Exploding Viper Kick

This build is taken from aohexer's post on Reddit.

## **Summary**:

The build utilizes the dragon talon kick move and ALL poison nova chance to cast options (when striking, when attack, when struck, on kill). The reason it’s dubbed “exploding viper kick” is because ctc striking/attacking/struck start the initial kills, and the poison nova on kill creates a devastating ripple effect, triggering a lot of poison nova’s to further bring down packs of enemies. Combined with Spike Thorn shield and the Viper assassin valor (30% poison damage, -30% enemy poison resist, 100 life per hit, 100 mana per hit), this allows for multiple upon multiple numbers of poison nova’s to proc which reaches high damage output as well as high survivability.

## **Stat Allocation**:

**Strength**: 185 after gear

**Dexterity**: 118 after gear (to use elite claws)

**Vitality**: Majority of points

**Energy**: 0

## **Skills**:

Dragon Talon: **20**

Dragon Flight: **1**

Venom: **20**

\*Fade: **20** \*This build was designed with Fade>Burst of Speed because it did not have Eon Band for curse immunity and struggled to reach max elemental resists. More about gear options below.

Blade Shield: **20 -** *This is a 1 point wonder, but had little options to put my points elsewhere*

### **Rationale about skills**:

Very straight forward. Dragon talon and Blade Shield help trigger poison nova ctc, Venom adds poison damage on kicks (splashing to multiple targets) to help bring down enemies to trigger more novas, Fade for survivability (high curse reduction (80%), elemental resists (60s), and Physical resist (20s). Dragon Flight helps with moving in and out of packs of enemies.

## **Gear**:

Link to Gear <- containing the important pieces

### **Charms**: Assassin Torch !!!!!

**Other charms**: +Skill components aren’t a huge priority. Magic resist, life, attack speed, a couple of elemental resist help fill in the gaps where it’s needed. Tertiary Chance to cast Confuse is very powerful for this build and its another reason why I prefer Shadow over Plague since Plague has the Lower Resist curse which would override Confuse. The added crowd control with Confuse helps with Killing Fields tremendously and would consider it invaluable for a successful clear.

## **Playstyle**:

The key point is you want to be surrounded to take advantage of the Spike Thorn helping procc Poison Nova as well as the Life Per Hit from the Valor. Pick your target and start laying in kicks to spread Venom around. At this point, Venom, the splashing kicks + crushing blow, proccing on attack, striking, and on struck Poison Novas and Lighting Novas will quickly bring down enemies around you which will then “explode” more Poison Nova’s On Kill. Watch the Poison Nova’s ripple and clear the screen. Rinse and Repeat. Extremely satisfying to watch. Your life will likely be topped up from the Life Per Hit and Life Leech from multiple enemies (except sometimes the Champion Revenant packs in Killing Fields that shoot a hundred ground slams).

## **Mercenary**:

Hard to talk about them when this build is in end game maps and mercenaries die within the first few minutes. One thing to mention, however, is a mercenary with the Toxic Crown that gives Level 3 Pestilence Aura. This acts as your “conviction aura” for poison and has a noticeable difference is bringing down groups. I have not been able to find a way to keep my merc alive long enough. There was some considering for using the Toxic Crown over Andarial’s. While it may be an option, I still prefer Andarial’s additional stats.