PoE 3.25 Lightning Arrow Deadeye Build

Bow skills have been quite popular in PoE's recent expansions. Even though Grinding Gear Games focused on improving melee skill gems in Patch 3.25, the Lightning Arrow Deadeye is still one of the best in terms of projectile-based builds.

If you are interested in creating an excellent mapping build, with plenty of upgrade options you can take when you have enough PoE Currency, then we invite you to read this article to completion.

This is our ultimate build guide for the Lightning Arrow Deadeye in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur League!

Basics

The Lightning Arrow Deadeye is one of the most popular bow skills in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. When used, it prompts you to fire multiple arrows that deal lightning damage. Those that are hit by the projectiles are struck by lightning and any monster near the main target is hit by the resulting bolt of lightning as well.

It naturally converts 50% of your physical damage to lightning damage. Even though this is the case, you do not need to convert the other half to lightning damage to maximize your damage output.

The main reason for that is you will use a crafted bow that has three different flat elemental damage types, including fire, cold, and lightning damage. This is essential to gain the benefits from Trinity Support. This support gem has a mechanic that gives you a boost in elemental damage and elemental penetration.

Admittedly, even with Trinity Support, this build still suffers from mediocre single-target damage. To address this, you are going to use Artillery Ballista, which grants the ability to drop a few ballista totems that bombard your enemies with a plethora of projectiles.

If you want to go for the pure mapping route, you do have the option of replacing Artillery Ballista with at least a few bow skills. These are automatically used when you spend enough mana thanks to the Manaforged Arrows Support.

However, for the purposes of this build guide, we are sticking only with the Artillery Ballista setup so you can go mapping or boss-killing without a hitch.

In Patch 3.25, Lightning Arrow received a minor damage improvement. More specifically, the effectiveness of base and added damage of this skill have increased from 154% to 177%. This skill has a slightly lower mana cost (from 11 to 10) as well.

In terms of defenses, this build heavily relies on high evasion to dodge incoming attacks. Furthermore, it has capped spell suppression to mitigate spell damage by as much as 53%.

Where this build falls short is in maximum life and armor. The former can be increased easily by taking the appropriate nodes on the passive tree and putting some life mods on gear. However, the latter is pretty low on this build unless you specifically wear armor-based equipment.

To maximize your damage output, look for any of the following modifiers on your gear:

• Increased Lightning Damage
• Increased Attack Damage
• Added Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage
• Increased Attack Speed
• Increased Critical Strike Chance
• + to Critical Strike Multiplier
• Chance to Deal Double Damage

Playstyle

Use your preferred travel skill (like Flame Dash or Blink Arrow) and scour the map for huge packs of monsters. When you encounter such, drop your totems and start firing at them until they die.

Ascendancy

Path of Exile allows you to choose different ascendancy classes starting level 33. When you complete several Lord's Labyrinths, you will be given enough points to allocate certain notable ascendancy passives. Having said that, what does this build need to shine?

Gathering Winds increases your action speed by a considerable amount. Action speed encompasses both movement speed and attack speed, which is why taking this as your first ascendancy node can help you finish the campaign quickly.

Patch 3.25 has nerfed Gathering Winds to only grant up to a maximum of 100% increased effect of Tailwind (down from 150%). Although this is noticeable, Gathering Winds is still incredible for what it provides.

Far Shot has also been nerfed in the Settlers of Kalguur expansion. Previously, this used to give you 60% more damage as your projectiles traveled their maximum distance. But now, you only get 30%.

The good news is that Far Shot no longer has that damage penalty at the start of the projectile's movement, so you can shoot Lightning Arrow comfortably whether you are close to the enemy or not.

Endless Munitions is what makes Deadeye a popular ascendancy class in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. This node allows Lightning Arrow to fire two additional projectiles. This is without any downsides whatsoever!

Lastly, you have Focal Point. This enhances the effects of Mark Skills by 75%. Besides that, you take less damage from marked enemies, thus improving your survivability.

Gear

The Lightning Arrow Deadeye has plenty of options when it comes to gear. Although you can play it as a league starter, the true power of the build comes out whenever you can get your hands on some endgame items.

Weapon

Early on, you will craft a weapon using the Thicket Bow or the Spine Bow as the base. The former has a slightly higher attack speed, while the latter has a bit more critical strike chance.

Once you have a good bow, spam it with Blacksmith's Whetstones to increase its quality to 20%. This would make it easier for you to get the modifiers that you need. Having said that, spam the bow with Essence of Wrath to guarantee flat lightning damage. Do this until you get added fire or added cold damage along with other useful mods.

In the endgame, you are going to use a Synthesized Spine Bow as the crafting base. The process is largely the same, where you spam the Deafening Essence of Wrath on the bow until you get added fire/cold damage, attack speed, and two additional arrows.

If you want to learn how to craft the weapon, you can go to our ultimate crafting guide for step-by-step instructions.

While you can certainly craft the weapon yourself, you do have the option of purchasing it from other players in the trade website. Just make sure that you have enough PoE Currency in hand because these things are not cheap.

Quiver

For the Lightning Arrow Deadeye, nothing beats a well-crafted rare quiver. There are actually several good quivers you can use as a crafting base, namely Feathered Arrow Quiver (Projectile Speed), Broadhead Arrow Quiver (Attack Speed), Primal Arrow Quiver (Elemental Damage), and Penetrating Arrow Quiver (Pierce).

You want to get any of the above-mentioned quivers with an item level of 86. This is so that you can roll Tier 1 increased damage with bow skills. When you have secured your preferred quiver to craft on, you spam it with the Deafening Essence of Torment until you get these mods:

• Adds # to # Lightning Damage to Attacks (from essence)
• + to Maximum Life
• % Increased Damage with Bow Skills
• Bow Attacks Fire an Additional Arrow
• +#% to Critical Strike Multiplier with Bows
• % Increased Attack Speed (Bench-craft)

Keep in mind that "Bow Attacks Fire an Additional Arrow" is a bit rare, so you may need a number of essences to obtain this. After getting the desired mods, you should have something like this:

Body Armor

Hyrri's Ire is an amazing body armor for the Lightning Arrow Deadeye in PoE 3.25. This grants a huge amount of spell suppression and evasion. But more importantly, this provides you with added cold damage, which should give you a boost in your overall damage output.

If you prefer using well-crafted body armor, you can go for the Conquest Lamellar. This is one of the new armor base types GGG introduced as part of Patch 3.25 that boasts the highest armor/evasion values compared to its counterparts. Anyway, refer to our crafting guide so that you will know how to create the elemental ailment immunity chest armor.

For the implicit modifiers, use Eldritch Ichors to get an increased effect of Anger and Eldritch Embers for an increased effect of non-curse auras.

Helmet

The beauty of a rare helmet is that you can spam it with Eldritch Currencies to get some useful implicit modifiers, such as mana reservation efficiency, reduced mana cost of attacks, and physical damage from hits taken as fire/lightning/cold/chaos damage.

We highly recommend that you use the new Haunted Bascinet in PoE 3.25 as it has the highest amount of armor/evasion values compared to other similar helmets. You can use any Essence of your choosing, though some recommendations include Essence of Envy (Chaos Resistance), Essence of Spite (Intelligence), and Essence of Loathing (Mana Reservation Efficiency), among others.

If you are planning to wear Crystallised Omniscience at some point, you should consider wearing the Black Sun Crest. This unique helmet greatly increases your attributes and raises the level of socketed gems by one.

In addition, you can use a Vaal Orb in the hopes of getting any of these corrupted implicit modifiers:

• +2 to Level of Socketed Aura Gems
• +2 to Level of Socketed AoE Gems
• +2 to Level of Socketed Duration Gems
• +1 to Maximum Power Charges
• Socketed Skill Gems Get a 90% Cost and Reservation Multiplier
• 0.5% of Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage Leeched as Life
• #% Increased Effect of Cold Ailments
• #% Increased Effect of Shock

Gloves

The gloves that you will wear for the Lightning Arrow Deadeye can be crafted using any essences that you like. Use this equipment slot to address any issues you may have with the build, such as chaos resistance, life, elemental resistance, and attributes (if using Crystallised Omniscience).

Additionally, the gloves allow you to put "Rage on Attack Hit" using Eldritch Embers. Rage is pretty powerful in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. Although you no longer get increased attack speed, it does grant even more power to your projectiles per point of Rage, making it a good addition to your build.

If you can afford it, we highly advise that you get a pair of gloves with the Alva Temple mod: "50% Increased Damage with Hits Against Chilled Enemies." You also want to fracture this mod using a Fracturing Orb so that you can use any essences to craft your endgame gloves.

Boots

Because you are ultimately going to use Crystallised Omniscience to bring the best out of this build, then you should craft a pair of boots with the Onslaught mod on it. You can learn how to craft the Onslaught Boots by heading to our dedicated crafting guide.

You want to have all three attributes on the boots and since you are using the Wyvernscale Boots as the crafting base, these cannot naturally roll INT. For this reason, you must spam the boots with Essence of Spite to guarantee the said suffix.

Amulet

There are a couple of amazing amulets that you can use. The most accessible is Hyrri's Truth — a unique amulet that gives up to 80 DEX, 50% critical strike multiplier, and culling strike.

However, what makes Hyrri's Truth appealing is that it allows you to activate a level 30 Precision by only spending 128 mana (which goes down even further depending on your total mana reservation efficiency). This should give you huge amounts of accuracy and critical strike chance.

A couple of days into a new league, you should be able to obtain the Crystallised Omniscience from the trade website.

So, what makes the said amulet special? Well, it turns all of your regular attributes (STR, DEX, and INT) into a pseudo-attribute called Omniscience. The higher your Omniscience, the more elemental penetration you will get.

The amulet's unique effect is the reason why you need to have as many flat attribute mods on your gear as possible. It is worth noting that Omniscience helps you cap your elemental resistances as well.

Do not forget to anoint Crystallised Omniscience with either Utmost Might (Amber Oil, Azure Oil, Crimson Oil) or Utmost Intellect (Amber Oil, Violet Oil, Crimson Oil) to increase your STR or INT, respectively.

Rings

If you do not have Crystallised Omniscience yet, you should consider wearing The Taming. This is a unique ring that got rebalanced in PoE 3.25. So, what has changed?

Well, it no longer has 30% increased elemental damage and 30% increased elemental damage with attack skills. Instead, it now boosts your elemental damage with hits and ailments by up to 40% for each type of elemental ailment on the enemy.

In case you do not know, there are seven different elemental ailments in Path of Exile. These are Chill, Freeze, Shock, Ignite, Scorch, Brittle, and Sap. The first four can be applied simply by dealing fire, cold, and lightning damage. However, the last three can only be applied when you have the "Secrets of Suffering" unique jewel.

Even if you do not use the Secrets of Suffering, you will still gain a significant damage boost by wearing a couple of "The Taming" rings.

To complement the Crystallised Omniscience, you will craft your endgame ring. Use any of the attribute essences, including Essence of Rage (STR), Essence of Sorrow (DEX), or Essence of Spite (INT) until you get three attribute modifiers for the suffixes.

For the prefixes, aim for elemental damage with skills, life, and bench-craft "Non-Channeling Skills Have -7 to Total Mana Cost." To finish the crafting project, spam Intrinsic Catalysts to enhance the attribute modifiers on the ring.

Belt

The Headhunter is an incredible Tier 0 unique belt that you can wear for this build. This belt has a unique effect that allows you to gain all of the modifiers of a rare monster after eliminating them. What's more, the Headhunter provides you with increases to STR, DEX, and life.

Although the Headhunter has the potential to beat this next belt, it does require some time to ramp up. If this is not something that you are comfortable with, then the Mageblood is a viable alternative.

The Mageblood is a very popular belt in Path of Exile. This is mainly due to its unique property, where you gain the effects of up to four magic utility flasks indefinitely. This effect wears off as soon as you remove the belt for some reason.

Flasks

• Diamond Flask
• Jade Flask
• Amethyst Flask
• Quicksilver Flask
• Life Flask

Flask Mods

• 55% Increased Critical Strike Chance (of Incision)
• 60% Increased Evasion Rating (of the Impala)
• 14% Increased Movement Speed (of the Cheetah)
• 20% Additional Elemental Resistances (of the Rainbow)
• Corrupted Blood Immunity (Life Flask)
• Surgeon/Specialist (Gain Flask Charges on Critical Strike. Only when using Headhunter or other belts)
• Abecedarian/Alchemist/Dabbler (25% Increased Effect. Only when using Mageblood)

Jewels

When you have crafted the elemental ailment chest and boots, you are still not immune to ailments. To make sure that you achieve full immunity, you must secure the Ancestral Vision unique jewel. This gives you a hefty chunk of "Chance to Avoid Elemental Ailments" depending on your current spell suppression value. Since you can easily attain 100% spell suppression, you will get 50% elemental avoidance from this jewel alone.

If you do not have any of the aforementioned pieces of gear equipped, you could substitute Ancestral Vision with Stormshroud. Just make sure to wear a pair of crafted boots with a total of 100% "Chance to Avoid Being Shocked."

After that, go grab yourself a Watcher's Eye with any of the following modifiers:

• Anger
• Increased Fire Damage
• Critical Strike Multiplier
• Increased Attack Speed
• Precision
• Critical Strike Multiplier
• Gain a Flask Charge
• Increased Attack Speed
• Grace
• Chance to Evade Attack Hits
• Increased Movement Speed
• Chance to Suppress Spell Damage

Secure at least one Large Cluster Jewel (Bow Damage) and two Medium Cluster Jewels (projectile damage and critical strike chance). Then, use your Horticrafting Station to obtain these notable passive skills:

• Large Cluster Jewel
• Arcing Shot
• Feed the Fury
• Martial Prowess
• Fuel the Fight
• Calamitous
• Note: Use Harvest Reforge Attack
• Medium Cluster Jewel (Projectile Damage)
• Repeater
• Streamlined
• Eye to Eye
• Note: Use Harvest Reforge Caster
• Medium Cluster Jewel (Critical Strike Chance)
• Pressure Points
• Quick Getaway
• Basics of Pain
• Note: Use Harvest Reforge Caster

When you have all of the above-mentioned jewels, you can then invest in a Lethal Pride. This Timeless Jewel grants STR bonuses on the small nodes on the passive tree. But more importantly, the notable passive skills in its radius may be granted the following:

• 5% Chance to Deal Double Damage
• 4% Increased Maximum Life
• 5% Strength
• +20 to Strength
• 12% Increased Totem Placement Speed (if you use Artillery Ballista)

Gems

The Lightning Arrow Deadeye has a pretty straightforward gem setup. Unless you know what you are doing, it is best that you stick to the ones that we recommend in the next subsections.

Body Armor

• Lightning Arrow
• Trinity Support
• Returning Projectiles Support
• Trinity Support
• Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks
• Inspiration Support

Trinity is a very powerful support gem, particularly for attack skills that deal elemental damage. When you satisfy its Resonance mechanic (which is quite easy if you have a weapon with at least two different elemental damage types), you gain elemental penetration and a slight boost to your elemental damage.

Returning Projectiles Support, as the name implies, causes your lightning arrows to return to you after reaching their maximum travel distance. Because of this, you will always take full advantage of the Deadeye's Far Shot ascendancy node.

If you have the PoE Currency, you do have the option of replacing Returning Projectiles Support with Increased Critical Damage Support. However, do take note that the said unique ring requires a huge investment, especially since it is being used in quite a lot of builds in Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur.

Inspiration Support has seen a huge improvement in Patch 3.25. It now significantly reduces the mana cost of supported skills, though you have to wear a ring with the bench-crafted "Non-Channeling Skills Cost -7 to Total Mana Cost" to truly feel this change.

Weapon

• Artillery Ballista
• Focused Ballista
• Increased Critical Damage
• Inspiration Support
• Awakened Elemental Focus
• Awakened Elemental Damage with Attacks

Artillery Ballista addresses the mediocre single-target damage of Lightning Arrow. Drop a few of your ballistae totems when you encounter tougher enemies.

Focused Ballista is a support gem that significantly increases your totem placement speed. Take note that this comes at a great cost because the totems now only attack when you do. Still, this is a fair compromise given that the boosted totem placement speed allows you to easily reposition yourself when needed.

Awakened Elemental Focus provides a lot more oomph to your Artillery Ballista. You could use the base version of this support gem early on, though we highly recommend that you get the Awakened version ASAP.

Helmet

• Anger
• Precision
• Grace
• Enlighten Support

Anger grants added fire damage, which helps you satisfy Trinity Support's Resonance mechanic much more consistently.

Precision is commonly used in attack-based builds in PoE 3.25. This not only increases your accuracy but also provides you with a boost in critical strike chance.

The Lightning Arrow Deadeye relies heavily on its ability to dodge attacks. For this reason, using Grace as your third main aura is a no-brainer.

Enlighten Support is just here to enable you to activate all three auras with some mana left in the tank.

Gloves

• Frenzy
• Manaforged Arrows
• Power Charge on Critical
• Flame Dash

Frenzy is a bow attack skill gem in Path of Exile that allows you to gain Frenzy Charges quite easily. Besides that, it enhances the effects of Frenzy Charges, giving you 7% more attack damage and attack speed at gem level 20.

Manaforged Arrows alleviates the need to use Frenzy yourself. This is because it automatically uses the said bow skill whenever you spend enough mana with Lightning Arrow or Artillery Ballista.

Flame Dash is the preferred travel skill for the build because of the three charges that you can cast in quick succession. However, you can replace it with other travel skills, including Blink Arrow, Frostblink, or Dash.

Boots

• Sniper's Mark
• Mark on Hit
• Portal
• Cast on Death

In this gem setup, the only mandatory ones are Sniper's Mark and Mark on Hit. This combination immediately applies the Mark Skill whenever you hit a rare or unique enemy.

The last two gem slots can be used for anything that you want. For utility purposes, especially because you could die often when running 8-mod maps, we just put Portal linked to Cast on Death Support. But, feel free to change these gems to anything that you like.

Tattoos

• Tattoo of the Tasalio Scout
• 4% Increased Effect of Marks
• Tattoo of the Ramako Fleetfoot
• 2% Increased Movement Speed
• Tattoo of the Ramako Sniper
• 5% Increased Projectile Speed
• Tattoo of the Ramako Shaman
• 2% Chance to Suppress Spell Damage

Passive Tree

POB

Lightning Arrow Deadeye

Final Thoughts

The Lightning Arrow Deadeye is a capable league starter that you can definitely invest in, giving it power to breeze through maps well into the endgame.

In Patch 3.25, the Lightning Arrow skill gem got a slight improvement in its damage, which is actually stronger in practice, particularly when you have all of the items that were mentioned in this build guide.

Even though survivability is not the build’s strong suit, it should be able to survive when properly geared.

So, there you have it! We hope that you have enjoyed our updated Lightning Arrow build guide for Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur! Be sure to bookmark this page as we update our guides regularly.

With all of that said, good luck in your adventures in Wraeclast, Exile!

PROS

+League starter

+Pretty awesome mapper

+Plenty of upgrade options later down the line

CONS

-Glass cannon build

-Expensive upgrades