PoE 3.25 Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder Build

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, especially after the changes made in Patch 3.25. 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 3.25 Settles of Kalguur 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, 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.

This build got nerfed quite a bit in the previous league due to the removal of the Wildwood Ascendancies. Fortunately, GGG brought back Tinctures to Path of Exile in Patch 3.25, allowing you to easily poison enemies without relying too much on the primary skill gem for that purpose.

For this reason, you have the option of equipping a couple of Rebuke of the Vaal weapons again, though equipping two self-crafted claws is still the ideal choice for the endgame.

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 any mana issues you may have while mapping or bossing.

Although this build’s offense is amazing again due to the damage buffs implemented in the 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur expansion, the same cannot be said for its defense. The vast majority of items in Path of Exile have received changes, particularly in the area of physical-to-elemental-damage conversion. Only the Lightning Coil body has survived this, but you might be able to maximize the multiplicative bonuses from item quality as well.

As to the budget that is required to put this build up, we would say that you need at least 30 Divine Orbs 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!

Take note that while Tinctures have returned to PoE in Patch 3.25, they now have a cooldown before they can be used again. Because of this, you should only activate it whenever you are fighting unique monsters or bosses.

Speaking of which, 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.

Gear

The return of the Poisonberry Tincture in Patch 3.25 now allows you to make adjustments to your gear that fit your budget. You no longer have to use expensive claws early on, though that is still certainly an option you can take in the later stages of the league.

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

The Poisonberry Tincture is now back in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur. Although it has received some notable adjustments, the sole purpose of this Tincture is just to provide you with a means of applying poison without relying heavily on the Viper Strike of the Mamba.

Because the said Tincture has returned, you can now use Rebuke of the Vaal again. This is a unique one-handed sword that deals every damage type except physical damage. The 20% increased attack speed and the increase in accuracy as an implicit modifier works really well for the build.

Since Viper Strike of the Mamba does not have a penalty for dual-wielding, you can use a couple of Rebuke of the Vaal weapons for a good damage output on a budget.

In the endgame, 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 primary attack skill.

How about the Gemini Claw? 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.

If you do not have any issues with sustaining mana, you could use another self-crafted Void Fang to improve your damage even further.

That said, 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.

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

GGG has nerfed physical-to-elemental-damage conversion mechanics on equipment in Path of Exile. This means that only select items in the game are able to convert the physical damage you receive and Lightning Coil is, fortunately, one of them.

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.

The Lightning Coil could surge in price due to the removal of physical-to-elemental-damage conversion mods on gear. But, if PoE Currency is not an issue for you, then you can use a Vaal Orb to corrupt this thing, hopefully, it’ll result in a useful corrupted implicit modifier. 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.

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.

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 physical 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.>

Since Charms still have not returned in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, 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). For the empty prefix, you can bench-craft “21% Increased Evasion Rating, +16 to Maximum Life.” You can also opt for the +1 to level of AoE gems, provided that you switch the order of gems provided in the gem section of this build guide.

Previously, the crafted helmet for the Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder had the “8% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage” mod. However, since GGG has removed Korell’s veiled modifier in Patch 3.25, then it is only right to use another prefix to replace it.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

Belt

With the return of the Poisonberry Tincture in Patch the 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur expansion, you can now craft a good Micro-Distillery Belt again, mainly for that 20% increased effect of flasks applied to you. However, there are other options as well, which we will discuss in this section of the build guide.

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!

If you really want to use a Micro-Distillery Belt, the process of crafting it is easy. All you have to do is get an item level 85+ base and spam it with the Deafening Essence of Horror until you get some elemental resistances and increased flask effect. This particular essence, by the way, guarantees the Alchemist’s Genius mod, which further increases the flask effects applied to you.

Leave a prefix open so that you can use a Hunter Exalted Orb for that 30% Increased Chaos Damage.

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.

Flasks

• Jade Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Witchfire Brew/Topaz Flask
• Divine Life Flask
• Poisonberry Tincture

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.

Then, you have 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.

If you are wearing the Lightning Coil, you can switch the Witchfire Brew for a Topaz Flask. This is just to address the negative lightning resistance of the said unique body armor.

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.

Of course, the fifth slot is reserved for the Poisonberry Tincture. Although the Tincture has received some notable changes in Patch 3.25, it is still quite potent for the Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder. You just have to make sure to use the Tincture whenever you encounter tougher enemies.

Having said that, the Poisonberry Tincture enables you to wear the Micro-Distillery Belt for up to 20% improved effect of flasks applied to you. This takes effect due to the fact that the Poisonberry Tincture is not considered a flask and, therefore, takes full advantage of the Micro-Distillery Belt.

Flask Mods

• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
• 65% Reduced Effect of Curses on You (of the Owl)
• 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.

With the Simulacrum changes in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, the price of the Voices cluster jewel might go down, simply because the said unique item drops more often now than ever before.

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 a unique jewel that you can use 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 100% increased effect as possible.

It is important to note that The Adorned has been nerfed in Patch 3.25, though this was not surprising at all. This unique jewel was so overpowered that typical endgame builds always use this jewel and nothing else. So, what exactly has changed?

Well, The Adorned can now roll only up to 100% instead of 150%. It is still quite powerful, though that 50% decrease in power is quite noticeable; not to mention that the price of the 100% increased effect will certainly skyrocket as a result of the adjustment.

Now, if you still want to use The Adorned, get corrupted magic jewels with any of the following mods to complement it:

• +% 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.

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 200% more damage to compensate.>

With the massive melee rebalance GGG has done in Patch 3.25, the Viper Strike of the Mamba just got even better. That is because the effectiveness of base and added damage for this skill is now at 155%-392% (up from 90%-154%). What does this mean?

The increase in damage effectiveness simply means that the gem is now even more devastating when you add up flat sources of damage, as well as other damage modifiers on your gear.

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 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 gem 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.

By now, you are probably aware of the nerf to Grace that GGG has made in Patch 3.25. But, if you are not, this aura now only provides a 1,545 flat evasion rating compared to 2,575 previously. This is a rather sizable decrease, but you have to understand that the defense bonuses granted by item quality on gear are now calculated multiplicatively, so this may not be a bad thing at all.

Now that the Poisonberry Tincture has returned in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League, you can now choose between Petrified Blood or Herald of Agony depending on what you want. Do you need more survivability? Then go for Petrified Blood. Do you want to increase your chance of inflicting poisons? Herald of Agony is the perfect fit for that specific purpose.

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.

As you can tell by its name, Automation Support automatically uses the 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 the left click starting in the previous 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

• Rallying Cry
• More Duration Support
• Lifetap

The Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder used to rely on Ancestral Cry to increase the melee strike range of its primary skill. However, GGG has made sweeping changes to Warcry Skills in Patch 3.25. Hence, you will now use Rallying Cry instead of Ancestral Cry to improve this build even further.

Rallying Cry, in case you do not know, is a Warcry Skill in Path of Exile that now grants added attack damage equal to 3% of the damage of your main-hand weapon. This can scale up to 18% damage at the maximum power of 30, making your attacks even more potent.

The old Call to Arms Support (now called Autoexertion) has been replaced with More Duration Support in this setup. The reason for this change is that Autoexertion does not grant you the damage buff provided by Rallying Cry. Because of this, you will have to cast Rallying Cry every so often, especially when fighting against tougher enemies.

More Duration Support is a good replacement for Autoexertion because even though you cast Rallying Cry manually, it does last a bit longer, so you don’t have to always keep an eye on the buff.

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.

Weapon

• Whirling Blades
• Faster Attacks Support
• Culling Strike Support

Whirling Blades is your main movement skill on this build. It is linked to Faster Attacks Support to make it feel much smoother to use. Culling Strike allows you to slay monsters that are below 10% of their maximum life instantly when using Whirling Blades.

Offhand

• Alchemist’s Mark
• Mark on Hit Support
• Lifetap Support

Alchemist’s Mark enables you to create a Caustic Ground when you hit an enemy that is afflicted by your poison. At gem level 20, the Caustic Ground deals about 79% chaos damage per second based on the strongest poison on the enemy.

Mark on Hit Support and Lifetap Support are added to this setup to automate the process of activation without worrying about mana.

Tattoos

It sucks to lose the Wildwood Ascendancies because they’ve provided ways to improve PoE builds in a lot of different ways. Sure, Tinctures have returned in Patch 3.25, but Charms are still non-existent to this day. Even though the Wildwood Ascendancies are no longer present in the game, GGG has brought back some Tattoos that you can definitely use to compensate. That said, here are the Tattoos that we recommend for the Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder:

• Tattoo of the Kitava Warrior
  • 5% Increased Physical Damage
• Tattoo of the Tukohama Warmonger
  • 5% Increased Melee Damage
• Tattoo of the Tasalio Scout
  • 4% Increased Effect of Your Marks
• Tattoo of the Arohongui Shaman
  • 5% Increased Effect of Herald Buffs on You
  • Only use when you have Herald of Agony active
• Tattoo of the Ramako Fleetfoot
  • 2% Increased Movement Speed
• Tattoo of the Ramako Shaman
  • +2% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage

Passive Tree

POB

Main Setup

Final Thoughts

The Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder inflicts deadly poisons to make quick work of the enemy. If you have been holding off on trying damage over time builds in Path of Exile because of their typically slower kill time compared to other active skills in the game, then this build is probably going to change your mind about that.

That is even more so with the massive melee rebalancing changes GGG has implemented in Patch 3.25. The significant increase in effectiveness of the base and added damage simply cannot be denied and they certainly make Viper Strike of the Mamba even more potent than before.

This build needs a bit of investment to put up. We feel that 30 Divine Orbs or so should get you started. Later down the line, you have the option of purchasing upgrades that make the build feel so much better; both in terms of offense and defense.

Despite the absence of the Wildwood Ascendancies in this update, this build is still pretty awesome in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur League! You just have to make adjustments, especially if you have played this build previously.

All in all, the Viper Strike of the Mamba Pathfinder is a great way to entice non-DoT believers in PoE to finally try this build archetype out.

With that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!

PROS

+Kills monsters quickly and efficiently thanks to Viper Strike of the Mamba

+Fast mapper

+Competent bossing build

+Can work with a modest investment, with great upgrade options later on

+Buffed heavily due to the adjustments made in Patch 3.25

CONS

-Uses quite a lot of jewels to maximize damage

-Still a damage over time build, which may deter non-DoT believers

-Requires endgame crafting to bring the best out of this build