[2.2 Video Guide] Grocery's Fortified Caustic Arrow Duelist! HC Viable!

This is a more defensive minded build. For a more dps minded variant, while still taking 200%+ life, check out my Shadow Trickster Guide here or my Scion Guide here

The first thing to note about this build is that it has stacks life, possibly jewel slots and tons of chaos damage/DoT. This build utilizes many of the gems out in 2.1 including void manipulation and rapid decay as well as many other gems that have multiplicative modifiers.

I am sure that this can do Uber Atziri as most poison arrow builds can do it in 2.1. I am currently wearing semi-MF gear so my stats would be even higher if I went for pure damage/defenses and dropped ventor's as well as my other mf pieces. This is a moot point as I am just messing around on Standard while I wait for Perandus.

For leveling, I would go with Searing Bond/Flame Totem as it is a bit faster than CA early on. Make sure to pick up CA early and use it if you get a +1 or +2 bow while leveling.

2.2 Talent Tree (121 points)
200%+ Life, multiple dot/chaos clusters Champion asendancy

The main part of this tree you will see is that I take quite a bit of life 200%+ (can get up to over 220%) with 3 or more jewel sockets which should have life/damage on them. If you have access to some top tier jewels, drop some damage nodes and take some 3 point jewel nodes near the shadow start or the duelist start. With regards to Ascendance class options, we take the champion class with fortitude and either first to strike, last to fall or inspirational. It gives us quite tons of defense and some damage.

See the Summary for Ascendancies we take below!

Champion
- 45% increased Evasion Rating and Armour
- 10% increased attack speed when you have fortify
- 8% increase MS when you have fortify
- 20% increased effect of fortify
- You have Fortify
- 5% increased effect of auras
- 35% increased damage
- 10% increased movement speed

Please note that I do not take phase acrobatics. Physical Damage is the most dangerous damage type nowadays and that should be avoidable as CA. It is not needed unless you are planning doing Uber Atziri in my opinion. If you are planning on doing Uber, I would either drop a jewel node+a damage node or two and pickup Phase Acro.

Below is my youtube channel where you will find all sorts of guides/boss videos/atziri encounters:
Youtube Channel

My Current Gear on Standard (IDEAL)
Spoiler


My Current Gear on Perandus
Spoiler


Gear Choices/Reasoning
Spoiler

Bow
+2/+1 bow will be best in slot due to how poison arrow/casutic arrow works. 21/20 will be ideal with a level 4 empower

Chest/Armour
I am using lightning coil to stay as safe as possible from physical attacks. This grouped with taste of hate should keep you safe assuming you play smartly. I find evasion to be in a weak spot considering how hard physical damage hits, so I decided to sacrifice and use a coil over any of the other good unique options. A regular evasion chest is also fine, Carcass Jack, Daresso's etc are all good options. LC is BiS though.

Quiver
Drill Neck is for the pierce chance and the added damage it gives. It is not necessary though. A rare quiver is fine, but Dneck is BiS. For those of you on perma leagues, Rigwald's Quills will be a very, very good option. It can be better than Dneck at times due to the forking.

If you get a +1 arrow quiver, it would be pretty awesome as you will shoot 3 CA's out at once.

Boots
I prefer rare boots. I don't like blood rage or blood dance on a Caustic Arrow character. I'd rather not waste points on life regen for Blood Rage and I'd rather have life/res/30% ms on by boots. You can use Blood Dance though, I'd just rather not.

Helm
Rare Helm with res/life/evasion is best

Gloves
Rare gloves with res/life/evasion is best

Rings
Rare rings with HP/Res is going to be best here. I am using Ventor's because I am messing around on Standard until Friday.

Belt
Heavy or leather belt depending on what you need. HP/Res/Flask/Strength if needed is what I go for.

Amulet
Go for the main stats you need first on the implicit and then get your standard Life/Res/Evasion!


UBER ATZIRI
Spoiler

For Uber Atziri I would probably go the way of hidden potential and crafting some nice blue items along with taking more jewel slots. It will give you the highest possible dps while keeping yourself res capped. Lightning Coil will be hard to pull off with that setup. You can do Uber without hidden potential, it just makes it go quicker if you have more dps, which hidden potential offers.


Gem Choices
Spoiler

Caustic Arrow (Poison Arrow)
4L: Concentrated Effect + Void Manipulation (NEW GEM) + Empower Level 4
5L: Pierce
6L: Rapid Decay or Increased AoE

Pierce now has a more multiplier, so I would use it more often than I did before. It is an amazing gem that gives more damage than slower projectiles now.

Concentrated effect, Void Manipulation, Rapid Decay, Pierce (in 2.2 only) and Slower projectiles all have a multiplicative modifier, hence the wording MORE, and not increased aka additive. Empower will obviously be a huge boon as well.

If you do not have empower level 4, do not fret! You can level one in an off-weapon. Level 3 is generally when I start using it.

Frenzy
4L: Curse on Hit + Vulnerability + GMP
5L: Chain
6L: Faster Attacks

Pretty standard curse on hit setup to get the awesome vulnerability curse up on mobs. Should be standard.

Auras
Grace + Clarity + Enlighten

Pretty standard for a poison arrow build. Grace is needed to give you more evasion and clarity to make life easier. If you can do without Clarity you can run some other aura or arctic armor. It is entirely up to you.

CWDT
CWDT + Immortal Call + Increased Duration

I am using CWDT with immortal call and increeased duration. It WILL save you.

Wither
I use Wither with Spell Totem with Faster Casting and increased duration because it is a huge damage boost on bosses.

Flame Golem
Standard as it gets. It gives you increased damage! Currently using it with spell totem in my chest with wither.

Vaal Skills
Vaal Grace for the defensive aspect.
Vaal Lightning trap + Increased duration for OP OP OP shocked ground

Blink Arrow
Self explanatory, movement skills are nice.

Blood Rage
Not sure I want to use this, but you can if you want. Frenzy is enough for me and I like having regen as PA/CA. As such, you can use if needed be and I would link with increased duration and faster casting. If you want to go Blood Rage, go for the Scion life regen nodes.


Bandits
Spoiler

Normal: Oak for the HP
Cruel: Talent Point
Merciless: Kraityn for the Frenzy Charge


Videos - Will be posted after 2.2

NOTE: There are many different variations of this build. I will be playing on Perandus - HC on Friday and will be updating with the gear available in temp leagues.

This will continue to get updated as time goes on! Any suggestions or discussion is welcome!
For my current builds, thoughts and videos.
youtube.com/andypistone
www.twitch.tv/GrocerySC
Last edited by Grocery on Mar 13, 2016, 8:34:02 PM
Last bumped on Dec 2, 2016, 8:22:42 AM
Put up an exile tools online calculator variant. still missing 6 points as it counts ascendancy nodes as talent points.

Most won't get to 100 anyways, so I'll post a finalized tree and leveling tree once the patch is out.
For my current builds, thoughts and videos.
youtube.com/andypistone
www.twitch.tv/GrocerySC
You recommend this for someone new to the game? Friends told me Caustic Arrow being pretty safe for a first build and it looks like Champion will be the most defensive?

Am I wrong here? Ideas???
Last edited by Blacktale19 on Mar 2, 2016, 5:42:03 PM
Just gotta hope you get lucky and find a lvl 4 empower and Lightning Coil!
"
Just gotta hope you get lucky and find a lvl 4 empower and Lightning Coil!


Do you really think Caustic Arrow needs a level 4 empower and a lightning coil? I clearly state in the post that you probably did not read, that neither is needed.

As stated in the OP this is a work in progress for 2.2! I will be leveling on Perandus - HC on Friday and will be updating as I go. Also stated that my gear is on standard while I wait for Perandus to start up.

Should be pretty obvious it is just a place holder. There will be sections for lower/leveling gear (temp leagues) and sections for what I would consider ideal gear (standard/end of temp league) as time goes on.
For my current builds, thoughts and videos.
youtube.com/andypistone
www.twitch.tv/GrocerySC
Last edited by Grocery on Mar 3, 2016, 1:32:10 AM
Hi m8 good thinking but i think you messed some stuff in your tree

as you've used 123 points and not 121 (for lvl 100, since we take only 1 point from bandits). Besides, you missed the frenzy charge at the duelist area, which brings you to 124 points, then you claim 214% life while tree has "only" 206% hp (which still is enough tho). the idea is okay, tho you're gonna have to cut in the tree else ull just dont make it due to lack of points.
I came up with slightly different. let me know what you think.

Updated tree: https://goo.gl/I0z4wg
Last edited by lolindor on Mar 3, 2016, 5:47:07 AM
"
lolindor wrote:
Hi m8 good thinking but i think you messed some stuff in your tree

as you've used 123 points and not 121 (for lvl 100, since we take only 1 point from bandits). Besides, you missed the frenzy charge at the duelist area, which brings you to 124 points, then you claim 214% life while tree has "only" 206% hp (which still is enough tho). the idea is okay, tho you're gonna have to cut in the tree else ull just dont make it due to lack of points.
I came up with slightly different. let me know what you think.

Updated tree: https://goo.gl/I0z4wg


I did not miss any points actually and the 214% was correct.

Exiletools counts the points used in Ascendnancy classes as talent points, which the game does not. As such, my talent point numbers are fine and we still have some additional points to use if need be (assuming you get to mid/high 90s). I went through this briefly in the OP.

At 119 points you would have 214% increased max life.

Use the offline skill tree planner for this link: Here is the link

Method and Madness is pretty inefficient damage wise and not worth traveling to imo. Given the amount of life it is better to not take method and madness and revenge of the hunted and get atrophy and written in blood. More damage, loss of a bit of evasion, saves a talent point. That is my personal opinion though and neither options are bad.
For my current builds, thoughts and videos.
youtube.com/andypistone
www.twitch.tv/GrocerySC
Last edited by Grocery on Mar 3, 2016, 9:39:54 AM
"
I did not miss any points actually and the 214% was correct.

Exiletools counts the points used in Ascendnancy classes as talent points, which the game does not. As such, my talent point numbers are fine and we still have some additional points to use if need be (assuming you get to mid/high 90s). I went through this briefly in the OP.

At 119 points you would have 214% increased max life.

Use the offline skill tree planner for this link: Here is the link

Method and Madness is pretty inefficient damage wise and not worth traveling to imo. Given the amount of life it is better to not take method and madness and revenge of the hunted and get atrophy and written in blood. More damage, loss of a bit of evasion, saves a talent point. That is my personal opinion though and neither options are bad.


i see, never noticed that really. o.O means ive been thinking the hell out of a build with 6 points less. in that case your build is actually possible and might be more efficient. thnx for reply
Last edited by lolindor on Mar 3, 2016, 9:56:15 AM
"
lolindor wrote:
"
I did not miss any points actually and the 214% was correct.

Exiletools counts the points used in Ascendnancy classes as talent points, which the game does not. As such, my talent point numbers are fine and we still have some additional points to use if need be (assuming you get to mid/high 90s). I went through this briefly in the OP.

At 119 points you would have 214% increased max life.

Use the offline skill tree planner for this link: Here is the link

Method and Madness is pretty inefficient damage wise and not worth traveling to imo. Given the amount of life it is better to not take method and madness and revenge of the hunted and get atrophy and written in blood. More damage, loss of a bit of evasion, saves a talent point. That is my personal opinion though and neither options are bad.


i see, never noticed that really. o.O means ive been thinking the hell out of a build with 6 points less. in that case your build is actually possible and might be more efficient. thnx for reply


No worries! That is why I haven't made tons of trees for leveling and what not. Because I will have to redo them on the poe site anyways which will be the "correct" one!

GLHF! Any other ideas? I find that the builds get perfected through community suggestions/interaction/testing.
For my current builds, thoughts and videos.
youtube.com/andypistone
www.twitch.tv/GrocerySC
@Grocery

After taking the Fury Bolts and going towards Acrobatics, what would you complete first?

The nodes between duelist & ranger or shooting up to shadow for that extra chaos + pierce, etc?

Cuz by then, I think you're already using CA in a +2 bow, I think?

Last edited by CopiumTV on Mar 3, 2016, 2:52:15 PM

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