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POE 3.20 Expansion League Start Build for Bossing: Caustic Arrow Ballista Trickster

Dec 16, 2022

Caustic Arrow Ballista Trickster is a great all around League starter. It kills bosses with tons of Poison Stacks and clears entire screens of monsters with its huge amount of overlapping projectiles. This build abuses a clever combination of Unique Items to get huge damage bonuses.

Caustic Arrow Ballista
Caustic Arrow is a ranged Bow attack that has an initial hit which triggers area damage, followed by spreading Caustic Ground. In this build, you are focusing on the hit portion, which allows you to Poison enemies.
What makes this skill special is that it can overlap several times when stacking "additional projectiles", giving it great bossing and clear potential. You do not scale the secondary Caustic Ground effect, since it cannot stack or poison enemies and has therefore mediocre damage potential.

Ascendancy


20221216POE 3.20 Expansion League Start Build for Bossing: Caustic Arrow Ballista Tricksterg


*The Trickster is an easy choice for Caustic Arrow as it offers incredible boosts to damage, Life Recovery and Defensive Capabilities.

*One Step Ahead increases your Movement and Attack Speed, while making enemies around you slower. It also protects you from certain slowing effects!

*Polymath is one of the strongest Ascendancies currently available in PoE. It provides damage on top of Life, Mana and Energy Shield Recovery. Can't ask for more!

*Heartstopper is a versatile defensive boost. It's a little random but also extremely powerful whenever it works in your favor!

*Swift Killer gives you extra Frenzy scaling and increases the Duration of your Charges, making it easier to keep them up at all times!

Mistakes to Avoid
1) Scaling Caustic Ground and not Poison
Caustic Arrow has 2 separate damage portions:
*Initial hit, which applies Poisons (which you are interested in)
*Caustic Ground, which gets applied afterwards and is a Damage over Time effect, however it is NOT A POISON. (which means you are NOT interested)

This is so important to distinguish, because Poisons scale off your Weapon Physical and Chaos Damage, while the Caustic Ground scales more like a spell. This can be confusing for people when it comes to choosing your weapon, so here's the gist:
*Get as much Physical or Chaos weapon damage and attack speed on your Bow as possible, just like any other Bow Build.
*"+ to level of socketed Gems" is worthless, since it does not increase your Poison Damage at all.

2) NOT having 100% Chance to Poison
100% chance to poison is not something to just aspire to, it is mandatory and every % missing costs you a ton of damage. Your biggest source of chance to poison is Snakebite, which means keeping your Frenzy Charges up with Frenzy is a must at all times. Thankfully, having Swift Killer means that you have 200% increased Frenzy Charge Duration, making this incredibly comfortable.

Since your Build changes several times, you have to revisit your chance to poison whenever changing gear and make sure it is at 100%. You can check this by pressing "c" ingame and going to your Caustic Arrow setup.

3) Ignoring your Accuracy Rating
Caustic Arrow is an attack skill, therefore it adheres to Accuracy Rating. The amount of Accuracy you need to get 100% chance to hit depends on your Level and the enemies level. The only way to find out how much chance to hit you currently have, is on your character sheet by pressing "c" and select your Caustic Arrow setup.

You want to focus on Accuracy on Gear (Rings, Quiver and Helmet). If necessary Acuity and Precision can temporarily help out, but you want to remove them at endgame, since everything over 100% chance to hit is wasted!

4) Not using extra Life Flasks on Bosses
Before big boss fights, don't hesitate to put on extra Life Flasks. This, coupled with the Ryslatha Pantheon, ensures that you never run out of Life Recovery during prolonged fights!

Always keep a Quicksilver Flask though, since it allows you to get out of the way of boss mechanics quickly.

Skill Gems:
Gems are a fundamental part of your build. Getting the correct link setups before entering Maps and leveling those Gems as you progress through the Atlas is one of your main goals. This is how your Gem setup should look like before entering Maps:

Caustic Arrow - Ballista Totem Support - Greater Volley Support - Awakened Deadly Ailments Support - Awakened Unbound Ailments Support - Lifetap Support

Caustic Arrow - Mirage Archer Support - Lifetap Support - Greater Volley Support - Unbound Ailments Support - Awakened Deadly

Ailments Support - Frenzy - Greater Multiple Projectiles Support
Culling Strike Support, Steelskin

Grace - Purity of Elements, Blink Arrow - Faster Attacks Support

Enduring Cry - Summon Stone Golem - Withering Step - Lifetap Support

Mark of Submission: Despair


Skill Tree


2POE 3.20 Expansion League Start Build for Bossing: Caustic Arrow Ballista Tricksterpng


Playstyle in Maps
Focus on placing your Ballistas down while moving, and having your Quartz Flask up at all times to phase through enemies.

Since you are a Damage over Time build enemies don't die instantly, so being able to rush through them while they die behind you saves you a ton of time. With a good loot filter, you won't miss any items or Currency.

Make sure that you keep up your Frenzy Charges, since you otherwise lose the buff from Snakebite. Always be full on charges!

Periodically activate your Mirage Archer, Vaal Haste and Enduring Cry!

Playstyle against Bosses
Focus on having your Ballistas up at all times. A lot of Bosses move, so make sure your Ballistas are not out of range or dead.

Always keep your Frenzy Charges at full stacks.

Always keep your Curses up. Temporal Chains and Despair together nearly double your damage!

Cast your Mirage Archer Support setup every 4 seconds, for maximum DPS.

You don't need to stand still, just let your Ballistas do the work while you dodge enemy attacks. This is one of the huge advantages these builds have, so use it!

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