Path of Exile Gems PoE Builds, PoE Currency guide and other guides
Intro & build description
Shrapnel Ballista is one of the new skills introduced in 3.9 Metamorph league. Since GGG reworked how ranged attack totem works, it will introduce a new playstyle that allows more seamless use of bow skills with totems. This build is based on speculation since we cannot know how good it will be until we try it, but it should be great together with new optimized totems and nodes in the passive tree.
Build Pros
- Safe to play, as most totem builds
- Cheap to start - great for a new league
- Reflect is not a problem
- Since projectiles from Shrapnel Ballista shotgun, I think that it might be a lot of damage on bosses
Build Cons
- Not the tankiest build when you get hit
Passive tree(s) and Path of Building
[3.9] Skill treeBandits
| Bandits Quest Choice |
| Kill all bandits |
Ascendancy skill points
| Labyrinths | Skill point choice |
|---|---|
| Labyrinth 1 | Far Shot |
| Labyrinth 2 | Endless Munitions |
| Labyrinth 3 | Gathering Winds |
| Endgame Labyrinth | Powerful Precision / Ricochet (Still need to test whichever works better) |
Skill gem setup
Helm
Herald of Ice
Frostbite
Elemental Weakness
Curse on Hit Support
Body Armor
Ice Shot
Ballista Support
Hypothermia Support
Awakened Cold Penetration Support
Awakened Elemental Damage With Attacks Support
Awakened Added Cold Damage Support
Gloves
Vaal Grace
Hatred
Dash
Precision (LVL 7)
Boots
Blink Arrow
Faster Attacks Support
Summon Ice Golem
Portal
2h Weapon
Shrapnel Ballista
Awakened Elemental Damage With Attacks Support
Physical To Lightning Support
Slower Projectiles Support
Awakened Added Cold Damage Support
Awakened Elemental Focus 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 excellent choice for the build, since global critical strike multiplier is a mod that you mostly cannot find on other helms. It also helps us stack dexterity and gives extra elemental damage.
Until you can afford it, good bet is to get generic rare helmet with at least 80 life and some resistances.
Body Armour
Hyrri's IreGreat body armour for bow users. Gives us tons of cold damage, some dexterity and the very valuable dodge chance.
Gloves
Rare Gripped GlovesLook for rare Gripped gloves with at least 70-80 life and all the resistances you can get.
Attack speed is also a good mod to have on gloves.
Boots
Rare boots / Atziri's StepLook for generic rare boots with at least 70 life, 30% increased movement speed and as much resistances as you can get.
Atziri’s Step is also a good cheap option if you can cap resistances elsewhere.
Left Ring
Rare Opal RingLook for rare Opal ring with life, some resistances and % elemental damage with attack skills.
If you really value second curse and have Yoke of Suffering, you could go for Precursor’s Emblem with “You can apply an additional Curse while at maximum Power Charges” mod.
Right Ring
The TamingIdeal 2nd endgame ring would be The Taming. If you get lucky with an exalt drop at the beginning of the new league, you could buy Berek’s Respite, which is the most expensive of the 3 rings used to create The Taming.
If you can’t afford it, use rare ring like the one described above.
Amulet
Yoke of Suffering / Rare AmuletYoke of Suffering is also an endgame amulet, which is used to push build further.
You could as easily use rare amulet with life, global critical strike multiplier and %elemental damage with attack skills.
Ideally you should get an amulet with 1 additional curse corrupted implicit.
Belt
Stygian ViseLook for rare Stygian Vise with at least 80 life, high resistances and %increased elemental damage with attack skills.
Quiver
Hyrri's DemiseGreat quiver for the build since we stack some dexterity.
It can be expensive at the start of the league, so you could use Drillneck or rare quiver with critical strike multiplier, life, critical strike chance and attack speed.
2Hand Weapon
Death's OpusDeath’s Opus is an endgame option for the build.
Until you can afford it, Death’s Harp or Infractem are great as leveling options.
Jewel
Jewel SetupOn rare jewels look for:
1.) Increased maximum life
2.) Global critical strike multiplier
3.) Attack speed
4.) Resistances
A must-have jewel for this build is Lioneye’s Fall, get it as soon as possible. Put it in a jewel slot right above Acrobatics keystone. Until you get it, do not allocate Soul raker and other claw nodes.
When you can afford it, you should also look to buy The Green Nightmare and The Blue Nightmare, since they give us tons of damage, charge generation and dodge/spell block.
Another good upgrade for the build is Watcher’s Eye with increased critical strike chance while affected by Hatred.
Flask
Flask SetupBuild uses following flasks:
1.) Divine Life Flask with instant recovery and bleed removal
2.) Diamond Flask with curse removal
3.) Silver Flask with freeze removal
4.) Quicksilver Flask of adrenaline
5.) Dying Sun
Do you hit any “multi totems” nodes or can you just not use both totems at the same time with this build?
Yes, the build uses new 3.9 ballista nodes.
I like how the build looks, a few questions:
1) you have 2 curses in your COH setup , how are you getting the second curse ? I cant find anything in the tree or items for a second curse
2) how are you genereating frenzy charges (in the tree you take nodes to get more frenzy charges). I think the green nightmare can but thats the only way I am seeing . I of course could just be missing it.
Thanks
Hi.
1.) Charge generation is indeed from the Green and Blue Nightmare.
2.) Forgot to add this to the gear section – we should look for amulet with Curse corruption. Since Yoke of Suffering with additional curse would be insanely expensive later on, we could go for Precursor’s Emblem with “You can apply an additional Curse while at maximum Power Charges”, which, while still expensive, would be way cheaper. Doedre’s Damning is another option, but provides less value.
I was just looking at the new awakened gems and it seems the awakened COH gem allows for another curse, think I will try for that.
Thanks
Oh, that’s cool, didn’t even catch that!
Hi again, working on leveling and back to the COH …. doesnt work with totems, well I cant get it to work with totems. And even in the gem description on the gem itself it says doesnt work with totems. Not sure what I’m missing. Please let me know how you got it to work as it would help alot
What about mana reservation? Do you rly think 20 mana will be enough to summon 4 totems ?
It should be enough, we could always use a lower level Precision gem for more flat mana and grab a mana flask like Lavianga’s Spirit.
hi
the skill tree its old version
do you have new? or pob
thks
It’s not the old one, the one on pathofexile.com is not yet updated. You can take import this one into POB and it will show the new one.