even if our Energy Shield gets depleted, which happens rarely due to incredible unique called "Soul Strike" Arrow Quiver, that allows us to regen ES 150% faster than usual, we still have 3800+ life to stay with.

We also use CWDT in a setup: CWDT + Immortal Call + Phase Run + Increased Duration, which will allow us enough time to recuperate our Energy Shield, kill/leech the mobs, and run away due to incredible speed boost from Phase Run.
This CWDT setup is crucial in 78+ maps, whose mobs tend to hit hard, so using this setup, you'll basically have enough time to either shoot the mobs down, or run away and get back at full strength.
We are self casting Enduring Cry to get those 3 Endurance Charges, which will allow us to trigger Immortal Call.

For offense, we utilize Explosive Arrow, and its damage can only be scaled by following modifiers:
Elemental Damage, Fire Damage, Projectile Damage, Area Damage
Explosive Arrow shots fuses, with cca 2 seconds of delay when attached to targets, before they explode, and important thing to notice is, that it can stack maximum 5 fuses on an enemy.
Combining those fuses on monster packs increases the AoE of the fuses, meaning explosions overlap and do MASSIVE amounts of damage.

For doing 80+ lvl maps, fast and succesfully, I highly recommend getting that +3 bow (not a huge investment anymore) and lvl3 Empower; I'm aware people tend to stick with Quill Rain as a meta for any EA builds, although, we are focusing on running top level maps, with success; and that means, without dying, clearing and leveling fast, and grinding those rares for chaos/regal recipe, and poe.trade shops.

Little offtopic;
My POV on running unidentified or identified chaos/regal recipe is, always ID your items, you can get rich really fast if you score a jackpot on jewelry or other stuff.
Also, vaal all armourers strongboxes for those corrupted 6L's or 6S, earned 4 exalted in this league just from vaaled armourers boxes.

Back to the build;
Our big go-to skill is Curse on Hit linked with Frenzy.
We'll use dual curse setup with Flammability and Elemental Weakness, and those two will ensure we one shot most of the white and blue mobs on ALL maps with only 2 or 3 fuses of Explosive Arrow.
Also, Frenzy charges will boost us with 12% MORE damage, 12% increased attack speed, but will also be a layer of defense for us if needed to recover, providing us with neccesary ingredient for Phase Run activated through CWDT.

Key pickups of the tree are:
Resolute Technique, meaning we dont have to worry about accuracy from gear;
Elemental Equilibrium, which is devastating to bosses, and mobs, meaning almost -140% to mobs fire resistance combined with Elemental Weakness and Flammability curses;
Whispers of Doom, allowing us to utilize additional curse.
We will shoot EA with mana, pick up a few nodes of the tree, put some mana regeneration on items, run clarity, and we're set to go.
Blood Magic is really unnecessary, as we'll get off to +1+2 slow shooting bow as soon as possible.

Before going to the build details, remember to:
1) Play active and move a lot
2) Keep your charges up, cast Enduring Cry as often as you can, and generate Frenzy through Curse on Hit setup on every bigger pack
3) Drink and spend those Mana Flask charges, cause those are replenishing in notime
4) Dont be lazy and pickup every good tier rares and currencies

Before going in details to the guide, here are small examples of some high map and end game contest farming, and some lucky drops in them ...

Videos
Spoiler

LvL 80 Wasteland 8:25 Clear
Map modifiers: [Enfeeble, 49% More Monster Life, Poison on Hit, 3 PC every 20 seconds]
Map bonuses: [83% IIQ, 32% IIR, 14% PackSize, 20% Quality]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKNJRt7YSuY

LvL 79 Overgrown Ruin Map 3:30 Highlight
Map modifiers: [Chilled Ground, -13% max res, Elemental Weakness, Beyond]
Map bonuses: [95% IIQ, 38% IIR, 30% PackSize, 20% Quality]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsAJ1Yjh2bs

LvL 79 Shipyard 5:30 Clear
Map modifiers: [Burning Ground, Vulnerability, +% Monster Attack, Cast, Movement Speed]
Map bonuses: [80% IIQ, 30% IIR, 14% PackSize, 20% Quality]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o02HLa53ueI



Passive Skill Tree
Spoiler
Passive skill tree build

Key stones are Elemental Equilibrium, Resolute Technique, and those sweet 4 jewel slots.
Also, get that Whispers of Doom as soon as possible, for additional curse, which would be Elemental Weakness.


Key Gear Pieces
Spoiler



Soul Strike is a must, it's IAS%, +ES, and incredible 150% faster recovery of ES will mean our eHP will replenish in no time.
Its cheap, and means we can aim for that Adds an additional Arrow coruption.

Andvarius is a key piece for IIR%. Up to 80% rarity, with sacrifice of -20% to all ele resists is fine for us. We're mainly here for magic find, after all.

Goldwyrm provides us with great IIQ%, which is huge and absolute must, 60% mana regeneration for a giant mana cost of EA, and 10% increased MS%.



Full Gear
Spoiler


For a main weapon, we use a bow with crafted +1+2 to level of socketed bow gems, which is easily craftable with newly discovered meta modding by masters.
Use those Master Services all over the forum and reddit to get yourself that beauty.

Also, try to get a 6L, or atleast 5L before crafting your bow, and making it magic or rare.
Using Blacksmith's Whetstone and putting 20% quality on bow more than doubles your chances for a 6L, and I got 3 6L's this league, in less than 500 fuses. It can be done, butsometimes, patience is needed.
Quill Rain is also an excellent replacement until you can get yourself currency needed to create that +1+2 menace.

Pretty standard, we use Doryani's belt for Fire dmg boost, resistances ...
On the rest of the gear, we tend to get as much ES as possible, along with IIR%, resistances and life.
Also, if not on bow, get that cold or lightning damage on rings to activate elemental equilibrium.
There's also an option to go for more MF with Aurseize, but I'm finding 240%IIR is just enough to get me good quality drops.


Flasks
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Gem Links, Auras, and Golem
Spoiler
First setup is Explosive Arrow, prioritize gems in this order, with a minimum of 4L:
EA - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Increased Area of Effect - Fire Penetration - Item Rarity - Empower
I'm also swapping Increased AoE and GMP with Concentrated Effect and Slower Projectiles for map bosses, and it usually takes me 10-15 seconds to take down bosses in lvl 78-81 maps.

Second Setup is a Curse on Hit one, with atleast 5L, in this order:
Curse on Hit - Flammability - Elemental Weakness - Frenzy - GMP - Chain
For early stages, use Split Arrow in a 4L with CoH, and 2 curses.

We'll use Flame Golem which will provide a boost to our DPS, but you can also opt in for Chaos Golem, if you think your damage is overkilling stuff.
Flame Golem - Enduring Cry - Minion Life - Minion and Totem Elemental Resistance

For Auras, we're running it in a 4L:
Clarity - Arctic Armour - Blink Arrow - Enligten

Clarity is pretty much neccesary for sustaining mana, due to high cost of EA, combined with some other gear and passives from tree, it will provide enough mana regeneration at Level 9.
Arctic Armour is a good layer of defense, at a low cost, and we'll use blink arrow for getting out of complicated situations.

CWDT setup is: CWDT - Immortal Call - Phase Run - Increased Duration in exact order.
I'm keeping CWDT at LvL13, but you could opt in to go for one or two levels higher, depending on your playstyle.


Bandits
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Go for skill points on all of them. Atleast that was my choice. Could eventually get that additional Endurance Charge for an extra half a second on Immortal Call.


Jewels
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Defense and Resistance Stats
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Overcapped due to running Elemental Weakness on maps. Can also be lowered for some more gear diversions.


Offense and MF Stats
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Explosive Arrow Damage, Attacks per second with Frenzy Charges up, and Magic Finding stats




Min-Maxing the Build
Spoiler

a) Yolo exalt Cold or Lightning Damage on Bow to trigger Elemental Equilibrium
b) Craft the off slot 6L Maraketh for single target setup
c) Add a perfect rolled ventor with 10% IIQ and 45% IIR
d) Add atleast 10% IIR on gloves, without lowering ES and HP


Why +3 bow instead of Quill Rain
Spoiler
Was playing quite a lot with Quill Rain, instead of +3 bow, until the crafting guide came out, and managed to make one myself.

Quill Rain is a superb bow to play with until maps of LvL75's or 76's.

But our main goal is to grind those 78-82s.

You have to factor that more "meaner" map modifications come on that levels, such as +80% fire res, 30-40% more monster life, 60% slower mana regen, no life or mana regen, temp chains, etc.

Firing 5 stacks with quill rain will mean you'll be more stationary, meaning more vulnerable to huge bursts of physical dmg.
Also, your single target damage with quill rain will mean you'll waste lots of times, firing, drinking pots, wasting flask charges, and eventually, running back to town to save your life from bosses, exiles, and rare mobs.

Again, with +3 bow, 2 fuses are enough to get the packs down, 3 fuses are enough to get blue packs down, and eventually, 4-5 fuses will burn rare mobs in their pack ...

With Quill Rain, indeed, you will have more APS, but because of the mechanics, your survivability, leveling and clear speed will suffer, greatly, on 80+ maps ...


Useful Links

For any questions, suggestions, and stuff, feel free to reply or PM me. My IGN is: Sarumanica

And, at the end, here's a small example what this build can give you, running lvl 78 Crematorium with twinned Unique Bosses.
Enjoy !

Spoiler
IGN: Sarumanica
Last edited by Lorodrins on Sep 24, 2015, 2:58:31 AM
Reserved for later purposes.
IGN: Sarumanica
Interesting.

I might fiddle around with this as a PA alternative.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.
Glad I got your attention =D

I actually was running your flameblast mfer in 1MFB league, and had a blast. Decided to try and create a tankier version of MFer, finally, I think i found a sweet spot, after lots of tests and respecs.
IGN: Sarumanica
how is this build comapre to the PoisonArrow Mf build?!
any video?!
SHOP : http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/682434
Last edited by xenochaos1 on Sep 15, 2015, 5:01:57 PM
I'll try to post a video of an 80+ lvl map clearing tommorrow ...
IGN: Sarumanica
I'm curious about the attacks per second number?

For EA, I value attack speed above everything else...

Even with a defensive CWDT setup, stacking 5 fuses as fast as possible is useful to me.


Can you post a screenshot of the explosive arrow stats?


Thnx
Will update it tommorrow morning, logged off.
I actually shot EA pretty fast now, with help by IAS% from jewels.
As noticed, Im actually shooting down white and blue mobs in two fuses max, even on lvl 81 maps.
Rare and Uniques are melting in a notime, but can be pain in the ass if you're using Quill Rain.
IGN: Sarumanica
Last edited by Lorodrins on Sep 15, 2015, 5:42:20 PM
would the DPS be enought wiht out enlighten+3 and only a 5L?

also can you make a tree for a level 80 characters?!what would you drop?
SHOP : http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/682434
Last edited by xenochaos1 on Sep 15, 2015, 6:59:12 PM
"
Lorodrins wrote:
Glad I got your attention =D

I actually was running your flameblast mfer in 1MFB league, and had a blast. Decided to try and create a tankier version of MFer, finally, I think i found a sweet spot, after lots of tests and respecs.


Yeah, in a way I'm glad prolif got the nerfhammer because otherwise I probably wouldn't have done PA, which ends up being a lot more survivable and capable of a slightly wider variety of content. Only thing I don't like about it is that the boss kill times aren't up to snuff compared to FB ignite, and that's probably the central reason that this looks promising. I thought about going EA as well but the playstyle of PA is very similar to FB ignite, so I opted for that.
Jul 27, 2011 - Sept 30, 2018.

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