[3.4] Collezio's Raider Caustic Arrow Guide (DSC)

https://pastebin.com/dvkH3tVR

The idea with this tree is to start off grabbing your evasion and life and heading towards Finesse and grabbing HoO. Then we make our way pathing through Herbalism over to Acrobatics. After acrobatics we get Heavy Draw then fill out the top of the tree. Once the top is filled out we grab Deadly Draw and then make our way to the "Rectangle of Life" by the Scion start. Finishing up with the final section of the tree.

Kill them all +2 Points OP

Way of the Poacher (Frenzy Charges) > Quartz Infusion (Dodge/Phasing) > Avatar of the Veil (Movespeed/Phasing/Immune to Ailments) > Avatar of the Slaughter (More Frenzy/Movespeed/Damage)

A brief overview of crafting:
Magic Items can have 2 affixes: 1 Prefix and 1 Suffix
Rare Items can have 6 affixes: 3 Prefix and 3 Suffix

To see which mod is a prefix/suffix make sure you enable Advanced Mod Descriptions through (Options > UI) then you can hit ALT to display more info.

Classic Master Craft Method:

Avg Cost: Total: 6L ilvl 64+ bow, 2 exalts, ~150 Alterations, a few Regals, a few Scours, maybe 20 Aug's, at least 5 Alchemy orbs
Required Masters: Catarina Lvl 8, Tora Lvl 7, Leo Lvl 3

Step 1: Spam alts/augs until you hit +2 to Socketed Bow Gems (prefix)
Step 2: Add a suffix with augment orb if it doesn't have already
Step 3: Regal and pray for another suffix. If it's a prefix, scour the bow and return to step 1
Step 4: Craft lvl 8 Catarina's "Cannot roll attack mods" (Costs 1 Exalt)
Step 5: Slam the bow with exalted orb for guaranteed +1 Socketed Gems
Step 6: Use Tora 7 to remove the crafted mod, and then use Leo 3 bench to craft 15-30% increased damage over time. If you're not satisfied with the DoT roll, repeat this step


Fossil Crafting Method:

Gloves: of Spite

Boots: 80% chance to avoid stuns

Other than that, 8% chance to Spell Dodge if you've taken Spell Damage Recently is better at the endgame (Lvl90+).

Helmet:
#1 Option - 40% increased Caustic Arrow Damage
#2 Option - 30% increased Caustic Arrow Duration

First gives ~7% more damage, second gives 20%+ increased duration. Both of them are great, pick one based on preference/RNG.

Gems:

Caustic Arrow - Pierce - Void Manipulation - Vicious Projectiles

You can start out using Caustic Arrow at Lvl 1. On Ranger you get this as a quest reward for completing "Enemy at the Gate"

With Caustic Arrow at Lvl 1 you will want to use Pierce Support until you get Pierce nodes on the tree.

You can get Void Manipulation at lvl 8 and Vicious Projectiles at lvl 18

Once you have Pierce on the tree switch to Swift Affliction (buy from Siosa at the Library)

Caustic Arrow - Void Manipulation - Vicious Projectiles - Swift Affliction

This Gem set up will last you all the way until early maps.


Herald Of Agony - Minion Damage - Damage on Full Life - Vicious Projectiles


Herald Of Agony (lvl 16)- Intruders in Black Act 2 (Quest)
Minion Damage (lvl 8)
Damage on Full Life (lvl 18) - Siosa Act 3 (Vendor)
Vicious Projectiles (lvl 18) - Sharp and Cruel Act 2 (Quest) and Siosa Act 3 (Vendor)

Blink Arrow - Your Movement Skill

Purity of Elements - Good to use for leveling if you need resistances.

Cast When Damage Taken - Immortal Call - Increased Duration - Summon Stone Golem

CWDT (lvl 38) - The Eternal Nightmare Act 4 (Quest)
Immortal Call (lvl34) - Fallen From Grace Act 6 (Quest)
Increased Duration (lvl 31) - Fallen From Grace Act 6 (Quest)
Summon Stone Golem (lvl 34) - Breaking the Seal Act 4 (Quest)

Note: Don't forget to level additional CA gems in your 2nd weapon slot. They still level even if you don't use them. And you'll need a few to Vaal when they're level 20


General Leveling Guide:


Super Fast Leveling Guide:

White maps:

This Tier can be a real gear check. If you are struggling to survive then you need to re-evaluate some of your gear.

Most map mods are easy. running them blue is completely viable. No real danger outside of few bosses like Pen, Grotto or Spider Lair. For this map tier, you have 2 goals:

-- 6-linked bow with +2 gems (ilvl 64+)
-- Divination Distillate (optional)

It's possible that you've acquired money for this before killing Kitava. If not you can do the chaos recipe while farming to get the money you need.


Refer to the Equipment > Bow Section on crafting your bow

Divination Distillate might be a bit hard to use early on thanks to low CA mana cost, but with smart mana management it's possible to use it's full potential.

The links on the bow should look like this:

CA - Vicious Projectiles - Void Manipulation - Swift Affliction - Concentrated Effect - Damage on Full Life (until you get Empower to lvl 3/4)

Yellow maps:

This is where you'll be living mostly, recommended level is 80-90. This Tier can be a real gear check. If you are struggling to survive then you need to re-evaluate some of your gear. Gear goals for this tier:

-- +3 gems 6-linked bow
-- Level 21 CA gem
-- Empower 3/4
-- General gear upgrades

The +3 bow is the primary goal in yellow maps. Refer to the Equipment > Bow Section

You should get level 21 CA through vaaling all the gems you're leveling, once they're ready for it. If you're unlucky and didn't get one, I recommend buying it.

Once you get the bow, the next upgrade should be Empower gem. Level 3 is easily enough for majority of the content. Level 4 would be Min/Maxing. Price is very high early league and drops over time. You can try collecting The Dragon's Heart divination card too, but that might be tricky sometimes. Empower replaces Damage on Full Life OR Concentrated Effect, your call.

Lab enchantments will play a vital role in this tier. The helmet enchantment will be a noticeable improvement in overall DPS. Keep your gear upgraded to whatever you can afford whenever you can.

If you've gotten this far, then you are beginning to utilize the full potential of this build with a lvl 27/28 CA gem.

Red Maps:
Mapping can become challenging at this point. The high evasion/dodge starts to be ignored. Monsters hit hard, bosses are tanky. Your damage should be sufficient at this point to carry you through most maps depending on map boss/map mods.

Goals for this tier is to get your Kintsugi if you haven't yet at this point. Kintsugi is a very underrated unique in my opinion and gives a large defense boost to your character.

Optional Onslaught Path:

Shaper:

Shaper himself isn't an issue, but the portal phase is problematic. The spawned monsters have too much health to die quickly. Decoy totem can be used to protect Zana. Swapping in The Writhing Jar for the talking phase is also recommended (Keep Frenzy Charges).

Shaper Guardians: You shouldn't have many issues with them. Chimera and Phoenix are the easiest. Hydra's turrets can be deadly if you don't watch out. Minotaur's lightning gates apply deadly debuff that can easily be a death sentence.

Elder:

Once you get to know his moves, he's very easy. In first phase you should prioritize killing spawned minions, so they won't drop decaying ground (phys degen). Damage elder whenever you don't have to focus minions. Second phase, just protect Shaper. Third phase can be tricky and even deadly, but overall try to burst down the Elder while killing mobs to recover flask charges.

Elder Guardians: They shouldn't be a problem. All of them have some scary attacks, but you can avoid them easily. Using Purity of Lightning against Eradicator is wise idea as well, his damage can be spiky sometimes.

Uber Atziri:

Atziri is a mechanics based fight. You can dodge everything, until RNG kicks in and you die. It's possible to kill her without getting hit at all, but you want to be prepared for anything. Kintsugi reduces damage by another 20%, Purities gives 4% resist each. It won't save you from everything, but gives you chance to actually take a single hit and live. Not sure which resistance flask is more important, so choose it yourself or take both.

As for Alluring Abyss itself, the zone can be really dangerous. Take it slow, don't tank mobs (rare soldiers hit super hard). It's nothing too hard. Vaals are probably the hardest part to be fair. Use The Writhing Jar to fortify and refresh frenzy charges in waiting phase. Trio is pretty easy, see Vaal Temple below. Start using PoF/PoL for Atziri, also fortify yourself between phases.

Vaal Temple:

Shouldn't be a problem. Additional speed, double damage mod, temp chains or twinned are probably too risky. Titty chick -> Dual strike dude -> Cyclone. You can kite dual striker with Barrage totem easily. Beware of Titty's physical blade rain, it's good idea to remain mobile until it's on cooldown.

Breachlords:

Elemental breachlords are weak enough to be killed with ~22 level CA. Uul-Netol is more dangerous, CWDT-IC setup is required to prevent one shots. Chayula's domain might give you big troubles. It's doable tho, be sure to kill rare mobs as you go. Boss can be really dangerous, equipping Ming's Heart / Chaos resistance breach ring is a good idea.

Hall of Grandmasters:

Requires: Scorching Ray
Easy for the most part. The tough part are few exiles that can deal absurd damage in short time. Lethal map purely thanks to them. CI forces us to use Scorching Ray against them, Balefire unique is the easiest way to get the setup. Use it in or even 2 of them in a weapon swap. You need chaos resistance yourself, at least make it positive. Be elemental weakness capped.

Poorjoy's Asylum:
Considering CA can't off-screen mobs and shatter / explode corpses, it's a scary map. Those Detonate Dead mobs are capable of killing you in split second. 1/10 Wouldn't Recommend

Uber Lab: This might not be the safest build for a full key run, but kills Izaro quickly enough for it to be possible. Kintsugi's amazing for lab traps.
Credit To DankawSL