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PoE 2 Build

One-Button Siege Cascade Tactician / +4 Simulacrum Farmer

0.2 DotH

Tactician

Mercenary

End Game

Verified

By Big Ducks

Updated on Aug 27, 2025

Aug 27, 2025

Build Overview

Siege Cascade synergizes extremely well with Suppressing Fire from the Tactician. It may be unintended that this interaction works the way it does due to the Payoff tag on the skill, but for now it works. For now it is a one button build with 2 support skills in Artillery Ballista and Emergency Reload that you use occasionally.

It has excellent clear and auto-targets meaning you do not need to aim very well, just click in the general area of the monsters you want to kill and they all get hit!

There are a few different versions of this build floating around including a Painter's Servant version as well as a Crit version using Maligaro's Virtuosity but I wanted to focus on a straightforward build that could stay tanky enough to not die constantly in maps/+4 Simulacrum as well as manage +3 on all of the Pinnacle bosses to finish your Atlas Trees while also not using insane gear.

The crit version with Maligaro's Virtuosity is definitely better for bossing but the crossbow it requires to function is basically unobtainium for 99% of the playerbase. If I ever get around to making this version I'll update the guide but realistically this just isn't happening. It is also quite a bit less tanky for general clear.

Right now there are not a ton of ways to scale useful damage in the game, The Deepest Tower is currently one of the few that exists and it works extremely well with the placement of the Mercenary on the tree. We are right next to Stars Aligned which is one of the most powerful nodes in the game when combined with The Deepest Tower.

Build Variants

Endgame

1 - 5 Bow

6 - 51 Lightning Spear

52 - Until Deepest Tower - Siege Cascade

Endgame version is capable of:

T15/16 +1 Juiced Mapping with all league mechanics
+3 of most pinnacles (didn't test Ash man because citadels just don't spawn :)
+4 Simulacrum farm is relatively comfortable once you figure it out.

Use the versions to the right of Endgame to level the build up from scratch, it is late in the league and this isn't a league start guide so I am assuming you have a little bit of currency, if not they should still somewhat function.

Equipment

Endgame

1 - 5 Bow

6 - 51 Lightning Spear

52 - Until Deepest Tower - Siege Cascade

Set 1

Set 2

Equipment Priority

Helmet

The Deepest Tower

Main Hand

Flexed Crossbow

Left Ring

Ruby Ring

Right Ring

Topaz Ring

Amulet

Bloodstone Amulet

Body

Dastard Armour

Gloves

Vaal Mitts

Belt

Plate Belt

Boots

Dragonscale Boots

When choosing a weapon you should ALWAYS prioritize getting at LEAST +1 Bolt. The skill feels VERY bad without this, so much so that you should use Double Barrel instead of Fire Infusion in your main link if you can't get one. +2 Bolts is ideal. You can use a Gemini Crossbow base if you can't get a better base with +2. Getting a Gemini Crossbow with +2 and good stats will be very difficult.

For offhand Crossbow just focus on Projectile levels, more projectile levels will make the mana cost go way up so if you are struggling with mana use a lower +proj level.

Focus on Physical damage, Fire damage is okay if it rolls. Lightning damage is not great but during Pins it can allow you to shock if you don't have a shock companion. If you roll HUGE lightning damage, replace Fire Infusion with something like Innervate or Mobility for clear and Close Combat for bossing.

Make sure to cap elemental resists and go 15 over for Elemental Weakness maps. Chaos resistance should shoot for at least 30 if you want to be safe + an Amethyst Charm. This may be difficult with Controlled Metamorphosis.

If you can't manage to use Controlled Metamorphosis because of Cost or the Resist issues, drop the Reusable Ammunition wheel and Maiming Strike wheel to path to Finality and Smoke Inhalation / Incendiary making sure to take the fire penetration node at the back instead of the ignite chance.

If you have plenty of Chaos Resistance you can use Ngamahu's Chosen instead of the Amethyst Charm for easy rage while clearing maps. Can also use a Golden Charm if you want some rarity.

On Emerald jewels prioritize Projectile Speed and Pin Buildup over damage. Any damage mods that work for the build are fine. Keep in mind that more attack speed will make your mana problems worse.

If you can't manage Spirit on your amulet drop Combat Frenzy and Charge Infusion or your Companion: {0}. Personally I would drop the companion if you don't have a haste aura one or a very good shock one.

Skill Gems

Endgame

1 - 5 Bow

6 - 51 Lightning Spear

52 - Until Deepest Tower - Siege Cascade

Support Gem Requirements:

Str 75

Dex 40

Int 40

Expand all

Siege Cascade

Artillery Ballista

Crossbow Shot

Wind Dancer

Shard Scavenger

Cast on Ignite

Combat Frenzy

Charge Infusion

Companion: {0}

Emergency Reload

Gem Priority

+33

You can use Acceleration in your main Siege Cascade link for clearing maps to help with very fast moving monsters, but in all difficult content replace it with Lockdown. This will allow you to re-pin difficult enemies that survive your initial pin, and also to pin them in the first place.

When using the +7 offhand crossbow your Artillery Ballista will cost a LOT of mana, use Inspiration and manage your Ultimate Mana Flask properly when placing these. I personally wait until I'm lower on mana, hit the flask and then drop 1-2 Artillery Ballista and then use the rest of the mana from the flask to attack.

For a Companion: {0} if you can find a Haste Aura beast go for it, one literally never showed up for me so I just used anything I could find. Decent options would be Always Shocks, Shocked Ground, Temporal Bubble, Invulnerability Aura, Tanky Mods. You can use the troubled camp in act 3 to farm one if you like but I never found a haste aura beast there.

Emergency Reload should be used on difficult enemies AFTER you pin them and dump the rest of your ammo. This is your button to maximize damage during the pin window.

Keep your Cast on Ignite spells as low of a level as possible, we don't have access to a ton of intelligence and the mana cost isn't trivial. We don't want these to proc more often as it will eat mana and not really do very much. This is used to proc Shard Scavenger and to Temporal Chains enemies as it is the only actually useful curse for the build.

Passive Tree

Endgame

1 - 5 Bow

6 - 51 Lightning Spear

52 - Until Deepest Tower - Siege Cascade

main:

123

set 1:

set 2:

Suppressing Fire -> A Solid Plan -> Right Where We Want Them -> Polish That Gear

If not using a weapon swap for your Artillery Ballista (you should!) then just use the red points as your normal points.

If you can't afford/manage Controlled Metamorphosis path to Finality and drop the Fast Metabolism and Maiming Strike wheels. Also make sure to take the Incendiary wheel.

The Reduced Penalty wheels aren't mandatory but they make the build feel much better, highly suggest taking them.

Atlas Tree

Endgame

1 - 5 Bow

6 - 51 Lightning Spear

52 - Until Deepest Tower - Siege Cascade

Atlas Tree selector isn't working for some reason, Seeking/Researcher/Energetic Resonance

I mainly farmed strongboxes, essences, breach, delirium mirrors, and expedition.

I would flip back and forth between what I wanted to farm when it came to tablets, breach with additional hands was a common choice. I would also save up increased strongboxes tablets to use all overlapping in one zone occasionally.

While leveling you don't have to take Ecological Shift if you just want to blast maps, it is very useful for farming strongboxes though. Most of my money while mapping comes from researchers and large strongboxes.

Breach

Always try to do your breach with shrines, particularly Acceleration Shrines, they make getting 50+ splinters super easy. Careful of the laser beams and the big fire orbs.

Delirium

Run through the mirror at the start, kill as much as you can, focusing on just getting to the league mechanics, don't stress the delirium mirror too much tbh, just clear efficiently like you normally would.

Strongboxes

I Alch + Exalt Researchers and Large Strongboxes until I get Rarity + Quant + Additional Mobs
I Alch Armor and Weapon Strongboxes to see if they roll Quality, if so I will exalt for quant, otherwise I don't open them.
I ignore all other strongboxes besides unique ones.

Strongboxes can be very dangerous with their damage mods, particularly lightning storm and ice spears. You can roll through the chaos projectiles to avoid them.

Essences

Essences I always corrupt unless they have one of the very expensive essences already on them. These typically die instantly but if you get a really tanky one be careful of ground effects.

Expedition

Expedition I use the big boom and just don't take fire immune and focus on logbook nodes and then flags/chests.

Ritual

Rituals I ignore completely because that mechanic is awful.

Azmeri Spirit

Ignore unless it is Orange or going in the exact direction you are going.

How it Plays

Mapping

Use Siege Cascade to clear all enemies, for very difficult location based encounters or bosses drop down Artillery Ballistas and use Emergency Reload after you finish your clip once the enemy is Pinned.

Bossing

Swap Acceleration for Lockdown if using it.

For very difficult enemies drop down Artillery Ballistas before you fight them to generate Rage up to 30, make sure you keep them down near you as rage depletes VERY quickly. Your Artillery Ballistas are also quite tanky with the full setup and swap crossbow, but cost a lot of mana. You will need to manage your mana flask usage to keep them up consistently.

Focus on Pinning the boss and then dumping as much damage as possible during that window, keep a close eye on your Mana and use Ultimate Mana Flask consistently during DPS windows.

For longer fights use Crossbow Shot to leech some mana back to save on mana flask charges.

Your The Deepest Tower only works on enemies in your presence, mouse over the Presence modifier on the helmet to see a circle around your character to get an idea of how large it is.

Simulacrum

Swap Acceleration for Lockdown if using it.

Surround yourself with 3x Artillery Ballistas constantly to maintain rage and distract enemies.

Constantly move in a circle around the Artillery Ballistas and do your best to move out of the way of the leap slam used by some of the mobs. The leap slam move is the MOST DANGEROUS part of simulacrum.

When Bosses show up, immediately run towards them to proc The Deepest Tower and Pin them, followed by your normal Emergency Reload rotation. If they do not die during the Pin be VERY careful while you finish them off or re-pin.

Be careful with flask usage here, sometimes the amount of monsters is not enough to constantly refill flasks and you can run out if you spam too much.