[outdated] Caustic Arrow Solo Map MFer (20/300+)

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Note - for readers contemplating CA:

I really enjoyed playing Serleth's CA MF build in the past. I got kind of burnt out on the build playing it league after league though - and so have been trying out other builds recently.

Nonetheless, starting out in a new league with a strong MF build like CA is a good strategy - you can typically farm all but the highest content with CA/MF - and if you want to kill the toughest bosses you can use the income garnered with your MF toon to fund a boss killer.

So if you're interested in MF, this build is really good. Give it a try for sure.
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I'm enjoying Abyss - but maybe that's because I took a long break since last league.

I'm still struggling to come up with a really good build for this league - something with high survivability, good clear speed and end-game/boss viable.

I started out trying DP Totems - Scion planning on Soul Mantle - I ran out of steam in Act 8 or 9 or so, on a non-Soul Mantle 4-link. Got absolutely trashed killing Innocence - must have died like 12 times, LOL, during the fight (fire resist was horrible, DPS was bad, etc.).

So I switched to Essence Drain.

Got into maps with Essence Drain - trying Temporal Chains + Enfeeble with Blasphemy for defense - wow, it's just awful. Not sure if this has changed since last league - but even with all the curse-enhancing nodes, chains/enfeeble was really bad - quality on curse gems would have definitely helped... but even so... it's like my curses were having zero effect.

So I switched back to my DP Totems build, bought some gear and a 5-link Soul Mantle - and man - that was much better. Got tons of experience per hour while leveling and into tier 8 or so maps. I'm 86 at the moment.

For Deeps I'm going dual Apep's Rage - really great for this build. But, with no life on weapons/rings/chest - survivability is iffy - even for a totem build.

Also, DP Totems have terrible range - even after taking AOE nodes, using increased AOE gem and getting 20 quality on DP - I mean it's *REALLY* awful. I've never played a totem skill before where your totem activates (because the totem range threshold is met) but nonetheless, the totem is unable to hit the mob. Pretty hilarious as your DP totems deplete their health on out-of range mobs, creating noise and graphics to distract you - meanwhile doing zero damage.

Not sure if I'll continue w/ this build. 6-link with dagger plus shield is probably the way to go... but still... incoming damage is really high. The really small range of DP totems means that a lot of on screen stuff is hitting you while not taking damage. As MoM you struggle to place totems, replenish mana after hits, move out of the path of danger, etc. DP Totems seems to have a non-totem play style - where you're always in the fray getting hit all the time (you could of course adopt a much more cautious approach to game-play to avoid much of this, but then clear speed goes down the drain).

I plan to create my own EK totems build with maybe some cold conversion going on - EK is projectile and has excellent range - and if I convert some phys to cold I can freeze stuff for safety. Not sure if Deeps will be as good as DP Totems - but if it's close, I'll definitely switch toons.

Anyhow, I'm not going whole-hog into this league - I'm taking it easy and don't mind at all completely switching toons if I spot something better.
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Would love to hear from some of the CA regulars - what toon/s are you playing? - and are things working out well?
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Take care all - and see you online.