Ailment Gunslinger Merc Starter Build - Freeze/Poison/Bleed/Armour Break

Hey guys, I'm Lazy Exile. This is my starter in PoE 2, and I have taken this character to the endgame through all 6 acts. The campaign was a breeze, and this setup is good right out of the gate until the end so if you're interested, read on!

This build is a good league starter because you are not relying on any unique items to be strong. We're scaling physical damage for poison and bleed, so all you need is a good phys bow. Everything is very well put together.

Our campaign is very safe. This build has a lot of CC in the form of freeze and chill (the best one). We have good single-target damage as well as good and satisfying AoE clear (I can shatter the ice wall for hours).

DISCLAIMER: This is a "Starter Build," and things might not be optimal as there is much to learn. I'll keep this build updated, so come back often and check if there's any changes.

This is a part of my league starter from theorycrafted to gameplay progression. If you want to see the build in action, look for Lazy Exile on YouTube. Thanks!

9/12 Update - Cruel Campaign finished—this build should cruise through the campaign.

11/12 Update - Integrated Effiency have bricked people character due to bug, for now don't touch it!

12/12 Update - Integrated Effiency is now patched and fixed

2 Buttons Playstyle but Comfy

Check out the keybind in the below sections. It is 2 buttons, but loading ammunition with those 2 buttons and shooting with right-click feels very simple and natural. So overally very comfy here.

Single-Target Rotation

1. Glacial Bolt until Frozen + shoot 1 or 2 more bolts for extra damage

2. Consume Frozen with Fragmentation Rounds and keep shooting until Armour Break

3. Consume Armour Break with High Velocity Rounds for Bleed

4. Go back to Step 2 (after 10 seconds go to Step 5)

5. Every 10-15 seconds you can repeat from step 1 (boss have Diminishing Returns on Frozen)

AoE Clear

Pre-Glacial Bolt

Utilize Permafrost Bolts to kite + Gas Grenade (socketed with Bursting Plague + Scattershot ) for clearing AoE packs

After Glacier Bolt

1. Glacier Bolt in front of monster packs (don't have to freeze them), then shoot with fragmentation rounds to shatter and freeze. For larger enemies, shooting at their feet will result in the wall shattering and freezing them.

2. Keep shooting with Fragmentation Rounds, poison will spread with Herald of Plague.

3. If needed, switch to High Velocity Rounds and finish any single enemy that survives and is armour broken.

Damage Scaling

Any damaging ailment nodes/stats we take are essentially double-dipping since we do both poison/bleed damage.

1. Fragmentation Rounds + Glacial Bolt

Damage Ailment in PoE 2 scales of the damage of the hit. Fragmentation Round hits on a FROZEN TARGET does TONS of DAMAGE (800%+ attack base toward the end of the campaign).

Glacial Bolt creates the Ice Wall, and Shattering damage is based on the damage from shattering the Wall + Shattering Shrapnels from Fragmentation Round to do a ton of shotgun damage, enough to one/two shots rares.

If they are alive, poison/bleeds kicks in and finishes them swiftly.

2. Envenom & Corrosion = Armour Break

To take it even further, we have Armour Break ailment on the enemy, which lowers their physical mitigation and therefore increases our physical hits, which means more damage.

3. High Velocity Rounds + Bleed

With Fragmentation Rounds + Corrosion, we easily break enemies armour, then shooting a High Velocity Rounds will CONSUME that armour breaks and bleed the target for extra single-target damage.

This is our scaling loop/shell that makes it possible to work with just a good physical damage xbow.

Defensive Shell

1. Armour/Evasion

During the campaign, I find that Armour/Evasion is a very good shell, and I rarely die with all the CC from Glacial Bolt and a front-to-back playstyle.

Make sure you take all the armour/evasion base that you can find with a good amount of maximum life and you should be good to go. The mitigation was good enough so that I opted for less defensive nodes on the passive skill tree.

2. Wind Dancer

Simple, yet very effective buff that increased your evasion by a lot and knocked back enemies to help you escape when surrounded.

QoL

1. Herald of Plague AoE Clears

The poison from Fragmentation Round is very potent, and Herald of Plague helps us spread that. The only downside is that it's available much later in the game, so you won't have that source of AoE Clear in the early game.

2. Vitality + Clarity Socketed into Wind Dancer

This is a good source of life and mana regen to make you more comfy during the campaign. I rarely run out/ or have issues with Mana

3. FREEZING

We have a lot of freeze and chill from shattering the Ice Wall so most of the time we are never in danger really. Remember to play it safe, front to back. Shoot the Glacial Bolt in front of small enemies and under big enemies.

4. KEYBINDS

My advice is to use WASD for movement; it's a game changer if you're playing Mercenary. Our playstyle is more like 2 buttons, swapping back and forth between Glacial Bolt and Fragmentation Round, so bind them to Mouse 4 and 5 buttons for easier swapping.

Initial updates (WIP) as it's only the first week.