The best poison skill, and how to use it?

The best poison skill, and how to use it?

I remember reading a few years back, the "tao of poison" or something along those lines. I loved it and thought it was a blast. However, with 1.10, I am no longer sure what class/skill is considered the best for pure poison damage. I love watching things wither away and die. The two classes/skills that stand out for me are a PD necro, and a plague javazon. the necro, i think, would do more damage thanks to lower resist. but would be a very dangerous character to play; having to be up close and all. the javazon seems safer, but with less damage due to lack of lower resist.

Would anyone here have any suggestions for a build that maximises some great poison damage?

 

First, check the FAQ. This is, in fact, a Frequently Asked Question.

You'd find a link there, 1.10 Character Build Guides. That sounds promising, let's check.

Amazon, Assassin, Druid, Necromancer...many different poison builds are outlined here! Rock!

The FAQ is amazing stuff. I suggest a thorough reading.


-GG

 

Personally, a poison nova necro is the way to go. Big poison damage over a short time (2 seconds), spammable, in conjunction with AI curses and a skeleton army.

Also considering that probably the greatest singular poison weapon is a necro wand, Death's Web ... that is if you can get one.

I've also played a fury/rabies druid and the rabies is fun to play but the damage is alright and more of a backup skill while you fury everyone to death. You can have a pretty strong druid if you use the poison creeper charges in the Carrion Wind ring so as to save skill points for something else like Oak Sage, Lythcanthropy etc ...

You can also try a hybrid ama with a WWS strafer with Plague Javelin as backup. You should be able to get almost max synergies with PJ if you use the WWS.

 

The absolute highest poison damage potential goes to PDagger because of the way it benefits from other poison sources (like charms) that PNova doesn't. However, it's a huge amount of damage over a long period of time and requires actually hitting the critter to be poisoned. PNova is more popular because it can reach large levels of damage as well as covering the entire screen with a single attack.

a poizon can do good damage but I've seen very few and it doesn't seem like a popular build. the lack of a spammable poison skill kinda holds her back

rabies druids are popular, but generally requires relying on the carrion wind synergy bug/feature to do enough damage in hell, so it's up to you if that's a play style you want.

 

I appreciate your reply, however I did read through each guide. I was more specifically asking opinions based on that knowledge I had already attained. In terms of max, overall damage, which one would be best used. And then talk about those opinions.

Thanks to everyone for their replies. A PD necro was the route I was likely going to take. Using Pnova, and using PD on bosses. I just really like the idea of using ranged poison damage with the plague zon. But it just didnt seem to be enough damage. I love the idea of hitting a boss once, and watching it wither away. then hit them again. fun stuff for me.

I never considered a rabies druid. I didnt think, even with the bug, they could ever reach enough damage in hell to be viable.

 

the thing to remember with poison is that it's a slow killer. sure you can hit something once and it will die. the problem is it's gonna be attacking you until it does. what you need then is a way to hit it once and then prevent it from attacking while it dies. For a necro, this means curses. Usually Dim Vision although Terror works also. a holy freeze moron is good too, as he will slow down the critters while you poison them, again giving the poison more time to work. stack on the slow effect from Gumby and you have a slow but efficient killing machine

 

The thing about a pnova necro is that the poison will kill quite well even on players8 while you can curse away and CE away too. There's nothing you can't handle.

All this with regular stuff you can get. You don't necessarily need a Death's Web or Bramble or poison facets ... but they all help tremendously. Those items will take your necro from being a great killer to a ridiculous killer in Hell.

You can have it all. Not strong but not fragile skeletons/magis/revives to tie up enemies. AI control, lower resist for faster poison killing or amp damage for your Corpse Explosion. Incredible safety. You can't carry as much MF as a regular Fishymancer but still a fair bit.

One trick though is to find a "White"-able wand with +3 pnova and +something to lower resist/summon resist/attract/revives ... anything that will save you skill points. That way you can put all your excess points into Skeleton mastery or to extend your CE range. Have Arm of King Leoric on switch for prebuffing and it's all good.