Path of Exile 2: Ice Shot Amazon Build Guide
Path of Exile 2 is set to bring many exciting new features to the iconic action RPG, including a fresh story, new mechanics, and of course, an expansion of the expansive skill tree that players have come to love in the original game. Among the various potential builds, one that stands out for its power, versatility, and sheer enjoyment is the Ice Shot Amazon build. Combining the Amazon's agility and speed with the Ice Shot skill, this build delivers a devastating combination of cold damage, area control, and mobility.
In this guide, we will walk you through everything you need to know to create a powerful Ice Shot Amazon build in Path of Exile 2, covering everything from skill selection, passive tree optimization, gear and itemization, to playstyle tips for maximizing your damage output and survivability. Read this article before deciding how to best utilize Poe 2 trade.
What is Ice Shot?
Ice Shot is a powerful projectile skill that converts your basic physical damage into cold damage. Upon impact with a target, the projectile causes an explosion that applies chill and freeze effects in a small area around the target. This ability works incredibly well with high projectile speed and multiple shots, allowing the Ice Shot to hit multiple enemies at once, freeze them, and deal massive amounts of cold damage.
The key strength of Ice Shot lies in its ability to control the battlefield, using both chill and freeze mechanics to significantly slow down and disable enemies, making it ideal for an Amazon build that focuses on ranged combat and mobility.
Why Choose Ice Shot Amazon in Path of Exile 2?
In Path of Exile, the Amazon class has always been a flexible, agile character capable of dishing out huge amounts of damage while avoiding enemy attacks with high mobility. This makes the Ice Shot Amazon build a perfect blend of damage and evasion, offering an enjoyable playstyle that combines ranged cold damage with a range of debuffs like chill, freeze, and slow effects.
Here are some of the reasons why you might want to consider the Ice Shot Amazon build:
High AoE Damage: Ice Shot provides massive area-of-effect (AoE) damage, making it perfect for clearing packs of enemies quickly.
Crowd Control: The chill and freeze effects slow down or freeze enemies in their tracks, allowing you to kite, escape, or control large groups of enemies.
Speed and Mobility: The Amazon class is known for its speed and evasion, allowing you to avoid damage while dishing out huge cold damage from a distance.
Scaling: Cold damage can be scaled effectively with gear, passive skills, and the right skill gems, making it viable in both the early and late stages of the game.
Key Skills for Ice Shot Amazon Build
1. Ice Shot (Main Skill)
Description: The core skill of this build, Ice Shot is a projectile-based attack that converts your physical damage into cold damage. When the projectile hits, it explodes into an AoE, dealing cold damage in a small radius while applying chill and freeze debuffs.
Why It's Important: Ice Shot is a versatile skill that deals substantial AoE damage, provides crowd control with chill and freeze, and is highly scalable with added cold damage modifiers. It is also an effective boss killer when used with the correct support gems and scaling strategies.
2. Power Siphon (Link Skill)
Description: Power Siphon is a great alternative or addition to Ice Shot, especially for boosting critical hit chance and damage. This skill allows the Amazon to gain Power Charges, which can significantly increase your damage output.
Why It's Important: Power Siphon synergizes well with Ice Shot, allowing you to boost the damage of your cold projectiles and increase your ability to freeze tougher enemies. It also works well for boss fights, providing more damage through Power Charge generation.
3. Frostbomb (Utility Skill)
Description: Frostbomb is a support skill that deals cold damage to a targeted area and chills enemies in the vicinity. It works well in conjunction with Ice Shot by providing extra damage over time and chill effects to all nearby enemies.
Why It's Important: As a utility skill, Frostbomb is perfect for applying additional cold damage and debuffs during encounters, especially against large groups of enemies. It synergizes well with Ice Shot to ensure that enemies are continually affected by the chill status effect.
4. Herald of Ice (Aura Skill)
Description: Herald of Ice is an aura that grants bonus cold damage and causes your attacks to explode, dealing AoE cold damage when you kill an enemy.
Why It's Important: This aura is excellent for mobility and damage scaling. The explosions created by Herald of Ice work wonders with Ice Shot, as they clear out packs of enemies effortlessly and increase your overall damage output.
5. Blink Arrow (Mobility Skill)
Description: Blink Arrow is a movement skill that allows you to teleport a short distance. It provides great mobility and allows you to escape dangerous situations or reposition quickly in combat.
Why It's Important: The Ice Shot Amazon build is designed to be mobile and agile. Blink Arrow allows you to kite enemies, escape dangerous situations, and avoid taking unnecessary damage. It's especially useful in high-pressure boss fights or when engaging large mobs.
Passive Skill Tree Focus
When building your Ice Shot Amazon, your passive skill tree should prioritize the following key areas:
1. Cold Damage Scaling
Focus on nodes that increase cold damage and elemental damage, as these will directly enhance the damage of your Ice Shot and associated cold skills. Look for nodes that grant cold damage to projectile skills and AoE damage.
2. Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier
Maximizing your critical strike chance and critical strike multiplier will significantly boost the damage output of your Ice Shot. The Amazon's high mobility makes it easier to land critical hits on enemies, so these nodes will give you a much-needed damage boost.
3. Projectile Speed and Damage
As Ice Shot is a projectile-based skill, investing in projectile speed and damage nodes is key. This will help you hit enemies at a longer range and deal more damage, especially in AoE situations.
4. Life and Evasion
Given that you will be using the Amazon's mobility to dodge attacks, evasion and life nodes will enhance your survivability. Maximize these defenses to ensure you don't get hit too often, especially in late-game content and high-difficulty encounters.
5. Mana and Energy Shield
Consider investing in mana regeneration and energy shield nodes, as these will help you maintain your skills and stay alive longer in tougher encounters. Energy shield helps with defense while keeping your mana up for Ice Shot and Herald of Ice.
Gear and Itemization
When gearing your Ice Shot Amazon, you should look for items that enhance cold damage, critical strikes, projectile speed, and survivability. Here's a breakdown of essential gear:
1. Weapons: Bows or Wands
Bows are ideal for Ice Shot, as they scale with cold damage and projectile speed. Look for bows with increased cold damage or attack speed.
Wands can be used if you prefer using Power Siphon alongside your Ice Shot. Focus on wands with critical strike chance and cold damage modifiers.
2. Armor: Focus on Evasion and Cold Resistance
Look for evasion-based armor to enhance your dodge and survivability.
Cold resistance is important to reduce incoming cold damage from enemies and bosses.
3. Jewelry: Focus on Critical Strike and Damage
Rings and amulets with critical strike chance, elemental damage, and cold damage will significantly boost your damage output. Look for cold damage prefixes and critical strike modifiers.
Playstyle and Leveling Tips
1. Kite and Control the Battlefield
The Ice Shot Amazon excels at kiting and controlling the battlefield. Use your mobility to stay at a distance, while Ice Shot and Herald of Ice clear out enemies. Keep your distance from tough mobs and use your Frostbomb to add more debuffs.
2. Focus on Critical Strikes
Maximize your critical strike chance by using Power Siphon and ensuring your build focuses on critical strike nodes. Critical hits will significantly enhance your damage and improve your ability to freeze tough enemies.
3. Use Blink Arrow for Escaping and Positioning
Always use Blink Arrow for repositioning and escaping crowded situations. This mobility skill will allow you to dodge powerful attacks, reposition for better shots, and escape if you're surrounded.
4. Maintain Herald of Ice and Power Charges
Always keep Herald of Ice active, as it increases your damage and provides AoE explosions. In boss fights or tough encounters, manage your Power Charges to ensure maximum damage output with Power Siphon.
Conclusion
The Ice Shot Amazon build in Path of Exile 2 offers a balanced, high-damage, and mobile playstyle that excels in crowd control, area damage, and critical strikes. With a focus on cold damage, projectile speed, and critical hits, this build can clear packs of enemies quickly and deal devastating damage to bosses. Meanwhile, using cheap POE 2 Currency can also enhance your gaming experience.
By prioritizing cold damage scaling, evasion, and survivability, the Ice Shot Amazon becomes a powerful and fun choice for both new and veteran players looking to dominate Path of Exile 2's harsh world.