Learn how to progress your gear, important Milestones, Budget Items, Earlygame, Endgame & Crafting for the Explosive Arrow Ballista Elementalist Build.
Milestones
The Item Progression in Path of Exile is not as rigid as in most other games. Unique Items can provide easy upgrades early, but overall your gear mostly consist of Rare Items. This means that flexibility is key. The game won't always give you exactly the item you are looking for, so you need to adapt. Even if small upgrades seem insignificant, the sum of them decides whether your character fails or succeeds.
If you want full context to everything, watch my fully detailed Video Guide on Youtube as well. It is linked at the end of the article! You can also check out my stream on twitch.tv/palsteron and ask me questions or simply hang out!
To make itemization less confusing, there are no Resistances on Rare Items anywhere. You can get them wherever you want and they do not have to be on specific items. Resistances are incredibly important though, DO NOT forget about them when choosing which items to craft or buy! Make sure to check your Reistances in your Character Sheet (C, Defense Tab) whenever you switch your gear around.
Early Game Goal
Our goals in the early game are to establish our skill setups by socketing, linking and colouring our gear appropriately and to start leveling our Gems.
Since we are wearing "Act Gear" at this point, we need to focus on upgrades to get our necessary Attribute Requirements and cap our Resistances.
Milestone 1 - Get decent Rare Gear
After the campaign, you will encounter a steep difficulty increase, which becomes a problem unless you upgrade your suboptimal gear into something more appropriate. This is where random currency you dropped during the campaign comes in. Spend all Chaos Orbs you have on gear upgrades so you can progress through the game.
You are looking for Life on every single gear piece, as well as enough Resistances to cap them at 75%.
A good trick to get some Life on your items is using: Screaming Essence of Greeds on items that are already appropriately linked and coloured.
Look out for Accuracy on Gloves, Rings or on your Quiver and make sure you have 100% chance to hit at all times in the character sheet.
Note: Your Accuracy decreases with levels since enemies get stronger, so going for more Accuracy rather than less pays off later. Reminder: you should have both Skirmish and Storm Cloud at this point, they are vital to the build!
Milestone 2 - Get your Sockets, Colours and Links in order!
After you havesome starter gear, make sure you can use all your Gems. You need to use your Jeweller's Orbs, Orb of Fusings and Chromatic Orbs to adjust your items appropriately. Use the Skill Gem Section to check if you have the right colours on your items!
Milestone 3 - Tabula Rasa
Getting an early six-link can be expensive, but Tabula Rasa provides a cheaper solution. Going from a 4-link to a 6-link almost doubles your damage, and is therefore a complete gamechanger. It does not have any defensive mods however, so until you replace it you'll be a lot weaker defensively. In order to get the Currency to buy a Tabula Rasa, use the Chaos Orb Recipe or farm some Heists.
Milestone 4 - Flasks
Next up, inspect your flasks and see if they are adequate for the content you are farming. The base flasks you want at this point are:
- Eternal Life Flask
- Divine Life Flask
- Quicksilver Flask
- Granite Flask
- Jade Flask
Use Orb of Transmutations, Orb of Alterations and Orb of Augmentations to craft some important Suffix mods onto your 3 utility flasks:
- Increased Armour during Flask effect
- Increased Evasion during Flask effect
- Increased Movement Speed during Flask effect
Prefixes are not super important right now, but do check the gear-sets if you want to craft perfect flasks. For Life Flasks we want one life flask to be semi-instant for quick recovery, similar to this one Effervescent Eternal Life Flask of Insulation. The second Life Flask should be normal speed but it has to grant protection from bleeds, similar to this one: Divine Life Flask of Allaying.
Milestone 5 - +2 Gem Level Bow
This is where you upgrade your Storm Cloud to an endgame Bow.
To get your craftable 6-linked Short Bow, you need to buy or farm 6xThe Porcupine cards.
Once you have the Bow, use a Shrieking Essence of Dread on it to get +2 to Level of Socketed Bow Gems. Do this until you have an open Suffix to craft on "increased Attack Speed" with the Crafting Bench. At the end, use Chromatic Orbs to colour your Bow to socket your Explosive Arrow into it, so it can be affected by the +2 to Gem Levels.
Milestone 6 - Upgrade your Body Armour
Now that you don't need the 6-link in your Body Armour anymore, sell your Tabula Rasa and upgrade to something more appropriate with the currency you get back. If you want an easy Unique to go for early, get a Belly of the Beast with as much Life as you can.
Otherwise, buy a rare body armour with Life and Spell Suppression to prepare for the later stages of mapping. It would look something like this: New Item
The rest of the stats can be a mixture of Resists and Attributes, depending on what you need.
Milestone 7 - Get 2 Jewels for your Passive Tree
Jewels are incredibly strong. Get 2 for your Passive Tree and socket them into the Jewel Sockets along your travel path (both require only 1 Passive Point per). Your priorities should be (in this order):
- Increased Attack Speed with Bows
- Increased Maximum Life
- Increased Burning Damage
- Increased Fire Damage over Time Multiplier/Damage over Time Multiplier
- Increased Attack Speed
- Increased Damage over Time
Try to get at least 2 of the stronger mods or a mixture of 3 of them. The Jewel Sockets that you have to travel to are going to be filled out later; don't worry about them for now.
This is where you try to get your gear ready to reach Red Maps and tackle some of the harder content Path of Exile has to offer.
You are focusing on defences like Spell Suppression and try to further increase your damage with Uniques and clever gearing choices.
Milestone 1 - Dyadian Dawn, Heavy Belt
This belt is an absolute superstar when it comes to dealing Damage. Dyadian Dawn makes your Ignites deal damage faster. Since your Ballistas are reapplying Ignites and refreshing the duration constantly, faster Ignites result in a straight up more damage multiplier with barely any downside.
Depending on the meta, Dyadian Dawn can be expensive at leaguestart, but if you get lucky with your drops, you can buy it immediately and use it as an early game Milestone.
Don't forget to use 20xTurbulent Catalyst on the belt to unleash its full potential!
Milestone 2 - Reevaluate your Accuracy
You now face harder enemies than before. Look at your Explosive Arrow in the character tab (C, Offense) and figure out whether your accuracy still holds up.
If you don't see 100% "Main Hand Chance to Hit", that is something you need to fix (ignore the "Chance to Hit Evasive Monsters", you don't need 100% there).
Things that can help you with Accuracy problems are:
- The Precision aura, if you have free Mana for it (it increases Mana Reservation with levels).
- When choosing your quiver, look for a Two-Point Arrow Quiver base.
- On your gear, look for +to Accuracy Rating on: Rings, Amulet, Quiver and Gloves. You won't need all of these to have enough Accuracy, just 2-3 of them.
- You can apply Abrasive Catalysts to your Jewelry to increase Attack Modifiers by up to 20%, which includes + to Accuracy Rating. This can give you a small edge if you are only missing 2-3% chance to hit.
Milestone 3 - Spell Suppression Gear
Once you progress your Atlas far enough, enemies become more dangerous, especially everything that deals Spell Damage. This is where Spell Suppression comes in. Whenever you Suppress Spell Damage, you take 50% less damage from that source. This means at 100% chance to Suppress Spell Damage, you only take half damage from all spell sources. You can get Spell Suppression from:
- Gear, notably Gloves, Boots and Body Armour.
- On the Passive Skill Tree, by taking Magebane, Reflexes and Quickstep.
- Eldritch Implicit on Gloves.
You can delay this step if you feel comfortable as is, just make sure to come back to this milestone once the difficulty curve catches up to you!
Milestone 4 - Decent Rare Amulet with Anoint
At this point, you want to invest into a decent amulet, so you can annoint it without wasting currency.
The stats you are looking for are (in order of importance):
- +1 to all Skill Gems
- +1 to all Fire Skill Gems
- % Fire Damage over Time Multiplier
- + to Maximum Life
- % Elemental Damage with Attacks
+ to levels is incredibly hard to get at this stage, so you might have to make due with the other stats. Now, go to Cassia and anoint the amulet with Hired Killer, which costs you 2xViolet Oils and 1xOpalescent Oil. When your Ballistas kill an enemy with a Damage over Time, you get the kill credit. This means that Hired Killer provides you a great amount of Life Recovery while mapping.
Milestone 5 - +3 Endgame Bow
Once you have 2xDivine Orbs, you can upgrade your Bow to its last stage. Take your 6-linked Short Bow and use Shrieking Essence of Dreads until you get the following mods:
- +2 to Level of Socketed Bow Gems
- % increased Attack Speed (11% or higher)
- At least 1 open Prefix
- Exactly 1 open Suffix
Go to your Crafting Bench and add Cannot Roll Attack Mods, which costs 1 Divine Orb. Now apply a Exalted Orb to the item. Because the crafted mod blocked all possible attack mods from rolling, the only mod left is +1 Level of Socketed Gems. Remove the craft and replace it with Fire Damage over Time Multiplier. At the end, your Bow should look similar to this: +3 Short Bow
If you want to make an even better Bow, you need a Bow with an Item Level of at least 82. The steps are the same, just that you need added Cold or Lightning Damage on top of everything else. That Bow would look similar to this: +3 Bow with Ele Damage.
Note: The second Bow is considerably more expensive to make, just crafting the first one and making a perfect Bow later is safer!
Milestone 6 - Eldritch Implicits
Your Gloves, Boots and Body Armour can all have 2 Eldritch Implicits each. These Implicits can be added by applying Searing Exarch and Eater of Worlds currency.
Eldritch Currency can be found from Altar Rewards in Maps after choosing either the Searing Exarch or Eater of Worlds Beacon on the Map Device. They have tiers, for example the lowest tier currencies are: Lesser Eldritch Ember and Lesser Eldritch Ichor. If you don't like an outcome, just roll over it with another Eldritch Currency. Don't go overboard on rerolling, you'll have to redo the Implicits later anyways.
Here are some good outcomes to remember, in order of importance:
Gloves:
Searing Exarch: Spell Suppression (if you are not capped already), Attack Speed, Fire Damage over Time Multiplier, any Damage to attacks.
Eater of Worlds: If you get Inflict Fire Exposure on Hit you can now use Flat Fire Damage again and remove Elemental Equilibrium from your Passive Tree.
Body Armour:
Searing Exarch: Effect of non-Curse Auras, Flasks have increased Effect, Fire Damage, any Maximum Resistance mod.
Eater of Worlds: Determination/Grace/Wrath Aura Effect.
Boots:
Other than Movement or Action Speed, there's not that much to get here. Stick with the first thing that does anything for your build for now.
Milestone 7 - Check your Gear for Weaknesses
At this point, we are moving into big and expensive endgame upgrades, so make sure you don't have any gear pieces that could be easily upgraded. Resistance Caps, Spell Suppression and Accuracy Cap should be second nature to you at this point and should be checked after you shuffle your gear around!
Now that your character is properly geared for endgame, there's still the big and expensive upgrades left. These take you from an "ok endgame build" to a "monster slaying machine". (no NPCs were harmed during the testing of this build)
To be able to follow Endgame Milestones, definitely check out the Currency Section to be up to date about currency-making in the current league, you are going to need it!
Milestone 1 - Awakened Support Gems
Awakened Gems are strictly better versions of their normal counterparts.
First up, Awakened Deadly Ailments Support replaces Deadly Ailments Support.
Secondly, you want a Awakened Burning Damage Support at Gem Level 5, since only then it grants you "+1 to Level of Supported Fire Skill Gems".
Trying to level the gem yourself takes an immense amount of time, so buying one already leveled is an option early on. To use the Gem, replace your Elemental Damage with Attacks Support with it.
Note: Make sure that your gems in general have quality by applying Gemcutter's Prism to them. This is especially important on your Explosive Arrow setup!
Milestone 2 - Cluster Jewel Setup
In order to get more out of our passive skill tree, we expand it with cluster jewels.
We need: 1xLarge Cluster Jewel with Fire Damage and 1xMedium Cluster Jewel with Totem Damage.
The Large Cluster Jewel should have a combination of the following mods:
- 2 Prefixes: Burning Bright, Corrosive Elements, Prismatic Heart, Smoking Remains
- 1 Suffix: Disorienting Display, Doryani's Lesson, Widespread Destruction
The Medium Cluster Jewel should have Sleepless Sentries on it. This gives you permanent Onslaught, not just on kill. Try to get one of the following mods on top if you can, listen in order of strength: Snaring Spirits, Ancestral Echo, Ancestral Reach.
Milestone 3 - Polaric Devastation
Polaric Devastation is an absolutely absurd ring that you should get once you can afford it. If placed into your left ring slot, it covers Enemies in Ash, which makes them take 20% increased Damage and slows their Movement Speed down by 20%.
Once you have this ring you never replace it, however it usually comes with a hefty price.
Make sure to get your Accuracy elsewhere in case you lose some by using Polaric Devastation!
Milestone 4 - Unnatural Instinct
Using Unnatural Instinct in the Jewel Socket next to Avatar of the Hunt frees up 4 Passive Skill Points and gives you tons of offensive stats on top. Unnatural Instinct is absurdly expensive and something you should be saving towards.
Check out our Meta Section to get some of the latest currency making methods to acquire this item!
Milestone 5 - Endgame Amulet
On your Amulet, you are looking for (in order of importance):
- +1 to all Skill Gems
- +1 to all Fire Skill Gems
- % Fire Damage over Time Multiplier
- + to Maximum Life
- % Elemental Damage with Attacks
Unlike the first time you upgraded your Amulet, you can go heavier on the investment this time around. You want at least one of the "+1 mods" (preferably both) and Fire Damage over Time Multiplier with an open Mod for a Craft at the end! Don't forget to anoint your new Amulet with Hired Killer again afterwards!
Milestone 6 - Last Upgrades
You have now reached a point where most of the obvious upgrades are done, so it's time to look at the smaller things you might have missed along the way and bring them in order. However, since Path of Exiles gearing system is complex and most questions are answered with: "it depends", the following points should only serve as guidance:
- Replace your old or empty jewel sockets with better jewels and make sure your jewel slots are filled appropriately.
- You should have Attack Speed on Gloves and Quiver.
- Damage over Time Multiplier should be on your Amulet and Quiver.
- Spell Suppression has to be at 100%, always.
- Upgrade your Life values on gear.
- Enchant your Helm with 15% increased Attack Speed or 40% increased Damage with Explosive Arrow and enchant your Boots with 10% increased Movement Speed if you haven't been Hit recently.
- Increase the quality on your Rings by applying Catalysts to them (depending on your needs).
- Have 20% quality on all your Gems.
You've reached the end of our Milestones, congratulations!
Every upgrade beyond this point is not simple enough to serve you in a static format like this. This is because most of your upgrades going forward will heavily depend on the choices you made. However, that doesn't mean that your journey ends here. If you want to go further, check out other people's versions of the build on poe.ninja. They give great insights and new creative ideas!