Slivertongue Bleed/Poison Assassin

Hello guys,

I tried creating my own build today, because I have wanted to use Slivertongue and Puncture for some time now and decided to combine them here. This is the pastebin if you want to take a look:

https://pastebin.com/yPiGwLAe

This thread is aimed to get feedback on the viability of the build for content like Shaper/Guardians and Uber Atziri (or overall viability)

I consider myself still new to the game so I am fully aware there is much room for improvement on all aspects of the build and more precisely:

1) Skill tree is probably not optimal
2) Skill links - for Puncture as a main skill Chance to Bleed support gives more overall DPS than PCOC but I wanted to avoid using str gems as the right side of the tree has basically none (yes, a Dex->Str conversion jewel can be used, but I think the sockets can be used for something better). Also, in the case of using Dendrobate high Int is will already be present and I do not want to waste affix slots on items for Str.
3) Probably everyone will say Sliver is trash and will tell me to go with Harp instead, but I just wanna make a use of that bow :)
4) Puncture might not be the best skill, TS will probably have better success but last league I already made a TS assassin and I want to try something different. As with the above, I just want to make a viable build around this particular skill
5) Low overall life - using Dendrobate over Cherrubim is a DPS increase, but I put Cherrubim as an option due to the already low life of the build; Please advise on how to get more life (or maybe an entirely different chest like Belly/Gruthkul/Kintsugi/Perfect Form?)
6) Having the above in mind, I considered going CI (yes, yes I know it's nerfed but I think it is still viable) but I am not sure which items I should replace. Probably Snakebite with corrupted Asenath's for starters?) So far I've only played life-based builds so I'm not familiar with CI items/synergies.
7) Phase acro?

I remain open for suggestions. All feedback is appreciated.

Thank you.

Regards,
Kromis

Hey, I was also planning a poison/bleed build with silvertongue. Here is my tree at lvl 88:



I'm worried about the lack of life on both trees, but mainly because I usually play hardcore melee characters. It looks like I have picked up more of the chance to poison/bleed nodes. With Silvertongue the 50% chance to bleed on pierce should bring both up to 100% and allows me to choose a skill other than puncture.

EDIT: changed the tree a little. I think I will go with frenzy as the main skill; GMP is great because it provide less projectile damage which has no effect on bleed/poison, whereas frenzy gains physical damage per frenzy charge, which at least scales bleed.

Hey there,

Yes, I deliberately picked less poison dmg nodes and more bleeding because I was planning on using Dendrobate and/or Snakebite (the armor provides nice poison dmg boost and in PoB my poison dmg is actually higher than my bleed as is). I also considered including both Fork and Chain to get the maximum effect of Slivertongue but Forks ruins the DPS so I only left Chain for 100% pierce on all targets. You seem to have picked more life nodes and I picked the Profane Chemistry notable for some reason. I guess I can drop that and get more life. Also, you picked the Piercing Shots which I think is unnecessary since arrows will guaranteed pierce all targets with that bow. Maybe you can use those points to get even more life/sockets? Do you think Vaal pact is worth it? The initial hit wont be that big with this setup so it might not be efficient, but hey, its only 1 point with this tree anyway.

Also what kind of chest are you planning on using? I already have a nicely rolled 5l Gruthkul's so I was thinking of using that instead of the initial 2.

Thanks for the feedback.

BR,
Kromis

Yeah, I also path close to the duelist leech nodes so vaal pact may well be worth it (despite low hit damage); I think it is one of those things I will have to try when I am actually playing the character. I could use chain but I don't know how reliably this would work vs bosses. It only costs me 1 point to route the tree via the pierce nodes and 3 more to grab the notable, I think being able to replace chain with GMP might make the build feel nicer to play.

I plan on using Yriel's Fostering, it has so many useful stats - crit chance, life, bleed chance, added phys. I don't think it can be beaten. Maybe you can check path of building but I think the added phys should amount to more DPS then even the 90% increased poison from dendrobate. You should definitely take Hired Killer, usually if there is a life wheel within 2 nodes of my tree I will grab it (still undecided about profane chemistry though).

For bosses I have another 5l setup for Barrage in my chest. I will definitely look into the Yriel's one, thanks. I am using both Chain and GMP in my main skill setup so that's why im skipping the pierce nodes on the tree.

Hey, I looked at your tree some more. I think you are getting too much projectile damage for a DOT build. Since 3.0 projectile damage no longer applies to bleeds/poisons you need to focus on either the initial hit or the ailment damage, not both. I have substituted in my tree and preferred skill gems into your POB:

https://pastebin.com/eTJUUwUk

The build is for lvl 100, which is generally a bad idea, but it helps show where to get more life from. I think Starkonja's would be a good helm, and combined with Yriel's you get a lot of evasion. I'm wondering about replacements for snakebite, since it seems a waste of one of your ascendancy bonuses, but at the same time they work well with added frenzy charges.

Swapping in barrage is a good idea for boss fights. I would probably have a 3 link somewhere with barrage-PCOC-increased crit strikes, and will swap between barrage/frenzy when needed.

-- it seems like snakebite now only have 60% chance to poison, in which case they work perfectly with the assassin node.

Hey mate,

Thanks for the input. I will probably start the build today, it looks solid so far :).

May your drops be plentiful!

BR,
Kromis

Update: after some additional input from reddit and myself moving some nodes around, this is what I think is the currently most min-maxed version for lvl 91 -https://pastebin.com/EBunYAmt. 1 point can easily be dropped somewhere and it would still be viable at 90.

Turns out Sliver is best for DoT builds like this one IMO and Yriel is indeed the best chest. I have dropped Snakebite in favor of Embalmers and changed the links a bit. Looks solid. For map clear I will be using Split Arrow and for bosses - Puncture or Barrage after some additional testing. Rain of arrows also seems to be very high dps for AOE clear.

Aslo, it has more life and I managed to fit Phase Acro.

Cheers!

I can't see the POB link at the moment since I'm away from my PC. I have some input as well after playing to lvl 69 (you should be able to see the character on my profile).

I think it is possible there are better rare bows out there than Slivertongue, however, they will cost a lot more and you will need to pick up extra bleed chance on the tree. Slivertongue has low attack speed, which is not good for stacking poison, although this downside is somewhat mitigated by using frenzy and having a lot of frenzy charges. A rare bow can also have higher crit chance and something like 30% increased damage with bleeding.

Why switch snakebite out for embalmers? I don't think its possible to get 100% chance to poison otherwise. The poison duration will be good for boss fights but not for map clear, and you loose the accuracy and attack speed from snakebite.

I tried using darkray vectors for a while but the reduced frenzy charge duration is too much to handle, so I'd prefer a good rare set of boots with high resistances, since the uniques lack a lot of this.

I'm not sure about using split arrow either. For poison and bleed you want as high base damage as possible, which you get with frenzy. Also the less projectile damage of GMP doesn't apply to poison/bleed so the gem has effectively no downside other than taking up a gem slot, which I believe is worth it.

I think my 6L will be Frenzy-GMP-maim-phys proj attack dog-deadly ailments-unbound ailments
and will get vulnerability curse corrupted snakebite

Well, after moving some nodes I get 60% chance to poison but with the current setup of skill gems and items the DOT dmg seems to be the highest after putting in Embalmers/Maligaro's, but remains to be seen since my char is lvl 51. Check out the PoB link and tell me what you think.