Intro & build description
The Siege ballista is one of the most potent boss-killer builds in the game. With good gear, siege ballista hierophants can pop most endgame bosses in a matter of seconds.
Being great at boss-killing doesn’t take an ability to map away from this build – it’s more than a fair choice for map clearing as well.
In 3.20, some of the jewels that the build previously used were removed from the game, but that doesn’t hinder the build that much, and those jewels are replaced with rares. Plus, with crucible trees, there will definitely be some goodies to use for the build.
Build Pros
- One of the best boss-killing builds in the game
- Good for mapping and can do basically all the content game has to offer
- Great as a league starter, core items can be acquired for under 1 Divine in the first 1-2 days of the new league
- With currency investment, can be scaled to the amount of damage which almost instantly kills any boss in the game
Build Cons
- Sentinel mod on boots is not attainable in 3.20, which will remove a way to scale damage on the build
Passive tree(s) and Path of Building
[3.21] Skill Tree PoB CommunityBandits
Bandits Quest Choice |
Kill all bandits |
Ascendancy skill points
Labyrinths | Skill point choice |
---|---|
Labyrinth 1 | Pursuit of Faith |
Labyrinth 2 | Ritual of Awakening |
Labyrinth 3 | Conviction of Power |
Endgame Labyrinth | Divine Guidance OR 2 small nodes of Mana regeneration, Arcane Surge effect and Mana regeneration, mana |

Skill gem setup
Helm
Hatred
Summon Skitterbots
Bonechill Support
Enlighten Support
Body Armor
Siege Ballista
Increased Critical Damage Support
Inspiration Support
Awakened Added Cold Damage Support
Awakened Cold Penetration Support
Awakened Elemental Damage With Attacks Support
Gloves
Immortal Call (LVL1)
Cast When Damage Taken (LVL 1)
Precision - Unlinked (LVL 1)
Portal or Abyssal socket craft
Boots
Blood Rage
Increased Duration Support
Dash
Second Wind Support
2h Weapon
Frenzy
Cast on Critical Strike Support
Culling Strike Support
Sniper's Mark
Frost Bomb
Greater Multiple Projectiles 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.tradeHelmet
Fractal ThoughtsThis helm is core item of the build and is usually pretty cheap.
Because we are playing Hierophant, look for 40% increased siege ballista damage enchant.
Body Armour
BriskwrapThe usual body armour of choice (Wildwrap) was removed form the game and dexterity scaling aspect of it was added to the Briskwrap body armour, so we will be using that.
Gloves
Rare gloves with cold conversionIn an endgame pair of gloves, we would want 35% physical to cold damage conversion, some life and dexterity. Good implicits for your gloves would be intimidate on hit and increased damage par 100 dex when unique enemy is present.
For easy conversion early on, you can use Hrimsorrow, which converts 100% of your physical damage to cold, saving some points in the tree.
Boots
Rare BootsLook for your generic rare boots with 30% movement speed, at least 70 maximum life and as much dexterity as you can find.
Left Ring
Rare Synthesized / Corrupted ringFor our endgame rings, we would want rings with at least 60 maximum life, 50 dexterity and %increased dexterity implicit.
This implicit can spawn on synthesized rings, so one way, besides buying such ring, would be to farm Synthesis maps and hope for a drop.
The same implicit can also appear as a corrupted implicit, so you could try to corrupt rings with life and dexterity for this implicit.
Other notable things that would be good on rings are elemental damage with attacks and resistances.
Amulet
AstramentisAstramentis is a great mid to late game amulet for the build and is not that expensive.
Cheaper option before Astramentis would be Hyrri’s Truth, which has been updated in 3.19.
Very endgame amulet you would want is Shaper/Redeemer double-influenced jade amulet with %increased attributes, %increased dexterity and %damage per dexterity, but it would be very expensive and most builds just stick with Astramentis.
Belt
Rare Synthesized beltFor your belt, the best bet is to either farm or buy synthesized belt with %increased dexterity implicit.
After that, use Deafening essence of sorrow on the belt until you hit high life together with the dex. Bench craft res or elemental damage, whichever you prefer and you have a good dex stacker’s belt.
Quiver
The Poised PrismPoised Prism is one of the new uniques introduced in 3.19 – it’s used in the build as a replacement for Hyrri’s Demise.
2Hand Weapon
Iron CommanderIron Commander is core item around which the entire build is based around. Get it as soon as you can.
Note: please don’t double corrupt the bow, because even with 2 amazing corruptions, the default implicit gives more net damage to the build.
Jewel
Jewel SetupThe build uses following unique jewels:
1) Rain of Splinters
2) Thread of Hope with large ring – in the slot right above Fervour
3) Fluid Motion – in the slot near Eternal Youth
4) Brutal Restraint – in the slot near savagery. With Brutal Restraint, we are mainly looking for 5% increased dexterity on as many notables as possible.
Since some of the builds jewels were removed from the game, we also use rare jewels with following mods:
1) + To Dexterity
2) + To Dexterity and Intelligence / Strength
3) Increased maximum life
Jewel
Cluster JewelsBuild uses 1 large cluster jewel and 1 medium.
On Large cluster jewel, look for:
1) Blanketed Snow
2) Cold to the core
It’s ideal if you can get both of these mods on the jewel. If not, get one in combination with other cold damage mod.
On Medium cluster jewel, look for:
1) Ancestral Echo
2) Sleepless Sentries
Flask
Flask SetupBuild uses following flasks:
1) Dying Sun
2) Diamond Flask with increased crit during flask effect
3) Quicksilver Flask
4) Granite Flask
5) Jade Flask
Hi, do you remove Rain of Splinters on single target?