The Pathfinder is an incredibly powerful class in Path of Exile, and one of the main reasons for this is its access to the Master Surgeon ascendancy passive. Toxic Rain is a chaos damage over time skill in Path of Exile that does not scale with weapon damage but instead scales with gem levels and increased damage over time multipliers. It is a projectile, AOE, duration skill that slows down enemies and is not a poison build despite its chaos damage type. Toxic Rain's pods deal chaos damage and its damage output is increased by skill effect duration and potency of will. Slows are encouraged for Toxic Rain builds to increase damage uptime, and accuracy investment is not necessary.

 

• PlayStyle
• Pros & Cons
• POBLINK
• Gear
• Gems
• Passive tree
• Flasks
• Ascendancy
• Leveling Guides

 

 

PlayStyle

Instead of using armor, the build opts for 70% of physical damage taken as elemental damage reduction. explains that this is because armor and evasion masteries have been nerfed, and the build cannot take all the points to get maximum reservation efficiency. The build achieves this by running lightning coil, which provides 50% of damage taken as lightning damage, and Taste of Hate, which gives 15%. These values can be increased by flask effect from pathfinder.

 

The Poe Build is considered extremely defensive as it is a ranged skill that allows the player to kite around while the ballistas do all the work. The build has insane slows with toxic rain, stacking and snaring arrow, and maim from the gloves. It also has 100% spell suppression, 67% evade chance, and uses extinguish, which chains to extinguish enemies on hit, making the player ailment immune. The build also has hardened scars, which provides 15% increased life recovery from flasks and 25% less damage over time taken during the effect of a life flask.

 

Recommends using the soul of the branking pantheon until the player acquires freeze immunity from their boots. After that, the player can experiment with other pantheons. also suggests using the soul of aberrath as it is really good on stuff like red alters and the unaffected by burning ground is also helpful. In the end game, suggests getting progenesis, which is one of the strongest flasks that can make the player nearly unkillable.

 

Pros & Cons

• + Fun and strong all-rounder build that can clear everything
• + Has high region permaflask uptime, making it very comfortable to play
• + Easy to scale damage as you progress to harder content
• + Early leveling with Toxic Rain is viable as a ranger
• + Can clear T16s on a budget
• + One-button build that doesn't require targeting enemies
• - Poison Concoction has been nerfed, affecting early leveling
• - Unique item prices can affect build viability and cost
• - Upgrading gear may be necessary for harder content

 

POBLINK: https://pobb.in/ofBHo6HwvvSG

 

Gear

The goal is to get as much attack speed, cast speed, and area of effect as possible. Toxic Rain benefits greatly from these stats, and the defensive options will help survive tougher encounters.

• Weapon: Quill Rain - Provides a lot of attack speed and projectile speed. Later on, it can be replaced with a plus-free bow.
• Quiver: Any quiver with a good implicit, like totem placement speed. Use the Essence of Woe to add damage to bow skills.
• Helmet: Wilma's Recital - Provides a lot of attack and cast speed, which is great for Toxic Rain. It can be expensive but is not a rare item.
• Chest: Lightning Coil - Provides a lot of defense, as well as Taste of Hate for additional defense. If possible, get a plus to AoE duration or projectile for Toxic Rain.
• Gloves: Any gloves with spell suppression, life, and evasion. Maim and Extinguished are good implicits.
• Amulet: Look for +1 chaos or all skills, life, and a bit of chaos multi. Look for the nine percent increased area of effect.
• Belt: Heavy Belt with strength and resistance rolls.
• Boots: Potency of Will or Hardened Scars for more damage or defense, respectively. Look for movement speed, life, and spell suppression.
• Rings: Focus on fixing resistances and intelligence/strength. Timeless Clasp is a good option if resistances are capped.
• Flask: Divine Life Flask with shock suffix.

 

Gems

Main Setup:

• Toxic Rain (20/21 Quality) - This should be your main damage-dealing skill with perfect overlaps at 21 quality.
• Ballista Support - Use this gem to support your Toxic Rain skill.
• Efficacy - Use this gem for more damage over time, skill effect, and duration.
• Void Manipulation - This gem will give you additional damage.
• Vicious Projectile - This gem provides another multiplier for your damage output.

 

Offhand Setup:

Level as many Toxic Rains as possible, then level them to 20 quality and try to corrupt them into 21 quality. This will give you additional damage.

If you have good gear and can fix your mana issues, use Damage on Full Life instead of Life Tap for additional damage output.

 

Auras:

• Haste - This is your primary aura for increased attack and cast speed.
• Malevolence - This aura provides a huge damage multiplier for your build.
• Grace - Use this aura for increased defense and tankiness.
• Vitality - This aura is only necessary if you have the Watcher's Eye mod.

 

Buffs:

• Frenzy with Greater Multiple Projectiles - This will give you frenzy charges and help with aiming.
• Despair - This should be used on bosses for additional damage.
• Steel Skin or Immortal Call - Choose between these two skills based on your preference for added defense.
• Ensnaring Arrow with Mirage Archer, Culling Strike, and Greater Multiple Projectiles - This setup is automated and will help with debuffing enemies.

 

Passive tree

As for the passive tree, the focus is on playing around Master Surgeon and getting a lot of Life Flask Effect. The Field Medicine node is essential, along with Profane Chemistry and Natural Remedies. You also want to take the Master node for the one charge every three seconds on your Life Flasks. The Spell Suppression cluster synergizes well with Life Flasks and is recommended, along with a path to both totem clusters.

 

You don't need Totem Taunt from the mastery because you have it on a medium cluster. Instead, take skills that summon totems with a 30% chance to summon two. The Panopticon and Watchtowers clusters are also essential, providing additional totems. The only Keystone you really need is Mage Bane to cap your Spell Suppression without having to path to Inveterate.

 

Take as much Life as possible, along with movement speed nodes like Quick Step. For masteries, take the 20% AoE while wielding a bow, and the chaos mastery may also be useful. The large cluster should have increased Chaos Damage, and the medium cluster with Shrieking Bolts is crucial for totems.

 

As for reservation, look into it further, but a reservation efficiency cluster is necessary for the nerfs and getting Haste into the build. The Malevolence has increased mana reservation efficiency or Haste, with a little bit of Chaos Res on top. The phasing on kill node in the Astral Leveling cluster is also helpful. Consider drawing attention to yourself instead of using totem taunt if Pathfinder is very tanky, and the Repeater node in the second medium cluster would be strong.

 

Flasks

Flasks are an essential component of many builds in Path of Exile, and they can provide incredible benefits to players in terms of survivability and damage. One of the most important things to consider when building a character is which flasks to use and how to maximize their effectiveness. In this guide, we'll be discussing the importance of flasks and petrified blood in the context of a Pathfinder build.

 

This passive has a downside in that it reduces your life recovery from flasks by 50, but it also has a powerful upside: life flask effects are not removed when unreserved life is filled. This means that your life flask can provide a reliable source of healing even when you're at full life.

 

The key to making the most of this passive is to use flasks that provide a significant amount of life recovery. One of the best flasks for this is the saturated divine flask, which can provide over 17,000 life recovery over 8.22 seconds. With the right passive tree and other gear, this can be increased even further, resulting in an incredible amount of life regeneration.

 

Another important aspect of this build is petrified blood. This keystone passive provides a significant amount of damage reduction when taking damage from hits, and also allows players to recover life below half-life. This is incredibly useful for surviving one-shots, which can be a major threat to many builds in Path of Exile. One of the best things about petrified blood is that it can be used even when you're at full life, thanks to the Master Surgeon passive. This means that players can benefit from its damage reduction even when they're not in danger of dying, providing an extra layer of survivability.

 

Ascendancy

• Master Surgeon: This is a must-have Ascendancy point for the Pathfinder build. It provides a significant boost to life regeneration from your life flask, which is crucial for sustaining in combat. Even without investing too much in it, you can get up to 2,000 life regeneration per second.
• Nature's Adrenaline: This Ascendancy point provides you with free charges every few seconds, which helps a lot with sustaining your utility flasks. It also increases your movement speed and attack speed for a short period, which is useful for clearing maps.
• Nature's Reprisal: This Ascendancy point provides you with a weather effect that adds chaos damage over time to enemies in an area. It also increases the effect of weather effects by 50%, which is a huge damage boost for your build. While the removal of the area of effect may be annoying, it's not a big deal for this build since you only need 39 aoe, and you can easily get it from other sources.
• Nature's Boon: This Ascendancy point provides you with increased flask charges gained, which is useful for sustaining your utility flasks. It also provides you with increased movement speed, which is helpful for racing. While this is the last Ascendancy point you should take, it's still a crucial part of the build.

 

Leveling Guides

 

Act 1:

The first act is pretty standard for most builds. Focus on getting through the quests and killing monsters to gain experience. Once the leveling video is out, you can refer to it for more detailed guidance.

 

Act 2:

In Act 2, you'll want to progress towards Watchtowers to get your early +1 totem. This will allow for a cozy playstyle where you can simply place down a totem, move, place down another totem, and so on. This will help you gain a lot of free XP. Once you reach level 12, switch to using Caustic Arrow and Shrapnel Ballista. More information on this will be provided in the leveling video.

 

Act 3:

At level 12, you'll want to switch to Toxic Rain Ballista and Toxic Green self-cast. Once you have these ballistas, make your way over to Avatar of the Hunt. Along the way, you'll gain Phasing, which will give you the movement speed and damage that you want. Then, head straight down to Onslaught. A big thing to keep in mind with the new mastery is that you'll be immune to bleeding if your equipped helmet has higher armor than evasion. If you forget this, you'll be bleeding during the campaign, which can be a big deal, especially in Act 4 against pesky mobs.

 

Act 4:

Once you have this mastery, head over to the far side in Act 5 to finish up some life. After that, make your way up to Exceptional Performance for extra damage. Once you have that, take All Res and work on Profane Chemistry. At this point, you won't be doing anything too nasty with life flasks, but it's still helpful to have them while leveling.

 

Act 7:

After this is all done, move on to Act 7 and slowly make your way up towards Charisma. This will give you more mana reservation. Then, in Act 8, grab Hunter's Gambit as soon as possible, as well as go up to Wasting. You can also take Revenge of the Hunted earlier if you feel squishy.

 

Act 9:

In Act 9, you'll want to grab Blood Siphon for extra strength, which is nice, as well as Entropy for skill effect duration. Finally, round things out with Fangs of the Viper Trickery and Revenge of the Hunted.

 

Additional Tips:

One cool one is after Act 10, where you don't actually need a certain node until you have a cluster jewel. Once you have that, you'll have a passive tree ready. Additionally, check out the note section for tips and tricks on leveling, as well as some Currency budget uniques that can help make you stronger.