Viper Strike

No love for Viper Strike in this patch. They even bumped up the DoT of poison arrow!!

the gear is by no means complete.

making viperstrike as main skill is close to impossible. The damage just doesnt work well enough. Most issue was making it work vs chaos res mobs. almost every build has a way to get past resistances, but viper strike just doesnt. The damage is OK'ish on lvl 70 maps, but doesnt do anything vs chaos resistance. Really looking forward if GGG has any ideas to make viperstrike even bit more snappy. Getting 2x le heups and 2x binos to get even a tiny bit more dps seems like a waste of currency. Even tho im playing softcore, you cant even make Viper Strike viable there. kinda silly.

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Islidox wrote:

I suppose the major problem with Viper Strike is the over abundance of chaos-resistant enemies in the game. Bandits, gemlings, and certain snakes are chaos-resistant and they appear in abundance in maps. (I'm sure there's more chaos-rez mobs; I just can't remember off the top of my head.)

I agree with that. Act 3 is particularly bad. From what I can tell:

Humans and ghosts in act 1. 9 areas in act 1 have no chaos resistant mobs.

Bandits and snakes in act 2. 7 areas in act 2 have no chaos resistant mobs, ignoring Weaver.

Snakes, statues, ghosts, and gemlings in act 3. 2 areas in act 3 have no chaos resistant mobs: City of Sarn and Barracks. 3 if you ignore the statues in battlefront, which are easily avoided and make up only a small fraction of the area's population.

Edit: Lunaris might have no chaos-resistant mobs too.

It was hard to find a good place to grind in act 3 using VS. Docks, Catacombs, and Library, which are the best places, all have lots of chaos-resistant mobs.

I agree monsters should not be so resistant to chaos damage save a few bosses. Otherwise a skill like this and other chaos damage skills kinda suck compared to other damage types.

Question/Suggestion - Why does the Viper Strike tool tip not have the accurate DoT? Shouldn't the calculation be just as easy as the one listed for Fire Trap's burning damage? You could just change the wording to be "XXX DoT Per Viper Strike Charge", problem solved.

Bit of a update.

My thoughts after getting the gear I want? Viper Strike is a viable build. It's expensive to get it set up right, but is very viable in solo or party play, even with chaos-rez mobs. If you can stack high MF, that's even better for party play.

The key things needed are these:
1. Bino's Kitchen Knife
2. lvl20 Viper Strike (quality if possible)
3. lvl 2/3 Empower
4. All DoT/chaos dmg passives

The rest of the tree is really spent on defense, some mana-passives, and attack speed.

Current build at lvl 85

Gear


Viper Strike DoT dmg calculations: (VSD)
- 289.5 at lvl 20, 324.1 at lvl 21 w/ lvl 2 Empower.
> 324.1 * [1 + 1.62 (from passives) + .22 (from Culling Strike) + .30 (from Bino's)]
> = 1017.674 DoT dmg per charge, x4 VScharges = 4070.696

With Vulnerability: (VSDwV)
> 324.1 * [1 + 1.62 (from passives) + .22 (from Culling Strike) + .30 (from Bino's)] * 1.40 (from Vulnerability)
> = 1424.744 DoT dmg per charge, x4 VScharges = 5698.974
***Vulnerability is multiplicative with VS, and additive with Shock

Calculating Melee Splash effects: MSplash @ lvl 20
> VSD/wV * (1-.16) for single target
> VSD/wV * (1-.31) for AoE

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Vipermagi wrote:

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Islidox wrote:

***Vulnerability is an additive source of dmg, not multiplicative

It's additive, yes, but it applies to Damage Taken, not Damage Dealt. :) It stacks additively with Shock (also Increased Damage Taken), multiplicatively with Increased Damage (applies to different value).

Oh snap, a wild Vipermagi appears!

So in effect, Vulnerability acts like a 1.4x damage multiplier with VS, and it is additive with Shock. Guess I gotta change my calculations for MOAR DEEPS, thanks for the FYI.

you can use a high str build with doon cuebiyari mainhand and +3 offhand to give a 100%+ increase to viper strike

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Reidan wrote:

you can use a high str build with doon cuebiyari mainhand and +3 offhand to give a 100%+ increase to viper strike

You could, but then you lose out on making VS a viable AoE skill.

The way I see it, VS has the best setup in 2 ways:
1. 5L/6L sword with +# lvls to skill gems and decent AS
2. Bino's Kitchen Knife with 5L/6L

Anything else, you're losing out on making the AoE dmg good. Plus, a high str build means forsaking the Int/Dex part of the tree where most of the DoT/chaos dmg clusters are located at.

If the enemy is killed by the DoT, does it trigger CoMK?