Toxic Rain DoT Trickster - All Content - Build Guide (PoE Heist 3.12)
About the Author
TbXie has been playing Path of Exile since the release of Open Beta, playing a variety of leagues in which he has played Hard- and Softcore, Standard, and Solo-Self Found. He has a background in racing, winning Demigods in the early race seasons as well as finishing high up in recent Flashback ladders, such as Rank 1 Guardian (9th Overall), Rank 2 Berserker. He has experience playing solo and both in push and MF groups, while being notorious for his WorldFirst Delve 6000 with his team & farming multiple 
Mirror of Kalandras every league. You can follow him on Twitch and Twitter or ask him your questions in the PoE Vault Discord.
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:
Passive Skill Tree & Gem Link Page
Gear, Jewel & Flask Page
Bandits, Pantheons & Ascendancy Page
Introduction
Since 
Toxic Rain is one of the most popular builds both in league-starting and later environments, it is one of those guides that we felt could not be missing. Toxic Rain is an interesting skill gem and is able to be built around in multiple ways. This guide will focus on scaling the Damage over Time aspect of the gem, or the “pods” as people tend to call them. This means you have incredible Area of Effect and clear speed as a result, while maintaining boss damage that is capable of killing every boss in the game in under 30 seconds.
Mostly when a guide starts off like that, you end up with a build that has 3,000 Health and no underlying defensive mechanics, but this build is a Trickster and has a significant amount of investment in defenses, so even though you’re able to clear fast, kill every boss in a fairly timely manner, you’re still incredibly durable, and with the tremendous amount of recovery that Trickster provides, there are very few things that can effectively hurt or kill you.
Build Summary
Pros and Cons
Pros
+ Fast-paced build with extraordinary all-around skills
+ Capable of safely killing all the content in the game
+ Cheap to start with, scales very well
+ Hardcore and SSF-viable
Cons
– Requires some specific things to feel great
– Can get fairly expensive for the super late game gear
Playstyle, Mechanics & Strengths
As mentioned beforehand, Toxic Rain has different ways to be scaled and we chose the Damage over Time. So, the way Toxic Rain works is that it fires a number of arrows when it gets used. These arrows do “on hit” damage, which doesn’t scale much with levels, but more so with added damage from gear, supports, and other such things. We do not scale the on-hit damage at all in this build. When the arrows land, they create “Pods” on the ground. These pods explode when they expire, dealing on-hit damage again, so that’s useless for us. However, while they are on the ground, they deal Damage over Time, which is what we scale.
When talking about the pods, it is important (and mandatory for the skill to even work) to know that they can “shotgun”, to use PoE’s most favorite term. This means that overlapping pods deal overlapping amounts of damage. Therefore, it’s optimal that we stack as many pods as possible. This means that duration is a stat we don’t mind having, as it makes the pods explode more slowly, and thus deal their DoT longer. On top of that, Attack Speed is another stat we really enjoy, as it means more pods get created, which results in more overlapping pods and thus in more damage on your target!
Because of those mechanics, and us scaling Attack Speed, this build does not require an expensive +3 bow with additional modifiers that are incredibly hard to obtain! It uses a 
Quill Rain from start to finish! So, after looking for Attack Speed, Skill Effect Duration, and Damage over Time modifiers, all that’s left for the build is defensive layers!
First of all, it picks up Phase Acrobatics, which combined with the Trickster Ascendancies, grants up to 50% Dodge and Spell Dodge. Additionally, through Ghost Shouds and Wind Dancer, we stack additional mitigation which leads to the build being very capable of taking a hit. Given that the build gets hit less often than regular builds, and whenever it does get hit recovers its Health pool rather swiftly through the Ghost Shrouds, which give you about 300 Energy Shield when you get hit, it provides a very enjoyable playstyle.
Passive Skill Tree
You can find an optimized Level 93 Path of Building here. If you are not comfortable with Path of Building, we also have a PoePlanner for you. Do note that PoE Planner does not support Cluster Jewels and some specific unique jewels.
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.
Bandit, Pantheon, Ascendancy Page
Gems
All of the gem link choices are thoroughly explained on our Gem Link page.
Gear Summary / TL;DR
A lot of this is explained more in depth in the Gear Page, however we will provide you with a basic idea of what gear you’re looking for in this short summary.
Our recommendation:
| Item Slot | Item Name |
| Head |  Hubris Circlet with High ES, Life and Resistances |
| Amulet |  Agate Amulet with +1 to Chaos Skills, Chaos Multi & -9 to Non-Channeling Mana Cost |
| Chest |  Carcass Jack or  Sadist Garb |
| Gloves |  Slink Gloves with High Life and Resistances |
| Boots | Two-Toned Boots with 30% Movement Speed, high Life & Resistances |
| Belt |  Leather Belt with high Life and Resistances |
| Rings | 2x  Vermillion Ring with Despair on Hit, 2× -9 to Non-Channeling Mana Cost, Resistances & Life |
| Weapon | Quill Rain |
| Quiver |  Ornate Quiver with Life, DoT Multiplier and Chaos DoT Multiplier |
Leveling
Since we are very adamant about trying to give you a leveling experience that lies as close to your endgame playstyle as possible, we will be providing you a way to level up with Toxic Rain. If you are looking for the most optimal way to level a character to maps, we refer you to the following guides.
- 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.
In order to level this build as a Toxic Rain build, you need to make your way to level 12 to be able to use the gem.
Getting to Brutus & Merveil
For starters, create a Shadow in whichever league you want to start.
You will want to start out by checking if you can find a Quiver from the vendor. Use the following setup to get to level 12 & Merveil:
Pierce SupportAfter killing Brutus, you will be adding an 
Void Manipulation Support to your 
Caustic Arrow.
Level 12 and Onwards Setup
From level 12, after killing Merveil, you’ll be given access to Toxic Rain. It is an exquisite leveling skill and will easily carry you through the leveling process.
- Toxic Rain
Vicious Projectiles Support
Mirage Archer Support- Void Manipulation Support
Swift Affliction Support
Efficacy Support
Pick up a 
Malevolence as soon as you can and a 
Wither setup, like we explain in our gem section.
FAQ
What Anointment is Required / Preferred?
You need to anoint Exceptional Performance or Potency of Will. Both of them offer 25% Increased Skill Effect Duration which offers a significant amount of more effective damage.
What Map Modifiers are to be Avoided?
Unless you catalyze one of your rings, you will need some Mana regen, since your Toxic Rain will cost 1 Mana. Until then, No Regen can be relatively annoying. Otherwise, no map mods are impossible for this build.
Spell Totem Support
The build looks great!
But could it be that the leveling section contains some mistaces (Ranger?)?
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