Toxic Rain Champion - Path of Exile 3.24

Among the many possible league starters in Path of Exile, the Toxic Rain Champion is one of the most common. It is a great build to farm your early currency and because of the chosen class, which is the Duelist, you can transition to other endgame builds later down the line.

The Toxic Rain Champion is also beginner-friendly primarily because the playstyle does not require anything complicated. Sure, it utilizes damage over time rather than direct damage, meaning, there is a slight delay in killing monsters. However, this build is pretty good at that, making it one of the best mappers without a need for heavy investment.

Even though this build is not meant as a boss killer, you can certainly spend PoE currency to get suitable upgrades. This is an option you could take, especially if you like how this build performs.

If you are interested in creating this character, then read further. This is our comprehensive build guide for the Toxic Rain Champion in Path of Exile 3.23 Affliction League!

Basics

Toxic Rain is a bow skill gem in Path of Exile that prompts you to fire multiple arrows into the air when used. After a brief period, the arrows will land on the ground, causing Spore Pods that deal chaos damage over time to nearby enemies. At gem level 20, these Spore Pods explode, dealing even more chaos damage!

So as you can see, you actually deal damage three times with Toxic Rain. First is the initial hit (upon landing), then the chaos damage over time via the Spore Pods, and the explosion of chaos damage at the end.

Now that you know how Toxic Rain works, this build specifically does not require you to use it manually. Instead, you will link it with Ballista Totem Support so that you can drop totems that will use the skill for you. Why should you do this, you ask?

Well, totems in Path of Exile use the active skill it is linked to much faster than casting the skill yourself. Utilizing the totems this way can improve your map-clearing speed exponentially. This is also the reason why this build can obliterate enemies even on just self-found gear.

With Toxic Rain linked to Ballista Totem Support, you might assume that you are no longer attacking actively as a result. This is far from the truth! In fact, this build utilizes a Caustic Arrow gem setup as well.

Caustic Arrow is another bow attack skill in PoE that deals chaos damage. On this build, you utilize this as a way to inflict the "Withered" debuff on your enemies.

If you are wondering what it is, Wither is a stackable debuff that causes affected monsters to take increased chaos damage. This effect stacks up to 15 times, making it a nice addition to your repertoire.

Moreover, unlike Toxic Rain where the arrows must be launched into the air before they land on the ground, Caustic Arrow hits enemies directly. This is why it is best utilized as a means of applying the Wither debuff on your foes.

It is important to note that you should aim for at least a 37% increased area of effect for Toxic Rain to optimize the Spore Pod overlap. This is just a way to maximize your total damage output.

Even though you can equip rare self-found gear, there is one particular unique item that provides a ton of value to the build. That is, of course, Wilma's Requital. This unique helmet synergizes really well with the ascendancy class we are going to talk about in the next sections of the build guide, so do read further to learn more.

To improve the damage output of this build, here are the modifiers that you need to look for on your gear:

• +% to Chaos Damage Over Time
• +% to Chaos Damage Over Time Multiplier
• +% to Chaos Damage Over Time with Attack Skills
• +% to Damage Over Time Multiplier
• % Increased Chaos Damage
• % Increased Area Damage
• % Increased Damage
• % Increased Attack Speed with Bows
• % Increased Attack Speed
• % Increased Attack Speed and Cast Speed

In Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, we are happy to say that this build has not changed too dramatically. You only lose on Charms if you've selected the Wildwood Primalist as your secondary ascendancy class.

Despite the loss of the Wildwood Ascendancies, Tattoos from two leagues ago have returned to compensate for that.

Playstyle

The Toxic Rain Champion is pretty easy to play. Scour the area using your chosen movement skill. Once you find a juicy pack of monsters, drop your totem first and then fire Caustic Arrows at the enemies to apply the Wither debuff.

Since Toxic Rain is linked to Ballista Totem Support, you can actually drop a few totems at a time. Do this whenever you encounter tough monsters or bosses. Besides that, when you have Wilma's Requital equipped, your maximum number of totems is increased to four.

Speaking of bosses, make sure to use Corrupting Fever so that you can gain the effects of the Adrenaline buff for a short period of time. More on this later on in the build guide.

Ascendancy

The Champion is the perfect ascendancy class for Toxic Rain. The main reason why is that this class has access to certain nodes that can help boost your damage output even when you are wearing only budget gear.

First to Strike, Last to Fall is one that is definitely worth mentioning. This notable ascendancy passive skill gives you the ability to gain the Adrenaline buff if your life goes below 50%. Adrenaline grants you a ton of damage, movement speed, attack speed, and physical damage reduction while it is active. What's more, the attack speed that you get from this buff is actually doubled thanks to Wilma's Requital!

Unstoppable Hero and Fortitude go hand in hand. Fortitude grants you 20 stacks of Fortification permanently, while Unstoppable Hero grants you increased attack speed, armor, and evasion. Furthermore, you are immune to stun, thereby improving your survivability as soon as you get these nodes!

Inspirational is a great way to add any banner skill of your choosing without having to worry about mana. Besides that, this notable ascendancy passive skill increases the effect of non-curse auras from your skills by 30%. Auras like Malevolence, Determination, and Haste will have their effects amplified because of this particular node.

While not mandatory, you do have the option of buying the Forbidden Flesh and Forbidden Flame jewels with either Headsman or Bane of Legends as the matching modifier. The former gives you increased attack speed and the ability to kill enemies instantly when they are below 20% of their maximum HP. The latter, on the other hand, makes your skills deal more damage, especially against unique enemies like any of the pinnacle bosses in Path of Exile.

Gear

This build can operate on self-found rare pieces of gear. Use any essences you can get your hands on to craft your starter equipment. Take into account life, elemental resistance, chaos resistance, and spell suppression modifiers on your armor pieces. For the weapon and quiver, look for chaos damage, attack speed, and damage over time multipliers. The subsections for "Gear" will highlight the items that you can take as possible upgrades if you want to make this build perform even better.

Weapon

There are actually several good bows you can use for the Toxic Rain Champion. In the beginning, snipe the trade website for a cheap Quill Rain. These usually sell for two to five Chaos Orbs at the start of a new league, so it is pretty obtainable.

The Quill Rain grants an insane amount of attack speed and projectile speed at the cost of 30% less damage. This is a good tradeoff, notably because this unique bow is hard to beat. Use this until you can grab a better weapon.

If you do not like the downside of the Quill Rain, you can opt for the Silverbranch instead. This weapon is still amazing during the leveling phase because it gives you attack speed, a bit of boost to your accuracy, and some mana gain per enemy killed. Plus, it raises the level of socketed bow gems by one.

With the sweeping changes to mana in Patch 3.24, the Silverbranch is a bow that will definitely go a long way for the Toxic Rain Champion.

Once you have finished the campaign, it is now time to think about improving your damage immensely. One of the best ways to do that is to craft an endgame Thicket Bow with the chaos DoT prefix.

To do this, get an ilvl 86+ Thicket Bow and spam it with Orb of Alteration until you get "+1 to Level of Socketed Gems". Use a Regal Orb to turn the weapon into a rare item. Remove the affix that was added by the Regal Orb using an Orb of Annulment. If successful; proceed to the next step. If not, use an Orb of Scouring, followed by an Orb of Transmutation, and then spam the Thicket Bow with Orb of Alteration again.

Bench-craft "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed" and then use Harvest Augment Speed for a chance to obtain a T1/T2 attack speed mod. Take note that this part of the process may result in a projectile speed suffix instead, so lock your prefixes and try again.

After you have the attack speed mod, bench-craft "Can Have up to 3 Crafted Modifiers" and "Cannot Roll Attack Modifiers". This is important because this fills up all of your suffixes. The mod that we actually want at this stage of the crafting process is a prefix, specifically "% Increased Chaos Damage Over Time". This is guaranteed to appear only if you use a Hunter Exalted Orb.

With the desired modifiers already on the bow, go to the Crafting Bench and remove all of your crafted modifiers. Put the multimod again and add "+2 to Level of Socketed Support Gems" and "+20% to Chaos Damage Over Time Multiplier".

If you want to learn the ins and outs of crafting in Path of Exile, we have a dedicated crafting guide specifically for that. Be sure to bookmark it so that you can peruse the said resource at any time in the future!

The alternate endgame weapon you can use if you do not want to do some crafting is the Widowhail. This is only viable if you have a good quiver to accompany it. If you purchase this from the trade website, be sure to get one with as close to 250% increased bonuses as possible.

Quiver

Get yourself an Artillery Quiver and use Essence of Woe (Bow Skills) until you get a damage over time multiplier, life, and attack speed.

In addition, if you can get your hands on the Skirmish unique quiver at the early stages of a new league, then that is better! This particular quiver allows you to place an additional totem, thus increasing your overall damage output.

However, the best quiver that you can use for the Toxic Rain Champion is something that you can craft on your own. Refer to our ultimate crafting guide so that you will learn how to craft the endgame Chaos DoT quiver.

Body Armor

The Cherrubim's Maleficence is a pretty cheap unique body armor that works perfectly for the build. This thing increases your chaos damage just by wearing it! On top of that, it provides you with other useful mods, including life, increased armor/evasion, and increased total recovery per second from life leech.

If you are comfortable adding another layer of defense, you can craft your own body armor using the General's Brigandine or Full Dragonscale Armor as a crafting base. Use Deafening Essence of Loathing (Mana Reservation Efficiency) until you get physical damage reduction and spell suppression.

After that, lock your suffixes, and then use a Veiled Chaos Orb. Bench-craft "% Chance to Block Attack Damage" and then unveil by talking to Jun. You are looking for the 10% life/mana mod.

For the implicit modifiers, use Eldritch Ichors until you get "Malevolence Has % Increased Aura Effect" and Eldritch Embers for "% Increased Effect of Non-curse Auras from Your Skills".

Helmet

There is no better helmet for this build other than Wilma's Requital. The main reason why you'd want to equip this helmet is that it can double dip on attack speed because of its unique effect.

You see, when you wear Wilma's Requital, any "% Increased Cast Speed" modifiers on your gear, gems, auras, and jewels will boost your attack speed as well.

Furthermore, this helmet allows you to place one more totem on the battlefield, thus improving your clear speed and boss-killing potential.

Gloves

During league start, get any armor/evasion-based gloves you can find and either spam them with Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance) or Harvest Reforge Chaos. Do any of these until you get life, spell suppression, and elemental resistance.

In the endgame, get a pair of ilvl 85+ Dragonscale Gauntlets and spam it with Deafening Essence of Zeal (Attack Speed) until you get spell suppression and chaos resistance. Lock the suffixes and then use a Veiled Chaos Orb.

Bench-craft any of the flat elemental damage to attack prefixes. After that, head to Jun and unveil. You are looking for the mod "+2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems, 10% Increased Area of Effect".

Go to the Crafting Bench one last time and add "28% Increased Damage during any Flask Effect". If you still have an open prefix, use an Exalted Orb.

If you are wondering what implicits you should get, use Grand Eldritch Ichors for spell suppression and Grand Eldritch Embers for chaos DoT multiplier.

Boots

The Atziri's Step is an amazing and affordable pair of boots that you can gear early on. These boots provide you with some spell suppression, evasion, life, and movement speed - modifiers that can help you get off the ground much quicker than not wearing them.

However, you will get even more benefits by crafting your own pair of boots. Read our ultimate crafting guide, where you will find step-by-step instructions on how to craft your own pair of Onslaught Boots.

Amulet

Grab a Turquoise Amulet (DEX/INT) or Onyx Amulet (Attributes) and use Harvest Reforge Chaos until you obtain the mod: "+1 to Level of All Chaos Skill Gems". This amulet is already quite good, so you can use it until you can get your hands on a better one.

The definite upgrade for the amulet is a self-crafted one with +2 to level of skill gems, damage over time multiplier, life, and some attributes. Refer to our +2 amulet guide for more details on how to craft this thing.

If PoE currency is not an issue, you could just spam the amulet with Deafening Essence of Spite (INT) until you get +1 to chaos skill gems and damage over time multiplier.

Do not forget to anoint your amulet with Atrophy (Clear Oil, Sepia Oil, Golden Oil) for that boost to your chaos damage and skill effect duration. If you do not have access to Golden Oil yet, you can anoint the amulet with Corruption (Crimson Oil, 2x Black Oils) instead for a 20% increased effect of the Wither debuff.

Rings

The Timeclasp is an incredible unique ring for the Toxic Rain Champion. It grants up to 14% increased attack speed (which is doubled if you have Wilma's Requital equipped), increased skill effect duration, and immunity to Temporal Chains.

For the other ring, you should wear a Hunter-influenced ring with the "Despair on Hit" mod. You can easily obtain this by acquiring an ilvl 85+ ring and using Harvest Reforge Caster. Despair is a curse in PoE that reduces the chaos resistance of affected enemies by 15%.

In the 3.24 Necropolis League, Grinding Gear Games made sweeping changes to mana cost and mana reservation efficiency. Basically, the non-channelling mod has become so much more valuable now than ever before.

So, if you run into any issues with your mana, you might have to use two self-crafted rare rings with the said prefix to compensate.

Belt

The belt is a great way to address any issues you may have with your elemental resistances and chaos resistance. Use Harvest Reforge Chaos or Harvest Reforge Life until you get the mods that you need.

In addition, if you are willing to spend more PoE currency, you can purchase a Hunter Exalted Orb for a chance to obtain either the "% Increased Maximum Life" or "% Increased Chaos Damage" prefixes.

To give you a more comfortable way of playing the Toxic Rain Champion, you can acquire the Mageblood. Take note that this belt is used in a variety of builds, so expect its price to be up there.

Flasks

• Granite Flask
• Quartz Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Bismuth Flask or Amethyst Flask
• Life/Flask/Bottled Faith/Progenesis

The Granite Flask bolsters your armor, making you survive even the most devastating hits from the enemy.

Since positioning is key to maximizing the damage of this build, you must use a Quartz Flask so that you can move through enemies. That is thanks to the Phasing buff that is granted to you when the said flask is active.

The Toxic Rain Champion is meant to be a highly competent mapping build. As such, you will utilize the Quicksilver Flask to make your mapping experience a lot smoother.

Bismuth Flask is included as a way for you to easily cap your elemental resistances. If you already have your fire, cold, and lightning resistance sorted out, you can replace the Bismuth Flask with an Amethyst Flask (Chaos Resistance) instead.

For the last flask slot, you have a few options to choose from. You can use a Life Flask early on until you get the hang of the build. When you have enough currency, you can transition to using a Bottled Faith or Progenesis depending on the amount of currency you are willing to invest.

The Bottled Faith creates a Consecrated Ground that lasts for a short duration. Enemies that step on it will receive more damage.

On the other hand, Progenesis heavily improves your survivability by turning the direct damage you receive from enemy attacks into damage that is spread over a period of several seconds. This effect is similar to Petrified Blood.

Flask Mods

• 60% Increased Armour (of the Armadillo)
• 17% Increased Attack Speed (of the Dove)
• 17% Increased Cast Speed (of the Horsefly)
• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
• Corrupted Blood Immunity (Life Flask)

Jewels

There is a reason why the Toxic Rain Champion is a bonafide league starter in Path of Exile. That is due to the fact that it does not require any specific jewel to function. 

Of course, we at RPGStash would love to provide you with an amazing experience, so we are going to detail some jewels you can take to improve various aspects of the build.

The Watcher's Eye is a common fixture in almost any build in PoE primarily because it can have a myriad of incredible modifiers that activate based on the aura that you have used. Anyway, look for any of these modifiers if you are shopping for a Watcher's Eye from the trade website:

• Malevolence

  • +% to Damage Overtime Multiplier
  • % Increased Recovery Rate of Life and Energy Shield

• Determination

  • % Additional Physical Damage Reduction
  • + to Armour
  • You Take % Reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes

• Vitality

  • Gain Life per Enemy Hit
  • Increased Life Recovery Rate

Next, get yourself an 8-passive Large Cluster Jewel (Chaos Damage) and use Harvest Reforge Attack until you get the following notable passive skills:

• Unholy Grace

  • 30% Increased Chaos Damage
  • 10% Increased Attack and Cast Speed

• Unwaveringly Evil

  • 30% Increased Chaos Damage
  • Chaos Skills Ignore Interruption from Stuns

• Wicked Pall

  • 30% Increased Chaos Damage
  • 5% Increased Skill Effect Duration

If you already have a Large Cluster Jewel, then add a couple of Medium Cluster Jewels for good measure. One of those must have the line: “12% Increased Totem Damage” and the other with a “10% Increased Projectile Damage.”

On the totem damage medium cluster, use Harvest Reforge Chaos to obtain Ancestral Preservation and Sleepless Sentries. If you are already wearing the Onslaught Boots, you can replace Sleepless Sentries with Ancestral Echo instead.

For the projectile damage medium cluster, go to the Horticrafting Station and utilize the Harvest Reforge Caster option until you get Repeater and Shrieking Bolts. If you are wondering what the notable passive skills on the Medium Cluster Jewels do, here is a rundown of their effects:

• Ancestral Preservation

  • Totems Gain +20% to All Elemental Resistances
  • Totems Have 15% Additional Physical Damage Reduction
  • Totems Gain +25% to Chaos Resistance

• Sleepless Sentries

  • 20% Increased Totem Duration/li>
  • You Have Onslaught if You've Summoned a Totem Recently

• Ancestral Echo

  • 20% Increased Totem Placement Speed
  • 10% Increased Attack and Cast Speed if You've Summoned a Totem Recently

• Repeater

  • 30% Increased Projectile Damage
  • 8% Increased Attack and Cast Speed

• Shrieking Bolts

  • 35% Increased Projectile Damage
  • 10% Chance to Taunt Enemies on Projectile Hit

If you still have jewel slots left, you can fill them up using base jewels with any of these mods:

• +% to Chaos Damage Over Time Multiplier
• +% to Damage Over Time Multiplier
• % Increased Attack Speed
• % Increased Cast Speed
• % Increased Chaos Damage
• % Increased Totem Damage
• % Increased Maximum Life
• % Increased Damage Over Time While Wielding a Two-handed Weapon (Abyss jewel, only if you have Stygian Vise equipped)
• Corrupted Blood Immunity (corrupted implicit modifier)

Gems

The main gems that make the build work are placed on the bow, body armor, helmet, and gloves. The rest can be replaced by any gem that you prefer. If you do not want to be bothered by alternatives, you can simply copy the gems we are going to mention in this section of the build guide as these have been optimized for your convenience.

Weapon

• Toxic Rain
• Ballista Totem Support
• Efficacy Support
• Awakened Vicious Projectiles
• Awakened Void Manipulation
• Empower Support (lvl 4)

This build utilizes totems to fire Toxic Rain rapidly. That is why the Ballista Totem Support is included in the setup.

Awakened Vicious Projectiles, Awakened Void Manipulation, and Efficacy Support all boost the damage of Toxic Rain to a great degree. During league start, you can safely use the base versions of these support gems. However, we encourage you to buy the awakened versions whenever you have enough currency just because they provide much higher bonuses.

A level 4 Empower Support raises the gem level of Toxic Rain by three, making it a lot deadlier.

Body Armor

• Caustic Arrow
• Withering Touch Support
• Mirage Archer Support
• Culling Strike Support
• Greater Volley Support
• Corrupting Fever

Caustic Arrow (CA) is utilized in this build as a way to inflict the Wither debuff upon your enemies. Hence, the inclusion of Withering Touch Support in this setup.

Mirage Archer Support grants you the ability to summon a Mirage Archer that will use Caustic Arrow as you move around the map. You can call the Mirage Archer simply by casting Caustic Arrow once.

Greater Volley Support, as the name of the gem implies, allows you to fire a volley of Caustic Arrows to your enemies. Do not mind the less projectile damage modifier because the bulk of the damage of CA comes from damage over time.

Culling Strike Support just makes it so that you can slay monsters that are below 10% of their maximum life.

For this setup, you only need a five-linked body armor because the last slot is reserved for Corrupting Fever.

Now, you might be surprised why Corrupting Fever (CF) is added to the mix. Well, the reason is so that you can activate Adrenaline (from First to Strike, Last to Fall) on command.

You see, Corrupting Fever takes a huge chunk of your life when used. If you can recall, the First to Strike, Last to Fall node from the Champion ascendancy activates Adrenaline when you are below 50% of your max HP.

Use CF whenever you need a considerable boost to your damage, particularly when facing tough monsters or bosses in PoE.

Helmet

• Malevolence
• Determination
• Vaal Haste
• Enlighten Support (lvl 4)

Malevolence is an aura that is a mainstay in damage over time builds like the Toxic Rain Champion. When it is activated, you get a considerable boost in damage over time and skill effect duration - both of which are useful for Toxic Rain and Caustic Arrow.

Haste is amplified on this build, especially if you are wearing Wilma's Requital. That is because the increased cast speed that this aura provides can boost your attack speed as well, so long as you are wearing the said helmet.

Determination grants you a sizable boost to your armor, enabling you to take more hits from the enemy before going down.

Now, Enlighten Support lvl 4 and the corrupted helmet implicit are mandatory. Otherwise, you will never be able to activate all three of the auras in this setup.

If you only have the Enlighten Support gem, you can use only the "Vaal" portion of Haste for the time being.

Gloves

• Vitality
• Arrogance Support
• Defiance Banner
• Flame Dash

Vitality increases the life you regenerate per second. Since you are going to be running around a lot while your totems do all the dirty work for you, this aura is amazing for this build.

Because you already have three primary auras activated, these being Malevolence, Determination, and Haste, the only way you can use Vitality on this build is if you link it with Arrogance Support. This particular support gem makes Vitality reserve life instead of mana.

To give more power to your armor and evasion, you will use the Defiance Banner too. Do not worry about its activation because it does not cost mana thanks to the Inspirational node from the Champion ascendancy.

For your movement skill, you have Flame Dash. This gives you the ability to perform three dashes in quick succession; perfect for traversing the map as fast as possible. Of course, you can replace this with any other movement skill of your choosing.

Boots

• Frenzy
• Manaforged Arrows Support
• Molten Shell (lvl 10)
• Cast When Damage Taken Support

Frenzy is a bow attack skill gem in Path of Exile that not only allows you to gain a Frenzy Charge when you hit an enemy, but amplifies the effect of the said charge as well. It is cast automatically when you spend enough mana with your totems and Caustic Arrow. This is due to the Manaforged Arrows Support.

Molten Shell linked with Cast When Damage Taken Support grants you more armor without manually casting it. This guard skill activates as soon as you receive a small amount of damage.

Because you can no longer put instant skills on left click due to the change that was implemented in Patch 3.24, Molten Shell, or any guard skill for that matter, must be linked to CWDT for convenience. 

Tattoos

The loss of That Which Was Taken, as well as the Charms from the Wildwood Primalist, is a huge blow to any build in Path of Exile. Fortunately, Tattoos from the Trial of the Ancestors League have made a comeback in Patch 3.24, so you can rectify any issues you may have with the build by putting some of them on your passive tree.

That being said, here are some of the tattoos that we can recommend for the Toxic Rain Champion:

• Tattoo of the Ramako Fleetfoot

  • 2% Increased Movement Speed

• Tattoo of the Ramako Shaman

  • +2% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage

• Tattoo of the Arohongui Scout

  • 10% Chance to Avoid Being Chilled
  • 10% Chance to Avoid Being Frozen

• Tattoo of the Ramako Sniper

  • 5% Increased Projectile Speed

• Tattoo of the Ramako Scout

  • 6% Increased Evasion Rating

• Tattoo of the Tasalio Warrior

  • 5% Chance to Blind Enemies on Hit with Attacks

Passive Tree

POB

Budget Version

Main Setup

Endgame Version

Final Thoughts

The Toxic Rain Champion is an incredible league starter capable of dispatching enemies with huge amounts of chaos damage. By utilizing totems to fire arrows that spawn deadly Spore Pods quickly, you can make mapping in Path of Exile trivial as a result.

This build can work with self-found gear. On top of that, you can enhance its damage output by crafting your own pieces of gear. Additionally, you can obtain jewels that boost chaos damage and damage over time.

Even though this build is not as high-damaging as others in PoE, this is still worth your time due to the fun experience it provides.

With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!

PROS

+Incredible league starter

+Functions well even on self-found gear

+Multiple upgrades you can take later on

+Fast map-clearing speed

+Great survivability

+Can transition to other Duelist builds if you want to

CONS

-Average boss-killing potential

-Not as high-damaging compared to other bow skills