Impending Doom Pathfinder League Starter Build Info & Playstyle.
Build Scaling
Offence
Defence
The Poison Impending Doom Pathfinder Build uses a Chaos Damage over Time Poison Spell, scaling with:
- #% Increased Chaos Damage
- #% increased Cast Speed
- #% increased Cooldown Recovery Speed
- #% Increased Damage
- #% increased Damage over Time
- #% chance to Poison Enemies on Hit
- + to Level of Socketed & Intelligence Gems/+2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems (these are the only gem scaling modifiers which affect Impending Doom as it is not an Active Skill gem).
- #% increased Poison Damage/Duration
- #% to Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier
- #% to Damage over Time Multiplier
- #% increased Effect of your Curses to scale Despair, Temporal Chains and Punishment.
The Poison Impending Doom Support Pathfinder comes with more than enough defenses to take on all the Non-Uber content on the game with your league starter gear, these defenses include:
- Physical Damage taken as Elemental Damage allows you to shift the incoming Physical Damage to an element type for it to be mitigated by sources of Elemental Damage reduction such as Flasks and Elemental Resistances.
- 100% Flask uptime and Flask Effect investment
- #% increased effect of Non-Curse Auras from your Skills, amplifies the effect of the buffs granted by Grace.
- Temporal Chains slows enemy action speed substantially, making their animations easier to dodge and their attacks less frequent.
- Enfeeble Curses monsters making them deal up to 29% less damage and have 19% reduced accuracy rating.
- 100% Spell Suppression.
- Ailment Immunity.
- Reflect Immunity.
- Evasion Rating, giving you a chance to avoid incoming Attack Damage.
Build Info
Impending Doom Support Mechanics
Impending Doom Support supports self-cast Hex Curses. When the Hex expires it triggers a Chaos explosion. To force the the Hex to expire Vixen's Entrapment are used to trigger socketed Curses when you use a Hex skill. With Whispers of Doom and Vixen's Entrapment your Curse limit is set to 3, so if a 4th Curse is applied it overwrites a Curse, forcing Doom Blast to trigger. Because of this interaction you must be wary of how your gems are socketed into your Gloves. The top left most socket is the Curse you overwrite, and does not affect the monster, therefore you must choose between Punishment or Enfeeble depending on whether you want more damage or survivability. Since this build is a Poison build, it requires Poison Chance to inflict the damaging ailment. 100% Chance to Poison must be achieved by equipping a Divergent Herald of Agony. Before you can afford the herald, anoint Toxic Strikes.
Cooldown Recovery Rate
Cooldown Recovery Rate is a very important stat for Impending Doom Support. This is because it both affects the cooldown of the Curses you trigger with Vixen's Entrapment and of your Doom Blast. By default your Doom Blast triggers 6.7 hits per second, but with more CDR and cast speed you can increase this. To understand the relationship between cast speed and the required CDR, you can use the Path of Building Community fork. While this may seem complex, it's important to note that concerns about breakpoints mostly arise in the late endgame for maximum optimization.
Pre Vixen's Entrapment Swap
When the new league launches, the demand for Vixen's Entrapment may overwhelm supply, but don't worry. The build is a very capable and fast mapper even without this Unique thanks to the Cursed Ground Support. The downside of this is that you're losing out on a damage link, however this setup is enough to take you all the way to red maps and last you until you are able to farm enough currency to afford the Vixen's Entrapment Gloves. Alternatively, Poisonous Concoction can also serve as a viable option until you can purchase Vixen's Entrapment.
Spell Cascade Support & Overlaps
Spell Cascade Support must be socketed in both your Gloves and Body armour to overlap your triggered Hexes on top of your self-cast Hexes. The cascading Hex areas create zones where the circles overlap allowing you to hit a single target twice per cast when your mouse is placed slightly behind it. Awakened Spell Cascade Support allows an extra overlap, causing 3 explosions per cast. The most optimal setup is to have two Awakened Spell Cascade Supports socketed in both your Gloves and Body Armour, but if you can't afford two yet you should prioritize socketing one into your Gloves first.
Life Flask Recovery with Pathfinder
Usually, Life Flasks are used as a reactive measure to taking damage and their effect ends once you reach full Life. However, with Pathfinder's Master Surgeon, Life Flasks heal you until their duration is over.
This basically transforms them into a Duration based Life Recovery Buff. This is not just comfortable to use, it's also completely busted, since the amount you heal with Life Flasks is not balanced around an interaction like this. You can easily reach 2000-3000 Life Recovered per Second, making the Impending Doom Pathfinder Build a Recovery powerhouse.
In terms of playstyle, this means that you should press your Life Flask whenever it's about to go down to keep up your Life Recovery!
Choosing the Correct Life Flask
Unfortunately, you can't automate your Life Flask. This means you have to think about its Duration so you don't have to constantly press it. This is the Life Flask you want for endgame: Saturated Divine Life Flask
There's 3 parts to Life Flask Recovery you have to understand:
- Life Amount recovered
- Life Recovery Rate
- Flask Duration
As an example, lets take a Life Flask that recovers 1000 Life over 10 seconds (100/second):
100% increased Life Amount recovered means you instead recover 2000 Life over 10 seconds (200/second).
100% increased Life Recovery Rate means you instead recover 1000 Life over 5 seconds (200/second).
100% increased Flask Duration means you instead recover 2000 Life over 20 seconds (100/second).
Life Amount recovered is the most important stat on both your Flask itself and from the Passive Tree via Field Medicine and Profane Chemistry. Generic Flask Effect from Natural Remedies or Nature's Boon also works.
Life Recovery Rate is a stat you want to mostly avoid, since it reduces the Flasks Duration. We only take Herbalism because it's too good not to take.
Flask Duration is a stat you want because it increases the Duration of your Life Flask, making it more comfortable to use. It also affects your other Utility Flasks, making permanent uptime on them a possibility.
Automating your Flasks
Once you have a Belt with good Flask mods and all needed Ascendancies and Passive Tree Points to support your Flasks, you can automate them by using Instilling Orbs. In order to do that, enchant your Flasks with Used when Charges Reach Full on the Crafting Bench.
Defensive Layers
Ailment Avoidance
By using the Purity of Elements Aura you are able to achieve 100% Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments. This keeps you safe from Ailments such as Shock, Chill, Freeze and Ignite as well as all alternative Ailments. Eldritch Altars and certain rare monsters can reflect non-damaging ailments you inflict therefore It is important to itemize for this as they can drastically increase the damage you take from all sources or slow your character's Action Speed substantially.
Spell Suppression
Suppression halves the damage of all incoming Spell damage, making it an extremely valuable defensive layer. Spell Suppression cap is easy to achieve thanks to passive tree clusters granting a large sum of it. The rest is itemized to ensure you are at 100% or more.
Flasks
Thanks to the Passive Skills from the Pathfinder Ascendancy, the Passive Skill Tree, and crafts on your Flasks and Belt, you can confidently depend on your Flasks. This allows you to build around them, as they will be up 100% of the time.
Evasion
Evasion increases your character's chance to Evade incoming Attacks. Evasion is obtained by wearing Dexterity base types and a Jade Flask. Additionally Grace grants a more Evasion multiplier as well as a large amount of flat Evasion.
Mapping
While mapping on your Impending Doom Pathfinder Build ensure all your Auras are active. Shield charge from pack to pack and cast Your Hex skill to clear the screen of any monsters. Cast Malevolence whenever it is down to provide you with an additional boost in damage.
Map Modifiers to Avoid
The following modifiers are to be avoided if possible:
- Players have #% reduced effect of Non-Curse Auras from Skills
- Monsters are Hexproof
- Players have #% less Recovery Rate ofLifeandEnergy Shield
- Monsters have a #% chance to avoid Poison, Blind, and Bleeding
Bossing
Ensure all your Auras are active before starting the encounter. Use Flame Dash to dodge boss abilities as it provides you with a safer way to traverse distances. Make sure to re-cast Malevolence whenever it is down to grant you more damage. Place your cursor right behind your target and spam cast your main Hex skill. You should hear two distinct hits per cast if you are correctly overlapping your Hexes with your target. Continue dodging abilities while casting Your Hex whenever possible to stack your Poison damage on the target. Make sure to keep up your Life flask at all times to ensure you are recovering Life to reduce the danger of incoming damage.
Farming Strategies
As a mapping focused character you should prioritize the mechanics listed below depending on what level of content your Impending Doom Pathfinder build is currently capable of completing. Clicking the League Mechanics below takes you to either a full Explanation Guide or a detailed Currency Farming Guide based around maximizing your profits from that mechanic or content.
Delirium
Expedition
Bestiary
Breach
Eldritch Altars
Blight
Vaal Temple
Delve
Endgame Bosses
Harvest
