Ice Shot
Amazon Build

Updated for Path of Exile 2 Early Access

The Best Crafty Guides by Odealo

This build uses Bow Attacks to deal Cold Damage. Ice Shot is the fundamental Skill, which, due to its simplicity, offers the best damage with no requirements to meet and no conditions to fulfil. It will be accompanied by Freezing Salvo and Ice-Tipped Arrows to boost its damage against tough enemies, but these skills cannot be used as often as Ice Shot. All these Attacks Convert the Physical Damage to Cold, but other Damage types, especially Fire and Lightning, can be added. Cold Damage, still, the most important one, comes with the major advantage of Freezing enemies. Frozen opponents will Shatter on Kill with Herald of Ice, which greatly improves clear speed, while bosses are rendered harmless, as they will spend most of the fight immobilized and unable to deal damage. The nature of the Ranged Bow Attack also enhances survivability; enemies will rarely get an opportunity to harm the character, which is additionally very fast on account of riding on a Rhoa Mount. The durability is additionally boosted by switching to Chaos Inoculation and relying on Energy Shield instead of Life. It imposes the requirement of wearing Essentia Sanguis Gloves, but that's a small price to pay for an extraordinary Recovery.

We've chosen Amazon mainly because of the Mystic Harvest passive to enable Leeching from Cold Damage. The whole ascendancy is very offensively oriented, which suits the playstyle we're aiming for. Predatory Instinct simply increases damage dealt to bosses, Critical Strike increases Critical Hit Chance as you increase your own Accuracy or lower the Evasion of enemies, and Penetrate adds Physical Damage, later Converted to Cold.

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1. Gameplay

For 99% of the time, you will use only Ice Shot. Only when fighting bosses, start by applying Freezing Mark, Blinding and Hindering the enemy with Tornado Shot, then empowering your next Shot with Ice-Tipped Arrows, Attacking with Freezing Salvo, and continuing to blast the opponent with Ice Shots, given they're still alive. After they've become unfrozen, cast Freezing Mark again. Remember that you have Stand and Deliver notable allocated; stand close to the enemy. Your passive skills are Herald of Ice, Wind Dancer, and Rhoa Mount.

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

Leveling is very intuitive; you can start following this guide from level one. It's only important to remember to upgrade your gear every so often and put on Essentia Sanguis Gloves as soon as you switch to Chaos Inoculation. Other low-level Uniques you can consider are Grip of Winter, Ghostwrithe, The Black Insignia, Doomfletch, or Death Rush. On the Passive Skill Tree, pick Projectile or Elemental Damage nodes over Critical Hit ones, which are useful only much later into the game.

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

Click on the image to open the Passive Tree preview in a new window Or import the build into PoB: Path of Building 2 code

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in this order:

1. Mystic Harvest
2. Predatory Instinct
3. Critical Strike
4. Penetrate

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Ice Shot setup
	Ice Shot - A basic Cold Attack to be used with a Bow. It splits into Shards on impact; very effective at Freezing.
	Garukhan's Resolve
	Rakiata's Flow
	Elemental Armament
	Rapid Attacks
	Deliberation

[DPS] Freezing Salvo setup
	Freezing Salvo - Accumulates up to 10 charges over time, which can be released all at once. It's only used against tough enemies since it takes a while to reload.
	Rigwald's Ferocity (set 2)
	Deliberation
	Elemental Armament
	Ice Bite
	Cold Penetration

[UTILITY] Ice-Tipped Arrows setup
	Ice-Tipped Arrows - It's also used only against rares and bosses because it has a long Cooldown. It empowers your next Attack so that it creates Ice Fragments on Hit.
	Short Fuse
	Magnified Area
	Cold Penetration
	Elemental Armament
	Second Wind

[UTILITY] Herald of Ice setup
	Herald of Ice - A Herald Skill that Shatters enemies on Kill, resulting in improved clear speed.
	Oisin's Oath
	Cold Penetration
	Elemental Armament
	Magnified Area
	Ambush

[UTILITY] Freezing Mark setup
	Freezing Mark - Marked enemies Freeze faster. Upon Freezing them, you gain Extra Cold Damage. In this setup, it will Shock and Leech Mana.
	Mark for Death
	Prolonged Duration
	Charged Mark
	Mark of Siphoning

[UTILITY] Tornado Shot setup
	Tornado Shot - Absorbs Arrows and spits out three copies of them, which is rarely useful. It will Hinder and Blind enemies in this setup.
	Overabundance
	Durability
	Blind
	Concentrated Area

[MOBILITY] Rhoa Mount setup
	Rhoa Mount - A Companion beast that makes you move faster, but be careful, getting Hit results in a buildup of Heavy Stun.
	Brutus' Brain
	Precision
	Minion Mastery

[UTILITY] Wind Dancer setup
	Wind Dancer - A persistent Buff that grants more Evasion per stage. When Hit, it loses all stages and knocks back nearby enemies with a gust of wind.
	Magnified Area
	Pin
	Ambush
	Life Leech
	Close Combat

6. Gear Setup

As we plan to allocate Chaos Inoculation, it's crucial to equip Essentia Sanguis; it would be difficult to Leech ES other way. No other Uniques are required, but there are some great options that we'll mention. Most items should be Rare. On a Bow, look for high Physical DPS (Converted to Cold with Skills) with Level to Attack Skills. On the rest of your gear, seek Resistances, Energy Shield, and Evasion Rating. It's a hybrid build that uses both ES and Evasion, but you can get away with pure-ES gear. An Extra 50 Spirit will be needed, alongside Resistances, as much as is required. Accuracy is a special case; with Critical Strike ascendancy passive, it will translate into Critical Hit Chance.

(Helmet) Rare Helmet - Helmet, besides the usual defensive stats, may get you Accuracy Rating and Critical Strike Chance, both of which are very desirable. ES and Evasion should be prioritized over Resistances in this case.

Min. requirements: 300 Energy Shield +40% total Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: increased Critical Hit Chance Accuracy Rating Gain Deflection Rating equal to #% of Evasion Rating

(Weapon) Rare Bow - Find a Bow with Levels for Projectile Skills, increased Elemental Damage with Attacks, and get one with as high Physical DPS as you can afford. It requires Added Physical Damage, increased Physical Damage, and Attack Speed. One Countess Seske's Rune of Archery for an Additional Arrow would be the best socketable.

Min. requirements: +4 to Level of all Projectile Skills high Physical DPS increased Elemental Damage with Attacks Optional affixes: Accuracy Rating +3 to Level of all Attack Skills (Essence Suffix) Gain #% of Damage as Extra Cold Damage (Essence Prefix)

(Off-hand) Cadiro's Gambit - The random Arrows you can draw from this Unique Quiver are uniquely good. It's better than most Rares.

(7-10)% increased Attack Speed Each Arrow fired is a Crescendo, Splinter, Reversing, Diamond, Covetous, or Blunt Arrow

(Off-hand) Rare Quiver - Rare Quiver offers a wide variety of powerful mods that are not dissimilar to the ones found on a Bow.

Min. requirements: Adds # Physical Damage to Attacks +2 to Level of all Projectile Skills increased Attack Speed increased Damage with Bow Skills Optional affixes: Accuracy Rating increased Critical Hit Chance for Attacks increased Critical Damage Bonus for Attack Damage

(Gloves) Essentia Sanguis - Essentia Sanguis Gloves are essential for maintaining high ES. You would have to rely on Recharge otherwise, which requires investment to be good.

(50-70)% increased Evasion and Energy Shield Adds 1 to (30-50) Lightning damage to Attacks +(15-25) to Intelligence +(25-35)% to Lightning Resistance Life Leech is Converted to Energy Shield Leech

(Boots) Rare Boots - On Boots get Movement Speed, Resistances, and Defensive stats such as Energy Shield, Evasion Rating, or a mix of both.

Min. requirements: 200 Energy Shield +40% total Elemental Resistance 30% increased Movement Speed Optional affixes: Evasion Rating Gain Deflection Rating equal to #% of Evasion Rating

(Amulet) Rare Amulet - Amulet offers Levels of all Projectile Skills, quite a lot of Energy Shield, and getting Spirit or Accuracy from it could also be wise.

Min. requirements: +80 to Maximum Energy Shield increased maximum Energy Shield +3 to Level of all Projectile Skills Optional affixes: Elemental Resistance Accuracy Rating Spirit Anointment: Ancient Aegis Stormcharged Barbaric Strength

(Ring) Rare Ring - We need to obtain Life Leech and Mana Leech on Rings. Besides that, seek Added Damage to Attacks - Physical and Cold would be the best, but all the other types are good as well. These are the most important stats, but you'll probably need Resistances on them.

Min. requirements: +40% total Elemental Resistance Life or Mana Leech Adds # Physical Damage to Attacks Optional affixes: Attributes Adds # Cold damage to Attacks Accuracy Rating increased Cold Damage

(Belt) Rare Belt - Belts are barren in useful mods, so until you can afford a Headhunter or Ingenuity, get one with lots and lots of Resistances. You don't even need Flask modifiers since you rely on Leech alone.

Min. requirements: +100% total Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Charm slots Charm modifiers

(Body Armour) Rare Body Armour - Body Armour must have lots of Energy Shield or ES mixed with Evasion. All other stats are less important, but you can get Deflection Rating or Spirit here if needed.

Min. requirements: 900 Energy Shield +40% total Elemental Resistance Optional affixes: Evasion Rating reduced Duration of Bleeding on You Gain Deflection Rating equal to #% of Evasion Rating Spirit

(Jewel) Rare Jewels - Sapphires are generally better with their modifiers to Maximum ES and Critical Hit mods, but Rubies may get you Rage on Hit.

Optional affixes: increased Energy Shield increased Critical Hit Chance increased Critical Damage Bonus Gain 1 Rage on Melee Hit increased Elemental Damage increased Cold Damage

(Jewel) Controlled Metamorphosis - Controlled Metamorphosis with a Massive Ring socketed near Monk's starting location will allow you to allocate notables like Wild Storm, Disciplined Training, Concussive Attack, Moment of Truth, Shattering, and Deadly Force.

Only affects Passives in (Very Small-Massive) Ring Passives in Radius can be Allocated without being connected to your tree -(20-5)% to all Elemental Resistances

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.

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