0.2 Best Huntress/Ranger Leaguestart Campaign Guide

WARNING | We got datamined Gem Changes on PoE2DB now, a section has been added in the Build Overview bellow talking about how they affect this Build.

What Classes can use this?

This Ranger Leveling Guide uses all the Tricks from Speedrunners to minimize Campaign Time while optimizing for Damage.

While it is intended to go Deadeye, you can also do this for Pathfinder, tho it is recommended to respec to Poisonous Concoction on Pathfinder.

This leveling will also work on Huntress into Amazon. If you want a worked-out Gem Progression for Leveling. However, due to GGG not showing all the Skill Gem Changes yet, I will mention the Warning again. The % Damage Effectiveness of the Skills might be killed so much that we won't do smooth Damage. If that is the case, no Skill will likely do Damage, though.

Lategame Viability

The Passive Tree in the Passive Tree view is for Level 60, but the PoB contains Passive Tree Variants up to Level 90. The Build with either Variant should work to get you up to T15 Maps. During the Progression, it is recommended to swap into any viable Endgame Build.

Regex for Town Vendor

"COL|LIGHT|FIRE|MOV|STRE|TO ATT|UM LI|CK SP| IRIT"

Important Patch Note Changes

• Many Skills have had their base damage and/or damage growth per level rebalanced. Most of these changes are not specifically mentioned below, as the changes are too widespread.
• • Biggest Issue, we don't know if the %Attack Damage for any of our Skills is significantly nerfed, so we have to expect that every Skill has less Damage. Likely no Frost Bomb + Contagion for Level 1-5
• Lightning Rod Arrow now disappears after being Chained to 6 times at all Gem levels (previously 8-14 times at Gem levels 1-20). Arrows now take 1 second to charge up before releasing a Lightning Burst when chained to. Lightning Arrows that chain to Lightning Rod arrows cause the pulse to happen instantly instead of needing to charge up.
• • The Chain Amount might be whatever, but the 1 Second Delay will cause significant Damage loss with Orb of Storms, might just be more viable using a Lightning Arrow Trigger Setup
• Gas Arrow, Gas Grenades, and Decompose now have a limit of 6 Poison Clouds.
• • Gas Arrow cannot be pre-stacked as much anymore, but we can still use it for a big Damage burst, assuming the %Attack Damage is not gutted.
• Stormcaller Arrow's Bolt now has 500% more chance to Shock (previously 800%).
• • Insignificant Change for us
• Lightning Rod got nerfed to a 30% chance for Lightning Damage to be Lucky, still really solid and will be used, no other significant Changes to Passive Tree Skills as far as I can see

0.2 Skill Gem Changes:

• Slight Numerical Nerf to Frost Bomb, Gas Arrow(also Limited to 6) and Flame Wall.
• Lightning Rod limited to 20 and can only be triggered once per Second from Non-Lightning Arrow Skills.
• Heavy Numerical Nerf to Herald of Thunder and Stormcaller Arrow.
• Slight buff to Freezing Salvo Lategame and Freeze Buildup to adjust for the reduced Base Freeze Buildup Rate.
• Slight Buff to Lightning Arrow and Lightning Rod Lategame Damage Effectiveness.
• Slight reduction of Lategame Base Mana Cost of all Attack Skills.

What does this change for us?

Gas Arrow Wins out and is going to be the recommended Single Target skill over Lightning Rod, but due to no additional Need for Support Gems outside of Chain on Lightning Arrow, we can test both in-game and decide to use what feels better.

We should still use Stormcaller Arrow for Clear due to Shotgunning, it will still clear Packs better than Lightning Arrow. However, our Single Target will feel bad till Level 22. The nerf to Scattershot does not allow us to do any significant Damage with Lightning Rod before acquiring a Dualstring Bow. Once we have Damage from Gear and Passive Tree, we will be fine, but Act 1 will take longer due to the Bosses dying slower and us needing to reposition more often.

Once Level 22 we could use Stormcaller Arrow to apply Shock and mainly use Gas Arrow AND Flame Wall for Single Target and the Build will be just fine.

For a 'safe' Leveling Experience, as in using Skill Setups known to us and that will still overall work, this should still be the best Option we have to get through the Campaign and upgrade out of asap once in Maps.

Clear

Stormcaller Arrow secondary Explosion has a good % Attack Damage Modifier and will clear Packs of Monsters in 1-2 Hits with a proper Bow. We use Scattershot and Dualstring Bow for additional Projectiles.

Use Freezing Salvo for Bigger Packs once 12 Shots are charged.

Herald of Thunder will help with clearing and buffing us with Innervate regularly. Due to Stormcaller Arrow almost guaranteed Shocking, we have a consistent Herald of Thunder uptime.

Single Target

During Act 1 and the first half of Act 2, Stormcaller Arrow will also be our Single Target Skill, by Gem Swapping Scattershot for Lightning Infusion or Concentrated Effect (once you have good flat Damage on Gear)

Lightning Rod Variant

After Level 28 and using a Dualstring Bow we use Lightning Rod to burst any Boss out of Existence.

Our Single Target Rotation is:

• Prefire Lightning Rod
• Apply Voltaic Mark (Weapon Set 2 once we have the Mark Nodes)
• Activate Barrage
• Use Lightning Arrow to trigger Lightning Rod
• Repeat
• • Fire 3-5 Lightning Rod
  • Fire 3-5 Lightning Arrow
• Till Boss is Dead

If Barrage is off cooldown again, reuse Barrage.

Use Freezing Salvo after you have repositioned due to the Boss AoE Attack or to finish filling the Freeze Meter.

Gas Arrow Variant

With Tier 7 Gems at Level 22 we unlock access to Gas Arrow

The Single Target Rotation is:

• Prefire 2 Gas Arrow
• Place Flame Wall
• Apply Voltaic Mark
• Proc Shock with Stormcaller Arrow
• Activate Barrage
• Fire Gas Arrow

Replace Flame Wall whenever the Ignite on the Boss Ends

If Shock expires and Boss is still above Half Life reapply Voltaic Mark and Stormcaller Arrow

If Barrage is off cooldown again, reuse Barrage.

Use Freezing Salvo after you have repositioned due to the Boss AoE Attack or to finish filling the Freeze Meter.

Moving around

When no Enemies are around, we can use Shield Charge to move faster through the Zone.

In later Zones, we use Leap Slam for moving through the Zone, or we skip Packs with Leap Slam into Dodge Roll in Zones where we don't care about Killing (for Example in Dreadnought, where we just try to get to the final Checkpoint)

Stormcaller Arrow

Stormcaller Arrow has 2 Steps. First the Projectile, then a secondary Explosion after 1.5 Seconds. The Explosion deals the main Portion of the Damage due to having a fairly high %Attack Damage Modifier. With Scattershot and Magnified Effect this can clear an entire Pack in one Attack with the Explosions overlapping.

The Stormcaller Arrow Projectile does not disappear when reaching the maximum travel distance. It will land on a Wall or the Ground, if it hasn't hit any enemies, and still explode after 1.5 Seconds dealing AoE Damage to any Enemies near it.

Lightning Arrow + Lightning Rod

Same as Stormcaller Arrow, Lightning Rod has 2 Steps. First is the Projectile that gets fired into the Air and lands where you targeted, the second is a short AoE Burst of Damage. Lightning Rod can be triggered by chaining Lighting Skills, such as Lightning Arrow and Orb of Storms. In our case, we use Lightning Arrow, cause of the changes to Lightning Rod. While Lightning Arrow can not chain, the beam can. So whenever we hit an Enemy with Lightning Arrow, it will fire 2 Beams that will Chain to the Lightning Rods.

By swapping between firing Lightning Arrow and Lightning Rod we place close to our cap of 20 Lightning Rod and then trigger them with Lightning Arrow, to retrigger the Lightning Rod.

Gas Arrow

Gas Arrow has 2 Steps. The first is a Gas Cloud that applies a Poison to every Enemy inside. Using a Detonating Skill, or in our case, an Enemy ignited by Flame Wall will detonate the Gas Clouds, dealing Fire Damage to all Enemies in the Explosion. If fired close to the player, the Gas Clouds will overlap, shotgunning the Enemies inside. If fired further away, the Gas Clouds spread out, covering more ground. As long as an ignited Enemie stands on top where the Arrows land all fired Gas Arrows will instantly explode and deal the On-Hit Damage.

Scattershot VS Damage Support

Scattershot in 0.2 reduces Damage by 35% and Attack Speed by 20%

Comparing it to a Damage Support like Close Combat or Primal Armament

• 4 Arrows at 65% Damage is 260% Damage Total
• 2 Arrows with 125% Damage is 250% Damage Total
• • We attack 20% faster, which evens out the Damage Difference.

Gear

Bow and Quiver are essential for any Bow Build, keep those as updated and good as you can.

Bow

You want to upgrade your bow regularly, it is super important for the Build to feel good!

Use the default Crude Bow till level 5, then buy a Shortbow from the vendor, unless you get a good Bow dropped. At Level 11, look for a Magic or Rare Warden Bow, and at Level 16 for a Recurve Bow, preferably with a Tier 2 Flat Damage or %Physical Modifier. Repeat the process of a forced Bow Upgrade at Level 22 for a Composite Bow and finally at Level 28 for a Dualstring Bow. Safe and prepare Crafting Resources, like Artificer Orbs, Orb of Alchemys, Regal Orbs, and Exalted Orbs for this. You will be stuck on a for a while, so make sure it is good. The additional Arrow is important for both clear and Single Target, more on this in How it Works. Only upgrade for a Bow with at least double the DpS on any Base or a Advanced Dualstring Bow with good Stats.

Desired Bow Stats are:

• %Physical Damage
• Flat Damage
• Attack Speed
• Level of Bow Gems

Quiver

Unlike the Bow, we aren't forced to upgrade Quiver Bases. Preferably you want a Double Flat Damage Quiver, but we rely on finding a decent Quiver of the Vendor or Ground. Early on, use a Broadhead Quiver or Fire Quiver Bases, later on, use any Base with good Stats. Those Stats include:

• % Bow Damage
• Flat Damage
• Attack Speed
• [neat to have] Life or Mana on Kill

Other Gear Notes

In Act 1 look for Iron Rings and flat Damage on Gloves. Try to Transmute and Augment Rings for the hope of more Flat Damage Prefixes.

Collect Socket Items and stash them till you unlock the Salvaging Bench. You want at least 2 Artificer Orbs when you hit Level 28.

Keep your Bases up to date, a high-level Magic Item can compete with a lower-level Rare Item, due to better Base Defenses and chance to roll higher Tier Affixes.

Keep Runes for the Bow, only use Spare Runes on Gear that dropped with Sockets for better Resistances.

Don't worry about disenchanting Magic and Rare Items, sell them to Vendors for Gold, we use Gold to buy potential Upgrades and Respecing. If you have enough Gold, you can disenchant Uniques for Chance Shards.

27.03.2025 | Initial Writing of the Guide

03.04.2025 | Updating based 0.2 Patch Notes

04.04.2025 | Gem Changes got Datamined and are on PoE2DB, a Section with Details has been added to Build Overview