Scorpion Blade Assassin

CallMeCrazySam
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This guide is outdated and actively detrimental to players that are new to the build if you attempt to follow skill/stat suggestions and gear choices. If you know what you are doing, there still may be useful information below, proceed with caution.

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Edited by CallMeCrazySam 1 year.
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berry117
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Thank you for taking the time to put together this guide, there is often a high barrier of entry for mxl, and the ability for new players to just click on random updated/relevant guides definitely helps out.
CorralTheTroops
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Could you explain how the farming variant can "shotgun" bosses?
As far as I know, poison damage does not really stack from multiple applications (although it will prioritize the highest damage roll when multiple sources interact). I thought the whole point of the new lethal incision was to give Scorpion blade some scaling + single target.
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CorralTheTroops wrote:Could you explain how the farming variant can "shotgun" bosses?
As far as I know, poison damage does not really stack from multiple applications (although it will prioritize the highest damage roll when multiple sources interact). I thought the whole point of the new lethal incision was to give Scorpion blade some scaling + single target.


So the thing about poison damage is that the first frame always hits with full damage (1/25 of the regular poison DPS). If you can shotgun with, say, 12 knives, that's 48% of your single knife poison DPS every hit. And at 7 FPA (3.57 attacks per second) x 12 knives you're at 171% of your poison DPS all told, added to the one poison that's actually running over time.

So 13+ knives actually does more damage than Lethal Incision, if you can stand still, facetank, and shotgun.
CorralTheTroops
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Siosilvar wrote:
CorralTheTroops wrote:Could you explain how the farming variant can "shotgun" bosses?
As far as I know, poison damage does not really stack from multiple applications (although it will prioritize the highest damage roll when multiple sources interact). I thought the whole point of the new lethal incision was to give Scorpion blade some scaling + single target.


So the thing about poison damage is that the first frame always hits with full damage (1/25 of the regular poison DPS). If you can shotgun with, say, 12 knives, that's 48% of your single knife poison DPS every hit. And at 7 FPA (3.57 attacks per second) x 12 knives you're at 171% of your poison DPS all told, added to the one poison that's actually running over time.

So 13+ knives actually does more damage than Lethal Incision, if you can stand still, facetank, and shotgun.


Thanks so much for explaining!
Can this be added to the poison damage wiki page? I guess there's a very real sense where Scorpion Blade is the only skill for which this makes a meaningful difference.
So in total you're doing about 2.7 times your Poison dps while standing still and face tanking. With specialisation mastery, lethal incision gets you pretty close at 2.55 times and can play defensively.
CallMeCrazySam
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CorralTheTroops wrote:
Siosilvar wrote:
CorralTheTroops wrote:Could you explain how the farming variant can "shotgun" bosses?
As far as I know, poison damage does not really stack from multiple applications (although it will prioritize the highest damage roll when multiple sources interact). I thought the whole point of the new lethal incision was to give Scorpion blade some scaling + single target.


So the thing about poison damage is that the first frame always hits with full damage (1/25 of the regular poison DPS). If you can shotgun with, say, 12 knives, that's 48% of your single knife poison DPS every hit. And at 7 FPA (3.57 attacks per second) x 12 knives you're at 171% of your poison DPS all told, added to the one poison that's actually running over time.

So 13+ knives actually does more damage than Lethal Incision, if you can stand still, facetank, and shotgun.


Thanks so much for explaining!
Can this be added to the poison damage wiki page? I guess there's a very real sense where Scorpion Blade is the only skill for which this makes a meaningful difference.
So in total you're doing about 2.7 times your Poison dps while standing still and face tanking. With specialisation mastery, lethal incision gets you pretty close at 2.55 times and can play defensively.


While true, the main problem is that this build can't tank very well or for long periods of time, so LI more or less ends up quicker except for easy bosses like Butcher or act bosses, or fat asses like Azmo. Even then, there is no guarantee that *all* of your blades are going to hit, you usually lose some off the sides of the bosses. Also, the wiki page says Scorpion Blade doesn't scale with poison spell damage, but this is 100% false.
Semigloss
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It didn't scale correctly. It's fixed this patch.
Captcha
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What I don't understand is how you can do Duncraig easily if the build is as squishy as you say.

Those barrels are really hard to spot 100% of the time, so aren't they going to get you - probably quite often?
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MeatSlinger3000
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Got this build to Act 2 normal & rerolled due to how unenjoyable it was.
rngbeast
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Captcha wrote:What I don't understand is how you can do Duncraig easily if the build is as squishy as you say.

Those barrels are really hard to spot 100% of the time, so aren't they going to get you - probably quite often?

These barrels used to 1shot all builds, but the short answer is - don't get hit. I think op explained it already, you have high movespeed and blink, so it's up to you to avoid damage. This build is not for everyone, but some people enjoy this glasscannon style of play.

MeatSlinger3000 wrote:Got this build to Act 2 normal & rerolled due to how unenjoyable it was.

Come on man, you're playing the first level of tutorial and saying this build sucks. Revisit it later, when you have some gear, it will be completely different.