Home / Build / [2.6] Explosive Arrow Ranger (Pathfinder)

[2.6] Explosive Arrow Ranger (Pathfinder)

Intro & build description

EA Pathfinder build is very easy to play, ย once you get Explosive Arrow as quest reward in Act 3, you will start dominating content withย any bow. Finding or buying Quill Rain will make things even easier. Quill Rain is best in slot bow for this build because it allows us to stack up 5 explosive arrows stacks really quickly and move to next pack of mobs while previous one explodes. Great build for newcomers to Path of Exile.

Build Pros

  • Very high life pool (we are talking 7k-9k life)
  • Very tanky, uses block while being archer
  • HC viable
  • Extremely cheap to start with
  • Insane clear speed
  • HC viable

Build Cons

  • Single target damage is low if you don't ignite

Passive tree(s) and Path of Building

Leveling tree
Full Build

Bandits

Bandits Quest Choice
Help Oak

Ascendancy skill points

LabyrinthsSkill point choice
Labyrinth 1Nature's Boon
Labyrinth 2Master Alchemist
Labyrinth 3Nature's Adrenaline
Endgame LabyrinthMaster Surgeon

Skill gem setup

Helm


Blink Arrow

Summon Stone Golem

Decoy Totem

Culling Strike Support


Body Armor



Gloves


Curse on Hit Support

Greater Multiple Projectiles Support

Frenzy

Flammability


Boots


Cast When Damage Taken Support

Increased Duration Support

Immortal Call

Molten Shell


2h Weapon


Explosive Arrow

Greater Multiple Projectiles Support

Slower Projectiles Support

Fire Penetration Support

Less Duration Support

Chance to Ignite Support


1h Weapon


None


Offhand weapon / shield


None



Build uniques / Example rare gear


Tip: Click on the item to view it on PoE Wiki or to view similar rare items in poe.trade

Body Armour

Kaom's Heart

Left Ring

Two-Stone Ring

Right Ring

Two-Stone Ring

Belt

Heavy Belt

2Hand Weapon

Quill Rain

Quiver

Rearguard


Gameplay

Feel free to share your thoughts/experiences/tips about the build in comments section below.

About prime

Prime is knowledgeable in everything builds related. Mostly focuses on writing build guides and tutorials on how to play with certain skills.

55 comments

  1. Could you post lvling tree?

  2. Which weapon should I use with this build? I don’t see in this topic

    • Yes, thank you for notifying us, there was a mistake in description, it’s now fixed. For this build you should use Quill Rain bow.

  3. I would really appreciate a leveling tree

  4. could u suggest levelling uniques and jewels we should use please also could u imply a easy way to get fusings and such please thank you

    • Well for weapon I suggest you get Quill Rain as soon as possible, Goldrim is extremely good option for defense while leveling. Mokou’s Embrace ring(s) is/are good offensive option(s) early. For fusings, make sure you clear fast and pick up inventory with rare items, identify them and sell to vendors – that way you will get a lot of Orbs of Alteration. After you have lots of Alterations, you can convert them to Jeweler’s Orbs using vendor and convert Jeweler’s Orbs to Fusings. Pick up all the 6 socketed items as they sell for 7 Jeweler’s Orbs to vendors.

  5. Hi !

    First of all, thx for the build !
    But there is something i don’t understand, I looted a Quill Rain … Wouhouuu ! … but this bow can have 3 sockets maximum…
    how am i supposed to put 6 gems into it ?
    Or is there something i miss in your explanation ?

    • Quill rain can have 6 sockets maximum ๐Ÿ™‚ make sure that itemlevel is at least 50 though by pressing alt and viewing item, you can roll 6 sockets only on items with itemlevel 50 and higher. If you have lower level Quill rain, just buy one with at least itemlevel 50, they are cheap anyways ๐Ÿ™‚

  6. why is there a curse on hit in ur gloves?

  7. currently day 5694 still trying to 6 link the quil rain and save up for kaoms heart im in desperate times please help this is soooooooo troubling

    • because trying to save 5.5 ex for a 6link and 15ex for kaoms heart id prefer to farm for 101 chaos
      but first i need to get to merc which seems hard as this build as there isnt any stats specified for the armours you can use so ive been just getting stuff that adds Damage and elemental damage

  8. Hey,

    Great build, loving it so far. But there’s one thing I don’t understand, and thats the 4 gems in the gloves:
    Curse on Hit Support > Greater Multiple Projectiles Support > Frenzy > Rain of Arrows.

    Curse on hit without a curse linked to it?

  9. Why slower projectiles?

  10. looking at the video, you have this blue skill mapped on the M5 or V key, what skill is this?

  11. Hi!
    I’d want to know how does this build handle reflect maps

    • Best way to handle reflect is to raise your Fire resistance as high as possible, so using Ruby Flasks is a good option.

  12. Any special flasks to aim for with this build?

    • Sulphur flask is good in terms of damage, you can also use Dying sun for dmg and Taste of Hate for defense. Granite + Basalt flask combination is always great for physical dmg mitigation.
      Choose whichever you like/can afford to use, I’d go for 2x instant life flasks, Quicksilver flasks, Dying Sun and Granite.

  13. It would be great if you had the time to add what type of stats you would want to get on the different pieces of gear, I’ve seen it in some other builds and it would help alot when searching for upgrades ๐Ÿ™‚

  14. I wonder how Elemental Equilibrium can help me in early game? I have level 50 currently and it seems that EE only gives a “Resists Fire & Vulnerable to cold, lightning” mod to the enemies, is it because my amulet adds a bit of fire damage to my attacks?

    • Added fire damage on amulet is probably the reason – to take advantage of Elemental Equilibrium make sure you hit them with something that is cold or lightning first so best option would be to get rid of adds x-x fire damage to attacks on your jewelry and get cold or lightning instead.

  15. Sorry questions..how do you make sure you health is not going down as now we use life instead of mana, and how come you have some passives (under Full build) that are for +maximum mana or

  16. ive got a question what chest plate shall we use if one cant afford kaoms heart plate yet? also i find that u dont have high DPS but when u use frenzy the flammibilty curse will help u destory single targets if needed u can use a sulpher flask that when use places down health regen aura thingys cause it helps spam EA as it currently consumes 78 mana but im blood magic so -78hp every 0.20 secounds thats fast so all the regen u can get to spray it

  17. Hi,

    can you explain, how does curse on hit trigger the curses in 2.6. In my setup it only works with an attack? Need I a specil Point in passiv or in a item?

  18. Hey, I recently Vaaled my Rearguard and I got +1 arrow. Should I drop my GMP setup down to LMP?

  19. Can we get a list of Stat priorities for each piece of gear?

    • There isn’t hard stat priority, mostly look for life + resists and armor on top of that, for jewelry fire damage is good bonus to have on top of life and resists.

  20. Hey

    I’m very curious why do you use Elemental Equilibrium if there is only fire damage in this build?

    • It’s good to have other damage to attacks on ring or amulet – hit mobs with frenzy to proc EE with for example #-# cold damage to attacks on your amulet, hit them with Explosive Arrow for more damage as their resistance to fire is lowered by applying cold damage.

  21. How do u build endurance charges? I cant seem to figure out why you have immortal call.

  22. Uber atziri/shaper viable? Tempted to try out the build

  23. potion cen me send with one you use on yours build i dont know i do right thanks

  24. Is the Rearguard essential for survival or could it be replaced by an Drillneck?

  25. Why +int on the helment?

  26. Hi,

    Thanks for the great guide, I’m brand new to POE and this has been great fun and helped me learn while still having a viable character.

    I’ve got a lot of questions, It’d be phenomenal if you could answer some.

    1) I was wondering if any gems should be left low level, and what gems I should get %Quality on.

    2) How overcapped should I be on my resists, I currently am 50 overcapped and am considering getting a devotos helm and a essence worm as I can afford to drop some.

    3) How useful is immortal call without a way to generate endurance charges easily, and how useful is stone golem when it just repeatedly dies and you have to keep casting it? Should I put the stone golem on the cast when damage taken setup?

    4) I’ve read some other Explosive arrow builds that recommend having a single target explosive arrow quill rain and an AOE one, and using the snapshotting of the explosive arrow to hit them with 1 fuse of single then 4 easy shots of the AOE to deal a lot more damage. What gem setup would you recommend for both Single and AOE?

    Thanks so much, Switch

    • 1.) Yes, should have Cast When Damage taken gem left at LVL 7-9 for it to proc often, also the gems that are supported by it shouldn’t be past level requirement to be triggered. (Increased duration can be leveled to LVL20 though).
      2.) If you want to have capped resists in map with Elemental Weakness mod, you should be looking at 170% resists when in hideout.
      3.) It is very useful, even without charges, can save your life more than you think. Golem in CWDT setup would be pretty good if you don’t want to self-cast it often, yes.
      4.) This setup works fairly well for single target damage I think, maybe concentrated effect switched out with one of the gems would work better but I haven’t really tested it out. One more way is having Vaal Lightning trap to drop on top of the boss and create shocked ground for it to stand on and take more damage.

  27. Hello, I like your build. And, I was wondering something.

    What if I change Explosive Arrow for Vaal Burning Arrow?

    Skill Tree would be the same.
    I would change Quill Rain for Xoph’s Nurture. (Bow)
    I would change Less Duration Support for Added Fire Damage Support. (Support Gem in Bow)

    The rest would be identical until I found something more useful.

    Please let me know what’s your thought about it.
    Thanks!!

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