*Updated for 3.2* Volkuur's poison! millions of dps (7.5 mil shaper - 20 mil shaper GG gear)

!!!!!!******* UPDATED FOR 3.2 Bestiary*******!!!!!!

3.2==>check spoiler for pob etc
Spoiler
In 3.2, Assassin is the best Ascendancy class for this build. With noxious strike providing 5% inc Poison Duration for each Poison on enemy and a barrage with 8-12 arrows, we can reach Inc Poison durations of about 1000-1500%! The main downside of volkuurs gloves, 50% less poison duration, is mitigated with this ascendancy point. noxious strike seems incredibly overpowered. in addition, it gives 40% chance to poison and 2% base crit. this point alone makes assassin the best choice for this build.

What changed in 3.2 in comparison to 3.1 beside the different ascendancy class?

The fact that we get incredible poison duration makes dendrobate not so worth it anymore. the %inc poison damage is still great but i feel there are better options. also being assassin really makes going crit based interesting. In 3.2, i do not use elemental overload but instead i go for perfect agony. toxic delivery provides 30% more poison dmg if poison was applied by a crit. so this is a crit based build now. !The EO version is still fine too! one great thing about going crit with a quill rain is that king of the hill machine-guns all enemies away from you, providing great defences.

if we are not going for Elemental overload, Mind over matter is far away on the tree. its not worth it going there. thats why i use a cloak of defiance for MoM. it got buffed recently and has its old values back (additional 10% of dmg taken from mana before life). we take some mana+flask notes in the tree to make our maximum mana > 40% of our health pool. this way we dont run out of mana if we take a big hit. thiefs torment provides "instant leech" for both mana and life. i get an EHP Pool of 5,7k combined with instant leech which is fairly tanky for any assassin build.

Another thing that changed is that i am playing this build fire-based now. Lightning is still great and regarding pure dps and infinite currency, it can reach around 5% more damage than the fire version. but the problem are abyss jewels. for a dual lightning jewel with life you pay 3-4 exalts currently. for a fire jewel with the same stats, its around 40-50 chaos. Also, Immolate is a great support gem for the fire version and has much better dmg numbers than added lightning dmg support.
the fire volkuurs are also a lot cheaper than the lightning ones. so i really recommend going fire dmg instead of lightning. cold dmg is by far the worst and the numbers wont come near fire/lightning version due to lower abyss jewels rolls.

Lets talk about Defences:

my current build has improved a lot regarding tankiness and survivability compared to the 3.1 abyss version. why is that? first of all: crit. king of the hill+quill rain is such an amazing combo. you just fire into packs and bosses and nothing even comes close to you. it dies offscreen. even map bosses cant get near you. this provides OP survivability.

Blind on hit on a jewel is a MUST HAVE and improves survivability by a lot.

Noxious strikes. beside providing the best damage buff in the whole game it also maims/slows the enemies. did i already say that this ascendancy point is OP? =) the combination with the chilled ground from ice shot, knockback on crit and maimed enemies makes mapping ridiculous easy.

the current build has 4k life and 1,7k mana. with a 40% MoM and instant leech. its basically a 5,7k life build with old vaal pact, ranged, slows enemies, blinds enemies, knocks enemies back, can dodge, uses taste of hate, and has several millions of dps. for SC this is more than enough. for reference, there is a vid up below where this build facetanks a rare map minotaur.

current gear:
Spoiler


current tree:
Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAYBAADuBbUGcAeZCIkNjQ-rEJIUdRUgFr8Y2yF2Iuoj9iSLJJ0lPyaVKk0sZCzpLiMwfDH6MgEyMjWSN9Q5JTnUPyc_bEV8Sn1KyEyOTZJRR1SCVUtW-lnwW29br11oX7BgQ2HiYlpirGwIbIxuPW6qbztvnnBScbB293gNen97w311fyuAIoMJhKKExYazhs6HdohbidOKr4w2jX2Nv5ARk5mVBZeXmvGbtZzEnaqgn6PvqqSwC7Ewshm0OLTFtQi18rcivG--gMAawTPC7MM6yPDKSsqpz3rTfti92Ybb590N5Rnl5ujW6XbtP-4O73rxivv1_MX-ug==?accountName=Sacr0&characterName=SacroxPoisonTime


character link:
Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Sacr0/characters ==> SacroxPoisontime


current PoB:
please keep in mind that burning damage does not affect poison dmg. in POB, it does but it does not work in the actual game.
[*RECOMMENDED VERSION* 7,5 mil shaper dps- anger on (for mapping i do not use any aura, just despair on cwdt)]:
Spoiler
https://pastebin.com/7rKpUn1d

[EPEN 20 Mil shaper dps (my actual ingame items - work in progress)]
Spoiler
https://pastebin.com/bbuvmKmy

[finished build 3.2*BEST VERSION-EXPENSIVE (30ex++, lvl 90++ only*]
Spoiler
https://pastebin.com/CZQV3UXS


Pantheon:
Spoiler
Brine King+Shakari. immune to poison is really important to not run out of mana from dots+MoM. this build has low life and can get stunned so brine king helps a lot.

3.2 Minotaur
3.2 Funny Phoenix


Hi guys, i'm Sacr0, long time PoE fan and player!
Some might know me from my last guide, Mjölner untethered in 3.0!



Due to the great succes this build currently has (thank you guys for your kind words) i would like to mention that this build also works with fire based volkuur's guidance! the prices for the gloves and jewels are skyrocketing right now(especially lightning). the fire dmg based build will do slightly less damage but will be a lot cheaper to build. just grab other ele dmg jewellery. for fire you can use anger instead of wrath and use immolate the support gem which is really strong. if you cant afford those expensive lightning gear, you will be better off with the fire version.
I've also added a tanky mapping version to the PoB link


Let's start!

Poison builds were nerfed to death in 3.0. But in 3.1 they are back! oh boy, they are. at least one specific kind of poison which this build guide is about. With the remove of double dipping and poison only scaling off base damage, it got nerfed badly. You may ask yourself: how the hell can it still be any good?
Several mechanics and items make it so that poison can still deal tons of damage. These will be discussed now before starting with the actual build.


Poison scales off base damage.

with the abyss jewels in 3.1, we get tons and tons of flat base damage.

volkuur's guidance makes your elemental damage poison(lightning preferred, because it scales best on abyss jewels)


so if we use volkuur's and get like 10 abyss jewels with dual flat lightning rolls on it, in combination with a wrath aura, we have a huge base flat damage to scale poison off. the downside is the 50% less poison duration. the 50% less dmg gets mitigated easily by ele overload(40% more), weapon ele dmg (60-80%inc, ~50% more) and waaay higher base because you can use ele rolls instead of phys/chaos on jewels (up to triple base dmg per jewel)


so, that's the basics. we use flat ele dmg from abyss jewels in combination with a lvl 1 bow, a flask that costs 1 alch and volkuur's to poison the enemies whereas the poison has 50% less duration. wow. Bored already? Missing the good part?.

Here it comes. Volkuur's "adds" a Dot effect to the lightning damage which works like poison damage but is still considered as converted ele damage.
This means that
ele dmg with attacks
is able to scale the poison damage. % inc ele damage with attacks works as well for poison. %inc lightning damage scales the dot dmg. and while we are at it, Elemental Overload (you heard right) will also boost our poison dmg with that sweet 40% more multiplier! Unbelievable! But this is how "poison" works now.

On the other side, things like
GMP dont reduce the poison damage anymore, only the hit damage. this means, that gmp on a barrage setup is a 100% more damage multiplier.

The actual build is a Pathfinder!!!!***ASSASSIN FOR 3.2==> check 3.2 section for reasoning***!!!! with quill rain and barrage as single target. For aoe clear we use ice shot-gmp-chain-mirage archer(can be swapped for vile toxins)-wed-deadly ailments.

We use a thiefs torment as ring. in combination with the crazy attack speed, it feels just like the old vaal pact.

Character Link



**the following write-up is outdated and the 3.1 version. for 3.2 check the spoiler on the top of this post.**
*UPDATE*
i really recommend using taste of hate and a bleed immunity basalt flask for mapping. it gives a lot of needed tankiness. switch it out for life flask and atziri's promise. also reserving no mana/turning off wrath for mapping makes MoM much more effective and provides a lot of tankiness.


make sure to get as much flat dual t1 lightning dmg jewels as you can.
[/spoiler]
Links:
Spoiler

Barrage-GMP-Unbound ailments-WED-vile toxins-deadly ailments
ice shot-gmp-chain-WED-Mirage archer-deadly ailments
blasphemy-despair, wrath, cwdt-ic-inc dur

tree:
Spoiler
https://www.pathofexile.com/fullscreen-passive-skill-tree/3.1.1/AAAABAIDAQBeAO4FLQW1BnAILgiJDY0UdRUgGDwYVhjbGY4ZtBzcIWAj9iSdKPoqTSzpLYMuIzB8Mgkz2TWSN0w31DklPC0_Jz9sQKBBh0WdRrdHfkp9SshNkk3jUUdTUlZIW69daGJaYqxlTWwIbEZsjG6qbztxsHJsdO108XgNen9673vDf4B_loAigseC5INfg8yFMoazh3aKr419jb-PGpARlQWa4Jrxm42dqp63n22jiqZXpwi0xbXytz64k70nvTa-p8AawuzHncjwyqnTb9N-1CPYJNi92-fpduvu7T_tg-4O73rxbfGK9qP56PzF_gr-j_8Q?accountName=Sacr0&characterName=SacroxVolkuurs

PoB*updated*:
Spoiler

shaper(dps tree)
https://pastebin.com/TFnCfpX9

mapping tree (1 mil less shaper dps, tanky (note the different flask setup) https://pastebin.com/CjhLqneU

Videos*new vids up*:

leveling:
Spoiler
Leveling:

*Update*
Some people had issues lvling this poison based from lvl 1. you can always equip storm cloud/the tempest and lvl like a typical ele bow build. with wake of destruction, darkness enthroned and lightning jewel that you need anyway for this build, it should be a breeze.


you can level this build from level 1 with a quill rain. get a tabula. get meginord's girdle, deidbel. scale phys damage on your gear. you have to adjust the skillgems in the early levels. make sure to use lesser poison+chance to bleed.use split arrow with pierce and then transform into tshot. ice shot will be worth it once you use volkuur's. an early barrage setup for single target helps a lot. you will need some chance to poison on tree early on. skill into poison duration+poison damage. get a thief's torment on ~lvl 20. quickly do normal lab and get the 60% chance to poison while using flask ascendancy from pathfinder. you can get a darkness enthrones and put some decent jewels into it. you can get wake of destruction for some dmg boost early on.
You could also play this build chaos dmg based once you reach ~lvl 30 with added chaos damage and swap to volkuur's with lightning damage later. volkuur's will pay off once you get ele overload.

another lvling option is to level as standard bow character with lightning dmg. get wake of destruction, darkness enthroned, added lightning dmg gem, use the tempest bow, get lightning dmg jewels, karui ward.

this build is passive-point-hungry. dont expect everything to work like in the videos on lvl 55!
if you equip volkuur's early for lvling, keep in mind that Ele overload will give you 40% more dmg once you get it. high flat dmg jewels are the key to this build. you wont deal damage without.



FAQ
Spoiler

why not lightning arrow because its lightning based?/ Why not tornado shot?

we have flat lightning damage and almost no phys dmg which could be converted so it does not matter if we use lightning arrow or ice shot. both deal full lightning damage.
ice shot has the higher base dps (147% on lvl 20/119% lightning arrow/109% tornado shot) so the poison scales best off ice shot.it's also a personal preference, i like ice shot+chains+gmp a lot. the clearspeed is great.
the build will work with lightning arrow and tshot as well.
these skills are used for clearspeed so i would not recommend shrapnel shot for it.
Last edited by Sacr0 on Mar 30, 2018, 7:34:55 AM
Last bumped on Dec 5, 2018, 2:05:16 AM
Exact same things (links, stuff) i came up with :)

I find it actually better than other poison builds, which show a huge DPS over a tremendous amount of time.
Poison stacks don't last long here but deal way more damage thanks to the way higher base damage.
Hell, even your hits are stronger actually.

Thumbs up :)

Edit : haven't checked your ascendancy but i guess you're a Pathfinder to make the most use of Coralito + Atziri's Promise (which increases your DPS by a decent amount) + Dying Sun (+ eventually Vinktar's which actually help !)
Last edited by Iyacthu on Jan 6, 2018, 9:28:52 PM
i am currently raider but i consider switching to pathfinder because flasks op ;) will do some testing in PoB.
i feel the same about the poison stacks. the poison with volkuur's feels much more " bursty " and the poison dps is way higher than a build utilizing chaos/phys dmg to scale. the paper dps might be the same but the difference is that this build reaches the maximum dps withing 2-3 seconds instead of 4-6 seconds.
Sounds interesting. I understand guide isn't finished yet, but wanna see some things later...
That wold be great if you say what a downsides this build have, can it run ele reflect maps. Does map mods "Monsters have 90% chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments" or "Monsters have a 65% chance to avoid Poison, Blind, and Bleeding" affect this build?
And more videos with different map mods.
English is not my native language, so forgive me for the mistakes pls
Some random thoughts which i think may interest you :

- Wrath is no longer "needed" once you have good enough Abyss Jewels, allowing you to link Increased AoE on Blasphemy and have a full mana bar for MoM (flask nodes are attached to mana nodes for Pathfinder on top of that), making you a bit tankier and making good use of the mana on hit of Thief's Torment.
- Going Lightning, Cold or Fire doesn't matter too much actually without great gear, just focus on ONE element and get the according Volkuur's version. Lightning yields a bit better average damage but the difference is marginal without Vinktar's factored in. Once you've got that flask, going lightning is way better, damage wise AND survivability wise (leech helps no matter what, on top of the added damage)
- You can modify the build to work with Molten Strike (weaker but hey, why not ...) for the same overall feeling/DPS.
- Eber's Unification is a possibility if going for MoM though you'll need better gear to make up for the lack of resistances.
- Going for spells instead of attacks is not really worth it since spells' base damage is way higher than attacks.
- I'm not exactly sure you NEED Impresence. It's costly and you'll shoot from afar. You'll only need it for tough bosses and you can always self cast it, reducing the strain on other items for resistances/life/stats. A rare amulet with WED works just fine.

As for map mods, the base DPS (without poison) is not that high, which means that reflect should be easily manageable.
Poison avoidance obviously hurts, like any other DoT focused builds.

All in all, DPS can reach millions with everything up and great gear, over 3 to 5 seconds, which is burstier than other poison builds, which ramps up over 6 to 10 seconds.
thanks for your feedback!
wrath currently gives around 15-20% more dmg, i think it's still enough to keep it up. having 1000 unreserved mana would be cool too though.
i like despair beeing linked to blasphemy. i think, impresence is best in slot for this build.

I switched to pathfinder and i like it better than ranger currently. i added another video too. ( red tier elder).
very nice build! would it be possible to do it spell-based with ball lightning?
bandits kill all/save? and the major and minor pantheon?
"
Sacr0 wrote:
thanks for your feedback!
wrath currently gives around 15-20% more dmg, i think it's still enough to keep it up. having 1000 unreserved mana would be cool too though.
i like despair beeing linked to blasphemy. i think, impresence is best in slot for this build.

I switched to pathfinder and i like it better than ranger currently. i added another video too. ( red tier elder).

another route could be to use impresence + essence worm in order to use wrath+despair+MoM while having 100% unreserved mana. Some life on hit bonuses somewhere would then be needed
essence worm is a cool idea but we really need thief's torment for this build to work.

kill all bandits. for pantheon i'm not sure yet.

i dont think it would be viable with ball lightning, we need to generate as much hits as possible. nothing beats an attack based build with quill rain in terms of hits per second.

*edit* i updated the PoB link with the latest changes. now up to 1,5 mil shaper dps. 1 mil without wither.

Last edited by Sacr0 on Jan 7, 2018, 3:23:03 PM

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