Intro
This particular build’s been gestating since way back in the early beta days, before we had even the Arcanist to play with and all because Blood of Dreeg synergises really well with Pneumatic Burst and the Dual Blades skill line with Nidalla’s Justifiable Means. To the point, that before AoM Acid/Poison WH were one of the top tier builds, capable of getting up to round 150 and taking on just about everything in the vanilla campaign. And then AoM and some nerfs hit and it faded away into sad obscurity.
Until now, where changes with 1.7.0.1 made WH are bit more viable without having to rely on more than 2 GD Stash bits of gear. And after looking at after looking at thejabrixone’s Scream Queen ABB build I finally got the inspiration to go back, copy over the old build and tweak the fluff out it.
And as of the 1.2 version of this, it’s very capable, only deaths came from a) insomnia meaning I’m slow with the “oh poo” buttons b) forgetting how much X hurt, where X stands for Reaper’s wraiths, Gargabol’s fire shotgun and Alex’s fluffing meteor.
1.6 - Rune of Murmur’s Kiss boosts the survivability of this build significantly, other disengagement glyphs/runes will also work, but Kiss ties into the build’s damage type and debuff’s enemy OA in a large area :3 Expect to die in SR if you over extend yourself though.
1.7 - Slight rework of skill points to provide more RR and alterations to augments and components. Now less reliant on Cursed Tincture for highly acid resistant bosses.
Concept
Bringing Poison/Acid Witchhunters back to semi-glory without using the full Venomblade set and melting everything along the way. Mainly by meleeing everything in your way to death and poison shadow striking anything you can’t facetank. Only Crucible remains to be tested now, and Lokkar, but fluff that guy.
The Build
>>Crucible 100+ Version<<
Swaps boots for more safety.
Alternative SS focused one for Callagadra - needs a rework + testing of the 1.7 version.
Pants component can be swapped out for more armour, but more health and health regen is how I prefer it
Updates
- all points allocated, finally
Patches buffed it a bit it seems as can now facetank Ravager of the Lost easily, plus some formatting. 1.6 - altered skill point distribution to softcap Dual Blades and now use Rune of Murmer’s kiss. - 1.7 After stuffing around in Crucible and SR + some more feedback from ya1 and tqfan went for more attack speed and %RR over raw dps. Trade off seems worth it since Cursed Tincture’s are no longer absolutely needed, they just help speed up killing highly acid resistant bosses a bit.
Pros:
- Good Sustain from PB and BoD + devotions and life steal.
- Highly flexible, as SS allows you to hit and run anything you can’t facetank, like Reaper of the Lost while the up to 180k/tic poison DoT kills them.
- Legendary gear is mostly easy to find and some can be crafted.
- Decent single target damage from both Shadow Strike and Execution which is at 14/8, with other WPS supporting
- Carves through the campaign like a hot (poison) knife through butter, except for Gargabol…
- Effective DA of 3000 and 3200 with Justicar rings proc means you rarely get crit’d
- Combined effective OA of 3600 (CoF + Arkon’s) means you can crit nearly everything.
- Did I mention it melts most Nemesis’s? Because it generally does. Can fight most without any pots, recommend health+ and healing increase for Alexander though.
- May melt GPU due to all the poison procs.
- Semi-decent poison resist reductions from a nice 94% RR from all skills/procs.
- Rune of Murmur’s Kiss allows for quick escapes, making SR a fair bit easier.
Cons:
- Not overcapped on elemental resistances as much as it could be.
- Can die to burst damage if you’re not careful. But that’s what Mythical Golemborne boots are for if you need them.
- No slow resistance due to devotion path/lack of gear, but base speed is enough that you can usually get out of danger or hit Blade Barrier to save your butt.
- Fantasy Greens, in theory you can work around ones you find with the right resistances and sacrifice some health for different components, but otherwise, GDstash is your friend, especially as the amulet only drops in the campaign. The shoulder’s can be found in Shattered Realm as Zantarin show’s up often-ish.
- SR 70+ you’re going to want to bring Cursed Tinctures, because at that level enemy acid resistance gets even higher, enough that time to kill on certain enemies (Kaisan is the biggest offender in SR) can drag out. Fortunately the iron income is more than enough to pay for a stack.
Gear
This is what I was able to theory craft and test out, coming to the current 1.2 version gearing. Though pants and boots are perfectly replaceable, particularly if you get a good roll on MI pants (i.e. anything with Thunderstruck, or Mythical Final March for boots etc). Personally though, if you don’t have the time, Grim Stash it Medal wise - any Basilisk Mark with the right resistances will work.
And of course Mythical Golemborne boots are great for boosting survivability. Trade off is a slight drop in DPS and increased cooldown of Shadow Strike per the Crucible spec.
Levelling:
Firstly - If you have Lokkar’s set, use it, it makes levelling a breeze. Also a nice roll of the MI Putrid Necklace with resistances will be very useful as it’ll convert cold damage into acid.
Anyhow, basically dump points into Amarasta’s Blade Burst, investing 2 points in it to 1 point in the mastery bar. Get Pneumatic Burst once ABB is softcapped + it’s modifier for healing and then invest points into the mastery bar until you can unlock Night’s Chill and invest 1 point in Veil of Shadows and softcap Night’s Chill since it’s your main source of resistance reduction at the moment. Once you’ve done this, push into the Occultist mastery bar to unlock Blood of Dreeg and then put 1 point in it, the other in Curse of Frailty and the last in Vulnerability. Then invest points 2:1 in BoD vs Vulnerability until softcapped. With 1 point in Shadow Strike for mobility. And invest in Dual Blades as you find weapons etc that give +Skill points to it, since you can proc them while ABB is on cooldown and increase your DPS significantly. More so once Execution is unlocked.
If you get a Rift Scourge Slicer early you can invest more into SS and Nidalla’s Justifiable Ends, since that kills bosses very nicely. But otherwise work with what gear you have available and slowly spec out the build until it’s set up. But otherwise you’ll find one in the Mountain Deeps or at Dreeg’s Shrine. Anything with attack speed is good until you can get good legendaries.
Devotion Guide:
- Put points in primordial and chaos stars on Crossroads
- Get Rat, Eye of the Guardian (bind to Curse of Frailty, then Bloody Pox later), and Ghoul
- Complete Manticore and assign to Ring of Steel for almost guaranteed chance to proc it.
- Grab Eel, Viper, Lizard and Solemn Watcher, take points out of Lizard
- Now you can put points into Murmur and complete it, which is bound to Curse of Fraility which is great for proc’ing it
- Complete Toad, followed by Arekon’s Scorpion, bind it to Amarasta’s Blade Burst.
- Get Tainted Eruption, left branch only followed by the first two nodes of Ulzuin’s Torch
- Single point in first node of Empty Throne for some stun resistance.
Nemesis/Boss Tips:
Fully geared out nearly everything can either be facetanked or melts from the poison DoT on Shadow Strike, however certain bosses/Nemesis’s can be a pain (now if rough order of appearance):
- Mad Queen is facetankable with Bloodthirster or Ghoul on, just make sure to back off when she triggers her red aura if neither of those are up, otherwise dies easily.
- Salazaar - very high poison resistance makes him slow to kill, but relatively safe.
- Gargabol - hit and run wins the day, since while he can be facetanked with Ghoul and Blood Thirster active, it’s very risky. 6-7 Shadow Strikes though will usually load him with enough poison that he’ll drop. In SR leave till last due to the space he can take up with his fire plants
- Shaper of Flesh - beware the 2nd stage, otherwise use aether pots etc and you can pretty much facetank stages 1 and 3.
- Morgoneth - Hit and run when Blood Thirster isn’t active, and use resistance pots + healing ones to make it easier.
- Fabi-kins - due to not being heavily overcapped on pierce, health/energy+ along with +healing and cold/freeze pots come heavily recommended. Especially since he can spawn with some seriously stupid weapons.
- Reaper of the Lost - can be done without pots now, though you need to kill his wraiths sooner rather than later and occasionally hit n run to deal with his Savagery charges
- Archmage Alexander - high poison resistance + that fluffing meteor and the new nova attack he has make him not a nemy to be taken on while half awake. Stay mobile constantly and only engage him after he uses his meteor if you don’t have terrain to block it. Highly dangerous in SR 70+ especially with the right mutators that allow him to cast his meteor more often.
- The Iron Maiden - facetank’s with ease now with the current medal, at least from SR testing
- Kaisan - Can facetank with Blood Thirster active, just remember to reposition when he spawns his crystals. Biggest threat once you hit SR 70+ as he gains high acid resistance in standard shards and hits like a tank too. Less of a threat in boss rooms though. So bring Cursed Tinctures
- Zantarin - With the increases in resistance reduction Zantarin is fairly easy now to take down, just avoid his shotgun attack and in SR70+ use a Cursed Tincture to make him die quicker.
Celestials:
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Avatar - Switch medal to Myth. Mark of Divinity for the 3% overcap to lightening damage, can use Cursed Tincture too, but otherwise mostly facetankable with only a lightening resistance pot, just watch your cooldowns and health and back off if you’re overloaded with electrocution damage. All his summons guarantee Sealed Fate will have 100% uptime. About 6 minutes all up.
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Reaper - Can’t do due siding against Barrowholm, will test via GDstash manipulation eventually
Definitely doable via hit and run SS for the 2nd stage or with the alt. SS build. -
Lokkar - Fairly easy with resist pots and health ones, just remember to disengage to avoid getting ganked by the fire tornadoes.
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Bourbon - Surprisingly easy actually, resist pots + health ones and focus on one clone at a time until the ultimate clone emerges. Didn’t die once on the first go in ages.
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Callagrada - Use this build: SS Version and the evidence, took about 10 minutes. Any Acid+ Rift Slicers will do frankly, Mythical Undying Oath can also be used for the medal to give you a bit more healing. Not recommended for regular Cally slaying as 1 serious mistake and you will die.
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Crate - Nyet Comrade, too much AOE. A better pilot might manage, but as per usual melee with Crate = extremely painful. May be doable with the above SS build though, but don’t have the energy to test it myself.
The Shattered Realm Guide
- You will die, for this build is slightly glassy until you learn it’s gameplay properly. Like when to run away and let your poison DoT’s and Black Plague thin the horde. And the best times to use your heals.
- To avoid dying, do not stand in damage over times pools and retreat when necessary and let your DoT’s thin the horde. Gargoyles are the worst for it, but so are fire damage type atherials from AoM.
- Kasien and Zantarin are your biggest nemesis threats in the stage 4 sections and shards, always try and leave them for last. Iron Maiden can also be painful if you draw her in with more than one mob in SR65+ Most other nemesi will die pretty quickly up until SR70.
- Same for Grava, you need space to avoid their fumble vortexes of chaos. And speaking of Cthonic nemesi - Benn’Jhar’s chaos clusters will absolutely wreck you on higher shards if more than 2 explode at a time
- And when it comes to boss rooms, always draw them 1 by 1, as in latter shards, you will die.
- Also, there’s a yellow Chthonian hero that is annoyingly good a healing, if you fail to deal with them you will run the risk of dying, so either avoid their mob or assassinate them.
- Minimal pharma is needed, health regen+ works very well, and freeze resist potions are needed for shards 60+. Once you hit SR70 recommend boss/nemesis damage type specific pots to give you some breathing room. Though definitely bring a big stack of energy pots, you will need them.
- In terms of shrines, you only need two really, Vire and Rattosh, though for deeper shards Death can also be useful if you have Rattosh already, as can Azrakaa. Do not recommend Oleron due to the physical resistance debuff it gives.
- Suspect this build can go past SR80, but I’m a bit poop at piloting (and my stashes need clearing lawl) so SR76 is where I’ll stop.
- In terms of mutators, Poisonous is the the most annoying, but that’s what a stack of Cursed Tincture is for. Afflicted is also a pain as less health = a lower chance of Ghoul proccing in time to save you, but there’s pots for that. Aethermarked and Tainted together are probably grounds for a reset, as lower attack speed cripples this build a bit too much, but I still managed SR70-75 with them.
And the SR75 clear evidence + loooooot
Crucible
Can do up to 170 with the Crucible build, but you will need all blessings, resistance potions and upgraded Stormcaller Beacons to make it easier to do. Okay for 100-150 farming with freeze and health regen pots, but SR frankly gives more for less investment of resources from my point of view. Especially when it comes to rare rolled MI’s.
Credits - thejabrixone for inspiration and feed back, the usual suspects for all their past Acid/Poison WH builds and Crate for their awesome work on Grim Dawn and dedication to getting the balance right, eventually 1.2 credits - ya1 for his really useful gear pointers and devotion suggestions. 1.6 - Crate for the balance changes that made this build even better. 1.7 ya1 and tqfan for helpful criticism, even if I’m not going to make yet another ABB Venomblade Witch Hunter like they want me to
Stuff needed, 2.0:
- pictures, still needed.
- run though SR (done), CR, try celestials (done).
- Alt. gear set ups not using fantasy greens.
- Edit the wall of text to hide things and make it easier to navigate…
It’s suboptimal I know, but with trying to restrict it to 2 MI’s my options were pretty limited. Probably a well rolled rare Living Ring MI (or Vine Ring) would do, but reference wise I figured Open Hand of Mercy would work and it seems to do.
Tempted to take the 2 points in Ulzuin’s Torch out to stick one in the first node of Empty Throne and the other where it gives the most benefit.