Howdy exiles!

now that PoB 2 is out, I thought I'd share my Crit Chaos Bolt Deadeye since I'm having lots of fun with it!

Foreword

This IS NOT a blast-through-all-content-and-kill-ubers-in-5 seconds-with-no-effort-and-mechanic-abuse-broken-build. No archmage, no mana- or attribute-stacker, no 'cast on X' kind of build for damage. So I'd say it's 'pretty safe' in terms of nerfs.

This also isn't a starter build, I'd classify it into medium budget (chaos skills aren't super popular right now).

Primarily I wanted to make a strong and fast map clear build that doesn't cause epilepsy. Turns out it also is really strong on bossing. Since I'm playing on console I don't want to constantly aim and press as little buttons as possible. Basically (most of the time) this is a 1-button-playstyle-build. Haven't done Arbiter, Xesht and Simulacrum on this character yet but that wasn't the goal anyway.

It ain't much but it's honest work and I'm happy with the result.

Pros

- Fun

- FPS-friendly, not many effects and therefore more visual clarity

- Ranged & fast playstyle (up to 60% movement speed)

- Well-balanced offence and defence

- Every map-mod playable

- Doesn't require any 6-links

- No mana issues

Cons

- Attributes/requirements can be a little tricky

- Needs two weapons and offhands

- Some map/monster modifiers can be a little scary. Personally I don't like % more monster life, reduced maximum resistances and burning ground on my maps. Monster modifiers such as proximal tangibility, invulnerability aura or detonate dead require attention (especially combined with other mods e.g. ground effects)

Further Explanation & Playstyle

Our primary skill is Chaos Bolt, granted from a withered wand. This means we don't have any mana cost using it and allows us to use Mind over Matter as an extra defence layer. Downside: Can't use jeweller orbs and GCP, so we're stuck on a 5-link. But that's okay because there aren't any other super crazy good supports gems anyways. Also, finding and upgrading the right weapon is a little harder because of the weapon skill level and base type.

Why not play bow on deadeye? Because I like spells.

Why deadeye? Because of speed, extra projectile and it's relatively easy to get some defences up. Every other ascendancy doesn't really have much benefits here (except for Bloodmage and easy crit-cap but that's not much of an issue anyways).

We're making use of both weapon sets and weapon skill points; one for clear the other for single target.

For bosses/single target we additionally use a curse, wither-totem and automated utility skills. Activate the curse first because Decaying Hex is required to proc wither on the totem. Also swap out the right ring for another Seed of Cataclysm. Stay ranged for Far Shot's damage multiplier.

Automated Eye of Winter inflicts Critial Weakness and makes crit-cap much easier. Automated Sniper's Mark grants us a ton of skill speed and crit damage bonus.

For skill gem levels: Keep curse and totem as low as possible (min. level 9) because of mana-cost. I also added Arcane Surge to the curse setup and made it so that one use is just a little over half my mana. This means that if I cast the curse two times I get arcane surge for extra cast speed. Sniper's Mark as high as you can afford and Eye of Winter as low as possible (mana cost). Everything else on max level.

On clear-setup aim for 50% crit chance. I'm using Ambush which for 100% more crit chance on full life. The first hit matters. If anything survives, we also got Execute for 40% more damage on low life (<35% life) and culling strike through attrition.

For defences we get up to 75% to evade ALL hits, 30% less damage taken via tailwind, max all res, 3-3,5k EHP (including MoM), Life on Kill, movement speed, ranged playstyle and off-screen clear. Because of MoM our mana flask basically also functions as life flask. I'm currently at level 94 and got about 30 deaths but there was a lot of testing included. Base chance (without buffs) to evade all hits is around ~60%. Tailwind gives 150% increased evasion rating which is almost always up. If we get hit, we lose Tailwind but we get 100% evasion rating from our anoint. This brings us up to ~70%. We also get another 55% evasion rating after dodge rolling. Sadly we can't use Wind Dancer because it requires a martial weapon, so we rely on gear for evasion.

Gear/Requirements

Uniques first: In belt slot we use a high rolled Ingenuity. Rings are 2x Seed of Cataclysm and 1x Snakepit (in right ring slot for clearing). Seed of Cataclysm in combination with Ingenuity makes chaos res-capping much much easier.

Helmet, Gloves and Boots: High life, high evasion, resistances, boots with high movement speed.

Body Armour: HIGH evasion, I recommend >2500 evasion. This is our core piece of dodge because we also get another 100% increased from the passive tree.

Amulet: min. 25 Spirit, +3 to projectile or spell skills, cast speed. Extra great stats are: attributes, evasion rating, spell damage, crit chance, crit bonus. 40 Spirit enables an extra aura and support gems. Anoint it with Escape Strategy (Despair, Paranoia, Despair). Can also use Arcane Surge on Crit Anoint but personally I like more defence.

Weapon/Offhand: we need two similar weapons and focuses. On wands, look for the following: Grants Level X Chaos Bolt, +# to level of all chaos spell skills (can also use all spell skills but chaos should be cheaper and goes up to +5), increased crit chance, cast speed, increased spell/chaos damage, gain # of damage as extra damage. On focus look for the following: +# to level of all spell skills, increased crit chance, cast speed, increased spell/chaos damage.

Runes/Soul Cores: Iron Rune in Helmet and Body Armour as they have the highest evasion rolls. For the rest you can use whatever you like. I use %life but can also use them for capping resistances, increasing max res or convert requirements.

Jewels: In total we have 9 jewel slots. We use one Time-Lost Sapphire between True Strike and Spaghettification. Look for one with Small Radius and high-rolled crit chance + crit bonus. All other jewels are pretty much the same: increased crit chance + at least 1 damage mod (spell, chaos) or crit bonus. I 'split' them, so I use 4 jewels with crit chance and chaos+spell damage and 4 with crit chance and crit damage bonus. Also keep an eye out for corrupted ones: attributes and resistances help a lot.

Attributes: We need at least 191 INT for Level 19 Chaos Bolt and Skill gems. DEX depends on the gear you are using (my highest item requires 122), so look at the requirements when buying gear. On my Body Armour and Helmet I got reduced attribute requirements. You can also use Soul Cores to convert 20% of Dex to Int. Also look out for corruptions on rings and jewels, attributes and resistances help a lot. STR you need enough to fit in 6 gems. Everything else on top is for extra life and extra aura.

Other

You don't need a 6 link, it's just nice to have on totem and CoC.

Optional extra aura on clear setup is Attrition (requires STR). You can also use Time of Need as a more defensive option or Blink for extra speed. Blink also counts as dodge roll. It works fine but I personally didn't like it because of the cooldown and targeting on console.

Event Horizon & Spaghettification is not used in boss setup because of life cost.

Scattershot on clear setup is bait and not needed in this case. Chain also makes us already deal 50% less damage.

PoB

https://pobb.in/AM28hoJMC8xD

NOTE: Weaponswap does currently not work and calcs are incorrect. So just use it for the skill tree, skill gems and to get an idea of the gear.

Gameplay

For anyone interested I recorded a few maps with fully skilled maps, boss and breach atlas.

Average T15 with triple damage, crit and temp chains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHFBLiKL_ko&ab_channel=Terrayn

T15 70% Deli with bosses, monster speed and burning ground: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKz6kGkcjro&ab_channel=Terrayn

T16 Doryani with ~800% Waystone chance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqfKzYqsEh8&ab_channel=Terrayn

T17 with Breach & map boss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xinK-QB35e8&ab_channel=Terrayn

Final Words

It was a lot of work but I had fun creating it. Hopefully some people will try and have fun.

I'm pretty sure it can be further upgraded (e.g. Controlled Metamorphosis, sadly there's no Prism of Belief for weapon skills), so I appreciate any feedback.

If you have any questions let me know!

Thanks for reading and have fun!