[3.8] Pestilent Strike & Viper Strike Poison Assassin | Fast & Deadly | 6M Shaper DPS


Change Log
Spoiler
24/9/2019 - Added Enchant option and budget anoint in gear explanation
section


Introduction

Hi guys, I'm Ty, a Hong Konger here. Wanna share my build of me playing for fun at the end of the league(personally).

Pestilent Strike & Viper Strike

I have done uber elder and some 230+ delve with this build and it feels smooth and fast and therefore, I'm here to share the detail of this build with you and I hope the build can be improved even more.

Pro's & Con's

+ Fast clear
+ Quick Boss Killer
+ Poison Explosion without choosing pathfinder
+ Solid Dodge chance & Armour due to Elusive and Iron Reflexes
+ Fun playstyle
+ It's good to be the 0.1%


- It's still a DoT build. Although the damage is high enough that you won't see the difference most of the time
- Might need a bit of budget to get smooth experience
- Required player's own mechanic, positioning, keeping fortify up etc.
- It's a Melee build
- May encounter some problem with getting stunned if misplayed so HC not viable



Current Gear
Spoiler

Note: Gear explanation and alternatives/budget choices below.



Path of Building
Spoiler
https://pastebin.com/6weJZDmG
Did some assumption on the character, like the stacks of poison etc. may be higher or lower dps in reality.



Gems Setup

Spoiler
Single Target(Viper Strike):


Clearing Skills(Pestilent Strike):

Note: If you haven't got Tribal Fury on the amulet yet, use Ancestral Call Support instead of Multistrike

Movement Skill:

Note: Can link Faster Attack on it if you have more sockets than needed

Aura:
Note: Despair only if you have the Impresence amulet or you can save that and use Witchfire Brew and change the amulet to others. Some other Aura can be used like Flesh and Stone, SkitterBots etc.
Can use Aspect of Spiders if you have enough mana unreserved.

Utility:
Note: Strongest Skill for poison build ever IMO. Even without Empower it's still great for clearing.

Note: Use it whenever you can especially when you're dealing with boss. It saves your life and also boost a lot of damage.
Blood Rage can be used if you have sockets left.

CWDT Setup:

Still experimenting Evasion based build or Armour, this setup can be changed to suit your preferences.


Passive Tree if you don't have PoB



Gear Explanation:
Spoiler
Helmet:
Budget: Starkonja's Head, great life and survivability and you can even use it till the end.
Optimal: Rare Helm with high life and -9 chaos resistance to near enemies.(Pristine Fossil and Aberrant Fossil)
For Enchant,
Single Target: Viper Strike Duration
Faster Clear: Pestilent Strike AoE

Chest:
A lot of choices for chest depending on your own playstyle.
For budget and survivability concern, Belly of the Beast is what I recommend and using myself.
DPS wise, Dendrobate should provide higher dps but no life.

Belt:
Budget: Soul Tether / any rare belt with high life and res
Optimal: Stygian Vise with high life, increased chaos damage% and increased damage with ailments.
Soul Tether provide more eHP for you character and allows you to leech and survive in most situation but the drawback is that you have to leech and anything that will one-shot you will still do the same.

Boots:
Budget & Optimal: High life, res and some movement speed(we use movement skill to travel a lot so movement speed isn't that matter)
If you are rich enough you can craft the cannot be frozen/chilled with some movement speed on boots to avoid lower attack speed on chilling ground.

Gloves:
Budget: The Embalmer / Elder-based gloves that support socketed gems with poison and faster attacks, with some life(crafted or native)
Optimal: Support socketed gems with poison, faster attacks and +50% crit multiplier with some life or res in it.


Amulet:
Budget: Rare amulet with high life, res and some crit multiplier etc.
Optimal: Impresence(Despair one) with Tribal Fury on it.(Gold-Silver-Opalescent Oil)
Budget Anoint(Actually you can anoint anything to fit your situation and playstyle but I'll still give you two suggestions):
Defensive:Silent Steps(with Dazzling Strikes/flesh and stone, it provides pretty good damage mitigation)
Offensive:Brinkmanship(+2 range, AoE, it provides better environment to do damage and gives you better feeling of the melee combat)

Rings:
Budget: Two rare rings with life and res
Optimal: One being Circle of Nostalgia while another one with high life and res. Best affix for the Circle of Nostalgia is:


Weapon:
Budget: The Wasp Nest
Optimal: Fossil Crafted(Aberrant + Corroded + Metalic) and multi-mod claws, one being Imperial Claw and Gemini Claw for off-hand. Example:


Videos:
Spoiler

Before you watch the video as reference, please understand that I have a potato pc and my frames are not stable at all especially when playing poison build and this league's optimization is just not for me. Therefore, a uber elder video cannot be provided but a screenshot is fine. Other than that, enjoy the videos!T16 Mino Full Run
T16 Hydra Full Run
T16 Phoenix Full Run
T16 Chimera Full Run
T17 Shaper Full Run



Thanks for watching and using your time! Feel free to leave comments and advice on this build. It's my first time to post a build and I hope you'll enjoy it.

Final Words(Not related to the Build):
Spoiler
Hong Kong Gayau
Last edited by tylam6746 on Sep 24, 2019, 4:49:43 PM
Last bumped on Mar 9, 2020, 5:53:24 PM
Very nice indeed. So I see in the Mino run that you don't even use Towers :D
Rahsaan's Workshop, a post to showcase a dozen of my home-made builds : https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3432443
"
rahsaan wrote:
Very nice indeed. So I see in the Mino run that you don't even use Towers :D

Thanks man! Yea Pestilent Strike clears packs very easily due to the poison prolif. like PF. You don't really need tower if you wish when you accomplish some great gear.
It's nice to see a melee Poison DoT build able to clear maps, at last. I remember a few years ago when I tried, the pain it was with Viper Strike. Just too tedious to lock on enemies.
Pestilent Strike is definitely a welcome addition.

Have you done some Blighted maps ?
Rahsaan's Workshop, a post to showcase a dozen of my home-made builds : https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3432443
Last edited by rahsaan on Sep 22, 2019, 9:24:11 AM
"
rahsaan wrote:
It's nice to see a melee Poison DoT build able to clear maps, at last. I remember a few years ago when I tried, the pain it was with Viper Strike. Just too tedious to lock on enemies.
Pestilent Strike is definitely a welcome addition.

Have you done some Blighted maps ?


Yea before this patch, you can't even use melee poison DOT skills to clear if you're not PF most of the time. And yes, I've tried and complete t14 blight maps with iiq 90-ish. As you can see from some of my videos, my potato pc can't handle well in blight encounters. I think without stutters and frame drops, i'll be able to do t15 blight maps too. Maybe need some player skills and strategy on building towers though.
"
tylam6746 wrote:
"
rahsaan wrote:
It's nice to see a melee Poison DoT build able to clear maps, at last. I remember a few years ago when I tried, the pain it was with Viper Strike. Just too tedious to lock on enemies.
Pestilent Strike is definitely a welcome addition.

Have you done some Blighted maps ?


Yea before this patch, you can't even use melee poison DOT skills to clear if you're not PF most of the time. And yes, I've tried and complete t14 blight maps with iiq 90-ish. As you can see from some of my videos, my potato pc can't handle well in blight encounters. I think without stutters and frame drops, i'll be able to do t15 blight maps too. Maybe need some player skills and strategy on building towers though.


Is there anyway Pest Strike can kill end game bosses? It's map clear is insane, but I really struggle on boss fights with it even in T14-15.
"
rahsaan wrote:

Is there anyway Pest Strike can kill end game bosses? It's map clear is insane, but I really struggle on boss fights with it even in T14-15.


Hi, sadly I think PS alone needs pretty high-end gear in order to beat viper strike in terms of single target damage. VS's mechanic is like Dual Strike, sort of, which can 'stack' the poison twice for each hit and its hard for Pest to beat until you have a very nice set of gear and if you do, you can try that with the 6L setup for VS. Just replace the VS with PS but you still need to gem swap in order to clear well.

Otherwise, I'll still suggest using a 'fake 6-link' gloves to socket the PS and put VS or any other single target poison skills in 6L chest just like the guide.
Last edited by tylam6746 on Sep 24, 2019, 5:06:45 AM
Hi, nice build! I want to try it out, could you give some leveling advice? Cause it's the first time for me leveling this kind of build
The cycle of life and death continues. We will live, they will die.
"
Pesgamer10 wrote:
Hi, nice build! I want to try it out, could you give some leveling advice? Cause it's the first time for me leveling this kind of build


Hi! Thanks for reading the guide. Well, I leveled the character using Orb of Storm and respec afterwards so I can't give much suggestion on that. Sorry.

However, if youre going to level it from 0, i guess you can take a look at those cobra lash guide and use that to level with, and respec once youve got some gear to start this build.
Yes! Thank you for the build :) Doing this with SSF, going to see what happens, at least I have two Wasp Nests, and Belly of the beast :)
Wanted to do poison assassin, but dont have enough knowledge/skills to do own build that survives red maps.

BTW your pastebin skilltree had one DEX node on a spot that I'm not sure, but threshold jeweles don't need allocated points https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Threshold_jewel So 'extra' point

EDIT: Looks like this is not the case about DEX ;)
Last edited by yopeligamer on Sep 30, 2019, 10:41:12 PM

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