Doomfletch's Prism Blast Rain Berserker Build Guide (PoE Metamorph 3.9)

December 11th, 2019, 14:53

Guide Format

This build guide is split over multiple pages, both to prevent it from getting too long, as well as to help you better find the information you are looking for. In addition to the current page, which presents general information about the build and also contains a Leveling and FAQ section, we have the following pages:

Introduction

The Doomfletch's Prism Blast Rain Berserker excels at dealing extreme amounts of Elemental damage by stacking a lot of Physical damage, which is then gained as extra damage of each Element. This essentially means that if you deal 100 Physical damage, you will also deal 100 Cold, 100 Fire, and 100 Lightning damage with the same hit. This means scaling a good amount of Physical damage will result in extreme damage gained as extra Elemental.

Although you can choose a different Bow skill for this build concept, we decided to go with Blast Rain simply because it has an amazing single target potential while also maintaining decent clear speed, and it also has full conversion to Elemental, which allows you to run Physical Reflect maps.

The Berserker ascendancy class provides a lot of extra damage in the form of flat Physical damage from Flawless Savagery, the 40% Global multiplier to damage via Aspect of Carnage, and all the speed and damage modifiers the Rage nodes provide.

The downside of the build is survivability and mainly damage mitigation. In order to survive, we depend on our decent Life pool, Dodge and Evasion chance, and the clever use of defensive skills like Steelskin and Vaal Grace.

Build Summary

The build’s only requirement is the Doomfletch's Prism, which is a fated version of the regular Doomfletch unique Bow. The Bow is upgraded by using the Ancient Doom Prophecy. You can buy the Bow off the market or upgrade it yourself; the process is very easy and not expensive. Lioneye's Fall allows us to pick up very efficient Critical and Leech nodes and should also be acquired as soon as possible. Besides that, we focus on stacking a lot of Physical damage added to Attacks on Quiver, Rings, Amulet, and Abyssal jewels.

Pros & Cons

Pros

+ Hardcore viable
+ Great single target damage
+ Most enemies will not reach you due to your long range and constant Critical Strikes that freeze everything

Cons

- Mediocre clear speed
- Bad Physical damage mitigation

Playstyle

Offensively, dropping a single Blast Rain on a pack of monsters will be enough to obliterate it. Staying aggressive will prove to be very efficient, since you will start losing Rage otherwise. Berserk Berserk can be used whenever you need to melt down a tough enemy’ life pool quickly. You can utilize Point Blank whenever it is safe to get near targets.

Defensively, keeping your distance in such a build is very important. Steelskin and Vaal Grace should be used in sticky situations. A Decoy Totem will distract enemies while you deal tons of damage from distance.

For playstyle, you should stay aggressive and keep in mind you have a lot of defensive power through your utility skills. The build has decent Life and Mana leech, so you will not have any issues with sustain.

Passive tree

This is the endgame passive skill tree for the build.

For more information, be sure to check out the Passive Skill Tree page.

Ascendancy, Bandits, and Pantheons

Our Ascendancy, Bandit, and Pantheon Power page goes into detail about all the choices you need to make in these regards.

Gems

We go over all of the gem links this build uses in the end-game on our Gem Link page.

Gear Summary / TL;DR

These items provide a good balance between offense and defense and are enough to deal with the endgame, although there is definitely a room for improvement. Please ensure you read the Gear, Jewels and Flasks page in its entirety.

Our recommendation:

Item Slot	Item Name
Head	Starkonja's Head
Amulet	Rare Amulet
Chest	Loreweave
Gloves	Oskarm
Boots	Rare Boots
Belt	Rare Stygian Vise
Rings	2x Rare Steel Ring
Weapon	Doomfletch's Prism
Quiver	Rare Quiver

Leveling

As a reminder, we have several guides to help you level up a character.

Our step-by-step leveling walkthrough, which allows even more experienced players to save time and speed through the leveling process.
Our guide to Unique Items for leveling, which helps you gear up your characters for the leveling process.
Our beginner leveling guide, which answers many of the questions new players might have and will set you on the right path.

The character can be leveled really fast and easy if you have a few leveling unique items.

Leveling Trees

This is the early version of the passive skill tree you should be using, as in every other Critical-based build, we recommend investing into Critical nodes after level 55-60.

Useful Leveling Unique Items

As you begin a new character, there are few unique items that can boost your power exponentially. Tabula Rasa allows you to have a 6-Linked skill as early as you get the gems. Wanderlust gives a decent movement speed, which will make your leveling that much more efficient. Goldrim Goldrim provides a lot of elemental resistances, this will let you worry less about gearing when approaching certain Act encounters. A simple Storm Cloud will carry you up to level 40, when you can finally start using Doomfletch's Prism.

If you are a new player (or if this is your first character for the league), then note that obtaining these items will be very difficult, if not impossible. They are rare drops, which you can otherwise only acquire if you have saved up currency, so do not focus on them too much, and instead simply look for items that match the affix priorities listed in the gearing section above.

Gem Progression

Using Tabula Rasa will allow you to have 6-Link gem setups early on, which is why we show such examples below. If you cannot get Tabula Rasa (or another item with a 6-Link), then simply prioritize the first gems in each link provided below.

In order to acquire gems that are not available to your class as a quest reward, simply ask a friend to buy them off vendors for you, or buy them yourself from Sioasa in The Library in Act III Library.

From level 1, you should use the following link.

At level 4, you should pick Decoy Totem and Steelskin.

By level 8, your Ice Shot should look like this.

At level 10, you should get Blink Arrow for additional mobility, along with Precision.

At level 12, you should drop your Ice Shot for the following Vaal Rain of Arrows gem setup.

At level 16, you should pick Herald of Purity and Flesh and Stone.

By level 18, your Vaal Rain of Arrows gem link should look like this.

We recommend using this link up to level 40, when you can equip Doomfletch's Prism and start using the following Blast Rain link instead.

FAQ

What map mods should be avoided?

Elemental Reflect and Cannot Leech.

Conclusion

The Doomfletch’s Prism Blast Rain Berserker is a Bow type of character that excels in dealing extreme amounts of Elemental damage via Critical Strikes. This is achieved by taking advantage of the Bow’s very powerful damage gain mechanic along with the amazing amount of extra damage the Berserker ascendancy class provides.

11 Dec 2019
Revisited and updated for Metamorph 3.9. The build receives a great buff via changes to Blast Rain.
05 Sep 2019
Revisited and updated for Blight 3.8. The build received a very slight nerf with the Flawless Savagery change. Overall you lose a very little amount of Critical Chance, which does not stop you at all from inflicting immense amounts of damage.
29 Jun 2019
Build added.