[3.21] 🌿Ultimate Claw Poison Pathfinder - Untouchable Viper - Molten Strike update by FEL

"

TorsteinTheFallen wrote:

I rly have no idea how people get one-shots vs guardians of any kind.

Its very possible to get killed by the Eradicator.

For the other guardisn, the mistake I made when I did not master the build was not keeping Fortify up and Molten Strike. Its perfectly fine to pull out when MS wears off.

"

blastinMot wrote:

"

Yalpe wrote:

Mines on Sirus. Its almost the same. No Watcher's Eye because I did not have enough currency and when I did, I decided to try 4-5 other builds. One was Thornstein's Death Angel.

Checked out your PoB again.
Your DPS does seem good.
Maybe I didn't have flasks active or forget to skill the damn cluster jewels by hand.

What I would change or what is different to my build:
- the implicits on your Circle of Nostalgia suck in my opinion
- you can get really interesting strong implicits on there, for exmaple onslaught on hit (not on kill!) or "poisons deal damage faster"

- I would probably swap Wicked Pall for Wasting Affliction
- slightly lower overall dps (110k or something), but faster dmg ramp up will make up for it for sure

- a little on the lower side of life (under 5k)

- you do have more physical mitigation, but big elemental hits will still be a problem
- 1% all max. res is pretty neat though

- your are missing 1% lightning res to cap at 76%

It is definitely up there, nice work! :)

Its a good summary of my character yes. I did not mind the 74% lightning res too much because I always have 3 endurance charges.

You are right about the circle of nostalgia implicits. When I got to that piece of gear for min/max I was kind of burned out.

Big elemental hits have always been a problem on this build. I stuggled a lot with Veritania early on and I still die to The Eradicator sometimes. Sirus is really not big deal though, unless I derp.

I have too much phys mitigation I think. If you look at the calcs tab, I'm overcapped by a lot with everything online.

"

Just to ask, have you tried Caustic Arrow? It felt easier to me in Act 1 than Viper Strike.

I did, didn´t test it to it´s fullest potential and with different setups though, mainly because of this:

- You would have to start the Level-process with a bow
- to fully make use of it you would have to spec into the projectile nodes at the start of pathfinder
- The whole idea was not to be forced to rely on other specs to get through the early part since I personally just enjoy starting as early as possible with the spells I want to use.

That being said, I am always a friend of optimization. I have time today and will run some rounds on Caustic Arrow setups and try if I get a run with faster times to our Breakpoint in A2 where we get strong. If we don´t need to spec into the projectile nodes it would be worth doing that, since we only have to do the vendor recipe for stronger weapons once with a bow. At around Level 17 when the cat's paws kick in it is a good time to swap. I´ll do the caustic Tests and let you know :-)

"

Vennto wrote:

"

Just to ask, have you tried Caustic Arrow? It felt easier to me in Act 1 than Viper Strike.

I did, didn´t test it to it´s fullest potential and with different setups though, mainly because of this:

- You would have to start the Level-process with a bow
- to fully make use of it you would have to spec into the projectile nodes at the start of pathfinder
- The whole idea was not to be forced to rely on other specs to get through the early part since I personally just enjoy starting as early as possible with the spells I want to use.

That being said, I am always a friend of optimization. I have time today and will run some rounds on Caustic Arrow setups and try if I get a run with faster times to our Breakpoint in A2 where we get strong. If we don´t need to spec into the projectile nodes it would be worth doing that, since we only have to do the vendor recipe for stronger weapons once with a bow. At around Level 17 when the cat's paws kick in it is a good time to swap. I´ll do the caustic Tests and let you know :-)

You are right, dont bother. I started as Shadow CA...

Hey Vennto, good work on the league start. I was going to do the same thing so you're saving me time haha.

Showerthoughts:

- Why not Heralf of Ice? If you already run Added Cold wouldn't it be better for freeze chance?
- Why not Herald of Purity? It adds phys damage so technically it helps the poisons as well as the flat dps
- If you drop HoT you can still get Shock if you run Summon Skitterbots (15% shock effect), not sure if that's worth it though
- I think you forgot to mention Iron Rings in your Act1 guide. They are great as they add flat phys
- You should mention to keep an eye out for Essence of Contempt as it adds flat phys to a weapon. Its similar to the rustic sash recipe and they aren't that uncommon
- Why not slap a lvl 1 precision in there, it helps with accuracy for almost no mana
- How did you solve mana issues? Mana pot only? Leech node near Essence Sap? Mana on hit?

I think I like HoI more as it has dex requirements. Has str/int been an issue while leveling?

"

You are right, dont bother. I started as Shadow CA...

Too late, already did my homework :D Since I did it I can shortly summarize my results: While the Damage with caustic arrow appears to be fairly the same clearwise you will have a far better time on brutus with an additional puncture+chance to bleed Setup. Merveil, the pest that she is, is also far easier from range, though puncture+bleed won´t help much since she literally never moves.

Downsides though: First, as mentioned above, to keep up with the dmg you really have to spec into projectile damage, else you´ll end up sort. Second, and most important: Onlaught procs far better from Cobra lash and you can use whirling blades + smoke mine to move around. If you play bow you won´t be able to use whirling blades, hence less movement and that speed is also superimportant.

TLDR: My Setup is better than CA on Pathfinder Leaguestart.

"

Why not Heralf of Ice? If you already run Added Cold wouldn't it be better for freeze chance?

The added cold damage is solely on the viper strike so there is not that big of a freeze chance for masses of monsters to begin with and since flat damage is everything in the early game I feel like herald of thunder outperforms herald of ice. I have the added cold dmg on Viper Strike since it is not that fast yet to profit on added Lightning dmg which has higher base dmg, so I rather have slowed rares/endbosses when it proccs :-)

"

Why not Herald of Purity? It adds phys damage so technically it helps the poisons as well as the flat dps

You are right. The simple reason: We can´t buy it coming into A2, the vendor is not selling it. If you play with a guild, a buddy or you find it by all means, use it. I tested it and it is really strong. In that case I dropped herald of fire and went Herald of Thunder, Purity and Agony. I just didn´t put it in the guide since it is down to luck or Teamplay to find it. I´ll give it an honorable mention.

"

If you drop HoT you can still get Shock if you run Summon Skitterbots (15% shock effect), not sure if that's worth it though

Tested that. First of all, as mentioned above, herald of thunder is About more than just the shock. It brings a lot of dps. Second, with 3 heralds we are kinda low on mana, but manageable with flasks. Skitterbots take up 35% instead of 25% and it becomes a pain to play so I decided against them, the overall performance is just better with HoT

"

I think you forgot to mention Iron Rings in your Act1 guide. They are great as they add flat phys

You´re right, worth adding, I´ll put it into honorable mentions.

"

You should mention to keep an eye out for Essence of Contempt as it adds flat phys to a weapon. Its similar to the rustic sash recipe and they aren't that uncommon

Yep, will do that as well. Maybe I just put a whole honorable Mention section in :D

"

Why not slap a lvl 1 precision in there, it helps with accuracy for almost no mana

Well you could, but as said above: With the only 25% unreserved mana we actually play at the lower end of what feels good and tbh we don´t need it. Accuracy was never a problem for me while leveling. If you run into Problems I would consider taking Acuity or Weathered Hunter in the Tree. Those were my go-to nodes to surpass accuracy-problems anyway in the later build.

"

How did you solve mana issues? Mana pot only? Leech node near Essence Sap? Mana on hit?

Primal Spirit + 2 flasks is enough. I run in the early stages 1 Life-flask, 2 Mana flasks and 2 Quicksilver flasks. The Mana-Problems become bigger as u add more links but the given setup is fine on 4 Links and since this guide focusses on the early part of the league I didn´t go that far. Later you can do a lot of things, drop a herald, get an incursion ring, praxis-ring, etc.

"

I think I like HoI more as it has dex requirements. Has str/int been an issue while leveling?

Again, Primal Spirit is huge. Pick that one up and you get 20 int and 20 str. From that I got an early int-amulet (White, just from vendor) and later in A3 can start using the vendor recipe if you are short somewhere to fuse an Agate amulet. So I wouldn´t call it an issue, but I might add that info as well so people don´t end up like "wtf OH MY GAAWD THIS DOESNT WORK" :D

Another thought:

- Mule Marauder (Breaking some Eggs) for molten shell, steelskin, ancient protector and/or decoy totem

It allows you to skip the library in act 3 as you skip malevolence anyways with triple heralds. Unlocking gems is faster in Act 6.

Anyone could look my profile and give me some help about WHERE to improve?
I can barely handle T5~ T6 maps =(
Attack speed not so great.

The only thing I know I need to change is the armour (already bought Perfect Form, but still trying to 6L - cant buy it).

Thanks!

"

- Mule Marauder (Breaking some Eggs) for molten shell, steelskin, ancient protector and/or decoy totem

It allows you to skip the library in act 3 as you skip malevolence anyways with triple heralds. Unlocking gems is faster in Act 6.

Wouldn´t recommend that. Not going too much into race mode here but it is another 4 Minutes you would need to spend after we did one mule already. Additionally, and that is actually my main point: no reason to.

As we are mainly focussed on green sockets early on we will be wearing mostly evasion focussed gear. So nearly no armor means no use of molten shell. Going along with that, steel skin isn´t that helpful as well. It is in my humble opinion just not worth the additional time. Not that it matters though, we are talking about 4 minutes. If you wanna do it, do it. I much rather be at the ledge in the same time ;-)

"

Anyone could look my profile and give me some help about WHERE to improve?
I can barely handle T5~ T6 maps =(
Attack speed not so great.

The only thing I know I need to change is the armour (already bought Perfect Form, but still trying to 6L - cant buy it).

Thanks!

Dude, not to be rude here, but did u even read the guide? You are completely missing the defensive concept.

First of all your Jade flask does not have the %-increase of evasion. Then you skipped like ALL block nodes in the tree and went full damage, and you allocated the claw-crit nodes instead of something for survival or block. On top of that u took Acrobatics. Fine, I get that since you have not allocated Iron Reflexes yet. But that makes the last point questionable as well: Your molten shell is Level 3 and therefore does nothing for you. Go back and read the whole guide or at least the explanation of the defensive concept again. Thanks.