3.14 Toxic Rain - Leaguestart guide with in depth crafting and gearing section - updated

Welp, time to look for a new league starter..

Waiting for numbers, hardened scars nerf is a total wtf moment, a lot of people didn't even opt to run it because of the tradeoff of using a flask slot + annoint

Chainbreaker nerf is unclear, it's either better than before or unusable, cluster jewels will be nerfed


After seeing the numbers I'll decide if i even want to update the build at all, because losing defence was bad but i had a plan to compensate by just switching to raider and going full avoidance but if the damage loss is bad it wouldn't be worth playing

We will see tomorrow

All things considered it's still a fantastic league starter

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Justifi3d escreveu:

Waiting for numbers, hardened scars nerf is a total wtf moment, a lot of people didn't even opt to run it because of the tradeoff of using a flask slot + annoint

Chainbreaker nerf is unclear, it's either better than before or unusable, cluster jewels will be nerfed


After seeing the numbers I'll decide if i even want to update the build at all, because losing defence was bad but i had a plan to compensate by just switching to raider and going full avoidance but if the damage loss is bad it wouldn't be worth playing

We will see tomorrow

Do you think there will be any issues flawlessly level to act 10 with this build?
Or are you rather concerned with the nerfs with regards to the end game?

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Cry0nicS escreveu:

Do you think there will be any issues flawlessly level to act 10 with this build?

I don't think you should have problem levelling really, you can still stack the mines and deal with the bosses easier than with non-mine builds.

More likely it will turn TR into another essence drain, good for levelling / early mapping, too weak to keep up at end game (it already caps damage much earlier than other builds).

Toxic rain will still be the best ranger leveling skill, so far the nerfs have been on the higher end of gear, they'd need to nuke the early damage by more than like 30% for somethign else to overtake it

I'm reserved until i see the actual numbers for everything

I can tell you now that the build can take a pretty significant numbers hit and still be one of the best leaguestarters, i'm only scared of mechanical changes to the skill

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Justifi3d escreveu:

i'm only scared of mechanical changes to the skill

i think a numerical damage change is least likely. i think its highly likely they'll hit it in terms of additional projectiles. probably making it have 4 base projectiles and maybe even remove the helmet enchant.
i can imagine they'll nerf the debuff as well, since TR works as such a great defensive buffer. GGG hates defense, obviously

i hope they don't make TR scale AoE like rain of arrows does, because that would IMO ruin the skill for bossing completely.

changes to cluster jewels will gimp TRs top end enough already. exactly like it did once delirium ended. i can imagine the benchcraft changes will hit TR too with the CDoTM craft getting hit

we'll get confirmation today, but i am fully anticipating that the best option for TR now will be quill rain deadeye much like how i have it built in 3.13, just with less total increased area of effect

Quill rain is not and cannot be a better way to build it

Removing projectiles would do almost nothing to the build

Removing enchant would do literally nothing to the build

Either they nerf the base damage by 5-10%(best case scenario), they nerf the damage significantly more, which could be bad depending on the number but would just slightly raise the gear threshold to do endgame stuff

Or they change how projectiles overlapping or the pods stacking affect the single target, these are changes that would kill the build and push it into caustic arrow territory, good for leveling up to yellow maps and then terrible

From 3.14 patch notes

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The spread range of spore pods from Toxic Rain is now affected by Area of Effect modifiers.

This seems to be gutting the build. :(

Or use concentrated effect...indeed you can effectively reduce aoe ^^