[2.2] NeverSink's 20-Arrow Poison Animator - "The Venomancer" ☠ + Video Guide

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Zippinbolts12 wrote:
I'm planning on running this build and I am confused why we run snake bite instead of the actual Poison support gem. Is it okay to use the gem to level with?


Snakebite allows you to remove the poison gem from your links, so you can use another support to boost your damage, and in turn poison damage. The attack speed on them also helps stack more poison.

Poison gem would be fine to level though.
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Zippinbolts12 wrote:
I'm planning on running this build and I am confused why we run snake bite instead of the actual Poison support gem. Is it okay to use the gem to level with?


The (up to) 6 gems we link into our armor are:

Barrage - our base attack, we can't replace this
Added Chaos damage - massive base damage boost, absolutely required
Pierce - double dips and provides utility, no way around
Void manipulation - double dips and provides some massive damage
Culling strike - 10% more damage (indirectly), utility, double dips, strong quality bonus, very important
Slower Projectiles - double diping damage bonus

As you see we kind of need every single gem. We're also non-crit, so we don't need maligaros or S&D as our gloves. That's why running snakebites is quite a good choice.
Please don't PM me ingame with filter/guide questions, post them on the forum, after reading the FAQ.
So I just got to the point a few days back where I could actually play this build as it was meant to be played (started this up as my second character), and I just wanted to drop in and say... holy hell is this build fun. I play PoE pretty casually, so haven't really played more than 4, maybe 5 builds tops, but so far this is absolutely my favorite. Fast, chaotic, visually pleasing, always something to do. Really enjoying it.

I still haven't had the chance to finish up merciless labyrinth, so I'm expecting a nice boost there, and I also need to optimize my gemming a bit (still haven't bothered to pick up vaal haste), but even with those things considered and my lack of levels I still feel really solid.

Gear is linked in the spoiler below if anyone is curious - I'm also always open to recommendations if anyone has has any!

Spoiler


I also have a couple jewels in non-barrage slots:

11% DoT
16% Phys Dmg
10% Projectile Dmg

10% DoT
14% Phys Dmg
9% Chaos Dmg
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zeralith wrote:
So I just got to the point a few days back where I could actually play this build as it was meant to be played (started this up as my second character), and I just wanted to drop in and say... holy hell is this build fun. I play PoE pretty casually, so haven't really played more than 4, maybe 5 builds tops, but so far this is absolutely my favorite. Fast, chaotic, visually pleasing, always something to do. Really enjoying it.

I still haven't had the chance to finish up merciless labyrinth, so I'm expecting a nice boost there, and I also need to optimize my gemming a bit (still haven't bothered to pick up vaal haste), but even with those things considered and my lack of levels I still feel really solid.

Gear is linked in the spoiler below if anyone is curious - I'm also always open to recommendations if anyone has has any!

Spoiler


I also have a couple jewels in non-barrage slots:

11% DoT
16% Phys Dmg
10% Projectile Dmg

10% DoT
14% Phys Dmg
9% Chaos Dmg


I'm glad you're enjoying it.

You can also look for a corrupted drillneck. Even a chaos damage drillneck is better than a uncorrupted one, since we get 100% pierce chance from pierce+ascendancy class alone.
Please don't PM me ingame with filter/guide questions, post them on the forum, after reading the FAQ.
Are there any potential replacements for Animate Weapon if we don't want to sacrifice the 6S weapons?
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gravei wrote:
Are there any potential replacements for Animate Weapon if we don't want to sacrifice the 6S weapons?


Not really. The sacrifice is not too massive though.

It'll only touch normal quality melee weapon 6socs from trash (boxes/bosses are usually not affected). It'll maybe reduce your jeweler income by 10-20%. No big deal
Please don't PM me ingame with filter/guide questions, post them on the forum, after reading the FAQ.
Just wanted to say thanks, Neversink. I have played an elemental based Null's character before, and loved it. This is a great alternative and the increased damage is fantastic.
The dps on this build is INSANE and so much fun to play. I actually killed phase 1 merciless dominus while levelling, before he cast a spell (put down a totem, lightning warped away, then transitioned into p2). Don't be fooled by the tooltip dps - if you play the build right it destroys health bars.

@Neversink, I have found a slight tree optimization. At the jewel socket south of Acrobatics, there is a extra dex point allocated. I know this is necessary because we need 50 dex for volley fire to activate, but if you take the Acuity cluster, you can free up 2 +10 dex nodes. So for one point over the current tree, you get the following changes:

+9% Attack Speed
+36% increased Accuracy Rating
(no change to dex)

This is the altered tree link.

Thanks for answering my questions ingame, and thanks for an awesome build!
I've got a couple questions:

If I have a 5S 5L nulls should I use it over a 6S 4L+2L nulls? Is it mostly a qol thing to be auto casting the flesh offering in socket 6, or does manually casting it have too much of a DPS opportunity cost?

While using Drillneck is it worth grabbing some of the proj damage + pierce nodes near Fatal Toxins in order to stay near 100% pierce while dropping the pierce gem in favor of a utility gem like Blind with the Deadeye ascendancy?

If you were to drop the pierce gem would it be better to replace it with slower proj, rapid decay or blind?
Last edited by snippycarcass on Apr 5, 2016, 11:59:11 PM
Also do you think the lightning golem will be a superior choice to fire?

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