Ailment Gunslinger Strength Stack, Contagion - Screenwide clears - Early Mapping

Hey guys, I'm Lazy Exile. This is my early mapping setup for the Ailment Gunslinger build. This is a cheap and very potent setup for the early mapping. If you want a starter setup from Campaign, check out my starter guide here: Lazy's Gunslinger Ailment Mercenary

This new setup does what I need for an early game mapper:

- Big AoE with poison prolif

- Big single-target damage with bleed/poison ailments

- Tanky, strength stackers synergize very well with Gemling Legionnaires.

- Very easy and good freeze with Call of the Brotherhood and Galvanic Shards for monster packs

DISCLAIMER: This is an "Early Mapping 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 are 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!

Dec 12th: Changed skill gems after patch because Contagion is fixed, and it is strong now.

Video up soon...

2 Buttons Playstyle, Comfy & Fast

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 overall, very comfy here.

You get close to a monster packs, hit freeze, pop them with fragmentation, and poison will do the rest and you move on to the next pack. Can drag monster with you. Don't try to fight a single enemy.

Single-Target Rotation

0. Galvanic Shards until Frozen (only if you can build up freeze fast, generally it's not worth it unless boss summon minions)

1. Fragmentation Rounds and keep shooting until Armour Break

2. Consume Armour Break with High Velocity Rounds for Bleed

3. Rinse and repeat till dead (optional freeze if possible)

AoE Clear

No Call of the Brotherhood

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 together with Contagion.

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

With Call of the Brotherhood

1. Galvanic Shard to freeze monster packs, see that the contagion is cast with Cast on Freeze.

2. Shoot that contagion monsters with Fragmentation Rounds, poison will spread with Herald of Plague together with Contagion. All the monsters in proximity will most likely dead.

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

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 Galvanic Shards and Fragmentation Rounds, so bind them to Mouse 4 and 5 buttons for easier swapping.

Damage Scaling

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

1. Fragmentation Rounds + FROZEN = BIG HIT + SPREAD POISON

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). THIS BIG HIT IS SPREAD/PROLIF across all the monsters in close proximity.

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 Contagion 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 easy freeze and chill so most of the time we are never in danger really. Remember to play it safe still.

Jewel Mods

Mainly ailment, hit, and generic damage should work. Here's what I would recommend:

At least 1 of this:

#% increased Magnitude of Poison you inflict

#% increased Magnitude of Ailments you inflict

At least 1 of this:

#% increased Critical Hit Chance

#% increased Critical Hit Chance for Attacks

#% increased Magnitude of Damaging Ailments you inflict with Critical Hits or other Critical damage stuff (but we need crit chance the most)

Ultility/Good Addition:

Recover #% of Life on Kill

#% of Damage taken Recouped as Life

#% increased Damage with Hits against Rare and Unique Enemies

#% increased Projectile Damage

#% increased Damage with Crossbows

#% increased Crossbow Reload Speed

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