Chaos Acolyte [Poison Arrow, Viper Strike, Shock] [IR/EB/MoM/AA] Potential 1.2.0 Tree in Latest Post

Well I definitely recommend trying out a Chaos degeneration build. With the way this one works, I find its playstyle and equipment setup to be completely unique and a lot of fun. At the moment it's really the only character I play.

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Perfect_micro_skillz wrote:

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Degeneration cannot inflict Shock because technically it doesn't hit, and the initial hits of the skills are too weak to inflict Shock anyways. It'd be better to use a bow that provides +1 to Gems and +2 to Bow Gems, as those 3 extra levels provide an additional 352 Chaos damage per second (from 676.5 to 1028.5). It is also already quite easy to inflict and proliferate Shock on enemies with Shock Nova or Arc.

Ah okay. I still kinda wanna make a chaos degen build and try out that bow.

I'd suggest just not combining them, the bow doesn't help chaos degen, and chaos degen doesn't really use the benefits of the bow

I have a +2 melee gems claw. Now all I need is a +2 or +3 bow. And the time to make the character.

In other words, expect me to post about my experiences in something like 3 months' time.

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Kirielis wrote:

I have a +2 melee gems claw. Now all I need is a +2 or +3 bow. And the time to make the character.

In other words, expect me to post about my experiences in something like 3 months' time.

I'd suggest just starting it. You'll find it does fairly well without the + bonus's, and a silverbranch is doing fine for me with the +1

I got Question that might be stupid.
Do u need to run and keep switchin between weapons when using this Build?
Im currently lvl 33 and having a lot of fun though.

Got a +2 silverbranch actually

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PietyPiety wrote:

I got Question that might be stupid.
Do u need to run and keep switchin between weapons when using this Build?
Im currently lvl 33 and having a lot of fun though.

Yep. Alternating between weapon sets is what makes this build work, because it's the only way one can use both Viper Strike and Poison Arrow.

Also, you know what they say: no question is stupid. If you have any other problems, feel free to post them. It's good to know you're having fun!

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Kirielis wrote:

I have a +2 melee gems claw. Now all I need is a +2 or +3 bow. And the time to make the character.

In other words, expect me to post about my experiences in something like 3 months' time.

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Kirielis wrote:

Got a +2 silverbranch actually

Nice man! I'd definitely like to hear what you think of it when you get the chance. And nice work getting a +2 Silverbranch-- probably my favorite leveling weapon. :p

Good luck with your characters, you two.

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Alright, so now I'll take a second to talk about my concerns with the future of this build. Believe it or not, I think Voltaxic Rift may have moved us further from getting Chaos resistance penetration/reduction in any way in the future.

The reason being that one of its main drawbacks is that although you can completely rid of reflected damage, you have to deal with humanoid enemies' Chaos resistances. If Chaos penetration is introduced it'd simply negate that problem and the bow will become full-on faceroll, and I'm sure GGG doesn't want that happening.

Stack that problem on top of how Chaos Inoculation's immunity seems to be just setting one's Chaos resistance to 100%, it doesn't seem like we'll be seeing Chaos resistance penetration/reduction skills/supports any time soon.

I got another question.
Im at Cruel A1 right now and my dmg isnt that high. I surely can kill them after kiting and spamming poison arrow but is it really supposed to be like this? Am i missing out something?

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PietyPiety wrote:

I got another question.
Im at Cruel A1 right now and my dmg isnt that high. I surely can kill them after kiting and spamming poison arrow but is it really supposed to be like this? Am i missing out something?

It sounds like you're not using a bow that provides additional gem levels. Even just one more level means a lot in the case of Poison Arrow. You should also try and make use of Viper Strike against even normal enemies. Also, have you been using Vulnerability?

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PietyPiety wrote:

I got another question.
Im at Cruel A1 right now and my dmg isnt that high. I surely can kill them after kiting and spamming poison arrow but is it really supposed to be like this? Am i missing out something?

I found a1 cruel was the slowest point, had a +1 bow, but it picks up faster and faster later on.

Also its easy to get overlevelled which actually makes your damage much less than other builds