[2.6] Explosive Arrow Pathfinder W/Videos -HC Endgame Mapping, Grandmasters, T16 Guardian Guides

Hiya! Following the nerfs to BV and Earthquake (The two builds I used for last season) I suppose it's time to try out some good old bowing as I never have in PoE.

Having never used EA or even bows, I do have some questions:

Assuming Quill Rains aren't super readily available by the time I get to 38, what kind of a bow would I be looking at to start using with EA?

You mention health concerns with starting using EA, assuming proper play without overkilling packs, would it be safe to pick up blood magic as well as the 3 nodes past it and make the switch?

I think for now that is about it when it comes to questions about the build, will probably have a few more as I level up a test character :) Thank you in advance for looking into it!

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Hey man !

After watching many times your build and videos, I think I'll go for that build on 2.4.

I'm trying to make a High armour version of that build - to get more physical mitigation - and use
The Brass Dome (new chest who gives 4k armour and no extra dmg from crits)
+ the Maloney's Nightfall Quiver (still trying to find a consistent way to apply blind on ennemies to fully use it).

So I had a question, can you tell how much hp you got without chest ?

You got 224% max life , on my tree I think I can manage to get a bit more since I'm going deeper on the marauder (no homo). (Edit: I'm getting close to final tree, think I can get 261% max life)

Thanks a lot for your guide sir !

(edit : after some testing on standard, I'll just follow your build (I will just replace some Fire dmg for more life for early levels) the playstyle you chose is tanky enough and I'll just loose a loooot of damage going full armour based)

As you saw stacking armour isn't that good of an option. it won't protect you from big hits. But there is a meaning less stat that could make you feel better, if you pop ironskin basalt and rumi's your stat sheet will say 90% phys reduction!.... Yeah getting more life and reyling on flasks is a better way to go, I don't fear physical damage and vuln maps at all in hardcore.

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Rhareg escribió:

I will try to start with this build aswell.

Is it correct, that frost wall won't work in any way? our arrows won't stuck in it anymore?
So we have some gemslots free for other things.

Yeah I would put gmp arctic breath instead of vortex, and you can use anything else you want like vaal lightening trap, vaal haste, faster attacks for blink arrow, minion and totem elemental resistance for decoy totem and golem

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returnofsnow escribió:

After seeing the nerfs, I gotta say that EA will most likely become FOTM.

I'm also going to start with it (first time), there's not much else to play to be honest. Still deciding between Berserker and Pathfinder. I really like the flasks though. But berserker has broken damage and leech.

Berserker is definetly a solid choice. it can save you on corruptions and is effectively a 7th link, I'm happy with my damage as is so I like the defenses I'm getting as pathfinder, and vinktars is essentially a 50% more multiplier for me (though you can use vaal lightening trap on berserker).

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Noitee escribió:

Hiya! Following the nerfs to BV and Earthquake (The two builds I used for last season) I suppose it's time to try out some good old bowing as I never have in PoE.

Having never used EA or even bows, I do have some questions:

Assuming Quill Rains aren't super readily available by the time I get to 38, what kind of a bow would I be looking at to start using with EA?

You mention health concerns with starting using EA, assuming proper play without overkilling packs, would it be safe to pick up blood magic as well as the 3 nodes past it and make the switch?

I think for now that is about it when it comes to questions about the build, will probably have a few more as I level up a test character :) Thank you in advance for looking into it!

Get the fastest attacking bow you can (1.5 base attack speed ones) and get +1 to bow gems. Silver branch probably fits that description, silverbough, the fated version has +2 to level but I'm not sure on its availability. Thing is I bought a low ilvl quill rain for 1c at the start of the league, I took a gamble on jewellers touch not caring about ilvl so that ended up being my bow till 93. People don't take that into account, if jewellers touch is available still, this likely your cheapest way to a 5link quill rain early on.


As far as nerfs to other builds, I think the majority of people are overreacting to the nerfs, BV and earthquake still seem strong. BV seems like it would be nicer for general map clear and only really slowed down against the highest end super bosses. The first time vaal spark was "nerfed in every possible way", people freaked out but then streamers told them hey it's still the best thing around and everyone ran it then. Just saying don't completely throw things out because you hear it got nerfed.

how does the EE work in this build? What do I do to proc it with EA?

nvm: i just read it how, thanks for the guide.

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Noitee escribió:

You mention health concerns with starting using EA, assuming proper play without overkilling packs, would it be safe to pick up blood magic as well as the 3 nodes past it and make the switch?

forgot to address this, I think with stone golem and getting the life regen on the way you'll be fine leveling, you'll notice little dips in your life at first but as you get more life it will stop and if you get any kind of life leech you'll be set, only really get blood magic when you're ready for EA, otherwise if you're using bows to level you'll lose out on auras. I essentially remove most of the ranger projectile nodes when I switch to EA, in fact I've respeced the starting ranger damage nodes multiple times until I was comfortable without them (for example I grabbed armor evasion resistance nodes under duelist for over capping for a bit when resistance gear wasn't as available early in the league.

Since the builds I usually play got nerfed I've decided to roll with this one in the new Essence league.
Your videos are very convincing, I homever will not be playing HC but the builds looks like fun nontheless.

So do you think path finder will be the best choice?

Personally I don't really care if it's the best choice, it's a good enough choice for me.

I haven't ran berserker, it has obvious potential. Most elementalist players don't really go for high maps and say their damage fell off at t12, but the meta last league was don't go into red maps basically so it functioned for that better. Think it's clear speed is better for elementalist with free prolif, but mine isn't bad in any case. In the case of damage, I feel mine is good enough.

People also are overly too scared of reflect. I wouldn't run a reflect map even on elementalist in any case, and for single reflect rares, as long as you don't unload your highest damage arrow immediately you won't die from it, just take pot shots with your gmp arrow and you'll be fine.

The ascendancy choice you make for EA just lets you cover an area of the build, My flasks cover defense and movement speed, so the rest of the gear is life and damage, and I have to figure out leech to be comfortable.

Berserker has damage and leech, so you have to figure out movement speed and defenses to be comfortable.
and so on.

But I know the idea of good enough doesn't isn't a satisfying answer for people debating the best ascendancy.... but it's good enough for me!

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dingis escribió:

Personally I don't really care if it's the best choice, it's a good enough choice for me.

I haven't ran berserker, it has obvious potential. Most elementalist players don't really go for high maps and say their damage fell off at t12, but the meta last league was don't go into red maps basically so it functioned for that better. Think it's clear speed is better for elementalist with free prolif, but mine isn't bad in any case. In the case of damage, I feel mine is good enough.

I played an EA elementalist till 95 last league and it was ridiculious even in high level maps. 1-2 fuses were enough to clear packs. Thanks to elemental conflux. But I'm keen to try out the build as a pathfinder some time in the new league. Looks promising after seeing your vids.

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dEus__ escribió:

I played an EA elementalist till 95 last league and it was ridiculious even in high level maps. 1-2 fuses were enough to clear packs. Thanks to elemental conflux. But I'm keen to try out the build as a pathfinder some time in the new league. Looks promising after seeing your vids.

Yeah to be honest I always found it confusing when people say their EA build had boss damage issue especially when elementalist comes with more damage than pathfinder, I get it if they're in a group and have a 5link it will not feel great, but solo on a 5link is fine, and I have uber lab carried on a 6link.

It's likely gem set up or gear that they messed up or they were just set up for clearing gorges.

Looks like a really fun build!

I'm thinking of using an EA char for uber lab farming, at what level/gear do you think it's viable to do it safe using this build?