(NUKED) Skadoosh's Decompose Pathfinder

BUILD GOT GUTTED IN PATCH 0.2!

About 80% less total damage, but more importantly you cannot bypass minion respawn timer with weapon swap anymore. Build is kill.

Are you struggling to do ALL content? Items and 6-link too expensive? Monsters always on top of you? Look no further, this build might be the one for you. With the press of NO* buttons:

• Gas clouds fill the screen
• Kill monsters before they can spawn
• Explode all corpses
• Cast while walking
• never press your mana flask
• Double curse monsters, slowing them to a crawl
• Delete bosses
• *Manual weapon swap might be required
• Hardcore viable
  
  

Explanation of Decompose (Corpsewade) and build: How It Works section at the bottom

Leveling strategy (1 to 58)

- Please check out my Full Early Leveling Guide which has step by step sections to help gearing, selecting passives and new player tips

- Corpsewade can be bought at a low level requirement and used early if you want

- Venoms(Quest reward): Stun threshold and all attributes

- Level 58 is required before you can start following the Starter variant of this build. Sacrifice unlocks at 58 and is mandatory

Please read the guide and FAQ

If you still have questions, you can contact me via Skadoosh_C twitch dm's, Youtube comment, or SkadooshPoisonWalk in-game.

Full Build Overview video with gameplay

Tier 4 simulacrum wave 13-15

Tier 15 waystone with delirium + breach

Tier 4 breach Xesht boss

Frequently Asked Questions

- I can't use my weapon set passive points, why?

You first need normal passive points before you can split them with the weapon set points. So to apply the max 24 weapon points for each set, you first need 24 normal passive points available to use.

- How come I can't summon Skeletal Brute's each time I swap weapons?

When one of our Skeletal Brute 's die, it start the minion respawn timer. Normally takes up to 11 seconds before they can spawn again. When outside combat, weapon swapping bypasses this timer, and always spawns your minions instantly. When in-combat however, a weapon swap still bypasses the timer, but only after waiting 4-5 seconds.

- Why aren't my Skeletal Brute's summoned when I swap to set 2?

First thing to check is the skill gem section of the current variant you are playing. Each skill should only be active on one of the two sets.Skeletal Brute requires that you specifically set the amount summoned per set. Put it at the max possible for set 2, and none for set 1. This is all done in the skill specific stat window. First access skill gem menu (default G), then click the small arrow on the right side next to the DPS number for a particular skill and then on the menu that appears bottom right checkboxes. Refer to Dual Specialisation gem section.

Another rare bug is that if your Skeletal Brute is closer to the bottom of your skill gem menu, it for some reason thinks it does not have the available spirit to summon them. Just move the Skeletal Brute gem to the top of the menu.

- Why is my Plague Bearer doing so little damage?

The higher the level of Plague Bearer, the significantly more damage it can deal. Physical Mastery also works to increase its level by 1. Focus this over other intelligence gems early, and keep those low level to keep the intelligence requirement relatively low while focusing on dexterity.

- Why aren't my Skeletal Brute's being consumed by Decompose?

This is most likely due to a bug with Trenchtimbre, it disables the automatic consumption of corpses with Decompose on step. I don't recommend this mace due to this bug, but a workaround is the minion command key-bind, casting a spell or the P2W Faridun floating skin, it will make Decompose work while walking.

- What do I do when my Decompose clouds keep exploding/burning?

The most common source for the Decompose clouds exploding often is burning ground, this builds kryptonite. This is found on waystones as a suffix mod called "Area has patches of Burning Ground". Avoid it if you can, and just run other waystones instead. If you can't avoid it or Deadly Evolution has added burning explosions to the rares/boss then standing close to enemies and weapon swapping is your best bet. Contagion and Herald of Plague help with clearing as well.

If it happens frequently, like every zone/enemy, it's probably because you are playing with a friend who is igniting enemies or using skills that detonate poison clouds. Don't play with those friends (/s) or force them to use something like Elemental Focus or The Three Dragons.

- Why is my Grim Feast ES overflow depleting each weapon swap?

In the most recent patch a bug/change was made that makes it so that we lose the overflow from Grim Feast when we weapon swap IF there is a significant change in maximum energy shield. So to minimize this, you want to have 2 shields, one on each set, with similar ES values. Also, ensure you don't take any increased maximum ES on the passive tree with the weapon set points. This includes Charge Infusion, so get enough spirit to have it active on both sets if possible.

- How come my Eye of Winter is not applying wither?

The likely scenario is you skipped reading the guide. The Withering Touch support gem specifies that you need to deal chaos damage before it applies wither on hit. Eye of Winter does not do chaos damage by default. That's why in the Uber Endgame variant of the build I mention that the Against the Darkness jewel is mandatory. 2-4% damage as extra chaos means Eye of Winter will now do enough chaos damage for Withering Touch.

- My game is CRASHING when I weapon swap at the start of a map, fix?

Fix has been found! Move the Cast on Minion Death skill gem to the very bottom of your skill menu (default G). Courtesy of Avirr L on Youtube, thank you very much for your testing and comment!

- Where can I find the answer to a question that's not in the FAQ?

A likely scenario is that the question is already answered in the main bulk of the guide. Please read it fully, I'm begging you. If you still can't find the answer, then you can contact me via Skadoosh_C twitch dm's, Youtube comment, or SkadooshPoisonWalk in-game (just /w).

This build revolves around the Decompose skill that gets cast every time you take a step with Corpsewade boots equipped. It automatically targets dead enemies around you (corpses), consuming them to create poison clouds that slowly expand. It does chaos damage based on the life of that enemy before it died, meaning it scales with monster level.

Sacrifice allows Decompose to trigger on our own skeleton minions (Skeletal Brute), meaning we can spawn poison clouds without needing to kill something first. Thus Decompose will do more damage the more life the Skeletal Brute has.

To spawn Skeletal Brute's to create poison clouds when we need them, we use weapon swapping. This way we can have all our de-buffs and buffs active on Set 1, minions and Sacrifice active on Set 2, thus effectively doubling our usable spirit. So when we swap to Set 2 our minions instantly spawn next to us and Decompose targets them as we step.

Each Skeletal Brute targeted by Decompose will spawn it's own poison cloud. Each cloud applies one poison per second up to a maximum poison capacity. With Snakebite, Stacking Toxins, Building Toxins and Overwhelming Toxicity our maximum poison capacity becomes 8. More poison clouds = more poisons per second, NOT more damage. It just means you reach the poison capacity faster, and stay at max longer.

When one of our Skeletal Brute's die, it will start the minion respawn timer. Normally it can take up to 11 seconds before they can spawn again. When outside combat, weapon swapping bypasses this timer, and always spawns your minions instantly. When in-combat however, a weapon swap still bypasses the timer, but only after waiting ~4 seconds (this might be a bug. 0.2 confirmed this was a bug RIP).

During maps, we don't want to wait for this timer before we can spawn clouds, so we use Plague Bearer instead for killing packs of monsters. As long as a couple monsters survive, Decompose will target the corpses of stuff we kill and poison those remaining monsters. This refills our Plague Bearer instantly meaning we can use it again for the next pack of monsters. When targeting Plague Bearer with Astral Projection make sure to hit several packs of monsters, we don't want to kill everything with one cast, Decompose should clean up stragglers.

Plague Bearer will only gather poison when using Set 1. Make sure to stay in Set 1 whenever possible, as our de-buffs such as Blasphemy with Temporal Chains and Despair are only active when that set is equipped.

- First created (23.12.2024)

- Swapped out the Build Overview video with a new FAQ video (19.01.2025)

- Updated Endgame and Starter tree. Moved my contact info to the end of the FAQ (20.01.2025)

- Added full new player leveling guide from 1 to 58 (29.03.2025)

- Build dead after patch 0.2.0: (03.04.2025)

• Corpsewade 50% less base scaling (now 19.5%, was 39.5%)
• Skeletal Brute lost 20% more life quality (15% less damage)
• Meat Shield no longer gives 50% more life (33% less damage)
• Sceptres went from 5 to 4 to max levels for minions (9% less damage)
• Lightning Warp has weaker shock (10% less damage)
• Despair reduced to 24% (from 36%)
• You can only have 6 poison clouds active at any time
• (About 80% total less damage compared to patch 0.1)
• Withering Presence is now better
• Grim Feast deleted
• Eye of Winter won't apply Wither via Withering Touch reliably
• Sacrifice minions revive 60% more slowly now (was 31%)
• Worst for last, you can no longer weapon swap to bypass minion respawn timer