My Path of Exile 2 Ranger build makes the best use of an underrated powerhouse that's capable of dishing out huge damage while being nimble enough to escape danger at a moment’s notice. It's all about getting in landing your blows and getting out before the enemy even realise.
This build takes the standard Ranger bow and arrow combo and takes it to the next level, augmenting it with electricity and ice damage. It will easily take you through the first stages of the game, and I'll update the build with the best ascendancy shortly. For now, read on and find out how to make your ranger a top-tier damage dealer among the best Path of Exile 2 classes.
Best Ranger Build in POE 2
My best Path of Exile 2 Ranger build is all about harnessing elemental effects, specifically lightning and ice damage, as well as accuracy. These attributes combine to make a character who can rush in, deal a lot of damage and then jump out of danger.
A core inspiration for this build comes from Mobalytics’ Fubgun, who put together a superb lightning damage build that's a foundation for my build. Let’s break this Ranger build in POE 2 down into its core components and what you need to look for.
Here's my best POE 2 ranger build:
- Equipment
- Weapon: shortbow/Warden Bow, look for buffs that add lightning damage, increase physical damage, increase dexterity, or increase bonuses from your quiver.
- Quiver: Fire Quivers, which add fire damage to your attacks, are always a good option but look for options that also add physical damage to attacks or restore health upon killing an enemy.
- Head: Look for helmets, hats or masks that will increase evasion, dexterity and accuracy.
- Body: As with helmets, body armour that increases dexterity, evasion and accuracy are the order of the day.
- Bracers/Gloves: On this build, we’ve been running Northpaw Suede Bracers, which add to physical damage output and increase critical damage.
- Belt: Flask charge and flask recovery buffs.
- Shoes: Movement speed and dexterity buffs.
- Amulet: Dexterity/maximum life buffs.
- Skill Gems:
- Bow shot
- Lightning Arrow: Pierce, Chain
- Lightning Rod: Scattershot
- Escape Shot: Frost Nexus
- Stormcaller Arrow
- Freezing Salvo: Magnified Effect
- Herald of Thunder: Innervate
- Wind Dancer
- Snipe
- Passive Skills:
- Focus on the skills that boost projectile damage to start with until you reach Honed Instincts. After that, focus on skills that increase accuracy, stat buffs, and increased quiver bonuses. Some important skills to grab include Eagle Eye, Blur, Vile Wounds, and Master Fletching.
How the best Ranger build works in Path of Exile 2
The best Ranger 2 build in POE 2 works by combining passive and active lightning skills to heavily damage opponents, while also giving you ice skills that help give you some distance between yourself and various monsters rampaging around Wraeclast. Your normal combat routine will involve throwing down Lightning Rod as your first move to benefit from its fantastic AoE lightning effect, before bombarding enemies with Lightning Arrow.
If you find yourself facing dangerous enemies or any other trouble, hit them with Freezing Salvo to temporarily freeze them in place, before using Lightning Rod and Lightning Arrow for some easy kills. Escape Shot is also tremendous for getting out of trouble which Wind Dancer’s increased evasion will also help with. Herald of Thunder adds extra punch to your attacks by releasing lightning bolts after killing a shocked enemy with attack damage. You won’t have enough spirit to use both Wind Dancer and Herald of Thunder at the moment, but having both allows for easy switching.
Snipe and Stormcaller Arrow are good against bosses, dealing increased critical and lightning damage, but they aren’t the quickest, so you’ll want to wait until a boss is either a decent way away from you or is distracted by another player.
Best Ascendancy Build for the Ranger in Path of Exile 2
After you’ve completed the Trial of Sekhemas, you can choose your ascendancy. The Ranger has access to two different ascendancies, Deadeye and Pathfinder.
The Deadeye ascendancy takes a holistic approach to improving your overall ranged combat ability, giving you buffs that improve attack speed, projectile speed, accuracy, and the effectiveness of frenzy charges. The Pathfinder ascendancy, on the other hand, is all about poison damage and the use of flasks, giving you more flask charges, buffs to poison, and the ability to toss grenades of sorts, known as concoctions.
While both of these ascendancies can no doubt offer fertile ground for a fantastic Ranger build, there’s only one that we’re interested in for ours: Deadeye.
Deadeye Passive Skills
To start off with, you’ll get two ascendancy points and can gain four more by completing floor 2 and floor 3 of the Trial of Sekhemas, or completing the Trials of Chaos with different criteria. Your first two points should go down the bottom branch of the ascendancy tree. This branch is all about increased skill speed, plus giving you Tailwind, a fantastic stacking buff that gives you yet more skill speed, movement speed, and evasion.
When you have more ascendancy points, go to the third branch from the bottom, and max out this tree. This will give you increased projectile speed and damage, and, when maxed out, will grant you the passive skill Endless Munitions. This skill makes you fire an extra projectile with each shot, giving you a huge chunk of additional damage.
Skill Gems
The skill gems for this ascendency build are mostly the same as before, but there are a couple of changes.
- Bow Shot: Lightning Infusion
- Lightning Arrow: Pierce, Chain
- Lightning Rod: Scattershot, Magnified Effect
- Escape Shot: Frost Nexus
- Stormcaller Arrow
- Freezing Salvo: Cold Infusion
- Herald of Thunder
- Snipe: Wind Wave
- Sniper’s Mark
- Wind Dancer
The end goal for this build will be getting the skill gems Rain of Arrows and Magnetic Salvo, with the latter replacing Lightning Arrow. Once you get to this point, your build will be ready to take on the Endgame, dealing ridiculous amounts of lightning damage and being a speed demon that will haunt bosses’ nightmares for years to come. If you’re rocking another class, why not check out our guides to the best Path of Exile 2 Mercenary build or POS 2 Sorceress build?
© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission
