3.25 PoE Rain of Arrows Raider Build Guide
17.07.2024 - 10:32:03
Game Guides , Path of Exile , POE build guides
Among all of the bow skills in Path of Exile, Rain of Arrows is often overlooked. Sure, it is not as damaging as Tornado Shot, but with minimal investment, you can actually map with it pretty well. You just have to know what support gems and items to use if you want to have a good experience.
If anything, Rain of Arrows has become even better than TS, especially considering that the Tornado Shot skill gem has been nerfed to the ground in the 3.24 Necropolis League.
When you pair it with the Raider ascendancy class, you not only have a capable mapper that can delete full screens of enemies with ease, but you also have a character that has tons of evasion and spell suppression to heavily improve survivability.
If you are interested in making this character, then read further. This is our build guide for the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider in Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League!
Basics
There are two main attack skills that you will use in this build. For the most part, you will utilize Vaal Rain of Arrows to clear packs of monsters. The "Vaal" portion of the skill should be activated whenever it is available to aid you in eliminating the enemy. It fires more arrows than the base version and it maims hostile targets that are hit as well. What's more, the arrows from Vaal Rain of Arrows cannot be dodged, so you do not have to worry about accuracy.
Now, Rain of Arrows has poor single-target damage. That is why you will utilize Frenzy on this build, which is linked to Barrage Support (not to be confused with the Barrage skill).
Frenzy is an attack skill in Path of Exile where you hurl projectiles at your enemies per cast. What's interesting about this is that so long as one monster is hit by this skill, you will always gain one Frenzy Charge in return.
One of the core mechanics of the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider is that you stack as many Frenzy Charges as you can for maximum damage. One Frenzy Charge gives you 4% increased attack speed and 4% more damage per charge.
In the previous league, Grinding Gear Games made sweeping changes to the base versions of attack and spell skill gems in Path of Exile. The changes can be felt when maxing the gem's quality to 20%.
That being said, the base version of Rain of Arrows loses its "10% Increased Area of Effect" bonus in this league but it now fires 26 arrows in total instead of 21. On the other hand, Frenzy's "10% Increased Attack Speed" at max gem quality has been removed. Now, each Frenzy Charge provides 7% more attack damage and attack speed (up from 5% previously).
For both Rain of Arrows and Frenzy + Barrage Support setups, you will be adding Trinity Support. This gives you a significant boost in elemental damage and elemental penetration when you satisfy its Resonance mechanic.
Basically, when your attacks deal at least two elemental damage types, you are guaranteed to fulfill the Resonance required to unlock the support gem's full potential. Of course, you do not have to worry about this since you will be using a tri-element bow anyway.
To improve the damage of the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider, here are the modifiers that you should look for:
- Increased Fire Damage
- Increased Cold Damage
- Increased Lightning Damage
- Increased Elemental Damage
- Increased Damage
- Added Elemental Damage (Fire, Cold, and Lightning)
- Added Elemental Damage with Bow Attacks
- Increased Attack Speed
- Increased Attack Speed with Bows
- Increased Critical Strike Chance
- Increased Critical Strike Chance with Cold Skills
- + to Critical Strike Multiplier
- + to Critical Strike Multiplier with Bows
- Increased Projectile Speed
Projectile speed serves two purposes for this build. First, it affects the impact delay of each cast of Rain of Arrows. The higher your overall projectile speed modifier is, the faster the arrows will fall. Second, you will take "Increases and Reductions to Projectile Speed Also Apply to Damage with Bows" from the Bow Mastery for more damage.
You will heavily rely on evasion rating and spell suppression for your defenses. To sustain yourself whenever you engage with the different types of content in Path of Exile, you should have some form of life and mana leech as well. This can easily be rectified by taking "Clever Thief" on the passive tree.
Playstyle
The playstyle of the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider is pretty straightforward. Use Rain of Arrows when you are mapping and Vaal Rain of Arrows whenever it is available.
When you come across tougher enemies like essence monsters or bosses, utilize your Frenzy linked to Barrage Support to take advantage of that higher single-target damage. Frenzy, as mentioned earlier, ensures that you have a steady uptime of Frenzy Charges. When you run out of these charges, just use Frenzy again and they should be back right up.
In terms of movement skills, you will mainly use Dash that is linked to Second Wind Support. This is primarily because Dash has a relatively low cooldown and you gain an extra charge thanks to the said support gem. However, you can freely swap Dash with Flame Dash or Frostblink if you want to.
Transfigured Gems
Path of Exile 3.23 Affliction League brought a new type of gem called Transfigured Gems. These gems have different mechanics from their original counterparts; some of them are better, while others leave much to be desired.
This begs the question: Are the Transfigured Gems for Rain of Arrows and Frenzy worth using in this league? The short answer is no, but we will elaborate why that is the case. In the current league, Rain of Arrows got a couple of Transfigured Gems.
Rain of Arrows of Saturation fires significantly more arrows per cast. But, the problem is that its damage effectiveness is noticeably lower compared to the original version. Sure, you cover a wider area but that is not going to be enough in terms of clearing potential.
How about Rain of Arrows of Artillery? Well, this Transfigured Gem fires arrows in a straight line in front of you and is not really good in terms of eliminating enemies effectively.
Frenzy of Onslaught is the only Transfigured Gem for Frenzy in 3.23 Affliction League. While you still get 7% more attack damage and attack speed per Frenzy Charge with this version, you consume all Frenzy Charges just to gain the Onslaught buff. This, of course, is a huge disadvantage, especially considering that Onslaught can be obtained from the Raider ascendancy tree or from the self-crafted boots.
Ascendancy
In the past several leagues in Path of Exile, the bow meta has always been dominated by the Deadeye. So, why are we recommending the Raider for this particular build? Well, that is because this ascendancy class is well-balanced in both offense and defense.
Your first notable ascendancy passive is Quartz Infusion. This greatly improves your survivability due to the flat 40% spell suppression it provides. Since you do not have access to a lot of spell suppression early on, Quartz Infusion gives you a significant boost in this department to start with. This also grants permanent Phasing, which means that enemies cannot body block you, enabling you to pass through them without a problem.
Next, you are going to take Rapid Assault. This notable ascendancy passive gives you permanent Onslaught - a buff that grants 20% increased attack speed and movement speed. When you allocate points into this, you will breeze through the campaign!
For your third ascendancy node, take Avatar of the Chase. This increases the effect of Onslaught on you by 100%. Besides that, you gain 10% more chance to evade attacks during Onslaught which, on this build, is always active.
The last one is a no-brainer. Avatar of the Veil provides a whopping 50% chance to avoid elemental ailments while Phasing. Additionally, nearby enemies are affected by elemental exposure, reducing their resistance to fire, cold, and lightning damage by 20%. As you can tell, this perfectly synergizes with Quartz Infusion because you constantly have Phasing.
Now, as you gain more PoE Currency, you start to obtain pieces of gear that allow you to reallocate certain notable ascendancy passives. When you have a self-crafted boots with the "Onslaught on Kill" mod, you can remove both Rapid Assault and Avatar of the Chase. Instead, you will be taking Way of the Poacher and Avatar of the Slaughter.
Way of the Poacher increases your maximum Frenzy Charges by one. The slight chance to gain a Frenzy Charge is a nice bonus, but it is not that important since you already have the Frenzy attack skill anyway.
Avatar of the Slaughter, on the other hand, is really what elevates the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider to the next level. This node enhances the effects of Frenzy Charge by giving you the following bonuses:
- 10% Increased Attack Damage per Frenzy Charge
- 10% Increased Evasion Rating per Frenzy Charge
- 4% Increased Attack Speed per Frenzy Charge
- 4% Increased Movement Speed per Frenzy Charge
Notable Ascendancy Passives for the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider
Now, if you really like the playstyle of this build and you want to further improve its damage, you can get a Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh Jewel with these matching modifiers:
Gathering Winds
- Gain 1 Gale Force When You Use a Skill
- 15% Increased Effect of Tailwind on You per Gale Force (10 stacks, up to 150%)
- You and Nearby Allies Have Tailwind
Focal Point
- 75% Increased Effect of Your Marks
- Avatar of the Chase
- 100% Increased Effect of Onslaught on You
- 10% More Chance to Evade Attacks During Onslaught
Nature's Boon
- Magic Utility Flasks Applied to You Have 30% Increased Effect
Gear
There are no mandatory uniques for the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider, but you can certainly equip some to get the best stats and bonuses without crafting. Of course, we at RPGStash will also provide you with crafting tips if you want to take this route.
Weapon
There are several unique weapons you can choose for the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider. Quill Rain is one of the best that you can take very early on. It gives a huge 100% increased attack speed and a considerable boost to projectile speed, which are modifiers that can help the build a lot. The 30% less damage modifier is noticeable, but in a league start scenario, this thing can help you finish the campaign with ease.
Quill Rain
At level 18, you can transition to Roth's Reach - a unique Recurve Bow that grants up to 80% increased elemental damage with attack skills. Since both your Rain of Arrows and Frenzy/Barrage Support setups are linked with elemental support gems, their attacks are pretty much considered elemental damage, so Roth's Reach is definitely perfect at this point in your leveling journey.
Roth's Reach
Once you finish the campaign, have more than three Frenzy Charges, and have some form of life and mana leech, you can then swap to Hopeshredder. This bow gives you a significant boost to your killing potential because you not only gain 300 flat cold damage, but you get up to 14 added cold damage per Frenzy Charge as well. Other mods it provides, such as accuracy rating and attack speed, are certainly welcome bonuses for the build. However, it is worth noting that the Hopeshredder has one major downside in that you take 200 cold damage per second for every Frenzy Charge you have while moving. That is why only take this if your life leech is already sorted out.
Hopeshredder
If you don't mind crafting, you can create a much better bow than the ones mentioned above. Fortunately for you, we will provide you with the knowledge you need to craft a good mid- to endgame weapon. Here are the steps:
- Get an item level 86+ Spine Bow or Thicket Bow. The ilvl 86 bow enables you to roll the mod, "Bow Attacks Fire 2 Additional Arrows". Although this is not the mod we are looking for, it is still a good thing to have, especially if you change your mind later on
- Increase the quality of the bow to 30% by spamming it with Perfect Fossils
- Next, use Deafening Essence of Wrath/Anger/Hatred to guarantee a flat elemental damage mod. If you can have one of the elemental damage types fractured, you will have a far easier time crafting the endgame weapon
- Spam the bow with essences until you get all three elemental damage types (aim for at least Tier 2 since this is the final weapon you will use for the build anyway)
- Once you have all of the three elemental damage types, head to the Crafting Bench and put "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed"
- Go to your Harvest Bench (or Horticrafting Station) and select "Add a Speed Modifier and Remove a Random Modifier from a Non-Influenced Item". This will result in two outcomes: Increased Projectile Speed or Increased Attack Speed. You should choose the latter
- When you have a Tier 1 or Tier 2 attack speed mod, go to your Crafting Bench and put "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed" again. Only this time, you will put an Aisling veiled mod on it
- Since all of your prefixes are filled, you are guaranteed to get a veiled suffix. Once you have the Aisling mod, head to your Crafting Bench and put "Increased Damage per Endurance Charge" to block this one from appearing during the unveiling
- Go to Jun and Unveil. The mod you are looking for is "(27-30)% Increased Attack Speed While a Rare or Unique Enemy is Nearby". The Double Damage mod is not too bad at all, so settle with that one if the attack speed modifier is not on the list
- Return to the Crafting Bench one last time and put (20-24) to Strength and Intelligence, (21-25)% Increased Critical Strike Chance
After following the above steps, you should have something like this:
Self-crafted Tri-Ele Bow (Endgame)
Quiver
If you do not want to craft your own quiver and you just like one that you can use right away, then pick Hyrri's Bite at level 14 and transition to Ahuana's Bite when you reach level 56 or higher.
Hyrri's Bite adds cold damage to attacks, provides increased attack speed, and increases the area of effect of your Rain of Arrows. The flat STR, DEX, and INT attributes it gives are quite welcome, especially if you do not have these sorted out yet.
Hyrri's Bite
Ahuana's Bite not only adds up to 70 cold damage to attacks, but you also chill enemies as though dealing (60-100)% more damage. At this point in the game, your attack speed should be noticeably faster, meaning, you can chill enemies without a problem. And, because of this quiver's unique effect, you always deal maximum damage with the current gear that you have.
Ahuana's Bite
Of course, nothing beats a self-crafted quiver with the right mods. So, if you are interested in crafting the endgame quiver, be sure to follow these steps:
- Get an ilvl 86+ Broadhead Arrow Quiver for that "% Increased Attack Speed" implicit mod
- Next, spam it with Deafening Essence of Torment until you get T1 "Increased Damage with Bow Skills" and "Adds # to # Cold Damage to Attacks"
- Head to your Crafting Bench and put "Prefixes Cannot Be Changed" and then use a Veiled Chaos Orb. If you don't want to populate it with an unwanted suffix, go for an Aisling veiled mod instead
- Before you unveil, add "+ to Dexterity and Intelligence" from the Crafting Bench. This is to prevent any attributes from appearing during the unveiling
- Go to Jun and unveil. The mod that you want is "(20-22)% Increased Global Critical Strike Chance, (27-30)% Increased Elemental Damage if You've Dealt a Critical Strike Recently"
- Next, put "(7-12)% Increased Attack Speed from the Crafting Bench"
- The last mod can be filled using an Exalted Orb. The ideal suffixes are increased projectile speed or critical strike multiplier with bows
Self-crafted Quiver
Body Armor
Hyrri's Ire and Farrul's Fur are both great unique body armors for the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider. Hyrri's Ire provides a good mix of offense and defense thanks to its flat 30% spell suppression, plus to dexterity, and added cold damage with bow attacks.
Hyrri's Ire
Farrul's Fur is a viable alternative. You are mainly equipping this for its unique effect, where you gain Power Charges equal to your maximum Frenzy Charges when you have Cat's Stealth. Cat's Stealth is one of the alternating buffs given by the Aspect of the Cat Skill, which you can only obtain by putting it in some piece of gear. You can craft it from the Menagerie if you have beaten and captured Farrul, First of the Plains. If not, purchase the itemized version of the beast from someone on the trade website.
Ideally, you want to put Aspect of the Cat on an Unset Ring so that you can insert a Less Duration Support gem into it. This will reduce the duration of the alternating buffs to ensure that you always have your maximum Power and Frenzy Charges up when mapping or bossing.
Farrul's Fur
Although these unique body armors should take you well into the endgame, you can craft your own body armor as well, particularly if you want to take advantage of the "Increased Aura Effect" implicit mod from the Eater of Worlds.
To craft the armor, you must do the following:
- Get an item level 85+ Zodiac Leather and increase its quality to 30% using Perfect Fossils
- Use Deafening Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance) or Deafening Essence of Sorrow (Dexterity) until you get T1 spell suppression
- Put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed" from the Crafting Bench and use a Veiled Chaos Orb afterward
- Once the armor has a veiled modifier, interact with the Crafting Bench again and add "% Chance to Block Attack Damage"
- Go to Jun and Unveil. Choose "(30-35)% Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments/Chance to Avoid Being Stunned" when it appears. This is to aid you in capping your elemental ailment immunity easily
- Put "(5-6)% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire/Lightning Damage" from the Crafting Bench
- If you still have an open prefix, use and Exalted Orb to fill it up
- For the implicits, spam the Zodiac Leather with Grand Eldritch Ichors for "Hatred Has (25-27)% Increased Aura Effect" and Grand Eldritch Embers for "(13-14)% Increased Effect of Non-Curse Auras from Your Skills"
Self-crafted Body Armor
Helmet
Your helmet need not be fancy. Just get an item level 85+ Lion Pelt and spam it with Deafening Essence of Greed for that guaranteed "+ to Maximum Life" mod. Here are some of the mods that you might want to consider getting:
- Chance to Suppress Spell Damage (of capped, go for elemental resistances)
- Fire/Cold/Lightning Resistance (whichever is not capped at 75% yet)
- Chaos Resistance
- Evasion Rating
- Accuracy Rating (if still not hit capped)
- 8% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire Damage (Bench Craft)
For the Eldritch currencies, spam Eldritch Ichors until you get "% of Physical Damage from Hits Taken as Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage" and Eldritch Embers for "% Reduced Mana Cost of Attacks".
Self-crafted Helmet
You can also go for the DEX-stacking route by equipping Fractal Thoughts. This helmet has several unique properties, but the only ones you should concern yourself with are, "+40% to Critical Strike Multiplier if Dexterity is Higher Than Intelligence" and "1% Increased Elemental Damage per 10 Dexterity".
Fractal Thoughts
Gloves
Offering to the Serpent is a pair of unique gloves that is tough to beat due to its incredibly low price and the random implicit modifiers it comes with. You actually get up to three synthesis mods in one convenient package. Here are the implicits we recommend for this build:
- % Increased Cold Damage
- % Increased Fire Damage
- % Increased Lightning Damage
- % Increased Attack Speed
- % Increased Global Critical Strike Chance
- % Increased Vaal Critical Strike Chance
- % Increased Damage with Vaal Skills
- % Increased Damage During Any Flask Effect
- % Increased Global Accuracy Rating
- + to Accuracy Rating
- % Increased Evasion Rating
- + to Evasion Rating
Another unique pair of gloves you can use for the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider is the Tombfist, specifically one that has a couple of Abyssal Sockets on it. Its unique effects are unlocked when you insert specific abyssal jewels indicated on the glove's description. Get a Tombfist with the following mods:
- With a Searching Eye Jewel Socketed, Maim Enemies for 4 Seconds on Hit with Attacks
- With a Searching Eye Jewel Socketed, Blind Enemies for 4 Seconds on Hit with Attacks
Take note that if you are going to use the Tombfist, you can only put two gems into it. Fortunately, you have some leeway when it comes to the gems you can use in this build, that is why we recommend these unique gloves as well.
Tombfist
For the self-crafted gloves, just use Deafening Essence of Zeal for that guaranteed attack speed mod. Spam it on a pair of ilvl 85+ Slink Gloves until you get any of the following:
- + to Maximum Life
- Adds # to # Cold Damage to Attacks
- + to Evasion Rating
- % Evasion Rating
- Fire/Cold/Lightning Resistance
- + to Accuracy Rating (if not yet hit capped)
- % Chance to Suppress Spell Damage (if not yet capped)
- 43% Increased Damage While Leeching (Bench Craft)
In terms of the implicits, aim for these modifiers:
- % Increased Global Accuracy Rating (Eater of Worlds)
- % Increased Attack Speed (Searing Exarch)
Self-crafted Gloves
Boots
Early on, get yourself some Darkray Vectors. These unique Dragonscale Boots increases your maximum Frenzy Charges by one, which is always nice for the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider
Darkray Vectors
When you have enough currency, go for a self-crafted pair of boots with the Onslaught mod. Here are the steps to craft this beauty:
- Get an ilvl 85+ Shagreen Boots and increase its quality to 30% using Perfect Fossils
- Spam with Deafening Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance) or Sorrow (Dexterity) until you get T1 Spell Suppression. If you are still not immune to elemental ailments, use Deafening Essence of Loathing instead
- Put "Suffixes Cannot Be Changed" from the Crafting Bench and then use a Veiled Chaos Orb
- Talk to Jun and unveil the boots. The mod that you need is, "(25-30)% Increased Movement Speed, (13-16)% Chance to Gain Onslaught for 4 Seconds on Kill"
- Head to the Crafting Bench and put "+70 to Maximum Life"
- Use an Exalted Orb to fill the last prefix (if there is still a slot available)
- Spam with Grand Eldritch Ichors until you get "(21-23)% Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments" and Grand Eldritch Embers for "5% Increased Action Speed"
Self-crafted Boots
Amulet
The Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider can gain great benefits from Hyrri's Truth. This unique Jade Amulet grants a level 30 Precision skill that gives you a significant boost to your accuracy rating. The amulet also comes with increased mana reservation efficiency for Precision so that it only uses 128 mana to activate. On top of that, bow attacks like Rain of Arrows and Frenzy, can instantly slay enemies that are below 10% of their max life thanks to Culling Strike.
For anointments, you actually have two choices. High Voltage (Amber Oil, 2x Indigo Oil) gives you a 100% increased chance to critically strike monsters affected by Shock. Forces of Nature (Verdant Oil, Azure Oil, Silver Oil) makes your attacks penetrate 10% of the enemy's elemental resistances.
Hyrri's Truth
Rings
Your rings are a great way to resolve any issues you might still have with resistances and attributes. If you are struggling with INT, you can use Essence of Spite on an Amethyst Ring (Chaos Resistance), Two-Stone Ring (Elemental Resistance), or Vermillion Ring (HP).
Once you are satisfied with the mods, leave a prefix slot open so that you can add "17% Increased Damage" or "23% Increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills" from the Crafting Bench.
Self-crafted Ring
If you want to use unique rings instead, The Taming is one of the best out there. This not only gives you a significant boost to your damage, but it provides up to 30% to all elemental resistances as well.
Refer to our vendor recipe guide so that you will know how to get your hands on The Taming ring as soon as possible.
The Taming
Death Rush is also a good choice. You recover up to 5% of your maximum every time you slay monsters. Furthermore, you gain Adrenaline for a few seconds on kill. This means that you gain increased damage, attack speed, and physical damage reduction for three seconds after defeating monsters in PoE.
Death Rush
Belt
A well crafted Stygian Vise can be used pretty much the entire game if you want to. Here are the steps to follow if you are interested in crafting the belt:
- Get an item level 86 Stygian Vise
Spam it with Deafening Essence of Sorrow (DEX) until you get the following mods:
- + to Maximum Life
- % Increased Elemental Damage with Attack Skills
- Fire/Cold/Lightning Resistance
- Chaos Resistance
- Dexterity (from essence)
The prefix slot is reserved for the Redeemer Exalted Orb. There are two useful modifiers that can pop up and they are "% Increased Cold Damage" or "% Increased Damage with Hits Against Chilled Enemies"
Self-crafted Stygian Vise (with Redeemer's Exalted Orb)
For unique belts, the Headhunter is definitely the best choice. Since Rain of Arrows covers a huge area and you attack like a madman due to your insanely high attack speed, you can gain great benefits from the Headhunter's unique effect. If you're not familiar with this awesome belt, you deal up to 30% increased damage with hits against rare monsters. But more importantly, when you kill a rare monster, you get all of its modifiers for one whole minute! With this belt, the mods you can obtain from monsters will snowball for sure!
Even though the Soul Eater mod that you can take from your enemies while wearing the Headhunter has been nerfed in the 3.24 Necropolis League, the belt is still an incredible one to use for this build because of the other mods that are available in the PoE.
Headhunter
Now, if you value more consistency, the Mageblood is a viable alternative. This belt grants you the effects of four magic utility flasks at all times, so long as you have it equipped. This is not a cheap belt, though, but if you really want to, you can purchase it from the trade website.
Mageblood
Flasks
- Jade Flask
- Diamond Flask
- Quicksilver Flask
- Granite Flask
- Life Flask
Flask Mods
- Immunity to Bleeding and Corrupted Blood
- 17% Increased Attack Speed (of the Dove)
- 55% Increased Critical Strike Chance (of the Incision)
- 55% Increased Evasion Rating (of the Impala)
- 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
Unique Flasks
- Taste of Hate: Extra cold damage and a bit of tankiness
- Bottled Faith: Consecrated Ground makes your enemies take increased damage while on it
Jewels
The Watcher's Eye is an omnipresent jewel in almost all builds in Path of Exile. That said, purchase one with mods that get activated when you have Hatred, Anger, Grace, and Precision turned on. Here are our recommendations:
Hatred
- Damage Penetrates % Cold Resistance (Best)
- % to Critical Strike Chance (2nd Best)
- % Increased Cold Damage
- Adds # to # to Cold Damage
Grace
- % Chance to Evade Hits
- % Increased Movement Speed
- % Chance to Suppress Spell Damage
Anger
- Damage Penetrates % Fire Resistance
- % to Critical Strike Multiplier
- % Increased Fire Damage
Precision
- % Increased Attack Speed
- % to Critical Strike Multiplier
- % Increased Attack Damage
Large Cluster Jewels (bow damage) is included in this build as well. Use your Harvest Bench's "Reforge Attack' option to obtain the following notable passives:
Broadside
- Bow Skills Have 25% Increased Area of Effect
Martial Prowess
- 20% Increased Attack Damage
- 6% Increased Attack Speed
- 15% increased Global Accuracy Rating
- 20% Increased Damage with Ailments from Attack Skills
You do need to allocate a third notable passive skill, but you do need one present on the jewel in order to save a couple of points. It can be anything so long as it is situated in the middle of Broadside and Martial Prowess.
Obtain some Medium Cluster Jewels (projectile damage) and use the Harvest Bench's "Reforge Caster" until you get Eye to Eye and Repeater. The reason why you use reforge caster instead of reforge speed is that repeater has a "Caster" tag on it, meaning, you will almost always get it when you select this option.
If you are interested to know what these notable passives do, you can refer to the information below:
Eye to Eye
- 25% Increased Projectile Damage
- Projectiles Deal 35% Increased Damage with Hits Against Nearby Enemies
Repeater
- 30% Increased Projectile Damage
- 8% Increased Attack/Cast Speed
Lioneye's Fall is a cost-effective way of increasing your overall damage as it gives you access to passive skills that enhance your attack speed and critical strike chance. It does this by turning melee and melee weapon type modifiers within its radius into bow modifiers. That is why you should place it in the jewel socket just above the "Frenetic" notable passive at the top-right corner of the passive tree.
Lethal Pride is a unique Timeless Jewel that also boosts your damage. Each passive point allocated within its radius gets a bonus effect. Use the Timeless Jewel Calculator to help you get a Lethal Pride with these mods:
- 4% Increased Maximum Life
- 5% Increased Strength
- 5% Chance to Deal Double Damage
- 10% Chance to Intimidate Enemies for 4 seconds on Hit
Now, when you've opted to use Hyrri's Ire or Farrul's Fur, there is a good chance that you do not have your elemental ailment immunity capped yet. For this reason, you can use Ancestral Vision to address the problem. With this unique Viridian Jewel, if you have 100% spell suppression, you gain 50% elemental avoidance as a result.
If you have jewel slots remaining, you can populate them with abyssal jewels. Aim to get flat elemental damage mods with attacks/bow attacks and put as many of these as you can.
Gems
Apart from the gems placed into the body armor and bow, the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider can be pretty flexible when it comes to the gems you can use.
Weapon
- Frenzy
- Barrage Support
- Trinity
- Inspiration Support
- Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks
- Hypothermia Support
Frenzy allows you to gain a Frenzy Charge per attack. You should link it with Barrage Support to make the attack skill even more potent against tougher enemies.
Since you are using a tri-element bow as your endgame weapon, putting Trinity Support is a no-brainer. This provides you with increased elemental damage and elemental penetration, which are highly desirable mods for this build.
Inspiration reduces the mana cost required to cast Frenzy. It also increases your critical strike chance up to a maximum of 40%.
Despite using a tri-element bow, your cold damage is slightly higher than the other elemental damage types. That is the reason why Hypothermia Support is added so that you deal more damage against chilled enemies.
Elemental Damage with Attacks boosts the damage dealt by Frenzy's projectiles. The "Awakened" version just makes it so that your elemental damage cannot be reflected.
Body Armor
- Vaal Rain of Arrows
- Mirage Archer
- Inspiration Support
- Trinity
- Hypothermia Support
- Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks
The support gems used in the Vaal Rain of Arrows setup is almost the same as Frenzy's, except for one: Mirage Archer.
Mirage Archer aids you in getting rid of monsters easily by casting Rain of Arrows periodically. Don't forget to use the Vaal skill to increase your efficiency of eliminating enemies.
Helmet
- Sniper's Mark
- Mark on Hit
- Lifetap (lvl 1)
- Portal
Sniper's Mark is a curse that makes your enemies take 40% increased damage from Rain of Arrows and Frenzy. This is activated automatically by Mark on Hit Support, so you don't have to worry about casting it manually.
While Sniper's Mark still provides good value for a Mark skill, it is no longer as valuable as it once was. For this reason, you can freely swap it with Assassin's Mark, especially if you still do not have a 100% critical strike chance.
To ensure that Sniper's Mark is always available to cast whenever you encounter a rare or unique monster, you should insert a level 1 Lifetap as well.
Hatred is always a nice thing to have for builds that deal cold damage. If you run into issues with activating this aura, you can insert a small cluster jewel with the “Spiteful Presence” notable passive skill to gain a 50% increased mana reservation efficiency for Hatred.
Gloves (Tombfist)
- Anger
- Blood and Sand (Flesh and Stone)
The Tombfist is a pretty popular option for the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider. Hence, there are only two gems socketed into this piece of gear: Hatred and Flesh of Stone.
Anger is another aura that you can activate on this build. Unlike its cold counterpart (Hatred), Anger provides flat damage instead of an increased percentage, which scales really well with “% Increased Elemental Damage” modifiers.
Flesh and Stone is a stance skill that lets you blind or maim enemies depending on which stance is activated. We recommend that you activate Blood Stance so that nearby enemies are maimed, reducing their movement speed by 30%. If the going gets tough, switch to Sand Stance to blind your enemies, reducing their accuracy considerably.
Boots
- Blink Arrow
- Dash
- Second Wind
- Lifetap (lvl 1)
The Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider is built for speed. Why not take advantage of that by using Blink Arrow as well? This bow skill lets you teleport to a target destination, leaving a clone in your wake. This clone is no slouch because it can also deal damage to enemies that are close by.
Dash and Second Wind are a great combination because you have two Dash charges instead of one. Now, you're probably worried about getting body blocked by the monsters you encounter because Dash naturally doesn't let you pass through them. However, this issue is resolved by the Raider's Quartz Infusion node, specifically the fact that you have permanent Phasing.
Lifetap is included in the setup so that you can comfortably cast these skills without worrying about mana.
As mentioned earlier, you can replace certain gems in this build. If you do not like Dash, you can replace it with either Frostblink or Flame Dash. Second Wind can be swapped for another gem of your choosing.
Tattoos
Grinding Gear Games has removed secondary ascendancy classes from Path of Exile in the 3.24 Necropolis League. It is understandable because the Warden of the Maji and Wildwood Primalist have plenty to offer. You could bet that they will come back at some point, albeit not as good as they once were.
Even though the secondary ascendancy classes are gone, the Tattoos from the past couple of leagues have returned. You can compensate for any deficiencies your character may have just by putting certain tattoos on your passive tree.
Having said that, here are some of the Tattoos we recommend for the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider:
Tattoo of the Arohongui Warrior
- 5% Increased Cold Damage
Tattoo of the Ramako Shaman
- +2% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage
Tattoo of the Hinekora Storyteller
- +3% to Chaos Resistance
Tattoo of the Valako Shaman
- 5% increased Lightning Damage
Tattoo of the Valako Warrior
- 5% Chance to Shock
Tattoo of the Valako Scout
- 10% Reduced Effect of Shock on You
Passive Tree
Passive Tree
POB
Conclusion
The Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider can easily take you to the red maps when built correctly. You use a tri-element bow that increases in power thanks to Trinity Support. Rain of Arrows covers a wide area, so clearing maps is not going to be a problem at all. This is further supplemented by the "Vaal" version of the skill gem.
Of course, there are a lot of tough monsters in Path of Exile. You can quickly dispatch them by using Frenzy linked to Barrage Support. It might take some time to get used to the playstyle, but you will get the hang of it.
This build has access to a ton of evasion rating and spell suppression. The latter helps you cap elemental resistances with the use of Ancestral Vision.
The Raider ascendancy class has notable passive skills that offer a good mix of offense and defense. You can take advantage of permanent Phasing and Onslaught early in the league. Then, you transition to Way of the Poacher and Avatar of the Slaughter once you have all of the right pieces of gear.
Seriously, the Barrage Rain of Arrows Raider might not top the charts, but it is certainly a build that is worth trying, especially in Path of Exile 3.23 Affliction League!
PROS:
+Great League Starter
+Does not rely on chain, pierce, or fork
+Can easily cap spell suppression due to Raider ascendancy
+Great defenses without heavy investment
+Easy transition to Lightning Arrow or Tornado Shot if Desired
CONS:
-Not exactly a build for the endgame
-Weak against monster AoE attacks
-Not great for Deep Delving