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0.5.5 Cold Bow Explode Witchhunter League Starter Guide by Asmodeus

Mercenary

Witchhunter

Starter

0.5 RotA

By Asmodeus

Updated on Sep 1, 2026

Sep 1, 2026

Build Overview

This is a league starter guide for Cold Bow Explode Witchhunter. The guide comes with a detailed build file, full progression from campaign to level 90+ and a video guide - including a full campaign playthrough with commentary.

Playstyle

The playstyle consists of attacking with Ice Shot as your main clearing and freezing skill, and finishing off frozen targets, such as bosses, with Snipe, which is capable of dealing millions of damage in a single hit. For tougher targets, the build utilizes Tornado Shot to multiply the Ice Shot hits and massive debuffs from Freezing Mark, Frost Bomb and Elemental Weakness boosted by secondary Weapon Set Passives.

You either attack with Ice Shot and the Herald of Ice combined with Zealous Inquisition explodes the packs; or you debuff the target, freeze it with Ice Shot and kill it with Snipe.

Ascendancy Choice

Witchhunter has a big advantage over many other ascendancies on a league start, due to easy access to Explosions from Zealous Inquisition. This allows for fast and easy clearing of the Abyss and Breach mechanics - both of which spawn Demon type monsters, against which the Witchhunter has double the chance to trigger the big AoE explosions. It also happens to be that Abyss and Breach are some of the best and most important mechanics to farm early on, before you can invest a lot of currency into your character, giving you a head start at the beginning of the league.

The additional weapon set passives from Weapon Master allow us to invest in Curse Magnitude for Elemental Weakness, Exposure Effect for Frost Bomb and Shock Magnitude for Stormcaller Arrow or Charged Mark. This provides big damage multipliers against the tough bosses early on, before you can acquire things like Rakiata's Flow, making it a good fit for a league starter.

Build File [IMPORTANT!]

Do NOT use the automatic build file download on this page. Instead subscribe to or download the build file from the Path of Exile 2 website here: https://pathofexile2.com/build/l07rf1

Strengths and Weaknesses

SSF viable and works on any budget
Explode from Zealous Inquisition trivializes early Abyss and Breach
Good clearing coverage due to projectiles + explosions playstyle
Good single target thanks to many Weapon Set Passives invested in debuffs

Requires aiming your skills and Perfect Timing with Snipe
Complicated passive tree which requires using many Weapon Set Passives

Build Variants

Act 1 (1-15)

Act 2 (16-30)

Act 3-4 (31-60)

Endgame (61-90)

Equipment

Act 1 (1-15)

Act 2 (16-30)

Act 3-4 (31-60)

Endgame (61-90)

Set 1

Set 2

Equipment Priority

+10

Campaign Gear Modifiers Priority

Click on "Show All/Show All Notes" above to see a detailed modifier priority for each item slot.

Overview

In act 1 and 2, you are going to be using mostly Lightning Damage skills, but you want to also Freeze. That's why you should prioritize Cold Damage modifiers and Lesser Glacial Runes in your weapon.

In act 3 and 4 you are going to be using mostly Cold Damage skills, but you also want to Shock. That's why you should prioritize Lightning Damage modifiers and Storm Runes in your weapon.

Early on, it is important to get additional Intelligence or Dexterity on your gear (I recommend the Helmet slot). As soon as you can, you should also get an amulet with extra attributes (the ones you will be needing the most are Dexterity and Intelligence).

Charms

Take the Sapphire Charm as your quest reward in act 1 and replace it for Antidote Charm which you can get as a quest reward in act 3. Other than that a Thawing Charm and Stone Charm are the two main charms you want to use, to avoid losing control of your character.

Flasks

Always upgrade your flasks while leveling, as soon as you can. They are very important and you need to pay a lot of attention to them.

REGEX

When checking vendors, you can use the REGEX below to highlight items with useful modifiers for this build.

Skill Gems

Act 1 (1-15)

Act 2 (16-30)

Act 3-4 (31-60)

Endgame (61-90)

Support Gem Requirements:

Str 30

Dex 10

Int 30

Lightning Arrow

Set 1

Lightning Rod

Set 1

Escape Shot

Set 1

Frost Bomb

Set 2

Freezing Salvo

Set 1

Herald of Thunder

Fragments Of The Past

Set 1

Snipe

Set 1

Ice-Tipped Arrows

Barrage

Gem Priority

+14

Campaign Skill Gems

The most important part to remember about leveling your skill gems are the level limits of Frost Bomb and Elemental Weakness. You need to periodically check the maximum level of enemies that they can affect and upgrade them every 2 or 3 tiers, to keep up with the area level you are in. Other than that, prioritize your main damage skills and skills which help you freeze enemies (such as Freezing Salvo or Escape Shot because they gain damage as well as Freeze Buildup.

Skill gem priority in act 1:

2 - LA

3 - Salvo

3 - Rod

3 - Escape

4 - LA

4 - Snipe (Before Geonor, swap Snipe in place of Lightning Rod, taking over its support gems)

5 - Ice-Tipped Arrows

5 - Barrage

In The Manor Ramparts take Fragments Of The Past as a reward from the league mechanic. Use it in act 1 and 2 against bosses for extra cold damage / freeze. After adding more gems in Act 2, you can either use Fragments Of The Past or Ice-Tipped Arrows and drop the other one.

Skill gem priority Act 2

6 - Lowest

7 - Freezing Mark

7 - Elemental Weakness

8 - Lowest (prioritize freezing skills)

Tame Beast

In act 3 - you should capture a rare Boar. You can reset at the checkpoint next to the Troubled Camp in Infested Barrens to repeatedly respawn nearby rare beasts until you find one with good modifiers. Haste or Haste Aura are ideal because you want the beast to stay close to you (for that reason avoid Shroud Walker). Otherwise get anything beneficial, but I recommend avoiding modifiers that spawn environmental effects such as detonate dead, volatile plants or fire explosions, because they will constantly spawn dangerous looking environmental hazards that are indistinguishable from those spawned by enemies, making it easy to get confused and miss the real danger.

In the interludes you can capture a flying beast by similarly resetting at checkpoint next to the Travelling Merchant in The Khari Crossing. These will likely not roll a Haste modifier, as they are already very fast, so I recommend Periodic Invulnerability Aura or any other beneficial modifier you like.

Support Gems

I recommend grabbing a lot of support gems for this build, because it uses a lot of skills and can benefit from a large number of supports to gain additional power. You will only be able to use all of these support gems if you use gear with some attributes on it. The gear sections highlights this (for example Int/Dex on a helmet)

Guaranteed support gem locations in act 1:

Devourer's Den (League Mechanic)
Devourer Quest Turn in
Areagne
Druid in Grim Tangle
Tomb of the Consort Chest Ambush
Hunting Grounds Dryadic Ritual
Freythorn (League Mechanic)
The Executioner
Manor Ramparts Gallows

You can also randomly encounter support gems as a reward from the league mechanic in other zones.

Support Gem Engraving Priority in the Campaign:

Follow the support gem priority listed below, or adjust it based on your most frequently used skills. Once you engrave all of the priority supports, you can spend the rest on upgrading Elemental Armament I to Elemental Armament II. I recommend keeping at least one spare Uncut Support Gem for transitions and additions of new skills, such as Ice Shot at level 31.

Support Gem Order Tier 1:

Lightning Arrow

Elemental Armament I
Rapid Attacks I

Escape Shot

Ice Bite

Lightning Rod

Concentrated Area
Elemental Armament I

Freezing Salvo

Hourglass
Elemental Armament I

Fragments of the Past

Multishot
Hourglass

Escape Shot

Elemental Armament

Herald of Thunder

Magnified Area
Elemental Armament I

Snipe

Window of Opportunity

Elemental Weakness

Efficiency
Heightened Curse

Freezing Mark

Mark of Siphoning

Support Gem Order Tier 2:

Frost Bomb

Potent Exposure

Freezing Mark

Lifetap

Freezing Salvo

Freeze

Support Gem Order Tier 3:

Ice Shot

Ice Bite II

Freezing Salvo

Deliberation

Snipe (optional if you struggle with perfect timing)

Elemental Focus

Herald of Ice

Elemental Focus

Escape Shot

Ice Bite II

Elemental Weakness

Magnified Area II

Support Gem Order Tier 4:

Ice Shot

Rapid Attacks II

Support Gem Order Tier 5:

Charged Mark

Lesser Jeweller's Orb Priority:

Snipe
Ice Shot
Freezing Salvo
Elemental Weakness
Herald Of Ice
Companion
Escape Shot

Gemcutter's Prism Priority:

Freezing Mark
Frost Bomb
Elemental Weakness

Passive Tree

Act 1 (1-15)

Act 2 (16-30)

Act 3-4 (31-60)

Endgame (61-90)

main:

123

set 1:

set 2:

Weapon Set Passives

This build takes advantage of the Weapon Set Passives extensively. Make sure your bow and quiver are assigned to both sets by right clicking the lock icon above them, and set all of your attacks to Weapon Set 1, and Freezing Mark, Frost Bomb as well as Elemental Weakness to Weapon Set 2.

To simplify - Weapon Set 1 = attacks and damage; Weapon Set 2 = debuffs

If at any point you don't have enough Weapon Set Passives to allocate all of the nodes, you can temporarily use generic points to allocate the Weapon Set 1 passives and skip the Weapon Set 2 passives, but after doing your second trial around level 38-40 you will take Weapon Master and have practically unlimited Weapon Set passives, at which point you should start following the suggested weapon set passives exactly.

Passives Progression

Follow the recommended order of notables above in the "Notable Priority" section. If you want to better understand the order, read all of the notables, especially Inspiring Ally.

Aim to reach level 15 right before Count Geonor fight, so that you can allocate Overwhelm.

Your travel nodes will mostly need to be Dexterity for gear and Skill Gem requirements, and Intelligence for Skill Gem and Support Gem requirements. You will also need some Strength, but one roll on a belt and Colossal Weapon should get you most of the way there. Your Weapon Set 2 travel nodes should be always Intelligence.

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 Lightning Resistance

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

How it Plays

Combos and rotations

Campaign level 1-14

Clearing

Use Escape Shot to jump over monsters and continue moving in one direction (aim backwards). This will trigger Ice Bite I. Finish the monsters off with Lightning Arrow when necessary.

Single Target

Pre-stack Lightning Rod x 4. Debuff the target with Frost Bomb. Attack with Lightning Arrow up to 8 times. Use Freezing Salvo once the target is Shocked.

Campaign level 15-30

Clearing

Same as before - use Escape Shot to jump over monsters and continue moving in one direction (aim backwards). This will trigger Ice Bite I. Finish the monsters off with Lightning Arrow when necessary.

Single Target

Use Ice-Tipped Arrows, pre-place Fragments Of The Past, debuff the target with Frost Bomb, use Freezing Salvo and Lightning Arrow or Escape Shot to freeze the target.

Once the target is frozen - use Barrage and Snipe.

Campaign level 31-60

Clearing

Use Escape Shot to jump over monsters and continue moving in one direction (aim backwards). Finish the monsters off with Ice Shot or just clear with Ice Shot.

Single Target

Debuff the target with Freezing Mark, Frost Bomb and Elemental Weakness. Freeze the target with Freezing Salvo and Ice Shot.

Once the target is frozen - use Snipe.

Endgame level 60+

Clearing

Use Ice Shot. If you want more damage, drop Tornado Shot on the pack first, then follow up with Ice Shot.

Single Target

Debuff the target with Freezing Mark, Frost Bomb and Elemental Weakness (and optionally Stormcaller Arrow). Drop Tornado Shot on the target and freeze it with Ice Shot