Gas Grenade Pathfinder

0.5 Update Relevant Changes:

The Overwhelming Toxicity Notable Passive Skill now grants 50% less Poison Duration (previously 35%).

The Running Assault Notable Passive Skill now grants 30% less Movement Speed Penalty from using Skills while moving (previously 50%).

The Plaguefinger Unique Gloves now have Cannot inflict Elemental Ailments.

All crafted modifiers are now guaranteed, but items can only have 1 crafted modifier at a time. Desecrated modifiers no longer count as crafted modifiers, but items are limited to 1 Desecrated modifier.

Ghost Dance: The interval between gaining Ghost Shrouds is no longer a duration. It now has "Modifiers to Cooldown Recovery Rate also apply to Ghost Shroud gain frequency". It also now has "When Hit, lose a Ghost Shroud", and "Regenerate Energy Shield equal to 2% of your Evasion Rating per second if you have lost a Ghost Shroud Recently". Now Gains a Ghost Shroud every 11.7-10.1 seconds at Gem levels 4-20 (previously 7.6-6.1)

The less Poison Duration change isn't as impactful for Gas Grenade as it is for a lot of other Poison-based Skills, as we're still able to easily maintain max stacks on single target by simply stacking overlapping Poison clouds. Plaguefinger change is completely irrelevant as we didn't inflict Elemental Ailments (due to use of Elemental Focus support for bossing). The biggest nerf to this build is defensively via changes to Ghost Dance and general Energy Shield Recovery, but the Deflection formula was adjusted and should be worth the investment on hybrid builds now. Overall still functional, and no direct nerfs to Grenades so you'll still be able to melt bosses.

Overview:

Standard Pathfinder Poison-stacking setup utilising Gas Grenade & Plaguefinger. Great at farming Simulacrum, Ritual, Overrun Abyss Maps & Pinnacle Bosses where you can pre-stack clouds to fish for high damage/crit.

Mechanics Overview

Gas Grenade creates Poison Clouds, area ground surfaces that constantly apply Poison to Monsters within and grow in area over time. When combined with Herald of Plague, this build is easily able to clear large packs of Monsters. The Pathfinder's Overwhelming Toxicity doubles the amount of Poison stacks, helping to solve single target Damage.

Main Combo

The playstyle is very straightforward, just drop Gas Grenade to apply proliferating Poison to Monsters. Against tanky targets, use Despair followed by Toxic Domain, then stack Gas Grenade Poison Clouds on the mob.

Supporting Skills & Defences

Herald of Plague is used to provide Poison proliferation, allowing for smoother map clear. Despair will lower Monster Chaos Resistance, making them take more Chaos Damage from Poison. Withering Presence applies Wither to nearby Monsters, making them take increased Chaos Damage. Toxic Domain provides an additional single-target damage boost. On single target/bosses, you can also place down Dark Effigy to inflict extra stacks of Critical Weakness.

This build invests into both Evasion and Energy Shield, making use of Wind Dancer and Ghost Dance for a fairly stock-standard defensive setup for a build on the right-hand side of the Passive Skill Tree.

Ascendancy Progression:

Overwhelming Toxicity > Path Seeker > Relentless Pursuit > Running Assault

Campaign Quest Bonus Choices

Act 2 Ancient Vows Quest: 30% increased Charm Charges gained

Act 3 Corpse-snake Venom: 25% increased Stun Threshold

Act 4 Blank Tattoos: +5 Dexterity, +5 Strength, +5 Intelligence

Act 4 Goddess of Justice: 30% increased Life Recovery from Flasks

Interlude Seven Pillars: +5% to Elemental Resistances or +5 to all Attributes (replace with 3% increased Movement Speed when Resistances/Attributes are solved in late game)

Videos:

Build Showcase(0.3):

Simulacrum 3

Xesht 3

Arbiter of Ash

Build Updates(0.3):

Day 1 Update

Day 2 Update

Day 3 Update (post)

Discovery of Crit

Day 4 Update (post)

Day 5 Update

Final Update

Full Video Guide

See FAQ below for more information.

28/08/25 - First draft

29/08/25 - Build posted

30/08/25 - Updated for new tree & support gems

31/08/25 - Updated endgame tree pathing(no longer taking Spectral Ward), updated gems

01/09/25 - Added new 3rd Ascension section, updated endgame gear, added Toxic Domain

02/09/25 - Added new Endgame Crit variant, updated gems (Arakaali's Lust)

07/09/25 - Updated for final changes & tweaks to gems, gear etc.

12/09/25 - Updated sections to consolidate Endgame crit and non-crit versions into a single version with crit splash (my current setup)

07/12/25 - Updated for 0.4 changes (see top of guide)

26/02/26 - Guide cleanup for end of 0.4

29/04/26 - Prep for 0.5