several questions on building a bow shadow

hi everyone! :)

i've started to play poe since a week and i find that this game is so awesome.
the unique problem is that (in my opinion) needs a lot of theory-crafting to create a strong and efficient build.

for this i want to ask some of you other shadow archer a couple of question.

this is my build for now


1) i've seen that most shadow use chaos inoculation and iron reflex. are those two skills mandatory?

2) my intention are to build my chara around ice shot or lighting arrow.
the passive that i have pick up to deal more physical damage will be useless with this two spells?

3) now i'm level 33 so it can be normal, but i can't regen much mana, so i can't spam spell. how can you achieve that? only with gear?

4) i've picked up piercing shot. with poison arrow (the only arrow spell that i have for now) is useful, but it will be useful with ice shot/lighting arrow too?


every comment and critique on my build is very appreciated :)

no one? :(

"

tufferugli wrote:

hi everyone! :)

i've started to play poe since a week and i find that this game is so awesome.
the unique problem is that (in my opinion) needs a lot of theory-crafting to create a strong and efficient build.

for this i want to ask some of you other shadow archer a couple of question.

this is my build for now

Spoiler

http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYBBbUF-Q5ID6seGiHAIuo2PVYtX-FrJG1sd9SGzohrmyabtaOKpzSn1Kx_sTCzDrVItvfDOsqPzeraZOOE53To1vBC-Vb-yP-T

1) i've seen that most shadow use chaos inoculation and iron reflex. are those two skills mandatory?

2) my intention are to build my chara around ice shot or lighting arrow.
the passive that i have pick up to deal more physical damage will be useless with this two spells?

3) now i'm level 33 so it can be normal, but i can't regen much mana, so i can't spam spell. how can you achieve that? only with gear?

4) i've picked up piercing shot. with poison arrow (the only arrow spell that i have for now) is useful, but it will be useful with ice shot/lighting arrow too?


every comment and critique on my build is very appreciated :)

I will quickly answer some to give you some feedback:

1. Those two skills are not mandatory and you technically do not need to get IR if you are going for CI, especially as you will spend a lot of passive points to get all the way down to IR and since you are ranged and will be focusing on energy shield you should not be needing to stack anything but ES and evasion. If you decide to go health instead of CI then that is also very viable but you need to stack almost every life node you can get your hands on, life should be your primary focus whilst leveling. Later n you can always refund life if you feel you have too much though in this game you can never have too much life :)

2. You should be aiming to pick up as much elemental damage nodes as you can, if those will be your primary focus, also you missed 3 of them near the start of your tree. I also see you have skipped 10 life passive points which will greatly increase your survivability once you get higher level.

3. Mana is one of the issues with the shadow class, you may need to invest in a mana leech gem and link it to your main skill. You can also try and get pieces of gear with mana leech on them too.

4. As I mentioned earlier all the elemental damage nodes will increase your lightning arrow damage. So when it comes to gems you want to consider linking Lightning Arrow with weapon elemental damage and chain along with multiple projectiles or a mana leech gem. And then try to build gear that increase elemental damage. The bow will be very important, if you can get a fast bow with high lightning damage on it, you will do crazy amounts of damage with the gems I mentioned.

Tell what capacity can be increased frenzy charges?

"

kelgar wrote:

Tell what capacity can be increased frenzy charges?

Don't quite understand your phrasing, are you asking what is the max amount of frenzy charges one can have or what do frenzy charges do.

The default max amount is three without any passive points, you can obviously pick up additional max frenzy charges on the passive tree. So it is only limited to how many you can acquire from passives and gear.

"

Desbris wrote:

1. Those two skills are not mandatory and you technically do not need to get IR if you are going for CI, especially as you will spend a lot of passive points to get all the way down to IR and since you are ranged and will be focusing on energy shield you should not be needing to stack anything but ES and evasion. If you decide to go health instead of CI then that is also very viable but you need to stack almost every life node you can get your hands on, life should be your primary focus whilst leveling. Later n you can always refund life if you feel you have too much though in this game you can never have too much life :)

ok, so if one have to choose, ci is better because the skill points needed to reach that node are less, right?

"

Desbris wrote:

2. You should be aiming to pick up as much elemental damage nodes as you can, if those will be your primary focus, also you missed 3 of them near the start of your tree. I also see you have skipped 10 life passive points which will greatly increase your survivability once you get higher level.

i have skipped those because i was alredy thinking to pick chaos inoculation :)

"

Desbris wrote:

3. Mana is one of the issues with the shadow class, you may need to invest in a mana leech gem and link it to your main skill. You can also try and get pieces of gear with mana leech on them too.

so, for a shadow, it's better/easier to invest on the gear for the mana rather on the passive tree, right?

"

Desbris wrote:

4. As I mentioned earlier all the elemental damage nodes will increase your lightning arrow damage. So when it comes to gems you want to consider linking Lightning Arrow with weapon elemental damage and chain along with multiple projectiles or a mana leech gem. And then try to build gear that increase elemental damage. The bow will be very important, if you can get a fast bow with high lightning damage on it, you will do crazy amounts of damage with the gems I mentioned.

ok, if i want to use ice shot or la, elemental damage is more effetcive than pysical damage :)


if i'm not mistaken, i think that mind drinker will not be very effective for this build cause i will deal a lot of elemental damage and very little physical damage, right?



anyway, thank you for the infos and the answers :)

I would suggest going more up toward the witch part of the tree if you want to use elemental shots. As mentioned Shadow can become a bit mana starved without some of the mana giving nodes in witch area and going into rangers doesnt help that much (a little but not as much).


http://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAAAgYB_5MeGtIZ1tEqW7VIbXtVSyaVjDYC_t-EQsNd8nDVwFFwUvPq44QOSKc0EZado_yrf8YnqVptJDynXKKjwfNtGY48F1Qige-PyMwtH0yzBAcfAp6hr5uVBFZKNsXYJKcIna4abBmFJKo26eNq5CIpT-w4GjinhJBVV-IyiXflBLPwHxRNogCCmzCXEGk5in1Ttobd82BtXcZG1-0g4XOLjH5ZFr_a3biTtDj79eUZ6-7FzAU6hK9JUW1sUzU2e8tBcruXlVJTPV-DOJf073w8BZ_f0Dle-hfYh9th4gVb


Something like this is what I am doing. It is a variation on Tys build that he has been using and having good success with. I know some people are not a fan of the nodes that add just cold dmg but I happen to like them :)

Hi Tuff!

You might find the long running discussion Zikkar so kindly mentioned useful. Ive tried just about every build you could think of & more or less rambled about the experience since August.

My current lvl 74 elemental+chain build

A few highlights:

-You dont have to go all or nothing defensively. HP, good resistances & some ES(run Discipline to help) with a dash of armor goes a long way.

-Not relying on CI/ES Delay/ES % nodes frees up a glorious amount of skill points.

-Get Soul Siphon. I go into detail about how to get this early & then refund the nodes in my thread.

-Dont over specialize a particular element. I do however highly recommend the excellent Lightning Walker & Frost Walker passives. Whats not to love?

-Get Chain/Weapon Elemental Damage/Culling Strike ASAP.

-Max quality WED asap. Single highest dps increase available from a support if you spec heavy elemental. Then max Culling. I file this under the non-negotiable do it or you are never going to amount to your capabilities & we will be silently disappointed category.

-Ice Shot with chain & a Deaths Harp is overkill hax with crowd control from Ice Shots chilled.

-This is getting wordy so ima quit for now :)

thank you very much to all of you :)

time to level up my shadow!