[3.9/3.10] HowTo Lightning Arrow Slayer - Cold or Lightning Stacking

Day ~1


Week 1 after first shopping session

Its most likely going to be a cold stacking variant with a fast double damage bow (like 3.7).
PoB (Slayer): https://pastebin.com/ax7NThyK
PoB (Deadeye): https://pastebin.com/WYrWE5ap
Both with their own advantages.

You can either take Mirgae Archer or Cold Penetration as 6th link for your Scourge Arrow. Right now i prefer Cold Pen.

If you are playing Deadeye, make sure to get a bow with a decent crit chance.

Leveling gear i used


Day 1-2


After a week of playing LA


Its a Deadeye, because i had a Slayer last season, gotta spice things up a bit at least.

3.5
My LvL 92 LA Slayer (9.4.18): https://pastebin.com/t187BmiJ
My LvL 92 LA Slayer (21.4.18): https://pastebin.com/wJEMhwny

3.7
My LvL 82 LA Slayer (18.6.19): https://pastebin.com/fJ47ySTB
My LvL 94 LA Slayer (18.6.19): https://pastebin.com/m1T3ge0Q

3.8 - Both variants are at over 1.5M non bullshit DPS with their own advantages.
LvL 95 LA Slayer (19.9.19): https://pastebin.com/ax7NThyK
LvL 95 LA Deadeye (19.9.19): https://pastebin.com/WYrWE5ap

My 3.8 LvL 94 tree:

https://pastebin.com/WqZkKB7L

If you cant afford the 5L just get the item and 4L it by yourself. The belly can also be replaced with a 4L/5L rare with hp. We are in softcore and deaths happen, having 20 lightning resistance is ok in the beginning.

Annointment
- Freedom of Movement: Really helps improving our clear Speed
- Throatseeker / True Strike: DPS options (check your PoB to see which is better for you)

I tried Vengeant, it sounds cool, but its bad. The arrows just return to you, if they used all their remaining chains. This sadly happens alot less then i expected, because everything gets pretty much 1-shot.

Bandit
Alira is the only real option here. She offers damage and helps getting resist while having alot of uniques.

Ascendancy



Headsman > Bane of Legends > Endless Hunger > Overwhelm

Big pantheon
Soul of the Brine King was a must have to avoid chain stuns.

This is not mandatory anymore and can be exchanged for the physical damage reduction nodes. Keep in mind, that we are only stun immune while leeching.

Small pantheon
Its up to you take a defensive option like Soul of Gruthkul or
Soul of Garukhan.

LA (AOE clear)


Scourge Arrow (Single Target)
Scourge Arrow
Slayer


Deadeye


You can exchange Mirage Archer for Slower Projectiles.

Frost Bomb (For extra ST DPS)


Golem


Movement Spell


Auras


Blood Rage


You can level everything except Frost Bomb, levels dont matter here.

Assassins Mark
Only use the Curse on Hit setup, if you dont have a ring with it. Remove Enlighten and precision instead.


Tip:
You can easily get level 20 gems with 20% quality by yourself if you use this vendor recipe:


src: https://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Vendor_recipe_system (look for "skill gems")

Just level the gem to level 20 and reset it to level 1 to get the 20%. You have to level it up again, but you get the 20/20 gem just by playing. This is really important if the league is fresh and quality gems are expensive.

All poe.trade links give examples with lower rolls. You can tweak them by adding mods or raising tiers of rolls (check poeaffix.net). The prices are from the second month of bestiary league. You might have to change Standard league to the current league if it is a later league.

Some of my items have corruptions or enchants that are not necessary and cost several exalts. Just look at the poe.trade links for cheap examples of alternatives. These are just examples, in the end you have to balance your resistances by yourself. Aim for 75%+ in every resistance.

Flasks


If you cant afford the Dying Sun just replace it with a Silver Flask. The magic flasks are all easy to craft. Look for inc duration / inc charges gained / red charges used / max charges + immunity. Check your Bestiary before wasting alot of Alterations (of Heat: Freeze Immunity, of Warding: Curse Immunity, of Dousing: Ignite Immunity). Scourge Arrow doesnt necessarily need a Dying Sun.

Its allways nice to have chill/freeze immunity on Quicksilver Flasks to counter chilled ground in maps. At least one of the remaining flasks should be used for curse immunity to counter Temporal Chains in maps. The last flask is up to you, if you want a second chill/curse immunity or some evasion/resist. Bleed is not needed, because of our bleed immunity (Endless Hunger in your ascendancy).

Weapon

Lioneye's Glare is rly strong dps wise and also offers 100% chance to hit. The low crit chance can be ignored, because of the new Overwhelm Ascendancy Node.

Im using a 5L bow for my Lightning arrow and the 6th socket for my Blood Rage. Just try to get one with the highest dmg you can afford at the moment. If you get a 350+dps one you can also corrupt / safe house craft it for more quality, gaining even more dps.

poe.trade 5L EXAMPLE: http://poe.trade/search/nahahariokaono (25c+)

The endgame goal, im using right now is a fast rare bow with chance to deal double damage. The low base crit gets negated by the ascendancy node.



I bought these bows for 5c and 30c. I 6-socketed them and 5-linked them on my own.

https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Blight/Kl5BLZyU5

Body Armor

Hyrris adds alot of flat cold damage which is the core of the current state of my LA approach. If you cant afford a Hyrris start with a rare or a Tabula.

Hyrri: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Blight/mgqygJt6 (1.5ex+)
rare 5L EXAMPLE: http://poe.trade/search/oyootonimasina (5c+)

Helm

Just buy Starkonjas. Its cheap helps with getting life and has deeps. The +1 barrage projectile can be replaced by other Barrage, Scourge Arrow or Lightning arrow enchants. If you cant afford any of them just take one without enchant (sometimes there are some cool ones at 10-20c).

If you have the budget you can also go for the Crown of the Tyrant to get some more extra cold damage for our stacking.

Starkonja with enchant: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Blight/rPLm5M7tQ (50c+)
Crown: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Blight/L5bjV2Sn (1.5ex+)

Quiver

Voidfletcher is a fun quiver with extra explosions in addition to the shatering. It synergizes well with extra arrows from your Dying Sun or Quiver Corruption.

If you want to go the basic way just use a rare quiver.

Crit Multi > Elemtental Damage > Life > (Attack Speed, Flat cold damage or a shaped additional Arrow are nice but not mandatory)

poe.trade EXAMPLE: http://poe.trade/search/agonahanohadok (3c+)

Gloves

I use Tomb Fist for the intimidate (10% inc damage taken effect on hit) and the additional jewel sockets, which scale with our body armor. If you cant afford the 2 socket variant take the 1 socket one. Remember to use a Murderous Eye and a Searching Eye Jewel to get both boni. If you only have one prioritize the Murderous Eye jewel.

The current league drops alot of temple items, which makes gloves with cold damage against chilled enemies alot more affordable. In addition they offer alot of resists and if you are lucky you can also add some nice Veiled crafts.

poe.trade EXAMPLE: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Blight/Kl5bynPi5o (5c+)
Note: All listed gloves in this search have an open suffix for an additional resist or damage craft.

Amulet

Crit Multi / Flat cold damage > Life > Elemental Damage > Attributes / Resist
I usually use my Amulet for damage and attributes. We dont rly want to skill +30 str/int in the tree! The best base might be an Agate Amulet. Overall we need 111 Int (Infused Channeling) and 111 Str (if you use damage on full life).

poe.trade EXAMPLE: https://www.pathofexile.com/trade/search/Blight/QL5bd4Mfw (5c+)

Ring

Life > Resist (if needed) > Elemental Damage / added cold
Dont be scared of buying a Two-Stone resist bomb! If you need resist you can get it on your ring. There are enough items to get damage on. If you can afford it later on you can get a ring with an Opal Ring base. Overall we need at least 75% in all resists. If you can afford it go up to 109% to be safe against the Elemental Weakness curse (-34%) in red maps. If possible its allways nice to craft flat cold damage on rings.

Later on Mark of the Elder or Curse on hit ring add alot of mroe damage.

This league (Blight) i'm playing around with some alternatives like The Taming. Im not 100% convinced yet.

poe.trade EXAMPLE (two-stone): http://poe.trade/search/itotenitehinob (1c+)
poe.trade EXAMPLE (opal): http://poe.trade/search/auwogoriteruka (30c+)

Belt

Life > Resists > Elemental Damage
This slot is for life and resist as its one of our few non uniques. If you cant afford a Stygian Vize + Jewel start with a Leather Belt. Remember, that you can craft resist and weapon elemental damage on belts.

poe.trade EXAMPLE (leather belt): http://poe.trade/search/mihehokitaaohi (1c+)
poe.trade EXAMPLE (stygian vize): http://poe.trade/search/anogusimitaitu (20c+)

Boots

Just like the belt, our boots are for life and resist. Depending on your budget get boots with atleast 25% Movement Speed as we dont rly have other options to get through maps faster. If you can, get a added damage lab enchant or farm it by yourself. I went with a Two-Toned base to be elemental weakness capped in maps (109% resists).

poe.trade EXAMPLE: http://poe.trade/search/atokuamabahedu (5c+)

SSF Tip:
I got asked about the priorities in chancing for SSF. I guess you want to go for Lioneyes and Starkonjas, because they are really strong and not that easy to replace with rares. A belly for example is really easy to replace by a rare chest with hp and res. It might also depends on your luck with rares and what uniques you loot.

If you really want to you can also try to chance the Lioneye's Fall jewel but im not sure if its worth it.

The other uniques are not that important or simply not chanceable (like the flask).

Use the following items: for things like Dying Sun or Crit Flasks. Replace Herald of Ice.

You only need max cold resists which shouldnt be too hard without your normal boots and with Purity of Ice.

For our jewels we aim for life and damage on Searching Eye Jewels. Depending on your budget just go down a tier or two with damage mods. To start off buy or craft (alt + regal) jewels with life and 2 damage mods. If you want to craft try to get hp (atleast t3) + damage and then regal. Even a blue jewel is better than nothing.

If you want some examples look at the jewel slots in my gear above or my PoB link (i cant rly link them here...)

Good mods:

Prefix
- life
- flat added cold/fire/lightning damage to bows

Suffix
- flat added cold/fire/lightning damage
- crit multi
- attack speed on crit (allways up)
- all resist

Try to avoid:
- single resist
- crit chance (we have enough crit chance)
- x on kill (not allways up)

poe.trade EXAMPLE: http://poe.trade/search/iseidoredumati (5c+)

If you are heading into endgame and want to spend $$$ on jewels its rly expensive to buy jewels with 4 good stats including life. I got a lot of my jewels by crafting and buying 3 mod ones with life and 2 prefixes (life + bow damage), because its easier to hit a usable suffix (flat damage, multi, atk spd on crit, ...) with a slam.

Easiest Leveling will be with Scourge Arrow (lvl 28). Until then u can use split arrow.

With 3.3 you can also level with Rain of Arrows.

Linked with Onslaught, Mirage Archer, Added Cold, Elemental Damage with Attacks.

To support your damage use Herold of Ice and Herald of Lightning (lvl 16, reward from Intruders in Black Act 2). If you can sustain your Mana you can try Hatred (lvl 24, reward for Lost in Love Act 3) + Herald of Ice. In case of Mana Problems skill one Mana Leech node near Essence Sap. You dont really need the curse setup or Vaal Haste for leveling, just use what you get and try it. Take all other Gems from my list above, like Ice Golem (lvl 34, Breaking the Seal Act 4).

If you use Tabula Rasa just throw in some gems you get like Added Cold Damage (lvl 8, reward from The Caged Brute Act 1) or Onslaught (lvl 1, Mercy Mission Act 1).

If you feel too weak buy some items from poe.trade. There are some really cheap uniques and rare items you can use until the end of the story:



Bows
- Silverbranch (lvl 1) - solid start
- The Tempest (lvl 32) - good for scourge arrow
- Death's Harps (lvl 32) - really strong in general
- A rare bow can help until you get a Lioneye's:
poe.trade EXAMPLE (lvl 25): http://poe.trade/search/agamihamakimah
poe.trade EXAMPLE (lvl 45): http://poe.trade/search/umotetasiyeken
(You can adjust the level and dps of the bow in my search depending on you current level.)
- Lioneye's glare (lvl 66) - our goal

Skill Tree
Get life and physical damage nodes first. Skip jewel sockets (if you cant afford them) and dont be afraid of taking +30 str/int nodes. I dont have a exact time when you should do your lab, just dont wait too long. Its worth doing it.

Until you get your Lioneyes Jewel skill the leech in the Vitality Void cluster.



lvl ~15:


lvl ~40 :


lvl ~60:

I will play the 3.3 Incursion league. Im not sure what ill change but Blast Rain might be a goto. In addition to that ill follow the hint from Riggadaddy and try a cwtd setup (most likely just 2 gems) with Soul of Arakaali.

"

Riggadaddy wrote:

What are your thoughts on Soul of Arakaali, and using a cwdt+ic setup with blood rage to help trigger the 50% increase life recovery rate?

3.3 Shaper kill with cheap gear: https://youtu.be/HKcADNAwniQ

My 3.3 Changes



My 3.3 Gear

I will play 3.5 and it will be a LA char, as my poison build last league wasn't that fun for me. Possible goals for Betrayal are crafting a rare bow with the new opportunities (new master + veiled mods) as an alternative for Lioneye's and trying new uniques (esp. the bows).

As far as i can see my build wont change that much. My approach will be LA + Barrage for the endgame of this season. To start into the league i might use Scourge Arrow first.

To show my progress i'll try to upload a few videos of my char entering endgame content, such as Shaper or Red Elder.

3.5 Endgame Scion Variant (Slayer/Deadeye)

I was crafting on a bow for fun an got this (even though ele pen might be worse than chaos :P). It made me come back to LA this league and try it. To get more HP i leveled a Scion to see the power of the double Meeks. I just have to 6L the bow in the next few days and buy an Unnatural Instinct for full $$$ gear. The rest is kinda the same except the uber elder ring for more dmg, which is usable resistance wise, because Scion. Dropped the 2 socket tomb fist by myself. 1 Socket is also fine.

Currently at 6.8khp and around 1M shaper dps without flasks and shit.

Update: Linked the bow and got basically all i wanted. Scion feels alot better at the moment, because of the hp pool and the possibility to use unnatural instinct. In addition to that you can still benefit from the most important Slayer perks and also gain some accuracy and damage from Deadeye. Be aware, that Scion might need more currency to get going but is a better scaling variant of my build at the moment.

PoB: https://pastebin.com/tABwythT
3.5 Hydra T16: https://youtu.be/ReOu-MNuL4Y



3.5 My starting gear with PoB, leveling details and info

Day 1
first day of LA, leveled and reached blood aqueduct like this: sry the pastebin broke somehow :(
as soon as u get scourge arrow its ezpz
first labs right now
leveling gear i used
+ quicksilver flask
+ get your gem setups ready!



Day 2
https://pastebin.com/fJ47ySTB

Keep in mind that im using currency i allready farmed, because bow starter/leveling might be a bit rough and i wanted to try melee. Ofcourse its still possible to start budget, by switching some gear options.

Lioneyes is even stronger this league. I saw the bow im using right now for 5c and decided to try one with chance to deal double dmg and a high attack speed to make use of the new 8% base crit ascendancy node. The power charges are just a nice extra.

Voidfletcher can be replaceed by a rare quiver with crit multi, elemental damage and life. Maybe some crafted flat cold damage?

The Head can be replaced by a Starkonjas, which are pretty cheap even with a nice enchant for LA or Scourge Arrow.

The chest is pretty nice and boost the damage by alot, but its a bit harder to get over 5k hp. The extra evasion and dodge help to mitigate this. By level 90+ 5k Hp should be pretty achievable.

Belt and Rings are usually my slots for resist and hp, with as much dmg as i can afford. The amulet is my place for attributes and some damage. Those slots are all about $$$. HP, resist and attributes are the most important on all. Get % elemental dmg, flat cold damage or crit multi if u can. The Mark of the shaper, the assassins mark ring or a stygian vise as a belt base are all no must haves, but a goal to aim for.

With the new league mechanic dropping temple items it should be really easy to get gloves with the inc dmg against chilled enemies and some life (crafted life on gloves is pretty high).

Flasks like Dying sun are even cheaper and the lioneyes fall is also at 50% of the usual price.

This time i decided to stack some more cold damage and try Voidfletcher, because i saw mathil using it. The extra explosions looked rly fun, but im not going all out for the extra arrows.



Day 3/4
First Uber Elder Kill (1 death) - guess who forgot to reactivate shadow play after changing some settings?

Gear i used:


+ Vaal Pact

Setup: https://pastebin.com/zLTkkggF

T16 Hydra - 3.5 - Betrayal (5m): https://youtu.be/ReOu-MNuL4Y
T16 Chimera - 3.2 - Bestiary (6m): https://youtu.be/3zGjRXrdicY
T15 Reef - 3.3 - Incursion (5m): https://youtu.be/Ja-TJfU69_w - sry, had shadow play problems
Shaper - 3.3 - Incursion (11m): https://youtu.be/HKcADNAwniQ