Ice Shot Deadeye SSF build guide/ Off meta fast paced build

Hey guys I saw a lot of Ice shot/Elemental Hit posts about how to improve builds etc. and i saw that there is this misconception that Ice Shot deadeye requires this insane gearing to be even decently viable.


Having league started as a critical elemental bow build deadeye in Ritual I decided to make a build guide on this archetype starting from the leveling to the end game and how to make it work on SSF mostly.(Disclaimer: you might die a few times especially in T14 and above, just a fair warning ;) )

Will be streaming a one week challenge of this build in ssf at https://www.twitch.tv/flamecounter! Come join me to see how I manage to scale this build up!
For the conditions of the challenge check here: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/lszrzv/ssf_league_starting_stream_challenge/

For those of you that play trade league I’ll include a section at the end with some advice.

Here is the POB of my current character in Ritual SSF league:
https://pastebin.com/0K1DGwqa

Here is the POB for the build along with the leveling tree all the way into end game along with example of gear you might need:
https://pastebin.com/wvebw3Lq

It has so far cleared all content including Shaper Elder and Sirus, with a few deaths though
Here is a video of Minotaur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLeD0gfUhcU
Here is a video of Hydra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tmnEFgLfLI
Here is a video of Chimera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR4xfhbcspo
Here is a video of Shaper kill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R0HKhfvWuE
Sorry for the few deaths was a bit stressed :'(

First of all let’s discuss the pros and cons:

Pros
Fast clearer on league starter budget
Enjoyable play style
Scales decently well into the late game provided you invest time into it
Can do all content including Sirus Uber elder and Maven
A challenging build that will make sure to give you a nice experience(also a good way to show off if you manage to pull off ;) )

Cons
Very squishy even when fully geared up due to the nature of bow builds
Will lack single target damage if you do not invest into cluster jewels
Requires farming more than other builds to make it work
Requires really good mechanics especially against late game bosses, more on that at the bottom

Leveling:
First of all the campaign, ill guide you step by step
Act I:
You are looking for a 3 G-G-G bow asap, after you take down Hillock speak to Tarkleigh and see if he sells you any 3 linked green bow.
You want to use Caustic Arrow-Pierce-Onslaught, if you haven’t found a 3 link drop onslaught.
Once you finish the quest Breaking Some Eggs you want to grab Puncture linked to Mirage archer support for your Brutus and Merveil fight, trust me it will help a lot, aswell as a dash to move around faster ofc and a war banner for the adrenaline boost when you place the banner down against bosses.
If you can grab any iron rings on the way do so it will help the act 1 clearing.
Upon reaching prison you want to grab an Added Cold Damage Support and keep it on the side
After taking down Brutus grab a Precision and a Smoke mine. Do not level precision nor equip it, place it into your stash.
Now upon reaching the Caverns of Wrath return to town grab Rain of Arrows and swap it in into your 3 link green with Added Cold Damage support and Onslaught support.
Act II:
Now you want some form of intelligence on gear whenever you can, so if you drop an intelligence amulet then perfect for you.
You want to rush straight into the Den for that second Quicksilver flask and then into Chamber of sins level 2. After having killed Maligaro go back to town and grab a Herald of Ice aswell as a Herald of Thunder and a Blood rage if you got enough currency.
From then on Kill Kraityn and Oak, save Alira, take down the spider and grab an elemental damage with attacks support from the reward and keep it for later.
Act III:
From now on you are looking for 2 4 links with 3 green 1 red, if you are unlucky with socket colors upon league start 4 green will do for both aswell do not worry.
After killing Piety in crematorium grab a Wrath and a Hatred in town and keep them for later.
If you find a 4 link by this point then you are looking at Rain of Arrows-Added Cold damage-Onslaught-Elemental Damage with attacks/Vicious projectiles depending on whichever color you found.
After killing Gravicius and having(hopefully) found another 4 link you want to setup a Scourge Arrow- Mirage Archer-Added Cold Damage-Elemental Damage with Attacks/Vicious Projectiles for your single target. By this point you want to drop your Herald of thunder and replace it with Wrath.
Its also at this point in time you want to go back in Act 1 and grab 2 Elemental Hits to level in your Off Hand.
Act IV:
You want to grab your Ice golem after finishing the dried lake.
Once you reached the waypoint inside the crystal veins, you want at that point to go grab your first ascendency. For those who need a reminder, they are in Act I Prison, Act 2 Chamber of Sins level 2, The Crypt level 1, Act 3 Crematorium, The Catacombs and The Imperial Gardens. Your first ascendency point should be Gathering Winds.
After unlocking the Belly of the Beasts grab a Barrage Support and Greater multiple Projectiles (if you have an extra alchemy lying around) and level them in your off hand.
Act V:
Upon finishing Innocence grab the silver flask aswell as whichever unique jewel you want(we wont use Omen on the Winds).
By this act you should have your resistances capped for the Kitava’s affliction, and if you haven’t capped them by now, well please kindly do it otherwise things might get very rough for you.
Act VI:
By now you should already be starting to see that your damage in single target is lacking a bit, worry not for we will finally swap into Elemental Hit.
After completing Lilly’s quest and after gathering enough currency you want to setup 2 different 4 links.
The first one should be Elemental Hit- Barrage support- Trinity Support-Elemental Focus/Elemental Damage with attacks (depending on colours/ intelligence on your gear).
The second one should be Elemental Hit-Greater Multiple Projectiles- Chain support-Trinity Support. Trinity Support will help us scale our damage by quite a bit in the early stages of this build.
You want to remove herald of ice and Wrath. Get rid of wrath, keep Herald of Ice and level it. Instead we will now use Summon skitterbots and Flesh and stone(always in sand stance). Start using Precision as soon as you can see that your mana leech is holding up against bosses. Level it to the point where you feel comfortable with your mana left.
You also want to grab a sniper’s mark for single target, it is the biggest reason this build is even allowed in the current game.
Act VII:
After finishing the quest for the Locket, grab a Diamond Flask. By now if you have followed the Tree you should have a decent amount of crit from the tree.
At the end of the Act grab your second ascendency. The locations for the second one are Act 6 Prison, Act 7 The Crypt and Chamber of sins level 2. Once the ascendency is finished you want to grab Ricochet.
Act X:
Between 7 and 10 all you are looking for is improvements to your gear, so damage where you can aswell as resistances to prepare yourself for the next Kitava’s affliction.
At this point you should also do your third ascendency, locations are Act 8 The Bath house, Act 9 The Tunnels and Act 10 The ossuary. Once finished you want to grab Endless Ammunitions.

Leveling Gearing Advice:

For those that plan on going a bit more slowly throughout the campaign and maybe farm Rituals here is a list of a few uniques that will help you quite a bit:



If however you are speeding through the campaign and just plan on using rare gear, here are the stats that you are looking for:

Bow: Flat elemental damage of any kind, preferably multiple and as high as possible
Attack Speed as high as possible
Starting from Act 7 as high crit chance as possible
Quiver: Maximum Life
Flat elemental damage/ After swapping to Elemental Hit in act 6 you will prefer Elemental
Damage with Attacks
Starting from Act 7, you are looking for a Spike-Point Quiver with some added Crit Chance, eg:
Rings: Maximum Life
Elemental Resistances
Any form of flat elemental damage eg:
Amulet: Maximum Life
Strength/Intelligence depending on what you might need
Critical Strike Chance eg:
Boots: Movement Speed
Maximum Life
Elemental Resistances eg:
Gloves: Maximum Life
Elemental Resistances
Attack Speed eg:
Belt: Maximum Life
Elemental Resistances eg:
Helmet: Maximum Life
Elemental Resistances eg:

Mapping:

By now you are a rather strong exile but with some okayish single target, fret not I am here to remedy that.
Here is a list of things that you want to farm/ are looking for while Mapping / Heisting/ Menagerie/ other content:
-Haewark Haemlet and Lex proxima, before finishing this list of requirements, do not leave these 2 zones of the atlas, as for the order of upgrades, first grab the essences and then grab the harvest nodes for Haewark and for Lex proxima grab the harvest nodes. Power farm these 2 nodes until you finished most of the requirements
-2 5 links, this should be the minimum before even considering going into Yellow maps, this should be very easily achievable, 5 links in this case are very frequent, if you still have a hard time finding one by level 82 consider hard juicing some early white maps, they should come by pretty easily

-A 6 link, if possible a 6 link bow should be better but any 6 link will work(for colors refer to the pob), if you manage to find a bow and a body armour, GG you are set to farm yellow maps comfortably for awhile

-Cluster Jewels, you should start hoarding some from now on, some large clusters with either Attack Damage or Elemental Damage 10 passive skills maximum, Medium clusters with Effect of Non-Damaging ailments 5 passive skills maximum, Medium clusters with critical strike chance with 5 passive skills maximum and some small with maximum life, preferably above item level 75 but even bellow should be quite decent

-Redeemer influenced ring with item level 75+, Hunter influenced Chest with item level 82+( a lot harder)

-Rare jewels with Maximum life% and Critical strike multiplier (at least one mod)

- A stygian vise(highest ilvl possible)

- Prophecies, this is going to be a must for you exiles, you will want to block farm prophecies, you are looking for A dishonorable death, The bowstring’s Music, The servant’s heart. Any of these will help you tremendously gearing up

-Fractal thoughts
-An amulet with maximum life, attributes, critical strike chance and critical strike multiplier, if you are poor, which is normal because early mapping, some of the best anoints will be Aspect of the Eagle(dirt cheap), Shocking strikes, Depth perception, if you got some okayish oils then True strike, and if you are rich then either Throatseeker or Heart of ice but then if you have those oils I recommend getting a much better amulet in the gear section bellow

-Gripped gloves with life attack speed and resistances

-Two-tonned boots with as much movement speed maximum life and resistances as humanly possible

-Intuitive leap(very good since we are rangers naturally)

-Trials of ascendency, I know getting uber lab in SSF sucks ass, but here is a tip people often forget, do Zana missions, and before choosing check if she asks you to complete a trial in the map she offers, she won’t get you always the one you lack but it’s still 1 more. Also if you are block farming prophecies, the keep Dream trial on hand and every time it procs check which one it is before using another one

Now if you at this point got Combat focus Viridian Jewel aswell as Combat focus Crimson jewel I suggest you reroll into an Elemental Hit Deadeye/Raider/Slayer/Ascendant

If instead you managed to get yourself even as much as just a Death’s Opus it’s time to switch to Ice shot. Ideally at this point you managed to grab a redeemer influenced ilvl 75+ ring to craft using Harvest . Swap your Summon Skitterbots and Flesh and Stone for Herald of Ice and Hatred. Links will be in pob as usual .
Gearing Goals:
Bow: As I said before, a good goal for that is a death’s opus, it will carry even shaper kills.

Quiver: You want before red maps to get a High life crit chance crit multiplier elemental damage with attacks Spike-Point Quiver . If you got lucky and got Hyrri’s Demise, that will do you really well too.

Body armor: 6 link chest, ideally a hunter chest with ilvl 82+ (annoying to farm but still doable) and use harvest to craft additional curse and base critical strike to attacks (use caster modifiers in harvest for the add caster modifier for additional curse ;) ) . If however you got lucky and got a Hyrri’s Ire gratz that’s a huge damage boost, however now you are looking for more health on the rest of the gear, you are quite squishy with this torso afterall.

Helmet: Fractal thoughts or rare with high life and resists.

Rings: If you have a hunter chest with the additional curse then you are looking to craft a frostbite ring asap using Harvest, advice spam the caster modifiers, they are easier to hit that way. The other ring should be a resist maximum life ring with as much flat cold damage as possible

Boots: Two-toned boots with life resists and movement speed, now however if you got lucky and got yourself a decent pair of redeemer boots ilvl 75+ then craft a good pair with life, movement speed and resists if necessary before using an add a critical modifier from harvest(check that your boots have a prefix open before using the add crit), that’ll guarantee the elusive mod which is really nice for some added survival.

Gloves: By now you should’ve gotten some nice gripped gloves with life, resistances, attack speed, and a prefix open to use the increased damage while leeching mode farmed through Betrayal.

Belt: A high life resistance stygian vise with a prefix open for elemental damage with attacks.

Abyss Jewel: You want maximum life and global critical strike multiplier Searching eye jewel, with ideally an onslaught mod, I recommend using Harvest to craft this one, alt spam a jewel to get onslaught + maximum life and use add crit mod.

Amulet: A decent amulet that will work is Pandemonius, unfortunately it’s not that perfect so ideally we want to craft a redeemer based amulet, with maximum life, damage penetrates cold resistance and critical strike multiplier.

Cluster Jewels: For them to be worth, you’ll need them to have at least 2 passive skills if they are large especially, if you grabbed an attack damage cluster you want fuel the fight and feed the furry at the least, if you got lucky any extra will be good as a third one, with martial prowess being the GG one. If you have an elemental damage cluster you want Disorienting Display (Blind helps a tremendous amount), Sadist if you managed to grab your medium cluster jewel bellow, Doryani’s Lesson and Vengeful commander. Medium cluster jewels should be Cold Conduction with the non-damaging ailments(really strong on a budget) and Pressure points + Basics of pain for the Critical strike ones, but harder to hit.

Flasks: Farming an Atziri’s Promise is an absolute pain on this build so I recommend making another character especially for that one. Wise oak is another very precious flask on a budget, just remember to have your cold resistance as your highest. If you have confidence in your Katarina mechanics try and grab that Cinderswallow Urn, it’s a nice one, hopefully you’ll get lucky and get that crit modifier.

About Lioneye’s Fall:
Now before any of you spam me with why not a Lioneye’s fall, the answer is really really simple, it’s really really unreliable and not worth it if you are SSF. The only reliable way to farm this jewel is to spam kill the Dishonored Queen in the Coast in Act 6 to drop The Lion, but even then it’s a one in ten kills drop, and the odds of getting Lioneye’s fall out of the divination card is another 10 percent. Now let’s say you still want to farm it for late game, if you find yourself with a classic fuel the fight + feed the fury cluster jewel, this cluster will give you more damage against bosses than a Lioneye’s fall. Sure the leech is really nice so is the critical strike multiplier, but I do not find the investment of time worth it, unless you get really lucky and drop it quite early in which case sure go ahead.

Late game Goals:

By now in this guide if you have reached this point you should be able to consistently kill Shaper and Elder guardians, aswell as the conquerors. First thing you want to do is spam Shaper like no tomorrow for a Dying Sun Ruby Flask. It is quite literally the most insane flask for this build.

Next you want to kill as many elders for a watchers eye if you managed to get the upgraded maven atlas modifier for it. Any Hatred of Precision mod is good for us.

This one is much harder and depending on where you are at with your character you can try or not, Uber elder. He is really vital for this build as he drops our best in slot quiver in Voidfletcher. The void shot mechanics allows us to be much more bursty and mobile and a lot less dps oriented helping us a lot with the 10 bosses of Maven aswell as 4 guardians, 4 breachlords etc. However I recommend getting at least 4.5 million shaper dps before even attempting it. Also consider getting upgraded Pantheon of Yugul for that sweet reduced cold damage and at the very least 4.5k health.

Another loot you might want to look forward to grab from the Uber Elder is a Mark of the Elder Opal ring, if you ever drop it, try and spam some Shaper scarab on a T15 T16 to drop a shaper ring and craft it with Harvest to get some decent life resists and elemental damage. Consider also using Essences to craft critical strike multiplier on the ring. You dont really need Assassin's mark on the ring, as you would then have to drop sniper's mark from your setup which is our most op single target boost.

You also want to chain kill Sirus like there is no tomorrow to grab some decent Hands of the High Templar corruption, ideally elemental weakness allowing us to have a better ring, but anything from plus +2 to auras to critical strike chance to attacks to attack speed will be good. A good pair for example for your auras would be +1 to level of socketed gems +2 to level of aura gems and +crit chance to attacks, allowing you to have a lvl 4/5 enlighten(depending on your vaal luck). Ofc you also want any of the awakened gems but that’s really reliant on luck.
By now you should be comfortable with most bosses, point at which you want to consider starting to min maxing this build and boy do you have your work cut out for you.

You are looking for a shaper Bow ilvl 86 to craft a +2 additional arrow dex stacking bow. Best way still remains harvest, so you better have some decently crafted watchstones in Haewark hemlet and Lex Proxima by now. Amulet will remain redeemer influenced with as much dexterity and cold penetration ofc.
For this version of the build to work you will either want a hunter chest with crit %dexterity and additional curse or a Hyrri’s Ire. Now any and all dexterity on gear will help by a ridiculous amount ofc.
Ofc if you manage to grab a Herald of ice buff effect + cold damage while affect by Herald of ice circle of fear go ahead and equip it, ofc it’s going to be insane.
Same for the Bottled faith if you ever get one use it.

Trade League:

The end game gear for you will be the same ofc as previously stated. However here are a few tips if you are struggling with currency. If you are league starting, farm valdo’s rest instead of haewark hemlet with the upgraded harbingers, sell all your ancient orbs on the market for a decent amount of currency.
You should also consider setting up your trade filter to pick up rares for chaos recipes especially all the way throughout white maps, that will accelerate your build by quite a lot.
In trade league i recommend you first buy a 6 link Hyrri's Ire, sure its expensive but its really worth it as it accelerates your map clearing by a tremendous amount. Survival in Softcore trade league isn't really important so getting as much early damage as possible is a nice way to go about it.
Buy a 6 link Death’s Harp and the prophecies separated then upgrade it yourself, you’ll manage to save some currency that way. Don’t go for a pandemonius at all its way too expensive in trade league and for no real reason we genuinely don’t need it. Voidfletchers are pretty cheap so go for that asap. Using a voidfletcher setup you should be able to reliably and easily farm t14+ maps for whatever goal you have, either it being a headhunter or that next build you plan on making.

Here you go a folks, that was my SSF ice shot Deadeye build guide. Hope you learned a few things from it. Its my first time writing a guide so if you have any suggestions, or things that I might’ve forgotten please don’t hesitate to comment. Also if you have any questions regarding the build you can also ask me ingame, if I’m not too busy I will answer asap!
If you guys are interested I might start streaming a fresh league start on this build to show you how I make it work but only if you guys want to.
Stay Sane Exiles!

thank you! I was thinking about trying this build out and this has been super helpful!

Glad it helped! The goal was to help other players in SSF play another build than the usual meta stuff that you always see on stream or poe.ninja. If you have further questions do not hesitate!
Cheers

Nice to see there are others playing Ice Shot SSF this league. I went with a very similar build minus a few differences in gear/passive tree but have recently hit a wall with T15/16 maps (especially boss fights). DPS doesn't seem to be enough which is making fights very slow and drawn out leaving more room for error. PoB shows I'm at around 310k DPS with flasks/charges/auras etc and around 5.5k HP. I've listed my gear below as well as a PoB link. I'm wondering if you could take and look and see where I could make tweaks to increase DPS. (Keep in mind I don't have Precision aura running, just hatred and HoI). Not sure how you have enough mana to support all 3.





https://pastebin.com/Avcj1icp

Any feedback is welcome