PathofEvening's Toxic Rain Pathfinder Build Guide (Poe Keepers of the Flame 3.27)

October 26th, 2025, 22:34

Introduction

Toxic Rain Pathfinder is a fast-paced, smooth mapping league starter that can clear all content in the game, including Tier 17 maps and uber bosses. You unlock your primary skills in the first act of the campaign and will continue using them for the lifespan of the character.

Speed and simplicity are the main selling points of Toxic Rain Pathfinder. The build moves very quickly and utilizes a single-button playstyle in maps and while bossing. Because of this, it is a great option for a wide range of farm strategies that reward moving fast, including Heist, Delirium Mirrors, and Maven Invitations. It is also very tanky for a bow build, and can recover over 3000 life per second thanks to a combination of Pathfinder’s Ascendancy bonuses and The Tides of Time unique belt.

By using Toxic Rain in your main 6-link with Caustic Arrow and Manaforged Arrows Support in a second 6-link, you gain an incredible amount of passive map clear. All you have to do is use your main single-target damage skill and Caustic Arrow does the rest.

Video Guide

Here is a video guide going over the build in full detail:

What to Expect

🔸 Easy Campaign Clear ✔️
🔸 Smooth T16 Maps ✔️
🔸 Pinnacle bosses ✔️
🔸 Runs almost all map mods ✔️
🔸 Evasion builds can die a lot ❗
🔸 Tier 17 maps and uber bosses require investment ❌
🔸 No Herald explosions ❌

Toxic Rain

The primary skill in the build is Toxic Rain, a Bow Skill that deals damage over time. When you cast Toxic Rain, it shoots an arrow into the sky that drops five toxic pods on the ground. These pods attach vines to enemies, dealing damage over time until they expire, which causes them to explode. The only component of this skill that matters to us is the damage over time that the pods deal to enemies.

To maximize our single-target damage, we want to have between 37% and 43% Increased Area of Effect. Gearing for this total causes all five Toxic Rain pods to overlap onto enemies. If we have too much or too little, we lose out on pod overlaps, which can cut our damage by 20-60%.

We get 20% Area of Effect from the Bow Mastery in the passive skill tree, and another 17-23% from prefix modifiers we can craft onto our gloves and helmet (or corrupted jewel implicit modifiers). Getting the correct amount of Area of Effect is not important in the campaign, but it is a very high priority upon reaching maps. Try to run the maps that contain the recipe for Increased Area of Effect as quickly as you are able.

Playstyle

This build runs fast through maps, shooting Toxic Rain pods and Caustic Arrow pools into packs of enemies, and allows you to zoom past them as they die.

Build Overview

Pros & Cons

➕ Fast and smooth
➕ Very strong on low budget
➕ Tanky for a bow character
➕ Excellent all-around build

➖ “Tanky for a bow character” doesn’t mean it’s actually tanky.
➖ No Heralds — monster on-death explosions require a lot of investment
➖ Deep endgame upgrades can get expensive

Viability in Numbers

🔸 New Player Friendliness: ★★★★★
🔸 Playstyle: ★★★★★
🔸 Ease of Gearing: ★★★★★
🔸 Easily Executable: ★★★★☆

Map Modifiers to Avoid

One of the biggest strengths of Toxic Rain Pathfinder is that it can handle the majority of map modifiers. Below is the complete list of map modifiers you will want to avoid with this build:

❗Players have 60% less Recovery Rate of Life and Energy Shield
❗Players gain 50% reduced Flask Charges

Defensive Layers

By combining Lightning Coil, Petrified Blood, and upwards of 3000 life regeneration per second, Toxic Rain Pathfinder is capable of surviving a wide range of dangerous enemies and map mods. Plus, this build completely ignores most defensive penalties like Eldritch Altar downsides. Below is a list of the defensive layers that make this build so tanky.

🔸57% Physical Damage Taken as Lightning
🔸Petrified Blood
🔸100% Spell Suppression
🔸Permanent Phasing
🔸3000+ Life Regeneration per Second
🔸5000+ Life
🔸100% Progenesis Uptime

Build Resources

Leveling

This build is a League Starter. That means it is capable of progressing from the very beginning of the game with absolutely no gear or currency, all the way through the entirety of the endgame. Be sure to follow along with the Path of Building we’re providing as you progress the character. We are also including passive trees and skill gem recommendations to help you progress from the very beginning of Act 1 all the way through Tier 17 maps and uber bosses.

You can find the Path of Building link on the Passive Tree Page.

Questions?

If you enjoy this build, check out our YouTube Channel. If you have any questions, ask us in our Discord.