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PoE 2 Build

The Sniper King - Beginner Friendly [0.2.0 Buffs!]

Mercenary

Witchhunter

Creator

End Game

Starter

0.2 DotH

By Schwingy

Updated on Apr 14, 2025

Apr 14, 2025

Build Overview

0.2.0 Notes: I think we got buffed across the board! Crossbows are just way stronger in general, High Velocity Rounds does more damage to enemies that have had their armors broken. Looks like this build will be stronger than it was in 0.1.0, which is great because it did hit a ceiling at late endgame.

0.2.0 Edit: Add the Tame Beast gem to your setup and tame a beast with the Armor Break modifier for higher uptime on armor broken enemies. Brought to my attention by user ALusivar on Youtube.

Welcome to a beginner friendly guide for what I like to call the Sniper King (One Piece fans rejoice! 👒)

Videos:
T15 Map Showcase + Update

Build Guide

We play as a Mercenary (eventually a Witchhunter for those awesome explosions) and focus on using High Velocity Rounds as our main single target skill (putting the sniper in sniper king) in combination with Gas Grenade with lots of armour breaking supports like Corrosion and Demolisher to ensure that our sniper does tons of damage on fully armour broken enemies.

For big AoE and regular map clearing, we use Galvanic Shards as it really is the best ammo based clear skill crossbows have access to without too much investment, plus it's just satisfying as heck. It's basically a pump action lightning shotgun. Our big explosions come from Zealous Inquisition and Herald of Ash.

Add in some useful buffs like Scavenged Plating and Wind Dancer and this build can be surprisingly tanky while still dishing out great damage.

It has zero required unique items so anybody can pick this up as their first build and have a good time with it (as I have done).

The video guide goes over everything in more detail!

Build Variants

Early Endgame

Mid Endgame 2 div budget

The initial build setup for going into the endgame, while including information on how to progress through campaign.

Equipment

Early Endgame

Mid Endgame 2 div budget

Set 1

Set 2

Equipment Priority

Gearing this character is extremely simple. Don't get overwhelmed by the spedific information I'm about to share, instead just make do with what you find and have access to.

I'll be providing some links to the trade site to help you find appropriate gear more easily. Make sure to adjust the level requirements and attribute requirements to fit with your own character's progression.

Prioritize upgrading your weapon before upgrading anything else since your damage is entirely reliant on having a strong weapon.

We want crossbows with as much physical damage on them as possible. At all times while progressing through the acts, swap for a better weapon if it makes your DPS numbers in your gem tab go up. All of our skills' damage is based off the weapon's damage so it is the biggest contributor to doing big damage.

Most importantly we want:
-increased physical damage %
-increased physical damage % + accuracy (hybrid mod)
-adds x - x physical damage

Less important but nice:
-increased attack speed
-increased critical strike chance
-increased critical strike damage

If you can also fit in "loads an additional bolt" on your crossbow that would be amazing but that can be very expensive in the late game. It can be found as a suffix mod on any crossbow, or as the implicit mod on all Dyad Crossbows which I recommend late game.

"Grenades fire an additional projectile" is also a good implicit for our Gas Grenade, at the cost of not having an additional bolt from dyad crossbows.

Trade site link for a mid-tier endgame dyad crossbow like mine.

For the rest of our gear, we'll be wanting:
+ x to maximum life
+ x% to fire, cold, or lightning resistance (to be capped at 75% eventually)
+ % increased armour/evasion
+ x of any attributes we might be needing (strength, Dexterity, Intelligence)
+ chaos resistance (eventually - very late endgame)

For our helmet, chestpiece, we want: Life, Resistances, Armour/Evasion.

Trade site link for a mid-tier endgame body armour.
Trade site link for a mid-tier endgame helmet.

On boots we're looking for the same as above but we also want good movement speed (I like at least 25% in cruel and beyond). Trade link.

On gloves we want: life and resistances, but also "adds # physical damage to attacks" or "increased % attack speed". Trade link.

On our rings, amulet and belt we still want life, but these are also a good place to get any dexterity, intelligence or strength you might be missing to fully level up your gems.

For your amulet annointment (an endgame upgrade) a cheap easy one to put on there is Heavy Ammunition for some increased damage and easier stuns. 1x Distilled Guilt + 2x Distilled Greed.

For charms, I've gone with a stone charm, which helps against getting stunned, but a thawing charm for freezes would also be a good candidate. Ideally both if you can get a belt with "+1 charm slot" affix on it.

Make sure to have an appropriate life flask for your level at all times. Mana flask is much less important, but you'll still want one when you face off with a mana donut rare enemy.

Skill Gems

Early Endgame

Mid Endgame 2 div budget

Support Gem Requirements:

Str 50

Dex 45

Int 15

Expand all

High Velocity Rounds

Gas Grenade

Galvanic Shards

Vulnerability

Shard Scavenger

Scavenged Plating

Emergency Reload

Shield Charge

Herald of Ash

Flash Grenade

Tame Beast

Gem Priority

+22

Early on you won't have access to the core skills for the build which only unlock when you get tier 5 skill gems (late act one) so I recommend using a combination of Explosive Grenade, Flash Grenade, Fragmentation Rounds and Crossbow Shot. Our basic attack is actually surprisingly strong early on for single targets!

Once you unlock the core skills of High Velocity Rounds, Gas Grenade and Galvanic Shards, you should be good to go.

Make sure to put Double Barrel and Scattershot on High Velocity Rounds as soon as you can as they make the skill so dang satisfying to fire off. Heft and Brutality can be added later on for more damage. Don't be baited into using Longshot, we will often be in close range to our enemies. If you have a 6 socket version, I would add Ricochet for more chaining single target damage.

Gas Grenade needs to at the very least have Corrosion so that its poison damage also breaks the enemy's armour which is extra helpful since our High Velocity Rounds do double damage to enemies that have their armour broken.

Galvanic Shards can be supported with Pierce early on for better AoE clear but I eventually decided to stop using it, as the damage penalty is pretty significant, and we can grab some pierce on the passive skill tree. I recommend supporting it with Martial Tempo for increased attack (and reload) speed, Ammo Conservation (so you have to reload less often) and Close Combat since you'll be using this shotgun at enemies that are right up in your face most of the time. If you have a 5 socket version, I would add Fork for even better AoE clear. Highly recommended.

Vulnerability is a curse that makes enemies take more physical damage since armour gets ignored to some extent. Only use it on tanky rares and bosses. Its supports are just there for convenience. You can find Vulnerability in the Occult skill section when using an uncut gem.

Emergency Reload is a nice button to press for a free reload of our High Velocity Rounds that I like to use early on in fights with bosses. It has an extremely long cooldown (40+ seconds), but don't forget to use it.

Scavenged Plating gives you some extra armour whenever enemy armours are broken from your Gas Grenades, and Shard Scavenger gives you an extra free reload here and there.

Herald of Ash is a great substitute for Shard Scavenger if the build is feeling really smooth. It only helps with your AoE clear, and does nothing versus bosses so you can swap out of it for bosses if you want, but the fiery explosions are a welcome addition to the build! We support it with Magnified Effect for bigger explosions, and Precision for increased accuracy.

Also you can grab a random one handed mace and shield and throw those onto your 2nd weapon swap so that you can use Shield Charge in wide open areas for mobility! Make sure to allocate "use only weapon set 2" in the shield charge gem tab.

Flash Grenade + Devastate is a nice combo to have in addition to the gas grenades for some easy stuns and armour break on a cooldown. It's entirely optional, and I've replaced the Shield Charge for it in my current setup but not having Shield Charge to use when backtracking stinks. Your call.

Wind Dancer can be used instead of Shard Scavenger if you want even more defense!

0.2.0 addition:

Tame Beast can be used instead of one of the spirit gems, I would probably remove shard scavenger personally. Tame a beast with the Armor Break modifier for a more reliable uptime on armor broken enemies for High Velocity Rounds to get the bonus damage more often!

Passive Tree

Early Endgame

Mid Endgame 2 div budget

main:

123

set 1:

set 2:

The MOST IMPORTANT thing to rush for early on is the notable Instant Reload. This will dramatically increase the fun factor of the mercenary and playing crossbows. The reload speed of crossbows early on is incredibly slow, and just feels plain bad, so we want to lower that as much as we can, as soon as we can.

Grab the armour and evasion wheels whenever you feel like you're too squishy or dying a lot, otherwise focus on:

Quality of life like Reusable Ammunition, Repeating Explosives, Sand in the Eyes, and Adrenaline Rush,.

Outright damage like Overwhelm, Shrapnel, Giantslayer and Cull the Hordes (if you have gotten your 2nd ascendancy done). Getting "chain an additional time from terrain" chance is actually great for our High Velocity Rounds since they will usually bounce right back and hit the boss twice.

For ascendancy, I went for the Witchhunter and chose Zealous Inquisition first for those sweet sweet big AoE explosions which are absolutely worth grabbing early for maximum fun, followed by Pitiless Killer for culling strike which kills enemies before they reach 0 hp. Judge, Jury, and Executioner comes third and just makes fights go by a bit quicker with that initial extra burst of damage against enemies.

If you actually get all 4 ascendancy trials, I would take off Judge, Jury, and Executioner and instead grab Witchbane and No Mercy as those two combined increase DPS more significantly.

Still very experimental and early into our progression so we may change all of this around if other options end up being better.

How it Plays

The playstyle is rather simple and very satisfying. It took me a while to land on the right combination of skills and support gems, but I've settled for this setup and I think it is quite comfortable now.

I recommend using WASD controls if you are playing on pc. Crossbows are made for it.

For regular clearing white and blue mobs, we use Galvanic Shards with the occasional Gas Grenade for the slightly tankier enemies. Use Flash Grenade when you are surrounded, beware of flashing yourself though.

When facing off with actual tanky rare enemies or bosses it's 100% a case of throwing out a couple Gas Grenades and Vulnerability, then hitting them hard with our sniper aka High Velocity Rounds and going back and forth between grenades, vulnerability (as necessary) and sniper rounds until the enemy dies.

We also use Emergency Reload after emptying our High Velocity Rounds the first time for an extra free reload. There is a very long cooldown on it, so I like to use it at the start of a fight.

Changelog

12/27 - Changed the passive tree slightly (removed Full Salvo and added Cluster Bombs) and added the third ascendancy trial points of Judge, Jury, and Executioner. Also included Herald of Ash.

12/28 - Added a video guide! Found here. Updated gear section to include some trade site links to more easily find starter-mid endgame gear.

12/29 - Reorganized and simplified the gearing and gems sections to be easier to read and follow. Added some notes on Flash Grenade.

12/30 - Added a Mid Endgame variant for level 85 video here. Better gear, weapon swap tech and weapon set skills being utilised. Removed Shard Scavenger and replaced with Wind Dancer.

04/03 - Added a note at the top about the build in patch 0.2.0. Overall it looks like the build got buffed across the board.