[2.3] Chaos Oriented Viper Strike/Abyssal Cry Build [Dirt CHEAP]

This build is designed around being a hipster, using Viper Strike, wich was for a long time one of the worst skills in PoE, focusing on the chaos damage part of it, rather than the physical damage. It is not meant to be the most optimal build you can pull, but rather something that I had fun doing.

For solo mapping, you will be rushing in with Whirling Blades, attacking a couple of times, and yelling harsh language in their faces with Abyssal Cry before poison kills the enemies. As long as you kill one or two, this will trigger a chain reaction of "explode on death" effects that's gonna clear the whole pack. The advantage of this mechanic is that its based on the health pool of the enemies, so in higher tier maps, the chain reacion still clears the whole screen with one or two kills.

This build is not the fastest boss killer ever, but viper strike is very mean to them, due to poison stacking on enemies, allowing for crazy DPS, and if there is a bunch of trash enemies around the boss, an Abyssal Cry chain reaction is most likely gonna sink his boat.

In groups, you, as most melee builds, will be nearly useless, so you can:

1- Use Abyssal cry in the middle of big packs, to ease the work of your partners so that they only need to kill a couple of enemies to clear the whole pack.

2- Swap 3 gems and be THE MAN, running in the middle of an open area with a lot of enemies, and casting Vaal Cyclone (of wich I run 2 simultaneous). Before trying this, get a level 8 mom, and craft pockets in your underwear, cause your eggs are gonna grow a lot and become made of steel. Most of the damage on these vaal cyclones is gonna be Chaos, wich has no reflection drawbacks. (WARNING: When doing this, you depend on your team clearing the packed enemies before Vaal Cyclone ends, else you're gonna be in trouble with 40 angry enemies right on top of you). Loot and repeat with your second Vaal Cyclone wich is most likely ready.



Note that everything in this guide can be easily tweaked, depending on what gear (specially weapons) you have available. For that purpose, I recommend checking these 2 guides that I found myself constantly checking while making this character.

By Rumdum:

Spoiler


2.3 Viper Strike Build Fast, Fun and Cheap to Start [Video Guide]

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1555937









By Baelrog:

Spoiler


[2.3] Baelrog's Abyssal Cry Berserker - Send the whole screen to the Abyss with one attack #HCViable

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1621036

















On to the build!



Passive Tree






Gear

Spoiler


The only Unique I consider mandatory is Breath of the Council, very cheap at the moment I bought it.

I very much like Belly of the Beast, because its cheap and I like HP.





For the rest, use rares (or give this build a different flavor by adding things like Voidheart, or whatever.

STAT PRIORITIES:

Offensive

-Flat Chaos Damage (specially in your weapon)
-Attack Speed (adds very nicely to the Added Chaos Damage gems supporting Viper Strike and the 2 Vaal Cyclone
-Strength (nice HP and slight damage boost)
-Flat Physical Damage (particularly jewelry)


Defensive

-Life
-Strength
-Resistances (either cap at 75% in merciless, and avoid Elemental Weakness mods, for cheapness purposes, or overcap to run all mods).
-Evasion
-Armor

You should have a lot of strength in your gear, dexterity in the tree, and JUST ENOUGH intelligence preferably on your gear.


My current gear:



Weapons:
Spoiler


Armor and Jewelry:
Spoiler


Flasks:
Spoiler














Note the synergy of the high chance to bleed/poison/maim on Vaal Cyclone and the Lion's Roar flask, wich keeps enemies at a safe-ish distance, in constant movement due to the "suck in" and the knock back effects, increasing the bleed damage taken.

Im running only 1 jewel, Hungry Abyss:
http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Hungry_Abyss
Wich is why I ruined all of my gear corrupting it.



Gems and links

Spoiler


Chest:

5L- Viper Strike, Multistrike, Melee Splash, Added Chaos Damage, Void manipulation. /Blood Rage in the unlinked socket.
6L- Viper Strike, Multistrike, Melee Splash, Added Chaos Damage, Void manipulation, Faster Attacks.

The reasoning behind this: No melee physical damage, because im a god damn hipster focusing on the chaos part of VS, and the weapon im running has a nice amount of flat chaos damage, so Void Manipulation does more for me than Faster Attacks at the moment on my 5L setup.

Boots/Gloves/Helmet:

4L- Abyssal Cry, Increased AoE, Void Manipulation, Blood Magic OR Poison.
4L- Vaal Cyclone, Life Gain on Hit, Added Chaos Damage, Increased Duration.
4L- Whirling Blades, Faster Attacks, Fortify, Blood Magic (you can swap your CWDT setup here if you want Increased Duration on it.


Weapons:

3L- Cast When Damage Taken, Molten Shell, Phase Run (or insert your favorite CWDT setup here).
3L- Blasphemy, Warlord's Mark, Grace //FOR SOLO MODE

OR

3L- Vaal Cyclone, Added Chaos Damage, Life Gain on Hit//FOR BALLSTOTHEWALL MODE instead of Curse/Aura setup (in groups everyone is running auras and some builds depend on their curses, I dont, so i just let them run theirs).

If you choose -or poverty forces you- to use a pure physical damage weapon, try swapping Melee Physical Damage in and out instead of Added Chaos Damage or Poison, might boost your damage.















Feel free to tweak this build and share your changes to it! There is a lot of things you can do different. If you come up with any, post it in the comments.










Last bumped on Aug 15, 2016, 1:56:37 PM
Reserved because cats.
Thought about using Reave in the 5L in place of Viper Strike? You could then place Viper Strike in a corrupted set of +1 gloves for a nice DPS increase, and use Reave for faster+safer clearing.
Last edited by Novalisk on Jul 19, 2016, 3:03:10 PM
Yeah but it defeats the purpose of building around chaos damage and viper strike, wich was the objective.
The vast majority of your damage will still be chaos, and viper strike would still be used for bosses (because Reave isn't great for single targets). I don't think it's that far off.
The purpose here is to roll viper strike.
Alright!

I give up!

Here comes the dumb, stupid, noobish question!

What the hell is a "hipster"?

edit: This shadow isn't going to stand on a street corner, snapping his fingers, popping his gum and leering lecherously at passing women while calling EVERYONE, daddy-o, is he?
Last edited by DemBlues on Aug 11, 2016, 5:11:38 AM
Alright you confused me here, a hipster is: [according to wikipedia]

The hipster subculture is composed of affluent or middle class youth who reside primarily in gentrifying neighborhoods.[1][2] It is broadly associated with indie and alternative music, a varied non-mainstream fashion sensibility, vintage and thrift store-bought clothing, generally progressive political views, organic and artisanal foods, and alternative lifestyles.[3][4][5][6] The subculture typically consists of white millennials living in urban areas.[7][8] It has been described as a "mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior".

In this case, is what people hatefully call others when they try to be different.

-Truly yours, Daddy-o

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