PoE 3.25 Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation Deadeye Build

In Path of Exile, there are builds that are primarily focused on mapping and some that are built for taking on the pinnacle bosses of the game. Rarely do you ever see builds that can do both.

The Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation Deadeye tries to shatter that notion with its insane boss damage and map-clearing potential.

There are a lot of good things that can be said for this particular build due to the changes GGG implemented in the SoK expansion.

So, if you are interested in an awesome mapping build that can decimate any foes it comes across, then read further. This is our updated guide for the Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation Deadeye in Path of Exile 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League!

Basics

Before anything, it is important to note that this build can literally make your PC cry. So, if you have a modest system, you might want to lower the graphics settings to their absolute minimum. Otherwise, your PC might not handle all of the shiny projectiles!

With that out of the way, this build utilizes the Transfigured Gem, Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation. So, what is the main difference between this one and the base version? Well, the original has more added damage effectiveness and you pretty much know where the projectiles are headed.

Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation, on the other hand, produces projectiles that fire in a zig-zag pattern. But, the cool thing about this Transfigured Gem is that the projectiles can hit a single target multiple times.

By utilizing Sniper's Mark and Nimis, the projectiles that Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation produces will split when hitting the target (Sniper's Mark) and return to you when they reach their maximum travel distance (Nimis).

Because the skill itself fires projectiles that can hit a target multiple times, and this is done without a limit, you can potentially have more than 100 projectiles hitting the same target for incredible amounts of damage! Think of this as a "shotgun" effect, if you will.

However, the main downside of this build is not your damage but the stress it can bring to your system. That is why we have put a disclaimer earlier that you should only attempt the Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation Deadeye if your PC can handle it.

In Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur, this Transfigured Gem got even better. First of all, its effectiveness of base and added damage has increased from 70% to 85%. On the surface, this may look like an insignificant damage buff, but you have to consider that you can easily bombard enemies with so many projectiles in a span of several seconds!

Additionally, its base attack speed saw a marginal improvement from 100% to 115%. This is further improved by putting as many attack speed mods on your gear wherever possible.

If you have visited this particular build guide before, there is a huge difference between the current version and the previous one. Back then, this build used a crafted wand with three elemental damage types. But now, it utilizes two wands with a trifecta of physical damage mods.

The reason for this is that you are going to convert all of your physical damage to cold damage by wearing a pair of cold conversion gloves and allocating the appropriate Cold Mastery.

Cold damage is awesome because it allows you to freeze enemies when you land a critical strike. This occurs quite often because of how quickly you can fire projectiles at your foes with Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation.

If you want to maximize the damage potential of this build, look for the following mods on your gear wherever possible:

• Added Physical Damage
• Increased Physical Damage
• Increased Damage
• Increased Projectile Damage
• Increased Attack Speed
• Increased Critical Strike Chance
• Increased Critical Strike Multiplier

Playstyle

The Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation Deadeye has a rather simple playstyle. All you have to do is use your preferred travel skill to move around the area. Once you come across a pack of monsters, simply use the Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation to destroy them all.

Now, you will be using two different curse spells on this build. The first is Sniper's Mark, which not only increases the damage monsters receive from your projectiles, but the projectiles split into two additional targets as well.

The second is Elemental Weakness. This one will be self-cast due to the presence of The Balance of Terror. More on this unique jewel later in the build guide.

Ascendancy

When it comes to builds that utilize projectile skill gems in Path of Exile, you should always choose the Deadeye if you want to focus solely on offense.

Gathering Winds provides tremendous value, especially in the early game. That is why you are going to take this as soon as you complete the first labyrinth. This increases your action speed to a significant degree thanks to the near-permanent uptime of Tailwind.

Even though Gathering Winds got nerfed in Patch 3.25, it is still a very powerful ascendancy node. If you are wondering what has changed, it now only increases the effect of Tailwind by a maximum of 100% (instead of 150% previously).

Far Shot works amazingly well with Nimis’ unique effect, where the projectiles fired by Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation return to you when they’ve reached their maximum travel distance. This means that you always get great benefits from this notable ascendancy passive.

Endless Munitions is what makes the Deadeye so perfect for projectile-based builds in Path of Exile. This increases the projectiles fired by your main attack skill by two, which is always a good thing!

Focal Point significantly increases the potency of your Mark Skills, particularly Sniper’s Mark. That is why taking this notable ascendancy passive skill is a no-brainer because that 75% increased effect of Mark Skills is too hard to pass up.

Gear

The gear for this build is relatively expensive, though not as much as the melee builds in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. Let's start with the weapon you are going to use.

Weapons

As mentioned earlier, you will use two crafted Imbued Wands with three physical damage modifiers. To craft this thing, get an ilvl 85+ Imbued Wand and spam it with Deafening Essence of Contempt until you obtain the said mods.

After that, lock the prefixes and use a Veiled Orb. Put the increased attack speed suffix from the Crafting Bench and then head to Jun and unveil. You are looking for any critical strike mod, preferably one that increases your crit strike multiplier while in the presence of a unique enemy.

Use an Exalted Orb to fill the remaining suffix. Hopefully, it rolls with something that is beneficial to the build.

Body Armor

Grinding Gear Games reintroduced Recombinators in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. This allows you to combine two different pieces of gear with the chance of combining some of their modifiers into one.

Having said that, you could use Recombinators to craft a body armor with the mod: "You Can Apply an Additional Curse." If you are able to fracture this modifier, you could use the Deafening Essence of Loathing to get some mana reservation efficiency.

Crafting body armor this way also allows you to use Eldritch Currencies. Spam Eldritch Ichors until you get increased effect of Hatred and Eldritch Embers for increased effect of non-curse auras.

Helmet

The Fledgling is an incredible helmet for the Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation Deadeye. This is due to its unique effect, where the projectiles you have fired will not collide with enemies until they have traveled a distance of two meters. This ensures that you get the most out of the Far Shot notable ascendancy passive skill.

Gloves

To maximize the damage of your weapons, you have to complement them by wearing a pair of gloves that convert 60% of your physical damage to cold damage. You can refer to our ultimate crafting guide to learn how to craft this beauty.

If you have the PoE Currency, purchase a pair of gloves with the Alva Mod that increases your damage with hits against chilled enemies. Fracture this particular mod using a Fracturing Orb. This allows you to craft the gloves using Essence of Zeal to guarantee increased attack speed.

Boots

You should learn how to craft a pair of Onslaught Boots to further improve your damage potential. The process of crafting this is lengthy, but we have outlined the full instructions in our dedicated guide.

We highly recommend that you use the Wyvernscale Boots as they provide you with the highest armor and evasion values among their counterparts. They are a part of the new item base types GGG introduced in Patch 3.25.

Amulet

A well-crafted Focused Amulet works wonders for this build. This amulet is special because it increases the explicit modifiers that are on it by 100%. However, this comes at the cost of only having three mods in total, which is not a deal breaker at all for the Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation Deadeye.

Anyway, get an ilvl 85+ Focused Amulet and spam it with the Deafening Essence of Scorn (Critical Strike Multiplier) until you get physical damage to attacks. If you want to take things a step further, use an Orb of Annulment and hope that the third mod is removed so that you can add increased damage while leeching from the Crafting Bench.

To finish the amulet, anoint it with Sovereignty (3x Silver Oils) to gain 12% increased mana reservation efficiency of skills.

Rings

There is no question about one of the rings that you will equip for the Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation Deadeye. The Nimis is mandatory for the build to work. It basically makes Kinetic Bolt's projectiles return to you for even more damage. You could say that Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation and the Nimis ring are a match made in heaven simply because they make your projectiles fire in random directions.

The other ring that you are going to wear is a self-crafted ring with a veiled modifier that reduces the mana cost of your skills. To craft this, get an ilvl 85+ Amethyst Ring and spam it with Deafening Essence of Spite (INT) until you get chaos resistance, fire resistance, or STR.

Next, lock your suffixes and then use a Veiled Orb. Bench-craft "Adds # to # to Fire Damage, Adds # to # Cold Damage" to prevent it from appearing on the list. Talk to Jun and unveil the prefix: "+66 to Maximum Mana, 7% Reduced Mana Cost of Skills" when it shows up.

When you have the veiled modifier already, put "Non-Channeling Skills Have -7 to Total Mana Cost" from the Crafting Bench. Spam the ring with Fertile Catalysts to improve the effects of the mana modifiers. If you still have an open prefix, don't forget to use an Exalted Orb. And that's it!

Belt

The Mageblood is the perfect belt for this build mainly because it allows you to enjoy the effects of up to four magic utility flasks indefinitely.

Flasks

• Granite Flask
• Amethyst Flask/Silver Flask
• Diamond Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Dying Sun/Oriath’s End/Progenesis

Flask Mods

• 55% Increased Critical Strike Chance (of Incision)
• 60% Increased Armour (of the Armadillo)
• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
• 65% Reduced Effect of Curses on You (of the Owl)
• Abecedarian/Alchemist/Dabbler (prefix, 25% Increased Effect)

Jewels

In terms of jewels, start with a Watcher’s Eye with any of the following modifiers:

• Precision
• % Increased Attack Speed
• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier
• Anger
• +% to Critical Strike Multiplier
• Damage Penetrates % Fire Resistance
• Gain % of Physical Damage as Extra Fire Damage
• Hatred
• Adds Cold Damage
• Increased Critical Strike Chance

The next upgrade for this build would be at least one Large Cluster Jewel (Wand Damage) with Opportunistic Fusilade and Fuel the Fight as the notable passive skills. The former is amazing because it increases your damage and crit chance by 35% and 50%, respectively. The latter, on the other hand, increases your attack speed and damage while you are leeching mana from your enemies.

Just use Harvest Reforge Critical to get Opportunistic Fusilade, Fuel the Fight, and another random notable passive skill.

Another jewel that is a definite upgrade for this build is The Balance of Terror. This can roll a number of different modifiers, but the one you are looking for is "Gain % of Physical Damage as a Random Element if You've Cast Elemental Weakness in the Past 10 Seconds."

As you can tell, you need to cast Elemental Weakness yourself to take advantage of the jewel’s unique effect. Do not worry, you only need to use it whenever you are facing tougher enemies.

Do you miss the Perandus Pact from the previous league? Well, it is still in the game under a different name. In Patch 3.25, it is now called The Light of Meaning!

Anyway, if you are going to add The Light of Meaning to the build, grab one that increases your physical damage by 6%. Put this in the jewel socket just slightly above Fervour on the right side of the passive tree.

Gems

Since the build now relies heavily on converting physical damage to cold damage, the support gems that you will use are different in the Settlers of Kalguur version of the Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation Deadeye.

Body Armor

• Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation
• Sacred Wisps Support
• Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks
• Hypothermia Support
• Awakened Vicious Projectiles Support
• Inspiration Support

The Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation is your primary skill for this build. Unlike the base version, this Transfigured Gem causes projectiles that you fire to travel in a zig-zag pattern, with new secondary projectiles being created every time the original ones change direction. What makes this skill interesting is that the projectiles can hit a single target multiple times, allowing you to slay monsters quite efficiently.

Your primary skill interacts really well with Sacred Wisps. Whenever you fire projectiles, you create wisps that will also use the Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation. This is one of the reasons why this build is not recommended for low-spec machines due to the screen being littered with numerous projectiles in a matter of seconds!

Hypothermia Support gives you the power to easily freeze enemies, especially if they are chilled with your initial volley of projectiles.

Inspiration Support actually got buffed in Patch 3.25, where supported skills now have less mana cost to use. This is useful if you have other mods that reduce the mana cost of skills like on your rings.

Gloves

• Hatred
• Anger
• Herald of Purity
• Enlighten Support (lvl 4)

In case you do not know, Hatred got rebalanced in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion. Instead of providing you with more cold damage, it now grants % of physical damage as extra cold damage.

With the build dealing cold damage, you might be wondering why Anger is also used here. Well, it is a considerable damage boost at the cost of 50% mana reservation. But more importantly, it lets you use a Watcher's Eye with some juicy mods that only get enabled when you have the Anger aura active.

Herald of Purity boosts your physical damage. Additionally, you have the ability to summon four minions that can distract enemies while you kill them from a distance.

To activate all of the auras mentioned above, you have to insert a level 4 Enlighten Support gem as well.

Helmet

• Sniper's Mark
• Mark on Hit Support
• Elemental Weakness
• Lifetap

Sniper's Mark is an incredible Mark Skill to use because it makes the Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation projectiles split to two additional targets. Besides that, monsters that are affected by Sniper's Mark take increased damage from projectile hits.

Elemental Weakness is another curse spell that you can use to boost your damage output. Just make sure to cast it manually to take advantage of The Balance of Terror's unique effect.

Boots

• Blood Rage
• Flame Dash
• Molten Shell
• Automation Support

Blood Rage is a buff that you can activate at any time. Use it whenever you need an increase in attack speed.

Flame Dash is a movement skill in PoE 3.25 that lets you charge forward up to three times in quick succession. You could replace this with Frostblink of Wintry Blast if you like.

Molten Shell grants increased armor when it's active. Speaking of which, Automation Support activates Molten Shell immediately when it is available for use. Take note that you should not link these gems with Blood Rage and Flame Dash so that you can still use them whenever the need arises.

Weapon

• Precision
• Arrogance Support
• Frost Bomb

You want your projectiles to hit their intended targets 100% of the time. Precision greatly aids you in that regard. This aura not only boosts your accuracy, but also increases your chance to critically hit enemies.

Hatred and Anger reserve a huge chunk of mana when activated. With both of these auras eating up most of your mana reserves, the only way for you to activate Precision is when you link it with Arrogance Support. This makes it so that Precision reserves life instead of mana.

Frost Bomb allows you to inflict Cold Exposure to enemies that are hit by the pulsating crystals. This spell significantly reduces the life regeneration rate of those that are hit by the cold pulses as well.

Shield

• Summon Skitterbots
• Awakened Unbound Ailments
• Bonechill Support

Summon Skitterbots lets you summon two indestructible minions that apply Chill and Shock to nearby enemies. Shock is amazing because it causes affected enemies to take increased damage from all sources.

Awakened Unbound Ailments is a support gem that increases the effect of Chill and Shock by 69% at the max level.

Bonechill Support also synergizes really well with your Chilling Skitterbot. This particular support gem makes enemies affected by Chill to take increased damage from your projectiles.

Tattoos

• Tattoo of the Tasalio Scout
• 4% Increased Effect of Your Marks
• Tattoo of the Arohongui Warrior
• 5% Increased Cold Damage
• Tattoo of the Ramako Sniper
• 5% Increased Projectile Speed
• Tattoo of the Valako Shaman
• 5% Increased Lightning Damage
• Tattoo of the Hinekora Storyteller
• +3% to Chaos Resistance
• Tattoo of the Valako Scout
• 10% Reduced Effect of Shock on You

Passive Tree

POB

Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation Deadeye

Final Thoughts

The Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation Deadeye is still a pretty strong build in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. That is because it got a slight damage increase in Patch 3.25, which can be felt as soon as you riddle the screen with a plethora of damaging projectiles!

This build is not a league starter by any means, mainly due to the presence of some expensive items, including The Balance of Terror, a couple of crafted Imbued Wands, and the Mageblood, among others.

However, if you are able to put all of the pieces together, you have a mapping powerhouse that can take on bosses without a hitch.

So, if you have the PoE Currency, do try the Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation Deadeye!

With all of that said, good luck on your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!

PROS

+Excellent bossing build

+Competent mapper

+Scales really well with endgame items

+Deadeye ascendancy ensures that projectiles will flood the screen, killing multiple enemies in the process

+Got more powerful in Patch 3.25

CONS

-Can make your PC cry due to the flashy projectiles made by the Kinetic Bolt of Fragmentation

-Not a league starter

-Requires a heavy investment to make the build feel comfortable to play