A Build Worth Trying For Your Path Of Exile 3.22 League Start – Toxic Rain Pathfinder Rework Guide
In the past Path of Exile, I made 3 Toxic Rain characters. But with POE 3.22 right around the corner, I’ve redone Toxic Rain Pathfinder and made some major QOL changes for a little damage boost. Next, let’s see what changes we’ve made in terms of damage.
Skill Itself
First up, our skill of choice is Toxic Rain. After you fire a projectile with your bow, Spore Pods will spawn where it lands. Over time, this will start to do chaos damage in an area, and they can overlap each other.
Area Of Effect
You need to reach a certain threshold of increased area to get maximum overlap. After many tests, we found this data is stable at 39%. All Spore Pods overlap.
In POE 3.21, they removed AOE from Pathfinder Ascendancy, so we need a new solution and special POE Currency to hit AOE threshold. The use of Bow Mastery increases Area of Effect of Toxic Rain by 20%.
Plus, we’re taking the remainder from our Crafting Bench’s simple glove craft, increasing our Area of Effect to 39%.
Damage Scale
Our biggest and best multipliers come from secondary sources using Ballista Totem Support. We can have 5 of these and they will help stack Withers on the boss, which by default will increase Chaos damage by 90%.
Also, we also get an Ascendancy Node which will increase Wither effect and give us the chance to inflict Wither. In short, our damage ramps up faster.
Other big damage increases rely mostly on skill effect duration, as Spore Pods stay in combat longer and cause damage to last longer. We also put a lot of emphasis on attack speed, so we need all sources.
At the beginning of POE 3.22 league, we didn’t need to invest too much POE Currency in weapons. Therefore, we can use the cheap unique bow Quill Rain. It’s super cheap for the first day of the league, and the best part is you don’t even need a 6-link. You can use it as a 4-link and plug Ballista Totem Support into it.
We can keep all the mana. Because of the build with Eldritch Battery, we don’t have to worry about mana consumption. So we can buy POE Currency to use our skills more freely.
In order for us to get more benefits before we get Devouring Diadem, we will use Pure Energy Shield Helmet to get at least 450 Energy Shield. Because this is a great breakpoint set by Divine Blessing Support. Even after you use Divine Blessing Support, you have enough Energy Shield to send Toxic Rain and still not run out of Energy Shield.
Defense
On defense, we use Grace Aura to boost Evasion levels. This way, monsters’ normal attacks or projectiles won’t kill us, and will definitely reduce physical damage received.
In Crucible, they weakened Molten Shell. But even with this nerf, this defensive skill is one of the best defensive skills in POE, and it also auto-casts when it takes damage.
Right now, we’re almost untouchable by physical attacks, and the only danger left for us is spell damage. But we have a solution. We can use Spell Inhibition on the skill tree. We get 87% of skills from the skill tree and will fill the rest with mods from our gear slots.
Permanent Flask Uptime
We have permanent flask uptime even though we don’t have any specific gear at the start of POE 3.22 league. We do this by doing a few things.
First up, our Ascendancy pick is Pathfinder. It gives us 3 Flask Charges every 3 seconds. We could also increase Flask Charges gain by placing several Flask Nodes on the tree. All our Flasks get 2 or 3 charges from this mod when we take a hit. With all this, you’ll have a permanent flask uptime even if you’re standing motionless in your hideout.
In Crucible, the developers moved Life Recovery used by Flask to the tree and reduced it from 6% to 4%. But we restored this with Flask Mastery. It’s still powerful when you take multiple hits, because Flask will heal you instantly.
And we can also use all Elemental Flask, which reduces the elemental damage we take. You can also use Life Flasks for super recovery. But if you just want to use it for mapping, you can do without Life Flasks.
If you use Life Flasks, you must bring Master Surgeon Node. If your life is full, your Life Flasks will still be active and make a good recovery choice.
Items
Usually at the beginning of the league, it is difficult for us to get any rare POE Items. That’s why we often have some pretty basic items on our lists. Only one item is worth mentioning, and that’s the unique bow, Quill Rain.
Even on the first day of POE league, it is very cheap. That’s why I recommend definitely using it when you have enough POE Currency, because it will almost take you to high tier maps.
Another surprising thing is that we don’t use Life Mod on our Body Armor. Since we got Mastery in the last league, if our Body Armor doesn’t have Life Mod, it will give us 15% of max life. So we can use Armor and Evasion rating prefixes on Body Armor.
Another big change to our skill tree compared to the last league is that we’ve brought back Mana Reservation Mastery. That’s why we assign combat incentives and take Mana Mastery to improve the skill’s Mana Reservation efficiency.
Flasks
Until we get to Flasks section of Pathfinder, you don’t have to limit your resistance with your gear, as your Resistance Flasks will have 100% uptime.
Flasks we use include: Quicksilver, Ruby, Sapphire, Topaz and Granite. All Flasks are required to work with this mod. When you take a hit and need this Flask enchant, you get 2-3 charges.
When you get higher level Flasks, you will only use 3 charges when you take a hit. You can also cheat your Elemental Resistances by adding all Elemental Resistances mods to Flasks with 100% uptime. This will make upgrading your equipment easier.
Before you can get a full Flasks setup, you need to use Life Flasks. After this, if you want more recovery, you can use Master Surgeon Node and use Life Flasks to get more recovery. But if you’re just doing maps, you can get away without Life Flasks.
Passive Tree
Also, I want to highlight a few things about passive trees. In the early levels, your primary objectives are Aspect of The Eagle and Hunter’s Gambit, and grab Bow Mastery Node here, along with some Life Nodes. You can deal 10% more damage to enemies with Energy Shield through Chaos Mastery.
After that you just go to the top of the tree and grab all Nodes you see there. But don’t use Eldritch Battery until you have at least 4-500 Energy Shield.
Ascendancy
In this build, we use Pathfinder as Ascendancy class. We can use Nature’s Reprisal as our first ability. This is indeed a tremendous benefit for early leveling. It will help you with single target damage, and you can easily stack Wither on enemies.
The second Nature’s Boon Magic Flask will have a bigger effect on you, so don’t forget to upgrade your Magic Flask. And the third Nature’s Adrenaline will restore your Flask Charges.
For the last skill, you have two options. You can set it up with Life Flasks and get huge recovery during boss fights. Or you can go into full map mode without using Life Flasks and you’ll still recover health easily. It’s up to you.
Here’s the build that’s definitely worth trying when your Path of Exile 3.22 league kicks off, Toxic Rain Pathfinder. Hope this guide helps you get off to a better start when the league starts. Looking forward to seeing you in the game.