Path of Exile 2: Poisonburst Pathfinder Build Guide

Path of Exile 2 is shaping up to be a game that pushes the boundaries of what action RPGs can deliver. With its expanded skill trees, new mechanics, and refined builds, the game promises a fresh experience while retaining the deep complexity that the series is known for. One of the most exciting and versatile builds in PoE 2 is the Poisonburst Pathfinder. This build utilizes the powerful synergies of poison-based damage and the incredible utility of the Pathfinder ascendancy, offering high DPS, great mobility, and excellent survivability.

In this guide, we'll break down the Poisonburst Pathfinder build, covering everything from the core mechanics to the optimal gear and passive tree. Whether you're a new player trying to understand the core aspects of the build or an experienced PoE veteran looking to optimize your gear, this guide will provide all the necessary information to excel with this explosive, poison-based playstyle. Read this article before deciding whether or not to use Poe 2 trade to help yourself.

What is the Poisonburst Pathfinder Build?

The Poisonburst Pathfinder build revolves around using poison-based damage in combination with bursting effects, typically relying on the Poisonburst skill (or similar poison-centric abilities) to trigger devastating area-of-effect (AoE) explosions. The Pathfinder ascendancy amplifies this playstyle by enhancing poison damage, providing flask-based bonuses, and offering significant mobility and sustain.

Core Concept of the Poisonburst Pathfinder:

Poison Damage: At the core of this build is the ability to deal poison damage over time. The goal is to inflict high amounts of poison damage on enemies, which will trigger poison explosions that can clear multiple enemies at once.

Burst Damage: The "burst" effect in this build comes from the synergy between poison stacks and certain skills that trigger poison explosions. Skills like Toxic Rain or Viper Strike are ideal for applying poison and causing burst damage.

Pathfinder Ascendancy: The Pathfinder ascendancy excels at improving flask effectiveness, poison damage scaling, and survivability, making it an excellent choice for this build.

Pathfinder Ascendancy Overview

The Pathfinder ascendancy is one of the most versatile options for a poison-based build in PoE 2. It excels at improving elemental and poison damage while providing incredible sustain through flasks and mobility.

Key Ascendancy Nodes:

Nature's Reprisal: This node increases poison damage and enhances the effectiveness of your flask, allowing you to scale both poison damage and flask sustain for survivability. The added poison damage is essential for maximizing the build's potential.

Master Toxicist: Master Toxicist improves the effectiveness of poison damage specifically, and also grants bonuses to poison duration. This synergizes excellently with the build, allowing your poison to linger longer and deal more damage over time.

Vile Bastion: Vile Bastion makes the build much more tanky by offering life regeneration and the ability to deal with damage over time more effectively. This is especially useful when dealing with poison damage and other sources of environmental damage.

The Green Nightmare (potential node in PoE 2): This node is designed to boost your flask efficiency and reduce the cooldowns of flasks, enabling you to keep your flasks active more often. It's a great utility node for the Pathfinder, especially for generating more damage through the use of flasks.

Core Skills for the Poisonburst Pathfinder Build

To truly harness the potential of the Poisonburst Pathfinder, selecting the right skills is crucial. Below are some of the best skills and gems to use for this build.

1. Toxic Rain (Main Skill)

Toxic Rain is an excellent skill for the Poisonburst Pathfinder, thanks to its ability to deal massive amounts of poison damage over time while also providing great AoE coverage. When combined with additional poison damage nodes, it can clear large packs of enemies quickly and efficiently.

Skill Modifiers: Increasing the poison damage and area-of-effect of Toxic Rain is the key to maximizing damage. Additionally, you can use Unleash to trigger multiple cloud effects quickly, increasing the poison burst potential.

Synergies: Toxic Rain benefits from increased poison duration, poison damage over time, and increased area of effect, all of which boost the build's damage output significantly.

2. Viper Strike (Secondary Skill)

If you prefer a more direct, single-target poison skill, Viper Strike is an excellent choice. This melee poison skill applies poison stacks with each hit and offers a burst of damage when used in combination with certain poison synergies.

Skill Modifiers: Focus on increasing poison damage and critical strike chance to make each Viper Strike hit more potent. You can also add Poison Support and Unleash to ramp up the damage.

Synergies: Viper Strike pairs very well with Pathfinder's flask effectiveness, giving you more burst damage when you use flasks that increase poison damage.

3. Contagion (Utility Skill)

Contagion is a key skill for applying poison to large groups of enemies. It spreads poison to all enemies within the area of effect, making it ideal for quickly stacking poison on multiple targets before bursting them with another skill.

Skill Modifiers: Adding Increased Area of Effect and Poison Damage Support to Contagion allows you to apply poison to a broad area, helping you set up poison bursts with your other skills like Toxic Rain.

4. Plague Bearer (Optional Utility Skill)

Plague Bearer is an amazing skill for dealing with large packs of enemies and clearing areas quickly. It stores poison damage over time and then releases a burst of poison when activated. This skill is especially useful for generating massive burst damage in high-density maps.

Synergies: The longer you can store up poison damage, the more damage Plague Bearer will do when released. Combining this with increased poison duration or Poison Support gems can boost your damage output even more.

Passive Tree for Poisonburst Pathfinder

The Passive Tree is an essential part of any PoE build, and the Poisonburst Pathfinder is no different. Below are some important nodes to focus on to maximize the effectiveness of this build.

1. Poison Damage Nodes

Focus on nodes that increase poison damage, as well as the duration of poison effects. These nodes are the backbone of your DPS, ensuring that each poison stack applied to enemies deals significant damage over time.

Notable Nodes: "Poison Mastery," "Toxic Strikes," "Fatal Toxins," and "Venomous Strike" all significantly boost poison damage.

2. Flask Nodes

Since the Pathfinder ascendancy heavily synergizes with flasks, you'll want to invest in nodes that improve flask effectiveness, flask recharge rate, and life regeneration. These nodes allow you to stay in the fight longer while maintaining high damage output.

Notable Nodes: "Natural Affinity," "Forbidden Flame," and "Master of the Wild."

3. Critical Strike Nodes (Optional)

If you want to add a critical strike component to your build, invest in critical strike chance and damage nodes. This is particularly useful if you're using Viper Strike or Plague Bearer, as crits can amplify your poison damage output significantly.

Gear for the Poisonburst Pathfinder Build

Choosing the right gear is essential for maximizing your damage and survivability in PoE 2. Here's a look at the types of items that work well with this build:

1. Weapons: Bows or Daggers

Bows: Toxic Rain and Plague Bearer both benefit from the range and attack speed of bows. Look for bows with increased attack speed, elemental damage, and poison damage.

Daggers: If you prefer using Viper Strike, daggers are the ideal weapon choice. Look for high critical strike chance and poison damage.

2. Armor: Life and Poison Resistances

For armor, prioritize items that increase life, energy shield, and resistances. Poison builds often require a high level of survivability, as you'll be in the thick of battle, applying poison to enemies.

Important Affixes: Look for increased life, resistances, and increased poison damage. Additionally, items with flask effect bonuses are great for maximizing Pathfinder ascendancy benefits.

3. Flasks: Life, Mana, and Damage Boosters

Flasks are critical for the Poisonburst Pathfinder build. As a Pathfinder, you'll want to use flasks that increase your poison damage, life regeneration, or resistance.

Best Flasks: Divine Life Flasks, Atziri's Promise (for poison damage and chaos resistance), and Quicksilver Flasks (for mobility).

Conclusion

The Poisonburst Pathfinder build in Path of Exile 2 is a powerful and dynamic playstyle that combines high burst damage with poison over time. Therefore, you can use cheap POE 2 Orbs to familiarize yourself with the gameplay faster. With its incredible synergy with the Pathfinder ascendancy, this build excels at dealing massive damage while maintaining excellent sustain and mobility. By focusing on poison damage, flask effectiveness, and poison burst skills like Toxic Rain and Viper Strike, you can clear content quickly and effectively, making this build a top choice for anyone looking for a versatile and potent character in PoE 2.