+6 skills poison arrow

I think this is what I will be heading for in terms of my build, I know there is too many points, but I haven't decided what to do fully. The extra burning damage would be great for fire traps, but I may not need it with a high level poison arrow.

May not even be worth getting the extra frenzy charge either, but this is just a fun build, not going for super tanky, just for kiting and trap tricks. Multitrap with bear traps is great for stopping mobs from chasing you.



The dexterity from the tree is low (104), but using the Blood Dance (+30-40) and Atziri's Foible (-25% requirement) will let you use a Thicket bow (requires 179 = 135 with Atziri's).

Alright, so I've been thinking about exactly how to augment Poison Arrow if generic damage modifiers ever apply to it. It seems this would be optimal:

• Increased Duration
• Empower
• Trap
• Concentrated Effect
• Blood Magic/Reduced Mana (20%)

The major differences in this case are the introductions of Trap and Concentrated Effect. Both provide heavy generic damage modifiers that, together, amplify the skill greatly. In fact when both at level 21 (considering the +1 to Gems modifier), they'd provide 138% more damage. That's huge.

There would also be a gear changes that optimize the build further. For example, instead of employing Death's Oath, Carcass Jack would be superior. The reason being that it lets one negate the drawback of Concentrated Effect and also provides increased area damage.

There's also Le Heup of All, which provides up to 20% increased damage. I would suggest only using one, but as it is a ring, you can wield two.

So considering the use of this tree route, here's how much a level 26 Poison Arrow could viably have:

"

40% increased damage (Le Heup of All - x1, Blast Radius, Carcass Jack)
40% more damage (Trap - Level 21)
70% more damage (Concentrated Effect - Level 21)

1553.6 * 1.4 * 1.7 * 1.4 = 5176.5952, rounded down to 5176

Now to apply external modifiers to see how much it can viably deal:

"

40% more damage from Damage Over Time effects (Vulnerability)
120% increased damage taken (Shock - x3), 135% when the enemy is on low life (The Blood Dance - 5x Frenzy Charges)

5176 * 1.4 * 2.2 = 15942.08
5176 * 1.4 * 2.35 = 17029.04 when the enemy is on low life

17029.04 - 15942.08 = 1086.96
1086.96 * 0.35 = 380.436
15942.08 + 380.436 = 16322.516

16.3K isn't bad-- it isn't bad at all! Of course it's after the use of 3-5 skills, but it's certainly substantial considering how effective Chaos damage is compared to other damage types, the coverage of the skill, and its duration.

And as we all know, during that duration one can stack Viper Strike on top. I'll write up its damage potential with this build as well if anyone's interested.

I think that this build might be even stronger in the upcoming leagues. Creating a critical strike build centered around posion arrow may seem pointless at the moment, but I strongly believe that the new trigger support gems will bring this build to a whole new level.
Curse on hit is obviously awesome for nearly every current build out there. However, cast on crit may be even more powerful. I guess the supported skill will be casted at the location where the critical hit is applied. You could apply shock stacks with shock nova from a safe distance that way. You could also link summons skeletons to it and keep the mobs under your cloud that way while you skeles distract them.

I am curious if anyone is already using this build (+6 PA) in higher level areas? I am really interested if it is any good. My first char when I got CB access was a PA ranger and it was fairly strong back then, however, whenever I tried to play a PA char recently it turned out disappointingly weak.

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kruemel2222 wrote:

I am curious if anyone is already using this build (+6 PA) in higher level areas? I am really interested if it is any good. My first char when I got CB access was a PA ranger and it was fairly strong back then, however, whenever I tried to play a PA char recently it turned out disappointingly weak.

Soloing maps works fine, I spread out poison in multiple areas. This is on onslaught mind you, so they move even faster, that is about the only challenge I have is I kite and have to lay more poison, slow mobs just die easily.

I'm only lvl 72 now, but can solo piety on onslaught as well. I'm going to make some changes however in the future. I only have a lvl 20 poison arrow though, so the damage should be great if I had a higher level empower and a max PA.

Some interesting ideas in this thread, I think the artic armor could be quite powerful with the kiting aspect of this build. Anyone use artic armor with blood magic?

I doubt trap or ce effect the poison clouds though, but could be interesting if you could augment it and turn it into a trap build.

I also had that new trapper belt but sold mine for 2.5 ex, figured if I kept it I would try to make a full trapper build.

I made a short video showing my build in action at level 62 in Merciless. The quality isn't the best so watch it in 720+ if you can.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbkZC-OfJAU&feature=youtu.be

Build breakdown: http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/537002/page/1#p4825157

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kruemel2222 wrote:

I am curious if anyone is already using this build (+6 PA) in higher level areas? I am really interested if it is any good. My first char when I got CB access was a PA ranger and it was fairly strong back then, however, whenever I tried to play a PA char recently it turned out disappointingly weak.

I didn't have +6 PA, but my Onslaught character was level 73 with only a +2 to PA bow and a level 16-17? PA and could solo the lower maps fine. Chaos resistant mobs was the only terrible part and would take forever. In my opinion, that is one of the biggest drawbacks of this build. The playstyle is a little different but I wasn't too disappointed. I just wish I had any sort of tool to deal with chaos resistant mobs. I would have continued but my school term started so I left the character there, but I was pretty sure I could have gone all the way!

In groups, it's a completely different story, I felt kind of useless in them.

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SEOINAGE wrote:

I doubt trap or ce effect the poison clouds though, but could be interesting if you could augment it and turn it into a trap build.

They don't. My post was just detailing what I would do to augment Poison Arrow if generic damage modifiers are changed to also apply to degeneration/damage over time.

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Iao wrote:

"

SEOINAGE wrote:

I doubt trap or ce effect the poison clouds though, but could be interesting if you could augment it and turn it into a trap build.

They don't. My post was just detailing what I would do to augment Poison Arrow if generic damage modifiers are changed to also apply to degeneration/damage over time.

Before I ever touched PA conc effect worked on it, and everyone used it, quite overpowered, but better than now no one uses it.

If I could do anything I would revert it back to when it applied a debuff. Then I wouldn't be dealing with the fast onslaught mobs running out of it so quick. Pop it on them and take off and know they'll die no matter what.

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kruemel2222 wrote:

I am curious if anyone is already using this build (+6 PA) in higher level areas? I am really interested if it is any good. My first char when I got CB access was a PA ranger and it was fairly strong back then, however, whenever I tried to play a PA char recently it turned out disappointingly weak.

I currently use a level 22 Poison Arrow and the damage is pretty good when playing solo and scaling it with Vulnerability and proliferating Shock. I have run up to level 72 maps, but it'd just take too long if I try to do any higher.

Poison Arrow's damage increases about 75% from level 22 to 26, which is obviously quite a large boost in power. It'd probably be pretty great in most maps.

As Hrishi said, Chaos resistant mobs are probably the worst part about the build. Chaos damage is a lot like elemental damage except for the fact that you can't reduce or bypass the enemies' resistances.

And contrary to common belief, there is quite a lot of Chaos resistant enemies. It's okay while progressing through the game, but in maps it's pretty annoying.

Empower provided a boost allowing it to get it closer to the power of other skills, but there is still no way of dealing with enemies' defenses like there is with the other damage types. The only thing one can do is amplify the damage with the few ways one can.