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Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder - Path of Exile 3.24

23.04.2024 - 15:32:19
Game Guides , Path of Exile , POE build guides

Path of Exile players typically shy away from builds that rely on damage over time mechanics. That is because these builds slay enemies slower than those that utilize more active, direct damage-dealing skills. However, that notion is about to be quashed with the build that we are going to talk about in this guide.

The Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder has established itself as one of the best poison builds in PoE. This is largely thanks to the Transfigured Gem, Viper Strike of the Mamba. If you want to kill enemies swiftly with potent poison damage, then this is a build that we can wholeheartedly recommend.

Without further ado, this is our comprehensive build guide for the Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League!

Basics

The Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder is an amazing build that utilizes extreme poison damage to deal with the enemy. As you can tell by the name, this build uses the transfigured version of Viper Strike.

Unlike the original, the Viper Strike of the Mamba deals more poison damage. Additionally, this skill does not have a dual-wielding penalty, which means that you can utilize a couple of one-handed weapons to great effect.

While all of that seems great, however, the downside is that it is not able to stack poisons on monsters that already have the said status effect. This means that it only inflicts poison on an enemy once and that is it.

Normally, that is concerning because part of what makes poison damage in PoE so potent is its ability to stack multiple times on a single target. But, that can easily be rectified by utilizing certain mechanics.

For one, the Pathfinder’s “Master Toxicist” node allows you to deal 100% more damage during any flask’s effect. This is further compounded by a Medium Cluster Jewel notable passive skill called “Low Tolerance.” These will be discussed in greater detail in the later sections of the build guide, so do read this to completion.

Now, there is a huge change in one of the mechanics of this build in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League. You see, the Wildwood Ascendancies have been removed from the game. Although they might come back at some point, you no longer have access to the Poisonberry Tincture as a result.

Because of this, you no longer equip a couple of Rebuke of the Vaal unique weapons. Instead, you will replace them with self-crafted claws that deal insane amounts of damage.

Equipping the self-crafted claws solves two things. First, they allow you to take advantage of the physical-to-chaos damage conversion that is inherent in the Viper Strike of the Mamba skill gem. Second, it helps you address the mana issues you may encounter with the adjustments Grinding Gear Games has made in Patch 3.24.

This build is surprisingly tanky, with plenty of avenues to use gear that converts the physical damage you take into elemental damage. Some of the Pathfinder’s nodes also help with survivability, so you see why it is the preferred ascendancy class for this build.

As to the budget that is required to put this build up, we would say that you need at least 20 Divines to get the necessary pieces. Of course, you have the option to buy more expensive items if you want to take things to the next level. Each upgrade you get is worthwhile, so putting PoE currency into this build makes it feel so much better to play for sure!

Playstyle

The Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder is a pretty fast build that allows you to zoom around the map to kill enemies efficiently.

Upon entering a new map or area, spam Whirling Blades and search for huge packs of monsters. Once you come across a huge mob, use Viper Strike of the Mamba and see them die shortly after!

When you are fighting bosses or tough monsters, it will require some setup to ensure that you deal the most amount of damage possible. This is done by casting both Despair and Alchemist Mark on the target. The former reduces the chaos resistance of the target, while the latter drops caustic ground that deals more chaos damage per second on the cursed enemy.

If you do not like casting Despair manually, you can either wear a self-crafted Hunter-influenced ring with a “Despair on Hit” mod or use the Witchfire Brew unique flask. For Alchemist’s Mark, just link it to Mark on Hit Support.

Ascendancy

Builds in Path of Exile that rely on poison damage almost always gravitate toward the Pathfinder. This is due to the presence of nodes that improve the said damage type in various ways.

Master Toxicist is an incredible example of that. This notable ascendancy passive skill allows the poisons you inflict with the Viper Strike of the Mamba to deal 100% more damage during any flask effect. That’s not all! Thanks to Master Toxicist, poisoned monsters you kill will cause nearby enemies to get poisoned as well.

To improve the potency of your poisons, you will take Nature’s Reprisal. This node increases the strength of the Withered status effect by 50%. This means that enemies affected by Wither have their chaos resistance reduced even further, translating to higher damage output.

Nature’s Adrenaline is a nice node to have. That is because you gain three flask charges every few seconds, ensuring that you have your flasks up with little to no downtime.

The last notable ascendancy passive you should take is Master Surgeon. Master Toxicist only deals more damage if you are under the effects of any flask, right? Well, Master Surgeon makes the recovery effect of Life Flasks linger even when your unreserved life is already filled. This means that as long as you use a Life Flask every five seconds, you will always take advantage of the damage bonus that Master Toxicist provides.

Notable Ascendancy Passive Skills for Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder

Gear

With the removal of the Wildwood Ascendancies in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, the gear for the Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder has become a bit more expensive. This is because you should do some crafting to maximize the Transfigured Gem’s damage output, taking the Poisonberry Tincture’s absence into account.

A 30-Divine Orb budget is enough to get the right pieces of gear. However, if you like the playstyle and you’re thinking of taking things to the next level, you can certainly invest more PoE currency into the build. Do not worry, we will provide you with some noteworthy upgrades so that you will know what to buy later on.

Weapon

Since your attacks can no longer inherently inflict poisons due to the absence of the Poisonberry Tincture in the 3.24 Necropolis League, the best weapons you can use for this build are a couple of self-crafted claws, preferably one “Void Fangs” and the other the Gemini Claw.

The reason why Void Fangs is amazing for the Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder is that it has an added chaos damage implicit modifier, which greatly enhances the damage output of your main attack skill.

How about the Gemini Claw? In case you don’t know, GGG has implemented a ton of changes to mana cost and mana reservation in Patch 3.24. Gemini Claw just helps you address that by giving you the power to gain some life and mana per hit. This is compounded by the build’s incredibly fast attack speed, so you should never run into any mana issues as long as you are attacking something.

The claws have to be at least item level 85+ to get the desired modifiers. Anyway, to craft them, spam Deafening Essence of Contempt until you get a trifecta of physical damage mods.

Once you’ve rolled all three physical damage mods, put “Prefixes Cannot Be Changed” from the Crafting Bench, and then use Harvest Augment Speed until you get a Tier 1 “% Increased Attack Speed” suffix. After that, lock the prefixes again; only this time, you use a Veiled Orb.

It is worth pointing out that using a Veiled Orb might remove the attack speed mod. If this happens, you simply just lock the prefixes again, and utilize Harvest Augment Speed.

Anyway, when you’ve successfully obtained a veiled suffix (without removing the attack speed mod), bench-craft “4% Increased Damage per Endurance Charge,” and then head to Jun to unveil. The mod you are looking for is “15% Increased Attack Speed While a Rare or Unique Enemy is Nearby.”

Once you have completed the steps mentioned above, go to the Crafting Bench and put “+20% to Chaos Damage Over Time Multiplier” to finish the project.

Self-crafted Void Fangs

Self-crafted Gemini Claw

You might be wondering why you roll a few physical damage modifiers on the self-crafted claws. Well, the answer is really simple. If you look at the description of Viper Strike of the Mamba, it says that it converts 60% of your physical damage to chaos damage. Poison, in PoE, deals chaos damage over time to affected enemies. Having said that, the higher your physical damage is, the more potent your poisons become.

Body Armor

As mentioned earlier, there are multiple avenues where you can convert the physical damage you take into elemental damage. One of those avenues is the body armor, which is why you are going to wear the Lightning Coil.

The Lightning Coil essentially converts half of the physical damage you take into lightning damage. It goes without saying that your lightning resistance should be capped at 75% because of this armor’s unique effect.

Since the Lightning Coil is very affordable, you can corrupt the said body armor with Vaal Orbs to get some useful implicit modifiers. Alternatively, you can put it on the chamber in the Locus of Corruption (Temple of Atzoatl) in the hopes of “double-corrupting” it for two implicit mods.

Lightning Coil

If you do not care so much about defense, you could opt for The Covenant instead. This thing is a staple among many chaos damage builds in PoE mainly because of its unique effect: “Socketed Gems Are Supported by Level 29 Added Chaos Damage.”

Although your main attack skill also costs life when using it if it is inserted into the said body armor, this downside is easily solved by the self-crafted Gemini Claw.

The Covenant

Helmet

The Blizzard Crown is an incredible way to increase the damage of the Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder. That is thanks to its implicit modifier that provides you with some added cold damage.

This helmet is also a nice way to get the Warlord-influenced mod, “% Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage.” To craft this helmet, get your hands on two ilvl 85+ Blizzard Crowns; one with the Warlord influence and the other with the Hunter influence.

On the Warlord-influenced Blizzard Crown, spam it with Orb of Alteration until you get the mod mentioned above. Lock the prefix and then use Harvest Reforge Critical to guarantee another Warlord mod. At this point, use an Orb of Dominance and hope that the phys damage mod is elevated. Otherwise, repeat the entire process until you achieve the desired result. Once that is done, set it aside for now.

On the Hunter-influenced mod, use Orb of Alteration again until you get “Nearby Enemies Have -9% to Chaos Resistance. Then, lock the suffix and use Harvest Reforge Caster to guarantee another Hunter mod. Same as above, use an Orb of Dominance in the hopes of elevating the chaos res modifier.

When both of the helmets have the desired Influenced modifiers, use an Awakener’s Orb to merge them into one. Now, it will roll with other random affixes. If there are open affixes left, you can use the Crafting Bench and Exalted Orb to fill them up.

If you are unsure about the terminologies used, you can read our ultimate crafting guide to learn more.

Self-crafted Double-Influenced Blizzard Crown

Since Charms have been removed from the game in Patch 3.24, you might not have enough mana to activate your auras. Hence, you could craft a different helmet – one that has both implicit and explicit mana reservation efficiency mods.

You simply spam Deafening Essence of Loathing on any ilvl 85+ helmet of your choosing (preferably the Deicide Helmet or Lion Pelt) until you get life, resistances, and attributes (if you still need DEX or INT). Leave a prefix open so you can bench-craft “8% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage.”

Now for the implicit modifiers. Use Grand Eldritch Ichors to get “9% Increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills” and Grand Eldritch Embers for “24% Reduced Mana Cost of Attacks.”

Self-crafted Helmet

Gloves

The gloves are another self-crafted piece of gear that you should use for the Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder. Start by getting an ilvl 85+ Slink Gloves/Stealth Gloves and spam Deafening Essence of Envy (chaos resistance) until you get the mods that you need for your character. Some suggestions are elemental resistances, life, and evasion rating. Leave a prefix open so that you can put “28% Increased Damage During Any Flask Effect” using the Crafting Bench.

For the Eldritch implicit modifiers, spam the gloves with Grand Eldritch Ichors until you get “11% Increased Effect of Your Marks” and Grand Eldritch Embers to obtain “Non-Vaal Strike Skills Target 1 Additional Nearby Enemy.”

If you have the PoE currency, you can use several Orbs of Conflict to elevate the Searing Exarch implicit modifier so that you’ll hit two additional nearby enemies as opposed to just one.

Self-crafted Gloves

Boots

You can wear a pair of self-crafted Slink Boots with the Onslaught mod on it. Refer to the “Onslaught Boots” section of our build guide so that you will know how to craft this thing.

The only difference here is that you will go for “Poisons You Inflict Deal Damage 7% Faster” using Grand Eldritch Ichors and “5% Increased Action Speed” with Grand Eldritch Embers.

Self-crafted Onslaught Boots

Amulet

Ashes of the Stars is the best amulet that you can use for the Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder mainly for its unique effect that says, “+% to Quality of All Skill Gems.” If you are going to purchase the Ashes of the Stars from the trade website, make sure to get one that is close to 30% to make it count.

Since you need Despair and Alchemist’s Mark to deal maximum damage to single targets, you should anoint the amulet with Whispers of Doom (3x Golden Oils) so that you can apply an additional curse.

Ashes of the Stars

Rings

For the rings, get yourself some synthesized bases with the implicit mod, “Poisons You Inflict Deal Damage % Faster.” They are relatively cheap if you buy them from the trade website, so you will have no issues getting two of them.

Anyway, you want to guarantee the damage over time multiplier mod, which is why you are going to spam the rings with Essence of Delirium. Do this until you get some useful mods, including attributes, flat elemental damage, and some life.

Of course, leave a prefix open so that you can bench-craft “Non-Channeling Skills Have -7 to Total Mana Cost.”

Self-crafted Ring

There is another way to make the poison you inflict upon your enemies become deadlier and that is by crafting a ring with the Hunter-influenced mod: “% Increased Damage with Poison, 8% Increased Poison Duration.”

To craft it, spam Essence of Delirium or any other Essence that you prefer until you get the said mod, as well as other useful modifiers, such as INT, STR, life, or mana. Just make sure to leave a prefix open so that you can put “Non-Channeling Skills Have -7 to Total Mana Cost” from the Crafting Bench.

Self-crafted Ring (with Hunter-influenced Mod)

Belt

Since the Tinctures from the Warden of the Maji secondary ascendancy class are virtually non-existent in the 3.24 Necropolis League, the Micro-Distillery Belt is no longer the best one that you can use for the build. Although it may seem like a bummer, it is actually a good thing because it opens up so many avenues; giving you so many options to choose from.

We recommend that you craft a Stygian Vise for the build mainly because it aids you in capping your elemental resistances. Spam Deafening Essence of Anger (Fire Resistance), Hatred (Cold Resistance), or Wrath (Lightning Resistance) until you get life, elemental resistance, chaos resistance, or increased flask life recovery rate.

To finish the project, you can bench-craft any modifier that you need, whichever slot you have open. However, you can take things up a notch by leaving a prefix open (or forcing one by using an Orb of Annulment) and then using a Hunter’s Exalted Orb.

Doing this when you have an open prefix guarantees three outcomes, namely:

% Increased Chaos Damage
% Increased Maximum Life
Gain a Flask Charge on Critical Hit

Of course, you want either of the first two mods mentioned. Fortunately, you have a pretty high chance of obtaining them, which makes using a Hunter’s Exalted Orb worth it!

Self-crafted Stygian Vise

In the endgame, you have the option of purchasing the Mageblood. Even to this day, this unique heavy belt is still highly coveted. Get this as soon as you have the PoE currency.

Mageblood

Flasks

Jade Flask
Quicksilver Flask
Quartz Flask/Bismuth Flask
Divine Life Flask
Witchfire Brew

This build now uses the typical flasks you normally see on evasion-based builds in Path of Exile. First on the list is, of course, the Jade Flask. This grants a huge bump in evasion, which greatly improves your survivability.

Quicksilver Flask is just a means to help you traverse the map quickly.

The third flask is a toss-up between the Quartz Flask and the Bismuth Flask. Use the former if you want to traverse the map without getting hindered by the enemy; go for the latter if you have not capped your elemental resistances yet.

The Divine Life Flask is primarily there to ensure near-permanent uptime of Master Toxicist’s effect. Be sure to use this life flask every five seconds or so.

Since you no longer have access to the Poisonberry Tincture, the last flask slot is now reserved for the Witchfire Brew. This flask provides you with an aura that automatically applies a level 21 Despair curse on nearby enemies. The flask alleviates the need to cast Despair manually, making it an amazing choice for the build.

Flask Mods

14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
65% Reduced Effect of Curses on You (of the Owl)
17% Increased Attack Speed (of the Dove)
20% Additional Elemental Resistances (of the Rainbow, only if you don’t have your elemental resistances capped yet)
Corrupted Blood Immunity (for Life Flask)

Jewels

The damage output of the Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder can be greatly improved by putting as many Medium Cluster Jewels on the passive tree as you can. To make this possible, you are going to buy at least two 5-passive Voices, which is a Large Cluster Jewel that enables you to insert a few medium clusters.

If you are wondering what we mean by “5-passive” Voices, we are actually referring to those that come with the line, “Adds 5 Small Passive Skills Which Grant Nothing.” As of now, the price of these jewels ranges from 5 to 7 Divine Orbs. But, it is important to note that prices are subject to change depending on the popularity of this unique jewel moving forward.

Of course, if you have the currency to buy a 3-Passive or even 1-Passive Voices, then you can certainly purchase that so you’ll have more skill points to allocate on different nodes.

Back to the Medium Cluster Jewels (chaos damage over time), use Harvest Reforge Life until you get Low Tolerance and Brewed for Potency. You can also opt for Wasting Affliction instead of Brewed Potency if you want to focus more on offense. If you are wondering what these notable passive skills do, here is a rundown of their effects:

Low Tolerance

Poisons You Inflict on Non-Poisoned Enemies Deal 300% Increased Damage

Wasting Affliction

20% Increased Damage with Ailments
Damaging Ailments Deal Damage 5% Faster

Brewed for Potency

24% Increased Damage Over Time
10% Increased Flask Charges Gained
20% Increased Life and Mana Recovery from Flasks

If you do not have access to 5-passive Voices yet, you can use an 8-passive Large Cluster Jewel (Chaos Damage) for the time being. That said, use Harvest Reforge Physical until you get Grim Oath, Wicked Pall, and another notable passive skill. The last one should be situated in the middle so that you can save a couple of skill points. This is because you only really need the first two passives.

The Adorned is an amazing unique jewel for the Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder. If you are going to purchase this jewel from the trade website, make sure to get one that is as close to 150% increased effect as possible.

To complement The Adorned, get corrupted magic jewels with any of the following mods:

+% to Chaos Damage Over Time Multiplier
% Increased Maximum Life
Damaging Ailments Deal Damage % Faster

The Watcher’s Eye is a staple in many builds in Path of Exile simply because they can come with amazing modifiers that can improve the build in so many ways. Aim to grab a Watcher’s Eye with a combination of these mods:

Malevolence

Damaging Ailments You Inflict Deal Damage % Faster
+% to Damage Over Time Multiplier

Grace

+% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage
+% Chance to Evade Attack Hits
% Increased Movement Speed

For defenses, you want to achieve full ailment immunity. There are a couple of ways to help you with this. If you only need a slight boost to ailment avoidance, you can go for the Ancestral Vision unique Viridian Jewel. This presupposes that you have 100% spell suppression to maximize the jewel’s effect.

On the other hand, you can opt for the Stormshroud if you need a huge increase in elemental avoidance. Just make sure that you have enough “% Chance to Avoid Being Shocked” mods on your flasks or boots.

Gems

The gem setups for the Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder are pretty straightforward, with a little bit of room for flexibility. In fact, we have included some new support gems that were introduced in Patch 3.24 as well.

Body Armor

Viper Strike of the Mamba
Sadism Support
Awakened Void Manipulation
Awakened Deadly Ailments
Awakened Melee Physical Damage
Efficacy Support

Your main attack skill for this build is the Viper Strike of the Mamba. This transfigured version of Viper Strike only inflicts poison on the enemy once, but it deals 300% more damage to compensate.

Sadism Support actually synergizes really well with your main attack skill. This is due to the fact that this gem allows the Viper Strike of the Mamba to deal the bulk of its damage significantly faster. Do not forget to use 20 Gemcutter’s Prisms so that this support gem provides an additional 10% damage over time multiplier.

Since Poison is a damaging ailment in Path of Exile, it just makes sense to include Awakened Deadly Ailments into the mix. The said support gem provides a 55% “more” damage multiplier, calculating the poison damage dealt by your main attack skill multiplicatively rather than additively.

Awakened Void Manipulation gives more oomph to your attacks by granting 40% more chaos damage at level 6. You can achieve this by corrupting a level 5 Awakened Void Manipulation using a Vaal Orb. Besides that, this support gem increases the level of your Viper Strike of the Mamba by one.

Awakened Melee Physical Damage not only grants a huge boost to your melee physical damage, but the poisons caused by melee hits also deal more damage!

To top it all off, Efficacy Support just increases the damage over time multiplier of the said attack skill.

Boots

Malevolence
Grace
Herald of Agony (offense)/Petrified Blood (defense)
Enlighten Support (lvl 4)

This is your aura setup for the Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder. Malevolence provides a considerable increase to your damage over time multiplier, so it is always a great one to use on this build.

Petrified Blood and Grace are there to help improve your chances of survival. The former helps you take devastating hits without dying, while the latter improves your chance to dodge attacks from the enemy.

With the removal of the Poisonberry Tincture in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League, you could swap Petrified Blood for Herald of Agony, mainly to boost your chances of inflicting poisons on the enemy by 20%.

Enlighten Support reduces the mana required to activate these buffs so that you still have enough mana left to use for your other skills.

Helmet

Withering Step
Automation Support
Lifetap (lvl 1)
Enhance Support (lvl 4)

Withering Step allows you to inflict up to 14 Withered debuffs on nearby monsters. If you do not know, Wither is a debuff in PoE that makes affected monsters take more chaos damage.

Automation is a new support gem that was also added in Patch 3.24. As you can tell by its name, this automatically uses Withering Step whenever it is off-cooldown, thus alleviating the need to cast it yourself. GGG has introduced this support gem as a way to make up for the fact that you can no longer bind instant skills on left click in the Necropolis League.

A level 1 Lifetap is included in the setup just to ensure that Withering Step is always cast regardless of your current mana. If you do not have any mana cost issues, you can replace this with something else.

Enhance Support does what it says on the tin. This support gem basically enhances all of the gems mentioned in this setup by greatly increasing their quality.

Gloves

Ancestral Cry
Call to Arms Support
Lifetap

While Viper Strike of the Mamba is an amazing attack skill in PoE, it still requires you to be in melee range. This might be cumbersome, particularly when fighting the pinnacle bosses, such as Sirus, Eater of Worlds, and The Maven.

To address this issue, you use Ancestral Cry. This warcry skill extends the range of your main attack skill by a considerable degree. Don’t worry about its activation because you are going to link it to Call to Arms Support – a new support gem in Patch 3.24.

It seems that this build has an obsession with Lifetap Support because it is included here as well.

As you can see, there is one gem slot remaining. You can use whatever gem that you like! Some recommendations include Frostblink, Precision, or Flame Dash.