Since Path of Exile 2's launch, its rich world and diverse gameplay have fascinated players. Many have developed diverse builds, leaving a lasting mark on PoE 2 exploration journey.
Today, I'll share with you the Lightning Crossbow Deadeye build. This build abandons traditional gameplay and focuses on Explosive Shot clearing, paired with Last Lament and Compose Requiem for high DPS damage.
It maintains the exhilarating experience of large-scale monster clearing while delivering top-tier boss damage, offering a new direction for the crossbowman class. Below, I'll explain how to build it.
1. Gear Combination
Weapon Selection
The core strength of Lightning Crossbow Deadeye build lies in the strategic pairing of its dual-weapon set, achieving both efficient clearing and effective boss damage.
For the first weapon set, choose Crossbows. Prioritize lightning damage, aiming for T1 and T2 lightning damage bonuses. T3 can be a good transition.
Secondly, stack attack speed bonuses, T2 and T3 levels will suffice. Add practical stats like increased physical damage percentage, increased skill levels, and a chance to trigger Onslaught on kills.
Even with non-core affixes like bonus damage to enemies within 2 meters, Crossbows still guarantee excellent monster clearing efficiency. For ultimate damage output, you can replace them with high percentage damage stats through Refining.
For the second weapon set, bundle Last Lament Desolate Crossbow. The core of this weapon is Compose Requiem. It's important to note that it has no negative effects like Sacrifice; it's chosen purely for its exceptionally high damage bonus against bosses.
For Last Lament Desolate Crossbow, prioritize maximum physical damage and attack speed, then add bonus elemental damage to trigger Trinity Resonance.
If paired with a level 19 or 20 Compose Requiem, the damage boost will be even more significant. This increased damage also increases the speed at which enemies are defeated, significantly increasing the amount of Path of Exile 2 Currency dropped from enemies. You can use this to upgrade various equipment or purchase items.
Wearable Items
Crossbow Deadeye is built around Trinity while also emphasizing survivability, so other wearable items will contribute significantly to its success. The following are the items you should consider.
- Helmet: Choose Constricting Command Viper Cap. The key is to keep the number of enemies on the battlefield at five or fewer to continuously trigger the helmet's damage bonus. This is the best choice for melee combat and builds like ours that prioritize close-range damage.
- Gloves: Evasion and hybrid Energy Shield are recommended, though full Evasion and full Energy Shield are also acceptable. For a Trinity build, prioritize stacking fire, cold, and lighting elemental damage bonuses and attack speed. Balanced increases to all three elements maximize damage output.
- Shoes: Choose pure energy shield boots, easily stacking up to 1000 energy shield points. Also prioritize movement speed and resistance, ensuring resistance reaches its maximum, balancing survivability and mobility.
- Jewelry: Choose a Gold Amulet for your amulet. Any basic amulet will work, depending on your stat requirements, focusing on energy shield, evasion, and global defense.
- Anointed: Choose Stormcharged. Leverage your continuously triggered critical hits to significantly increase critical hit rate and critical hit damage, compensating for the crossbow's inherently low critical hit rate.
- Rings: Build around a Trinity build, prioritizing rings with fire, cold, and lighting elemental damage bonuses. A Breach Ring is ideal, as it further increases your stat threshold.
- Belt: The Ingenuity Utility Belt is the preferred choice, as it amplifies the base damage and stat bonuses from the ring. If your budget allows, Headhunter Heavy Belt is a better option, boosting both monster clearing speed and movement speed. Choose your preferred option based on your specific situation.
- Body Armor: A hybrid of Energy Shield and Evasion Armor focuses on increasing mental resistance and block rate, ensuring both damage output and sufficient survivability.
Also, focus on intelligence and deck strength for attribute thresholds, ensuring they meet the minimum requirements for your class. This is the foundation for all equipment and skills to be effective.
2. Skills & Gems
Core Skill Build
- Compose Requiem: Combine Concentrated Area, Overextend, and Rapid Attacks to achieve critical strike rate bonuses and area damage.
- Explosive Shot: Place Nova Projectiles in the auxiliary gem slot to launch additional skills in a circular area, detonating all bombs within the radius at once.
- Voltaic Mark: This skill increases our electric damage to approximately 98%. Plasma Blast serves as our primary electric shock, quickly shocking enemies.
- Elemental Weakness: Prioritize leveling this skill. Use Heightened Curse to enhance the curse and further amplify its power.
- Auras: Choose Trinity to trigger resonance by balancing the three elemental damage values, boosting elemental damage.
Gems Selection
When choosing gems, first use Herald of Thunder at its highest level, utilizing Trinity to increase damage. Next, choose Elemental Armament to increase the elemental damage of your skills. Then, choose Wind Dancer, which increases your dodge rate. Finally, choose Ghost Dance, which greatly improves your survivability.
While these skill gems aren't top-tier, they're still very helpful. They may be optimized in the upcoming Path of Exile 2 patch 0.3.1, so we look forward to seeing even better results.
Also Read: Path Of Exile 2 Patch 0.3.1 Update Notes: Maps, Bosses, And Monster Density Changes
3. Passive Skill Tree
The core of the talent tree revolves around Crossbow Deadeye builds. The specific nodes to select are as follows:
First, select Point Blank in the weapon skill tree, which increases close-range damage by 20%. Then, select Endless Munitions to increase the number of extra bullets. Gathering Winds increases dodge, skill speed, and movement speed. These can improve mobility and survivability while exploring the map.
Second, in the main talent tree, select Honed Instincts to increase attack speed. Then, select Cooked to increase your critical damage. Finally, select Stand and Deliver to increase damage.
Through continued exploration by the community, we've found that while this build is already powerful, there's still room for improvement in areas like optimizing Fire Resonance and filling skill slots. We believe that Path of Exile 2 patch 0.3.1 will feature more detailed adjustments and gameplay expansions, injecting new vitality into your adventure!
