Intro & build description
This build focuses on 2 skills: Toxic Rain – to quickly apply poison to enemies and Herald of Agony – to summon an immortal minion which kills everything else. This is a ranger version of the build – it has a faster clear speed for which it sacrifices some tankiness.
Build Pros
- Fast clear speed
- Easy to get started, scales well with some investment
- Good boss killer
Build Cons
- Bow craft can get expensive
Passive tree(s) and Path of Building
Skill Tree [123 points] [3.6] Skill TreeBandits
Bandits Quest Choice |
Kill all bandits |
Ascendancy skill points
Labyrinths | Skill point choice |
---|---|
Labyrinth 1 | Nature's Reprisal |
Labyrinth 2 | Master Toxicist |
Labyrinth 3 | Nature's Adrenaline |
Endgame Labyrinth | Nature's Boon |

Skill gem setup
Helm
Vaal Grace (Only use the Vaal version of the skill)
Vaal Haste (Only use the Vaal version of the skill)
Phase Run
Increased Duration
Body Armor
Herald of Agony
Withering Touch Support
Pierce Support
Damage on Full Life Support
Minion Damage Support
Vicious Projectiles Support
Gloves
Despair
Blasphemy Support
Blink Arrow
Blood Rage
Boots
Cast When Damage Taken Support (Level 1)
Immortal Call Support (Level 3)
Increased Duration (Level 20)
Herald of Purity (Level 21 if you can get it)
2h Weapon
Toxic Rain
Swift Affliction Support
Efficacy Support
Empower Support (Level 4 ideally)
Void Manipulation Support
Mirage Archer 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
Starkonja's HeadGet Starkonja’s Head for the helmet slot – it’s always a good option for evasion based attack builds.
Body Armour
Queen of The ForestBest in slot chest for the build which will give us tons of movement speed.
QoTF is nerfed a bit in Betrayal league, but it will still be strong.
Gloves
Gripped GlovesLook for Gripped gloves with high life and some resistances. Attack speed on top of that would be great, but will probably cost you a lot.
Boots
Two-Toned BootsIdeally look for Armour + Evasion Two-Toned boots because it will be much easier to get 4 red sockets on these than on pure evasion boots.
Stats-wise look for movement speed, life and resistances.
Left Ring
Steel RingLook for 2 rare steel rings with life and physical damage to attacks.
Chaos damage / Resistances on top of those stats would be ideal, but rings like that will be really rare and expensive.
Amulet
Impresence (Chaos version)Impresence is perfect amulet for our build given the fact that we use chaos damage and Despair as an aura.
It might be a bit expensive at the start of the league, but it’s a really great amulet for the build.
Belt
Stygian ViseLook for Stygian Vise with high life and resistances.
Increased chaos damage would be ideal addition, but probably a really expensive one.
Headhunter is a very expensive but very nice belt to consider for the build.
Quiver
Rare Shaper QuiverIdeally look for rare Shaped quiver with “Bows fire additional arrow” mod, ideally with some life on the quiver as well.
2Hand Weapon
Crafted BowIdeal bow for the build would be +3 gems bow with Vicious Projectile support.
Here’s a video on how to craft one yourself.
As a budget alternative, you could use fossil crafted bow with just +3 to gem levels, without the Vicious Projectiles mod which would be way cheaper – here’s how to craft one.
Jewel
Jewel SetupGo for abyss jewels with following mods:
1.) + To maximum life
2.) Adds x – x physical damage to attacks / bow attacks
3.) Adds x – x chaos damage to attacks / bow attacks
4.) Any increased attack speed mod that applies to us
5.) Mana, resistances or attributes if you need any
Flask
Flask SetupBuild uses following flasks:
1.) Instant Recovery Divine life flask with bleed removal
2.) Quicksilver Flask of Adrenaline
3.) Jade Flask of Reflexses
4.) Sulphur Flask with freeze removal
5.) Coralito’s Signature (to quicker stack Virulence)
Do you know that you can’t use Herald of Agony with links, Despair + Blasphemy and Herald of Purity? Even though Purity should be 25%, Despair + Blasph – 35% Herald of Agony is no longer 25% but with me on 4l it’s 54%
Please read the entire build before you say something cannot be done. Yes, Herald of Agony reserves more than 50% mana with 6 links, Herald of Purity reserves 25% on top of that, but the build uses chaos version of Impresence which makes Despair reserve 0%.
Ok but now I have 5l and Herald takes 65% of my mana and Herald of Purity takes 35% while I have 4l where its positioned.
I think you also need to make sure your herald of purity is not linked to increased duration in your boots since that ups the reservation cost.
Yes, gems, you are right. How do you manage mana regen tho?
Mana shouldn’t be an issue later on, but if it is, you could grab one of the mana leech nodes near Spirit Void notable.
If there are other monsters it’s okay but if it’s just the boss I have to attack ‘normally’ to leech mana : (
Im new to the game so my questions may seems really easy for you to answer but i have alot to learn.
What are the levs beside some of the gems in the list? Are they a minimum lev required or i need that exact lev ? If its the exact lev required, what can i do to get them at that lev if my char lev already passed that Point ?
Thanks for the answers
If there is no maximum level written near a gem in the guide, always assume that it’s meant to be leveled to the maximum level. If you want to unlevel a gem, put said gem and 1 Orb of Scouring in the sell window of a vendor – it will give you the same gem -1 level, but most of the time it’s just easier to buy a new one for cheap.
With withering touch support, herald of agony uses 78% mana reserve and herald of purity 35% – eg too much. Without withering touch support the 2 use 90% combined, which isnt very practical either. What am I doing wrong?
Thank you for a fun build.
Herald of Purity has to be unlinked so it is not supported by anything.
I did that now and it helps a lot, but I can still not use withering touch support without going above 100% in reserved mana.
I have been leveling this build with CA, and i find the 50k tooltip dps on CA at level 60 pretty incredible. Im still looking for a good 6L elder bow, level 4 empower, and a proper body armour, but it feels good to play, and I feel the build scales well with currency!
Maybe a bit of a gap in upgrade costs (6L bow with +1 or +2 is 15c, but a 5L elder bow with one of the 3-4 necessary mods costs the same!) but it is only 30 chaos to get started on this build as a result (6L bow +1 gem levels, 6L chest, and a level 3 empower).
I agree with the comments on herald of agony in a 6L being too costly, reservation-wise. Maybe the herald-specific armour (always 45%) is what the OP uses with that configuration, and not QotF? That is the only way i can explain the overall mana reservation costs being within acceptable ranges.
The real issue for me is that toxic rain isnt that spammable without more mana than what results just from a 6L herald reserved, and the caustic arrow just feels stronger as a result of not having +arrows fired.
I also find impresence a bit awkward to play with this build, since i don’t find myself in melee range. ever. Perhaps this is a playstyle choice, though!
For those asking about mana issues. I played a variation of this build a lot in betrayal and the lab enchant HoA has 30% reduced mana reservation is a must if you have it 6-linked, or at least for me I found it was as I was also running aspect of the spider and needed the mana for that particular reservation. If you are having mana issues, a nice starter ring would be a thief’s torment as it restores x amount of mana on hit until you can get the node that essentially does the same thing in your passive tree.
i had armor that reserved both my herald of agony and my herald of purity. the coming calamity destroyer regalia. worked out pretty good for me. im still kinda new . figuring things out on my own.until synthesis. im gonna work a build this time