Level 12 Pathfinder^3.25

Notes

---------- EXTREMELY IMPORTANT INFO ----------

-Leaguestart Regex 
Copy the code below and paste it into Tarkleigh's search bar in Lioneye's Watch to highlight useful 3-link items:

g-g-b|g-[gb]-g|b-g-g|nne|rint

-Area of Effect
You need between 37-43% Increased Area of Effect to make all five of your Toxic Rain pods cleanly overlap. You get 20% from the Passive Skill Tree, and the rest from a combination of helm and gloves prefixes. 
You can also get Area of Effect as a corrupted belt implicit or a corrupted jewel implicit.

It's not a big concern during the leveling process.

-Should I do the Siosa quest? (A3 Library)
You don't have to, and it is out of the way, but it lets you buy Flame Dash and Malevolence before Act 6, so yeah.

-How to Fix Mana in the Campaign
Make a beeline to Primal Spirit in Act 1. Use Clarity once it becomes available in Act 1. These will both really help solve mana early.

Don't overlevel Clarity, the mana reservation cost gets big pretty quickly.

Use your mana flask liberally, and spec toward Thrill of Battle on the right-hand side of the tree.

Note: If you use Eldritch Battery, Manaforged Arrows will not work, because you're spending Energy Shield, not Mana. 
You will need to use Ballista Totems with Focused Ballista Support for bossing, or Caustic Arrow with Arrow Nova Support for clearing.

-Fixing Mana at Endgame
Craft -7 Mana Cost of Non-Channeling Skills prefixes on your rings and amulet.
The Searing Exarch's helm implicit modifier X% Reduced Mana Cost of Attacks is also important. Getting a high rank of that implicit by using Orbs of Conflict is really important for fixing mana at higher gear levels.

If you use Eldritch Battery, The Belt Suffix that grants Regenerate 150 Energy Shield per second while a Rare or Unique Enemy is Nearby is very good early on for maintaining your ES pool.

Devouring Diadem is a unique helm that drops from Catarina, the end boss of Betrayal. It's will help fix mana problems, but you will need to compensate by getting Area of Effect elsewhere.
It grants Eldritch Battery, which saves at least 2 Passive Points. It also massively reduces the difficulty of meeting reservation requirements.
It doesn't have Evasion, so hitting the Spell Suppression cap becomes more challenging due to the Evasion Mastery no longer functioning.

-Should I use Ballista Totems or Caustic Arrow as my second six-link?
Toxic Rain Focused Ballista Totems are a bit of a throwback. They help out with single-target damage by debuffing enemies, and are generally only used while fighting bosses and tanky rares.
Caustic Arrow is better for clearing maps, but requires a two-button playstyle. Try playing with both, and see which you prefer (probably Caustic Arrow)!

Once you get your mana fixed, you can use a Manaforged Arrows Support setup in your second six-link and get the value of two six-links with a single keybind!

-How should I use Immortal Call & Withering Step? Is Automation Support the play?
Yeah, it's really good!

-When can I swap out of Eldritch Battery?
Technically, you never NEED to run Eldritch Battery. It just trivializes mana for a while early on in the endgame.

Switching back to mana is preferable since it will enable the use of a Manaforged Arrows 6-link.
The Mana Cost with Attacks wheel on the right side of the tree does wonders for reducing your mana costs.
The Life Mastery that grants Skills Cost Life instead of 15% of Mana Cost also works really well.

You can use Lifetap Support in your Manaforged Arrows setup to set its mana cost to 0. This will make it trigger on cooldown.
This may not be necessary, just be sure to check your mana costs.

Stormshroud or Ancestral Vision can help with fixing your Elemental Ailment Avoidance, since you won't be able to fit in Purity of Elements.

A Watcher's Eye that grants Non-Channelling Skills have -10 to Total Mana Cost while affected by Clarity can be useful, but they are usually expensive.
It's not mandatory, either.

-How do I fit in all these auras?
We take two Reservation wheels. They help a lot. After that, you can use some combination of the following:
-Mana Mastery that grants 12% Reservation Efficiency
-Enlighten Support linked to Auras
-Mana Reservation Efficiency helm suffix from Essence of Loathing
-Mana Reservation Efficiency helm implicit from Eater of Worlds
-Small Reservation Efficiency Cluster Jewels with a notable for Grace (Sublime Form) or Haste (Frantic Aspect)
-Anointing Sovereignty (Silver Oil x3) from the Templar side of the tree
-Devouring Diadem (Energy Shield helmet that drops from Catarina)

-What About Guardian's Blessing?
Guardian's Blessing Support has a lot of positives. It's free! It's instant! It's permanent!
It needs to be linked to both an aura and a minion gem. It burns the minion's health in order to maintain the aura.
This is normally pretty bad, since you will need to recast a minion and apply the buff to it. Awful!

There is a minion that gets around this requirement: Dark Marionette Spectres.
They reform after dying, which means you can easily summon them once, then just hit them with the Guardian's Blessing when they reform.

You can get Dark Marionette Corpses through Ritual.

-What is the best anointment?
Initially, Potency of Will.
You can reach it with a Very Large Thread of Hope in an endgame build.

Sovereignty is the best option once you have a Thread of Hope. 

If you are using a Devouring Diadem and Sovereignty, you can use Beastcrafting to apply Aspect of the Spider onto a piece of gear as a suffix.
Aspect of the Spider slows enemies by 30% & increases their damage taken by 5-10%.
It's not bad.

-What kind of flasks should I use?
Life Flask is a given. You want a prefix that grants Increased Life Recovered and Reduced Recovery Rate so that you don't have to hit the keybind as often to keep it active. I bind my life flask to my mouse. 
Make sure your Life Flask has a "Grants Immunity to X" Suffix. Bleed/Corrupted Blood immunity is best. This will allow you to drink it even while at full health.
Ruby, Sapphire, and Topaz flasks all work really well in this build. 
They help fix resistances early on, and overcapping your Cold and Lightning Resistances so that you can safely farm Blue Eldritch Altars is a safe move.
Jade and Quartz Flasks are both good alternatives during the campaign.
Jade can remain good long-term, especially if using Kintsugi.
Silver adds both movement speed and attack speed. It's a no-brainer.
Quicksilver adds movement speed. It's not required, but it's pretty close.
This leaves room for one other flask. Jade and Quartz are good options.

Progenesis far outperforms the competition, but it is expensive.


-What is the best flask prefix?
Increased Charge Recovery will provide the most uptime on utility flasks. 
Increased Flask Duration and Reduced Charges Used are both decent. They're not as good, but not bad, either.

For Life Flasks, as mentioned above: Increased Life Recovered and Reduced Recovery Rate is a mandatory prefix.

Once you have The Tides of Time, you can use Increased Flask Effect, Reduced Duration as a Prefix on some flasks and still maintain 100% uptime.

-Which flask suffixes are important?
% Chance to Avoid Being Stunned will prevent you from being stunlocked to death.
% Reduced Effect of Curses is great for QoL.
% Chance to Avoid Being Shocked is excellent for becoming Elemental Ailment immune if using Stormshroud.
% Increased Evasion Rating is good defensively.
Attack Speed is no longer available as a flask suffix. This kinda sucks, but it's okay, we just go after defensive utility from flasks.

-Tattoos are back! Which ones should I use?
This was unexpected, but good!
The Tattoo of the Tawhoa Herbalist replaces Dexterity small passive nodes and grants 4% increased Flask Effect Duration. 
They aren't mandatory, but they are *VERY* good. You can use other tattoos to solve problems in your gear, but no others are this generically useful.

-Is The Tides of Time belt from Uber Shaper good?
It is. 
It easily grants permanent flask uptime and significant increased flask effect, enough to outperform even the juiciest rare flask belts, and unlike a Mageblood, it applies to Unique flasks.
When combined with Progenesis, this provides far more defensive value than any other unique in the game can offer.
You can push into the 300+ Life/sec range with The Tides of Time equipped. That's a preposterous amount of life regen.

It does come from an Uber Pinnacle boss, but Uber Shaper is generally regarded as the easiest Uber boss, and the droprate was fairly high during Patch 3.24.

The implicit modifier is not great, so there's a real incentive to double-corrupt it and try to get attack speed or skill effect duration.



---------- LEAGUE START INFO ----------

-What skill should I use in Act 1?
Caustic Arrow is very good for most of Act 1.
Its main source of damage is the pool it leaves on the ground, and it doesn't overlap, so you don't have to spam it on bosses.
Puncture helps a lot on Brutus. That is its only use.

Swap to Toxic Rain at level 12. You can continue using Caustic Arrow against Merveil if you have a socket for it. 
If you manage to maintain a couple of 3-link setups throughout the campaign, you can continue using Caustic Arrow with Arrow Nova Support and Pierce Support, just like you would at endgame.

This is not mandatory, it's just an option that can give you the feel of playing the endgame build during the campaign.

I greatly prefer the two-button playstyle, which is not something I can say about literally any other build.

-Early Leveling Tips:
Look for movement speed boots, quicksilver flasks, and 3 green-link items.
Don't waste time killing rares unless you can do so really efficiently. 
Focus on killing magic packs for XP and white mobs to keep your flasks full. 
Keep moving! Leveling in Path of Exile involves a lot of walking!

Get a Sapphire Ring (or two) before fighting Merveil.

Finding a 4-link is your first big gearing goal (level 25+).
You either want 4g or 3g1b. Use Efficacy as your Blue Support Gem.
3g1r or 2g1b1r can work, but it's not as good. Use More Duration Support or Damage on Full Life Support as your Red Support Gem.

NOTE: If using Damage on Full Life Support, be sure to take the Life Mastery that grants "You count as on Full Life while at 90% maximum health or above."

-Auras
Clarity. It's free mana regen. Pick it up at level 10, use it throughout the entire campaign. Don't overlevel it. Anywhere in the level 5-8 range is a good stopping point.

Summon Skitterbots is the best aura available when it becomes available early in Act 2, but it quickly drops in value compared to alternatives like those listed below. 
   (Use it for a while, but be prepared to drop it when the time comes. Continue leveling it in your offhand.)

Haste is the best aura in the campaign because it makes you move faster. It's not amazing for fighting bosses.

Switch to Malevolence for more single-target damage.

Purity of Elements helps with capping resists and being ailment immune.

Grace is a great defensive aura, and you can use it to massively increase your tankiness if you find yourself struggling defensively at any point.
It's mainly just for not dying to random packs of magic and rare monsters, which is very useful, but swapping auras during the campaign will make the experience faster and smoother.
Grace won't make you faster or add damage, and it's mostly worthless against most bosses. 


---------- EARLY ENDGAME ----------

-Kitava's dead. What now?
Level up in Blood Aqueducts or The Quarry until you are around level 68.
Start progressing your atlas.
Farm currency in easy content. Your damage will suck a bit, but you are super fast, so Heist is perfect.
This build is outstanding for Labrunning, if you're willing to do it.

Farming Alva & Bestiary in low-tier white maps is a really strong, easy strategy early in a league.
Alch-and-Go Expedition Farming is great, too.
Betrayal is a profitable league mechanic early, and it can create some really useful gear at leaguestart.
I usually farm Betrayal and Expedition at league start, since they both provide gear and Expedition gives a lot of bubblegum currency.

I'm also a big fan of Essences, although they are a little more annoying to set up and run at league start now that they require T6+ maps in order to maximize their value.

Try to get a Quill Rain or a 6-link Short Bow from The Porcupine Divination Cards. This will help your damage out a lot!
Craft the Short Bow using Shrieking Essence of Dread for +2 bow gems. Craft Attack Speed, or Chaos DoT Multi if you get Attack Speed on the bow.

Farming Betrayal for Devouring Diadem from Catarina can be really valuable.

Get a Kintsugi as soon as you can, it will substantially improve your overall tankiness.

Lightning Coil has been a popular chest option in the past, and it's still good, but the downside of -60 Lightning Resistance is pretty brutal. It's more reliable than Kintsugi is at high gear levels, but early on it's not as good.

Fix your stats, get your flasks set up, keep your resistances up, level your gems, and start saving to craft a +3 Thicket Bow & buy an Empower Support.


---------- ENDGAME FAQ ----------

-What Cluster Jewels Should I Use?
Large Chaos Damage Cluster Jewels with 8 mods. The preferred notables are Unholy Grace, Unwaveringly Evil, and Wicked Pall.

Medium Projectile Damage Cluster Jewels with Shrieking Bolts and Repeater are the best option for maximizing damage.

Medium Chaos Damage Over Time Cluster Jewels with Wicked Pall and Student of Decay are a good alternative that can help with Chaos Resistance. The difference in damage is pretty small.

-Do I need specific Jewels?
Nope! Jewels and Rare gear are about solving problems. You need a certain amount of resistances, stats, and spell suppression to make the build function safely.
Acquire them across all those pieces of gear as you are able.

-Is the Thread of Hope necessary?
No, but it is a potential endgame optimization that lets you anoint Sovereignty without losing the massive damage from Potency of Will.

-Do you need a Despair curse-on-hit ring?
No, but it's convenient! Many players self-cast Despair on rares and bosses, but that's tedious.

-Do I need Forbidden Flesh/Flame?
No! They're a super expensive flex, and a really bad investment unless you can get lucky and buy them cheap.
They do add a lot of damage/speed, though!

-What Watcher's Eye mods should I use?
Phasing while Haste is Active is pretty good, and surprisingly cheap. You can get Phasing elsewhere, but this is a really easy spot for it that costs very little.
Increased Damage Over Time Multiplier While Affected By Malevolence adds a ton of damage, which is great, but it is insanely expensive with other useful mods. 
If you are trying to transition out of using Eldritch Battery, using a Watcher's Eye that grants Non-Channelling Skills have -(10-5) to Total Mana Cost while affected by Clarity is extremely useful for fixing mana costs, but beware, it can be expensive!

-Why not use Headhunter?
The Tides of Time, mostly. It just outclasses every other option in the belt slot for Pathfinder builds, and it's not really even close.

Headhunter is very fun, but since this build deals Chaos DoT instead of physical or elemental damage, it's not quite as good as it is for normal bow builds like Lightning Arrow.

Headhunter can add tons of projectiles and attack speed, which may make the game perform poorly if using Toxic Rain MTX.

-Why not run Defiance of Destiny?
Damage! A +2 neck grants ~25% more damage than a Defiance of Destiny.
Defiance of Destiny is a great amulet. It will make you UNREASONABLY tanky, and it is much cheaper, it just comes at the expense of some damage.
It also makes fixing mana more difficult.

-Why not all 3 Ele Res Flasks?
Same reason! It's a super-tanky setup that works great, but you have to give up some damage & speed for it! No thanks!

-Do I really need to use a Life Flask?
Defiance of Destiny is a decent alternative, but you will need to account for DoT effects and find another way to deal with Bleed & Corrupted Blood.
If you choose to not run a Life Flask, The Tides of Time loses a ton of value, as well. This is more of an argument to just stick with a Life Flask than it is to not use The Tides of Time.
Corrupted Blood immunity through Corrupted Jewels will work, but for Bleed you will probably want to run Steelskin instead of Immortal Call or switch to Ralakesh for your Minor Pantheon.