Ice Shot Ranger - help please.

Hey everyone,

im pretty new to the game and wanted to play a Ranger using Ice Shot. So i tried to plan a build in the passive skill tree, but i still don't understand most mechanics so, would you guys mind looking over it and help me sort some things out?





Thanks c:

Looking at it with the offline tool, I can see you only have 102% increased max life. That's just... Way too low. Aim for 160%+, atleast.

You also specced into some weird/unneccessary nodes. If possible, always try to combine damage nodes with utility or access to something else you'll need. I am referring to the Flash Freeze node and also the Forces of Nature node. You don't need those. Especially considering your ice shot may be called ice shot, but it scales off of the physical damage of your bow.

Thus whenever you spec into ele damage, you lose out on some damage.

Another thing is your ascendancy. You specced Pierce and Chain - those do not stack at all. I'd recommend getting rid of either, I personally would stick to pierce as it synergizes VERY well with Ice Shot, but not spec into either of those in the ascendancy (use the talent tree instead). Instead, go for the +1 projectile and 30% more damage.

"More" means: takes all the "Increased" modifiers you have and then multiplies those. Idk the exact math but TL;DR: "more" is amazing and you want lots of it if possible/no drawbacks.

Another important to note thing is, Crit is either "go big or go home". Speccing some crit for like 10-15% is pretty much negligible, you need quite a good chunk of Passives to get good crit, so you'd need to adjust your tree for that.

You also picked some frenzy charges. Which is cool, if you use them, just make sure you can keep them up via:

A)Curses (Poachers mark)
B)Blood Rage (need way more Health reg then)
C)Blood Dance Unique boots
D)Some other way

It's also unrealistic to assume you'll reach Level 100. Most people stop at about level 80-90 and then try out another build. I'd recommend to make your tree work with Level 70+ in mind and everything else just being more of the good stuff (more damage, movementspeed, defense etc. But big key-stones should all be there by then)

I threw together a Skilltree with pierce in mind and without crit, 190% life (Lifewheel not skilled, do that with excess points!), access to several jewel sockets and Evasion based. Someone can correct me with whatever I said and the following tree, it's been a while since I played a bow char.



(The only thing I'm not too sure about is Arrow Dancing, but considering how Ice Shot works most enemies shouldn't reach you anyway and most deaths will come from Silly Sparkers anway.)

Ice Shot is a great skill. Use it with Multiple Projectiles (lesser at first, Greater later...And I'm a poet and didn't even know it! Astounding!), pierce, Physical Projectile Damage, Slower Projectiles (For the "More" modifier) and whatever sillyness you want if you ever do get a 6 Link.

For other gems, you can use Mirror Arrow to get around/over rivers and obstacles, use curses to deal with annoying enemies, could use Frenzy for Charges with a Curse-on-Hit gem and thus kill 2 birds with 1 stone, you can use a Cast-when-damage-taken set up with some defensive spells etc. You have tons of options here and will probably wind up with too many sockets. Use auras and Heralds to your advantage, too. Either go offensive and grab Hatred and Herad of Ice or go defensive and grab Grace and Tempchains as an Aura with the Blasphemy support.

Gearwise, grab Evasion gear only and get tons of life and then elemental resistances so that you're as close to 75% as possible. Grab a good bow (For levelling I advise a storm cloud and later on an Infractem, if you're blessed with money get a https://www.google.de/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=reach%20bow%20poe ) and you should be fine. No need for fancy uniques!

Hope this helps.



€: Made one with Crit in mind, dunno how good that'll be though considering it lacks a lot of max life and also has 222% crit chance

Hi there,

I've also overlooked the trees in here. To mention it first I for my self are playing a Ice Shot Deadeye at the moment. I posted below my personal tree (around level 92 its finished with Oak, point, Kratyn)

Please be aware that my Ascendancy is suited for a specific playstyle. (Fork & Pierce)

I got inspired by this Build: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1689985

You may adjust your tree according to your own playstyle. (I love to shotgun :D)
As special hint, take the +30 Int notes as needed. I'd rather sacrafice a dmg node.

My Playstyle with this Build: Shoot into groups of mobs and watch everything die. If there's smth harder, place a frostwall (with echo) step a bit back and shotgun it down. For me this works fine. Due to the Ascendancy perk 'Powerful precision' and the Fork gem. At some point its ridiculous how strong this is. And my toon is in the leveling process. I bet it will work with a full pierce version too. Or chain if wished.




My Question to the OP what are your plans with Ice Shot, should it pierce, should it chain? Or even fork?

Those are some main criterias for the skill tree.

( Oh please excuse my english - it's not my first language so be prepared for some weird grammatical Errors )

So, thanks for answering and looking over the skill tree.


So to answer eviL_Bison's question first, i love playing with chain.

Alright now, i am still pretty confused how critical Chance works in Path of Exile - i might just ignore that after you guys made clear that 10- 15% more crit Chance won't Change anything.

I am keeping up my frenzy charges via the Frenzy skill, every few seconds i attack just one enemy with it and it works pretty good.


In my mind, i would love to Play with chain, high crit Chance, ice shot for mob packs and blast rain for single Targets. But it seems like maintaining a high crit Chance is rather difficult.

I will definitely take a look at These 3 skill tree's posted and try to Change everything :)