[3.16][HC][ON BREAK] Caustic Arrow Raider, DoT Focused | Tanky | 6k+ Health | All Content | In-depth

Low Investment - Level 82/97
High Investment - Level 70/100

These are my suggested passive trees if you want to invest into clusters (it's worth it). Low investment gives good damage increase with close no changes to setup. You will probably need a jewel with corrupted blood immunity and 30% chance to avoid elemental ailments though, or sacrifice some other notables to grab Crystal Skin back.

Heavy investment is also worth it, but you'll have to sacrifice A LOT of defence/QoL to make it work. Other option is to get insane gear to make up for everything... which is possible but not realistic to do. Still, this option remains.

Suggested Cluster Jewels:


Large - 12% increased Chaos Damage / 8 passives
* Wicked Pall (Prefix)
* Unwaveringly Evil (Prefix)
* Unholy Grace (Suffix)

There's not much to do discuss, this is the best possible combination for a large jewel.

Medium - 12% increased Chaos Damage over Time / 4-5 passives
* Any 2 of following notables:
* Offensive - Wicked Pall / Unwaveringly Evil
* Defensive - Flow of Life / Student of Decay
* Utility - Eldritch Inspiration / Brewed for Potency

Medium - 10% increased Damage over Time / 4-5 passives
* Flow of Life
* Brewed for Potency / Student of Decay

Chaos DoT multi has higher damage potential while generic DoT multi is more defensive oriented and easier to craft. All listed notables are roughly equal in power, pick whatever you feel is worth it. All notables are prefixes in medium clusters.

Small cluster jewels and their notables aren't covered because they must have very good mods to be worth your time. Standard non-cluster jewels should be stronger in almost all cases unless you need a specific notable.

Allright, i get it. You dislike Raider for some reason, probably not enough damage. There are alternative ascendancies using the exact same passive tree. Beware, the guide is NOT optimized for these ascendancies.

Starting with the best one:



Trickster
Ascendancy: Patient Reaper -> Prolonged Pain -> Ghost Dance -> Escape Artist
Base passive tree (Level 95)

Highest damage output out of all ascendancy classes. Good survivability against all type of content. Lower speed and QoL compared to Raider.



Pathfinder
Ascendancy: Nature's Reprisal -> Nature's Boon -> Master Alchemist ->
Nature's Adrenaline
Base passive tree (Level 91) - Same as Raider's

Great middle ground between Raider and Trickster. Almost as high damage as Trickster while having elemental ailment immunity like Raider. Flask recharge is incredible as well.



Champion
Ascendancy: Unstoppable Hero -> Fortitude -> Conqueror -> Worthy Foe
Base passive tree (Level 92)

If you hate dying, here's your choice. Perma fortify makes Champion strongest against big hits. Taunt branch is also great for clearing packs of mobs. Low QoL with great defence and decent damage.

You can use Inspirational and First to Strike, Last to Fall nodes instead of Taunt branch. Gives massive conditional damage and defence.



Deadeye
Ascendancy: Gathering Winds -> Occupying Force -> Endless Munitions -> Wind Ward
Base passive tree (Level 91) - Same as Raider's

Good for early mapping thanks to 2 extra arrows. It's main selling point is Occupying Force which is especially powerful for Toxic Rain - if you decide to use it in a second weapon slot. Other than that it's underwhelming in all other aspects. Quite weak defensively.

You can pick Gathering Winds as a 3rd notable instead of 1st if you prefer. Less mobility but much higher single target with Toxic Rain - Mirage Archer levelling setup.

Useful Alternate Quality Gems List
Frenzy - Anomalous - Fires an additional Projectile
Dread Banner - Anomalous - 60% less Skill Effect Duration / Nearby Enemies deal 2% less Damage
Generosity - Divergent - Supported Skills have 100% increased Aura Area of Effect / Supported Skills have 20% reduced Reservation Efficiency
Blink Arrow - Phantasmal - +1 Cooldown Use

All of these alternate qualties are straight upgrades except Blink Arrow maybe. Extra arrow speed reduces time it takes to teleport after all. Extra projectile on Frenzy means more hits per second and you can still easily cancel mid animation. Downside of Dread Banner's alternate quality is nonexistent, since we never place it on the ground. That means 2% less damage is almost free, you do lose a little bit of accuracy debuff strength after all. However it shouldn't be a problem. Divergent Generosity increases Dread Banner reliability so it's absolutely worth it.

Withering Step - Increased Duration

Optional way to apply Wither, which you'll do if enemy enters skill's area for the first time. This requires you to be in medium range to the enemy, ending skill by using another. It's overall different playstyle, but if mastered should be very reliable.

Anomalous Withering Step applies two extra stacks, and you can even combined it with Enhance for up to 4 extra stacks. Mana cost can get hefty quickly though.

Aspect of the Crab is an amazing source of physical mitigation for evasion characters. With very high evade chance numbers it can easily act as permanent 20% physical damage reduction. It's a reservation skill only obtainable through specific unique and beastcrafting. Getting enough mana for reservation might be problematic, but eventually possible.

Determination + Defiance Banner
It's actually possible to get decent amount of armour with this combo, Granite flask + 60% armour during flask effect and hybrid armour/evasion body armour. However it means you'll have to give up Dread Banner and Malevolence. It also requires good gear to reach reasonable armour values. Not ideal, but possible if you don't like dying.

Enlighten support gem reduces the high mana reservation of the auras, allowing for easier mana management. You can link it to Grace, Malevolence and Clarity to increase your unreserved mana pool. It cannot support Aspect of the Crab since it's not a skill gem.

Expensive Cursed Frenzy (GGGGBB):
Frenzy - Barrage Support - Awakened Hextouch - Despair - Additional Accuracy - Culling Strike

A little bit extra power if you have necessary money for it. Culling Strike to finish off bosses. You can also use Enhance instead of Culling Strike or as 6th link, but with how powerful Wither is i don't see a reaon to do so.

Golem: Stone Golem OR Flame Golem OR Chaos Golem

Stone Golem is most useful with his taunt and high flat health regeneration. Flame golem for the damage, Chaos golem if you want to try some phys dmg reduction shenanigans. Golems tend to die quite often in high tier maps and can easily backfire if a boss/group of mobs targets him instead of you. They can still be very useful in early mapping or against labyrith traps (Stone Golem).

Portal Gem

If you have a free gem slot, why not? Pair with Enhance support for extremely fast portals.

Weapons: +3 CA Bow (self-crafting recommended, see crafting section)
Quiver: Life and Resists, in end game Hunter's quiver with DoT multiplier
Armour: Kintsugi


Helmet: Life and Resists, 40% CA Damage OR 30% CA duration enchantment
Boots: Life, Resists and high Movement Speed.
Gloves: Life and Resists


Belt: Life and Resists, Leather / Heavy Belt with Elder mods if possible
Rings: Life and Resists
Amulet: Life and Resists, Agate/Lapis/Marble base preferred, Annoint: Corruption (BBCr)


Flasks: 1-2 Life flasks, 3-4 utility flasks recommended. Flexible, you can use almost anything you want.


Jewels: Life and damage on all of them, very efficient if you have at least 3 good mods.

Notes: High evasion is important. Not as much as life, but use evasion bases if possible.
Aim to have ~160 strength and intelligence, so you can use lvl 20 gems.
It's good to cap elemental weakness curse (109%). X% Mana regen is very good QoL.

The core item of this build.

Caustic Arrow's cloud has very limited options when it comes to increasing it's damage output. Additional levels and crafted mods are the only way to make your bow actually benefit the build in the first place. CA setup socketed inside +3 bow easily increases the damage output by ~50-60% more compared to a normal 6-link.

To make it clear, on the bow we NEED:

* +1 to Level of Socketed Gems (prefix)
* +2 to Level of Socketed Bow Gems (prefix)
* +18-20% Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier (suffix, crafted)

You can also use super budget version with only +2 to Level of Socketed Bow Gems,
it's enough to beat almost any encounter in the game. However i don't recommend settling on that. The more damage, the easier it gets. Crafting +3 bow is not that expensive and massively boosts the damage.

I recommend to self-craft the bow as it's the cheapest way to do so. Plus, you can directly upgrade the +2 6-linked bow into +3 once you acquire currency. Chaos DoT Multiplier doesn't have to be highest level, any tier already gives really good bonus and you can upgrade it as you unlock tiers.

End game version of the bow should also include +35% Damage over Time Multiplier suffix OR +2 additional arrows mod. Former is extra damage to help you out kill end game bosses and is overall a default choice. Latter is a massive QoL and effective AoE increase, suited for comfortable mapping.

Bow crafting is fully covered in crafting section.

Kintsugi
My personal choice of body armour. I use it to mitigate potential oneshots from bosses, and it saved me multiple times in the past. Additional 50% evasion if you get hit is a really nice bonus for mapping. The "20% Less Damage Taken if you've not been hit Recently" also works against degens (LAB TRAPS!) until you've been hit.

Kintsugi is a mandatory end game body armour for Raider. Combined with with very high evasion + dodge, the unique passive acts as 25% more life. It is true for many bosses.

Before you reach the end game, you might want to use Carcass Jack or Cherrubim's for additional DPS. If you're non-Raider ascendancy, you might want to consider Queen of the Forest instead. You will find more explainations below.

Optional Armours:

A rare pierce quiver with life and resistances. Penetrating base is the best but not necessary since we get 3 pierces from tree already.

For map farming you might want Warlord/Shaper influenced quivers. It can roll +1 additional arrow mod which is great QoL and effective AoE increase. With it you don't have to aim very accurately to destroy a monster pack, makes a big difference.

Against end game bosses you'll definitely want Hunter influenced quiver. It has amazing damage potential with up to 51% DoT multiplier gained from two different mods.

Influenced quiver crafting is fully covered in crafting section.

Packed into same category, as you want same thing from all of them:

* Life
* Resistances
* Open Suffix (optional)
* Movement Speed (boots only)

Evasion based preferred, especially the helmet (can achieve really high evasion). Atziri's Step unique boots are amazing defensive option if your resistances allow it. That's pretty much it, what's left is to look at the enchantments:

Gloves: of Spite

Nothing else is useful, really. You can totally ignore the gloves enchantments.

Boots: 8% chance to Spell Dodge if you've taken Spell Damage Recently.

Best late game enchantment. The build is nearly invincible against attacks, but spells still hit quite often. 80% chance to avoid stuns is also a great alternative.

Helmet:
#1 - 30% increased Caustic Arrow Duration
#2 - 40% increased Caustic Arrow Damage

Both are on similar power. In my opinion Duration enchantment and the QoL it gives are more valuable, you should be aiming for it. The latter gives around ~7% more damage, small but welcome upgrade.

Once again, life and resistances. Strength is also a desirable stat. Leather Belt is the best non-Stygian Vyse base, with Heavy Belt being slightly weaker option.

I also have to remind that Elder and Hunter influenced belts are absolutely amazing. They can roll few VERY good mods:

* 8–10% increased maximum Life (Elder/Hunter, prefix)
* 26–30% increased Chaos Damage (Hunter, prefix)
* 16–20% increased Life Recovery rate (Elder, suffix)
* 16–18% to all Elemental Resistances (Elder, suffix)

That's not even all of the good mods. If you ever accumulate enough money to buy/craft it for yourself, i recommend getting one.

Like majority of other gear and little more:

* Life
* Resistances
* Strength and Intelligence
* #% Mana Regeneration

Attributes to reach ~160 requirement for lvl 20/21 gems. Mana regeneration is not necessary, but it's good to have at least ~40% to make it more reliable.

Once you hit the end game, i recommend buying a good Marble amulet. Life regen is really helpful in mitigating degens / small hits.

Amulet Annoinments:
Corruption - Black, Black, Crimson
The default choice due to relatively low cost for high damage boost. There's no better damage node on the passive tree.

Consitution - Golden, Golden, Silver
Discipline - Silver, Silver, Black
Extra survivability is always useful. Former is stronger but also more expensive, latter is cheaper.

This is the setup i run personally and recommend it for everyone. 2 life flasks to quickly heal from 0% to 100% health. 3 utility flasks which you use every ~6 seconds The mods on those flasks allow Raider to achieve 95% evasion even with 40% less evasion from Wind Dancer.

Life flasks - i recommend Bubbling with bleeding removal for emergencies.

Utility flasks - you should use Stibnite and Jade. You NEED 50%+ increased evasion rating on them. They should also have "Reduced Charges" mod, it's undoubtly the best affix for flask uptime in maps. For additional effects, ignite / poison / curse removal and increased evasion rating / movement speed are the only good options. Crafted flask mods are also something to consider on utility flasks. Quicksilver is obviously recommended for extra speed, but is not must have.

Flask setup is flexible, you can adjust it if you like. You can also use mana flask in order to skip Clarity aura. However anti-bleeding life flask and two utility flasks mentioned above are MUST have.

From unique flasks:

* Dying Sun - Ultimate AoE flask. Luxury upgrade to the build, not required, expensive. Uptime on this flask can be problematic, you'll need very good gear to sustain it during mapping.

* Witchfire Brew - Good flask if you start out the build, but as you progress with the build it starts to feel like a dead weight. Especially against bosses, where the flask overrides the Curse on Hit setup and will "delete" the curse once you're out of blasphemy range.

There's not much to discuss, you want any 3 out of these 7 mods on your jewels:

* 5-7% increased maximum life
* 3–4% to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier
* 9–13% increased Chaos Damage
* 10–12% increased Damage over Time
* 10–12% increased Projectile Damage
* 10–12% increased Area Damage
* 8–10% increased Damage

Life on the jewel is especially valued, get it if you can. Getting a jewel with all 4 good mods is kinda impossible, but finding one with 3 mods at once should be easy. Be sure to look out for other mods that can be beneficial for you:

* 14–18% increased Evasion Rating
* 7–13% to Chaos Resistance
* Any resistance / strength / intelligence mods

Watcher's Eye is an expensive jewel you want to acquire once you reach the end game maps. It is incredibly strong both offensively and defensively. Primary mod you would look for is 18-22% Chaos DoT multi while having Malevolence, as it provides around 10-15% more damage. Anything else is just a bonus. Worthwhile mods from strongest to weakest:

* +(18–22)% to Damage over Time Multipliers while affected by Malevolence
* Unaffected by Bleeding while affected by Malevolence
* (8–12)% increased Recovery rate of Life and Energy Shield while affected by Malevolence
* (-5 to -10) to Total Mana Cost of Skills while affected by Clarity
* (10–15)% increased Mana Recovery Rate while affected by Clarity

I've tried to be beginner friendly in this section, but didn't want to write essay either. If you're a veteran, i'm sure you can get all important information without reading guidelines. Please do read the short "Preparing for maps" section anyway.

Gem Progression:

Caustic Arrow - Pierce / Swift Affliction - Void Manipulation - Vicious Projectiles

You'll get Void Manipulation at lvl 8, Vicious Projectiles at lvl 18. Use Pierce Support gem until you pick up pierce nodes on passive tree, around level 40-45. Once you do, use Swift Affliction instead (buy from Siosa).

Toxic Rain - Mirage Archer

Additional utility/damage setup for bosses. Shoot Caustic Arrow, then attack once or twice and repeat. It's quite useful early on when you still lack damage, but you should be able to ditch it around act 4-5.

Wither - Spell Totem - Multiple Totems

Used for additional damage against bosses, can be used starting from level 38. Place and forget, single cast should be enough. You might need little bit of strength/intelligence to use this setup.
Do NOT level up Wither until you reach act 9.

Despair : Curses enemies to increase damage. Use on bosses, tough packs, rares etc.

Dash : Your primary movement skill during levelling
Blink Arrow : Your secondary movement skill, to cross gaps.
Grace : Your levelling aura, grants additional evasion.
Purity of Elements : If you really need resistances. Use instead of Grace if necessary.

Gem Rewards:
* lvl 2 - Caustic Arrow
* lvl 3 - Volley (Medicine Chest side quest)
* lvl 4 - Dash

* lvl 8 - Void Manipulation
* lvl 10 - Blink Arrow
* lvl 12 - Toxic Rain

* lvl 18 - Vicious Projectiles
* lvl 24 - Grace, Despair
* lvl 38 - Barrage

Any gems you don't receive as a quest reward can be bought from Siosa (act 3) or
Lilly (act 6) once you complete their quests. Petarus and Vanja (act 4) also sell Multiple Totems after you enter Belly of the Beast.

Passive Tree Progression:
Level ~9 (Act 1)
Level ~21 (Act 2)
Level ~31 (Act 3)
Level ~45 (Act 4 - 5)
Level ~54 (Act 6 - 7)
Level ~66 (Act 8 - Blood Acqueducts farm)
Level ~71 (Act 9 - 10)

Bandit Reward: Kill all (recommended) OR spare Oak

Ascendancy Order: Rapid Assault -> Avatar of Chase -> Quartz Infusion -> Avatar of Veil

Additional twink gear:
* Silverbranch/Silverbough
* Tabula Rasa
* Goldrim
* Wanderlust
* Hyrri's Bite (Int/Str)
* Karui Ward

Important reminder: Don't forget to level additional CA gems in your weapon slot. They still level even if you don't use them.

General levelling rule: First and most important to remember - when searching for equipment, your priority on them is Life and Resistances. Links are equally as important, be sure to look out for correct socket colors. This applies to all acts.

Act by act guidelines: Preparing for maps:

The area with a long stream of blood is where you'll spend next 1-2 hours. It's a great place to farm experience. Look for gear upgrades and slowly replace your gems to recommended final setups. Before you proceed, you need a Tabula Rasa which you can farm in Blood Acqueducts OR you can buy 5-link bow with ilvl 64, high attack speed base if possible. The second option is better in general. On your newly purchased 5-link you can craft +2 to Level of Socketed Bow Gems with alteration/augmentation orbs. You should roll it within ~100 tries, still a bit RNG dependant. Or you can try buying the 5-link with specified mod already. The 5-link CA setup is:

CA - Vicious Projectiles - Void Manipulation - Swift Affliction - Efficacy

Now you're ready to get into maps. Progress through last 2 acts and face Izaro in merciless Labyrinth before the final fight. After you complete 3rd labyrinth, you should respec 1st frenzy ascedancy node. You can acquire all necessary points from side quests. When you're ready, defeat Kitava once and for all. 4000 life is enough to not get one-shot in both fights.

If you're here, i assume that you have at least lvl ~70 and CA gem lvl 17. Cursed Frenzy setup and Wither Totem should be included in your build as well. If you don't have all of them, you might find single target damage disappointing. This build is dependant on levels, especially if you're starting the league. Don't rush the content.

Before you begin mapping, it's wise to pack as many CA gems to level as possible (if you didn't already). Once they hit lvl 20, you can corrupt them with Vaal orbs for a chance to get lvl 21 gem. You can have up to 10 gems levelling at same time.

White maps:
Passive Tree Progression (level 80) - rush Phase Acrobatics

They shouldn't be a problem at all. Most map mods are trivial, running them blue is completely viable. No real danger outside of few challenging bosses. For this map tier, you have 3 very simple goals:

* 6-linked bow with +2 socketed bow gems (ilvl 64+)
* Correct Flask setup
* Carcass Jack / Cherrubim's Maleficence (optional)

It's possible that you've acquired money for all of them before killing Kitava. If not, simple unid chaos recipe should do the trick. Body armours are optional boost to damage/clear. They're meant to help you early on, only to be replaced once you engage harder content.

Your primary goal right now is acquiring 6-linked bow, it's very simple. Buy ilvl 64+ 6-link bow, then spam alts/augs to roll +2 bow gems (prefix). You should get it within ~100 alts. The links on the bow should look like this:

CA - Vicious Projectiles - Void Manipulation - Swift Affliction - Efficacy - Damage on Full Life

One of the things you should get are flasks with right mods. They're very important. Not having right flasks will heavily affect your survivability. 1 Divine Life Flasks with at bleeding removal, Jade Flask with at least 50% increased evasion and Stibnite Flask. Having these flasks means being evade chance capped.

Yellow maps:
Passive Tree Progression (level 89)

This is where you'll spend quite a lot of time, recommended level is 80-90. This map tier isn't too risky, but some map mods might be deadly without proper defences/damage. Goals for this tier:

* +3 gems 6-linked bow
* Avatar of Veil ascendancy (uber Labyrinth)
* Malevolence aura
* Level 21 CA gem
* 20% quality gems
* General gear upgrades

The +3 bow is the primary goal in yellow maps. You should craft it by yourself, as it's the cheapest way of acquiring one. Check crafting section for full details how to do it.

Once you have proper damage and defences, you can face Izaro inside uber Labyrinth. You will be safe as long as you dodge his attacks, which you should do with ease. Allocate remaining points in phasing path and ignore elemental ailments! Do not forget you need to have phasing/onslaught/maximum frenzy charges in order to gain the immunity.

After you acquire correct flask and only after that, you will be able to switch aura from Grace to Malevolence without hurting your defensive capabilities... If you haven't switched earlier. The new aura gives you significant damage boost.

Around the high tier yellow maps most of your gems will reach level 20. When that happens, the most important part is to vaal your maxed CA gems. Corrupting level 20 gem might increase it to 21, giving you significant damage boost.

Non-CA gems shouldn't be vaaled, quality is much more important on them. You can easily raise it with following vendor recipe (sell to shopkeeper):

Level 20 gem + 1 Gemcutter's Prism = Level 1 gem with 20% quality

It will lower your damage/defence for a short while, but within an hour or two there will be barely any difference at all with higher end game potential.

Do not forget about your other gear, it's equally important. Get more life and resistances, good jewels, CA helmet enchantment and all the other good stuff. Evasion gear is also important In short, upgrade it whenever you need, whenever you can.

Red maps:
Passive Tree Progression (level 94) - rush Crystal Skin

NOTE: Respec Piercing Shots notable and preceding small passive. By now you should definitely wear +1 pierce quiver. Combined with +1 pierce from small passive on the tree, this should be enough to clear reliably all but extremely dense monster packs.

Tier 11+ is where mapping becomes tough. Monsters can hit hard, map bosses become tanky, map mods are huge pain. Your damage should carry you through most maps easily, but the bosses combined with some map mods can be too scary. The 3 following goals of this map tier will fix all these issues tier:

* Wind Dancer keystone AND/OR Kintsugi
* Empower 3/4
* End game crafted gear

In that order. You only need one of the two, should be enough to mitigate majority of oneshots. Kintsugi can be used at any time, but is a quite expensive nowadays. Wind Dancer should only be used when combined with Dread Banner - Generosity combo to maintain 95% evade during mapping. You can still use both if you want to, your call.

Once you upgrade your defences, the next upgrade should be Empower gem. Level 3 is easily enough for majority of the content. Level 4 would be ideal, but it costs massive amounts of money. Price is very high early on and drops over time. Empower replaces Damage on Full Life OR Concentrated Effect, your call.

Lastly you should think about getting end game gear, starting with the bow. The bow is going to be expensive, but it's important for extra clear/damage. Besides that there's a lot of other big and small upgrades you can do. You can never run out of upgrades to make. Head to crafting section for more details.


After that, all you can do now is enjoy the build, kill some end game bosses and look for another build you want to play.

As a rule, you're capable of killing pretty much any boss deathless. Scary red maps, end game bosses, all of them. Some of them are not worth the risk tho. Learn to skip them.
+3 6-linked bow is required.

Awakener:
Suggested gear:
* Atziri's Step with 6/8% spell dodge enchantment
* rare body armour with 10% spell dodge craft
* immunity to Corrupted Blood

Optional gem setup: Blink Arrow - Second Wind OR Flame Dash - Faster Casting

Totally doable without any changes, but extra preparation will give you significantly more room for errors. High spell dodge makes Sirus almost trivial and non-threatening, so get as much as you can. Unfortunately this fight will take a long time if you're using budget gear, especially at awakening level 8.

For gem setups, they aren't necessary if you play smart. Second Wind will again allow you to use Blink Arrow more freely. Flame Dash is overall best movement skill for Sirus or maybe even in general, so that's also an option.

There's many video tutorials for Sirus so i won't explain how to beat him. I'll give a tip instead - save your Blink Arrow for "Die" beam combo. Your high movement speed can deal with everything else.

Uber Elder:
Optional gem setup:
* Enduring Cry
* Aspect of the Crab
Optional Pantheon: Soul of Arakaali (recovery upgrade), Soul of Ralakesh

This is mostly mechanical fight. None of the above setups are required, just allow to make more mistakes and allow to handle the physical degen if you couldn't kill Elder's squids fast enough. Against Shaper balls, i recommend kiting. You're fast enough and playstyle allows for near indefinite kiting by simply running in circles. Everything else depends on your skill. You can do it.

Uber Atziri:
Optional gem setup: Petrified Blood

Thing with Atziri is, that she's mostly a mechanical fight. You can dodge almost anything... until RNG screws you over and you die. It's possible to kill her without getting hit at all (we got lots of speed after all), but you want to be prepared for anything. Petrified Blood gives extra reaction time and slightly reduces overall damage, Kintsugi and Wind Dancer reduce damage by another 20% each. It won't save you from everything, but gives you chance to actually take a single hit and live.

As for Alluring Abyss itself, the zone can be really dangerous. Take it slow, don't tank mobs. It's nothing too hard. Vaals are probably the hardest part to be fair. Trio is pretty easy, see Vaal Temple below.

Vaal Temple: Shouldn't be a problem. Additional speed, double damage mod, temp chains or twinned are probably too risky. Titty bitch -> Dual striker -> Cycloner. You can kite dual striker with Wither totem easily. Beware of Titty bitch's physical blade rain, it's good idea to remain mobile until it's on cooldown (after she casts it).

NOTE: Fossil crafting method is currently the cheapest way to craft +3 bow. It's not 100% reliable, but usually costs only a fraction of classic method in the long run. Should take below 10 attempts to get one.

Fossil crafting:

Classic method:

Useful suffixes you might want on the bow:
* +#% to Fire/Cold/Light/Chaos Resistance
* #% increased Projectile Speed (makes CA feel more responsive)
* +# Life gained on Kill
* #% increased Attack Speed

Bow bases, from best to worst:
* Highest base attack speed OR Maraketh Bow (+10% MS)
* Lowest base attack speed

There are two key mods you want:

* Bow Attacks fire 2 additional Arrows (suffix, ilvl 86)
* +(31–35)% to Damage over Time Multiplier (suffix, ilvl 82)

Unfortunately there's room for only one of them. At the end of the craft you will also have crafted suffix "+(31–35)% to Chaos DoT Multiplier", so choose wisely.

Bow should have Hunter influence in order to craft 3rd useful prefix. If you're spending a lot of money, then spending a little extra for BiS item is recommended. Another option is to use Synthesised bow with "+1 to (Support / Bow / All) Gems". They'll cost significantly more for smaller gain so it's not recommended as a result.

Regardless of what you want to do, you should increase quality of the bow with perfect fossil or Hillock's transportation bench (25%+) and craft 15-18% quality mod. This will increase chance of 6-linking the bow, reducing the overall cost of crafting. Once the bow is 6-linked, proceed to real crafting:

Alt -> Regal Method (DoT Multi OR +2 Arrows)

Hunter mods:
* +1 to Level of all Chaos Skill Gems (prefix, ilvl 82)
* +1 to Level of all Dexterity Skill Gems (prefix, ilvl 82)
* (13–16)% to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier (suffix, ilvl 80)

This amulet is one of the primary reason why +5 bows aren't recommended. If you're about to craft this, prepare for A LOT of currency wasted. Crafting an amulet with all 3 of those mods and good life is going to be close to impossible. Settling on any 2 of those should be enough, but even then it'll cost a lot of money and time.

As always Alt -> Regal method should be the most reliable way to craft. For more random approach you can try spamming Aberrant fossils and hope to get something decent for cheap.

Alt -> Regal method

Fossil crafting

You want these following mods:
* +(21–25)% to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier (Hunter suffix, ilvl 82)
* +(16–18)% to Damage over Time Multiplier (suffix, ilvl 80)
* Projectiles Pierce an additional Target (Hunter prefix, ilvl 75)

First two mods are quite obvious and what you should be chasing for. Extra pierce is also worth mentioning, since with Penetrating base you can get total +2 arrows on a quiver. You could then respec pierce nodes from the passive tree. However getting all mods simultaneously is unlikely.

I highly recommend Alt -> Regal method since it's cheap and above all - reliable. You will get what you want eventually, but chance of getting ridiculous quiver is slim. Fossil crafting should be used only if you have a lot of currency to spare.

Alt -> Regal Crafting Method

Fossil Crafting Method

Other useful mods you might want on the quiver:
* Bow Attacks fire an additional Arrow (Shaper/Warlord influence, ilvl 80)
* +#% to Fire/Cold/Light/Chaos Resistance
* #% increased Projectile Speed (makes CA feel more responsive)
* +# Life gained on Kill
* #% increased Attack Speed
* Projectiles Pierce 2 Additional Targets (Essence of Insanity)

Hunter Belt
Fossil method: Pristine + Aberrant (optional)

Influenced mods:
* 8–10% increased maximum Life (Hunter/Elder)
* 26-30% increased Chaos Damage (Hunter)
* You take (21–30)% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes (Warlord/Shaper)
* +(16–18)% to all Elemental Resistances (Elder)
* (16–20)% increased Life Recovery rate (Elder)

Crafted mods:
* 15–17% increased Damage
* 2% of Life Regenerated per second during any Flask Effect

With this method it's insanely easy to roll a decent belt in ~10-20 tries. Pristine fossil removes majority of bad mods and makes rolling Life mods really common. Aberrant is used to improve chances for chaos damage mod.

Influenced Ring
Crafting method: Chaos Orb spamming
Harvest method: Caster reforge
Fossil method: Aetheric + Pristine (optional)

Influenced mods:
* (30–35)% reduced Effect of Curses on you (Shaper/Crusader, ilvl 75 suffix)
* +(2–3)% chance to Evade Attacks (Elder, ilvl 68 suffix)

Crafted mods:
* 15–17% increased Damage
* 13–16% increased Chaos Damage

Reduced Curse effect is the best use of the ring slot now. Curses (map mod specifically) cannot be easily countered, this is one of the few ways to. You can also craft rings with additional Evade chance, but that shouldn't be necessary. Overall crafting rings can easily drive you insane due to insane mod pool preventing you from rolling multiple good modifiers. Best to leave it for later.

Body Armour
Vaal implicits:
* You take 50% reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes
* (40–50)% increased Damage
* +1% to all maximum Resistances
* (4–6)% increased maximum Life

Considering we're using unique body armour and don't need it 6-linked, this is a great opportunity to acquire very powerful vaal implicits.

Both 40-50% damage and 50% reduced crit damage mods are chase mods, for offensive / defensive purposes respectively. Next up is +1% to maximum resistances, in short it reduces elemental damage by a small but in reality significant amount. 4-6% max life is always good to have if you don't have anything better.

Hunter Helmet
Crafting method: Alt -> Regal -> Multimod
Essence method: Screaming/Shrieking Essence of Greed
Fossil method #1: Aberrant
Fossil method #2: Pristine + Aberrant (opt)

Influenced mods:
* Nearby Enemies have -9% to Chaos Resistance (Hunter, ilvl 85 suffix)

Crafted mods:
* (18-21)% increased Evasion Rating / +(12–14) to maximum Life
* Projectiles Pierce an additional Target / +1 to Level of Socketed Projectile Gems
* 7–8% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire Damage

With limited ways to reduce enemy's resistances, this mod is a huge damage boost. This is especially true in chaos resistant maps and against bosses. I think single fossil spam is the best choice. Aberrant for highest chance of rolling the mod or Pristine so once you hit the mod, it's likely to be a decent helmet. I suggest the former.

Elder/Hunter Gloves
Crafting method: Alt -> Regal -> Multimod
Fossil method #1: Aberrant + Pristine (opt) + Aetheric (opt)
Fossil method #2: Aetheric + Metallic (opt) + Pristine/Aberrant (opt)

Influenced mods:
* (13–16)% to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier (Elder/Hunter, ilvl 80 suffix)
* (7–10)% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Kill (Elder/Redeemer, ilvl 84/80 prefix)

Crafted mods:
* (18-21)% increased Evasion Rating / +(12–14) to maximum Life
* (24–28)% increased Damage during any Flask Effect
* Projectiles Pierce an additional Target / +1 to Level of Socketed Projectile Gems

If you only want DoT multiplier, then Hunter is easier to roll. Elder if you want charges on kill as well, which is awesome QoL in general.

Alt -> Regal method always works in the long run if you want deterministically get something really good but not the best.

First fossil method focuses on crafting chaos DoT multiplier with optional bonus Aetheric to increase chances of rolling frenzy on kill mod.

The second fossil method is aimed for the latter mod. Aetheric and Metallic block bad prefixes from spawning. Pristine as always for higher chance of rolling life mods and removing defence mods. Aberrant for higher chance of rolling chaos DoT multi.

Elder Boots
Crafting method #1: Chaos Orb spamming
Crafting method #2: Alt -> Regal -> Multimod
Essence method: Screaming/Shrieking Essence of Greed
Fossil method: Pristine + Dense (optional)

Influenced mods:
* (7–10)% chance to gain an Endurance Charge on Kill (Elder/Redeemer, ilvl 83/80 prefix)
* (9–10)% chance to Dodge Spell Damage (Elder/Redeemer, ilvl 83/80 suffix)

Crafted mods:
* (18-21)% increased Evasion Rating / +(12–14) to maximum Life
* (20–24)% increased Movement Speed
* (17–20)% increased Movement Speed / (6–9)% increased Movement Speed if you haven't been Hit Recently

Elder influence is easier to roll in general.

Great defensive craft. There's no tricks to easily craft these unfortunately. I suggest chaos spam or alt -> regal if you have something specific in mind. High life, desired mod and movement speed/open prefix are the key mods. 20%+ MS can be crafted, it's enough for the build. Essences will guarantee high life roll, but might be really costly.

You can also use fossils if you only care about endurance charge on kill. It'll remove nearly all prefixes (elder), making it somewhat easy to hit movement speed and charges. Craft 70 life / movement speed mod afterwards.

Jewels / Abyssal Jewels
Crafting method: Alt -> Regal
Fossil method: Aberrant + Pristine (opt)

Jewels have a really high pool of mods, so prepare for a lot of failed attempts. Just keep spamming Aberrants until you hit 5-7% maximum life. Adding Pristine is probably not worth it, however it will make crafting easier for sure.

Flasks
Crafted mods:
* 3% of Life Regenerated per second during Flask Effect
* (20–25)% reduced Mana Cost of Skills during Flask Effect
* 50% Chance to avoid being Stunned during Flask Effect

There's not much to say. All 3 of those mods can be really, really good. 3% Life regen is amazing, equals ~2 mods on gear. Mana cost reduction should solve any mana problems during mapping. Stun avoidance can potentially save your life if you receive a heavy hit. These mods can only be acquired by unveiling unique flask that drops only from Syndicate Mastermind.

I should probably mention, use Beastcrafting for easy Warding/Staunching mods on your flasks. Simply roll a right prefix and finish it off in menagerie.

* Minor adjustments everywhere i guess? I bet i've messed up somewhere.

* Better formatting for the guide, second wave (colors in big sections, i guess?) ON HOLD, kinda looked bad when i tried. Maybe later.

* How about you finally do that video guide?

* Proof read every single time there's a new big update.