Updated for Patch 3.17
The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo
Guide notes | |||
August 17, 2021 -Build created August 20, 2021 -Added gameplay video November 3, 2021 -Updated for patch 3.16 March 7, 2022 -Updated for patch 3.17 |
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Build overview | |||
Tags: [RANGED] [ELEMENTAL] [LIFE] | |||
Budget: Defenses: |
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Boss DPS: AoE: |
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Lightning Arrow is a recently buffed, popular skill among Deadeye characters, it can be played as a starter build and it's also SSF-viable. It's rather on a softcore side of the survivability spectrum, but it makes up for the low defense with one of the highest damage in the game. Lightning Arrow is an extremely basic Bow Attack - it fires an Arrow, that upon landing struck the enemy with lightning damage that also hit adjacent targets. Enemies Shocked by this attack will take much more damage, and despite the damage conversion to Lightning, the main type of Damage dealt by Lightning Arrow is going to be Cold Damage. A portion of Physical and Lightning Damage will be converted to Cold with some added Cold Damage from various sources. The use of a Hydrosphere will increase damage by drenching enemies - hitting it will also deal damage to nearby enemies so it's good to have one constantly moving.
The build is Life-based with a lot of Evasion Rating and Chance to Dodge Spells and Attacks. The Health pool looks really poor, even when taken into account the other defenses, it can be safely assumed that it is a glass cannon build, and the best way to survive is to kill anything that pops on the screen instantly. Using Bow often allows you to have two six-linked setups. One will be used for single targets, and the other for fast clearing. Deadeye ascendancy specializes in Bow Attacks so it's an easy choice, It is recommended to take Richochet and Endless Munition. Richochet combined with Hydrosphere allows your Arrow to bounce an additional time. Other Ascendancy Keystones worth considering are Far Shot, Gathering Winds, and Focal Point. There are no Uniques that are necessary, but a lot of them are immensely helpful, some of which can be somewhat expensive.
You can also check our other Path of Exile builds right over here Odealo's Crafty Guides - Full List
It's a simple bow build, you shoot enemies with Lightning Arrow while trying to stay at a safe distance (unless you have Point Blank). Use one setup for clearing, and the other for single targets. The build is so flexible that you could even swap Lightning Arrow for Ice Shot on your single target setup, but the main difference will be in Support Gems such as Barrage Support for focused fire. Asenath's Chant is a Unique Helmet that casts socketed Spells when you Attack with a Bow - it is commonly used to cast Curses, Wave of Conviction, or Hydrosphere. If you don't have it, cast Hydrosphere manually. Herald of Ice, Hatred, and Precision will increase and convert your damage to Cold. For Curse use Sniper's Mark and as a movement Skill use Dash or Flame Dash. Immortal Call combined with Cast when Damage Taken is a great choice for a Guard Spell. Additionally, use Blood Rage for more Attack Speed, Life Leech, and to gain Frenzy Charges.
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PROS |
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CONS |
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Before level 12 you can use any Bow Attack, after that Lightning Arrow will be granted upon entering the Caverns in act 1. As you will notice, you will deal mostly Lightning Damage for now. Conversion to Cold Damage is taking place after you get some of the recommended Unique Items which add Cold Damage to Attacks, for example, Void Fletcher, Mark of the Elder, The Pandemonius, Hyrri's Ire, or Hyrri's Demise. You could keep your Lightning Damage for the endgame, but it's just not recommended. Before you're able to equip such items, use mostly rares that add Physical or Elemental Damage to your Attacks, also Additional Arrows are the best mods to look for on your Bow.
Suggested leveling Gem setups:
Lightning Arrow setup | |
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Lightning Arrow - Lightning Arrow can be used from the start, it's an attack that fires Projectiles and converts half your Physical Damage to Lightning |
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Mirage Archer Support - creates a Mirage Archer that repeats your attacks increasing your overall damage |
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Added Lightning Damage Support - adds more Lightning Damage to your Attacks |
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Inspiration Support - lowers the Mana Cost of your Skills, grants you increased Critical Strike Chance and Elemental Damage |
Dash, Hydrosphere, and Curse setup | |
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Dash - Dash is the main mobility skill used in this build |
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Hydrosphere - after the first Lab is completed take Ricochet and combine it with Hydrosphere for a great damage boost |
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Sniper's Mark - cursed enemies take more damage from Projectile Hits and projectiles will additionally split upon hitting them |
Blood Rage, Auras, and Heralds setup | |
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Herald of Thunder - before you convert most of your damage to Cold use this Herald for more damage and AoE |
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Wrath - an Aura that adds Lightning Damage to your Attacks |
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Precision - increases your Critical Strike Chance and Accuracy Rating |
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Blood Rage - with Blood Rage active, your Attack Speed is Higher, you gain Life Leech and Frenzy Charges |
Bandits:
KIlling all three Bandits for two Passive Skill Points is the best option, but you can also Help Alira for more Mana Regen, Crit Multiplier, and Elemental Resistances
Leveling Skill Trees:
35 Points Skill Tree
Allocate Finesse, Heart of Oak, Ballistics, Primal Spirit, Aspect of the Eagle, Winter Spirit then go for the large Bow Cluster
67 Points Skill Tree
Get more Maximum Life, Projectile, Cold, Bow Damage, and Point Blank Keystone,
Recommended leveling items:
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+(30-50) to Evasion Rating 10% increased Rarity of Items found +(30-40)% to all Elemental Resistances Reflects 4 Physical Damage to Melee Attackers Level Requirement reduced by 100 (Hidden) |
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Item has no level requirement and Energy Shield (Hidden) Item has 6 White Sockets and is fully linked (Hidden) |
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+(10-20) to Dexterity 100% increased Physical Damage 100% increased Attack Speed +2 Mana gained for each Enemy hit by Attacks (50-100)% increased Projectile Speed +(25-50) to Accuracy Rating 30% less Damage |
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(30-50)% increased Critical Strike Chance (100-125)% increased Physical Damage 10% increased Attack Speed +50% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier Bow Attacks fire an additional Arrow |
Final Skill Tree:
111 Points Final Skill Tree (doesn't include Cluster Jewels nor Intuitive Leap)
115 Points Path of Building(PoB) link
Ascendancy points:
Preferably in that order:
Pantheon:
Major God: Soul of Lunaris 1% additional Physical Damage Reduction for each nearby Enemy, up to 8%; 1% increased Movement Speed for each nearby Enemy, up to 8%
Minor God: Soul of Ryslatha Life Flasks gain 3 Charges every 3 seconds if you haven't used a Life Flask Recently
[Single-Target DPS] Lightning Arrow setup | |
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Lightning Arrow - Lightning Arrow is an Attack that you can use with Bow to strike opponents with Lightning Damage that's converted from your Physical Damage. It hit enemies near the Target and has a chance to Shock. You can later convert Lightning Damage to Cold Damage due to Cold Damage being after the Lightning and Physical Damage in the line of Damage Conversion Flow. |
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Elemental Damage with Attacks Support - it simply increases your Elemental Damage with Attacks, you won't deal any Chaos or Physical Damage so it's the best choice here |
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Inspiration Support - Reduces Mana Cost of the linked skills, it also increases Critical Strike Chance and Elemental Damage making it one of the most useful Support Gems |
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Added Cold Damage Support - adds flat and increased Cold Damage to your Lightning Arrow |
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Barrage Support - instead of spread fire, your projectiles now fires in a sequence, one after the other making it perfect for killing one enemy |
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Cold Penetration Support - since your damage is mostly Cold, the best choice to increase your damage even further is Cold Penetration Support |
[AoE DPS] Lightning Arrow setup | |
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Lightning Arrow - in this setup this Attack is designed to cover as much of the area as possible to quickly kill small enemies spread across the screen |
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Fork Support - Projectiles will Fork after hitting an enemy or Hydrosphere, splitting into two Projectiles, if you can Pierce an enemy, it will first Pierce, then Fork. Each time the forked Projectile hits something, it once again hits nearby enemies with lightning bolts. |
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Mirage Archer Support - after you hit an enemy, an apparition will be summoned, and while attached to you it will repeat your Attacks with lower Attack Speed and Damage |
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Elemental Damage with Attacks Support |
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Inspiration Support |
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Added Cold Damage Support |
[UTILITY] Hydrosphere, Sniper's Mark, and Creeping Frost setup (preferably socketed in Asenath's Chant Unique Helmet) |
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Hydrosphere - You can summon and control the placement of this sphere of water, it's a Spell that deals Physical Damage that is converted to Cold or Lightning. You can hit it like it's an enemy and make it pulse lowering Elemental Resistance by Applying Cold and Lightning Exposure. |
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Bonechill Support - increases the effectiveness of Chill you create with linked Skills, it works really well with Creeping Frost |
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Sniper's Mark - a Curse that increases the damage enemies take from Projectiles, recovers your Life Flask Charges, and Projectiles that hits cursed enemies Split to hit four additional targets |
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Creeping Frost - a spell that fires a projectile that then creates Chilled Ground after it hits an enemy, it then spreads further covering more and more area. If you don't have Asenath's Chant yet, replace this Support Gem with ![]() |
[UTILITY] Mana Reservation setup | |
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Hatred - converts a quarter of your Physical Damage to Cold Damage and increases your Cold Damage from all sources |
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Herald of Ice - Grants you more Cold Damage and makes Shattering enemies explode dealing damage around them. You can Shatter an enemy by Freezing and Killing it. |
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Enlighten Support - lowers the cost of linked Mana-reserving skills |
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Precision - Use it to increase your Critical Strike Chance and for additional Accuracy Rating. It might not be possible to level it up all the way to level 20 due to Mana issues. |
[UTILITY] Blood Rage, Immortal Call, and Dash setup | |
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Blood Rage - a temporary buff that increases your Attack Speed, grants you Life Leech, and a chance to gain Frenzy Charge upon killing opponents, however, it makes you take Physical DoT |
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Dash - use Dash to quickly maneuver around the obstacles and dangerous enemies |
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Cast when Damage Taken - keep it at level 1 so it will trigger as often as possible, the only skill that has to be linked with it is Immortal Call, but if that's your preference, Blood Rage can also be automatically activated |
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Immortal Call - Level 3 is the highest to have it triggered by level 1 CwDT. It reduces Physical and Elemental Damage you take for a short time. |
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Although you can use only Rare Gear, it is not recommended. Unique Items listed here will significantly elevate your damage and survivability. The general principle to follow is really simple because it's a painfully generic Elemental-Attack-Crit build. Cap your Elemental Resistances, get as much Maximum Life as possible, and increase your damage by looking for mods such as Physical/Elemental/Cold/Projectile Damage with Bows/AoE/Attacks and increased Critical Strike Chance/Multiplier. This version of the build uses Point Blank and Chin Sol for a close-distance style of combat. With the huge amount of unique items, the hardest part of gearing up might be to cap your Resistances and to get the necessary 80 Strenght and 155 Intelligence.
Our recommended items will:
Stat priorities on items:
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Trigger a Socketed Spell when you Attack with a Bow (10-15)% increased Attack Speed (10-15)% increased Cast Speed +(100-120) to maximum Energy Shield (30-40)% increased Stun and Block Recovery 30% increased Mana Regeneration Rate 5% increased Movement Speed |
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Helmet enchantments: Lightning Arrow enchantments |
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+(15-25)% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier +(10-20) to Dexterity (200-260)% increased Physical Damage Adds 25 to 50 Fire Damage (10-14)% increased Attack Speed 50% More Damage with Arrow Hits at Close Range Bow Knockback at Close Range |
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Min. requirements: Bow Attack fire 2 additional Arrows Adds 80 to 150 Cold Damage 100% increased Physical Damage Optional affixes: Accuracy Rating Attack Speed increased Critical Strike Chance Attack with this Weapon Penetrate #% Elemental Resistances |
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Arrows Pierce an additional Target Consumes a Void Charge to Trigger Level 20 Void Shot when you fire Arrows with a Non-Triggered Skill Adds (30-40) to (80-100) Cold Damage to Attacks +(80-120) to maximum Energy Shield +(20-30)% to Cold Resistance +(20-40) Mana gained on Kill 30% increased Projectile Speed 5 Maximum Void Charges Gain a Void Charge every 0.5 seconds |
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+(3-4) Life gained for each Enemy hit by your Attacks +(15-30) to all Attributes (7-10)% increased Attack Speed +(2-3) Life gained for each Enemy hit by your Attacks 10% increased Area of Effect Adds 1 to 2 Cold Damage to Attacks per 10 Dexterity Adds 1 to 2 Fire Damage to Attacks per 10 Strength Adds 0 to 3 Lightning Damage to Attacks per 10 Intelligence |
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+(40-50) to Dexterity (140-220)% increased Evasion Rating 25% increased Chill Duration on Enemies Adds (105-145) to (160-200) Cold Damage to Bow Attacks 10% chance to Dodge Attack Hits 10% chance to Dodge Spell Hits |
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Min. requirements: 70 Maximum Life 30% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Attacks Have +#% to Critical Strike Chance you can apply an additional Curse chance to gain a Frenzy Charge on Hit |
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Min. requirements: 70 Maximum Life 25% Increased Movement Speed 60% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Chaos Resistances chance to gain Onslaught for 4 seconds on Kill chance to gain Elusive on Critical Strike Intelligence/Strenght (crafted) |
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Boot enchantment: 16% increased Attack and Cast Speed if you've Killed Recently |
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Min. requirements: 80 Maximum Life 80% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: Attack Speed Increased Damage with Hits against Chilled enemies Adds # to # Cold Damage Intelligence/Strenght (crafted) |
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Min. requirements: 100 Maximum Life 100% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: #% increased maximum Life Strength and Intelligence (crafted) increased Damage with Hits against Chilled Enemies |
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+(20-30) to Dexterity (20-30)% increased Cold Damage +(35-40)% to Cold Resistance Chill Enemy for 1 second when Hit, reducing their Action Speed by 30% Blind Chilled Enemies on Hit Damage Penetrates 20% Cold Resistance against Chilled Enemies |
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+(10-16) to all Attributes +(10-20)% to Fire Resistance +(10-20)% to Cold Resistance +(20-40)% to Lightning Resistance 30% reduced Duration of Ailments on Enemies (5-10)% chance to Shock Enemies take 5% increased Damage for each type of Ailment you have inflicted on them Your Elemental Damage can Shock |
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Recommended Anointments: Vengeant Cascade Heart of Ice Throatseeker| Divine Fervour |
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+(8-10)% to all Elemental Resistances 20% increased Damage with Hits and Ailments per Freeze, Shock or Ignite on Enemy +(20-30)% to all Elemental Resistances 30% increased Elemental Damage 10% chance to Freeze, Shock and Ignite 30% increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills |
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Adds (3-4) to (10-14) Physical Damage to Attacks 20% chance to Trigger Level 20 Tentacle Whip on Kill Adds (26-32) to (42-48) Cold Damage to Attacks (6-10)% increased maximum Energy Shield (6-10)% increased maximum Life (60-80)% increased Attack Damage if your other Ring is a Shaper Item Cannot be Stunned by Attacks if your other Ring is an Elder Item |
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Min. requirements: 80 Maximum Life 50% Total Elemental Resistances Optional affixes: increased Global Critical Strike Chance Adds # to # Cold Damage to Spells and Attacks Curse Enemies with Frostbite on Hit increased Cold Damage increased Attack Speed Intelligence and Strength |
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Recommended affixes: Maximum Life Optional affixes: chance to gain Phasing on Kill Critical Strike Multiplier added Cold Damage with Bow Attacks added Attack/Elemental/Cold Damage |
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Recommended affixes: |
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Passives in Radius can be Allocated without being connected to your tree | |
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(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers> Recommended Aura modifiers: +(20-30)% to Critical Strike Multiplier while affected by Precision (10-15)% increased Attack Speed while affected by Precision (40-60)% increased Attack Damage while affected by Precision Adds (58-70) to (88-104) Cold Damage while affected by Hatred Damage Penetrates (10-15)% Cold Resistance while affected by Hatred |
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Adds (3-5) to (8-12) Fire Attack Damage per Buff on you Adds (2-3) to (5-8) Fire Spell Damage per Buff on you |
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40% increased Damage Creates Consecrated Ground on Use (20-40)% increased Duration Consecrated Ground created by this Flask has Tripled Radius Consecrated Ground created during Effect applies (7-10)% increased Damage taken to Enemies (100-150)% increased Critical Strike Chance against Enemies on Consecrated Ground during Flask effect |
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Onslaught +90 to Maximum Charges Recharges 5 Charges when you Consume an Ignited corpse (175-200)% increased Charges used Enemies Ignited by you during Flask Effect take (7-10)% increased Damage Recover (1-3)% of Life when you Kill an Enemy during Flask Effect |
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+50% to Fire Resistance 20% less Fire Damage taken (125-150)% increased Charges used (40-60)% reduced Duration (10-20)% increased Area of Effect during Flask Effect Skills fire 2 additional Projectiles during Flask Effect |
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Other suggested Flasks:
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If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.
Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.