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PoE 2 Build

Railgun & Nuke Spirit Walker

0.5 RotA

By Definitiv

Updated on Jun 8, 2026

Jun 8, 2026

Build Overview

UPDATE: Ricochet III is only available in Standard, so Glacial Lance doesn't synergise with Primal Bounty. This build still works as shown in the clips from the Video, but doesn't work as great with Spirit Walker as intended. I will stick to Twister a bit longer to farm up more currency and will swap over at the End of Day 2 / Start of Day 3 likely with Lightning Spear again. Update Video will come tommorow.

Update 2: Renamed the build to Railgun and Nuke Spirit Walker and changed the High Invest Variant to a working State in 0.5. It is more streamlined and has all the QoL to feel good, just requires a lot of investment into Chase Items and powerful Rares to have enough Damage for high tier juiced Content and Pinnacle Bosses Nuking.

Overview

Have you ever wanted to literally nuke your Enemies? Or clear literally the Entire screen in .1 Second?

Well, now you can play the Railgun (Glacial Lance or Lightning Spear) & Nuke (Explosive Spear) Spirit Walker (can also be played on various other Ascendancies) !

This build uses Barrage and Olroth's Conviction to enhance multiple Attacks, then further boosts our Clear Skill with Primal Bounty and The Mhacha's Gift to Accelerate to Mach 10! Resulting in one massive Attack that clears the Entire Screen. Glacial Lance offers an early skill with enough Damage to face T15 Maps and can later be replaced with Lightning Spear for better Clear QoL and synergy with Primal Bountyan

And bosses?! Those we nuke from orbit with Explosive Spear. Ready your Barrage and enjoy up to 8 frenzy Boosted instant exploding Crosses of Fiery Death!

The build is bear powered using the synergy between Resonance and the build in Endurance Charge Generation when spending Rage in Bear Form, which we do with Fury of the Mountain.

At Higher Investment Stages, we can use Freeze and Armour Break to create additional Frenzy Charges during Mapping with Herald of Ice + Armour Explosion + Armour Break III. This does require a lot of Cold Damage and a source of Armour Break, like Rite of Passage(Wolf) or Uul-Netol's Embrace.

Levelling

Glacial Lance unlocks at Level 22 and Primal Strikes at Level 31. Glacial Lance also requires Frenzy Charges, which can only be sourced via Disengage or Combat Frenzy (Level 26). If you dislike Leveling with Twister. Levelling with Explosive Grenade & Gas Grenade or Ice Shot is recommended. While highly advised against, leveling as Explosive Spear and Storm Lance is an option for non- Twister Spear.

I leveld as Twister with a slightly adjusted Variant of Snoobae85 Twister Guide for a better Respec.

Why not Twister

This build is objectively weaker than Twister due to The Taming existing in this patch and Spirit Walker literaly be made for Twister.

This build is for those who want something different than Twister. A neat Pro is that, outside of The Taming, the gear and passive Tree overlap 90%, so a Swap between the two is easy.

What Ascendancy to play on

While I play this on a Spirit Walker, the build does not benefit as much as Twister from Spirit Walker. Once at a high Investment Stage Lightning Spear will become a true Railgun and clear the Entire Screen with Primal Bounty and The Mhacha's Gift, but until then Glacial Lance will only benefit from the Projectile Speed to be a neat Railgun.

In an ideal scenario, you should play any of these Ascendancies:

Ritualist The additional ring helps with needed Damage, and the Ring & Amulet Buff Effect is amazing. Also, the bonus of Charm Uptime is great.
Martial Artist The Gloves, both Rare and Unique, look very powerful and have a lot of defensive Bonies like Runic Meridians and Way of the Mountain. Also, think there is some potential with Martial Adept and Wind Dancer + Ailith's Chimes
Invoker Free Ele Res Ignore with Sunder my Enemies... and added Damage as Extra + Meditate
Gemling Legionnaire All Skills have great additional Quality Bonuses and +2 Level for our Main Skills is amazing. We can also use our basic skills to balance out our Support Gem Colors to benefit of all 3 Bonuses from Gem Studded
Deadeye Free Mark appliance, Tailwind, and Giga Boosted Barrage from Thrilling Chase

Strengths and Weaknesses

Amazing Clear
High Single Target Damage
Good Survivability
Low Button Build

Evasion-Based Survivability
Can't Level as
Competing with Twister & Bow Builds on most Gear

Build Variants

Early Endgame

Crit Swap

High Invest

Requires: Level 72 and 6 Ascendancy Points

The early Stage of the Build for Map Progression and initial Content Farming.

Equipment

Early Endgame

Crit Swap

High Invest

Set 1

Set 2

Jewels

Equipment Priority

+11

Weapon

With the nerfs to crafting and the power of rune crafting being unknown, The Ordained, likely dropped by the new Arbiter (of Divinity?), will be BiS for quite a while. Boasting flat Crit, High Phys, ANDHigh Lightning Damage, and ALSO granting us Life Leech based on Lightning Damage. The only downside is the lack of + Level, but those can be sourced from Gloves and Amulet. This does mean no Herald of Ice chaining for the Build, but that also might just not be needed thanks to the Power of Spirit Walker and the assumed Buff to Glacial Lance.

Until the Ordained is available, and hopefully affordable, use any High DPS Spear with any amount of Crit Chance or +Level.

For your Ofhand use either a Stoic Sceptre, Omen Sceptre, or Guiding Palm of the Heart. BiS is Sacred Flame, but it is usually worth a couple of Divines, and the Spear has higher Priority.

In Weapon Set 2, use any quarterstaff with High Attack Speed. Preferably also desecrated Shock Magnitude and +Level to Gems, but don't spend more than couple Exalts on Crafting/Buying a Quarterstaff.

Armour

Helmet

Once you have 30%+ Critical Hit Chance The Black Insignia becomes very good. Only a High ES Shield with Subterfuge Mask anointed on the Amulet would be better.

Before a Black Insignia, use any Evasion-Based Helmet with Life & Resistances.

Body

Body Armour is our Main Source of defense. Boosted by Beastial Skin and Spectral Ward. Get as much Evasion Rating on the Body as possible. Any amount of Deflection Rating, Resistances, and Attributes are also welcomed.

Gloves

Evasion-based gloves are best for this build. At later stages, Energy Shield-based gloves are also ok, but not required. Outside of the standard Life & Resistance, Gloves are also an excellent source of +Melee Level and Flat Damage. Get as much of those as the Budget allows.

Boots

Evasion-based Boots are best for this build. At later stages, Energy Shield-based gloves are also ok, but not required. Prioritise High Movement Speed on Boots, before Life even. Then get as much Life & Resistances as possible.

Jewellery

Amulet

For Early Endgame any high Life Amulet with decent Stats works. Once at 30%+ Crit Chance Beacon of Azis becomes really good. Use that until you acquire a Rakiata's Flow.

At high investment Stages a +3 Melee Level Amulet with Defenses and fixing Attributes / Resistances is BiS.

Rings

Rings should be super easy to make with Breach in 0.5. Assuming access to enough Genesis Tree Passive Points, we can gurantee Life + Flat Damage + Resistance. With a couple Attempts getting a decent Double Flat or Double Res Ring should be doable.

To enable the Leech of the Ordained, one Ring with Life Leech is required. The Other Ring should fix Attributes or Res.

Belt

Decent Ingenuity are fairly Cheap early on, if your Res is capped or would be with one, and if you don't lack Strength. It is better than any Rare Belt. If going for a Rare Belt, prioritise Life & Resistances.

At later Stages a Headhunter or one of the new Unique Belt Options is desired.

Charms

I recommend using a Thawing Charm and Staunching Charm early on.

At higher Stages The Fall of the Axe, Nascent Hope and Rite of Passage are amazing!

Always use a Valako's Roar to improve Frenzy Charge uptime. Make sure to also have Catalysis allocated to proc it more often. Almost every enemy does a small portion of Physical Damage with each attack. Any amount of Lightning Damage taken can proc Valako's Roar.

Flasks

A Ultimate Life Flask with Instant Recovery and Charge per Second is recommended

A Lavianga's Spirits or Ultimate Mana Flask with more Recovery at Low Mana and Charge per Second is recommended.

Skill Gems

Early Endgame

Crit Swap

High Invest

Support Gem Requirements:

Str 50

Dex 50

Int 60

Glacial Lance

Level 17

Primal Strikes

Level 17

Hand of Chayula

Level 17

Thunderstorm

Level 1

War Banner

Level 17

Combat Frenzy

Level 17

Wind Dancer

Level 17

Herald of Ice

Level 17

Trinity

Level 17

Gem Priority

+33

Skill Explanation

Clear

While I am a huge fan of Lightning Spear, after the 0.2 dominance, it got nerfed quite hard and requires a lot of Damage from Gear to feel great. I plan to later revisit and test out Lightning Spear, but for League Start, I recommend Glacial Lance instead.

Glacial Lance fires at most 1 Projectile in a straight line, piercing all Enemies. A projectile's travel distance can be increased by increasing its Projectile Speed. Primal Bounty adds a ton of Projectile Speed, which we can also convert into Damage with Projectile Acceleration III.

Currently, it can not benefit from additional Projectiles. In 0.5, GGG has said that all Projectile Skills, which cannot benefit from additional Projectiles, will get an alternative effect instead. For Glacial Lance the most likely Outcome is like Ricochet III. As it was taken as an example for said change. Assuming this Glacial Lance will become an excellent Clear Skill for both Indoor and Outdoor Maps alike. It might be enough to make it a Bossing Skill for all Bosses with a Boss arena that contains Walled Edges, but that is too much speculation for this guide.

Single Target

Primal Strikes is a Payoff Skill that requires a shocked Target to show its full potential. Whenever attacking a shocked Target, a Spirit is released with the Attack, dealing massive Damage. Both the Attack and Spirit can hit the same Target.

Every 3rd use of Primal Strikes is a wide Swind that consumes Shock on the Target to release a Spirit Stampede. By scaling the Aera of Effect, the Spirits can Shotgun Enemies based on my current Testing.

An Enemy of which we consumed a Shock can not be directly shocked again. There is an innate cooldown. After which, we can reapply Shock. In 0.4 Thunderstorm with Shock Conduction II was best for this, but in 0.5 we have Spirit Stampede instead. Saving a Skill Slot and becoming fully automated.

Utility

Hand of Chayula is a personal Favourite of mine and will fit excellently on Spirit Walker. It is a Dash Skill that requires an Enemy, after Dashing it applies all Socketed Curses and Marks to the hit Enemy. While also granting increased Mark Effect!

IMPORTANT, you can only socket Mark & Curse Supports in Hand of Chayula AFTER the Curse/ Mark is socketed in, and the Game never recommends Curse & Mark Supports for Hand of Chayula

We can either use Freezing Mark or Voltaic Mark. I personally prefer Freezing Mark as we can easily proc it during Mapping for some neat bonus. To enable Voltaic Mark, a source of Electrocuting is required. We would need to sacrifice the Glove Slot or a Support Gem to enable that. Freezing Mark in comparison just requires any amount of Cold Damage or Damage as Extra Cold, which is way easier to achieve. On bosses, we mainly want ANY Mark on the Enemy to utilize The Noble Wolf and Marked for Sickness.

If you have enough intelligence, you can also use Elemental Weakness with Heightened Curse in Hand of Chayula. It pairs nicely with the innate Exposure from Primal Strikes and we only use Rakiata's Flow for Clear, to counteract Resistance Modifiers on Maps.

Hand of Chayula is our Opening Skill for Boss Fights and will proc Vivid Stampede while in Weapon Set 2, allowing our increased Magnitude of Shock from the Passive Tree to apply to Vivid Stampede.

Vidid Stampede is a Skill granted by the Spirit Walker Ascendancy. While moving, we get a Spirit Charge, up to 3. For each Spirit Charge, a Stag is released when attacking. The Stags have a decent Damage Multiplier and a high Chance to shock. They also leave guaranteed Shocked Ground behind. With the Sacred Unity Node allocated, the Stags will leap towards Enemies. It might be viable to use Vivid Stampede as the main Damage Skill for this build. However, it is planned to be used as a Utility Skill to apply Shock, Ignite, and Chill on any Boss we fight. I recommend using Supports to improve Ailment Chance and magnitude in Vivid Stampede, but we have to see what Supports are available for it to be sure what works.

Spirit Skills

This build requires 200 Spirit to use all Skills. This is achieved with any Sceptre.

Any access Spirit can be used for additional Spirit Supports like Clarity I in Combat Frenzy and Trinity

Any Spirit Supports socketed in Purity of Fire from Sacred Flame or Guiding Palm of the Heart don't reserve Spirit. [This might get fixed at any Patch, but while it is free, we use it]

War Banner is a great situational Damage boost, the added Attack Speed allows repeating the Bossing Rotation faster, and any more Damage Multiplier is always welcomed. Reserving War Banner only in your Weapon Set 2 requires being in WS 2 to place it, but it gathers Glory from Attacks with WS 1.

Combat Frenzy is required to generate Frenzy charges to use with Glacial Lance. Due to the changes to Crafting Modifiers in the 25.05 Update of the Patch Nodes, using Resonance and Armour Break III is no longer a viable Option, as we lack the Damage as Extra Physical.

Wind Dancer is a great Survivability Boost and deals pure Physical Damage, supporting it with Life Leech III and Knockback is a neat Trick for added Survivability.

Herald of Ice is our Herald of Choice for Clear, it causes additional Ice Explosions, which cannot Freeze. Helping us kill Rare Enemies that survived our initial Glacial Lance. Scaling the AoE with Magnified Area II and the Damage with supports like Elemental Armament II and Elemental Focus.

Trinity can be fully enabled on the Build if added Flat and as Extra Sources align, but even at just half to third full, it grants between 18 and 36 more Damage, which is an amazing Boost to get from using any Sceptre.

List of Good Spirit Supports to use for Free:

Warm Blooded
Cool Headed
Precision II
Clarity II
Vitality II
Cannibalism II

Priority

Socket (Greater & Perfect Jeweller Orb)

Primal Strikes
Glacial Lance
Herald of Ice
War Banner
Wind Dancer

Quality

Primal Strikes
Combat Frenzy
Hand of Chayula
Herald of Ice
Trinity
rest

Passive Tree

Early Endgame

Crit Swap

High Invest

main:

123

set 1:

set 2:

Annoint

0.5 adds hidden annoints we currently don't know of yet. For now, the standard options apply.

Early Cheap Annoint: Serrated Edges

Lategame Es Annoint: Subterfuge Mask

Lategame Damage Annoint: Barbaric Strength

Passive Tree

The Passive Tree requires at minimum Level 72, respec early is not recommended.

Allocate all Damage Nodes first, then the Evasion Nodes in Range.

After start pathing towards and allocating the Crit Nodes. This continues till Level 90. Once the outside Path is connected, drop the inner Connection and the Damage nodes next to it.

Level 90+ is just shifting Nodes around whenever a Unique Jewel gets added to the build to optimize Pathing.

Attributes

Mainly allocate Dexterity.

Adjust for Strength or Intelligence whenever needed for Support Capacity or Gem Level of Skills.

After reaching 157 Dexterity, allocate Intelligence Nodes for Elemental Weakness and eventually ES Swap.

Ascendancy

This Variant of Glacial Lance and Primal Strikes relies on the Spirit Walker Ascendancy.

Vivid Stampede
1. Required to apply Shock and other Ailments for Single Target
Primal Bounty
1. Required for Clear QoL
Wild Protector
1. Defensive Option to unlock Sacred Unity
Sacred Unity
1. Free to take after allocating all 3 Spirit Notables above, granting each a bonus
Mhacha's Gift OR Morrigan's Guidance
1. Mhacha's Gift could be huge depending on Glacial Lance changes, but further information is required
2. Morrigan's Guidance is my current recommendation, as more Shock Magnitude means more single-target damage

Jewels

Rare

Good Jewels are the basis of any good Build, this one is no different. Here is a list of good Jewel Modifiers in order of Importance:

Critical Damage Bonus / Critical Damage Bonus with Spears
Mana on Kill
Attack Speed / Attack Speed with Spears
Life on Kill
Critical Hit Chance
Shock Magnitude / Ailment Magnitude / Ailment Magnitude with Critical Strikes
Movement Speed

The Passive Tree has 2 great Spots for Time-Lost Jewels

Either a Time-Lost Emerald or Time-Lost Sapphire works on the Outer Attribute Highway between Ranger and Druid. This Socket reaches Heartstopping, Stupefy and even The Fabled Stag for up to 6 allocated Notables in Range, without increasing the Radius. Priorities increase Notable Effect, and Notable also grants Crit Damage Bonus here.

Another Great Spot is the Ranger Mainpath Socket. Increasing the Radius to Medium puts 3 Notables in Range, which is the Threshold to outvalue the Modifiers on generic Jewels. I also really like Small Passive grant Energy Shield or grant Evasion Rating here.

Other Good Time-Lost Mods are:

Crit Hit Chance
Attack Speed
Spear attack Speed
Life on Kill
Mana on Kill

Unique

Unique Jewels are some of the Most Powerful Items in Path of Exile 2.

In 0.5 we get access to Voices. A powerful Jewel that grants additional Jewel Sockets. Turning 1 Socket into 2-4. Great to place our generic Rare Jewels or Uniques, which don't require a specific Spot. However, I expect Voices to be both Rare and Expensive. So do no plan on it for now.

From Nothing for Dance with Death allows to allocate Powerful Spear Nodes without needing to travel through the small Nodes leading up to them, saving 6 Passive Points!

Massive Controlled Metamorphosis on the Monk Main Path allows to allocate Deadly Force and Moment of Truth directly saving even more Passive Points. Those can be instead spent on Disciplined Training, Shattering, Concussive Attack, and Wild Storm

Heart of the Well has various great Stats for us:

Damage as Extra X
Crit Damage Bonus
Crit Hit Chance
Evasion from Body Armour
Ailment Threshold
Stun Threshold
Life on Kill
Mana on Kill

Quest Rewards

Check which quests you’ve completed on your character

Clearfell — Beira of the Rotten Pack

+10% to Cold Resistance

Freythorn — The King in the Mists

+30 to Spirit

Ogham Manor — Candlemass, the Living Rite

+20 to maximum Life

The Spires of Deshar — Sisters of Garukhan

+10% to Lightning Resistance

Valley of the Titans — Medallion

30% increased Charm Charges gained

+1 Charm Slot

The Azak Bog — Ignagduk, the Bog Witch

+30 to Spirit

Jiquani's Machinarium — Blackjaw, the Remnant

+10% to Fire Resistance

The Venom Crypts — Venom Draught

25% increased Stun Threshold

Abandoned Prison — Goddess of Justice

30% increased Life Recovery from Flasks

Eye of Hinekora — Navali's Rest

5% increased Maximum Mana

Halls of the Dead — Ngamahu's Test

+5% to Fire Resistance

Halls of the Dead — Tasalio's Test

+5% to Cold Resistance

Halls of the Dead — Tawhoa's Test

+5% to Lightning Resistance

The Khari Crossing — Molten Shrine

5% increased Maximum Life

Qimah — Tabana's Pillar

+5% to all Elemental Resistances

Kriar Village — Lythara, the Wayward Spear

+40 to Spirit

How it Plays

Mapping

Use Glacial Lance / Lightning Spear for clear

Generate Frenzy Charges with Fury of the Mountain when needed

Continue to use Glacial Lance / Lightning Spear

If a Rare doesn't die instantly, use Explosive Spear

If you feel like you need even more Firepower use Barrage.

Bossing

Generate Frenzy Charges with Fury of the Mountain
Use Barrage
Generate 3 more Frenzy charges if Perpetual Charge did not proc.
Fire Explosive Spear

Return to Step 1 if Boss is still alive

Survivability Layers

Life, ES (later Stages of the Build) and Runic Ward Hit Pool
Evasion
18% Less Damage Taken from Wild Protector
Seraph's Heart in Purity of Fire (no additional Spirit Cost)
Deflection
Leech-based recovery (assuming Ordained)
Life Regen from Wild Protector
Ghost Dance for ES Recovery

Changelog

25.05.2026 | Inital Writeup

03.06.2026 | Rewrote High Investment Variant for Endgame use with Explosive Spear

Video Guide

Build Planner Export

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Path of Building Code

1. Build Overview Overview Levelling Why not Twister What Ascendancy to play on 2. Strengths and Weaknesses 3. Build Variants 4. Equipment 5. Skill Gems 6. Passive Tree 7. Quest Rewards 8. How it Plays Mapping Bossing Survivability Layers 9. Changelog

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