Explosive Arrow Slayer League Starter Build Guide (PoE Sentinel 3.18)
INTRODUCTION
Due to the latest balancing changes, we do not recommend playing this build anymore, as it does not meet the high standards we apply to our guides in terms of fun and performance. We are leaving it up as a reference and it might be revived in a later patch.
The Explosive Arrow Slayer is a collaboration between Tenkiei & myself. It makes use of 
Ballista Totem Support and 
Quill Rain to rain down barrages of 
Explosive Arrow charges upon enemies, swiftly detonating at 20 charges and dealing huge amounts of damage.
While ignite Explosive Arrow has been a viable choice with the right amount of investment, its massive price ceiling for proper gear has made it difficult to recommend as a build starter. The same cannot be said for this explosion charge based slayer that also deals large chunks of ignite, while prioritizing the hit portion of the skill.
The build’s play style naturally has layers of defence from its ability to stay at range and deal damage by simply having ballistas up, allowing you to kite & avoid mechanics without damage downtime. Combining this with Slayer overleech, cull, and capped spell suppression makes the Explosive Arrow Slayer tanky and able to dish out consistent damage to kill all bosses in the game.
We also utilize Elemental Equilibrium to scale our Explosive Arrow’s pure fire damage further. We will want to completely avoid “Fire Damage to Attacks” on gear slots, as this will negatively proc the Elemental Equilibrium, leading to a damage loss.
Below, you can see the build in action from Tenkiei’s YouTube Showcase. Do note that the video might be outdated in terms of information, you should always look at this guide to make sure you have the updated information.
BUILD OVERVIEW
In this section, I will outline the pros, cons, and general play style. This will allow you to determine if this is the right build is for you!
PROS
+ League Starter – The build heavily benefits from low level uniques like Quill Rain which are readily available on league launches
+ Bosser – The damage output this build can achieve even in low budget is completely absurd.
+ Unique Play Style – Unlike the usual Totem play style, Ballistas are placed extremely fast and Quill Rain’s ridiculous attack speed makes it extremely easy to stack up 20 Explosive Arrow Charges in rapid succession.
CONS
– Unique Play Style – Due to the nature of this build’s play style, it is a build that not everyone will find enjoyable. I strongly recommend watching the gameplay video before starting this build.
– Some Screen Clutter – Having 5 ballistas fire off projectiles simultaneously with quill rain, followed up by explosions can make visibility a bit of an issue, making positioning important.
PLAY STYLE
The play style is based around summoning your Ballistas on the field and then letting them kill everything for you while you provide supporting fire with Mirage Archer. Since it takes a second for them to start attacking, you have to get used to staying in the back-line.
DAMAGE SCALING AND DEFENSIVE LAYERS
Attack speed, resistance reduction, and gem levels are key to scaling the amount of damage our Ballistas put out for the quill rain setup, if you choose to push for a +3 Rare Thicket Bow, this may change as once you have the initial +3, you will want to get +2 additional arrows, attack speed roll on it, fire penetration, and critical strike modifiers in that order of priority.
As well as this, avoid any instance of Pierce on your skills, Explosive Arrow charges do not apply to pierced enemies, and will only apply to the final enemy hit.
PoB AND PASSIVE SKILL TREE
The PoB community fork created by Localidentity is the only version being kept up to date, so make sure you have the correct version: PoB Community Fork.
Here is the Explosive Arrow Slayer PoB:. For a quick glance over the finished skill tree for this version, check out this link
You can find more information on our dedicated page, along with all the recommended gem links.
EA Slayer PoB, Passive Skill Tree & Gem Links
GEARING
A lot of the endgame gear can easily be crafted. For a general overview of crafting and to learn how to craft specific items, check out my crafting guides here.
You can read more details about our gearing recommendations on the dedicated page. You’ll find a summarized version below.
The one thing to note with gearing is to avoid fire damage to attacks on all of your slots, and try and get 1 slot, either through Gloves / Ring / Abyss Jewel with added lightning/cold damage to attacks for purposes of Elemental Equilibrium
Explosive Arrow Slayer Gear, Jewels, & Flasks
| Item Slot | Item Name | Rarity |
| Head | Life & Resistances as needed – Searing Exarch implicit for reduced mana cost of attack skills can help with mana sustain | Rare |
| Amulet | Life, resistances & crit multi, keep an open prefix for “non-channeling skills have -# to Total mana cost” bench craft | Rare |
| Chest | Evasion based Rare with Spell suppression, high life, and resistances | Rare |
| Gloves | Evasion based Rare with Spell suppression, high life, and resistances | Rare |
| Boots |  Atziri's Step , later moving on to Rare boots with brittle ground from influence, spell suppression, movement speed, life |
Unique & Rare |
| Belt | A Rare Stygian Vise can be used for an Abyssal Jewel with lightning/cold dmg to attacks, fill it out with life & resistances as per usual. | Rare |
| Rings | Life, “#% of damage taken recouped as life “, open prefix for “non-channeling skills have -# to Total mana cost”, resistances as and when needed. | Rare |
| Weapon | Quill Rain |
Unique |
ASCENDANCY, BANDIT & PANTHEON RECOMMENDATIONS
You can read about the Ascendancy, Bandit choice, and Pantheon Power recommendations for this build on our dedicated page.
Explosive Arrow Slayer Ascendancy, Bandits & Pantheon Powers
LEVELLING
We level with 2h swords, using 
Splitting Steel until we acquire 
Shattering Steel at level 12, once you can get a Quill Rain you can start using your ballistas to destroy enemies
For early mapping, it may be worth switching out 
Summon Skitterbots for 
Grace to help with defense.
4L Splitting Steel & Shattering Steel
- Splitting Steel / Shattering Steel
Vicious Projectiles Support At lvl 18 from Act 2 – The Weaver’s Chamber
Impale Support – Act 3 Library quest
Brutality Support At lvl 38 from The Eternal Nightmare quest in Act 4 – must purchase on duelist.
Quill Rain links – 2× 4L
- Explosive Arrow from Gravicius at level 28.
- Ballista Totem Support from The Caged Brute in act 1.
Elemental Damage with Attacks Support acquired at lvl 18 from the Weaver’s Chamber.
Barrage Support acquired at lvl 38 from The Eternal Nightmare in act 4.
- Explosive Arrow from Gravicius at level 28.
Mirage Archer Support acquired at lvl 4 from the Tidal Island.- Elemental Damage with Attacks Support acquired at lvl 18 from the Weaver’s Chamber.
Inspiration Support acquired in the Library.
In terms of Auras & Reservations, we will be using 
Precision from act 1, 
Defiance Banner & Summon Skitterbots from act 2 Fidelitas, 
Determination from act 3.
For more general levelling advice, we recommend the following guides.
- Our step-by-step leveling walkthrough, which allows even more experienced players to save time and speed through the leveling process.
- Our guide to Unique Items for leveling, which helps you gear up your characters for the leveling process.
- Our beginner leveling guide, which answers many of the questions new players might have and will set you on the right path.
QUESTIONS?
To guarantee that guides are tools you can utilize to enhance your experience in Path of Exile, all you need to do is post your question in the comments and I will personally attend to them as soon as possible. You can also check out Tenkiei’s YouTube Channel for guides, streams, and all things gaming related.
FINAL NOTES
As much as I love writing build guides, it is very crucial in a game like Path of Exile that you play the game the way you enjoy playing it. With that said, if you’ve made any tweaks to the build compared to what we’re showing in this guide I would love it if you share in the comments! It’s an effective way to show other approaches and it helps me grow as a build guide creator!
I hope you found the build guide useful and I wish you all many 
Exalted Orb drops!
