[2.6] Viper Strike Berserker - Theorycraft for Feedback

Hello all!

With the patch 2.6 around the corner and that sweet sweet design manifesto out, I found myself working out some builds in my head. I have seen lots of berserkers and have never had the opportunity to play one yet, so I figured I would give it a whirl. I saw both the buff to melee splash and the buff to the Viper Strike Threshold Jewel and thought "Wow, 10s of Unholy Might seems pretty crazy!", and that was what brings me here.

For those who are unfamiliar: http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Growing_Agony
The jewel currently reads: (4-12)% increased Damage over Time
With at least 50 Dexterity Allocated in Radius, Viper Strike deals 2% increased Attack Damage for each Poison on the Enemy

As per the design manifesto, it looks like they are adding a 10% chance to gain Unholy Might for 10s on hit per poison stack.

Tree:


Idea behind the tree:
-Pure physical damage with a big two handed sword (Ex: Terminus Est while leveling, Starforge endgame until you get some crazy rare sword)
-Plenty of life / armor / leech from passives and ascendencies
-Berserker gets that crazy 40% more modifier, and unholy strength is big.

Gems:
6L: Viper Strike + Multistrike + Melee Splash + Melee Physical Damage + Void Manipulation + Rapid Decay - Swap Melee Splash for Melee Physical on Full Life for single target bosses.
4L: Leap Slam + Fortify + Faster Attacks + w/e you like (I like culling strike)
4L: Blood Rage + Increased Duration + Spell Totem + Wither
4L: Blasphemy + Temp Chains / Not sure what else, maybe a golem perhaps vaal haste

There is a possibility for another 6L worth of gems from chest armor, but I am leaving this intentionally blank at the moment for the sweet sweet possibility of a legacy Kaom's Heart. With the build having few 'required' slots you have room to fit in a lot of nice stats where you like them, capping resistances comes first obviously, but then steel rings are nice, any kind of belt you like (Good rare, Perseverance, Doryani's, Belt of the Deceiver is great for leveling).


Feedback and any tips on how this could be improved will be greatly appreciated.

cant get what are you guys TC all the way atm, when you dont know final changes to 2.6 yet.

It might be pretty good if the melee splash buffs are as significant as they seem. If they're not i think an abyssal cry addition would be required.

Hi Aurican14,

I've been looking at Viper Strike as a potential build for 2.6, as it looks like it's going to be very strong. Looking at your tree, do you think it would be better to go for some skill effect duration nodes instead of some phys damage ones? Poison benefits HUGELY from skill effect duration, so this could be good for bosses, as trash is never a problem late game. I like using more than just M2 on builds too, so I'm thinking of running Abyssal Cry and the Warcry Ascendancy node. Might drop Cloaked in Savagery.

EDIT: Whipped up a quick tree here: poeurl.com/4l0

I avoid going to the slayer area as there are too many travel nodes to make it worth it. There are still optimizations to be made, interested to hear what you think..! :D

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Aurican14 wrote:

4L: Blasphemy + Temp Chains / Not sure what else, maybe a golem perhaps vaal haste

Temp Chains sure is awesome. I'd probably use a dual-curse setup with Temp Chains and Vulnerability to increase both the initial hit and the damage over time.
Even using a Doedre's Damning should be worth this damage buff, esp. if you're going to use a Kaom's Heart. (39% increased phys damage taken + 33% increased damage over time taken)

my build plan: www.poeurl.com/4vZ
or maybe this for instant leech and more boss-facetanking: www.poeurl.com/4xM (the nice damage damage nodes in the shadow area for leveling 90+)

going for more duration + curse effect nodes (blasphemy + temp chains + vulnerability + enhance) and probably also going to use abyssal cry :)

I'm currently running a viper strike marauder in Breach, a little bit different as I'm pure chaos, and scaling abyssal cry, but a few pointers based on my experience.

- Skill duration is good, but the poison duration on viper strike is pretty long anyway, especially with odd bits of duration you can grab, and temp chains (I have an extra 40% from breath of the council offhand too). Would only really be worthwhile if you can stand there hitting something for over 10 seconds. Damage wise would be good against t16+, but you probably can't stand still that long.

- Melee splash is really good QoL, even if you are mostly using abyssal cry for packs. I think mainly due to dodgy multistrike targetting. I swapped it out for rapid decay for single target, but it has made clearing a bit clunky. Think I will put it back. I imagine it will still be the same after changes.

- With the jewel buff, I would use a phys weapon and scale the phys more as you are thinking (I use a blue t1 chaos/attack speed claw - using hidden potential). Perma unholy might is a big chunk of chaos damage.

- Added chaos might be worth using, depends on the weapon I guess. Obviously was a huge chunk of damage for me.

- A big damage weapon should be better, but viper strike can be a slow ramp up of damage on tanky bosses. And Hydra/Chimera will probably be tricky (I haven't even bothered on my char)

- I'd be tempted to go dual curse with temp chains blasphemy, and a witchfire brew. I tried to find/make a +1 curse amulet for my guy but never managed it

My char is CryViper at https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Carlovski/characters for info (Although as I said, built quite differently)

I checked some numbers: best way to scale Viper strike is through duration of poison via duration gem (replace it with melee splash for clear), duration cluster and temp chain on hit gloves/tempchain selfcast. I managed to theorycrafted 1.1M (0.5M without frenzy charges) dps against the shaper with 2 flasks (sulphur + sin's rebirth) and stacked Wither with totem, using best weapon for double dip - The Scourge.
Only 4 jewels with life/damage/as (about 30-60c each)
Also its with max block, 35k armour 5.5k hp aegis gladiator with 1k es. With berserker non-block build (2x The Scourge) it will be a lot higher dps (around 2.2M with 2 flasks + wither totem and against shaper - 6M against non-boss targets) and life (7-8k) + VP + 100% leech (meaning u can facetank shaper's beam), and bigger armour or eva/dodge with raider with easy charges.

Some other stuff - only chaos damage jewellery without envy essence's crafts, Belly, good, but not exceptional gear (probably within 20 chaos each slot, except 6l belly). Path of building says (about gladiator build) - its 250k dmg per poison stack on shaper/guardians, so you just need to hit enemy for 2 seconds (5 aps) to kill everything (however - with 20 stacks of wither). I wouldnt recommend new threshhold jewel unless you dont have currency for sin's rebirth.
Also Added chaos gem, Void Manipulation for double dipping, Rapid Decay, Faster attacks (Multistrike is bad because it double dips on less damage), Increased duration.

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valares wrote:

(Multistrike is bad because it double dips on less damage)

Multistrike has "less attack damage", attack damage does not apply to poison, so the less damage does not double dip.
(According to wiki)

Thanks for the feedback and all the trees.

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best way to scale Viper strike is through duration of poison

I feel that while maxing out your increased duration will max out your damage, that you really don't need to go whole hog on it, as even most bosses will melt with even a small amount of it, and most clear speed things will melt instantly making the duration almost meaningless. Only when you start hitting like t15 and up would maxing out the duration really be super important, then you can replace your melee splash potentially with an increased duration gem.

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using best weapon for double dip - The Scourge.

I have superficially looked at the Scourge in the past. I totally missed the big bonus to minion damage on the weapon itself that then goes straight to you. Seems like a really strong option (especially when we see what the one handed changes and claw node updates bring). This build was more designed as a two handed option, but I am open to options.

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(Multistrike is bad because it double dips on less damage)

Multistrike has a less multiplier that definitely hurts, but with your extra attacks and attack speed it really balances out (especially if the less only applies to the physical portion).

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I'd be tempted to go dual curse with temp chains blasphemy, and a witchfire brew.

I really like the idea of a double curse setup, as vuln double dips and temp chains is both a defensive and offensive option. I would prefer a more 'permanent' vulnerability than witchfire, but its an easy option (if a bit expensive), plus it really pumps up that poison dot.

I am loving this feedback guys, keep it up and lets see what it looks like when patch notes drop soon!

Incresed duration still gives more DPS, while multistrike allows to stack poison faster, but resulting in slower kill.