Introduction
I’ve seen/heard quite a few people talk about how stacking poisons is so amazing. I decided to investigate.
This post is aimed at newer players who don’t understand poison and veterans who have never dabbled with poison. I’m sure there are even some poison experts who may learn a thing or two.
There are a few questions I hope to answer:
- Which is better? Prioritising Damage or Stacks?
- How can I optimise a combination of these?
- What is the Theoretical DPS?
Also, please realise this is pure pure damage. No concept of defense or survivability or viability exists in this build.
1. Damage vs Stacks
Overview
In comparing these two variations, I looked at four different areas:
- DPS vs 0 Res Enemies (enemies by default have zero resistance… I think this is also Dummy Damage)
- DPS vs Level 100 Enemies (enemies have damage reduction up to a max of 87%, according to Tunklab).
- DPS vs Resistant Enemies (enemies with the “Resists Poison” tag have 40% poison res, according to RawSuicide).
- DPS vs Level 100 Bosses (these take 60% less poison damage).
You may count 4 categories here but only 3 in the actual tables… this is because the numbers got too long to fit in all the categories.
But what about corruption?
From what my research could tell, monsters gain HP per corruption and not damage resistance or reduction.
Increased Damage
Increased damage in this case are sources of:
- Increased Damage
- Increased Poison Damage
- Increased Damage Over Time
- Increased Damage while Dual Wielding
- Increased Damage while Transformed
.
.
.
And so on.
| Increased Damage | DPS vs Lvl 100 | vs Lvl 100 Res | Lvl 100 Boss |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100% | 1.82 | 1.09 | 0.73 |
| 500% | 5.46 | 3.28 | 2.18 |
| 1,000% | 10.01 | 6.01 | 4.00 |
| 5,000% | 46.41 | 27.85 | 18.56 |
| 10,000% | 91.91 | 55.15 | 36.76 |
| 20,000% | 182.91 | 109.75 | 73.16 |
Based on maths I did for a Doom build, I ended up getting something around 20,000% as an upper limit for this. As you can see, damage reduction is quite strong in this game.
Stacks
Comparatively…
| Stacks | Shred | vs Lvl 100 | Resistant | Lvl 100 Boss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | -5% | 0.91 | 0.55 | 0.36 |
| 2 | -10% | 1.91 | 1.15 | 0.76 |
| 3 | -15% | 3.01 | 1.81 | 1.20 |
| 4 | -20% | 4.21 | 2.53 | 1.69 |
| 5 | -25% | 5.53 | 3.32 | 2.21 |
| 10 | -50% | 14.12 | 8.47 | 5.65 |
| 20 | -100% | 45.99 | 27.59 | 18.40 |
| 30 | -150% | 112.37 | 67.42 | 44.95 |
| 40 | -200% | 244.05 | 146.43 | 97.62 |
| 50 | -250% | 469.92 | 298.15 | 198.77 |
| 100 | -500% | 11,396 | 6,838 | 4,558 |
| 200 | -1,000% | 2,997,380 | 1,798,428 | 1,198,952 |
| 300 | -1,500% | 591,238,993 | 354,743,393 | 236,495,597 |
| 400 | -2,000% | 103,664,895,099 | 62,198,937,059 | 41,465,958,039 |
| 500 | -2,500% | 17,040,080,125,127 | 10,224,048,075,076 | 6,816,032,050,051 |
Yes, you read that right; 500 stacks! Before I started all the calculations, I truly thought 50 stacks was probably the upper limit… LMTO.
As you can see, stacks are absolutely bonkers!!!
Why? Because the stacks equation is exponential, compared to the linear increased damage equation.
2. Optimisation
Initially, increased damage IS good. It isn’t until about 4.845 stacks that the gains of investing into stacks outweigh the gains of damage. So, if you’re playing a building with an ability than can only get 4-5 stacks on an enemy during the entire duration of the poison (or have an unreliable ability), then increased damage is what you’re after.
This sort of style would only use poison as an additional feature.
However, if you can invest into additional stacks on hit, this is where the damage really pops off. This playstyle could even rely on poison as its main source of damage.
3.1 Gear for Theoretical DPS
Best Class?
Mage is awful with non-elemental ailments. Honestly, don’t play a poison mage.
Sentinel is also trash here. If this were a void ailment, he’d be good.
Primalist can only really work with totems. I think poison companions is alright but I haven’t looked into it - I’ve just seen PerryThePig play it.
Acolyte is the queen if you want to scale the damage. Unfortunately, she kinda sucks with stacks. She’s better with ailments not reliant on stacks (like Doom, where she is even better than Void Knight).
This leaves Rogue. Like wtf she’s a goddess.
Idols
We can fit in 4 2x2 Cobra’s Idols, which each give us 35% chance to poison per dagger as the prefix (thus a total of 280% poison chance). Best suffix is Of Dagger Mastery giving us 43% increased damage (total of 172%).
This means we can then have 4 1x1 idols with 10% DoT and 8% Poison (thus 72% damage).
Items
Note: I did test other items, and even looked into Marksman and Lich items and abilities, but a melee/throwing Blandedancer ended up best
We spec into Dual Wielding for 2 Chitin Daggers with Tier 7 Poison Chance (120% each)
Venom Phile as our relic gives +22%.
Viper Tail as our belt gives 70%.
2 x Tongue of the Aberrant gives us +2 to all poison spell skills. Also helps with our Dex. It gives 80% poison damage and 80% chance to poison on spell hit.
Any helmet will do, so long as it has Tier 7 Of The Cobra for 85% chance to poison per dagger (so 170%) and Tier 7 Of Rancor for 100% poison damage.
Stymied Fate with 128% DoT will do as our boots.
Serpent’s Milk as our amulet for 75% poison damage.
Finally Liraka’s Claws as our gloves as it gives us poison chance on throwing skill.
Blessings
Grand Taste of Venom with 85%.
Passives
8 Points in Swift Assassin for +24% Attack Speed (faster attacks = more stacks).
1 Point in Twin Blade for Dual Wielding.
8 Points in Steady Hand because we need to put a point somewhere and it gives Dex.
5 Points in Lethal Cadence for 100% increased damage every third attack.
8 Points in Poisoned Tip for 80% Poison Chance with a Dagger.
8 Points in Duellist for 32% Damage because we need points somewhere.
8 Points in Cloak of Shadows for Dex and because we need a dump and we only use 2 abilities so can’t go Flow.
10 Points in Blood Serpent’s Blades, given us 50% DoT and 100% Poison Chance.
1 Point of Shroud of Dusk to access 5 Points in Veil of Night for 15% AS.
8 Points in Flash of Steel for 40% Damage to access 5 Points in Weapons of Choice which gives 160% poison chance with 2 daggers.
5 Points in Spell Breaker as we do kinda need to mana regen.
6 Points Asuvon’s Pact for 90% Damage.
5 Points in Perfection for 100% Damage.
1 Point in Confidence to get to 5 Points in Exuberance for 50% Damage.
3.2 Abilities for Theoretical DPS
Went through all the abilities. By far the two best for Bladedancer are:
-
Flurry (super fast attacks for many stacks).
-
Umbral Blades (spinny for stacks).
Flurry
We take:
3 Points in Alacrity for speed.
1 in Boundless Blows for speed.
1 in Accelerating Impact for 15% damage after 5 seconds.
2 in Relentless for speed.
4 in Vile Tactics for 40% chance.
3 in Lethal Vector for 30% DoT.
3 in Compounding Toxin for 30% Damage.
With all our Attack Speed, this gives us:
6 Hits per Second (minimum).
We also have 75% damage on poison if this skill inflicts one (due to all our dex).
Umbral Blades
4 Points in Dusk Shroud to give us 4 Points in Edge of Obscurity for 8% damage.
1 in Sword Thrower for 250% damage.
1 in Cacophony of Steel for spinnies (gives us 6 Hits per second).
5 in Cut and Leave for 50% Bleed.
1 in Emerald Cutlass to convert all Bleed sources into Poison.
Rest of points can go anywhere.
We also have 529% damage on poison if this skill inflicts one (due to all our dex).
Also hits 6 times a second and counts as a throwing skill.
3.3 Calculation for Theoretical DPS
Based on all this, we get 20 stacks per hit (20.22 stacks to be exact).
Umbral Blades hits 6 times a second and has 529% increased damage.
This gives us 323 poison damage per stack.
Therefore
| Seconds | Stacks | vs Lvl 100 | vs Bosses |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 121.32 | 631,891 | 252,756 |
| 2 | 242.64 | 47,0282,202 | 188,112,881 |
| 3 | 363.96 | 201,926,000,000 | 105,001,500,000 |
The last ones have zeroes at the end because that was the point my calculator started giving me 1.050015E+11.
Likewise with Flurry, we do 6 hits per second. This has less poison chance because it isn’t a throwing skill, at “only” 18.92 stacks per hit. We also only do 232.2 damage per stack.
| Seconds | Stacks | vs Lvl 100 | vs Bosses |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 113.52 | 290,513 | 116,205 |
| 2 | 227.04 | 147,776,423 | 59,110,569 |
| 3 | 340.56 | 56,377,500,000 | 22,550,990,000 |
Now, if we fight, say, Orobyss and throw down 3 Umbral Blades at and then spam Flurry, then repeat whenever UB goes down to maintain max stacks:
| Stacks | vs Lvl 100 | vs Bosses |
|---|---|---|
| 704.52 | 7,223,910,000,000,000,000 | 2,889,570,000,000,000,000 |
This is just bonkers. Looks like with this stack damage, we increase our damage a thousandfold for every 100 stacks.
If numbers aren’t your strong suit, this is almost 2.9 quintillion poison damage per second.
Hopefully this was a fun and educational read :3
Also, EHG, can I just say that as a mathematician
+5% Negative Poison Resistance
just hurts to read. Why not just “-5%”?
Final note: this took me 7 hours. If you find a mistake anywhere, please tell me and I’ll delete the post, cry myself to sleep and question my will to live 
