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PoE 2 Build

Siege Cascade Tactician

0.4 TLotD

End Game

Mercenary

Tactician

Creator

Featured

By Cyclon Definitiv

Updated on Dec 29, 2025

Dec 29, 2025

Build Overview

Siege Cascade is an insane Skill that does both nuke Bosses with ease and anahilate Hordes of Enemies with Auto Aim. This build is the true Run & Gun personification in Path of Exile 2.

Never runs out of Mana and One-Button Game Play, with 2 optional Buttons that help with Bosses and Pinnacles.

Able to go either Physical with Bleed or Elemental its versatile to adjust to any meta Changes.

As a Tactician with A Solid Plan, we can use all the Skill Slots for Spirit Gems to buff us up instead of wasting them on nothing.

The build also has a decent Survivability with Morior Invictus (life) and a 3k Hit Pool. Bolstered with 13k Armour for both Physical and Elemental Damage, 4k Deflection Rating and Leech for Recovery.

Overall the Siege Cascade Tactician is a S-Tier Mapper with A-Tier Bossing. Able to face any danger the Game Throws at us!

Strengths and Weaknesses

One-Button Gameplay
High Single Target
Absurd Screen-wide Clear
Herald Explosions
Good Survivability
Leech Recovery
'Freeze' Survivability Layer
No Mana Issues
Versitile
Cheap to start

Expensive to Max
Can't Kill T3 Pinnacle Bosses in 1-2 Seconds(takes ~10)

Build Variants

Siege Cascade has no Innate Damage Conversion so based on our Weapon we can go pure Physical or Cold/Lightning Elemental.

The Physical Variant is Bleed Based for its Damage and uses Herald of Blood with Bone Shrapnel for Herald Chain Explosions.

It excels at Map Bosses and Clear. The Single Target during Pinnacle Bosses is a bit lacking as we loose a lot of Damage while the Enemy isn't pinned. While this does extend the Pinnacle Boss Fights, it doesn't mean they are impossible. The build is very much capable of Killing T3 Pinnacle Bosses.

Equipment

Set 1

Set 2

Equipment Priority

Weapon Lock your Crossbow to use it in both Weapon Set 1 and 2 (right Click the II above the Weapon Slot to lock it)

Crossbow

We cannot benefit from Elemental Damage for the Physical Variant.

So we want as much Physical DpS on our Crossbow as possible. If you selfcraft your Weapon, Damage as Extra Physical is also acceptable.

For the Suffixes 5+ Level to Attack or Projectile Gems is a must, we can also use Base crit, Attack Speed or Onslaught on Kill.

The Best Bases are Flexed Crossbow or Desolate Crossbow.

Body Armour

Morior Invictus with Spirit and Life Resistance is required to keep this Build running. Preferable we would like Life, but Attributes is also decent.

Sockets should be 1 Amanamu's Gaze for extra Flat Armour, then get a Mix with Soul Core of Citaqualotl, Soul Core of Tacati & Soul Core of Jiquani. Priotise on capping Resistances first, then use the rest on % Life.

Gloves

Sine Aequo are Insane for the Build. In combination with Tactician Ascendancy we can instantly Pin every Normal, Magic and Rare Enemy and almost instantly Pin Map Bosses. Then getting 20% More Damage for the duration of the Pin. If to expensive use Rare Gloves with Life, Armour and a Suffix Mix of Resistances & Armour applies to Elemental Resistances.

Rare Gear

For the Rest of the Rare Gear we want as much of Life, Armour and Resistances as we can get.

There are also specific Mods we want on each Item.

Belt

Rare Plate Belt with Armour, Life & Resistances. Strength is also a decent Stat as it allows to allocate more Attribute Points into Dexterity.

Unique Alternatives for the Belt slot are Ryslatha's Coil and Headhunter

Ryslatha's Coil with a solid Roll is a Big Damage Boost to our Build, but we will get Stat Starved and might have to adjust Gem Levels on our Skills.

Headhunter is insane for Mapping and gives both Strength and Dexterity, but won't do anything for Pinnacle Boss Fights.

[Footage from Video is with Headhunter, Ryslathas is about 25% more Damage]

Amulet

Amulet is one of the few Sources of % Life we have access to. So best Stats on Amulet are +3 to Projectile Attacks with % Life and Flat Life.

Other good Stats are % Armour & Resistances

I recommend a Amber Amulet or Jade Amulet

Top Annoint is Bestial Rage, not even expensive.

Rings

Invest well into your Rings, they provide several Good Stats for us.

You want High Flat Physical Damage, Flat Life, Flat Evasion (if using Iron Reflexes) and any Amount of Attributes or Resistances on the Suffixes.

Helmet

Look for High Armour or Armour / Evasion (if using Iron Reflexes) with T1 Flat Life and any Amount of Resistances & Attributes.

Boots

Highest Priority is of course Movement Speed.

Also Look for High Armour or Armour / Evasion (if using Iron Reflexes) with T1 Flat Life and any Amount of Resistances & Attributes.

Flasks & Charms

Olroth's Resolve is a Solid Chase Item for the Build helping with survivability, but by no means required. With Overleech we can easily recover any Amount of Life, so as long as we do not get one shot we wont die. A solid Ultimate Life Flask with Instant Recovery or More Recovery on Low Life is also perfect.

Lavianga's Spirits for the Mana Flask is fine but any Ultimate Mana Flask also works. We only use Mana for Artillery Ballista.

For Charms we want a Staunching Charm, a Thawing Charm and a Silver Charm.

Unique Alternatives are Nascent Hope, The Fall of the Axe and Rite of Passage.

For the Rite. Wolf, Cat or Stag are awesome cause of the Movement Speed. Chepaer alternatives are Bear or Ox for a defensive Boost.

Skill Gems

Support Gem Requirements:

Str 50

Dex 40

Int 40

Expand all

Siege Cascade

Artillery Ballista

Set 2

Mirage Archer

Herald of Blood

War Banner

Eternal Rage

Scavenged Plating

Charge Regulation

Combat Frenzy

Gem Priority

+27

Keep Mirage Archer and Combat Frenzy at Level 14 to 16 to reduce the Dexterity Requirement. Strength is the Stronger and Preffered Stat.

Siege Cascade

Siege Cascade is our Main Skill for Everything, the Build in Essence is a 1-Button Build, meaning 1 Button for all Content. Siege Cascade fires 1 Bolt at every Enemy in a 4 Meter Radius which explodes after a Moment. Both Bolt and Explosion can Damage an Enemy and require Accuracy Rating to hit.

If the Enemy is immobilised(pinned) they take more Damage. The Bolt can Pin the Enemy for the Explosion to deal the more Damage.

By Supporting Siege Cascade with Ratha's Assault, we Reload 5 Bolts instantly whenever we Dodge Roll. This means no manual Reloading which would cost us Mana. We can freely Spam Siege Cascade, then Reload with a Dodge Roll and never run out of Mana.

Magnified Area II is insane for Siege Cascade, it scales the Bolt Impact AoE, the Explosion AoE and the Enemy Target Range AoE.

Projectile Acceleration III is the Last Key Support for Siege Cascade. Siege Cascade has a Delay between the Attack and the Bolts landing on the Enemies. If the Enemies move in the meantime the Bolt will Miss. By investing into Projectile Speed we can decrease the Time needed for the Bolt to Land. Projectile Acceleration III both increases the Speed further with a More Boost and adds our Projectile Speed as Damage.

Bleed III allows Siege Cascade Physical Hit to apply Bleed & Brutality III is the biggest Damage Boost we can get from Supports.

During Pinnacle Boss Fights we can replace Magnified Area II with Concentrated Area for additional Damage.

Additional Single Target Damage Boost

While I claim this is a One-Button Build, we have 2 Additional Buttons to Press if we want to maximize Single Target Damage.

Artillery Ballista helps with Armour Break and Pin Build up for Big Boss Fights & Pinnacles. We use it in Weapon Set 2 to force swap to Weapon Set 2 and then place the War Banner with Weapon Set 2 Banner Nodes allocated.

War Banner gives a Big Boost to our Damage and Attack Speed.

Our Last Single Target Boost is Mirage Archer which doesnt require a Button, it will automatically Trigger whenever we Dodge Roll. We can use a secondary Siege Cascade with Impale for Maps, but I highly recommend using High Velocity Rounds for Pinnacle Bosses, it applies Riven which acts as a secondary Impale. Both boosting our main Siege Cascade which will increase our Bleed DpS.

Herald of Blood

To take our Clear to even higher Extremes we can use Herald of Blood with Bone Shrapnel.

Pinning Normal and Magic Enemies is 0 Issues for the Build and we can assume that every Enemy we kill is Pinned.

Herald of Blood causes Bleeding Enemies to Explode in a Phys Explosion that cannot inflict Bleed, but if that Explosion causes enough Damage to Kill Bone Shrapnel will cause a Second Explosion that deals 25% of that Enemy Max Life as Physical Damage which can cause Bleeding.

This can result in additional Chain Explosions.

Combat Frenzy & Charge Regulation

While Siege Cascade does not interact with Frenzy Charges in any way, we can easily generate Charges with Combat Frenzy and get the Attack Speed boost of Charge Regulation.

We can also sometimes generate Endurance Charges with Armour Break III on Herald of Blood and Artillery Ballista. Giving us a big boost to our Armour.

Scavenged Plating

With Pin & Eroding Chains being our Main Interaction we can fully Armour Break anything. Scavenged Plating gives us More Armour whenever we do and having 100% uptime on 10 Stacks is a breeze.

Eternal Rage

With 44 Rage Eternal Rage gives us 44% More Damage with a couple Seconds of Ramp up time.

We can also utilize the Annoint Bestial Rage for 48% increased Damage on top.

If you do not like War Banner or Artillery Ballista you can replace them with Berserk

[If replacing Artillery Ballista make sure War Banner is only used in Weapon Set 2 and Berserk only in Weapon Set 1]

If using Berserk you need either 4.5% Regeneration or regurlarly use the Life Flask to recover the Life from the Damage Taken. We have Rage on getting Hit which temporarly stops the Life loss, but it is not consistent Enough to sustain on it.

Passive Tree

main:

123

set 1:

set 2:

Key Passive Tree Nodes

Eroding Chains with 100% increased Armour Break from the Passive Tree will fully Armour Break any Normal or Magic Enemy.

Rusted Pins Aggravate Bleeding, granting 100% More Bleed Damage on Pinned Enemies.

Battle Trance grants bonus Rage

Iron Reflexes is recommended to use the Random Evasion Rating we get from Rings and Uniques to actualy benefit the Build.

Weapon Set 1

Weapon Set 1 focuses on Bleed Damage Nodes we want while using Siege Cascade

Weapon Set 2

Weapon Set 2 focuses on Banner and Balista Nodes, we trigger Weapon Swap when using Artillery Ballista and can follow it up with War Banner.

Ascendancy

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

Jewels

Unique Jewels

From Nothing on Oasis to allocate Fast Acting Toxins, Catapult and couple other Decent Nodes around it.

Controlled Metamorphosis is a Option on the Blood Magic Jewel Socket to allocate Projectile Bulwark, Prism Guard & Vengeful Fury.

Rare Jewels

One Time-Lost Ruby with Bleed Magnitude and Projectile Speed next to Battle Trance

Two Ruby with % Armour and Bleed Magnitude, a decent Third Option is Rage when Hit.

How it Plays

Run and Gun

Fire Siege Cascade & Dodge Roll to reload + place Mirage Archer

Use Artillery Ballista and War Banner on Difficult Map Bosses and Pinnacle Bosses

How it Works

Siege Cascade

Siege Cascade has 2 Parts. The Bolt and the Explosion. On each Attack a Bolt is fired at every Enemy in a 4 Meter Radius.

The Bolt lands after a Short Delay, which can be shortened with Projectile Speed and Projectile Acceleration III

After another Short Delay the Bolt will Explode. The Target Range, Bolt Impact AoE and Explosion AoE can all be increased with Magnified Area II and Area of Effect.

All Crossbolt Skills do not consume Mana on Attack, instead they consume Mana on Reload. By supporting a Crossbolt Skill with Ratha's Assault we disable manual Reload, but instantly reload on Dodge Roll with no Mana Consumption.

Pin & Armour Break

Normaly only Physical Damage contributes to Pin Build Up and we need a source of causing it like Pin I or Bushwhack

With Right Where We Want Them from the Tactician all Damage can cause Pin Build Up.

Eroding Chains with break 100% increased Armour from any Sources like Gear or Passive Tree will fully Armour Break any Normal, Magic and Rare Enemy. Unique Bosses need slightly more Armour Broken to fully Armour break. We can use Artillery Ballista to help with Pin Buildup on Bosses and Armour Breaking the rest of their Armour.

As our Skills arent actualy causing the Armour Break, Armour Explosion will not Proc.

Spirit Reservation

With A Solid Plan and some additional Spirit from either Morior Invictus or a Against the Darkness we can use a LOT of Persistent Buffs. You can make sure if a Skill is a Persistent Buff by checking the Primary Tag bellow the Skill Name. If it says Minion it won't be reduced.