Pathfinder TS (semi-MF)

Hello exiles!

First time poster, so constructive feedback welcome! Can try to get video footage if interest is sufficient.

I'm wrapping up Affliction, which I (and many others) likely consider to be the most successful league I've experienced ever, and I have assembled a character that I'm proud of and believe may be of some interest (I've seen a number of posts asking for help using Tornado Shot in juiced maps).

This character is capable of any mapping setup, and I've used it to farm my first 2 raw mirrors, and several more in high end currency and liquid drops. Level 100 and all pinnacles down without carry. Deathless 12.8k wisp T16map (full altars), many 10k+ T16s.

​

Build Strengths:

• One button offensive playstyle (mark on hit, several manaforged arrow setups)
• Fast, comfortable mapper (leveled to 100 in juiced T16s with some MF included)
• Pinnacle Boss capable (all ubers cleared without carry, deathless uber shaper, uber uber elder, uber cortex)
• Capable of any individual map mods (there are a few combinations that are dangerous when combined with altars, and one mob I filter out for clearspeed)
• Ranged, good movement speed without quicksilver or haste
• Varied recovery profile (not bricked by any of the recovery or leech limiting mods)
• Reasonable starting cost (HH, Defiance + 50div would easily get you started)
• Reflect immune
• Not as reliant on HH buffs as many other TS builds - can restart maps if you need to leave to sell, etc...
• Functionally hit immune without petrified blood (more resilient against degens than most TS/petrified blood builds
• Many ways to scale damage (flat elemental, chaos dot multi/dot multi, projectiles, poison duration, etc...)
• Click any altar you like
• Ignore volatiles (corpse explosion) and basically any other hit-based effect.
• Can use Divination Distillate (with flask effect)

Build Cons:

• Doesn't run as much MF as some meta builds
• Merely acceptable single target damage for Big bossing
• Must mute or tolerate pathfinder voice lines (lots of "tennis" sounds)

OFFENSE

We scale offense through several broken mechanics, and in combination this provides plenty of damage to allow a lot of gear/passive tree resources to be given to defense and MF.

Offense Keynotes:

• Elemental Tornado Shot (all damage can poison via Tincture)
  • high EDPS bow, ideally with extra arrows
  • Quiver with Chaos DoT multi/DoT multi
  • Poison damage not affected by reduced projectile damage from GMP - an amazing source of damage and coverage
• Headhunter (Bonus points for also running Malevolence for the buff duration)
• Poison Tincture (Utterly broken item)
• Poison Duration Mod (up to 100% poison duration via TWWT)
• Pathfinder Poison nodes

DEFENSE

Extra layers of defense are what sets this build apart from most TS setups, it devotes a lot of its power budget to a diverse profile of defensive mechanics that cover nearly every vulnerability. This build is almost fully hit immune (barring huge one-shot), but as an example, uber shapers Bullet hell projectiles actively heal you on hit, so 99% of hit-based damage is meaningless or ignorable.

​

• 4200+ Life
• Ranged
• 78/78/78/70 resistances
• Physical damage taken as elemental (Lightning Coil, Helmet mods, Taste of Hate w/flask effect)
• Defensive pantheons (damage over time and poison coverage - I swap to burning ground pantheon for maps with that mod)
• Grace and High evasion (not capped, but substantial)
• Ailment Immune (Purity of Elements)
• Crit immune (Poison mastery + high evasion)
• Corrupted Blood immunity (runs several medium cost unique jewels to find corrupted blood on)
• Full Suppression (96% before phasing mastery, phase run and high effective hit pool - functionally capped suppress)
• Defiance of Destiny
• Very high Curse resistance (perma flask uptime on a curse flask, extra flask effect via pathfinder)
• Bloodnotch + Immutable Force combo (with ES mastery)
• Significant life recoup
• Leech (also 25% life recoup if leech filled HP recently mastery)
• Flask effect with utility flasks/Progenesis
• Headhunter buffs (adds significantly to defense)

MAGICFIND

Can run more, but I elected to opt for more raw power in Gloves/Boots to facilitate more comfortable altar inclusion into mapping.

• 2x Ventor's Gamble
• Divination Distillate
• Rarity Helmet (not required, honestly)
• Culling Strike + Item Rarity manaforged setup

QUALITY OF LIFE

• Pierce (yes, Pierce on TS) - Chain is something intrinsic to deadeye, and on pathfinder this felt very good. Importantly, this league it lets you chip at Abyss spires by shooting about 1 screen distance away and letting pierce and poison proliferations work in after spire eruptions.
• Malevolence + HH Synergy (Buff duration)
• Grace MS mod + Chosen boot mod (MS out of combat) - speedy "cleaning" in wildwood.
• Near permanent phasing uptime
• Rare/unique monster radar via wildwood (excellent, especially in combination with HH)
• Manaforged Arrows setups for ailments/poison application and culling strike
• Mirage Archer!

POB: https://pobb.in/6HipHCWOgq71

Ninja Profile: https://poe.ninja/builds/affliction/character/iD_eNTiTy/WanderingCreamsicle

Feel free to post questions if you have them, and if you are interested in trying it out I'm happy to offer tips and tricks.

Happy Hunting!

​