Use your favourite features in-game with our Desktop AppSeason 2 of The Bazaar is right around the corner, ready to bring us new Expansions to spice up the game. The patch should be live on May 7th, 2025.
Mak's Expansion brings a bunch of new items that create a self-Poison archetype, incentivizing you to Poison BOTH players for an extra payoff.
Self-infliction doesn't sound great in theory, but it'll be interesting to see how players work around the drawback to maximize the benefits.
Adrenal Converter, along with many other items in this Expansion, introduces a self-Poison archetype for Mak. In the past long before Mak's release we saw 
Noxious Potion apply Poison to both players, so it's likely this was all part of the package.
Poisoning yourself is obviously a pretty steep drawback, but to balance the negative Adrenal Converter grants an absurd amount of Regeneration. 10 Regen is a lot, and we can assume it's going to be even higher at upgraded tiers.
Ultimately it will come down to how fast you can trigger the effect, and since it also provides Haste alongside the Regen, I expect this to be a core piece of the archetype.
Barbed Claws looks to be a simple way to take advantage of having self-Poison effects. A five second Cooldown item with Multicast 3 is no joke, and considering it only takes up a Small slot is pretty crazy.
Even just pairing 
Left-Handed or 
Right-Handed with this in the early game offers insane value, assuming you can fulfill the requirement of Poisoning both players (which seems accessible).
On top of its Damage output, it also works perfectly with other items in this archetype that trigger effects when adjacent items are used. It's basically a faster 
Soldering Gun that doesn't require very specific items and positioning to make work. If the archetype is strong, I expect this to be there.
Fungal Spores is a really cool utility item that offers Poison scaling during the fight, which generally hasn't been too common. As a Small item it's almost strictly superior to 
Death Caps.
Knowing that even 
Yeti Crab is a decent option in the early game, even before the synergy with 
Elemental Depth Charge, Fungal Spores seems solid. It'll trigger much faster while not having any positional requirements.
Unlike many of the other items of this Expansion, Fungal Spores is just a solid overall component that isn't restricted to the self-Poison archetype. I expect it'll make it onto some early game boards alongside 
Aludel and/or 
Quill and Ink.
Infused Bracers appears to be the perfect supporting item for Barbed Claws. Simply take one of the items that self-Poisons upon adjacent item use, put the Claw to its right, then Infused Bracers on the other side of the Claw.
This creates a Lifestealing, Multicast 3 Weapon that scales its own Damage with every activation, even growing stronger between individual hits. Then of course, any other self-Poison effects on board also apply, it's not restricted to the adjacent ones.
I think if Barbed Claws is going to make it to the end game alongside the self-Poison archetype, Infused Bracers is probably the reason for it. Scaling plus Lifesteal is a tried and true combination.
Optical Augment offers some nice utility with its start-of-fight effect. It creates an immediate on-start trigger for skills like 
Paralytic Poison, despite the fact you're Poisoning yourself.
This could be a solid way to increase an item's Crit Chance, and likely makes it possible to reach 100% with the right setup. I think the only real downside is it's positioning requirement.
Seeing that it's not possible to combine this with Barbed Claws + Infused Bracers is a bit unfortunate. However, there's likely other items that can benefit from the effect, and could very much be worth the inclusion for the single slot it occupies.
Peacewrought has a super interesting design that destroys your other items to get stronger. This is really cool because it offers a different take on the normal buy/sell for Value system.
As for the effect itself, this certainly has the potential to stack a crazy amount of Regen. That said, not getting any gold (since you don't sell the item) is a pretty significant drawback, especially because these types of strategies rely on purchasing multiple items to maximize the gains.
It's definitely got the potential to reach Regen heights greater than many other items, but given we have 
Philosopher's Stone as a Small item that's reliable to stack (and free!), it may be hard to justify.
Rapid Injection System looks to be another core component of the self-Poison archetype. As a passive item this doesn't do anything on its own, but since it triggers upon adjacent item use, it has great potential to do some wild things.
On the surface, it looks like we'll just want to put the fastest items we can next to it to create as many triggers as possible. Ideally Small items, but ultimately it'll likely be whichever have the lowest Cooldowns and/or Multicast capabilities.
However, as of writing this we only know half of the package and don't know any potential coming balance changes, so we'll have to wait and see.
Test Subject Alpha may be one of the most interesting "Friends" we've seen in The Bazaar, but hey, at least it's on our side.
With its 11 second Cooldown it's hard to say how much Damage it will deal itself, but its adjacent Poison trigger is by far the largest among the package. Plus, Test Subject Alpha Poisons BOTH players.
Barbed Claw could trigger this thing three times per use, and that's not factoring in having a second item on its other side. Perhaps a second Claw? With Transforms, this is very possible.
Overall we'll have to see how this whole self-Poison archetype shapes up, because while it looks to have a high output, don't forget we're hurting ourselves too!
Venomous Dose looks like a simple early game piece for the self-Poison build. As a Small item with a four second Cooldown and a self-Poison trigger, it does fit well with the likes of Rapid Injection System and Adrenal Converter.
It's hard to say whether it's good enough to make the final build, but if there ends up being some consistent ways to scale its Poison during combat, its secondary effect could provide a great amount of Regen on top of all the usual synergy.
Wild Quillback is a really strange item that has the ability to benefit or counter both players. However, knowing all the self-Poison synergy Mak has, using your own Weapons to Poison yourself could actually be considered an upside.
This is a pretty big anti-Weapon effect that could stack a ton of Poison. Combining any Poison skills or scaling with this makes it absurd, especially if the opponent has multiple spammy Weapons.
However, depending on the matchup Wild Quillback could become a real double-edged sword. Giving the opponent access to Regen would let them counteract your own Poison. The rate of Regen gain would vary depending on their speed, but knowing how spammy some builds can be, there's definitely risk.
Overall Wild Quillback is a really interesting item that I think will vary in usage depending on how the meta shapes up. There's definitely a place for it, but I'd hate to run into an opponent with 
Library.
