Poison Pathfinder Endgame Build

Introduction

Poison Pathfinder is a powerful and fast bow build with complete immunity to ALL slowing effects thanks to Relentless Pursuit. It uses Poisonburst Arrow for one-button clear when mapping and combines Gas Arrow and Toxic Growth to obliterate bosses. 

This build clears all content in the game, including uber bosses, simulacrum, and the most difficult content of all: regular map bosses. It is tanky, moves quickly, and maps very smoothly. It is also capable of running all map modifiers, and completely ignores Chilled Ground and Temporal Chains, the two most annoying mods in the game!

Strengths and Weaknesses

Build Mechanics

Poison Damage

Monsters in PoE 2 cannot resist poison, so you don’t need any chance to poison on hit in this build. Additionally, poison scales its damage based on the pre-mitigation physical and chaos damage of the hit, so scaling up damage per hit is the only thing that matters. As for Attack speed, it’s a mostly useless stat for this build, and can even be a DPS loss in some situations.

Skills like Poisonburst Arrow and Toxic Growth scale with Critical Hit Chance and Critical Damage Bonus modifiers. They also scale damage through poison-specific modifiers, such as Poison Magnitude and Poison Duration. Yep, that’s a lot of poison.

Tankiness

This build uses several layers of defense. Evasion and Wind Dancer make it difficult for enemies to hit you, while Energy Shield gives you a lot of health to live through big slams. If you get hit, Ghost Dance restores Energy Shield based on your Evasion. This symbiotic relationship combines beautifully to make you tanky, especially when enemies are swarming.

Map Clearing

Due to the fact that Poisonburst Arrow deals physical damage, it can also be used to apply bleed to enemies. While this interaction is not a great source of damage on its own, it works to trigger Herald of Blood. This buff combines with Pathfinder’s Contagious Contamination, which clears out packs of enemies with a rapidly expanding wave of poison and bleed explosions that reach around corners and even off screen.

Single-Target Damage

Your main damage skill, Toxic Growth, spawns ten pods that deal an enormous amount of single-target damage upon exploding. However, they have to be poisoned in order to explode. To accomplish this, you can use Gas Arrow to leave a large cloud of poisonous gas on the ground for 4-5 seconds, leading to several Toxic Growth detonations per cast.

Skill Rotation

Mapping

While mapping, shoot Poisonburst Arrow into packs of enemies and watch them die, then explode and kill their friends!

Bossing

For bossing, shoot Gas Arrow onto the ground, then shoot Toxic Growth pods into the Gas Arrow cloud. The pods will explode quickly, allowing you to cast Toxic Growth several times per Gas Arrow cast. Once Gas Arrow fades, cast it again and continue spamming Toxic Growth.

For pinnacle bosses and powerful map bosses, we can apply an enormous shock debuff, granting up to 100 percent increased damage taken by the enemy. To accomplish this, we use Stormcaller Arrow and Voltaic Mark. The shock from Stormcaller Arrow lasts for roughly 30 seconds, so you only need to apply this one time at the start of a boss fight. The boss will die long before the shock wears off.

Once you apply shock with Stormcaller Arrow, keep blasting with the same Gas Arrow and Toxic Growth combo and the boss will melt faster than ice cream on a hot day.

Gameplay Tips

• Mana sustain is the biggest problem this build must solve. A mana leech roll on a ring, gloves, or bow will fix mana issues in single-target. 
  • A single Sapphire with the “Recover 2% Mana on Kill” modifier will solve mana sustain in maps.
• Bow and quiver are the two most important pieces of gear for this build.
  • Getting added physical damage on your rings and gloves will significantly increase your damage.
  • Scaling as many gem levels as possible on bow, quiver, and amulet also helps.
• Cap your elemental resistances and get as much Evasion and Energy Shield as possible. This will make you tankier!

Video Showcase

Skill Gems, Support Gems, and Spirit Gems

Because it is your main clearing skill, Poisonburst Arrow is your top priority for 6-linking and leveling. It explodes when it hits an enemy or a wall, applying a stack of poison to all nearby enemies. If you have Fork linked to it, the forked projectiles can also hit and explode on nearby enemies, allowing multiple stacks to apply at once when shooting into a crowd. 

This is extremely important! Rigwald’s Ferocity is very strong for scaling Poisonburst Arrow‘s damage, but you need to use weapon slot 2 to get the damage increase. If you use the wrong weapon set with Rigwald’s Ferocity, you will lose about 45 percent of your damage.

Lock all of your poison skills to weapon slot 2!

You can use Fork or Nova Projectiles with Poisonburst Arrow to improve its clearing capabilities. Fork is better for killing offscreen enemies and won’t penalize your damage by 40 percent, but Nova Projectiles will hit more enemies around you and doesn’t require aiming. Both options are good, so it’s a matter of preference.

Your second priority for 6-linking and leveling is Toxic Growth, because it is your main source of single-target damage. Concentrated Area grants a large damage bonus and helps keep the pods closer together, making them more likely to hit a boss all at once. Applying Persistent Ground III to Gas Arrow prevents it from exploding when overlapping with fiery ground effects.

Ascendancy

Pathfinder is the best poison damage Ascendancy in PoE 2. It doubles poison’s single-target damage, grants slow immunity, and gives the choice of increased mobility or six extra passive skill points.

It’s extremely underrated!

We recommend taking Ascendancy Notables in the following order:

1. Contagious Contamination – Enemies spread poison when they die. This passive helps with clearing packs of enemies.
2. Overwhelming Toxicity – Doubles your single-target damage. It’s insanely good.
3. Relentless Pursuit – Grants immunity to all slow effects.
4. Traveller’s Wisdom – Gain six additional passive points. It’s offense, it’s defense; it’s whatever you want it to be.

If you can’t afford the 50 Spirit required to use Rhoa Mount, spend your fourth Ascendancy points on Running Assault. It’s not quite as good, but it helps the bow playstyle still feel fast and fluid without a Rhoa.

What about Acidic Concoction? It consumes poisons that are active on an enemy, dealing 150% of the remaining poison damage. This adds an extra keybind into the rotation and doesn’t really deal enough damage to justify taking.

Passive Skill Tree

Allocate travel nodes throughout the passive skill tree into Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence as necessary in order to equip all of your gear and skill gems. Focus on taking poison nodes first, then defensive bonuses, Critical Hit Chance and Damage Bonus nodes, and generic damage bonuses last.

The red lines in the skill planner below are for weapon set 1. The green lines are for weapon set 2.

Weapon set 2 is your primary weapon setup. Use it for all skills, except Stormcaller Arrow. Weapon set 1 is only for applying big shocks to bosses with Stormcaller Arrow.

Gearing

Amulet Anoint Options

• Serrated Edges is a solid cheap option.
• Fast-Acting Toxins is the best endgame choice.

Affixes By Item Slot

Affixes in the gear table below are listed in order of importance.

Slot	Prefixes	Suffixes	Notes
Bow	1. % Increased Physical Damage 2. Flat Added Physical Damage 3. Damage as Extra Physical (Perfect Essence of Abrasion)	1. +4 to Level of All Attack Skills (Perfect Essence of Battle) 2. Critical Hit Chance 3. Critical Damage Bonus	You want as much physical damage from your bow as possible. Attack speed does not matter.
Quiver	1. Increased Damage with Bow Attacks 2. Flat Added Physical Damage 3. Increases and Reductions to Projectile Speed Apply to Damage with Bows (Desecrated modifier)	1. +2 to Level of All Projectile Skills 2. Critical Hit Chance 3. Critical Damage Bonus	Visceral Quiver is the preferred base, since it grants Critical Hit Chance as an implicit bonus.
Ring	1. Flat Added Physical Damage 2. Maximum Life 3. Rarity of Items Found	1. Mana Leech 2. Resistances 3. Rarity of Items Found	You don’t need mana leech on both rings, but you want to get it somewhere in your gear. It’s attainable on rings, gloves, and bows. Rings are the best option.
Amulet	1. Increased Global Defences (Perfect Essence of Enhancement) 2. +50 to Spirit 3. Increased Energy Shield	1. +3 to Level of Projectile Skills 2. Resistances 3. Attributes	+3 to level of skill gems is an irreplaceable damage bonus. Getting 50 Spirit is essential for being able to fit in Rhoa Mount, but you can get Spirit through a body armour prefix instead if needed.
Helmet	1. Increased Energy Shield 2. Flat Energy Shield 3. Hybrid Increased/Flat Energy Shield	1. Critical Hit Chance 2. Resistances 3. Attributes/Rarity of Items Found	Helmet is a very basic defensive slot with one offensive modifier. You want as much Energy Shield as possible from your helmet due to Subterfuge Mask.
Body Armour	1. Increased Evasion and Energy Shield 2. Flat Evasion and Energy Shield 3. Hybrid Increased/Flat Evasion and Energy Shield	1. Resistances 2. Hits Against You Have Reduced Critical Damage Bonus (Perfect Essence of Seeking) 3. Gain Deflection Rating Equal to X% of Your Evasion Rating	Falconer’s Jacket is a good base. It grants slightly lower defenses than alternatives, but the implicit modifier gives 5% movement speed, which is worth the tradeoff. Evasion on your body armour will also grant Energy Shield thanks to Spectral Ward.
Gloves	1. Flat Added Physical Damage 2. Increased Evasion Rating and Energy Shield 3. Flat Evasion Rating and Energy Shield	1. 100% Increased Effect of Socketed Items (Essence of Horror) 2. Increased Critical Damage Bonus 3. Gain Deflection Rating Equal to X% of Your Evasion Rating	2-socket gloves are expensive, but very strong for maximizing your damage potential. Don’t spend an Essence of Horror unless you have 2-socket gloves.
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Increased Evasion Rating and Energy Shield 3. Flat Evasion Rating and Energy Shield	1. Gain Deflection Rating Equal to X% of Your Evasion Rating 2. Resistances 3. Attributes/Rarity of Items Found	Boots are the primary source of increased movement speed, and that should be your top priority. Otherwise, they are a purely defensive item slot.
Belt	1. Life	1. Resistances 2. Strength	Belts are extremely basic, defensive items. Ryslatha’s Coil is an inexpensive unique belt option that adds a ton of damage. Use it as soon as you are able.

Uniques

This build uses very few unique items, which helps with keeping costs low and makes it easier to play in Solo Self-Found game modes. While none of these items are mandatory, here are some options you should consider using:

1. Slivertongue – A cheap unique bow you can start using at level 39, and it works all the way up through Tier 15 maps. The base damage is low, but the built-in clear it provides is exceptional.
2. Ryslatha’s Coil – A great belt for increasing your physical damage. You want the largest possible maximum damage roll and the lowest possible minimum damage roll. It also grants a good amount of life.
3. Headhunter – Steals rare monster modifiers on kill. It’s fun and good for blasting maps.
4. Darkness Enthroned – The Counts as Gloves variant of this belt is a more reliable alternative to Ryslatha’s Coil and provides excellent poison damage scaling. The only downside is that it is more expensive and grants no Life.

Jewels

An Against the Darkness jewel with “Notable Skills in Radius also grant Gain % of Damage as Extra Chaos Damage” synergizes extremely well with a From Nothing jewel that “Allows Allocating Passives in the Radius of Walker of the Wilds” without them being connected to the tree. This combo allows you to take Dizzying Hits, Stupefy, and Material Solidification without pathing to them, and can grant about 35 percent more damage.

Sapphires are the best option available for other sockets. Here is a ranking of the best attributes to get from your jewels:

• Prefixes
  1. Increased Magnitude of Damaging Ailments you inflict with Critical Hits
  2. Increased Magnitude of Ailments You Inflict
  3. Increased Maximum Energy Shield
• Suffixes
  1. Recover 2% of maximum Mana on Kill
  2. Damaging Ailments Deal Damage X% Faster
  3. Increased Critical Hit Chance
  4. Increased Critical Damage Bonus

Runes and Socketables

Greater Iron Rune is the best option for your weapon and all armour slots other than gloves.

Courtesan Mannan’s Rune of Cruelty is the best Rune to use in your gloves. It grants 15 percent ailment magnitude. You should use it in your belt if you are using Darkness Enthroned that counts as gloves.

Flasks and Charms

Olroth’s Resolve Life Flask – The best life flask in the game. It’s very simple, it heals instantly and grants a large shield based on any overhealing.

Nascent Hope Thawing Charm – Grants freeze immunity and instantly restarts Energy Shield recharge.

Sanguis Heroum Staunching Charm – Removes bleeds and grants Consecrated Ground.

Rite of Passage Golden Charm – Grants Rarity of Items Found and one of a group of powerful bonuses upon killing a rare monster or unique enemy.

Campaign Character Bonuses

Here are our recommendations for permanent character bonus options throughout the campaign:

• Act 2: 30% Increased Charm Charges
• Act 3: 25% Increased Stun Threshold
• Act 4: 5% to each Elemental Resistance
• Interlude 2: 15% Increased Global Defences