Burning Arrow clarification please

Would someone please explain to me why Burning Arrow is treated like the orphaned, redheaded sister of the arrow group?

The closest I have come to an explanation (after the laughter and the derision died down) is, "Burning Arrow can't hold a candle (I wonder if that was meant as a pun?) to the other arrows." Which is usually followed by the naming of the hierarchy of arrows, lightning, cold, poison and the reigning monarch of arrows, Tornado Shot. Somewhere in the listing Pierce and Puncture are thrown in as support skills.

What I would appreciate is someone explaining why Burning Arrow is held in such low regard.

In an attempt to find out for myself, I have created a ranger (Laughing_Hat (lvl 26 atm)) using; Silverbranch and two Blackheart rings. As a gem selection I chose Burning Arrow (of course) and added, as they became available; Added Fire Damage and Weapon Elemental Damage. As a final fire touch, I added; Herald of Ash. In the future, if mana usage will permit, perhaps I will include; Anger. (I understand the arguments in favor of; Hatred, but I am trying to give Burning Arrow as much moral support as possible.) At level 31, I am planning on adding; Fire Penetration and Increased Burning Damage to complete the quintet.(or sextet if you include Herald of Ash)(or septet if I include Anger)

So far, I have not encountered a single hesitation or loss of killing ability. As of this writing, Fire Arrow is dealing 895.2 dps. Which, imnsho, isn't too shabby at this level. The explosion, ignite and damage over time are all nice boons for this arrow.(Speaking of "splash"(We were speaking of "splash", weren't we?), hey GGG why is there a Melee Splash gem (one of my favorites), but a projectile splash gem is glaringly absent?) If I understand correctly what I have been told or has been insinuated, I should expect Fire Arrow to fade and be prepared to either switch skills or abandon the experiment. Will someone please share their insight into the future potential, or lack thereof, for this build and more specifically Fire Arrow?

Pretty sure it's a viable play-style, but it's not "meta".

The most glaring reason for this is that ignite builds are usually centered around a large impact single hit and most fire skills have inherent AOE attached to them.(flameblast, fireball, magma orb, fire trap)

So with burning arrow, you have to sacrifice damage (initial hit) to get AOE, either by linking lmp/gmp or alternatively elemental proliferation.

That's not so bad in and off itself, but when compared to other fire centered spells that don't have to make this sacrifice it can be seen as an issue, or at least as a poor "min-max strategy".

Vaal burning arrow kicks ass though, mostly because it DOES have AOE attached to it.

My suggestion would be to use explosion arrow which does have AOE as an inherent modifier for a fire arrow build and maybe get another bow on weapon swap for burning arrow/vaal burning arrow.

In the past, when elemental proliferation reigned supreme(before it's nerf) there was a very solid burning arrow trapper build though. You could attempt to revive this build.

this is the build of the week video ->


Very cool stuff.

Peace,

-Boem-

Because it sucks ass? It's not a hard concept.

Boem; thank you very much. Your input was very helpful and the video did inspire a possible addition of a trap.(or maybe a Fire Nova mine, if I am feeling truly suicidal)

And I_NO, what can I say? Your intellectual input was brilliantly enlightening!


p.s. Boem, I read your thread below this one and I totally agree except for one point. I think you have it backwards. It's white scum and black trash. Just joking. No offense to all of the PKers out there. :D


edit: added (or maybe...)

What do you want me to do sugar coat it? It's an awful skill nobody needs to be an intellectual to understand it wtf lol

its a single target skill in a meta all about aoe /thread

I_NO, thank you for the clarification of your position on Burning Arrow. Your illuminating comments definitely cleared up why, "it's an awful skill", for those of us who don't know why and generated the question in the first place. No, thank you, keep the sugar, I think you need it.

Saltychipmunk, I'm not sure how this became a meta all about aoe thread. Obviously, I am not understanding. I was just asking for specifics about Burning Arrow's shortcomings. You have to admit it is a nice single target skill. Do you think Pierce and Chain might help it?


edit: added an r

It has a really nice high base damage of 182% at level 19. That's pretty damn good compared to most other bow skills. However, it doesn't have any implicit aoe/multiple projectiles, this is where it falls short. Even if linked with lmp/gmp/chain/fork it hits too few targets to be as effective as other bow skills.
It had the potential of being a good aoe option with the use of elemental proliferation but after the nerfed aoe of prolif I've been unable to make a build as effective as Tornado Shot or Lightning Arrow.

Extreme_Boyheat, thank you. That is the answer I was seeking. Leave it as a single target skill and pick a good primary, group killer. According to NeverSink, Tornado Shot doesn't really need a single target backup. That leaves ice, lightning and poison (caustic). I really like ice and lightning when their numbers are in an "upswing", but the heart-attack when they are in a "downswing" is at times disappointingly fatal.

Is it possible to build a physical damage archer that can survive?


p.s. Oh! Do you think the addition of the unique jewel, Pitch Darkness, would be any help?


edit: added p.s.

Okay, I now understand the complaint of small AoE. (The trick is to get the monsters to either bunch up (find a doorway) or fall into a straight line (slowly run away, leading a group of monsters). Then put one arrow (or two if there is a rare) in the group. After one second, the whole group has been burned down.)

On the other hand, I also understand GGG's limitations (as slight as they may be) on this skill. If Burning Arrow had the capabilities of Tornado Shot or even Ice Shot or Lightning Arrow, it would take very few arrows to clear a whole map. Time Zones might actually disappear. :D

To dismiss this skill is a serious error in judgement. This skill is devastatingly lethal. Piety, Dominus and Malachai will attest to this fact. Don't ask Kaom or Daresso, they are too embarrassed to speak, at the moment, and Voll has no idea what hit him.

Perhaps it is my previous D2 training as an Assassin archer, I don't know, but I found manually dispatching multiple Fire Arrow arrows no task at all. Especially when the amount of damage each arrow delivers is taken into consideration.

That's it for now. Need to concentrate and focus on gathering better armour and raising life level and making sure all resistances are maximized.