[3.21] Welcome to the Super Fast Clear Ice Shot Barrage Deadeye guide!

Table of contents:

> Basics

> Mechanics

> Playstyle

> Class, Tree, Pantheon, Masteries

> Equipment

> Flasks

> Skill Gems

Deadeyes and Bows have long been the pinnacle of clear speed in all of PoE. Traditional bow skills might not be the best for league starts, but they are definitely the most popular builds for when people want to clear tons of content at Mach 3 speed. In this build, we make use of ice damage and high crit chance to ensure our enemies shatter on kill, which provides us with plenty opportunities for our Herald of Ice explosions to chain, enhancing our clear even further.

https://pastebin.com/XHDwSXMz to use in Path of Building

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 Basics

Ice Shot is one of the three main clear skills for bows in PoE (others being Lightning Arrow and Tornado Shot). It’s definitely one of my favorites, as it creates a cone-shaped explosion behind every enemy we hit - even if the projectile chains, forks or pierces, which lets us cover swaths of area with the AoE this skill provides.

Barrage is the main single target skill for bowyers because of the way it interacts with added arrows. Normally, multiple arrows from the same skill cannot overlap, but Barrage is one of the few exceptions. Every added arrow is fired in a sequence with the ability to shotgun (hit the same enemy multiple times with one skill use). With this build, we have about 9 arrows, letting us hit our enemies a grand total of 36 times a second.

Pros and Cons

+ Fastest clear you can get
+ No, literally, it explodes entire screens with one bow-shot.

- Squishy
- NOT league start friendly

Mechanics Used

· Chill is one of the elemental ailments. It’s a debuff that scales with the amount of cold damage you deal with your hit, slowing the enemy’s action speed (all of their animations like moving or casting spells) from 10% to 30%. 

· Tailwind is similar to chill, this effect affects our action speed - but it buffs it instead of lowering it. By default, having Tailwind on you increases our speed by 8%, but since we are playing Deadeye, we can increase its effects by 15% for every skill use in the last 4 seconds.
· Point Blank comes from a keystone we allocate on our passive tree. The closer we are to the enemy, the more damage our projectile attacks will do to them. However there’s a drawback to this - further enemies will take less damage. We counteract that with the next thing.

· Far Shot: The further our projectile travels, the more damage it deals. We use that to counter Point Blank’s damage drop-off.

Useful Links and Path of Building

Path of Building: A powerful tool for planning/sharing builds. To have all info from this build compressed into one simple character sheet, use this link in the 'import' section.

https://pastebin.com/XHDwSXMz

Get Path of Building here!

https://pathofbuilding.community

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 Playstyle and Leveling

Leveling

For early leveling, use Rain of Arrows, switch to Ice Shot once you can get at least a 4-link piece of gear. Use Shrapnel Ballistas for extra single target.

Good bows to look for are Tempest, Quill Rain and Roth’s Reach.

Playstyle

This build follows typical archer rules: while clearing, try to keep your distance while fighting enemies - you can kill them from range anyway. 

When it comes to bosses, remember to stand quite far from them and use Barrage, which will likely absolutely obliterate them due to the damage we get from Far Shot.

Remember to always be on the move! Many enemies have ground-targeted skills, which will definitely kill you if you choose to stay in one place. You should definitely try to orb walk - which means canceling attack animations right after the attack fires.

Map Mods

Elemental reflect instantly kills us, avoid it at all costs.

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 Class, Tree, Pantheon

Passive Points

· Tree for level 100

The main version of the build

https://pastebin.com/XHDwSXMz

Import this link to Path of Building.

Masteries

Grace has 25% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency
10% increased maximum life / 10% reduced life recovery rate
15% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency of Skills

Increases and Reductions to Projectile Speed also apply to Damage with Bows
+50 to maximum Life
40% of Physical damage converted to Cold
10% chance to gain a Frenzy Charge when you Hit your Marked Enemy
Precision has 100% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency

Vitality has 100% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency
Critical Strikes have Culling Strike
1% of Attack Damage Leeched as Life/1% of Attack Damage Leeched as Mana

Class

The Ascendancy (subclass) we’re using for this build is the Deadeye

· Gathering Winds (Normal): Early leveling in PoE might feel like a slog, so we need speed the most. Thankfully, this node gives plenty of it - both permanently and in combat!

· Far Shot (Cruel): One of the most underappreciated nodes on the Deadeye tree. Its first effect (which has the same name as the node) gives us up to 60% more damage based on the distance traveled by our projectiles, maxing out at around half of our screen. The latter effect makes our Barrage fire perfectly in line, effectively amplifying its damage greatly outside of the point blank range. 

· Endless Munitions (Merciless): Probably the strongest and most popular node on Deadeye. Adding 2 projectiles is strong both for clear, as it makes our Ice Shot cover more area. For bosses, it effectively increases our damage by 25%. 

· Focal Point (Eternal): There are many options for this slot, like Ricochet or Wind Ward, but I’d personally go for FP. Since the Archnemesis league, we can apply our mark skills automatically, even while clearing - which is why we pick up this super powerful node, which increases our damage by about 25% and makes enemies that spawn next to rare monsters deal 25% less damage to us.

Pantheon

· Soul of the Brine King: Protection against chain stuns and freeze (when upgraded).

· Soul of Garukhan: Since we want to have as much defense as possible, we pick this up to lower the efficiency of shocks on us.

Anointment

· There are three choices for this slot. If you want purely more DPS, pick up the Heart of Ice notable, as it gives us valuable cold penetration. If you want more clear speed, anoint the Graceful Assault notable, which will provide us with Onslaught on kill. If you want more defenses during clear, pick up the Disciple of the Unyielding notable, which increases our physical damage reduction and elemental resistances during clear.

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Equipment

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Helmets

· Devoto’s Devotion is the best option for clear speed. It grants us movement speed rivaling that of boots, increased attack speed and high amounts of dexterity at the price of a really small reduction to our physical damage.

· Asenath’s Chant is pretty commonly used on all bow focused builds. It triggers spells socketed within it whenever you attack with a bow, letting us make use of a bunch of quality of life gems that we’d normally be unable to cast due to them not being worth the opportunity cost of standing in one place to use them. If you decide to use it, put your Hydrosphere, Sniper’s Mark and Steelskin inside of it.

· Rare Helmet is the best way to scale both the defense and offense of our build. We want to look for a rare, uncorrupted base that has the Barrage fires an additional Projectile enchant, and we want it crafted with maximum life, chance to suppress spell damage and any elemental resistances we can squeeze in. Remember to use eldritch currency to get the %reduced mana cost of skills mod on it, as we’ll seriously struggle with mana without it.

Boots

· Rare boots - there are no uniques that we can really benefit from, so we’re choosing to go for a pair of rare boots. Mods you should look for are:
- high %increased movement speed
- chance to Suppress Spell Damage
- +to maximum Life

If possible, try to get the %increased attack and cast speed if killed recently enchant, and the %increased action speed implicit from the searing exarch eldritch embers.

Gloves

· Shadows and Dust is the cheapest option for good clear speed in the endgame, as it provides us with the Rampage flag - which triggers various effects (like chaining explosions, summoning flying weapons) when we score a multi-kill. On top of that, it spawns a Smoke Cloud whenever we hit the next Rampage breakpoint, which lowers our enemies’ accuracy.

· Rare Gloves - This build benefits the most from a rare pair.

Your gloves should have these mods:
- +to maximum Life
- %chance to Suppress Spell Damage
- increased damage against chilled enemies

Get the effects of marks and projectiles pierce an additional enemy/attack speed implicit mods on it.

Body Armour

· Hyrri’s Ire is the best body armor for this build. It has some of the highest evasion ratings in the game (which we really want!), spell suppression chance and added cold damage rivaling that of an entire Added Cold Damage support gem. Try to get one with the highest average added cold damage value, as that’s the most important stat for us.

Weapon

· Windripper - This bow might be rather expensive, but that’s because of the high demand it has - as it increases the quantity of items dropped by the enemies we kill (since we freeze and kill nearly every mob in the game). It also has really high attack speed and critical strike chance, but I personally wouldn’t use it late into the endgame.
· Rare Bow - this is the best choice for this build, coming at vastly different price points depending on its stats. Thankfully, we don’t need that many expensive stats, so look for that:

- high Added Cold Damage (at least avg 220)
- increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills
- %increased Critical Strike Chance
- %increased Attack Speed

If you have a lot of coin to spare, try to get the Bow Attacks fire 1/2 Additional Arrows mod (but that will make the bow cost 10 or 20 times more than without it).

Quiver

· Rigwald’s Quill - This once super popular quiver is probably the best you can get when it comes purely to clearing maps as fast as possible. Its signature mod, Arrows Fork, makes arrows split into two after they hit an enemy, effectively multiplying them and letting them hit other foes. If you’re using it, skip the Awakened Fork support in your Ice Shot gem setup.
· Rare quivers are the best. The bases we care about are Primal, Broadhead and Feathered. Look for quivers with increased attack speed, maximum life and the Bow attacks fire an additional Arrow mods. Optionally, you can also pick up added physical damage, critical strike multiplier with bow attacks or the elemental damage with attack skills affixes.

Rings

· Rare rings are the only true option for this build, since they’re our main source of elemental resistances. Try to look for ones with maximum life on them and at least one empty prefix slot - so you can craft the super-important “Non-channeling skills have -(5-6) to Total Mana Cost” modifier, which, when crafted on both rings, lets us spend only 2-3 mana per skill use.

Belts

· Rare belt - no unique belts, other than Headhunter or Mageblood are really beneficial to us, so instead we’re using a plain old rare Stygian Vise. The mods to look for are:

- + to Maximum Life

- +% to Elemental Resistance

- +% to another Elemental Resistance

%increased elemental damage with attack skills is also really good, but might make the belt more expensive.

Amulets

· Rare Amulet is our pick for this build, as no unique amulets can really outclass it, except for Crystallized Omniscience (which is obscenely expensive).

Mods you should look for are:

- +to maximum Life
- +to Global Critical Strike Multiplier
- %increased elemental damage with attack skills

Those are the most important ones, but on top of that, you can get intelligence, strength or any of the resistances. Look for Agate or Amber bases.

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Flasks

Flasks in Path of Exile are different from other games. Not all of them are made for regaining life and mana - a lot of them are more offensively oriented. This build's setup looks like this:

· Quicksilver Flask - this is the flask used most commonly in all of PoE. It grants us the most important stuff of all - speed :)

· Granite Flask - since we already have a lot of evasion, we want to protect ourselves from small physical hits that may go through it - which is where the Granite Flask comes to play. Try to roll the %increased evasion during flask effect or the %increased attack speed during flask effect mods on it.

· Diamond Flask - increased critical strike chance from this flask helps us nearly hit the cap, which makes our damage way more consistent for clear :)

· Life Flask 1 is a Divine Life Flask with the Seething mod on it, which lowers the recovery it provides but makes it instant. This is our pani button for when we take a bit too much damage. Get the Bleed+Corrupting Blood removal mod on it.

· Life Flask 2 - this is our non-instant Eternal Life Flask, which is our “passive” way of regaining life. Get one with increased amount recovered and a useful suffix.

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Jewels

Jewels are items socketable in Jewel Sockets found on the passive tree.

· Lioneye’s Fall - the most important jewel for this build. It’s relatively cheap compared to the past, and it’s even stronger than before in the jewel socket near the Frenetic notable. It converts all of the melee and melee weapon type specific notables to apply to bows instead, which is perfect for the Claws of the Magpie and Backstabbing notables.

· Watcher’s Eye - this jewel can roll multiple modifiers connected to the auras we use. Look for the +to Critical Strike Chance while affected by Hatred modifier. If you’re too poor, get any of the Precision ones.

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Gems

Body

Barrage = Added Cold Damage = Cold Penetration = Increased Critical Damage = Elemental Damage with Attacks = Inspiration

This is our main single target setup. Remember to link Barrage to the Inspiration support foremost, as it will greatly lower the mana cost of it, making us not run out of mana after a couple seconds of using it. Try to get Awakened Cold Penetration, Added Cold Damage and Elemental Damage with attacks in that order.

Weapon

Ice Shot = Inspiration = Elemental Damage with Attacks = Added Cold Damage = Mirage Archer = Fork

This is our main clear setup. Inspiration will greatly lower the cost of our Ice Shot, while EDWA and Added Cold will give us some much needed damage. Mirage Archer is a support gem that creates a copy of us above our heads, which shoots copies of our attacks (but with an attack speed penalty and less damage). Fork gives us more damage and better clear. Try to get an Awakened version if it, as it makes projectiles fork an additional time. If you’re using Rigwald’s Quills, you can use the Chain support instead.

Helmet

Precision ||| Sniper’s Mark = Mark on Hit = Enhance

Remember to keep these setups separate! We don’t want to link Enhance to our Precision, as that will increase its mana reservation. Precision is our main source of accuracy, which is why we want it at level 20. Sniper’s Mark linked to Mark on Hit will automatically apply our Mark to enemies when possible. Enhance linked to it will make it even more potent, but it might increase its mana cost too much - look into picking up %increased maximum mana on the tree to get enough unreserved mana for it to cast, as it is REALLY important for our single target.

Boots

Steelskin = Flame Dash = Vitality (level 15 or lower) = Hydrosphere

This is our utility setup. Flame Dash is our skill of choice, as it has 3 stored uses unlike the default bow movement skill - Blink Arrow. Steelskin is a defensive skill, which grants us a small shield whenever we use it. Since we don’t want to actively click it, we bind it to our left mouse click - still letting us move freely, but also casting it whenever it's off cooldown. Vitality gives us some much needed life regeneration, but we don’t want it to have at too high of a gem level because of mana constraints. Hydrosphere can be cast on bosses to increase their damage taken.

Gloves

Hatred = Grace = Herald of Ice = Enlighten

This is the aura setup we use on this build. Hatred is probably the strongest aura in the game, so it’s a no-brainer. Grace has been buffed recently, making it one of the strongest defensive auras, which is why we definitely want to have it on us. Herald of Ice is a huge buff to our clear, as it adds cold damage and makes enemies we shatter (kill while they are frozen) explode, dealing cold damage to everyone around them. Since we freeze enemies because we have such a high crit chance, we definitely want to make use of it. Enlighten linked to those three gems will lower their mana reservation because of the %mana multiplier mod it has on it.

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