Level 98 Vaal Grace Pathfinder^3.23

Notes

**POB ISN'T CORRECT DPS, THIS IS JUST MY CURRENT GEAR/SET-UP** (it's not updated yet and is super annoying to POB accurately)
(also scroll down there's a lot of notes)


**DAY 1 THOUGHTS AND NOTES** MAKE SURE YOU USE THESE GEMS: Transfigured Frenzy of Onslaught, Scourge Arrow of Menace, Storm Rain of the Conduit, Caustic Arrow of Poison

	-Lifetap is big on manaforged
	-Rog + expedition for decent early bow

LEAGUE MECHANIC

	-Follow the yellow wisps to reach the warden sub ascendancy
	-You can find the poisonberry tincture as early as Act 2 from her	
	-First points are for finding her, you can take the early MS if you want, but I went with "coated tincture"
	-Second points are for collecting 4000 yellow wisps (it's easier than it sounds) and I went with Natural Concotions, you can take Barkskin here though (it helps a TON for HC especially)
	-Third points are for finding/killing three treants (I noticed I got it after defeating the unique boss with frost projectiles)

NEW GEMS

	-These are pretty easy to get, you can spam lab and reliably get every gem you want in SSF even
	-Poison CA is nice, probably want to use it after you get "poison prolif" from 2nd ascendancy
	-Toxicspores TR is also just better for our build with manaforged, both of these have 40% chance to poison
	-New "Stormrain of the Fence" is a nice button that you can press for more damage (requires aiming, but does a ton of damage, Max 2 arrows)
	-Scourge Arrow of the Menace has better clear speed, but you need 55% proj speed and 40% chance to poison from gear, this also seems to have less single target than CA, but later Nimis scaling is probably very good
	-Yes Weapon Elemental Damage with Attacks scales with poison, with the tincture

CURRENT SET-UP

	-You might have noticed a weird set-up compared to the early league POB, this is just because I have two 4-links right now, so I am making up for some lost damage by using another manaforged set-up
	-If you are struggling on DPS, make sure you upgrade your bow, its highest priority for DPS
	-Plaguebearer is probably worth using, I am lazy and haven't but its good for single target
	

**DAY 2+3 CHANGES**

STORM RAIN

	-New "Stormrain of the Fence" is a nice button that you can press for more damage (requires aiming, but does a ton of damage, Max 2 arrows)
	-Stormrain of the Conduit seems to be worth using when you have less projectiles, but more +proj will scale the normal Storm Rain to be better I think in the end (it has beams traveling to your character instead)

MANAFORGED SET-UP END GAME

	-Current plan end-game is to use both Toxic Rain AND Storm Rain in the same 6-link later on
	-This should save links and most likely is better than SR having one extra damage link

POISON CHANCE

	-A lot of people keep misunderstanding this but you need 100% chance with the tincture
	-The tincture just enables your elemental damage to be ABLE to poison
	-Storm Rain and Scourge Arrow if you use it both need an additional 40% chance to poison over the Caustic Arrow and Toxic Rain tgems (they have 40% built in)
	-You can get 70% from the skilltree, so we need to get 30% from other sources. Herald of Agony gives us 20%
	-2 jewels with 5% chance to poison each
	-Gloves with 10% chance to poison
	-Elder quiver with (up to) 20% chance to poison
	-Bow with (up to) 30% chance to poison

SCOURGE ARROW VS CAUSTIC ARROW

	-Been asked this A LOT, but Scourge Arrow has better clear, but worse single target compared to Caustic Arrow
	-Scourge Arrow + Nimis is probably pretty insane later?
	-You'll want Return Projectiles until Nimis but you need 55% increased projectile speed for it to be able to return properly

CURSES AND SOME END-GAME IDEAS

	-Asenath's Gentle Touch with despair corrupted will feel the best for mapping, but it requires more supression on tree and/or other gear (you lose mastery)
	-Snakepit + Frenzy scaling could be a way to go for Scourge Arrow and Storm Rain if you choose that route (way easier poison chance)


**DAY 4 CHANGES** (and ideas for later!)

	-Dropped Quicksilver for Dying Sun, and Determination for Haste
	-Movespeed could be solved later by potentially removing one manaforged set-up and combining together in 6-link, and then running no sockets in boots for 30% ms from Maji
	-Loss of Determination feels noticeable worse defensively with just 82% phys taken as but still tanky overall, Haste helps make up for the loss of QS for now
	-Super end-game can maybe run Avoid Ailment implicit boots + Ancestral Vision over Stormshroud to gain back 12% MS on the Topaz flask (which scales with flask effect)

THE MANAFORGED SET-UPS

	-After lots of testing, I can say with 100% certainty that Toxic Rain manaforged seems to be not worth it
	-We scale AOE for Caustic Arrow and it feels great, but this has a side effect of making TR a lot worse
	-Scourge Arrow of Menace as a replacement feels quite a bit better on the DPS and helps clear too
	-Links are SA, Manaforged, Lifetap, and Arrow Nova (feels better for single target over GMP) if you 5-link Unbound or Return Projectiles (with 55% proj speed), 6-link Vicious Projectiles or Return Projectiles

RAGE TINCTURE OP

	-Rage on hit tincture which is % chance to gain rage on hit against Rare or Unique enemy - seems COMPLETELY broken
	-This has no CD so the fact that we are spamming manaforged attacks constrantly makes us able to gain basically 50 rage stacks instantly on single target
	-On bosses with multiple targets, even 100% uptime on Berserk seems possible, assuming you can keep attacking

DEFENSE SCALING LATER??

	-Lots of options for defenses later, I'm thinking one main option is to go for Transcendence + 100% phys taken as (phys to ele watcher / micro belt / korrell helm prefix) + Eternal Damnation
	-Another option is Doppelganger Guise + Divine Flesh - but I have no experience with this one

**DAY 5 UPGRADES, BUILD POPPING OFF**

	-Poison Duration "That Which Was Taken" Acquired
	-This is an insane amount of duration, increases the DPS by a ton
	-Flask Effect / Alchemist's Genius medium cluster, Circling Oblivion is less important with the new jewel
	-Enlighten allowed us to drop the mana reservation cluster, saving 5 points (basically enough for 2nd medium cluster)
	-New Helmet for 8% phys taken as prefix and Lethal Pride with 5% phys taken - now sitting at 96% phys taken as ele (last 4 could be flask effect, or a better lethal pride/better implicit roll, or phys taken watcher's eye)

THE GEMS

	-Make sure you are using the correct gems, POB is not updated yet so it is kind of annoying
	-Transfigured Frenzy of Onslaught, Scourge Arrow of Menace, Storm Rain of the Conduit, Caustic Arrow of Poison
	-Storm Rain is higher DPS than SA for single target, higher priority for bossing, SA obviously helps clear though!
	-Eventually probably combine them in some way to save links

THE OVERLAP

	-Make sure for single target you stand in the monsters hit box
	-For both Storm Rain of the conduit and Scourge Arrow of the Menace with Arrow Nova, you'll end up doing a lot more damage this way
	
LIFE ON HIT AND LIFE/MANA ISSUES

	-As you get 5 and 6 link set-ups going costs are going to get much higher, both mana and life
	-Life cost is most of the reason why I decided Master Surgeon was worth it
	-For mana, on helmet implicit you can get "20% reduced mana cost of attacks" and -flat mana on rings if it is a problem for you
	-Excess Sustenance is REALLY good, basically you won't die unless you get 1-shot while attacking


DAY 6 - AOE IS HUGE

	-As I originally expected, AOE Is a HUGE dps multiplier - unfortunately I don't know the breakpoints since POB isn't updated yet, but I did some testing and with/without is a very big difference

NEW GEARS / CLUSTER (for now)

	-I grabbed a "You have Phasing with Haste" and "Physical Damage taken as Fire damage" watcher's eye, this is just huge QOL for phasing, and it caps my phys to ele without the Lethal Pride (which replaced it)
	-Malevolence DOT multi would be a good daamge option for the watcher's eye (and run it over Grace) - but this requires some INT somewhere on gear
	-Microdistillery belt for an extra PROJ on Dying Sun, this requires you to move the tincture to slot 5 and put Dying Sun in slot 4
	-These belts are a PAIN to roll, but you want ideally Life, Flask Effect prefixes, and Charges Gained or Duration suffix - seems like only one good suffix roll is needed currently

MANA RESERVATION / AURAS

	-I've dropped Determination and Barkskin completely now with watcher's eye and full conversion
	-In order to run Purity of Fire, Grace (or Malevolence/Anger), and Haste you need a level 4 enlighten (+ maybe a reservation jewel?)
	-I am currently using a small cluster to fix my reservation but this most likely temporary

DAY 7 - GMP OVER GV IF YOU CAN FACETANK?

GMP VS GV

	-I spent time testing GMP vs GV yesterday and it "seems" like GMP has better overlap if you can facetank (at least visually? tbh my aoe is so high it didn't feel that noticeable, maybe because my AOE is so high)	
	-Basically you need to be in melee range, and ideally in the hitbox of the monster, and then you put your cursor over where your character is, if you do this and use CA it seems to make them all overlap
	-This requires you to be quite tanky, because if you can't face tank and have to kite around - then the spread becomes unpredictable and hard to aim compared to GV
	-I would recommend you test this out yourself and see if you like it as it changes the play style a bit

LARGE THREAD OF HOPE AT RANGER!

	-There is a very good spot for large thread of hope at ranger, I haven't gotten this myself yet because I didn't see one pop up on HC yet but you can save a bunch of points with this, seems almost certaintly worth it

WHAT ARE ALL THESE GEMS?!?! (and why do you keep changing things!?!?)

	-I have been testing a lot of bow skills out with various gem links and amount of skill gems (this is impossible to POB without it being updated, and tbh it'd be hard even with it)
	-LA seems to be REALLY helpful for clear, single target isn't insane or anything but it add a lot to anything that has more than 1 target - worth using probably in the 6-link with SA (of menace)
	-This will especially be good if we go for "Nimis" which is the current plan, both these gems would go well with that
	-Still testing out Blast Rain - not sure if it's good or not yet. Also yes Tornado Shot is likely to be a good candidate as well.

PETRIFIED BLOOD?!

	-I haven't tried this out myself yet, but you could try dropping Grace for Petrified Blood, and it probably feels good with master surgeon
	-Excess Sustenance is so good though that it feels kind of unnecessary