{
"post": {
"title": "Need Help Understanding POE 2 Chaos/Poison Mechanic",
"selftext": "I'm starting to realize that I need to completely rethink my Day 1 strategies.\n\nI usually go Chaos bow in POE1, but I've noticed a major lack of Chaos skill gems in POE2. I enjoy the DOT playstyle, and I imagine Poison works similarly (there are tons of ranged Poison skills in POE2) - is Poison functionally the same as Chaos DOT damage? Does Poison scale with Chaos? I'm so confused. I've never really understood this properly, even in POE1, but I'm more confused now, because searching 'Chaos' in the POE2 wiki brings up all of the Poison skills as well. \n\nI was going to try out a mostly Chaos damage monk or witch and use bow/spell gems, but it seems underwhelming at this time. Not a lot of options, and it seems intentional. as though GGG wants use to try mixing damage types instead of focusing on one. Do you think switching gears to a Ranger Poison Bow user might be closer to my preferred Chaos DOT playstyle?\n\nFor context, I have played for years, but I have never followed a build. I just play what feels right to me after years of playing blind. My last build was a Hierophant Wither Bow Spellcaster, using my bow to launch Soulrend. It worked extremely well. \n\nThanks in advance for any tips / clarification.",
"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/PathOfExile2/comments/1h65qai/need_help_understanding_poe_2_chaospoison_mechanic/"
},
"comments": [
{
"body": "> is Poison functionally the same as a Chaos DOT damage? Does Poison scale with Chaos? I'm so confused. I've never really understood this properly, even in POE1, but I'm more confused now, because searching 'Chaos' in the POE2 wiki brings up all of the Poison skills as well.\n\nI am not 100% sure and I don't think we have officially confirmed information, but my understanding is as follows.\n\nPoison is technically not quite the same as Chaos DoT. Chaos damage deals double damage to Energy shield, but Poison *bypasses* energy shield, similar to Bleed. At least that's what the wiki says.\n\nYou can scale poison indirectly by scaling your chaos damage because ailment damage scales with the (pre-mitigation) hit damage that inflicts the ailment. And for poison, chaos damage is typically part of that, unless you do some skill/passive shenanigans to get around that. Of course you can also scale poison the normal way with poison effect or increasing your poison stacks.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "> Chaos damage deals double damage to Energy shield, but Poison bypasses energy shield, similar to Bleed.\n\nIs that PoE2 mechanics? Because that's definitely not how it worked in PoE1, poison was doing chaos damage and chaos damage was bypassing energy shield, bleed was doing physical damage and physical damage does not bypass energy shield. That mechanic also makes no sense because that would make bleed instantly kill CI characters. I know that these mechanics are different in PoE2 but there haven't been any confirmed information.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yes it's new in PoE2. But the info on some of these mechanics is several months old, who knows if something has changed since then."
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "So Poisons only stack to 1. Additional can be added inside some nods, (Somewhere confirmed some items but I have yet to see it), and in at least one in the Ranger Ascendancy that doubles all poison stacks.\n\nThe damage of the hit determines the damage of the poison, and it looks like most modifiers happen before poison is applied, I think (still a bit fuzzy on this).\n\nMy plan is to go Ranger, hit the poison nodes to the right and north; get Pathfinder to double poison stacks (so somewhere between 6 to 10 depending on what gear exists), and also grab a few Chaos damage notables like Spaghetification and Dark Entries (+1 damage to all chaos skills).\n\nIll also be looking at using Dark Effigy with Wither Gem to assist the Chaos damage.\n\nThats my best guess atm for how to make poison stuff work XD We'll see.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Nice, leme steal this idea 🥲",
"replies": [
{
"body": "I'm no Poe dynamo but steal away lolol"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "https://www.poe2wiki.net/wiki/Poison\n\n\n>Poison is an Ailment that deals Chaos Damage over time, and lasts 2 second by default.\n\nSo yes, it does chaos damage over time. It should scale with that. \n\n\nThe difference between poison in POE1 and POE2, is that there is only 1 stack by default now, and it scales off total pre-hit damage (meaning crit/crit bonus now significantly affect poison damage).\n\n>I was going to try out a mostly Chaos damage monk or witch and use bow/spell gems, but it seems underwhelming at this time.\n\nThe new Chaos monk ascendancy has the node that if you stack up 10 of the chaos damage flames, you gain 140% damage as extra chaos damage. Seems strong to me.\n\n>Do you think switching gears to a Ranger Poison Bow user might be closer to my preferred Chaos DOT playstyle?\n\nNo real idea as most folks don't have any idea how good these things are going to work out. If you are wanting a guaranteed safe build for your playstyle, then yes, I would go pathfinder as it has the double poison mod so it seems explicitly made for poison. That doesn't mean it will be the best (or maybe it is) for your style though. Only time will tell."
},
{
"body": "I think in terms of damage pathfinder is the way to go with poison , but maybe you can find a way with your monk/witch - looks like you got enough experience doing your own builds."
},
{
"body": "In PoE2, Does Attack damage affect Poison?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Yes, the damage of the attack corrolates to the damage of the poison directly.",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Such wow! Thats means we can use 'Rage' now :D"
}
]
},
{
"body": "Is it just base damage or crit as well?",
"replies": [
{
"body": "Both will boost poison damage however, by only 25%. Bcuz the attack damage increment is applied to base damage and poison is 25% of phy+chaos"
}
]
}
]
},
{
"body": "The new limit of baseline stacking whereas chaos dot does not seem to have that same limitation at first glance, wouldn't that make chose dot stacking stronger than poison damage?"
},
{
"body": "Poison is an ailment that scales with the premitigation hit damage of phys/chaos. Poison also scales with \"increased poison effect\" nodes on tree as well as increasing its stacks from its base of 1 stack. You have no chance to poison as base, you need to find \"chance to poison\" on skills or stats on tree or gear.\n\nWe don't have any weapon types other than bows/crossbow that directly relate to poison right now.\n\nhttps://www.poe2wiki.net/wiki/Poison"
}
]
}