Bow Based Character Questions/Builds/Advice

Hi Guys,

Only playing on console anymore if that makes any difference, but I have almost always played either Witch or Templar and wanted to branch out a bit this time and play something different.

I have thought about playing a bow based build, but not a bleed based one.

I was hoping that someone with a lot more knowledge than I possess can give some general tips for this type of character, give some pros and cons on the following, etc

1. Pathfinder vs Trickster vs other options
2. BA, LA, CA, or TR
3. Anything else to know

I don't know if I am really looking for the "best" or just something fun, but as I said, maybe someone can give me a break down on the pros and cons of one vs the other.

Probably looking for something more geared towards league start or early/mid game. I never get to red maps.

Appreciate the comments!

Pathfinder or deadeye, most everything else is DOA unless it’s explosive arrow ballista. Do you want to ramp up the dps? Omniscience deadeye tornado shot. Expensive but good.

By far the most popular, and very easy to gear, is Explosive arrow bow totems. You can go Elementalist (huge dps easy), champion (very tanky, maybe too much if you just do yellow maps).

CA/TR are similar and reasonably strong. Focusing on TR requires lots of attack speed / duration / maybe AoE, where CA requires zero, is one of the few differences.

You can obviously play with both. Focusing on CA requires +gem levels and slightly higher gear levels to really be effective, while TR is easier early on.

This will require a good deal more gear than EA totems to be equally powerful.

BA is trash tier basically.

LA / Storm rain is a strong build and works well with deadeye or raider, but requires more gear than CA/TR I would say. A bit more glass cannon playstyle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0vwIjSKeZs
That is an advanced endgame build but it ramps ok before you get the final stuff.




EA Totems is going to destroy all content pretty easy up through Tier 16s with minimal gear. My character Aeiilox has trash gear and cleared all content last league except Simacrulum/deep delve stuff. T16s were a joke with about 20c in gear and it does particularly well with blighted maps.


The other one is tornado shot corrupting fever glatiator, which also performs well at low gear levels, and is fairly fun.

I would check here
https://poe.ninja/challenge/builds

And see what interests you.