[1.2.0] AcroBlock BoR Viper Striker

With so many Viper Strike builds out there right now, I wanted to jump in the mix and try and make my own version.

I've always loved Acro characters so I want to go that route. I also want to throw on a bunch of block as well as insane amounts of evasion + Ondar's to really up chance to avoid damage. Since this is supposed to be for Rampage, I want to add in some Move speed where possible to make it really fast moving.

These are the goals I set out for my build.

* Be super evasive and hard to hit. "Tanky" might not be the correct word, but definitely I want to be hard to kill. (CHECK! I feel like a ninja~)
* Be fast. The goal is to have enough move speed to quickly tag things with several stacks and leave them to die as I run to another pack. (CHECK! 60% extra movespeed feels amazing!)
* Be able to solo content in a standard league. I'm not looking to party often with this character or try to survive in a hardcore league. (CHECK! I'm soloing maps with ease and am able to complete virtually every master quest thrown my way.)
* Have fun (CHECK! One of my favorite builds I've played to date.)

This is the 100 point passive tree I've got.



My defense seems to be pretty good.

* 129% life
* 204% evasion rating
* 27% extra block chance
* 40% chance to avoid attacks / 30% spells
* 22% extra move speed (gotta run fast!)

A very nice amount of damage - can even afford to lose some if need be.

* 313% physical damage (any one-hand weapon type)
* 45% damage over time
* 72% attack speed
* 92% accuracy

What I plan to do with extra points.

* Path over to another life cluster - might re-spec into this at a later level.
* A tad more Evasion and/or Accuracy as needed to keep those stats topped off as I level.

These are the uniques I'm using.

* Bringer of Rain (block, free gems, cheap, etc.)
* Stone of Laz (giving up a lot of stats, the huge spell block is worth it and the int roll and mana roll re also key to the build)
* Atziri's Step (extra 14-16% spell block, decent hp/eva, amazing move speed)
* Atziri's Promise (why not?)

This is what I've got on my other slots.

* 2% mana leech on a ring to sustain viper strike.
* -8 mana cost of skills on the other to sustain viper strike.
* Huge amounts of eva on shield.
* Good attack speed roll on glove.
* A fast, phys damage foil.

This is what I'm doing with my gems/links.

* Bringer of Rain -> Viper Strike + Added Fire Damage + Melee Splash + Multistrike
- Against tougher bosses, Melee Splash can be swapped out for Increased Duration.

* 3L -> Reduced Mana + Two Auras (Grace/Haste/Hatred)
- Grace against heavy physical maps, otherwise Haste/Hatred always.

* 3L -> Faster Attack + Leap Slam + Blood Magic
- Jump around. Blood Magic makes sure I don't empty the small mana pool I have.

* 4L -> CWDT + Temp Chains + Arctic Breath + GMP
- Stacking the chill of Arctic Breath with the effects of Temp Chains for my hit-and-run strategy.

* 4L -> Vaal Haste + Increased Duration + Increased AoE + Vulnerability
- My steroids. Vaal Haste + Vulnerability will be a massive increase in damage for hard bosses/rares/packs/etc. Vuln will be cast off the tiny bit of mana I have left over as I don't need to use it often.

These are the bandits I killed.

* Life > Phys Dmg > Skill Point

> > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >


How The Build Is Working Out

As of level 79...

Currently, I am sitting at 9k tooltip dps (I am 90% sure this does NOT include the DoT damage due to the random nature of the DoT) with a 180 PDPS foil. If I upgrade to a 250+ PDPS foil, I expect my damage to skyrocket. As is, I am clearing early 70 maps quite fast.

My life is only around 3.4k with 8% more life to grab on the tree and several important item slots with low life rolls. My evasion is sitting at 47% (with only a 500 Ev shield; looking to upgrade to a 1k+ soon) and my block is 67%.

Compared to Dual Strike + Melee Splash, I find this character to be almost just a straight upgrade. My Viper Striker currently feels about as strong as my Dual Striker did with two near 300 PDPS swords. It is a different play-style, in that if you are not taking advantage of your DoT damage, you won't feel the strength of or probably enjoy the build.

For Rampage, I find this character to be excellent at getting high tiers and keeping the stacks going. If you go as fast as you can and really stretch the DoTs, things off-screen are constantly dying while you are running to find new things to kill. It's glorious.

The average play-style I've adopted goes something like this:

* White Packs / "Weaker" Magic Packs: Just mow them down like you're a blender build.
* "Stronger" Magic Packs: Stack up roughly 3~6 DoTs and move on to a nearby pack.
* Rares: Get them down to about half life and then move on to a nearby pack.
* Bosses: Go full ham! Curse! Vaal Haste! Swap out Melee Splash! DIE DIE DIE!

I almost exclusively solo with this character. As a very up close, melee character with such high move speed, it feels tailored towards solo content. I've found it a bit awkward in groups with high ranged spell casters - very different play styles - and just groups in general. I move at a different pace (with 60% extra move speed...literally) than everyone else. That said, when targets are not being killed instantly, you can really get your DoT stacks going. This can be kind of nice, though it does mean that you are often not able to just leave and find other things to kill. Overall, I just have more fun soloing with this character.

I have to say, I think this build is a great success. This is, of course, only relative to the other builds I have played. I feel strong both in DPS and survivability with very sub-optimal gear and not a lot of currency put into the character. As a first character in a new league, I got a little lucky and was able to afford my BoR around the same time I could equip it. I would recommend this character to new players as a solid second character on a league once you've built up some currency, or as a first character to an experienced player who is confidant in making currency.

Hey, I've been interested in making a Viper Strike build, but I've never used a dodge build so I'm a little apprehensive about that.

I've been looking around for different Viper Strike builds and this is like the only one I've seen

EDIT: Also, with the curse nerf, I don't thing having curses in CWDT is as worth it as it used to be, but either way, enfeeble is better than temp chains for the job, especially since this is a dodge build (Enfeeble lowers chance to hit).

I think a good CWDT link would be something like CWDT>Enduring Cry>Immortal Call>
and for the fourth link, either increased duration or Molten Shell/decoy totem/enfeeble

If you couldn't think of another 4L, you could even run a second CWDT link with Molten Shell, Increased duration, decoy totem, enfeeble, or just put a rarity/quantity culling strike link in it

I think daggers would be good best, because you might be able to take advantage of the Adder's touch notable (Enemies poisoned on crit) or maybe even a Bino's Kitchen Knife.

You put "Rustic Sash with high resists" as something that is recommended, a physical Doryani's Invitation would probably be good to pick up. though, this is a low phys damage roll (20-30%)

Lastly, Hatred would be better than Haste.

"

SkuIIunit wrote:

Hey, I've been interested in making a Viper Strike build, but I've never used a dodge build so I'm a little apprehensive about that.

I've been looking around for different Viper Strike builds and this is like the only one I've seen

EDIT: Also, with the curse nerf, I don't thing having curses in CWDT is as worth it as it used to be, but either way, enfeeble is better than temp chains for the job, especially since this is a dodge build (Enfeeble lowers chance to hit).

I think a good CWDT link would be something like CWDT>Enduring Cry>Immortal Call>
and for the fourth link, either increased duration or Molten Shell/decoy totem/enfeeble

If you couldn't think of another 4L, you could even run a second CWDT link with Molten Shell, Increased duration, decoy totem, enfeeble, or just put a rarity/quantity culling strike link in it

I think daggers would be good best, because you might be able to take advantage of the Adder's touch notable (Enemies poisoned on crit) or maybe even a Bino's Kitchen Knife.

You put "Rustic Sash with high resists" as something that is recommended, a physical Doryani's Invitation would probably be good to pick up.

Spoiler

though, this is a low phys damage roll (20-30%)

Lastly, Hatred would be better than Haste.

Dodge builds feel so good when you get enough evasion and block behind it. I think you'll like it!

As for the ideas, I think I'll end up trying both enfeeble and temp. I heard enfeeble got a decent nerf on top of the curse nerfs, so that is why I went temp chains. It's also pretty much the same effect to cause the enemy to hit you less than to have a chance to not hit you. One might be better, true, but I've always liked the slow to temp chains and it's easier to get a green socket on pure eva gear, heh.

I'm not running crit, so Adder's touch won't be of too much use, sadly. Also, it does not add as much damage as one might think since it can't stack with itself. And Bino is going to be far out of my price range - especially in a shoter, 3 month league. Should be a good dagger for this if you can afford one, though.

I debated about Hatred. I might actually run Hatred/Haste if I feel my base evasion is good enough. But between the two, I think I prefer the attack speed and move speed of Haste. With all the nodes tied up in DoT and chaos damage, my goal is to attack as much as possible to get as many ticks of viper strike up as possible. Hated does not help with the DoT at all. Also, I wanna run fast!

I think I'll go with that belt you linked, though. I forgot the phys one had tri-res. No life, but since my other uniques both have some, I think I'm safe without. Will update with that!

EDIT: After some reading, it looks like the DoT is based on total damage not just physical, so Hatred should help out a lot. I might ditch Grace, then, as I might end up with so much evasion that I'm wasting a lot of it anyways.

I've updated my gems and added some explanations. I've also added in Stone of Laz to my uniques because I think I need the spell block, even if I give up any damage, life or resists I could get from that slot.

I have been leveling a viper strike build also. My tree is quite different though. How is yours working out so far? :D

"

atheyd wrote:

I have been leveling a viper strike build also. My tree is quite different though. How is yours working out so far? :D

Still leveling EK at the moment. I've mostly taken health and phys damage so far and only been using VS for bosses. Not sure when I will switch over.

Have you been leveling with VS? Hows it been?

Yeah I have been leveling VS with melee splash for packs along with fire trap ans ass mark. It is clearing pretty well, I found a mightflay though so that has helped. Currently only lvl 42 in cruel act 2. I went more damage nodes though and not as many defences. I am not sure how well I will hold up once I get to the end of Act 3.

I'm currently at Cruel Ledge just farming some levels. Running Viper Strike > Multistrike > Faster Attacks > Melee Splash (18% quality). It's going decently.

I took Mind Drinker for leveling. So far, that + a low level clarity are enough to keep my mana up. I may try and run the final build off mana now and use Added Chaos over Blood Magic. We will see, though!

Hey!

I've been looking at making a similar build myself. My tree does look a bit different though, as I took more phys damage nodes instead of the chaos damage nodes.

At first glance at least it'd seem that scaling the phys damage would be better, since all of the chaos damage is directly derived from it anyways, and since the primary hits will still make up a good portion of the damage. Have you done any more in-depth calculations to determine the value of the chaos dmg nodes vs just more phys nodes?

As for the Viper Strike gems, I fully agree that Mind Drinker seems to be the better option (and/or possibly Revelry), and replacing Blood Magic. The same basic question somewhat crops up there. Increasing the chaos damage via Added Chaos is a nice idea, but would perhaps Increased Duration do the job just as well? At 20/20 it'd increase the duration of the DoT by 74%, increasing the poison DoT from 175% of the basic attack damage to 304% of the base attack, which seems as if it'd clearly outperform Added Chaos, assuming things live long enough for the full DoT to run its course.

You might very well might be right that your choices there are better, I am just curious to understand why that'd be. :)

Either way, the basic idea of the build does look like a hoot, and I can't wait to get my items and gems collected to where I can spec up one of my old characters for it. :)

Cheers!

Hey Appleheart!

Scaling Phys does seem a better option in many cases as and I have been looking to see if I can sneak a bit more raw phys into the build. Those DoT/Chaos nodes, though, are all so close together and require so little extra pathing. It's hard to get the same "bang for my buck" from general, non-weapon specific phys nodes.

And from leveling, my DoT's have actually being doing a LOT of the work. My general strategy is to hit a pack for 1-2 seconds and then rush to the next. This leaves about 2~4 DoTs on each target and they promptly die while I'm busy somewhere else doing the same thing to other mobs. So if my initial hits are a bit lacking, I don't mind so much.

This is why I'm scaling the DoT. But more than that, I'm trying to scale the Chaos. This is why I think I want to run Added Chaos. Any % Chaos gets applied to: 1) The raw 10% phys-to-chaos 2) The flat chaos from the gem - this then translates to a bigger initial hit that then boosts the damage of the DoT that is THEN boosted by the % Chaos as well. Double dipping! It's fun!

Increased Duration is a wonderful boss-killing gem and I might actually try that over Added Fire for a melee splash swap-out on hard bosses. I'm not sure why I didn't think to put it in as an option - Added Fire is a little garbage for my build anyways. I'll have to add that into my post. On packs, it's like you said, things just don't live long enough to see the DoT through. It could be a decent plan depending on your build, though. If you lack damage, I think it would be the best option.

...all that said, do your build the way you had planned and see how it goes! I'd be interested to see how a pure raw phys viper strike works out. I think it might be better clear speed over-all, but who knows at this point.