Theorycrafter Miniguide - Viper Strike of The Mamba - Capped Shaped DPS, Ubers down, 40/40 challenges -

Introduction & Mechanics

Viper Strike of the Mamba is one of the new transfigured gems and wished to share my progression for anyone keen to try the build. If you are a beginner, I recommend a different build as this build requires a moderate budget and a few items that are not easy to access. It is however great 2nd build for an intermediate player. The starting budget (3m Shaper dps~) I approximate at around 1 divine per slot for 10 divines total. My end build caps out around 150 divines, with the most expensive element being a 149% roll The Adorned Jewel(55 divines at the time of purchase) and rest of my gear slots taking 10 to 20 divines to craft.

The skill we're using is Viper Strike of the Mamba, one of the new transfigured gems introduced in the Affliction league. Wiki: https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/Viper_Strike_of_the_Mamba
Mechanically, this means that we can only apply one poison, but it is far stronger and does not have viper strike's rather unpopular dual wielding penalty. To abuse this, we stack the Low Tolerance Medium Cluster Chaos damage notable, which provides a whooping 300% increased damage per notable.
The second drive of damage is something relatively unused - Alchemist Mark. Because it considers damage per second and not the full poison duration worth of damage, it's usually effective on potent ignites... and single poisons.

As for my credentials, I achieved 40/40 challenges, 7/7 ubers and am currently nr 1 Mamba strike player in SC as KobeBryantStrike.
https://poe.ninja/builds/affliction?skills=Viper+Strike+of+the+Mamba&sort=dps

Levelling

The build can be played from level 1 in Softcore. If you cannot access Viper Strike of the Mamba, you will have to buy it or acquire it through the Eternal Labirynth Font via transfiguring green gems there.

If you find that a bit too slow at that stage, Cobra Lash or Venom Gyre are fair alternatives provided you have 100% chance to poison.

Obtain Malevolence, Withering Step, Grace and Alchemist Mark when possible for additional damage.

I pick up 2 skillpoints at Bandit's and use Brine King to help our stun issues and Ryslatha to boost our recovery should we ever get below 50% life.

Crafting/Items to look for

You may start with regular Life+resistances rares items for armour. For jewellry, it's useful to have an open prefix for Elreon's veiled modifier to reduce -mana cost for quality of life.
Before Ashes of the Stars, try a 20%+ Damage over time multiplier amulet. Once resistances are filled, fill the rest with strength and intelligence.
For belt, I recommend a stygian vise, eventually transitioning to a Heist experimental base Micro-Distillery Belt. Thanks to the tincture not being a flask and being in 5th slot, we have full benefit of the belt with no drawback. Unfortunately, there is no smart way to get a T1 Flask charges gained/flask duration/flask charges used belt - chaos spamming is ironically the most reliable.

The unique chest I recommend is a Lightning Coil which, in combination with Taste of Hate and 8-10% physical damage taken as fire/cold prefix on the helmet grants us a large physical % damage taken as elemental, thus making no need for armour in our gear.

The weapons will be Rebuke of the Vaal; because of the wide damage range, they can be prohibitively expensive at the 1000+ Dps front but a 900 dps one should be relatively accessible even on a budget. If available to you, find a % physical damage corruption, Resolute Technique or Onslaught on kill. Without Resolute Technique you will have to cede damage on tree for accuracy.

We employ a Poisonberry (All Damage can poison) tincture in combination with Warden affliction ascendancy. The suffix is less important, but I recommend either onslaught on kill or weapon strike metres.
Flasks wise, I recommend a life flask with reduced recovery rate and increased effect to abuse Master Surgeon.
Utility Flasks, run a Topaz, Sapphire and Ruby flask, until you are able to acquire a well-rolled Taste of Hate.
Besides increased effect/reduced duration, you can use curse reduction effect, movement speed or attack speed increase as suffixes.
To get more damage, I use Vessel of Vinktar, however mind that even Pathfinder can struggle to sustain the flask and it takes considerable flask charges gained/reduced flask charges used/flask effect duration to fully sustain it.

Look around for a 3 notable chaos 8 passive cluster(1-3 div) and eventually transition to 5 p Voices or less. This allows you to use more medium cluster jewels, which means more Low Tolerance sources.

For other jewels, attempt to obtain a life%, chaos damage over time multiplier and a damaging ailments deal damage faster notable. I pair Low Tolerance with Brewed for Potency to boost both flask charge generation and life recovery.

Eventually, I recommend a 143%+ roll The Adorned, obtainable via Ultimatum aspects.
https://www.poewiki.net/wiki/The_Adorned

Build Pros

• The build is tanky with high phys as elemental damage taken, critical and ailment immunity. (can tank an Uber Shaper slam as well as a Uber Sirus meteor) and has accrued only 65 deaths in SC since character creation.
• Low APM necessary. Tap a pack, 1 shot a boss, move on
• Potent elemental defense & resistances through flasks, making for much easier gearing
• Strong recovery via Master Surgeon
• Dual wielding!
• Adjustable for SSF and Hardcore

Build Cons

• Weak to physical degen - beware of Cortex!
• Somewhat stubby against moving targets - half of the DPS relies on Alchemist Mark.
• Cannot team up with wardloopers or other poison builds. Malevolence bricks wardloop and any other poison makes you unable to deal any damage

Mapping

All mods are available with the exception for:

• No life/mana regeneration
• 60% reduced life recovery (Doable at early stages, but if you scale the explicit modifiers, it can scale to over 80%+ which is effectively similar to above)
• 50% reduced Flask charges - Pathfinder problems

Mobs/altars that affect your charges are to be avoided. Feel free to rack up as much wisps as you want. Chaos/wither resistant is annoying if poison duration is low, but is managable.

Affliction League mechanics applied

I use Dark Marionette Spectres available through the Warlock affliction ascendancy to be able to use Guardian's Blessing in combination with Hatred. Without it, you need a different source of added damage.
I use Warden for All Damage can Poison modifier on the tincture. Without it, it is better to use good Void Fangs or Pneumatic Daggers. It's less damage, but you're free to use an additional defensive flask instead so it should be a wash.

FAQ

Why not Plaguebearer?

It's just unnecessary. You put yourself at risk for clear speed you do not need. Plaguebearer is better served on skills that hit very frequently but take time to ramp, such as Blade Vortex.

Video(s)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO6aGtmzt68

Level 95 snapshot (4.9 mil dps) https://pobb.in/ibssLb49uDS3
Tl;dr/End-game level 100 snapshot PoB (capped Shaper dps): https://pobb.in/m5rGNOhCF8nA

Please let me know if there is any information missing - after a few people reaching out to me in game on my build, I decided to make a resource for anyone wishing to follow in my steps. Simply AMA.

All the best in the new year, Exiles!