13 Ways to Exploit Poison in Path of Exile

Table of Contents:

1. Understanding Poison Damage

2. Essential Poison Skills and Support Gems

3. Boosting Poison Damage Output

4. Poison-Based Builds and Strategies

5. Gearing for Poison

6. Realm of Darkness: Poison Resistance

7. Ascending to Poison Proficiency

8. Path of Shadows: Unique Items

9. Delving into the Poison Cache

10. Unleashing the Venomous Potential of Traps

11. Engineering Agony: Poison Minions

12. Engaging the Enemy: Poison Totems

13. The League of Poison: Delirium

1. Understanding Poison Damage

Poison inflicts damage over time (DoT) to enemies, dealing a percentage of their maximum life. The damage scales with various factors, including:

• Character level
• Gem level
• Stack size
• Duration

Example: A level 20 Path of Exile (PoE) character with a level 10 Poison gem can deal 5% of an enemy's maximum life per second over 5 seconds.

2. Essential Poison Skills and Support Gems

Keystone Skills:

• Assassin's Mark: Supports poison, causing it to deal increased damage and grant critical strike chance.
• Caustic Arrow: A bow skill that fires poison projectiles that deal chaos damage.
• Toxic Rain: A ground-targeted spell that creates a toxic cloud, damaging enemies within it.

Support Gems:

• Increased Duration: Extends the duration of poison effects.
• Poison Damage: Increases the damage dealt by poison.
• Multiple Toxins: Allows the stacking of multiple poison effects on the same target.
• Unbound Ailments: Prevents poison from expiring prematurely.

3. Boosting Poison Damage Output

Core Mechanics:

• Increased Physical Damage Taken: Passives and items that increase enemy physical damage taken enhance poison effectiveness.
• Pierce: Allows poison projectiles to pass through multiple enemies, applying poison to each.
• Area Damage: Support gems and passives that increase area damage boost the spread of poison.

Ascendancy Classes:

• Pathfinder: Grants increased poison damage and area of effect.
• Assassin: Enhances critical strike chance for poison attacks.
• Occultist: Provides bonuses to poison damage and chaos resistance.

4. Poison-Based Builds and Strategies

Caustic Arrow Trickster:

• Focuses on dealing sustained poison damage over a wide area.
• Utilizes high attack speed and movement speed to kite enemies.

Toxic Rain Pathfinder:

• A ranged spellcaster build that excels at clearing large groups of enemies.
• Emphasizes poison duration and stacking multiple instances of poison.

5. Gearing for Poison

Essential Items:

• The Ascetic's Gloves: Unique gloves that grant increased poison damage.
• Maligaro's Lens: A unique amulet that boosts poison duration and increases the chance of inflicting poison.
• Voidwalker's Helm: A unique helmet that grants increased chaos damage and poison chance.

6. Realm of Darkness: Poison Resistance

Enemies can build resistance to poison, reducing its effectiveness. Countermeasures include:

• Poison Resistance Reduction: Support gems and passives that reduce enemy poison resistance.
• Chaos Penetration: Items and passives that bypass poison resistance.
• Venom Gyre: A unique dagger that penetrates poison resistance.

7. Ascending to Poison Proficiency

Notable Passives:

• Deadly Poison: Increases the damage dealt by poison over time.
• Perfect Agony: Grants increased poison chance and reduced target movement speed.
• Corrosive Elements: Converted physical damage to chaos damage, which is not affected by poison resistance.

8. Path of Shadows: Unique Items

Specialized Poison Items:

• The Green Dream: A unique bow that increases poison damage and reduces mana cost.
• Victario's Acuity: A unique ring that grants bonuses to poison damage and chaos resistance.
• Doedre's Scorn: A unique amulet that increases poison duration and reduces enemy chaos resistance.

9. Delving into the Poison Cache

Additional Tips:

• Use Blight: This league mechanic rewards players with poison-related items.
• Run Abyss: The Abyss league mechanic provides access to unique poisons.
• Experiment with Breachlords: Certain breachlords such as Chayula and Tul inflict significant poison damage.

10. Unleashing the Venomous Potential of Traps

Poison Traps:

• Bladefall Trap: Traps that summon blades that deal poison damage.
• Viper Strike Trap: Traps that summon vipers that inflict poison stacks.
• Caustic Arrow Trap: Traps that fire poison arrows at enemies.

11. Engineering Agony: Poison Minions

Poison Minions:

• Bane of the Living: A minion that releases a poison aura.
• Blightwell: A minion that creates a poison cloud.
• Risen Zombie: Zombies that spread poison to nearby enemies upon death.

12. Engaging the Enemy: Poison Totems

Poison Totems:

• Plague Bearer Totem: Totems that launch poison projectiles.
• Searing Bond Totem: Totems that cause damage over time and inflict poison.
• Ancestral Warchief Totem: Totems that grant increased poison damage to nearby allies.

13. The League of Poison: Delirium

Delirium Orbs:

• Modifiers: Delirium orbs can grant increased poison damage, poison duration, and other poison-related bonuses.
• Challenges: The Delirium league presents unique challenges that test poison builds.