[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

https://www.twitch.tv/liftingnerdbro/v/102329149?t=36m04s

Some highlights:
* The ability to get Essences may continue in some form past the end of the Essence League.
* Shift-click attacking has improved targeting.
* The Blight skill may be currently bugged. DPS might be improved.
* Blade Flurry got significantly more design time aimed at end-game viability
* The support gem for channeling skills is Cast While Channeling - at a set interval, linked skills are cast
* Breach encounters have diminishing returns so that lower DPS skills can still get most of the rewards
* Breach portals open a breach which you must keep open and travel along. Once you reach the end of the opening breach, you'll be able to enter the Breach Lord's arena.
* Fire, Cold and Lightning Breach Lords are Atziri-level difficulty
* Physical is next hardest and Chaos is harder still.
* The Chaos Breach Lord is Uber-Atziri level difficulty
* The clear speed, huge AOE meta is a recognized design problem but cannot be addressed without significant changes and skill reworks. As a result, this meta will continue into 2.5 - and this is why Blade Flurry has such large AOE.
* Poison double dipping and life vs ES are topics upon which the development team have diverse opinions. Consensus does not yet seem in place to allow for changes.

Takeaways for me:
* Non-meta skills will still be effective in the new league due to diminishing returns on keeping breaches open as long as possible.
* High AOE/damage skills will continue. GGG seems to want to make changes to allow many more skills to be really good but cannot make such drastic changes in the upcoming expansion.
* Blade Flurry seems to be as good as it is - or nearly so - by design. Blade Flurry is likely to be one of the strongest skills in 2.5.
* GGG's design process is consensus driven; the majority of their team need to support any large changes or the change won't be made.

There is also a video wich shows a early stage of how breach gameplay will feel.
It looks not satisfying for me.
I hope they rework this bevor leage start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMemPVtVOsk

"

Serleth 님이 작성:

One of the things that was mentioned in the video is that the balance of the Breaches is still being iterated upon, and that video was taken a week or so before it was released. Even in that short time frame, the way Breaches work has been changed, so it'll be different by the time we get to play it.

Just so.

I think that Breach is going to be very fun. And CA (as well as other decent builds) will fare well - I trust GGG's league balancing - yes, some particular skills aren't balanced, but I've never, ever played a league where most skills are unplayable due to poor balance. Overall, I think that GGG does a really good job at game balance given their very small development team.

If I had to pre-complain about Breach, I suppose I'd pick on the new channeled skills. Blade Flurry looks a bit over tuned; Scorcing Ray looks playable but doesn't interest me; and Blight - the new skill I'd most want to play, just has massive problems every which way - not good at AOE, the "slow" debuff is far too short and damage (I expect that damage will be buffed before league start or shortly thereafter) is terrible. If Blight's damage were buffed quite a bit and if Contagion spread Blight debuffs, I'd really consider rolling that skill from the start.

As-is, I'll probably go Ancestral Warchief totems from the start once more - but I'm toying with the idea of another CA magic finder to start off the league.

Speaking of CA - I did some preliminary testing with the goal of developing an OP CA build, capable of all content.

My idea - leverage CA's ground debuff along with some other skill - likely Essence Drain.

I haven't completed my testing - but it seems like ground effects *might* - not sure though - snapshot.

If so, you could roll an ED toon and then weapon switch into a 6-link CA. Take some increased duration nodes on the tree. Then, you could get a really good Essence Drain toon going and use CA for increased damage. I think that this combination would be really strong if you didn't mind the weapon switch, provided that ground effects snapshot.

My testing so far proves that ground effects remain post weapon-switch - which is to say, if you fire off a CA and then weapon switch into some gear that doesn't have CA equipped, the CA cloud remains post weapon-switch.

I'm not sure if the strength of the CA cloud remains intact though post weapon switch (more testing is needed) - but my guess is that it does.

Which opens up the possibility of a magic find CA build that can switch into Essence Drain for end-game/difficult bosses. In this setup, you might even want to go Occultist/CI.

I'll do some more testing on this in standard later on because this is something really non-meta that I haven't seen anyone doing.

Moreover, the ED playstyle is really fun for me - and it's a great skill to level with. If CA snapshots, I might well go ED from the start.

Add to this... Essences are going to occur in the new league. Although Delirium is going to take a bit of a nerf (according to what I've read), if CA snapshots, then who cares? CA cloud + ED + Wither + Delirium + poison... this combination is going to be very strong. Yeah, probably not quite as strong as BiS Blade Vortex and Blade Flurry is ridiculous and will out perform my build idea... but nonetheless, if this works out you could conceivably roll a single toon (CA/ED) and do all content *and* have tremendous magic find capability as well.

The build I have in mind - should it work out - has two options...

1) Focus on CA, pretty much following this build guide. Weapon switch into something that has very strong ED ability for difficult bosses (6-link staff w/ Delirium buff?).

In variant 1, you'd focus on CA, following Serleth's guide. But you'd weapon switch into a 6-link ED setup for difficult bosses. This variant is potentially viable only if DoT snapshots (I've no idea if damage over time does shapshot, I've done no testing on this at all).

Or;

2) Focus on ED - roll Occultist/CI. In this case, CA takes a back seat; use CA to buff DPS on difficult bosses - use either CA or ED/Contagion for magic find, whichever works out better. In this second variant, the build obviously departs from this guide. Nonetheless, variant 1 above might well prove to be strong enough for all content.

In variant 2 you'd likely have ED 6-linked in your chest and weapon switch into CA as needed for bosses.

Variant 2 is viable if ground effects snapshot - which seems likely, but further testing is needed to confirm this.

"

I think that Breach is going to be very fun. And CA (as well as other decent builds) will fare well - I trust GGG's league balancing - yes, some particular skills aren't balanced, but I've never, ever played a league where most skills are unplayable due to poor balance. Overall, I think that GGG does a really good job at game balance given their very small development team.

It's not that skills are unplayable.

It's that there's no point to playing them when you have four-ish skills in the meta that can do content quite literally at least 1000% faster than everything else. You're essentially shooting yourself in the foot right now if you aren't playing meta. The only reason to go non-meta is strictly because you'd rather play something that is more interesting to your playstyle.

It'd be one thing if that value was reduced to even 400% (to provide perhaps a less scary number, let's say if meta-build A can do Shaper in 30s, non-meta builds E-Q should be able to do it in 2 minutes. It's at least competitive, at that juncture).

That said, the video's given me some hope that as long as you're clear speed is decent, you'll still achieve 99% of the rewards from Breach.

"

I haven't completed my testing - but it seems like ground effects *might* - not sure though - snapshot.

Look forward to hearing your further testing on this.

But yeah, I don't know if I'll be MF'ing this league. I kinda wanna try just going straight for a deeps build and seeing how that works out.

Just not sure what build I'll be doing.

"

My testing so far proves that ground effects remain post weapon-switch - which is to say, if you fire off a CA and then weapon switch into some gear that doesn't have CA equipped, the CA cloud remains post weapon-switch.

My testing so far proves that ground effects remain post weapon-switch - which is to say, if you fire off a CA and then weapon switch into some gear that doesn't have CA equipped, the CA cloud remains post weapon-switch.
I think thats not my playstyle. I needet this for some prophecys like kaltenhalt or lifespring and i was to slow with switching or to fast and need to switch back and so and if i think this for bosses, i will die to often :-(

I have some insanity essences and the 20% will changed in next patch. So what gloves will benefit most from this essence. I have many 84 bases so i dont really know what build and gloves benefit most.
the second. I bought a 6 l marakesch bow and try to make +2 bow. Now i have a single tyrannical on it.
should i try further or is no build using such a bow ?