[2.2] The Crimson Viper - Gladiator, Budget, Bleed, Bloodlust & Poison

The Concept:

TL;DR Version: Everything bleeds, gets poisoned, maimed, flees and then explodes three times.

I built this around the new unique claw, Rive. Rive causes every hit to cause bleeding and has a chance to cause bleeding enemies to Flee. Moving and fleeing enemies take 50% extra damage from bleed, as per the debuff, damage which a pair of Rives is already scaling up considerably. To capitalize on this, we use a ranged attack, Spectral Throw, to spread bleeding to entire packs of enemies and also use Snakebite to apply poison to everything. Gladiator has plenty of lovely ways make bleeding so much worse, including maim, extra damage and Gratuitous Violence, which makes enemies explode for 10% of their maximum life damage. Combined with Abyssal Cry and Herald of Ash, each enemy damages it's neighbors with three explosions dealing fire, physical and chaos damage, all of which we're scaling with physical / increased damage over time from the tree and uniques. This helps considerably in boss fights with "adds". Survivors are focused down with a bloodlust-supported single-target Viper Strike for huge damage.

Key Uniques:


Combat Cadence is:
Curse with Vulnerability -> Throw one Spectral Throw salvo -> Abyssal Cry, Whirling Blades to the next pack (Activating Fortify) -> Repeat. Bloodlusted Viper strike for single target.

Defenses:
Grace, high mobility, CWDT immortal call, fortify, endurance charges, good evasion, armor, and decent block. Basically, melee defenses with ranged game-play.

Looks like a neat build! I'm interested to hear how it plays out with endgame content.

Seems awesome, i'll definitely test this one! Did u have a "safe" version of this build? It works w/ 1 Rive + Shield? Im playing HC Perandus, and i don't like not using shield.

*suggestion*

Maybe an Leveling tab too?

"

Midas_ wrote:

Seems awesome, i'll definitely test this one! Did u have a "safe" version of this build? It works w/ 1 Rive + Shield? Im playing HC Perandus, and i don't like not using shield.

*suggestion*

Maybe an Leveling tab too?

I think it would work well. The choice to make this DW was based on me originally planning to take the DW node in the Gladiator tree, which reward you with frenzy and endurance charges. Decided I wanted to keep blood rage and Daresso's, meaning I didn't need those nodes. The major consideration to taking a shield is not the loss of attack speed, but the loss of two Rives scaling bleed damage from your dex.

"

Midas_ wrote:

Seems awesome, i'll definitely test this one! Did u have a "safe" version of this build? It works w/ 1 Rive + Shield? Im playing HC Perandus, and i don't like not using shield.

*suggestion*

Maybe an Leveling tab too?

As for leveling, I think perhaps buy everything near the start except for the frenzy charge. Once you get to herbalism, go straight for the big Claw Wheel.

What about running two sets of spectral throw and linking GMP, Spec throw, curse on hit, and vulnerability?

Also, would a whither spell totem help viper strike single target?

How much life do you have?

Any updates on this build? It looks interesting. Someone else asked about how much HP you have and I'm interested in this as well. Have you gotten into higher level maps? How did you level before attaining the level for those specific uniques? How well do you do against some of the tougher bosses? Doesn't look like you have the survivability to effectively face tank some of the harder bosses. Thanks

"

verticalrockrat wrote:

Any updates on this build? It looks interesting. Someone else asked about how much HP you have and I'm interested in this as well. Have you gotten into higher level maps? How did you level before attaining the level for those specific uniques? How well do you do against some of the tougher bosses? Doesn't look like you have the survivability to effectively face tank some of the harder bosses. Thanks

-I have 3500 HP at level 75, but I'm missing a number of nodes compared to the tree I submitted. While I agree it's too low in any case, also consider the character is usually at a range, very mobile, and has plenty more defenses than your average ranged character. (I listed the defenses in the pros)

-I didn't play into higher level maps as I started a new character.

-You don't need to change anything to level, the build is consistently powerful while leveling. I personally grabbed the bloodletting cluster to the left and dirty techniques as soon as I ascended.

-It doesn't have to face tank, but I hear you. I bleed, apply a few stacks and exit said face. I can't speak for the harder map bosses. It did fine againt Merc Izaro, if that means anything.

Hi, I think this is a pretty cool build! I'm wondering if there would be a better skill to use than Viper Strike, since you're already getting guaranteed Poison from Snakebite. Sunder seems like the best one, but then you'd need to use something like a Varunastra or even Rigwald's Savagery (in std league) in the main-hand. Then you just Spectral Throw and/or Riposte for bleed, and sunder to clear packs.

Another idea would be to replace Vulnerability with Projectile Weakness and exclusively use Spectral Throw. They give basically the same damage multiplier (since Projectile Damage also multiplies DoT damage from projectiles), but Proj Weak also has knockback, which seems really good with Gladiator's Maim, very safe. (example tree for Spec Throw idea).