Viper tips Please

[Jack's selective insomnia]

Just got the Viper for the 1st time and i am trying to work out how i am going to make the most of it.

I am currently lvl 6 strategist on my Ranger right now so any tips or theory crafting would be appreciated.

Right now i am looking at something with poison throwing daggers or maybe a respec to make use of the Poison synergy on it.
At lvl 6 it is slightly better then my Steal Seax in raw damage but my Seax comes with a huge back Stab crit bonus so i am get the feeling i need to find a way to work in Poison to make the Viper shine unless i want to just let the raw damage speak for itself as i level up.

[Fajeth]

You'll need to play the Ranger as a Poisoner.
Poisoned Weapon and upgraded Poison Vial (Vulnerability if used on already poisoned enemies).

Poisoned Weapon + Poison Vial to prepare a crit for someone else (really good for a Warbow Archer),
Poisoned Throwing Knife + Poison Vial for a crit + 60% damage for the Viper of you attack with your Ranger.
You just throw a lot of Poison Vials and prepare crits + you'll get really high Wrath damage from the Vipers high Dex.

[Jack's selective insomnia]

Originally posted by Fajeth:

You'll need to play the Ranger as a Poisoner.
Poisoned Weapon and upgraded Poison Vial (Vulnerability if used on already poisoned enemies).

Poisoned Weapon + Poison Vial to prepare a crit for someone else (really good for a Warbow Archer),
Poisoned Throwing Knife + Poison Vial for a crit + 60% damage for the Viper of you attack with your Ranger.
You just throw a lot of Poison Vials and prepare crits + you'll get really high Wrath damage from the Vipers high Dex.

sorry for the late reply (i don't know about everyone else but comments on everything for me were pending for a long time)

yea i was looking at the poisoner and while i do like the synergy, i don't like the kit very much.
i am also considering ignoring the Poison Synergy and using the high dex of the weapon maybe with something like an assassin and maybe having some kind of item if i need to 'turn it up to 11' with the Poison synergy. However if i were to go the Assassin it kind of feels like u want some Blinding powder if you don't want to use run every time you are engaged.

anyway like i said just Brainstorming and looking for tips and opinions here

[Jack's selective insomnia]

Originally posted by Fajeth:

You'll need to play the Ranger as a Poisoner.
Poisoned Weapon and upgraded Poison Vial (Vulnerability if used on already poisoned enemies).

Poisoned Weapon + Poison Vial to prepare a crit for someone else (really good for a Warbow Archer),
Poisoned Throwing Knife + Poison Vial for a crit + 60% damage for the Viper of you attack with your Ranger.
You just throw a lot of Poison Vials and prepare crits + you'll get really high Wrath damage from the Vipers high Dex.

with the 'Poison weapon' ability will that Proc the 'Toxic blade' 1st turn or would i be applying poison with 'Toxic Blade' turn 1 then turn 2 if they are still alive it will Proc when i Use 'Toxic Blade' the second time vs the same target?(I am not counting Wrath because if they are that low i probably don't need huge damage to kill them)

[BedlamBetty]

You can just let the raw damage play out as you level up.
Since you're level 6, you can upgrade it immediately to level 7 and just always keep it a lvl ahead of it's wielder, until he's level 9 and you can pull it up to level 12.
Depending on the dmg output of the seax, it might be a good idea to just keep the seax until Viper can outdmg it in the backstab.
Viper seems good on paper and is an amazing stat stick late game, but it's synergy requires a fair few steps that just aren't all that useful.

If it's the only Legendary you currently have, fair enough, throw some poison oils on a few weapons of allies so that you have a few extra targets for killing, give him frenzy (cutthroat) and poisoned weapon and buff crit hit and mov on the unit and just mop up the field killing all engaged enemies near round end. The vp usage is moderately heavy, since frenzy will cost two per time you use it to kill, but give you back one per kill it gets with valorous victory.

The whole poison thing will quickly become redundant, since you'll be outright killing any unit you backstab with frenzy regardless of poison stacks to consume.

It could technically be useful against bosses, especially Bionn, as you can consume the stacks she uses to heal herself for more damage against her, assuming you can deal with the plague ridden she calls when facing her.

[Jack's selective insomnia]

just did some play testing and as i Expected 'Poison weapon' doesn't seem to proc 'Toxic Blade' turn 1 because of the order it is applied like maybe if i went cutthroat and hit them with that 1st then i can use 'Toxic Blade' as a finisher saving the point from wrath but just like in my play test the problem i am having is i am killing things before the proc is even visible like 2 'Toxic blades' with nothing else not even the Poison doing damage and the target is dead.

As of now i am leaning towards an Assassin with Poison Throwing daggers so i can apply Poison if i need to and the rest of the time Just using the high Dex to boost my damage across the board.

That said i am still open to suggestions, just i am starting to like the idea of an Assassin instead of my Strategist or a poisoner.

[Jack's selective insomnia]

Originally posted by BedlamBetty:

You can just let the raw damage play out as you level up.
Since you're level 6, you can upgrade it immediately to level 7 and just always keep it a lvl ahead of it's wielder, until he's level 9 and you can pull it up to level 12.
Depending on the dmg output of the seax, it might be a good idea to just keep the seax until Viper can outdmg it in the backstab.
Viper seems good on paper and is an amazing stat stick late game, but it's synergy requires a fair few steps that just aren't all that useful.

If it's the only Legendary you currently have, fair enough, throw some poison oils on a few weapons of allies so that you have a few extra targets for killing, give him frenzy (cutthroat) and poisoned weapon and buff crit hit and mov on the unit and just mop up the field killing all engaged enemies near round end. The vp usage is moderately heavy, since frenzy will cost two per time you use it to kill, but give you back one per kill it gets with valorous victory.

The whole poison thing will quickly become redundant, since you'll be outright killing any unit you backstab with frenzy regardless of poison stacks to consume.

It could technically be useful against bosses, especially Bionn, as you can consume the stacks she uses to heal herself for more damage against her, assuming you can deal with the plague ridden she calls when facing her.

Yea it is level 7 i am still 6 on it there :) and no it is my 3rd Legendary weapon when i get the Axe my team is set unless i add an archer or spear man later then i'll just kill those 2 bosses for 5th and 6th.
As for the Seax the Viper already out damages it, but not by much. The Seax has a much higher backstab crit rate +30 crit chance to Ambush(backstab) so if i were to keep my strategist as it stands at level 6 options are higher base damage (just a little) or higher back stab crit chance. I have Sold the Seax (if i change my mind i can just recraft it and it is on the way out anyway) and i am liking the Assassin + high dex with the Viper and Poison dagger if i need to "turn it up to 11" idea.

As for allies i have a 4 man team of 3 solo Badass MoFos with a strategist LT as the 4th man if they need some back up(but i think an assassin will be more useful then the strategist) and Redundant yes that is exactly how i feel this weapon is right now like i feel like the poison Synergy is just there to make Poisoner class and items feel less dumb.

[Jack's selective insomnia]

just a little Update turns out the 'Aim' skill works with the assassin 'Right between the Eyes' skill :D lol

[BedlamBetty]

Originally posted by Keyser Soze:

just a little Update turns out the 'Aim' skill works with the assassin 'Right between the Eyes' skill :D lol

yes aim works with all shooting skills, even the battle spears strewn around the fields that scale off str, so put aim on every unit except animals.

[Jack's selective insomnia]

Originally posted by BedlamBetty:

Originally posted by Keyser Soze:

just a little Update turns out the 'Aim' skill works with the assassin 'Right between the Eyes' skill :D lol

yes aim works with all shooting skills, even the battle spears strewn around the fields that scale off str, so put aim on every unit except animals.

oh nice i thought i had to be like a ranged Merc at the very least does it work on items like throwing knives like are they counted as a skill or item?(just curious) but my point is Viper+Aim+RBTE seems just broken like sure you have to beat the arena and spend 2 VP to combo it all but damn lol

[Jack's selective insomnia]

omg if it does i can use Throwing axes for pre bleed then RBTE with Upgrade is going to be Dope AF

[BedlamBetty]

yeah, the later you get, the more that becomes the case.

[Jack's selective insomnia]

Originally posted by BedlamBetty:

yeah, the later you get, the more that becomes the case.

i bet XD well i guess screw the poison daggers i need some throwing axes besides 'Infected Blood' is still pretty rare for me right now from what i have seen it will probably become more common later in the game

[BedlamBetty]

all shooting skills have double distance with aim, all
rbte is great on your secondary ranger, frenzy upgraded means that you can frenzy again, high mov rangers, especially inspired, can just walk through all the engaged enemies killing them one after another.
Because frenzy becomes available again on fatal blow, it has the highest multi target dmg potential of all the specs, unless you're setting up insanely convoluted hammer set up tactics that aren't likely to play out properly.
The ranger only serves as the team mop up on engaged enemies, so you really shouldn't be taking out more than one or two units that were engaged solely through taunt anyway and basic to frenzy will take care of one, torch to frenzy another.

[Jack's selective insomnia]

Originally posted by BedlamBetty:

all shooting skills have double distance with aim, all
rbte is great on your secondary ranger, frenzy upgraded means that you can frenzy again, high mov rangers, especially inspired, can just walk through all the engaged enemies killing them one after another.
Because frenzy becomes available again on fatal blow, it has the highest multi target dmg potential of all the specs, unless you're setting up insanely convoluted hammer set up tactics that aren't likely to play out properly.
The ranger only serves as the team mop up on engaged enemies, so you really shouldn't be taking out more than one or two units that were engaged solely through taunt anyway and basic to frenzy will take care of one, torch to frenzy another.

yea i get that but what did you mean by torch? i don't follow there. and yea mop up is for sure the idea but considering how powerful my other guys are it would make sense to make my Ranger more of a solo guy instead of a support like he was as a strategist or would be as a cutthroat. Like don't get me wrong he was OP in the early levels as Strategist just now the skill is getting little use for me, particularly if i need him to go kill an archer solo while the other 3 guys deal with everything else.

[BedlamBetty]

put a torch on him in his off hand. it allows for a primary attack (the torch swing) to get a unit low enough for a frenzy kill if it's on full hp, until you are assured of immediate frenzy kill on heavy tanks. It also adds +3 crit hit and when you un lock unstable oil, you can put it on your ranger, with it's accessory and have a 60% chance to proc an attack of opportunity on each adjacent unit in the arc of the swing.