Marauder - [2.6] 2h Sword Viperstrike poison berserker - Forum

Hello!

I want to share the build I've been working on this league, as sort of a last hurrah for poison double dipping in Path of Exile.

I've first got the idea from the viper strike threshold jewel introduced in 2.6, which grants unholy might.

Character: https://www.pathofexile.com/account/view-profile/Eromort/characters
Name EromortTheViper

Before 2.6 probably the best way to play viper strike was with a fast one hander and added chaos damage. This build is a different approach, scaling physical, and % of chaos added as physical damage as well as the poison.

Core ideas of the build:

Use a high damage 2handed sword (it's the only 2h that works with Viper Strike)
Use the threshold jewel to get 30% of phys as extra chaos
Use Kaom's Heart to get a high life pool, since you can use a 6link in the sword.

Use 2 ming's hearts

(which is now only 10% reduced life each) to gain another 40% extra chaos damage.

Since the rings should cap your chaos res with some nodes from the tree (more on that later) you can use

to get an instant full heal flask that also gives you dodge, thus actually giving you an advantage for using a life based build instead of ES. With 75% chaos res the flask will only degen 2% of your life per second.

Pros/Cons:

Spoiler

Pros:

High damage, both single target and aoe.
Can play on a budget with a 5c sword and 1c rings/flask.
Instant leech with cloaked in savagery and vaal pact
Can easly farm uberlab if you drop vaal pact
I haven't tried shaper yet, but since it's a double dipping poison build it should be more than enough damage to blow him away.
Did atziri/t15 core without problems
Not another ES build
Actually useful lifeflasks!

Cons:

Only 8k life, not enough to avoid volatile oneshots in crazy maps.
No 13k ES
Melee splash (namelock) build
Average clearspeed (no vaalspark) can be both a pro and con (pro for me) but I'll list it as a con.
Have to watch out for traps because it's berserker (even with no vaal pact).
Can get expensive at the highest end (Kaom's + Starforge)

Tree:

Spoiler

https://www.pathofexile.com/passive-skill-tree/AAAABAECAH11otmFUsAaYevIFIngtNE5DvcyLOn-urXyNZKpbv6PBS12gvajbIz2SPVv8kXveu8OeHp34z387YPqGFBH62PEoulGm7WExdNvivAW6YzPXz-pJ4azaozawQmW2WEUINi9036HauZY-F_PenTtypAAXnasxtjqEMM6vqckNxUgvTZHfr8ISROplAgu_grEgp2qGbS744TZz361SC5TIuotg7IZsNhYY8EEeWgqOGKsNj2YVzIBJIuXeW87lwYZigHc5FE64XrvJpVVS3gNkx9N4xa_D6vrCRmOX9CtjaZXe4xlTcgMYeIhkHzZES-E7w==

Ascendancy (in order):
Pain Reaver - Crave the slaughter - Aspect of carnage - Cloaked in savagery

Bandits:

Oak(life) - Kraityn (attack speed) - Kraityn (frenzy charge)

Highlights:
-Get some phys to scale base damage
-get as much chaos damage as possible, as it double dips on your chaos
-as much life as possible to offset ming's hearts. With kaom's you should have 7500-8000 life at endgame.

Key items:

Spoiler

is a great starter and budget option

Links:

Spoiler

Viper Strike - Melee Physical damage - Multistrike - Melee splash (swap to fortify or inc. dur for single target) - Rapid Decay when you get the 6link

Ancestral warchief - Melee Physical damage - Faster Attacks - Poison/Void manipulation/Added fire (before starforge). You can also use inc aoe/conc for the last link if you prefer.

Grace - Arctic Armour - Flame Golem - Blood rage

Wither totem is also an option instead of warchief for higher single target, I just prefer warchief for general clear, and it's pretty good for single target too.

Leveling:

Spoiler

I leveled as viperstrike myself, it's perfectly doable.

However I suggest leveling as another skill that can use more weapons and has higher range/aoe. Good choices would be Sunder into earthquake/ice crash.
Facebreaker shield charge is also a great option if you have the gear for it.

Just fill the tree out naturally, take RT first then go to duelist then ranger and shadow. Only take the chaos nodes once you're viperstrike.
Take Vaal pact after you're done with uber lab.

FAQ:

Spoiler

Is it shaper/uber atziri viable?

I would say yes. I'll probably attempt shaper in the next couple of days and post back (maybe even with a video if there is interest. Uber Atziri should be no problem if you know how to avoid her damage as she is very vulnarable to poison builds.

Is it hardcore viable?
In theory yes, but all melee and especially namelock builds are very vulnerable on HC to things like volatile. The build has the life to survive, but is not stacked on defenses besides leech.

Can you use another ascendancy?

Maybe, but I think berserker has the highest potential. I haven't looked into another option in depth.
Maybe juggernaut for a HC/Tank variant with far less damage.
Slayer for a higher AOE (I don't think it really helps) but also less damage
Assasin for a crit version (would be a far different tree)

Take Care and enjoy!
Eromort

Last edited by Eromort#3953 on Mar 14, 2017, 1:20:03 PM

Last bumped on Mar 14, 2017, 1:17:30 PM