Path of Exile Gems PoE Builds, PoE Currency guide and other guides
Intro & build description
Pestilent strike is one of the poison skills introduced in 3.8 Blight league and offers a great playstyle for someone who likes melee poison build archetype. It works pretty similar to Essence Drain + Contagion, but is packed in one skill instead of 2.
Build Pros
- Decent as a league starter, since it doesn't require any specific uniques to work. Those uniques that the build uses, are cheap though.
- Reflect is not an issue
- Really nice clear speed and fast movement
- Decent life pool
Build Cons
- Not the fastest boss killer, but still can do pretty well
Passive tree(s) and Path of Building
[3.9] Skill tree [3.10] Skill TreeBandits
| Bandits Quest Choice |
| Kill all bandits |
Ascendancy skill points
| Labyrinths | Skill point choice |
|---|---|
| Labyrinth 1 | Noxious Strike |
| Labyrinth 2 | Toxic Delivery |
| Labyrinth 3 | Mistwalker |
| Endgame Labyrinth | Opportunistic |
Skill gem setup
Helm
Cast When Damage Taken Support (LVL 2)
Immortal Call (LVL 4)
Increased Duration Support (LVL 20)
Withering Step (LVL 9)
Body Armor
Pestilent Strike
Awakened Unbound Ailments Support
Awakened Melee Splash Support
Awakened Added Chaos Damage Support
Awakened Ancestrall Call Plus Support
Awakened Deadly Ailments Support
Gloves
Summon Stone Golem
Meat Shield Support
Precision (Unlinked)
Malevolence (Unlinked)
Boots
Ancestral Protector
Increased Area of Effect Support
Plague Bearer Support
Summon Skitterbots (Unlinked)
2h Weapon
None
1h Weapon
Whirling Blades
Fortify Support
Faster Attacks Support
Offhand weapon / shield
Flame Dash
Vaal Grace
Blood Rage
Build uniques / Example rare gear
Tip: Click on the item to view it on PoE Wiki or to view similar rare items in poe.tradeHelmet
Rare HelmetLook for rare helm with at least 80 life and some elemental resistances.
Later, when you have more currency, you could use aberrant fossils + pristine fossils to craft helm with “Nearby enemies have -0% to Chaos Resistance”
Body Armour
Carcass JackCarcass Jack is a great all-around option for the body armour, giving us life, resistances, area of effect and some damage. It will probably be kinda expensive, but you don’t need it right away.
You could easily use Tabula Rasa until you can afford it.
Gloves
Rare GlovesLook for rare gloves with at least 80 life and high resistances. If you have more currency, you could get gloves with attack speed and # -# physical damage to attacks on top of those stats.
Boots
Rare BootsLook for rare boots with 30% increased movement speed, at least 80 life and some resistances.
Left Ring
Rare RingOn your rings look for at least 70 life, some resistance and, if you can afford it, also increased attack speed.
Amulet
Rare Lapis AmuletLook for rare Lapis amulet with high life, global critical strike chance and some resistances.
You could craft adds x-x chaos damage to attacks on it using crafting bench.
1Hand Weapon
Fossil Crafted Rare ClawThe endgame weapons for this build will be 2 rare claws, crafted with corroded fossil.
We need 2 mods on these claws – 1 is “Adds x to x Chaos Damage” mod, which shows up pink right under physical damage.
Second one is “60% chance for Poisons inflicted with this Weapon to deal 100% more Damage”.
Until you can afford to craft or buy claws like that, you could use The Wasp nest, which is more than decent option going into maps.
Jewel
JewelsOn jewels look for following mods:
1.) Increased non-ailment chaos damage
2.) Increased maximum life
3.) Increased chaos damage
4.) Increased global critical strike chance / critical chance with one-handed melee weapons
5.) Increased attack speed / attack speed while dual wielding
Flask
Flask SetupBuild uses following flasks:
1.) Divine Life flask with instant recovery and bleed removal
2.) Quicksilver Flask of adrenaline
3.) Coralito’s Signature
4.) Witchfire Brew
5) Quartz Flask with freeze removal
