[3.6] Split Arrow Raider, Ver. 0.0.1 Pre-Alpha

Ayoooooooooo! What's up friends, it's ya boi (it's probably not ya boi) Arcanus; I've been playing for about 3-4 years, and after finally getting a Shaper kill last league (I know, I know, hold your applause), I thik I'm finally ready to tackle making a build of my own.

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But Arcanus, why don't you just follow the existing builds and save yourself a headache?

Great question, eager yet highly critical imaginary heckler! I've always wanted to make a build of my own, and while I probably don't understand the full extent of the headache required to put together one that works, I still would love to give it a real shot. Not to mention that Split Arrow, my favorite skill in the game, is NOT a very popular build choice, so I'm here to help the massive group of people who have been clamoring for a split arrow build! There are dozens of us, dozens!

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But Arcanus, don't you think that if nobody is buildcrafting Split Arrow, then it's a bad skill to use?

Yeah, well, like, go fuck yaself.

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Why don't you stop wasting your time and just build Tornado Sho-

SPLIT. ARROW. Split Arrow.

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Good luck getting it to work on T10 maps or highe-

I SAID GO FACK YASELF.

"
Alright alright, so you're doing Split Arrow. Why does the thread say 3.6?

That's because I do not have plans to use this build for 3.5. I think I still have more to learn before I'm ready to tackle my own build, so setting this build up for 3.6 gives me 2 benefits: I get to put in one more full league to help fill in the knowledge gaps, and this gives me a really good chunk of time to sit down and chat with you folks on how to put this together properly.

_____________________________________________________________________________

So now that we've established that I'm an obstinate fucker who isn't budging on SA, let's talk about the build. First and foremost, Frenzy charges. Fuckloads. I've wanted to run Avatar of the Slaughter ever since ascendancies were put in the game, and I want that to be the core mechanic of this build. Past that, I mean there's really a ton left on the table, and a ton of questions to ask.

Now I'm not gonna come on here and tell y'all to make my build for me, and neither am I gonna open this thread empty-handed, so at the very least here's an idea of what I want my passive tree to look like.

I threw it together in about 10 minutes, so treat it as such, but at the least it's a demonstration of concept. I wanna get at least two of the +1 frenzy charge nodes on the grid, but I'm realistically okay with sacrificing one for the sake of getting better nodes. At least right now, Frenzy charges (and Raider) is the only part of this build that's concrete.

So here's the part where I open the discussion - I have a couple questions about where I should go with this, and plenty of ideas on how to do that. Tap a spoiler to learn more!

Offense

First up is damage type. Right now I'm leaning towards pure physical, no crit. That said, Avatar of the Veil gives +40% to elemental damage, so it seems a waste to not take advantage of that. I'm 900000% down to add lightning or chaos damage to the build, both of those seem really fun to play around with, BUT that starts to give me the feeling that I'm splitting up my damage types too much. Which of the four would you guys go with?

>Pure Phys no Crit
>Pure Phys Crit
>Lightning Crit
>Chaos no Crit

It's my first build, I'm not expecting to break 1mil dps - 500k and I walk away from this build happy, 750k and I call it a huge win.

Defense

If you checked the passive tree you'll see I'm opting for Phase Acrobatics - just as well, I get some good benefits with that and the Avatar of the Veil branch. Probably wanna go full evasion, run a Grace aura, the works. I'd say my target health is 5k, but I suppose I can go lower, provided the resulting damage bonuses are significant enough; 4k is my absolute lowest, and even then that's pushing it pretty dang hard. I'm just automatically assuming that health is the better option over ES, but I'm completely open to suggestions.

Gear

I got next to nothing here. There's a unique or two I have my eyes on, like Ventor's Gamble or Belt of the Deceiver, but I have yet to put any effort into this section. I remember a long while ago that Darkray Vectors or Drillneck were decent options, but past that this section is largely untouched. No need to fill in this section for me, I still have plenty of my own work to do here, but as with all previous sections I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Gems

Mentioned in Defense, I'm probably going to end up running Grace, but Haste, my personal favorite, is very much on the menu. For my curse, Projectile Weakness on a totem seems fun, especially with the new Multiple Totems Support. I'm thinking of picking up a Doedre's Damning early on and using Poacher's Mark as well. I can definitely have Frenzy on a 4L for charge gen, but I've done that before, and I'm looking for something a little more organic this time around for charges. If y'all think the 20% from Way of the Poacher is good enough for charge gen then I'm fine with dropping PM. That also said, if I'm grabbing PW then do ya think I need to spend the three points to get Piercing Shots? THAT being said, I'm hopping on the pierce train same as the health sitch - I have no idea if chain or fork is a good setup, tbh I'd love to run fork, but some part of me says that shit's unviable as fuck.

Single Target

YES I'M AWARE MY SINGLE TARGET IS NONEXISTANT THANK YOU VERY MUCH ahem I know Barrage is basically the gold standard for single target, and I spose I don't have any issues running that, and as always, suggest away!

Miscellaneous

This section isn't necessarily "must-haves" for the build, more along the lines of "this is how I most enjoy playing."

I love uniques. Last season I had a character where nearly every single slot was a unique - shopping for good rolls and not necessarily worrying about crafting or anything of the sort makes things way more enjoyable, especially on the commerce side.

Clear is more important than single target to me. If i can get Split Arrow working for single target, sign me up.

Looking to make this build budget-friendly, but I don't have any problems with things getting expensive once maps start up. That said, I'm not looking to start blowing a dozen EX just for one weapon. My last character probably had a net worth of 12 ex, so shoot for that on pricing.


Yikes that's a ton of info. I'mma just throw this up and let it sit for a bit, throw in a couple edits here and there; Smash Ultimate comes out tomorrow, so my weekend is STUPID shot. One quick thing, if you fellas could just put the full name next to any acronyms you use (like this: CwC (Cast while Channeling), just throw it in there once) as I'm still learning that side of the lingo. Anyone who volunteers to help out with the build is a fuckin champ, and I'll make sure to feature them in a credits section once the build starts taking form. I'll see you guys in Wraeclast!

Quick Edit: Quick conversation I had with some m8s about build ideas - I'll be fleshing out a phys > lightning conversion, will be looking more into this soon.
Last edited by Arcanus444 on Dec 12, 2018, 12:49:17 PM
Last bumped on Mar 11, 2019, 8:48:35 PM
Heavily phys. oriented SA was always my favourite skill (together with Frenzy, which was excuse for single target skill and utility skill in this setup). Unfortunatelly, I haven't played PoE for two years, so I can't help you with details, I can only wish you good luck and fun with your build.


I really want to help, but I'm pretty sure my info is dated af, so I'll put these advices in spoiler.
Spoiler
One thing that might still be valid is, that you need some proper phys. damage mitigation if you decide to go "full" phys (reflect). I always liked Iron Reflexes node, but I don't know if it's worth a try in 3.5. Other way to deal with phys. reflect was phys. to ele. convertion (support gems, uniques, taste of hate flasks and so on).

p.s.
Long ago I dared to think that I actually know something about the game and I made that guide*, text-book example of Dunning–Kruger effect, I guess :^)
*this guide: click


Burn all the orbs!
Last edited by skuadak on Dec 6, 2018, 1:52:59 PM
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skuadak wrote:
Heavily phys. oriented SA was always my favourite skill (together with Frenzy, which was excuse for single target skill and utility skill in this setup). Unfortunatelly, I haven't played PoE for two years, so I can't help you with details, I can only wish you good luck and fun with your build.


No worries mate, thanks for the tip!
So this is a build for next year? /s
If you're going for Frenzy ascendancy, you don't need charge gen elsewhere. If you can find a reliable gen source, you're probably much better off going for full Onslaught and hitting a couple of +frenzy nodes if they're viable.

Poacher's is definitely enough to upkeep Frenzy, but you'll still have to manually charge on bosses which isn't a big deal. If you want to integrate lightning and crit, you can run Herald of Thunder + CoH + Poacher's + Assassin's Mark (dual curse boots). Stick it in Doedre's Scorn for +2 curse gems, 20% elemental damage and 40% damage with hits/ailments on dual-cursed enemies.

Run whatever curse combo you want, charge generation, elemental/phys weakness, bleed. You could also try some mana reserve shenanigans with your Herald.
I have made something like phys/ele SA, it's this character
Take a look and whatever your plans are, don't do the same %). It's solid 2/10 steaming turd build, nothing is working there. Nor tree nor skill setups. The worst is that gear isn't even that bad I think.
(But I'm still figthing, 2 rangers left :)
Burn all the orbs!
Last edited by skuadak on Dec 7, 2018, 9:23:36 AM
Hey, don't know if you still check your thread but I saw this and wanted to let you know that I feel the same way with split arrow, that being said its hard to find support for this unless you go and test it out yourself, I like what you suggested with the raider and frenzy charge setup that I have been trying it out on my own. Im going for a phys/crit bleed setup and the bow I plan to use is The Crimson Storm bow from betrayel. So far leveling has been rough and I have been relying on a bleed siege ballista setup to get me through the bosses. That being said though I am dead set on making this work just like you are so I wish you luck and can't wait to see how you get through this :D

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