PoE 3.25 Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Pathfinder Build

Are you looking for a competent build for the Necro-Settlers League in Path of Exile? If so, we highly recommend that you choose the Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Pathfinder.

With how much damage it can deal on a minimal investment, you can use it to farm your early PoE Currency. If you are interested as to how this build is put up, then join us as we discuss a good league starter using a Ranger ascendancy class!

Why Choose the Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Pathfinder?

When it comes to great league starters in Path of Exile, Poisonous Concoction was always one of the skill gems being utilized. You can fire multiple projectiles per cast which can inflict lethal poisons to enemies that get hit.

The said skill gem got nerfed numerous times, whether directly or indirectly, which caused many people to shy away from it. However, things changed when Grinding Gear Games (GGG) introduced the Transfigured Gems a couple of leagues ago.

Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing, in our opinion, is so much better overall compared to the base version. Instead of firing several bottles of poison that can easily consume your flask charges, this Transfigured Gem only prompts you to throw one.

That single bottle is more than enough, though, because it has an innate property that seeks nearby enemies. This chaining property is actually good because you can scale damage with modifiers such as “Projectiles Deal 20% Increased Damage with Hits/Ailments for Each Time They Have Chained” and “Projectiles Deal 15% Increased Damage with Hits and Ailments for Each Remaining Chain.”

Speaking of which, mods that provide additional projectiles affect the PoE Poisonous Concoction skill in a different way. You still throw only a single bottle, but it chains to more targets depending on the number of additional projectiles influenced by the support gems and items you use.

For that reason, both Greater Volley and Greater Multiple Projectiles work really well with Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing.

In addition, Life Flasks play an integral role in this PoE build. You see, your primary skill gains additional chaos damage equal to (5%-15%) life recovery provided by your flask. Because of this, you have to prioritize rolling your flasks with the right PoE Orbs until you get the “% Increased Amount Recovered” modifier.

Since Life Flasks are utilized not only for topping up your life but also for improving your damage output, it is crucial that you get nodes on the passive tree that grant Life Flask generation, such as Replenishing Remedies and Field Medicine. A similar effect can be acquired by choosing the right Flask Mastery as well.

The PoE Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing is a skill that deals chaos damage. Therefore, it is only fitting that you select the Pathfinder as the ascendancy class for this build. Master Toxicist and Nature’s Reprisal work hand-in-hand to maximize poison damage.

On top of that, Nature’s Adrenaline lets you gain flask charges every three seconds. Finally, you have Nature’s Boon, which is a slightly more powerful version of the Enkindling Orb with regards to increasing the effect of your magic utility flasks.

Allocate the said notable ascendancy passive skills in this order when leveling your Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Pathfinder:

1. Nature’s Adrenaline
2. Master Toxicist
3. Nature’s Reprisal
4. Nature’s Boon

If you are a beginner in PoE, enemies that are affected by poison suffer from chaos damage over time. That is why you make it a point to add any of these modifiers to enhance the lethality of your poisons:

• Increased Chaos Damage
• + to Damage Over Time Multiplier
• + to Chaos Damage Over Time Multiplier
• Projectiles Deal % Increased Damage with Hits and Ailments for Each Remaining Chain
• Increased Projectile Damage
• Increased Projectile Speed (quality-of-life)
• Damaging Ailments Deal Damage % Faster (quality-of-life)

Playstyle

One of the main reasons why we recommend this PoE Poisonous Concoction build is that it is very easy to play. Upon entering the map, activate Blood Rage to increase your attack speed. From there, just use your primary skill whenever you come across some map monsters.

Every time you inflict poison on your enemies, Plague Bearer stores a portion of that damage while incubating. Using the said skill makes you infect nearby enemies, causing them to take chaos damage over time depending on the total plague value prior to activation. The longer the skill is incubated, the more damaging it becomes.

That said, you can activate Plague Bearer to improve your clear speed. Although it is another button to press, cast Despair to reduce the chaos resistance of monsters that are close by as well.

Since you do not have enough gem sockets to insert Automation, you have to also manually activate Withering Step. This applies numerous Wither stacks to nearby enemies, which will further be enhanced by the Pathfinder ascendancy node, Nature’s Reprisal.

Lastly, leave Flesh and Stone in Sand Stance so that you take less damage from enemies within your proximity.

Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Pathfinder Gear Recommendations

This Pathfinder build in PoE 3.25 is a good league starter and is SSF-friendly as well. This is due to the fact that it can function with just crafted or self-found gear.

Although you can go about this in a number of ways, our version puts a heavy emphasis on improving its damage as high as possible. The goal here is to achieve the best results which, in this case, means that it can inflict deadly poisons at all times.

With that in mind, you will start off with mostly rare crafted pieces of gear and then swap them later on with a bunch of unique items. You only have a couple of crafted items in the endgame, so make them count by putting in the mods that you need for your particular character.

Weapon

Thankfully, this PoE Pathfinder build 2024 does not require any weapon to enjoy. This enables you to utilize your resources on other items, such as jewels and awakened gems.

Shield

When Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur went live, some of the gear pieces you can craft can no longer obtain physical damage taken as elemental damage as an explicit modifier. Although you can get that on the implicit mod, there are better options out there that can benefit most Path of Exile builds, so much so that the said effect is typically being pushed to the wayside.

Fortunately, there is a shield in the game that has that mod and more in the form of the Dawnbreaker. A perfectly rolled Dawnbreaker could enable you to convert 20% physical damage and take that as fire damage instead.

This unique shield also does the same for both cold and lightning damage. Because of this, capping your fire resistance and enhancing it with a Ruby Flask is mandatory.

Body Armor

Capping spell suppression is your utmost priority early on. This particular defensive layer plays a huge role in your survival mainly because it mitigates half of the spell damage you receive from the enemy.

Grab any armor/evasion-based body armor and use Essence of Rage to get spell suppression, chaos resistance, and life. If you have the percentage life/mana prefix already unlocked, put that on the crafted gear as well.

As soon as you have the crafted body armor equipped, save up some PoE Currency to purchase a six-linked Lightning Coil. This item is famous for its unique effect, where 50% of physical damage from hits is taken as lightning damage. If you do not mind being exuberant, get the Lightning Coil with the corrupted mod: “You Take % Reduced Damage from Critical Strikes.”

Helmet

You start your PoE Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Pathfinder journey with a crafted helmet, which contains lightning resistance, life, and chaos resistance. You can use Essence of Envy for this to ensure the chaos resistance mod on every roll.

Once the explicit modifiers are done, spam the helmet with Eldritch Ichor to increase the duration of poisons on your enemies. The reduced mana cost of attacks mod can be obtained by using Eldritch Embers. This implicit modifier goes a long way, especially prior to Eldritch Battery.

Speaking of Eldritch Battery, you do not allocate points to get this keystone on the passive tree. Instead, you take advantage of The Devouring Diadem to gain its effect. Because this unique helmet can roll several veiled modifiers, choose one that can benefit this Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Path of Exile build.

Gloves

Asenath’s Gentle Touch is such a cheap unique item that you can use it early until you are well into the endgame. Even though it is tempting to buy these gloves with “Curse Enemies with Despair on Hit,” please refrain from doing so. That is because this corrupted implicit modifier only has the effect of a level 1 gem, which is substantially weaker than a self-cast level 20 Despair.

Boots

If you like the playstyle of this Path of Exile build and would like to take things a step further, you might want to learn how to craft the Onslaught Boots. You can find this out by heading to our ultimate crafting guide.

While the general steps of crafting this piece of gear are the same, there are a couple of differences that you should keep in mind. First, you need to spam the boots using the Deafening Essence of Loathing for that T1 “31-35% Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments” suffix. Second, the Eater of Worlds mod can either be “Poisons You Inflict Deal Damage 7% Faster” or “Increased Cooldown Recovery Rate of Travel Skills.”

Amulet

The PoE Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing skill is mechanically different from its base counterpart. This Transfigured Gem got its name because of its innate property, where a single bottle of poisonous concoctions bounces around indefinitely or until every enemy on the screen is promptly dealt with.

That said, modifiers that provide additional projectiles will instead alter how many times the bottled concoction chains to nearby enemies. This interaction makes Fury Valve the ideal amulet for this Pathfinder build in PoE 3.25. If you do not have any other items that grant additional projectiles, the Fury Valve allows your primary skill to chain two more times.

Anyway, you need to anoint Whispers of Doom since you not only cast Despair but also curse your enemies with Temporal Chains via Asenath’s Gentle Touch. This particular anoint is costly because it requires three Golden Oils. Unless you do Blight Encounters often, you need to have plenty of Divine Orbs ready to buy them.

Rings

You are going to use Herald of Agony on this PoE build to improve your chances of applying poisons to enemies. Since you have this buff enabled at all times, why not enhance its effect by wearing a Circle of Nostalgia on one of your ring slots?

Circle of Nostalgia can roll several different modifiers, but the one you are looking for is “% Increased Chaos Damage While Affected by Herald of Agony.” Now, if you need a bit more chaos resistance to reach 75%, this unique ring can give you a considerable amount as well!

Want to go a step beyond that? Get a bunch of Noxious Catalysts to improve the chaos damage modifier on the Circle of Nostalgia!

Okay, so you already have a unique ring in your possession, what about the other one? Well, you will be happy to know that the next ring is a crafted accessory, which gives you the freedom to roll whatever modifiers you need.

Are you struggling to cap your lightning resistance due to the penalty of wearing the Lightning Coil? Do you have enough STR to equip the Dawnbreaker? Thankfully, the crafted ring can help you address these issues.

Belt

If you are going to play the Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Pathfinder in the Necro-Settlers League, you can go for a crafted Stygian Vise to give you the ability to insert an abyssal jewel of your choosing.

When crafting the belt, make it a point to achieve a T1 “% Increased Flask Life Recovery Rate” mod. That is because this prefix will indirectly improve the damage of Poisonous Concoction PoE.

In the endgame, swap the Stygian Vise for The Tides of Time. This unique item is a staple among Pathfinder builds in PoE primarily because of the automatic flask recharge, as well as the 100% increased life recovery from flasks.

Now, if you are feeling lucky, you can use a Vaal Orb to corrupt the belt and hope that you get any of these mods:

• 6-8% Increased Maximum Life
• 4-6% Increased Strength + Intelligence
• 8-12% Increased Movement Speed During Any Flask Effect
• 20-30% Increased Rarity of Items Found

Flasks

• Ruby Flask
• Sapphire Flask
• Topaz Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Divine Life Flask
  • Use Orb of Alteration until you get the “Saturated” Prefix, which increases the amount of life recovered by your Life Flask by up to 70%
• Rumi’s Concoction
  • If you do not need the movement speed bonus provided by the Quicksilver Flask, replace it with this one
  • This improves your chance to block attacks and spells

Flask Mods

• 55% Chance to Avoid Being Stunned (of Tenaciousness)
• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
• 20% Additional Elemental Resistances (of the Rainbow)
• 65% Reduced Effect of Curses on You (of the Owl)
• Corrupted Blood Immunity (on Life Flask)

Jewels

We always advocate the use of any PoE items that grant elemental ailment immunity. Suffering from Ignite, Freeze, and Shock can kill you easily, especially in red maps and T17s.

With the crafted Onslaught Boots you have equipped, you can use Ancestral Vision to achieve full immunity. Wait, if the boots only give up to 35% and the aforementioned unique jewel with an additional 50%, where do you get the last 20% chance to avoid elemental ailment? That can be gained from the “Thick Skin” notable passive skill, as well as the small nodes that connect to it.

Another huge upgrade for this Poison Pathfinder build is a Medium Cluster Jewel that has Follow-Through. For the uninitiated, this is a notable passive skill in Path of Exile that makes your primary skill deal 15% increased damage for each remaining chain.

Assuming you have three of these medium clusters coupled with the Fury Valve, your Poisonous Concoction can chain up to 12 times! This means that you can gain a huge advantage just by investing in this cluster jewel-only notable passive skill.

Having said that, get a Medium Cluster Jewel that says “Added Small Passive Skills Grant: 10% increased Projectile Damage.” After that, spam it with Orb of Alteration until you obtain the desired skill.

According to Craft of Exile, Follow-Through has the lowest weight among other possible nodes. Expect to spend a ton of Orb of Alteration to get it. If you find rolling for Follow-Through to be time-consuming, you can go to our PoE Store to save yourself from all the trouble!

Brutal Restraint is also a nice upgrade for the Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Pathfinder. Insert this in the jewel socket just above Fervour. Aim to get the following bonuses to maximize this Timeless Jewel:

• 10% Increased Flask Charges Gained
• 25% Chance to Gain Alchemist’s Genius
• Poisons You Inflict Deal Damage 10% Faster
• 4% Increased Maximum Life

If you still have enough PoE Currency to spare, then purchase any of these jewels:

• The Light of Meaning: with 6% Increased Chaos Damage
• Watcher’s Eye: +% to Damage Over Time Multiplier While Affected by Malevolence is BiS (best-in-slot)
• 8-Passive Large Cluster Jewel: particularly with Unholy Grace, Wicked Pall, and Unwaveringly Evil
• Base Jewels:
  • Corrupted Blood Immunity (corrupted implicit mod only)
  • +% to Chaos Damage Over Time Multiplier
  • % Increased Maximum Life
  • +% Chance to Block Spell Damage While Holding a Shield

Tattoos

• Tattoo of the Tawhoa Naturalist
  • 8% Increased Life Recovery from Flasks
• Tattoo of the Ramako Shaman
  • +2% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage
• Tattoo of the Ramako Sniper
  • 5% Increased Projectile Speed
• Tattoo of the Tasalio Tideshifter
  • 10% Chance to Avoid Being Stunned

Skill Gems Setup

Body Armor

• Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing
• Greater Multiple Projectiles
• Greater Volley Support
• Awakened Void Manipulation
• Awakened Deadly Ailments
• Awakened Unbound Ailments

Gloves

• Plague Bearer
• Withering Step
• Increased Area of Effect
• Empower Support

Helmet

• Malevolence
• Herald of Agony
• Flesh and Stone
• Blood Rage

Boots

• Shield Charge
• Faster Attacks Support
• Steelskin (lvl 7)
• Cast When Damage Taken (lvl 4)

Shield

• Precision
• Arrogance Support
• Despair

Pantheons

• Major God: Soul of Lunaris
• Minor God: Soul of Gruthkul or Soul of Abberrath

Passive Skill Tree

Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing is a Transfigured Gem that can put a heavy strain on your Life Flask. That is why it is imperative that you spend points to acquire Replenishing Remedies, Field Medicine, and Entrench on your passive tree. These nodes easily recharge your Life Flask, preventing it from ever running out.

Being a Path of Exile build that deals poison damage, it is just right to allocate notable passive skills that boost its lethality. Passive nodes like Swift Venoms and Fatal Toxins are good examples of this. The Chaos damage nodes from the Large Cluster Jewel are also useful in this regard.

There are several Masteries that you need to get in order to enjoy the Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Pathfinder build to the fullest, such as:

• Projectile Mastery
  • Projectiles Deal 20% Increased Damage with Hits and Ailments for Each Time They Have Chained
• Poison Mastery
  • Poisons You Inflict Deal Damage 20% Faster
  • Enemies Poisoned by You Cannot Deal Critical Strikes
• Flask Mastery
  • Life Flasks/Mana Flasks Gain 1 Charge Every 3 Seconds
• Leech Mastery
  • 10% of Leech is Instant

Tips and Strategies

• Use Culling Strike Support: If you intend on bossing with this PoE Pathfinder build, you can replace Cast When Damage Taken Support for Culling Strike. This eliminates bosses instantly after they have reached the 10% life threshold.
• Follow-Through is Valuable: This notable passive skill is quite useful in improving your offense, so much so that we recommend you get at least a couple of these for a huge boost in your overall damage.
• Take Alira Early On: Capping elemental resistances is hard when you are still starting out. Because of this, you have the option of helping Alira to gain a permanent 15% boost to your elemental resistance. If you wish to gain the bonus skill point at a later date, there is a specific vendor recipe you can utilize for that.
• Craft STR on Items: In the endgame, most of the equipment you wear are unique items, which may lead you to a deficiency in the STR attribute. If this is the case, craft your boots and rings to satisfy the strength requirement of your gear.
• Avoid Stuns at All Cost: Although you have a near-permanent uptime of your Life Flask, your enemies can still kill you, especially if you are stunned. You can achieve full stun avoidance by using the appropriate tattoo, allocating Heart of Oak on the passive tree, and getting the “of Tenaciousness” suffix on one of your utility flasks.
• Put Major Emphasis on Your Life Flask: The PoE Poisonous Concoction skill gains a damage boost based on a considerable portion of your flask’s recovery amount. For this reason, it is vital to your success to use a well-rolled Life Flask, particularly with the “Saturated” prefix. Furthermore, look for a Life Flask with 30% quality on PoE Trade.

POB

Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Pathfinder

Final Thoughts

The Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Pathfinder is an unarmed build capable of dealing a ton of chaos damage on a budget. It’s able to function with mostly self-found gear, and you have the option of taking suitable upgrades later on that does not break the bank.

If you are planning to create a new character in the Necro-Settlers League, this build is quite easy to recommend. Even if you play in SSF, you can never go wrong with this one!

With that said, we hope that you’ve found this Path of Exile build guide helpful. Do you plan on conquering the Necro-Settlers League anytime soon? If that is the case, will you choose the Poisonous Concoction of Bouncing Pathfinder or something else entirely? Let us know in the comments!

PROS

• Great league starter build because of its incredible damage potential on a minimal investment.
• Good for SSF League due to the fact that it can work with self-found gear.
• Does not require an expensive weapon, thus saving you a ton of PoE Currency.

CONS

• The lack of a weapon also means that you cannot use three more gems.
• Elemental resistance must be rolled on gear.
• This build is meant for mapping, not bossing.