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PoE 2 Build

0.5 Ice Shot Deadeye Leveling Guide

Ranger

Deadeye

Starter

Speed Leveling

0.5.5 FR

Beginner

Fubgun

Verified

By Fubgun

LIVE

Updated on Sep 12, 2026

Sep 12, 2026

Build Overview

This is my leveling guide for Ice Shot Deadeye, swap to the endgame guide after campaign.

Endgame Guide: https://mobalytics.gg/poe-2/builds/ice-shot-deadeye

While this is a Ice Shot leveling guide, you unfortunately don't unlock the skill until lvl 31, so you have to start off with Lightning Arrow and Lightning Rod.

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Follow the leveling filter from here: https://www.pathofexile.com/item-filter/orPBmkto
(Just click follow, go in game and you'll see it in your filter list).

Build Variants

lvl 1-14

lvl 15-23

lvl 24-30

lvl 31-41

lvl 42-59

lvl 60+

Equipment

lvl 1-14

lvl 15-23

lvl 24-30

lvl 31-41

lvl 42-59

lvl 60+

Set 1

Set 2

Equipment Priority

+11

Early boss kill order for a smooth experience:
Devourer(Mud barrow) > cold witch(Clearfell) > hut witch(Grelwood) > rust king(red vale)
If you're more experience, feel free to skip devourer.

Early Support gem order:
Rapid Attacks I(LA) > Elemental Armament I(LA) > Concentrated Area(LR) > 2nd Elemental Armament I

In act 1 it's very important to have gear with flat damage to attacks (can be elemental or phys, just whatever gives you the highest dps). At lvl 11 you want to get a Warden Bow, you're just looking for the highest DPS one you drop or buy from the vendor. You're not looking to use any resources on this bow, as you want to make a 6 mod Recurve Bow at lvl 16 with 2 sockets. So save your artificers orb, exalts, regals and alchemy orbs.

Remember to get a Shortbow in Red Vale and reach lvl 5 before fighting rust king. Trans/aug both your bow/quiver whenever you acquire them.

Flask: Remember to constantly upgrade your life/mana flask throughout campaign, you can always buy a new one at the vendor when you meet the lvl requirements for the next tier (lvl 10, 16, 23, 30, 40, 50 and 60).

Quiver: One with +lvls and high amount of flat damage, the base isn't too important.

Also look at the vendor in town every 1-2 lvls for flat damage gloves, every source of flat damage for the build is massive in act 1 and act 2.

Boots: Movement speed on boots is also extremely good if you can find them, try to search the vendor every 1-2 lvls. I would never swap out movement speed boots, only replace them with other boots that have movement speed.

Other gear:
Ideally you should stick to evasion or evasion/es hybrid gear, but use whatever looks best at the time.
Helmet/belt/amulet are good slots to acquire attributes (str on belt, dex or int on helmet).

Besides that you're just looking for life/resist on gear, but flat damage is the most important on gloves/rings. High evasion chest is also quite good for defense if you find one.

-Important
Always salvage weapons with quality for whetstones and always salvage items with sockets for artificers orb, this is extremely important for gear upgrades throughout the campaign.

I also personally prefer to vendor all rares for gold to gamble in act 3 or act 4 for better gear.

Skill Gems

lvl 1-14

lvl 15-23

lvl 24-30

lvl 31-41

lvl 42-59

lvl 60+

Support Gem Requirements:

Str 10

Dex 5

Int 10

Lightning Arrow

Lightning Rod

Frost Bomb

Herald of Thunder

Barrage

Ice-Tipped Arrows

Pounce

Gem Priority

Early boss kill order for a smooth experience:
Devourer(Mud barrow) > cold witch(Clearfell) > hut witch(Grelwood) > rust king(red vale)
Grab Rapid Attacks I after killing devourer and Elemental Armament I after hut witch.

Early Support gem order:
Rapid Attacks I > Elemental Armament I > Concentrated Area > 2nd Elemental Armament I

Early on when you lack support gems, you'll have to gem swap Elemental Armament I from lightning arrow to lightning rod on bosses, this is very important for boss damage. Or if you lack the strength requirement to use 2 at the same time.

Get Lightning Rod first and than Frost Bomb (should have both before devourer/cold witch, there's a chest in clearfell that always drops a lvl 1 skill gem).

Herald of Thunder is your still your ideal spirit gem because you can't swap to Ice Shot until lvl 31 and by than you'll have another spirit gem for Herald of Ice.

Pounce is used for mobility, grab it when you get a spare skill gem. I tend to drop it mid act 2 or act 3, as you run out of skill slots. You do need a talisman in your offhand for this to work, which is easy to find (use a low level one for low strength requirement). But this optional, can skip if you want less buttons.

---important!!!!
Because we're doing a mini skill swap at lvl 24, you'll need to save some uncut skill gems/supports for later. Do not use ANY lvl 6 or lvl 7 uncut gems before the swap.

Passive Tree

lvl 1-14

lvl 15-23

lvl 24-30

lvl 31-41

lvl 42-59

lvl 60+

main:

123

set 1:

set 2:

Take whatever attribute you need at the time, you'll default to dex if you don't need anything. You should also lookout for good attribute amulets or a strength belt to help out with requirements later on.

Ascendancy order:
Projectile Proximity Specialisation(point blank) -> Endless Munitions -> Gathering Winds

Quest Rewards

Check which quests you’ve completed on your character

Clearfell — Beira of the Rotten Pack

+10% to Cold Resistance

Hunting Grounds — The Crowbell

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

Freythorn — The King in the Mists

+30 to Spirit

Ogham Farmlands — Una's Hut

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

Ogham Manor — Candlemass, the Living Rite

+20 to maximum Life

Keth — Kabala, Constrictor Queen

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

Valley of the Titans — Medallion

30% increased Charm Charges gained

+1 Charm Slot

Deshar — Final Letter

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

The Spires of Deshar — Sisters of Garukhan

+10% to Lightning Resistance

Jungle Ruins — Mighty Silverfist

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

The Venom Crypts — Venom Draught

25% increased Stun Threshold

Jiquani's Machinarium — Blackjaw, the Remnant

+10% to Fire Resistance

The Azak Bog — Ignagduk, the Bog Witch

+30 to Spirit

The Molten Vault — The Molten Vault

Reforging Bench

Aggorat — Blood Sacrifice

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

Journey's End — Captain Hartlin

Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

Skill Gem(Lv 13)

Delirium Drop

Whakapanu Island — Great White One

+30% increased Global Armour, Evasion and Energy Shield

Eye of Hinekora — Navali's Rest

5% increased Maximum Mana

Halls of the Dead — Yama The White

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

Halls of the Dead — Tawhoa's Test

+5 to Dexterity

Abandoned Prison — Goddess of Justice

30% increased Life Recovery from Flasks

Halls of the Dead — Tasalio's Test

+5% to Cold Resistance

Halls of the Dead — Ngamahu's Test

+5% to Fire Resistance

Halls of the Dead — Tribal Medicine

+30% increased Global Armour, Evasion and Energy Shield

Wolvenhold — Oswin, the Dread Warden

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

The Khari Crossing — Akthi and Anundr

Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

The Khari Crossing — Molten Shrine

5% increased Maximum Life

Qimah — Tabana's Pillar

3% increased Movement Speed

Kriar Village — Lythara, the Wayward Spear

+40 to Spirit

Howling Caves — The Abominable Yeti

Grants Two Weapon Set Passive Skill Points

Comments

CoolShield•1h ago

Why use weapon set 1 and 2, if I am using only one bow?

GrimFlame•4d ago

SO WHEN IT SHOWS ANY ATTRIBUTE WHAT SHOES I BE PUTTING FROM THESE LOWEER LVLS ON THE TREE TO HIGHHER LEVELS

Pharcyde•5d ago

I understand weapon swapping but I dont see a secondary weapon to use on the swap so where is mark benefitting?

RustyShield•7d ago

Herald of ice on both weapon sets? Or just 1

jrock2004•7d ago

I still need to figure out it but when we switch to weapon set passives, I am not sure the best way to do it beyond doing a full tree respec

ShinyKey•7d ago

how you can assign skills to weapon set 2 whan you dont have second weapon?

jrock2004•7d ago

Make sure you have nothing in 2nd weapon slot. You then can right click the "I" above your weapon and it sets the same one to both 1 and 2

WorthyDragon•9d ago

How do I get enough int for pounce or upgrades on frost bomb?

StoneDagger•8d ago

You don't. Drop them both at act 1 or 2

View 1 reply

jrock2004•7d ago

Attributes on gear. Travel nodes, I usually put 1 or 2 with int.

I am Uncut•10d ago

Could someone explain the spirit usage for me.

We‘re using 3 skills that each use 30 spirit but at my current point I have max 60..

Do I need a chest or something with +spirit?

Timote•10d ago

When you get to the interludes the doryani quest line gives you an additional 40 spirit. Until then you can pick up an amulet pretty cheap that has at least +30 spirit on it so you can run all 3 gems.

Later in the end game you might want to try and target an amulet that has +50 spirit or maybe even a little bit more so you can run all the lineage gems, but that will be a bit before you get there. For now, +30 on an amulet would be good until you get to mapping. Once you get the +40 in the interludes, the additional +spirit on your amulet will let you run herald of ice, wind dancer, combat frenzy and mirage archer all at the same time as long as you pick up a good unset ring for the extra gem slot.

View 1 reply

ichaos monk•12d ago

fun build, what does it mean when youre skills are showing pink and green?

Timote•10d ago

The pink skills are set to weapon set 1, and the green skills are set to weapon set 2. Likewise, the passive tree has some routes and nodes in red and others in green. The red ones (attack nodes) use weapon set one and the green ones (defensive nodes) should be set to weapon set two. Double dipping very nicely :D

View 1 reply

fuzzybaztard•12d ago

why does the build show herald of thunder but then it mentions herald of ice in the quality priority list??

RustyFlame•11d ago

You swap over to herald of ice lvl 31 when u get ice shot

Timote•10d ago

If you read through the leveling stages shown on the tabs at the top (and also in the writeup descriptions) you’ll see that you swap out Herald of Thunder for Hrald of Ice as soon as you’re leveled enough to to cut that gem.

Don’t waste quality on Herald of Thunder as you are replacing it very early.