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Venom Gyre Berserker Build - Path of Exile 3.24

23.04.2024 - 15:30:02
Game Guides , Path of Exile , POE build guides

When you talk about builds that utilize projectile skills in Path of Exile, you would normally think about the Deadeye, Pathfinder, or Inquisitor, right? However, did you know that the Berserker can be used for projectile builds as well?

The Venom Gyre Berserker is one of the best in PoE in terms of map-clearing speed and boss-killing potential. What makes this stand out is that it grows exponentially stronger the more currency you invest in it. To be honest, the only ceiling here is how far you can stack the Strength attribute and that’s it!

So, if you have tons of currency lying around and you would like to try a new build that hits fast and hard, then read on! This is our comprehensive build guide for the Venom Gyre Berserker in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League!

Basics

The Venom Gyre Berserker is a build in Path of Exile that stacks a ton of Strength and, therefore, is not a league starter. That is because it requires some pieces of gear that are normally sold at exorbitant prices. One of the things that you will need in this build is the Replica Alberon’s Warpath – a unique pair of boots that provide you with added chaos damage per 80 STR.

The next piece of gear you need to get your hands on is the Redblade Banner. This shield boosts your warcries to provide you with only their maximum effects when they are used. Speaking of which, you will be using Battlemage’s Cry for this build to boost your critical strike chance and attack damage.

Battlemage’s Cry is an interesting skill in PoE because any increases in spell damage also apply to attacks. This means that you just scale STR and spell damage as high as you can to deal incredible amounts of damage. And, thanks to the unique shield mentioned above, you will always get the maximum benefit of this warcry.

Now for the bread and butter of this build, you will be using Vaal Venom Gyre. This is a skill gem in PoE that allows you to throw multiple projectiles on a single cast. What’s more, these projectiles return to you whenever they have reached their maximum travel distance, thus damaging your opponents the second time.

Venom Gyre has a cool interaction with another skill gem, Whirling Blades. Whenever you have accrued the maximum number of returning projectiles (default 40, 50 for Vaal), you can throw them away using Whirling Blades for that “shotgun” effect, dealing huge burst damage to nearby monsters.

When the going gets tough, you can use the “Vaal” portion of the skill to get even more returning projectiles that you can use to decimate any monster foolish enough to come your way.

The item and skill interactions of this build are what make the Venom Gyre Berserker so much fun to use! The only downside here is that this is quite an expensive one to put up, so it is only feasible at least a couple of weeks after the start of a new league, when you have gained enough PoE currency to invest in it.

In the endgame, you can get a couple of synthesized rings and a Mageblood as your next-level upgrades. The full list of items that you need for the Venom Gyre Berserker to work will be outlined in the gear section of this build guide.

Anyway, here are the mods that you need to look for to elevate the damage of this build even further:

Added Physical Damage
Added Chaos Damage
Chaos Damage Penetration
Increased Spell Damage
Increased Attack Speed
Increased Critical Strike Multiplier

Playstyle

There are some things that you need to do in order to achieve the full damage potential of the Venom Gyre Berserker. The most important change in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League is that Battlemage’s Cry can no longer be bound on the left mouse button. This means that you will either set it to a different hotkey or use the new “Call to Arms” support gem to automate its activation.

Anyway, use Whirling Blades to traverse the map quickly in search of huge packs of monsters. Once you encounter a mob, put down your Ancestral Protector totem and use Venom Gyre until you get 40 “returned” projectiles (pay close attention to the counter on the top-left of the UI. Once you have accomplished that, use Whirling Blades to “shotgun” those projectiles for huge amounts of damage! The premise is the same for the “Vaal” version of the skill, so utilize it whenever it is off cooldown.

Ascendancy

While Venom Gyre can be utilized by the Deadeye, this build actually uses the Berserker as the ascendancy class of choice. That is because you will be stacking a lot of STR mods on your gear, which can be enhanced further by the nodes that are available on the Berserker’s ascendancy tree.

That said, War Bringer is a great notable ascendancy passive for the build because it provides you with a considerable amount of Rage if you have less than 25. Conversely, if you have more than 25 Rage and you use Battlemage’s Cry, you will sacrifice 10 points of Rage to gain a 50% damage boost. This node works pretty well when you factor in all of the pieces of gear that you will equip for this build!

The next node you will take is Aspect of Carnage. This simply provides you with a 40% “more” damage multiplier at the cost of 10% increased damage taken. The damage increase is significant because it is calculated multiplicatively instead of additively. Do not worry about the Aspect of Carnage’s downside. You have plenty of life and defenses to mitigate any damage you will take when fighting monsters and bosses in PoE.

Flawless Savagery is aptly named as it improves this build’s killing potential even more. Thanks to this node, you will get a good boost to your crit chance and critical strike multiplier. Besides that, you gain 20 to 30 added physical damage if you have dealt a critical strike recently which, in this case, is every time!

Blitz is your fourth notable ascendancy passive for the Venom Gyre Berserker. This enables you to gain up to 20 Blitz Charges for even more attack speed.

Notable Ascendancy Passives for Venom Gyre Berserker

To get the most out of the Venom Gyre Berserker, you will get Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh jewels with “Undeniable” as the matching modifier. This notable passive skill is from the Juggernaut ascendancy class. What this does is it gives you a significant increase in attack speed based on your accuracy rating. When you comb through the gear section of this build guide, you will learn why this specific node helps elevate the damage of the Venom Gyre Berserker to new heights!

Gear

As previously mentioned, the Venom Gyre Berserker is a pretty expensive build to put up mainly because of some of the items you need to equip. Only go for this build if you are comfortable spending a ton of PoE currency.

Weapon

The claw is one of the most expensive pieces of gear you will equip for the Venom Gyre Berserker. It is a self-crafted Imperial Claw, Gemini Claw, or any Synthesized claw with the veiled modifier, “Attacks with This Weapon Penetrate % Chaos Resistance.” You can refer to our comprehensive crafting guide to learn how to craft this thing yourself.

Due to the mana reservation and mana cost changes implemented in Patch 3.24, you might want to use the Gemini Claw as the crafting base so that you won’t run into any issues with the said resource. Only change this if you have a synthesized weapon.

Venom Gyre Claw

Shield

For this build, the only shield you shall equip is the Redblade Banner. This not only reduces the cooldown of your Battlemage’s Cry significantly, but it also ensures that you get the said warcry’s maximum effect every time you use it.

It also comes with other good mods, including increased armor, flat life, attack block, and increased taunt duration. You can also get one with some useful corrupted implicit modifiers, such as:

% Increased Maximum Life
% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage
You Take % Reduced Damage from Critical Strikes
Grants Level 23 Determination Skill
+1 to Level of Socketed Gems
+1% to Maximum Chance to Block Attack Damage

Redblade Banner

Body Armor

The Iron Fortress is the perfect body armor to use for Strength-stacking builds like the Venom Gyre Berserker. This thing increases your attack block and melee physical damage based on how much STR you have. Although your movement speed is reduced by 10% when you wear this, it is not noticeable at all since you will be using Whirling Blades as your mode of travel.

To maximize the Iron Fortress for the Venom Gyre Berserker, put “Quality Does Not Increase Defenses, Grants +1 to Strength per 2% Quality” from the Harvest Bench.

The Iron Fortress

Helmet

If you only have less than 150 Divine Orbs to work with, you can opt for a self-crafted STR-stacking helmet using the Royal Burgonet as the base. This helmet has the elevated Warlord-influenced modifier, “1% Increased Critical Strike Chance per 10 Strength, Gain Accuracy Rating Equal to Your Strength.”

However, once you have enough PoE currency, you have to transition to a better helmet using the Blizzard Crown as a crafting base. The process of crafting this beautiful helm is lengthy, so please refer to our dedicated crafting guide for more information.

STR-Stacking Blizzard Crown

Gloves

The gloves are another self-crafted piece of equipment you will wear for the Venom Gyre Berserker. Get an item level 85+ Dragonscale Gauntlets and use the Deafening Essence of Zeal (Attack Speed) until you get T1 STR, spell suppression, and some life. Just leave a prefix open so that you can add “(37-43)% Increased Damage While Leeching” from the Crafting Bench.

For the Eldritch implicit modifiers, use a single Grand Eldritch Ember to get a Searing Exarch mod (it can be anything, for now). After that, spam the gloves with Grand Eldritch Ichors until you get “3% Increased Damage per 100 Strength.”

The reason why you need a Searing Exarch mod is so that you can use the Orb of Conflict to elevate the Eater of Worlds implicit (STR mod) until you achieve 4%. You will need a couple of successful tries in order to get the desired result.

Once you have elevated the STR implicit mod from 3% to 4%, spam the gloves again with Grand Eldritch Embers until you get “25% Chance to Intimidate Enemies for 4 Seconds on Hit.”

Self-crafted Gloves

Boots

Replica Alberon’s Warpath is the only boots you should wear for the Venom Gyre Berserker. This pair of unique Soldier Boots provides you with added chaos damage based on your Strength stat. It also grants up to an 18% increase in your Strength, further adding to your total.

The Replica Alberon’s Warpath also gives you an added benefit, where you can run maps with physical or elemental damage-reflect mods without fear. That is thanks to the boots’ unique effect where you cannot deal non-chaos damage.

Replica Alberon's Warpath

Amulet

You have a few different options for the amulet slot. The cheapest option is the Astramentis, which is a unique Onyx Amulet that grants up to 116 to all attributes. You can increase the amount even more by using Intrinsic Catalysts.

When you have enough currency, you can purchase the Eyes of the Greatwolf, specifically one that comes with “% Increased Attributes” and “+% to Critical Strike Multiplier.”

Eyes of the Greatwolf

Alternatively, you can craft an amulet with all of the amazing mods that can benefit the build. Spam an ilvl 85+ Amber Amulet (STR) or Agate Amulet (STR/INT) with the Deafening Essence of Rage until you get “+ to All Attributes” and “+% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier.”

Go to the Crafting Bench and lock suffixes, then use a Veiled Orb. Interact with the Crafting Bench again and put “(+(41-45) to Maximum Life, Regenerate 4 Mana per Second.” Talk to Jun and unveil. Look for the mod, “(23-25)% Increased Projectile Speed, (17-20)% Increased Projectile Damage.”

Replace the crafted mod with, “Non-Channeling Skills Have -7 to Total Mana Cost” and finish the amulet with an Exalted Orb if you still have an open prefix.

The mana cost reduction mod from the Crafting Bench is even more helpful now than in the previous league, especially after the changes GGG has made in the 3.24 Necropolis League concerning mana reservation efficiency and mana cost of skills.

No matter what amulet you end up using, make sure to anoint it with Claws of the Falcon (2x Amber Oil, Golden Oil) for more accuracy and a critical strike multiplier.

Self-crafted Amulet

Rings

The Original Sin is one of the best rings you can wear for the Venom Gyre Berserker. This essentially converts all of your elemental damage to chaos damage, which is why you will also put flat fire/cold/lightning damage mods on some of your equipment. Another reason why this ring is great is that it weakens nearby enemies, reducing their chaos resistance to zero. This allows your Venom Gyre projectiles to deal maximum damage at all times!

Since the Original Sin can only be obtained by completing a “no-hit” Forbidden Sanctum run, the price of this ring is quite high because of it. Be sure to get your hands on this ring as soon as you can because it enables you to make quick work of the enemy!

Original Sin

For the other ring slot, you will wear a self-crafted ring using Deafening Essence of Rage (STR) until you get other desirable mods, such as added elemental damage, life, and chaos resistance. Just leave a prefix slot open so that you can add, “Non-channeling Skills Have -7 to Total Mana Cost.” Do not forget to use Intrinsic Catalysts to improve the attribute modifiers on the ring as well.

Self-crafted Ring

Belt

The cheapest belt you can wear for this build is The Magnate. This thing gives you a 5% chance to deal triple damage and it also provides some Strength and elemental resistances. Because this belt is so cheap, you can corrupt it for a chance to get the mod, “% Increased Strength, % Increased Dexterity/Intelligence.”

The Magnate

For the endgame, you have a couple of viable options. The first is a synthesized belt with “% Increased Strength” as the implicit modifier. You can use this as your crafting base by spamming Deafening Essence of Rage until you get chaos resistance/elemental resistances, some life, and mana for good measure.

Self-crafted Belt (with % Increased Strength Synthesized Implicit Mod)

The other great belt for the Venom Gyre Berserker is, of course, the Mageblood. The Mageblood grants permanent uptime of your four magic utility flasks. This gives you a much easier time addressing the common issues with the build, including mana cost, elemental resistances, and defenses.

Mageblood

Flasks

Granite Flask
Diamond Flask
Quicksilver Flask
Silver Flask
Progenesis (for defense)
Dying Sun/Bottled Faith (for offense)

You will run this build with mostly armor or armor/evasion-based gear, which is why the inclusion of the Granite Flask is a no-brainer. This flask provides you with a sizable boost to your armor, making you more challenging to defeat.

To help you achieve a 100% crit chance, you should also include a Diamond Flask, preferably with the 55% increased critical strike chance modifier. Use Orb of Alteration until you get the said mod.

The Quicksilver Flask is mainly there to help improve your map-clearing speeds. Whirling Blades already makes this build capable of traversing maps quickly, but it does not hurt to take things a step further, don’t you think?

How about the Silver Flask? Since the Replica Alberon’s Warpath is mandatory for the build to function, you do not have the luxury of wearing the Onslaught Boots. For this reason, you should use the Silver Flask to grant you Onslaught – a buff that boosts your attack speed and movement speed by 20%.

For the last flask slot, you have a couple of choices. You can opt for the Progenesis flask to greatly enhance your survivability. On the other hand, if you want pure power, you can go for Bottled Faith. If you do not have the PoE currency to purchase either of them, you can settle with Dying Sun in the meantime.

Flask Mods

60% Increased Armour (of the Armadillo)
55% Increased Critical Strike Chance (of Incision)
20% Additional Elemental Resistances (of the Rainbow)
17% Increased Attack Speed (of the Dove)

Jewels

The Venom Gyre Berserker uses an awful lot of jewels to make the build as powerful as it can be. That is why we’ve put the disclaimer earlier that you will need a ton of PoE currency just to pull this off. To put your mind at ease, each item you add to this build feels like a worthy upgrade, so nothing goes to waste!

This build won’t deal a lot of damage if you do not get the Forbidden Jewels with Undeniable as the matching modifier. This should definitely be one of the first things you should get your hands on when you are starting to put all of the pieces together.

Get a good Watcher’s Eye unique jewel that comes with any of the mods listed below:

Precision

+% to Critical Strike Multiplier
% Increased Attack Speed
% Increased Attack Damage
Gain a Flask Charge When You Deal a Critical Strike

Determination

+% Chance to Block Attack Damage
+ to Armour
% Additional Physical Damage Reduction
You Take % Reduced Extra Damage from Critical Strikes

Purity of Elements

+% to Chaos Resistance
% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage
+% to All Maximum Elemental Resistances

Next on your list should be a couple of Split Personality unique Crimson Jewels, specifically those that come with “+5 to Strength, +40 to Accuracy Rating.” To get the most out of these jewels, you should place them as far from the Marauder’s starting location on the passive tree as possible. This can be done by adding some Large Cluster Jewels.

Speaking of which, you can use up to three ilvl 81+ Large Cluster Jewels (Claw Damage) on this build. Use Harvest Reforge Attack to get Fan of Blades and other useful notable passive skills. Here is a rundown:

Fan of Blades

Attack Skills fire an Additional Projectile While Wielding a Claw or Dagger
20% Increased Projectile Attack Damage with Claws/Daggers

Feed the Fury

0.4% of Attack Damage Leeched as Life
30% Increased Damage While Leeching
15% Increased Attack Speed While Leeching

Fuel the Fight

8% Increased Attack Speed
0.4% of Attack Damage Leeched as Mana
20% Increased Damage While Leeching

Martial Prowess

20% Increased Attack Damage
6% Increased Attack Speed
15% Increased Global Accuracy Rating
20% Increased Damage with Ailments from Attack Skills

Wind-Up

+15% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Claws/Daggers
10% Chance to Gain a Power Charge on Non-Critical Strikes with Claw/Dagger

Lethal Pride provides additional bonuses to the passives in its radius. Since this jewel naturally grants STR bonuses, it is a welcome addition to the build indeed! Now, if you are looking for one, make sure to obtain a Lethal Pride that has any of the following on the notable passives (when socketed near Savagery):

5% Increased Strength
5% Chance to Deal Double Damage
8% Increased Warcry Buff Effect

To maximize any “% Increased Strength” mods that you have, make sure that you have a lot of flat STR as well. Inertia is a unique Crimson Jewel that helps you with that. This transforms all Dexterity nodes in its radius into Strength nodes, giving you a considerable amount of the desired attribute.

To get even more STR, you have the option of purchasing Emperor’s Mastery and Emperor’s Might. These provide you with “% Increased Attributes” and “% Increased Strength,” respectively. Take note that these jewels are not cheap, so you may have to save up or purchase some PoE currency to get your hands on them.

Gems

The gem setups for the Venom Gyre Berserker are pretty straightforward. Each gem that we recommend in this section improves the build depending on the main skill being slotted into every individual piece of gear.

Body Armor

Vaal Venom Gyre
Awakened Void Manipulation
Awakened Fork Support
Volatility Support
Cruelty Support/Increased Critical Strikes Support
Increased Critical Damage Support

Your main attack skill for this build is Vaal Venom Gyre. It is complemented by Awakened Fork Support so that you will gain more returning projectiles each time you use the said skill.

Awakened Void Manipulation, Increased Critical Damage, and Cruelty Support make your Venom Gyre projectiles even more lethal. If you want to achieve a 100% crit chance, you can replace Cruelty Support with Increased Critical Strikes Support.

Volatility Support is an interesting one because it basically increases the damage range of Venom Gyre by a considerable amount. Be sure to corrupt a level 20 Volatility gem for a chance to level it up to 21 for best results.

Helmet

Purity of Elements
Precision (lvl 1)
Determination
Enlighten Support (lvl 4)

Capping your elemental resistances on this build can be a pain, which is why we recommend Purity of Elements. Aside from giving you a hefty amount of elemental resistances, this aura makes you immune to elemental ailments like Chill, Freeze, Shock, and Ignite as well.

Determination gives a considerable boost to your armor and defenses. Armor is amplified by your STR stat, making you quite difficult to defeat.

Precision is just a means of giving you access to good Watcher’s Eye mods. Leave it at level 1 so that you still have enough mana to use your active skills.

A level 4 Enlighten Support just enables you to activate all of these auras without a problem.

Gloves

Molten Shell (lvl 11)
Cast When Damage Taken (Lvl 2)
Blood Rage
Tornado (Lvl 4)

You might be wondering why Tornado is included in the gem setup for the Venom Gyre Berserker. The reason why it’s there is that Tornado acts as a sponge, meaning, you can hit it with your projectiles so long as it is active on the battlefield. Then, the tornado will reflect a portion of the damage it took from your projectiles to nearby monsters for even more damage!

Molten Shell is a popular guard skill in PoE for builds that have innately high STR and armor values.

You do not even need to cast the above-mentioned skills manually since they are both linked to Cast When Damage Taken Support.

Blood Rage, when activated, provides you with a sizable increase in attack speed, which is always a good thing to improve your map-clearing speed.

Boots

Whirling Blades
Power Charge on Critical
Ancestral Protector
Fortify Support

Whirling Blades is mandatory for the Venom Gyre Berserker because it allows you to release the returned projectiles for some burst damage.

Power Charge on Critical provides you with a comfortable and sustainable way to gain Power Charges. Not only that, but this support gem enhances Power Charges to also provide 4% more damage per charge.

Ancestral Protector is a totem that grants even more attack speed. Use it whenever you encounter a tough enemy or boss.

Fortify Support enables you to gain a stackable buff that toughens you up, making you take 1% less damage from hits per stack (maximum of 20).