[3.24] The Pestilent Viper 🐍 New video : The Viper (improved) & The Mamba (saved from nerfs !)

oof... Looks like I will have to respec quite a bit. I'm still running with pestilent strike.

And Pestilent Strike is now completely out?

"

Vacoh wrote:

oof... Looks like I will have to respec quite a bit. I'm still running with pestilent strike.

And Pestilent Strike is now completely out?

Pestilent Strike is perfectly viable.

It depends if you want to play with the Standard version of the build, or the Affliction version I'm building right now. The Affliction version is still evolving, I'm testing with trials and errors, doing myself a lot of respecs.

Here are new improvements for the Mamba version :

PoB level 84 : https://pobb.in/-k_ZomtdwvCa

1- Greatly improved survivability with The Perfect Form for Evasion and Spell Dodge.


It has doubled my effective Hit Pool, with chance to evade going from 12% to 60%. Currently sitting at 62% spell dodge.

The Perfect Form is not a mandatory choice. You can plenty choose of other unique body armours or even good rare ones.

2- I've already taken inspiration from Pathfinder builds to use Rebuke of the Vaal blades + Poisonberry Tincture.

I've just added a Blizzard Crown for flat cold dmg.

No gem socketed to get +50% all elem res.

3- Now, I'm also getting inspiration from the Assassin, for an "ambush and assassinate" setup.

It works like this :

* Mark the enemy with Alchemist's Mark (self cast)
* Ambush skill guarantees one big strike with 100% crit chance and huge crit multi.
* With Perfect Agony, this crit multi instead applies to poison DoT and to the Caustic Ground from Alchemist's Mark.
* One big Mamba hit will then melt the enemy. If it does not die right away, the Caustic Ground will finish it off.

Tiggering this combo is a bit tricky, but when you do the piano properly, it is very satisfying to see it works. You feel like a mamba striking from the bushes.
Still working to continue improving.

I want to play a version that works. And sadly I currently don't have the energy to think about what works myself. :|

I also thought about some combinations of both the old Pestilent Strike build and your new Viper Strike one. Currently I haven't sunk that much money into the build yet, so both are possible. The idea with not needing 2 resistances is great. It's also expensive though.

Ok, I want to give you some ideas to improve your current character (Alinnea).

Currently, you can't use Pestilent Strike, because it requires dagger or claw.

So let's focus on your stuff as it is and make improvements.

* On 2 flasks, manually added the values for Ambush and the Poison effect.
* Removed Essence Sap (mana leech), added Clever Thief for life + mana leech.
* Removed Toxic Strikes (poison), added Charisma (mana reservation) to allow Malevolence.
* Replaced the belt with Prismeave : 12% more DPS.
* Removed Temporal Chains : not useful for Viper Strike of the Mamba. To cap your res, you can either choose another amulet or remove the gems on your helmet.
My suggestion : Winterheart amulet (+75% cold res, can't be chilled), very cheap, with Twin Terrors (crit chance), a cheap anointment : Clear, Azure, Black.

I also suggest :
* Boots with better movespeed, some life and res. You can find good ones for 5c or less.
* Craft mods on your Diamond ring and helmet.

Improved PoB of your char : https://pobb.in/hgGW-EiDQh3G

Hope this helps :) Gl & hf !

Damn! I didn't mean to bait an improvement of my character with that, I was trying to say that I'll just take a "somewhat finished build" to stupidly follow after.

So this is amazing, thank you so much!

Just trying my luck here, but it would mean a lot if i can get some pointers on how to fix my build (enjoyed the pestilent strike skill since torstein times before i chanced upon this thread and your version)

Will appreciate any help i can get playing as a raider v
ariant!!

"

Averyjx wrote:

Just trying my luck here, but it would mean a lot if i can get some pointers on how to fix my build (enjoyed the pestilent strike skill since torstein times before i chanced upon this thread and your version)

Will appreciate any help i can get playing as a raider v
ariant!!

Hi,

here are some ideas :

- It seems your elem res are not capped.

- You want +1 Curse if you want to use both Alchemist's Mark and a curse. So you can choose Whispers of Doom anointment on the amulet, but it's expensive.

Currently, your character is made for fast-hitting skills, Pestilent Strike or regular Viper Strike. If you want to use Mamba, you can try to these changes :

- On the Ascendancy, Onslaught is not useful, since Mamba does not require fast attacks. Consider replacing it with Avatar of the Veil for defensive purpose.

- Replace Temporal Chains with Despair.

- Multistrike is not good, since the bonus of Mamba is only on the first poison. Even with Sadism, your poison lasts 0.55 sec because of Unbound Ailments. So you can apply less than 2 per second and you currently deal >8 APS. So most of these attacks are wasted, since they don't poison.

Lower poison duration :
Multistrike > Cruelty
Unbound Ailments > Efficacy
Deadly Ailments > Swift Affliction
Now, your poison lasts 0.34 sec = you apply 3 per second.

- For Mamba, your Charms do not grant you much DPS. "3% inc poison dmg per poison applied recently" is made for fast hitting skills, not Mamba.
> You should consider changing your Wildwood Ascendancy to Warden and get a Poisonberry Tincture. Mine has almost perfect roll, but even an average roll with give you 25 or 30% more poison DPS.


Hope this can help you ! Gl & hf :)

Am I missing something? Currently looking at your character and you're using a combo of Ralakesh's Impatience and Olesya's Delight.
But how do you even get Frenzy Charges?

And how do you get that Ambush modifier on your flask? I was looking up different sites and asking people ingame, but there is no information about how to get that additional Ambush modifier on the flask.

"

Vacoh wrote:

Am I missing something? Currently looking at your character and you're using a combo of Ralakesh's Impatience and Olesya's Delight.
But how do you even get Frenzy Charges?

And how do you get that Ambush modifier on your flask? I was looking up different sites and asking people ingame, but there is no information about how to get that additional Ambush modifier on the flask.

Good questions.
I have manually written the Ambush mods on the flask (select then Edit the item). PoB does not take Ambush into account, so you can just manually add the lines on any item.
In the same way, I have corrected the numbers for the Tincture, as the bonus with empty flask slots in not calculated.

Now, about the Olesya's belt, I was precisely working on it. In my next msg, I'm giving a full update for the Mamba setup.

Complete build update in league : "Mambaffliction" setup

PoB level 91 in Affliction league : https://pobb.in/uBteivQw4su2

Gearing






Why Occultist ?

Easy access to : chaos res, +1 curse and juicy chaosplosions to spread poison and refill Plague Bearer.
I've taken inspiration from several Pathfinder and Assassin's builds on Poe.ninja.

Mechanisms

Viper Strike of the Mamba applies one big poison on non-poisoned enemies.
So we want to maximize this single poison.

> We use a Poisonberry Tincture so that all dmg can poison.
> We wield two 1000 DPS Rebuke of the Vaal swords that will strike together for one big hit.

> We stack "% inc poison dmg on non-poisoned enemies" :
- Poison masteries : 300%
- Low Tolerance (medium cluster notable) : another 300%
- On the Tincture : up to 750% inc dmg with 300% perfect roll and 2 empty flask slots.

In conjunction with "All dmg can poison", this Tincture alone triples my DPS.

> We use Ambush + some crit chance on gems and the tree to guarantee 100% crit on the exerted attack.
The huge crit multi from Ambush (+138%) is applied at 50% to poison DPS through Perfect Agony keystone.
Currently, Ambush grants 120% more DPS to the exerted attack.

> We cast Alchemist's Mark to spread Caustic Ground, which will deal 79% of the poison dmg for a few seconds.

> We add Ralakesh boots to have max Frenzy, Power and Endurance charges.


> With Olesya's belt, we can also gain Affliction charges. Each of them grants 8% more damage over time. With 5 max Frenzy charges, we can gain 5 Affliction charges = 40% more DPS.

But you still need to gain the Affliction charges !

> So we can use any source of Frenzy charge gain, which the belt will convert to Affliction charges : Blood Rage, Vaal Cold Snap, Frenzy skill etc.

> I've treated myself to a little extravaganza and for 1 divine, I bought a Precursor's Emblem ring with 10% Frenzy on hit/on kill.


(These beauties cost > 50div in Standard !)

Defences

The Perfect Form grants a lot of Evasion and converts Spell Suppression to Spell Dodge.


Evasion is further increased by overcapping cold res.
But with less than 4k life, my character is currently fragile. Gotta kill fast to survive !
Still, I have 65% chance to evade attacks and to dodge spells.
With Warden Ascendancy, putting the Tincture between two life flasks make the latter refill faster.
The Winterheart amulet is very cheap and offers immunity to chill.


Mandatory items

Poisonberry Tincture with almost perfect roll : 1 div
Ralakesh boots : 35c
Gloves with +1 target implicit : 20c
Olesya's belt : 5c
Rebuke of the Vaal swords : 2c each.

Luxury items

The Perfect Form : 2 div
Precursor's Emblem with Frenzy on hit/on kill : 1 div
4 pts Medium cluster jewel with Low Tolerance : 40c
Intuitive Leap jewel : 20c
Socketed in Ranger socket to get +1 Frenzy, Life and Accuracy. Can also get Crit and Elem Res.

Other

Blizzard Crown Helmet : 20c
Ring : 5c
Amulet : 1c + anointment

Total < 5 divines

The build can probably be improved with some endgame fine tuning. The Adorned and That Which Was Taken jewels, for instance.

Demo video :
#2 : Mamba In Ambush

Syndicate encounter, heavy farming in Untainted Paradise, the Enslaver... all are exploded and melted !

Hope you'll like it, good luck and have fun !