In the recent Path of Exile 2 The Last of the Druids league, various builds centered around Lightning Arrow skill gem have become the preferred choice for players, as its extremely high ranged damage and fast attack speed are important for effectively farming experience and loot in the early and mid-game of the league.
If you’re looking for both an exploratory experience and a unique style, then using Ice Shot as the core of a niche build would be your best choice. This skill, combined with Amazon’s Weakness mechanic, makes it incredibly easy to inflict devastating damage on magic and rare enemies in all campaigns.
However, it must be pointed out that relying solely on Ice Shot skill and the strength of Amazon Ascendancy class itself is insufficient to complete parts of PoE 2 Interludes and endgame. So, it is essential to find some build options that can be placed in Ice Shot Amazon build from this guide, such as skills, passives, and item affixes of interest.
Precautions
It’s worth noting that while Ice Shot skill is powerful and visually appealing, you can only obtain it by using a Tier 9 Uncut Skill Gem, which is extremely difficult to acquire through regular exploration. Since there are a few things to keep in mind before you find that tier gem.
Since Ice Shot skill pairs best with bows, it’s recommended to use this weapon type from the start. Simultaneously, pair it with Lightning Arrow and Lightning Rod skill combinations for the fastest loot and experience gain. These factors will affect the attack damage you gain after crafting Ice Shot skill gems, as they are both projectile and elemental skills.
Once you equip Ice Shot skill, you don’t need to change your passive skill setup much, but you should change the item affixes from increasing lightning damage to increase frost damage to maximize the skill’s effectiveness.
Skills & Rotation
Due to the unique skill gem mechanic in Path of Exile 2, you’ll most likely have a complete skill setup after completing the main campaign but before starting the farming map. Before that, you just need to accumulate as many Uncut Skill Gems as possible for later one-time uncutting. At that time, you can choose the following skill gems and support gems.
- Ice Shot: Elemental Armament - Cold Penetration - Frost Nexus - Fork
- Herald of Ice: Cold Penetration - Deadly Herald - Cold Attunement - Overreach
- Freezing Salvo: Freeze - Concentrated Area - Ice Bite
- Snipe: Window of Opportunity - Concentrated Area - Close Combat - Inexorable Critical
- Ball Lightning: Shock - Blind - Considered Casting
- Freezing Mark: Prolonged Duration
- Barrage: Cooldown Recovery
For killing regular small monsters, you can use Ice Shot and Herald of Ice damage combination; if the monster level increases, you can add Freezing Mark skill to make them easier to freeze, and at the same time cast Ball Lightning for subsequent lightning attacks.
For situations where you can farm experience points and POE 2 currency by engaging in high-difficulty boss encounters, you can first use Freezing Mark and Ball Lightning to reduce the enemy’s health, then cast Freezing Salvo to freeze them, and finally cast Barrage and Snipe for continuous attacks to achieve a one-hit kill.
Ascendancy Passive Skill Tree
Since your character’s passive skill tree is basically complete by this point, and the gameplay and core mechanics of farming and leveling are similar, you don’t need to drastically change your original passive skill upgrade path. Just focus on increasing movement speed as needed.
Regarding Ascendancy passive tree provided by Amazon, it’s recommended that you first activate Predatory Instinct, which allows you to increase damage through Reveal Weakness mechanics. Then focus on nodes that provide critical strike chance buffs and activate Penetrate after completing the interlude.
The last passive node can be selected according to your exploration needs, but Stalking Panther is highly recommended here, as it will maximize the dodge chance provided by your helmet, gloves, and boots. This further enhances your character’s mobility, thus ensuring greater safety in combat.
Recommended Item Affixes
Finally, let’s look at the affixes of items that can be placed in Ice Shot Amazon build. It’s important to note that Bow and Quiver are crucial in this build, so you should maximize the affixes on these two items, no matter how much Path of Exile 2 currency you spend.
Furthermore, after selecting Stalking Panther passive skill node, you need to select a chest armor with hybrid ES/Evasion buffs to further increase the build’s mobility. In this case, you can pay attention to the following affixes on each item slot.
Bow
- Fixed Physical Damage
- Physical Damage
- Level of All Attack Skills
- Attack Speed
Quiver
- Damage with Bow Skills
- Fixed Physical/Cold Damage
- Level of All Projectile Skills
- Critical Hit/Damage
Wand
- Cast Speed
- Chance to Shock
- Level of all Spell Skills
Helmet
- Energy Shield/Evasion
- Life
- Attribute
- Resistances
Body
- Fixed Evasion
- Evasion
- Life
- Resistances
Amulet
- Spirit
- Resistances
- Energy Shield
- Global Defense
Rings & Gloves
- Fixed Damage
- Life/Mana
- Attribute
- Resistances
Belt
- Life/Mana
- Resistances
- Flask Life Recovery Rate
Boots
- Movement Speed
- Life/Mana
- Resistances
The above is a detailed introduction to the skills, passives, and item options in Ice Shot Amazon build in The Last of the Druids league of Path of Exile 2. Hopefully, this guide will help you create this excellent character more quickly and use it to complete more exploration missions. Have fun playing the game!

















