[3.15] Crimson Bow Gladiator, RoA + Puncture | Pure Bleed Build | All Content | In-depth

Love the bow bleed concept, doing some T14-16 maps and seems to be decent so far, my next item is to get the unique belt, but it's quite expensive this league and not sure if it's worth the investment

Some notes I've made:
1) Assailum is super fun. The sniping is highly satisfying especially when it hits. However, it does have some large downsides about it.

Since there is no pierce, any monsters that get in the way ruin the shot. This means that Beast's, and bosses that summon creatures are next to impossible to snipe. Very frustrating considering these are the ones you want your max snipe on.

Sometimes I feel like Snipe misses, even if it hits the target. I took the RT side, so I shouldn't be missing any snipes (mechanically). I for sure have seen my snipe hit, but the puncture effect never played nor did they start to drop HP. It's hard to reproduce this, it's possible I'm hitting the map mod that gives "Monsters have a 20% chance to avoid Poison, Blind, and Bleeding" and I'm just not seeing it, but seems to happen pretty often.

When you miss, it hurts; lots of lost time, not to mention highly dangerous in many situations to sit still.

The hit window and angle can be wonky. I've had my cursor over a monster, and still sometimes miss because of the angle of character to monster.


2) Sometimes the bleed can't deal damage fast enough. Usually this is most noticeable on a T16 blight encounter. I just can't DPS down rares or magics head to head with Split Arrow before they end up hitting the pump. Trying to snipe them just isn't viable in such a time oriented scenario with many monsters. I still have a better bow to get and the belt, but not sure if those will be the difference maker. I was looking at PoB, and not sure if it calculates Bleed or damage correctly. The belt only added another 8k to bleed, which seems largely insignificant when your bleed is only 100-200k. Not sure where to go from here really, maybe the bow with a phys/bleed roll is the bigger upgrade?


3) Struggling on sustaining mana sometimes, particularly in Simulacrum. Even with mana leech on my gloves, it wasn't enough, I'd constantly have to goto the corner to slowly regen. Made it impossible to do any meaningful damage to Kosis before he casted his black holes all over the arena, bricking the run.

All in all it's been a good build to clear most content.

Is Maloney's Machanism worth looking at? Seems like big QoL upgrade.

So here's my gear. Most of it I'll pretty much consider final pieces. Now I can dump the rest of my currency for a while into making a good bow.
I love the build still. Havent got into any of the endgame bosses yet, but nothing ive come across deep into red maps yet has been an issue.
Passed the belt, most items were under 1ex.

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pindobinha a écrit :

Spoiler

Hello,
Which gems you recommend on getting awakened?
I heard rumors that the swift affliction one isn't better than the regular. Any help with this? Is there an order to follow to buy?
Thank you

All of them. Awakened gems are almost always an improvement over the basic version of the gem. I don't recommend Swift Affliction anyway, Unbound Ailments is simply better unless you have overkill damage (and likely you don't). Brutality is probably the least useful one and expensive on top iirc.

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Levitations482 a écrit :

Spoiler

Ordinarily Ryslathas coil isn't 6ex like it is this league, what are good alternatives for low to mid-range belts when you can't afford a 6ex investment just yet? Also how much of a priority should that large of a purchase for the belt be?

I'm assuming the usual suspect for cheap physical belts is going to be belt of the deceiver, what else, or beyond that?

Just use some rare with high life and call it a day. There's really nothing else that comes close to it. Deceiver belt is pointless, it's for hit based builds and this one is not.

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frostzor27 a écrit :

Would be a good idea to get a Shaper boots with balista totems and make a 5 link with ensaring arrow, curse on hit, vulnerability and Greater multiple projects?

I wouldn't give up elder/redeemer and endurance charge generation at all. I don't know why everyone insists to replace the Ensnaring Arrow setup, it feels really good to use and allows to quickly charge up challenger stacks on bosses.

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SnotZombie a écrit :

Spoiler

Hi all, using a similar build. Would someone mind taking a quick look at my pob (https://pastebin.com/z5RyCyLs) and advising where to upgrade first? I don't have much currency but having something to work towards would be dope. Just coming up to red maps and I think I'll have to step it up.

I don't do gear checks anymore.

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Blood_Sail a écrit :

Spoiler

Love the bow bleed concept, doing some T14-16 maps and seems to be decent so far, my next item is to get the unique belt, but it's quite expensive this league and not sure if it's worth the investment

Some notes I've made:
1) Assailum is super fun. The sniping is highly satisfying especially when it hits. However, it does have some large downsides about it.

Since there is no pierce, any monsters that get in the way ruin the shot. This means that Beast's, and bosses that summon creatures are next to impossible to snipe. Very frustrating considering these are the ones you want your max snipe on.

Sometimes I feel like Snipe misses, even if it hits the target. I took the RT side, so I shouldn't be missing any snipes (mechanically). I for sure have seen my snipe hit, but the puncture effect never played nor did they start to drop HP. It's hard to reproduce this, it's possible I'm hitting the map mod that gives "Monsters have a 20% chance to avoid Poison, Blind, and Bleeding" and I'm just not seeing it, but seems to happen pretty often.

When you miss, it hurts; lots of lost time, not to mention highly dangerous in many situations to sit still.

The hit window and angle can be wonky. I've had my cursor over a monster, and still sometimes miss because of the angle of character to monster.


2) Sometimes the bleed can't deal damage fast enough. Usually this is most noticeable on a T16 blight encounter. I just can't DPS down rares or magics head to head with Split Arrow before they end up hitting the pump. Trying to snipe them just isn't viable in such a time oriented scenario with many monsters. I still have a better bow to get and the belt, but not sure if those will be the difference maker. I was looking at PoB, and not sure if it calculates Bleed or damage correctly. The belt only added another 8k to bleed, which seems largely insignificant when your bleed is only 100-200k. Not sure where to go from here really, maybe the bow with a phys/bleed roll is the bigger upgrade?


3) Struggling on sustaining mana sometimes, particularly in Simulacrum. Even with mana leech on my gloves, it wasn't enough, I'd constantly have to goto the corner to slowly regen. Made it impossible to do any meaningful damage to Kosis before he casted his black holes all over the arena, bricking the run.

All in all it's been a good build to clear most content.

I'm absolutely aware of Assailum's downsides, that's precisely why i don't recommend it with exception of progression section but it's only for this league (1c unique).

When i've been doing the blights last league, i had absolutely 0 issues. Your problems likely come from using someone else's build. Your bleedsplosions are weak because you went to the left side of the tree and you're more prone to bleed's RNG. In my case, i shot once and the whole line would pop. Also, classic build clears blights like a boss.

Ryslatha's Coil does not work in PoB (i think it does in LocalIdentity's fork), i mention it in related section and my PoB build as well. But again, you're not using my build.

Mana sustain comes from damage reduction Delirium monsters get. Problem is solvable with mana investment (like -X mana cost jewellery).

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oweng24 a écrit :

Is Maloney's Machanism worth looking at? Seems like big QoL upgrade.

QoL upgrade for what? Ensnaring Arrow? It's absolutely not worth giving up the huge amounts of damage quiver can get you.

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oweng24 a écrit :

Is Maloney's Machanism worth looking at? Seems like big QoL upgrade.

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QoL upgrade for what? Ensnaring Arrow? It's absolutely not worth giving up the huge amounts of damage quiver can get you.

I think they meant Frenzy, which means free Frenzy generation. You can link it to CoH Vulnerability as well.

Can I ask: I see you don't recommend Split Arrow, could you explain why? Sorry if you did already I couldn't find the exact post.

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marblegarden a écrit :

I just leveled my bleed bow champion and spent ~10 exalts gearing. I picked up a 6-L belly of the beast, 6-L double tier-1 bleed bow (citadel with 300 max damage), double damage multiplier annointed amulet, and some other nice gear. I am using pride & malevolence auras with an enlighten gem.

My damage is so incredibly low I am tempted to sell everything and reroll. I have puncture 6-linked to dmg/bleed supports, i have vulnerability with curse on hit connected to ensnaring arrow, and i just cannot figure what i am doing wrong. does anyone have any clue? i was unable to kill the hunter guardian for the green watchstone because i only got him to half hp before i wiped out. i think maybe a 300 damage bow is just too low, despite rolling 48% bleed dmg and 60% chance for 100%. i want to get my hands on a ryslatha's coil, im just not sure if the payoff will be as much as i expect

what are you guys doing differently to see big damages?

We can't see your character to comment, you'll need to make it publicly viewable, but a 300 dps bow with the bleed affix should be more than enough. Ryslatha's is really really good, but not necessary in order to complete all content.

You're probably not following the build.

DPS is not an issue with the build, it's a strong setup with even mediocre gear. If you don't follow the build, your results will vary.

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Spiattalo a écrit :

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oweng24 a écrit :

Is Maloney's Machanism worth looking at? Seems like big QoL upgrade.

I think they meant Frenzy, which means free Frenzy generation. You can link it to CoH Vulnerability as well.

Can I ask: I see you don't recommend Split Arrow, could you explain why? Sorry if you did already I couldn't find the exact post.

That would make sense if the other alternatives didn't exist. I list them in end game section.

You won't find why i don't use Split Arrow like everyone else, but a reason why i prefer Rain of Arrows instead which should explain everything:

Rain of Arrows has very wide area of coverage and often hits enemies multiple times. It doesn't deal high amounts of damage, but it's sufficient to quickly clear groups of enemies. Multiple hits mean it's more resilient to certain map mods and running out of mana.

The biggest strength of the skill is the Vaal version, which is the hardest hitting clearing bow skill for bleed. It also inflicts very strong slowing effect and can be used in variety of ways. Recharges very quickly.

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marblegarden a écrit :

Spoiler

I cant figure out how to show my characters, but the build I am using is based on Dan's bleed bow SSFHC character. I modified it to pick up even more damage nodes. I have more damage nodes than even this guide's build. I am struggling in t14 maps with bossfights - the trash is cleared very easily, but some of the boss hps are crazy. I have read other people saying the single target is kinda low, so i may just reroll to a blade vortex poison character where the DoT is stackable

This is very concerning, because i'm NOT using bleed bow this league and certainly not in SSFHC. Don't tell me you just copied my CA Raider passive tree... That would also explain why boss damage feels awful for you since i do take pierce nodes on CA.

how do i save this quiver? need to get rid of pierce.. I wanna keep the suffix craft though :(