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

There are two basic trees you can use:

Level 93 - Base passive tree

This is the recommended path for majority of the players, focuses on scaling Caustic Arrow only. Budget and beginner friendly. Guide will be focused on this tree.

The Frenzy ascendancy branch is later changed to Onslaught branch for defensive purpose.
If you've reached level 93 using this tree, start picking up closest jewel slots.

Level 96 - Classic tree

Old school tree for experienced players. Focuses on generic chaos/DoT increases to scale Caustic Arrow and Essence Drain. The latter skill is used in second weapon slot to further increase damage output. This playstyle has it's own section at the end of the guide's main post. Beware, it's really expensive.


Bandit Reward: Oak (recommended) OR 2 passive points

Ascendancy: Avatar of Veil (Phasing) + Avatar of Slaughter/Chase (Frenzy/Onslaught)

Frenzy path is default. Reliable, standalone, easy to gear up. Always start a character with it.

Onslaught path is very strong end game option. Best used for pure mapping, but it still works great against end game bosses. Slightly more expensive, optional, lvl 90+ only.


Other Ascendancy Classes

Major God: Soul of Lunaris

Nuff said, straight up has the best synergy with the build. Others barely do anything except few specific cases.

Minor God: Soul of Shakari OR Ryslatha OR Garukhan

All three of them are pretty good, but my personal favorite is Shakari. Having full ailment immunity simply feels great. Use it only if you upgraded it.

Ryslatha is 2nd most useful minor god, i use it for any end game boss encounter. It's great for labyrinth as well and overall best choice if you don't want to look at pantheon ever again.

Garukhan is also great option for defence during mapping. Additional evade chance is very powerful combined with high evasion.

Main Skill (GGGGBR):
Caustic Arrow - Void Manipulation - Swift Affliction - Vicious Projectiles - Concentrated Effect
6th Link: Damage on Full Life OR Empower lvl 3/4

Your primary damage setup. First 3 support gems have no real downsides and should always be included in the build. Conc Effect and Damage on Full Life have downsides, which one you prefer is up to you (i recommend first one). Empower has no downside but requires level 3 or 4 to be worth using. Costs a lot of money or time.

In case you feel that your damage good enough, you can use Greater Multiple Projectiles for clearing instead of Swift Affliction.

Wither Totem (BBRR):
Wither - Faster Casting - Spell Totem - Increased Duration

Free 90% more damage against bosses. Place the totem and let it do the work. It also slows their movement speed, so keep that in mind against some bosses.

Cursing Setup (GGBB):
Frenzy - Greater Multiple Projectiles - Curse on Hit - Despair

Use it to curse tanky rares, bosses and whenever you need to refresh your frenzy charge duration.

CWDT Immortal Call (RRR):
Cast when Damage Taken lvl 3 - Immortal Call lvl 5 - Increased Duration lvl 20

Standard CWDT setup. Immortal Call is useful against random bleeding from bosses / lab traps. Not a mandatory setup, but very much recommended.

Aura: Grace / Vaal Grace

Grace gives huge amount of additional evasion. Vaal Grace allows us to cap Dodge / Spell dodge, and is best used during abyss/breaches/harbingers etc. Vaal Grace can be linked with CWDT Immortal Call setup for longer aura duration, it will not trigger automatically but still benefit from Increased Duration.

Movement Skill: Blink Arrow

These are the only mandatory gems and we still got 5 free gem slots. How you fill the rest of them is your choice.

Optional Setups

My current gear / TL;DR:

Below you will find the gear explained in-depth. Piece by piece.

+3 CA Bow

+3 ED Staff (Classic)

Armour

Quiver

Helmet, Gloves and Boots

Belt

Rings and Amulet

Flasks

Jewels

Caustic Arrow levelling (Act 1-10)

Toxic Rain levelling (Act 1-10 + twink speedrun):

Early Mapping

End Game Mapping / Onslaught path

End Game Bosses/Maps Guide

As i already mentioned before, we can run pretty much anything... within common sense. So no Twinned Core with LMP + Turbo + -10% max res + 2x 100% bonus ele dmg, or anything like this. We're not immortal RF guardian.

I only mention actual deadly mods that you really gotta watch out for. Triple increased damage and stuff is obvious anyway.

Dangerous mods:

* Player Dodge chance is Unlucky / Monsters have #% increased Accuracy Rating
This is actually one of the hardest mods. Very noticeable in high tier maps or breaches etc. Onslaught path negates the problems for the most part, but frenzy path is going to have hard times.

* Monsters have #% increased Critical Strike Chance / +#% to Monster Critical Strike Multiplier
With high evasion, attack should almost never crit you. Spell on the other hand can still hit hard.

* Monsters fire 2 additional Projectiles
Scary mod on some bosses and monster types. Some monsters are still able to shotgun, like few new Oriath monsters.

* Area contains two Unique Bosses
This is dangerous mod in some maps as you know. You should be able to do majority of them quite easily. Some can be done safely only with enough damage.

* #% increased Monster Movement Speed / #% increased Monster Attack Speed / #% increased Monster Cast Speed
Speed might be deadly in some boss encounters. The faster boss is, the less damage you deal and the more time you spend kiting him. With temp chains + speed you might not be able to kite at all. Watch out for such combos.

* Players are Cursed with Vulnerability
Negated during mapping thanks to warding flask, but not against bosses. Can be very deadly if you receive bleeding.

* Players are Cursed with Temporal Chains
Not a problem most of the time, but worth mentioning. Mod can be easily negated by Timetwist ring, if you're against a tough boss.

* Players cannot Regenerate Life, Mana or Energy Shield
Not a deadly mod, but worth mentioning. You can do it easily. The key is to run through map quickly, queue up as much mana from Divination (spam flasks, don't let mana reach max limit) and confront the boss. Unless it's a tanky/staged one, you should kill him before your mana runs out


Besides that, typical damage mod combinations shouldn't be understimated. Everything applies like to every other build out there.

With CA changes in 3.4 it's no longer necessary to use additional ED setup in 2nd weapon slot. The opportunity cost is now too high for the benefits you get, but it's still possible. You can squeeze ~55% more damage that way. (or ~40% with +3 7-link bow)

Pros:
* Higher damage output
* Higher life regen
* Easier to acquire Intelligence (it's something!)
* Awesome active playstyle (warning: personal opinion)

Cons:
* Incredibly expensive (but not as much as +3 7-link bow)
* Slightly less life (~10%)
* Significant gear limitations
* Might be too mechanically intensive for some people

If it's worth trying using it, it's up to you to decide. If you're still interested, read further:

What changes compared to normal build:
* +3 Chaos Staff in weapon swap, Essence Drain setup
* No elemental resistances on Bow/Quiver - otherwise your resists might be negative after you swap weapons
* Level 96 - Classic tree - Huge changes on passive tree. Focused on scaling DoT/Chaos/Global damage through tree and jewels to benefit both CA and ED.

* Speaking of jewels, there are only 4 mods that truly benefit this build. %max Life and DoT/Chaos/Global damage increases. Much harder to acquire them
* Must use Wither Totem, cannot use Wither Rain (MA disappears on weapon swap)
* Skill Effect Duration nodes are NECESSARY for this build to work.

Two more things:
1 - Keep in mind that you can deal damage with both of the skills at same time. CA's cloud doesn't disappear after you switch weapon, same goes to ED's DoT debuff after it hits the enemy.

2 - ED projectile has to hit enemy while you wield Staff, otherwise it flies through enemy like nothing happened.

That's about it. These might appear trivial but it's a massive difference in gearing up. I don't think i need to explain playstyle, check out one of my 3.2 videos. The only difference is that in 3.4 CA's duration is going to be short and ED's is going to be long.

Have fun

Uber Elder deathless - requires a lot phys degen mitigation to be possible.

Shaper kill - Pretty easy with correct gem setup

Chayula's Domain clear - on the razor's edge. Timer part is hard, boss himself can be lethal.

Uber Atziri - deathless despite lots of mistakes. Working on more reliable way to tank mini-flameblasts and stormcalls atm.

T16 Vaal Temple

T15 Elder

T16 Shaper Guardians:
Minotaur / Phoenix / Chimera / Hydra

Elder Guardians:
T12 Constrictor / T13 Purifier / T15 Enslaver / T13 Eradicator

T15 Sunken City / Turbo + Dmg

T15 Basilica

T11 Waterways / No regen - example how you run that mod, more or less

Hall of Grandmasters, 5 runs - after learning what to watch out for, it's actually quite easy. It's good idea to wear Brass Dome / Ahn's Contempt for this map (Danzig almost oneshots, almost)

Uber Lab, full key run

All videos from 3.1 patch, frenzy path

This league introduced Azurite Mine. Unlike maps, it scales infinitely and pushing it's limits requires a different strategy than you would normally do.

This section will help you improve your setup to get as low as you possibly can. It also covers fossil crafting and what mods you should aim for.

Monsters

Equipment

Fossil Crafting

PoB code:
https://pastebin.com/s7vQSea7

This PoB is based on my character from Bestiary HC league. Some items are slightly different from the original for easier damage calculation and recommended gem setup. It also has CA+ED Tooltip bow for classic version of this build.

It features 8 different skill trees, Raider Frenzy is default. You can change them at any time for quick comparison. Number indicates required level for that tree. You have to change bandits manually, Oak is default.

In Calcs tab, "In Combat" calculation shows tooltip dps. "Effective DPS" shows fully buffed damage with 15 stacks of Wither and Despair.

Tooltips (if you don't use PoB)

One of the perks of Caustic Arrow, being able to go MF. You should be using any of the Ranger's ascendancies for that purpose, other ascendancies aren't nearly as good. Let's get started:

Pool of MF Items:
* Divination Distillate (always used)
* Ventor's Gamble
* Bisco's Collar
* Sadima's Touch
* Greed's Embrace
* Shaper IIQ Amulet
* Rare IIR Jewellery

There are few MF items i didn't list. I have a very good reason for that, it's called opportunity cost. Items like Perandus Blazon just don't give enough benefits to justify wasting important life/resistance slot for them. Goldwyrm is great, but it's 60% increased mana regen will make Divination Distillate upkeep impossible.

I've prepared 3 setups for most common cases:


Semi-MF
Items: 2x Ventor's, IIQ Amulet
Max IIQ: 48%
Max IIR: 170%

The optimal setup that allows you to clear all content without neglecting your defences too much. You can be Ele Weakness capped, don't lose too much life and still use Kintsugi. This is what i personally recommend if you want to go MF.

Unfortunately, finding good Ventor's Gamble and IIQ amulet is going to be expensive. However, with Divination Distillate it's a perfect mix of decent IIQ and IIR.

Don't forget about ~60% mana regen from gear, you'll most likely need to have it on amulet.


Full MF
Items: 2x Ventor's, Sadima's Touch, Greed's Embrace, IIQ Amulet OR Bisco's
Max IIQ: 79% / 79% + 50% Bisco's
Max IIR: 220% / 220% + 150% Bisco's

Recommended full MF setup. High IIQ with a very decent IIR number. You should still have decent health and defense despite everything. Unfortunately it will have low movement speed. You should use Chemist's Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline to counter that.

This setup isn't suited for running high tier maps. It might be hard to cap ele weakness, lower HP pool, no Kintsugi, lower evasion. You can try it, but i can't guarantee your safety.

It's a mapping setup, don't try T16s or any hard bosses. You get 60% mana regen from Goldwyrm so you don't need it on jewellery.


Cheap MF
Items: IIR Jewellery, Sadima's Touch, Greed's Embrace
Max IIQ: 49%
Max IIR: ~200%

In case you don't have money or want to invest a lot. Should be relatively cheap. Same potential as semi-MF, but inherits downsides of full MF. Just read the full MF setup for info.

How to craft your own +3 bow / staff, +3 elder bow / quiver. To remind:

Magic items can have 2 affixes: 1 prefix and 1 suffix
Rare items can have 6 affixes: 3 prefixes, 3 suffixes
To check what mod is prefix or suffix, enable Advanced Mod Descriptions in game (Options -> UI)

Additional resources:
Poeaffix.net
PoEDB.tw

In case your masters don't have required level for crafting, ask a trusted mastercrafter. You can find them on forums under Trading -> [your league] - Shops. They'll require a small fee for their services. Example of a mastercrafter

+3 Bow crafting

+3 Chaos Staff crafting (Classic Build)

Elder/Shaper Quiver crafting

+3 Elder Bow crafting

Chase Shaper/Elder/Vaal mods

Q: Is this build good for a new player?
A: Yes. Assuming you understand basics of Path of Exile, this build should carry you through whole content. Caustic Arrow is really strong right now and that means forgiving, allowing you to be slightly inefficient and still have a great time.

Q: How about Mirage Archer?
A: Mirage Archer has few very annoying flaws for general mapping. It messes up flask uptime and doesn't even contribute to clear speed that much. It has troubles clearing a whole pack of monsters too, so you will end up attacking afterwards anyway. With that in mind,
Greater Multiple Projectiles is simply better.

However, Mirage Archer has few good uses. If you disconnect often, it might save your life by killing monsters during 6 second period. It's really good for maps with "Cannot regenerate" mod. You should also use it for speedrunning through zones, when you only want to refill the flask charges on the way (act carries/labyrinth/prophecy farming etc.)

Q: How about additional Toxic Rain setup?
A: Not possible. Toxic Rain has huge mana consumption that has no place in a build with subtle mana balancing for Div Distillate purposes. It just doesn't click. If you want additional damage, take a look at classic CA+ED build.

Q: How about scaling Herald of Agony minion?
A: This build does not focus on poison and therefore Herald of Agony isn't going to be very reliable or powerful tool. The opportunity cost is simply too high.

Primary issues are virulence stack generation and high mana reservation cost (4-link+) or underwhelming damage (3-link or worse). You can convert the build to include the scorpion, but it's not worth it at all.

Q: How about Abyssal Cry?
A: You won't need it for clearing monsters quickly. Only useful for Null Portals or some bosses with adds, but that shouldn't be necessary.

Q: What is Caustic Arrow's cloud scaling with?
A: It's a degeneration area that scales off DoT / chaos / projectile / area / global damage increases. It's not a poison and doesn't scale with it.

It's not an attack itself, but the gem has an attack tag allowing it to be scaled with chaos / DoT increases with attack/bow skills. I know it's a bit confusing, but it's exactly what i said.

Q: Why don't you pick X node on the passive tree?
A: Because jewels are better, period. I provide level 93 tree that's as efficient as possible, many people won't even reach it. If you're above that level, it probably means you have resources to make or buy good jewels that will be worth using over the nodes you have in mind.

Q: What do you think about Impresence amulet? What about Despair aura?
A: It's a good amulet that's usually quite expensive. It's main attribute is 0 mana reservation for Despair and really good stats. However it's not worth it's cost. Everything should be dead before it gets into range of Despair Aura. For bosses we use Curse on Hit setup.

The stats on amulet are good but it's possible to craft better one with Essence of Envy on better base.

Q: Why do you link Vaal Grace with CWDT? You can't trigger it!
A: It's linked so it can benefit from Increased Duration. You save one gem slot that way. CWDT won't trigger Vaal Grace, and that's for the better. It's best to manually activate it when you need it the most.

Q: How do you maintain Divination Distillate uptime?
A: Shoot CA, use utility + MF flasks, shoot again if mana regen is high enough. You get full benefit and refill flask charges that way. The only problem you can have is mana regen balancing.

Before you have a 6-linked CA with high attack speed, it's really tricky or even impossible to maintain Divination uptime. In case you have problem with not enough mana regen, then use Clarity / 20% quality on MF flask / shoot less often / get mana regen on ring.

Q: Why do you take Master of the Arena node on passive tree?
A: For life regen and little bit of strength. Life regen is great for mitigating small degens for DoFL and defensive purposes. Strength for easier gearing and that little bit of life you get.

Q: I have troubles progressing through acts / maps, what can i do?
A: Get more life and resists on gear, that's the most common answer to this question. If you've followed the guide, the damage shouldn't be a problem at all. That's true especially in maps.

Not having enough defense is a common mistake among new players. All you gotta do is buy or find gear with high life and/or resistances on them. 75% resists is pretty much required starting from act 5. When it comes to life, the more the better.

Q: Is it good for party play?
A: Should be OK for ~3 man party. 5-6 is doable but not that great.

=====
These are questions i've been asked a lot by random people i've spoke to in game. Keep more questions coming.

To do list (for myself mostly)
December 2nd, 2018
Videos:
* Added 4 new Shaper Guardians videos: Minotaur / Phoenix / Chimera / Hydra
* Added T16 Shaped Scriptorium

December 1st, 2018
General:
* Fixed few typos i've found

FAQ:
* Added new question: "How about additional Toxic Rain setup?"
* Rewritten "How about Mirage Archer?" to be easier to understand.
* Changed "How about scaling Herald of Agony minion?" to reflect my current view on it. No longer gives instructions how to include it in build since it's definitely not worth it.

November 17th, 2018
Levelling and Progression:
* Added bandit rewards in levelling sections for easier reference.

November 8th, 2018
General:
* Added image headliners for all sections
* To do list is now merged with changelog.

October 28th, 2018
Delve League:
* Added new shaped quiver fossil crafting method - Serrated instead of Pristine for higher chance of hitting +1 arrow.

Crafting Section:
* Elder bow crafting received minor improvements/fixes

October 11th, 2018
Crafting Section:
* +3 Bow fossil crafting now has a proper text guide
* +3 Elder Bow fossil crafting now has a proper text guide
* Minor fixes / adjustments in both bow crafting sections.

October 8th, 2018
Equipment:
* Added warning to avoid X% mana regen on gears in TL;DR and Jewellery.
* Removed Leo's DoT from +3 bow section, since it's no longer a must have.

Crafting Section:
* Useful Shaper/Elder/Vaal mods dump completely revamped and it's name is changed
* It lists "Chase Shaper/Elder/Vaal mods" that you might want to include in your build.

FAQ:
* Updated some questions to include my current opinion / knowledge on them.
* Added new question: "Why don't you pick X node on the passive tree?"

September 30th, 2018
Delve League:
* 2 new encounters added to Monster section.
* Fossil crafting is finished. All the possibilities in 1 place, except fossil bow crafting.

September 28th, 2018
Gem setups:
* Removed Purity of Ice setup (you can just avoid those wetas in the end).
* Withering Rain finally received proper commentary.

Videos:
* Fixed Primeval ruins link, now it leads where it's supposed to.

NEW SECTION: Delve League
* What to watch out for in Azurite Mines and how to push build to the max
* It's not complete yet, but should be tomorrow
* Equipment section is done, Monster section will get few specific encounters to watch out for.
* Will include Fossil Crafting section, it's going to be repetitive (Pristine + Aberrant all day)

September 26th, 2018
Videos:
* Added 2 new videos:
#1 - 300 depth Vaal Outpost
#2 - 300 depth Primeval Ruins

September 24th, 2018
Videos:
* Added 3 new videos:
#1 - T16 Uluman lich
#2 - 300 depth Delve run
#3 - 300 depth Abyssal City run

September 16th, 2018
Passive Tree:
* Added additional line to normal 93 tree, to pick up nearby jewel slots if you reached designated level.

Videos:
* Added 2 new 3.4 videos:
#1 - T15 Shaped Siege (~100% more monster life)
#2 - 200 depth delve run (monster level 78)

September 15th, 2018
Equipment:
* Updated my current gear with exception of bow and jewels (bow is unrealistic for average player).

Videos:
* Slightly reorganized videos, divided into 3.4 and 3.1-3.3 version until i finish recording everything.
* Added 2 new 3.4 videos - T13 Elder and Shaper kill.


September 13th, 2018
Gem Setups:
* Aspect of the Crab returns - Delve's bestiary rooms will start dropping rare items with aspects on them next patch (as was intended). It's comeback time!

Levelling Section:
* Added Toxic Rain levelling
* Minor change in lvl 71 respec tree, now picks up Bravery instead of Master Fletcher (2 points both)

Tooltips:
* Updated to match current build (last time updated in 3.1)

September 12th, 2018
General:
* Guide was polished after a major update
* Added minor stuff here and there that i don't really remember

Other Ascendancies:
* Added note to indicate that 3 following ascendancies don't generate frenzy charges passively.

Gem Setups:
* NEW SETUP: Purity of Ice (Delve league)
* Additional defence against the weta's, their ice spikes and cold degen ground.
* Grace / Vaal Grace isn't linked with CWDT Immortal Call anymore. It can still be linked if you want to.
* Stone Golem is now optional. He died too often in high tier maps and i using him like 2 leagues ago. Still great for league start and against lab traps.

CA Levelling:
* Received many small updates over last 2 weeks.
* Gem rewards are fixed now
* I'll look at the guide again when i'll be adding Toxic Rain levelling.

Crafting Section:
* Added Fossil Crafting to +3 Bow / +3 Elder Bow.
* The Fossil Crafting is NOT finished, as i don't have enough experience yet. It's still there as an option.
* +3 Elder Bow received major revamp shortly after 7-link +3 bow crafting was confirmed. Focuses on 7-link and +1 arrow crafting, not both at once tho.

August 31st, 2018 - Delve league
General:
* The guide now focuses on scaling CA purely instead of CA and ED.
* The old playstyle can still be found in...

NEW SECTION: Classic CA+ED Build
* Experience old gameplay, min max your gear to push your dps to the limit.
* That extra dps isn't really necessary to beat all content in the game.
* You can find it at the bottom of guide's main post.

Overview:
* Remade from scratch to reflect all the changes that happened since Abyss league.
* Still has old vibe in it.

Pros/Cons:
* Slightly changes to reflect new direction of the guide and 3.4 balance changes.

Passive Tree:
* Now has 2 different Raider skill tree's for 2 different playstyles. CA only and Classic.

Other Ascendancy Classes:
* NEW ASCENDANCY - Pathfinder. Actually pretty good.
* Shiny ascendancy portraits have been added for easier navigation.
* All passive trees have been updated to reflect new diection of the guide.
* Deadeye now uses Fast and Deadly by default, with option to use Ricochet for more damage.
* Champion now uses Taunt branch by default, with option to use other 2 passive nodes.

Gem Setups:
* Caustic Arrow's setup now uses reworked Vicious Projectiles support by default (old: PPAD)
* Caustic Arrow's setup now has options for 6th support gem, as well as GMP swap for clearing.
* Essence Drain setup is now optional.
* NEW OPTIONAL SETUP: Wither Rain. Not sure how useful it is yet. Replaces Wither Totem.

Equipment:
* Majority of the sections have been updated to reflect new direction of the guide.
* Jewellery no longer requires ~60% mana regen. That's due CA's mana cost reduction.
* +8% Evade Watcher's Eye is now VERY much recommended once you reach Onslaught Path.
* Elemental resistances on bow and quivers are now a desired mod. (no weapon swap penalty)
* Added Atziri's Step as a possible boots choice. (thanks to resists from Quiver/Bow)

Levelling/Progression:
* Whole section has been updated to reflect new direction of the guide.
* Elemental bow and CA twink levelling have deleted.
* NEW SECTION: CA Levelling (Act 1-10). No longer needs twink gear!

Videos:
* Now states the sad truth, the videos are outdated now.

PoB Link:
* PoB link has been updated to reflect all changes to the guide.
* Section has been updated to reflect new direction of the guide.

Magic Find Setups:
* Section has been updated to reflect new direction of the guide.
* Goldwyrm is no longer usable thanks to CA's lowered mana cost. (60% mana regen)
* Cheap and Full MF setups now use Sadima's Touch instead of Goldwyrm. (painful change)

Crafting Section:
* Minor changes to intro. Now recommends using Advanced Mod Description instead of 3rd party sites.
* Elemental resistances on bow and quivers are now a desired mod. (no weapon swap penalty)
* Elder Bow crafting now focuses on creating +3 gems 7-link bow with option to craft additional arrow/AoE.
* Useful Shaper/Elder/Vaal mods dump is still almost useless. Keep reading.

FAQ:
* Section has been updated to reflect new direction of the guide.
* Removed few outdated questions, added some new ones.

Changelog's... changes:
* Due to massive changes to the build and already long changelog, i'm removing previous patches from it.
* You can still find whole changelog prior to 3.4 update on page 17 inside archived guide.