Serpent Venom Druid Guide
The Serpent Venom Druid taps into the primal power of nature, taking on the fearsome Swarmblade Form to become a venom-infused predator. This build unleashes a single, devastating Poison Damage Over Time, spreading rot and venom with every step. This is the pinnacle of Poison builds, turning the battlefield into a toxic wasteland.
This is a Melee build that spams Serpent Strike via Armblade Slash and scales Poison Damage Over Time. Its Damage primarily comes from applying as many Poison and Frostbite stacks on the target to get enormous Damage multipliers for Serpent Venom. Summon Thorn Totem and Tornado apply most of the stacks, while Summon Spriggan grants powerful defensive and offensive buffs. This build also scales in an unconventional way, gaining multipliers from Melee Critical Strike Chance and Vitality.
This setup works without any Uniques, but Weaver's Gift is essential for sustain, as it's the only source of Leech. Additionally, items like Serpent's Milk, Peak of the Mountain, and Ornate Heorot Idol with Chance on hit to summon a Thorn Totem enable the absurd damage scaling.
Overall, the Serpent Venom Druid exceeds expectations in Endgame. If you are looking for a top-tier tank with insane Poison Damage Over Time, this is the build for you!
This build guide assumes you have a Level 70 Character.
Reach Level 70 with our Primalist Leveling Guide.
Check our Tier Lists to know how this build performs in the current patch.
If you are looking for a different playstyle, check all our Build Guides!
Skills
Swarmblade Form
This is a permanent Swarmblade Form build. This setup converts Poison chance into Frostbite chance with Frost Bites, balancing stack distribution between the two to maximize the benefits from Shattered Immunity in Serpent Strike. Armblade Slash procs Tornado, applying even more Ailment stacks, while Needle-Like Sting provides valuable base Critical Strike Chance.
- Serpent Venom has built-in Crit mitigation, but it isn't a reliable source since it only lasts 3 seconds, and this build reduces the duration to just 1.5 seconds.
- Serpent Strike: Slither can be specialized into, if you want more Dodge. Remove points from either Culling Point or Hydra Strikes for it.
- Tornado: You can choose between Druidic Control and Eye of the Storm depending on your playstyle preference.
- Summon Spriggan: Snapshotting can be used to maximize the amount of Hits with a more offensive tree, but it’s entirely optional. This build already stacks a high number of Ailments and delivers some of the highest DPS in the game. For this reason, the guide does not include an offensive Snapshot Planner.
- Maelstrom can be specialized instead of Summon Spriggan to gain access to Increased Dodge and Frenzy. However, without Summon Spriggan, your main source of Crit mitigation becomes Serpent Venom, which is unreliable. You can also opt to use the Critical Strike Avoidance Blessing to help cap Crit Avoidance. Another option is to spec Gathering Storm and go for the Frostbringer node to apply extra Frostbite stacks.
Skills showcase extra Skill Points in case you find +Level of Skills that may not be included in the Planners.
Passives
- Rageborn helps to sustain Rage.
- Shattered Heavens and River Spirits helps stack Frostbites efficiently.
- Ursine Strength and Impervious provide a lot of tankiness with their Damage Reduction.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Summon your Spriggan Companion.
- Shapeshift into Swarmblade Form.
- Attack with Armblade Slash.
- Summon Hives as needed to spawn Locusts minions.
Bossing
- Position your Hives strategically to keep them alive longer.
- Use Dive or Evade to dodge telegraphed Boss attacks.
- Command your Summon Spriggan by using the Minion Attack Command ("A" by default) to ensure it's always properly positioned and out of danger.
- The buffs provided by Summon Spriggan stay active even when it's downed. Make sure you fully resurrect it after all threats are neutralized.
Gear, Idols & Blessings
- Get as much Crit Chance and Vitality as possible to maximize Fast Acting Toxins and Spirit Viper.
- Idols provide a lot of power, especially Ornate Heorot Idols with Chance on hit to summon a Thorn Totem.
- Blessings provide a lot of damage, focus them early for a big power spike.
- Serpent's Milk also grants a huge amount of power, use it even without Legendary Potential.
- Weaver's Gift is your only source of Leech. Use any you find, but ideally roll Melee Critical Strike Chance on it. Bleeding Heart and Rotmind can be used before you find one to get access to Leech.
- Peak of the Mountain and Foot of the Mountain are easily obtainable from the Lightless Arbor.
- Rule of the Simoon automatically casts Tornado, helping you hit enemies often and apply more Ailments. It's worth using even without any Legendary Potential.
- Brewmaster's Buckle is an Armor base Belt with Endurance, excellent defensively. It also serves as a panic button, as Potions used grants you Endurance Threshold. This effect can stack. It also grants Vitality, a multiplier for Serpent Venom.
- Mantle of the Pale Ox has amazing stats, especially with a Minion, and this build has plenty. It also provides +2 Levels to Swarmblade Form.
- Target farm Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros from Emperor of Corpses. The Health Implicit and Strength it provides are highly valuable. Additionally, it grants +1 Level to Tornado.
- Bastion of Honour is a great shield for Strength stacking builds. You can easily cap your Block Chance with 86 Strength. Use it even without Legendary Potential.
- Red Rings of Atlaria are amazing since you easily reach the Attributes requirements. They help immensely with Resistances gearing and grant Damage Reduction.
- Shattered Worlds' offensive and defensive stats makes it an amazing chase item. Good luck on Uber Aberroth!
- For Hardcore, survivability takes priority. Health rolls are prioritized over damage in certain cases, such as on Serpent's Milk and Rule of the Simoon.
- Seed of Ekkidrasil is great due to the build's high Rage sustain, as damage dealt to Mana before Health works with Rage. This essentially provides Damage Reduction.
- Shattered Worlds and Advent of the Erased go hand in hand. Shattered Worlds gives permanent Haste, which enables the massive Damage Reduction from Advent of the Erased.
- The build has so much damage that you can swap a few Items and Passives for extra Movement Speed without sacrificing too much power or tankiness.
- Bleeding Heart is now the main source of Leech.
- Slam Endurance on Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros and invest into Chitinous Plating Passive to make up for losing Endurance on Boots and Belt.
- Shard of the Shattered Lance grants Deicide on killing a Rare or Boss enemy, giving 20% more damage and 20% more Movement Speed. Yes, it's a multiplicative bonus to Movement Speed.
- To squeeze out even more Movement Speed, Ward Trail and Razorfall are staples in speedfarm setups.
- While more Movement Speed can be stacked with additional gear, this setup is still focused on speed and strikes a strong balance between mobility, damage, and survivability.
Learn the basics for crafting gear with our Beginner Crafting Guide.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Idol Slots.
Build Scaling
Offensive Stats
- Vitality
- Shared Chance to apply Poison on hit
- Shared Chance to apply Frostbite on hit
- Flat Melee Critical Strike Chance
- Increased Critical Strike Chance
- Strength
- Dexterity
- Increased Melee Attack Speed
- Increased Poison Damage Over Time
- Poison Penetration
Defensive Stats
- Health
- Armor
- Endurance
- Dodge
- Block Chance
- Block Effectiveness
- Leech
Scaling Tips
- Vitality: Spirit Viper
- Melee Crit Chance: Fast Acting Toxins, scales past 100%.
- Shattered Immunity: This is effectively two seperate multipliers: one from Poison stacks, and the other from Frostbite stacks. Balancing both as much as possible maximizes Damage.
- Rule of the Simoon: Procs Tornadoes, which can trigger each other, increasing the number of Ailments applied. This synergises with Shattered Immunity.
- Serpent's Milk: The massive chance to Poison on Minion Hit works exceptionally well with Summon Thorn Totem's explosions.
- Impervious: Provides 20% Damage Reduction against Hits at maximum stacks.
- Ursine Strength: Provides 16% Damage Reduction from Nearby enemies.
- Mantle of the Pale Ox: Up to 24% of damage is redirected to your highest Health minion, and this build has plenty.
- Seed of Ekkidrasil: Up to 28% of damage is dealt to Mana before Health. This also works with Rage.
- Bastion of Honour: Easily cap Block Chance with Strength stacking builds.
- Brewmaster's Buckle: Potions used grants you Endurance Threshold. This effect can stack.
- Red Ring of Atlaria: Provides 10% Damage Reduction if you reach the Attribute requirements.
- Shattered Worlds: Grants up to 10% Damage Reduction.
- Summon Spriggan: Can optionally be Snapshotted for a significant amount of Dodge. Check the LEPlanner for the gear setup.
Our Damage Explained Article covers all you need to know to scale Damage.
Learn all you need to know to scale Defense with our Defense Explained Article.
Loot Filter
Loot Filters are critical in Last Epoch. Making sure you highlight all the related valuable Item Bases, Affixes, Uniques and Idols is necessary to ensure your character's progression. Click on the Generate Loot Filter button down below then use the Paste Clipboard Contents button in-game to import it!
Here is the Endgame Loot Filter for this build:
Learn how to load and make Filters with our Loot Filter Guide.
FAQ & Mechanics
Once a guide is released, many players have questions on why and how we are approaching certain choices. In this section you can find the answers to the questions that have been asked the most.
No, but it helps with Summon Spriggan's survivability and your own survivability as well.
Snapshotting refers to summoning a Minion while wearing Gear and Idols that boost its Stats, then swapping to different Gear without affecting that Minion’s performance. Minions retain the Stats they had at the moment they were summoned, including bonuses from Attributes, Minion Health, Minion Regen, etc.
This means you can gear purely for Minion defense or offense, summon the Minion, and then switch to gear that benefits your main skills or survivability.
When does Snapshotting reset?
Snapshotting lasts until the Minion dies or is automatically resummoned. This typically happens when entering a new zone. However, in Monoliths, all Echoes are considered a single zone, so you only need to Snapshot once as long as you stay in the Monolith.
Minions are also resummoned when you allocate points in their Skill Tree. Be mindful of this if you swap gear with + Levels of Skills.
Is it necessary?
No, but it can offer a noticeable power boost, especially for fragile but valuable Companions like Summon Spriggan.
Equip the Snapshot Gear Planner setup. Use Evade, then a Potion, Summon Spriggan. This Snapshots Spriggan Companions with buffs from Julra's Stardial and Communion of the Erased.
Rule of the Simoon consumes a lot of Rage. If you encounter problems sustaining early on, either remove Rule of the Simoon or rush Rageborn in the Druid Passive Tree. As always, aim to have 100% Critical Strike Chance for full benefits. Remember that going past 100% also scales your damage via Fast Acting Toxins.
Video Guide
Summary
The Serpent Venom Druid is a Melee Swarmblade Form build that strikes swiftly with a single, massive, Poison Damage Over Time. This Druid excels in Endgame, offering excellent tankiness alongside top-tier damage.
- This is a permanent Swarmblade Form build, therefore uses Rage instead of Mana.
- Serpent Venom is the main damage source. It consists of a single stack of Poison Damage Over Time and prevents critical strikes.
- The playstyle is straightforward: just Melee Attack.
- It scales in unique ways: from Vitality, Melee Critical Strike Chance even beyond 100%, and Poison and Frostbite stacks on enemies.
- Weaver's Gift is essential for sustain, as it's the only source of Leech.
- While they are not mandatory, items such as Serpent's Milk, Peak of the Mountain, and Ornate Heorot Idol with Chance on hit to summon a Thorn Totem enable the absurd damage scaling.
Credits
Written by BinaQc.
Content Reviewed by Volca.