Please help clarify Explosive Arrow

I'm looking into scaling the explosion damage from EA and there are several questions that bug me. Maybe because GGG's wording is perplexing, and for a skill with 2 seprate components, putting all the tag in one place on the wiki doesn't help either: Attack, Projectile, AoE, Duration, Fire, Bow. Or it's just me lacking reading skill. I've been browsing multiple topics but none seems to have my exact answer and some even contradict each other. Please help this noob out.

The premise is I wanna scale up the explosion only, not caring about the ignite damage and keep the initial arrow damage as low as possible.. I'm not a meta player, just wanna toy with the build and make big booms, high-end contents are off my limit.

So, here are the questions:

1) Which one of these nodes/modifier does the explosion damage scale with:
a. Precise technique (typical for Attack damage, tested in PoB, seems to add more than 20% of total damage, or maybe my build is just so bricked so it contributes that much)
b. Lavalash (typical for Attack Skills with Fire Damage and Weapon Resistance Penetration, tested in PoB, also seems to add more than 20% of total damage, again perhaps just my bricked build)
c. Primeval Forces (typical for Attack Skills with general Elemental Damage)
c. One with Nature (typical for General Attack Skills)
d. Obscurantis (typical for Projectile Attack Damage)
e. Projectile damage only mods.
f. Aspect of the Eagle (typical for Damage with Bow, but the wording weirds me out by separating Bows and Bow skills)

2) Supposed we have 3 sources of Explosive arrow hitting the same target:
1. My character (using EA on Bow slot)
2. My Ballista totem (which uses a separate EA on Body armour slot)
3. My friend (using EA too)
Do these EA interact with each other at all?

Please share some expert insight. I'm noob.
And GGG, perhaps you guys need a complete skil tag overhaul.
Last edited by cuonganxac#6064 on Jan 18, 2024, 3:41:22 AM
Last bumped on Jan 18, 2024, 11:14:29 AM
99% of the damage comes from the detonation, so let's look at how to scale that.

The explosion is fire damage, so it will scale with Fire Damage and Elemental Damage (such as from Primeval Force). If the skill is used by a Ballista, you can also use Totem Damage (e.g. Watchtowers).

Modifiers such as Increased Damage with Bows will increase the damage of the explosion, but will not scale the resulting ailment (like Ignite) if it inflicts one. That is what the separate modifier "Increased Damage Over Time with Bow Skills" is for (e.g. Farsight).

Lava Lash grants Increased Fire Damage with Attack Skills and therefore scales both the explosion damage as well as resulting hits. Fire Penetration only affects hit damage and does not scale ailment damage.

One with Nature is same as Primeval Force.

Projectile Attack Damage (such as provided by Obscurantis) scales hit damage but not ailment damage.

Aspect of the Eagle grants generic Attack Damage if dealt by a bow. This scales attack damage, but not ailment damage. That is why there's a separate line granting increased damage over time with Bow Skills.

You can stack your up Explosive Arrow from various sources. Each arrow calculates its damage separately and will into account the number of fuses in the target at the trigger point of the detonation. That means that you can have a friend who plays the same build as you and work together. When you reach max fuses it'll trigger a detonation so no damage is lost.

Please note that since each arrow stuck to the target calculates its own damage, if you deal 0 damage yourself (i.e. you use Ancestral Bond keystone), assuming your totems hit 15 times and you hit 5 times, then the 15 totem arrows will deal damage and your 5 won't deal damage. The 15 arrows will however benefit from the total number of fuses.

However! You should aim to reach that number of fuses without having to supplement the amount of arrows by also attacking with your player character. More attack speed scaling will yield vastly better results
The opposite of knowledge is not illiteracy, but the illusion of knowledge.
Beautiful answer, sir. I guess I won't give up on the Lava Lash node just for now. Thank you so much.

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