Goratha's Caustic Arrow Manaforged, BEST league starter I've EVER had! Day Five Update

**POB ISN'T CORRECT DPS, THIS IS JUST MY CURRENT GEAR/SET-UP** (it's not updated yet and is super annoying to POB accurately) **DAY 1 THOUGHTS AND NOTES** MAKE SURE YOU USE THESE GEMS: Transfigured Frenzy of Onslaught, Scourge Arrow of Menace, Storm Rain of the Conduit, Caustic Arrow of Poison -Lifetap is big on manaforged -Rog + expedition for decent early bow LEAGUE MECHANIC -Follow the yellow wisps to reach the warden sub ascendancy -You can find the poisonberry tincture as early as Act 2 from her -First points are for finding her, you can take the early MS if you want, but I went with "coated tincture" -Second points are for collecting 4000 yellow wisps (it's easier than it sounds) and I went with Natural Concotions, you can take Barkskin here though (it helps a TON for HC especially) -Third points are for finding/killing three treants (I noticed I got it after defeating the unique boss with frost projectiles) NEW GEMS -These are pretty easy to get, you can spam lab and reliably get every gem you want in SSF even -Poison CA is nice, probably want to use it after you get "poison prolif" from 2nd ascendancy -Toxicspores TR is also just better for our build with manaforged, both of these have 40% chance to poison -New "Stormrain of the Fence" is a nice button that you can press for more damage (requires aiming, but does a ton of damage, Max 2 arrows) -Scourge Arrow of the Menace has better clear speed, but you need 55% proj speed and 40% chance to poison from gear, this also seems to have less single target than CA, but later Nimis scaling is probably very good -Yes Weapon Elemental Damage with Attacks scales with poison, with the tincture CURRENT SET-UP -You might have noticed a weird set-up compared to the early league POB, this is just because I have two 4-links right now, so I am making up for some lost damage by using another manaforged set-up -If you are struggling on DPS, make sure you upgrade your bow, its highest priority for DPS -Plaguebearer is probably worth using, I am lazy and haven't but its good for single target **DAY 2+3 CHANGES** STORM RAIN -New "Stormrain of the Fence" is a nice button that you can press for more damage (requires aiming, but does a ton of damage, Max 2 arrows) -Stormrain of the Conduit seems to be worth using when you have less projectiles, but more +proj will scale the normal Storm Rain to be better I think in the end (it has beams traveling to your character instead) MANAFORGED SET-UP END GAME -Current plan end-game is to use both Toxic Rain AND Storm Rain in the same 6-link later on -This should save links and most likely is better than SR having one extra damage link POISON CHANCE -A lot of people keep misunderstanding this but you need 100% chance with the tincture -The tincture just enables your elemental damage to be ABLE to poison -Storm Rain and Scourge Arrow if you use it both need an additional 40% chance to poison over the Caustic Arrow and Toxic Rain tgems (they have 40% built in) -You can get 70% from the skilltree, so we need to get 30% from other sources. Herald of Agony gives us 20% -2 jewels with 5% chance to poison each -Gloves with 10% chance to poison -Elder quiver with (up to) 20% chance to poison -Bow with (up to) 30% chance to poison SCOURGE ARROW VS CAUSTIC ARROW -Been asked this A LOT, but Scourge Arrow has better clear, but worse single target compared to Caustic Arrow -Scourge Arrow + Nimis is probably pretty insane later? -You'll want Return Projectiles until Nimis but you need 55% increased projectile speed for it to be able to return properly CURSES AND SOME END-GAME IDEAS -Asenath's Gentle Touch with despair corrupted will feel the best for mapping, but it requires more supression on tree and/or other gear (you lose mastery) -Snakepit + Frenzy scaling could be a way to go for Scourge Arrow and Storm Rain if you choose that route (way easier poison chance) **DAY 4 CHANGES** (and ideas for later!) -Dropped Quicksilver for Dying Sun, and Determination for Haste -Movespeed could be solved later by potentially removing one manaforged set-up and combining together in 6-link, and then running no sockets in boots for 30% ms from Maji -Loss of Determination feels noticeable worse defensively with just 82% phys taken as but still tanky overall, Haste helps make up for the loss of QS for now -Super end-game can maybe run Avoid Ailment implicit boots + Ancestral Vision over Stormshroud to gain back 12% MS on the Topaz flask (which scales with flask effect) THE MANAFORGED SET-UPS -After lots of testing, I can say with 100% certainty that Toxic Rain manaforged seems to be not worth it -We scale AOE for Caustic Arrow and it feels great, but this has a side effect of making TR a lot worse -Scourge Arrow of Menace as a replacement feels quite a bit better on the DPS and helps clear too -Links are SA, Manaforged, Lifetap, and Arrow Nova (feels better for single target over GMP) if you 5-link Unbound or Return Projectiles (with 55% proj speed), 6-link Vicious Projectiles or Return Projectiles RAGE TINCTURE OP -Rage on hit tincture which is % chance to gain rage on hit against Rare or Unique enemy - seems COMPLETELY broken -This has no CD so the fact that we are spamming manaforged attacks constrantly makes us able to gain basically 50 rage stacks instantly on single target -On bosses with multiple targets, even 100% uptime on Berserk seems possible, assuming you can keep attacking DEFENSE SCALING LATER?? -Lots of options for defenses later, I'm thinking one main option is to go for Transcendence + 100% phys taken as (phys to ele watcher / micro belt / korrell helm prefix) + Eternal Damnation -Another option is Doppelganger Guise + Divine Flesh - but I have no experience with this one **DAY 5 UPGRADES, BUILD POPPING OFF** -Poison Duration "That Which Was Taken" Acquired -This is an insane amount of duration, increases the DPS by a ton -Flask Effect / Alchemist's Genius medium cluster, Circling Oblivion is less important with the new jewel -Enlighten allowed us to drop the mana reservation cluster, saving 5 points (basically enough for 2nd medium cluster) -New Helmet for 8% phys taken as prefix and Lethal Pride with 5% phys taken - now sitting at 96% phys taken as ele (last 4 could be flask effect, or a better lethal pride/better implicit roll, or phys taken watcher's eye) THE GEMS -Make sure you are using the correct gems, POB is not updated yet so it is kind of annoying -Transfigured Frenzy of Onslaught, Scourge Arrow of Menace, Storm Rain of the Conduit, Caustic Arrow of Poison -Storm Rain is higher DPS than SA for single target, higher priority for bossing, SA obviously helps clear though! -Eventually probably combine them in some way to save links THE OVERLAP -Make sure for single target you stand in the monsters hit box -For both Storm Rain of the conduit and Scourge Arrow of the Menace with Arrow Nova, you'll end up doing a lot more damage this way LIFE ON HIT AND LIFE/MANA ISSUES -As you get 5 and 6 link set-ups going costs are going to get much higher, both mana and life -Life cost is most of the reason why I decided Master Surgeon was worth it -For mana, on helmet implicit you can get "20% reduced mana cost of attacks" and -flat mana on rings if it is a problem for you -Excess Sustenance is REALLY good, basically you won't die unless you get 1-shot while attacking