S-TIER | BUILD RÔDEUSE ICE SHOT DEADEYE (@Fubgun) | SAISON 5

Build Video

Build Overview

This Ice Shot Deadeye build by Fubgun is one of the most versatile archer builds of Season 0.5. Built around the Ice Shot skill, it turns every shot into a cone of cold damage that can freeze and then shatter entire packs thanks to Herald of Ice. Originally backed up by Snipe for boss fights, the character is now so well geared that it relies almost entirely on Ice Shot, which is enough on its own to clear the whole of endgame content.

Its strength comes from its staged progression. It starts out as a pure life, non-crit version — affordable and solid — then switches to a crit setup, the « crit swap », once you own a bow at the right crit tier, before finishing on a hybrid Life + Energy Shield configuration that’s noticeably tankier. Each stage plays within its own budget without the power ceiling suffering for it, and that’s what makes this build viable both early in the season and at the very end of the race.

The offensive core relies on the unique quiver Cadiros Gambit, which grants each arrow a random property — chaining, piercing with return, guaranteed hits — plus a massive rarity stack for loot farming. On the survival side, the build stacks deflection and evasion, and keeps Ghost Dance.

Fubgun evolved the character one last time near the end of the season: switching from the Deadeye ascendancy to Pathfinder. It’s not a different build — same bow, same gems, same gear — but a utility swap reserved for characters that are already overpowered. It’s covered at the end of the article, along with its requirements.

Strengths / Weaknesses

Skill Gem Setup by Step

This build offers 6 progression steps from leveling to the final build. Select a step to see the corresponding gem setup.

Early non-crit Midgame non-crit Hybrid Transition Crit Hybrid Uber Endgame Live Gear

Early

10 skills • 46 gemmes

Tir de glaceSet 1Ice Shot

Tir d'éliteSet 1Snipe

Tornade de flèchesSet 1Tornado Shot

Flèches à pointe de glaceSet 1Ice-Tipped Arrows

Marque glacialeSet 2Freezing Mark

Tir de barrageSet 1Barrage

Héraut de la glaceHerald of Ice

Frénésie du combatCombat Frenzy

Archer mirageMirage Archer

Tireur d'élite mirageMirage Deadeye

non-crit Midgame

10 skills • 50 gemmes

Tir de glaceSet 1Ice Shot

Tir d'éliteSet 1Snipe

Tornade de flèchesSet 1Tornado Shot

Flèches à pointe de glaceSet 1Ice-Tipped Arrows

Marque glacialeSet 2Freezing Mark

Tir de barrageSet 1Barrage

Héraut de la glaceHerald of Ice

Frénésie du combatCombat Frenzy

Archer mirageMirage Archer

Tireur d'élite mirageMirage Deadeye

non-crit Hybrid Transition

10 skills • 51 gemmes

Tir de glaceSet 1Ice Shot

Tir d'éliteSet 1Snipe

Tornade de flèchesSet 1Tornado Shot

Flèches à pointe de glaceSet 1Ice-Tipped Arrows

Marque glacialeSet 2Freezing Mark

Tir de barrageSet 1Barrage

Héraut de la glaceHerald of Ice

Danse fantomatiqueGhost Dance

Archer mirageMirage Archer

Tireur d'élite mirageMirage Deadeye

Crit Hybrid

10 skills • 50 gemmes

Tir de glaceSet 1Ice Shot

Tir d'éliteSet 1Snipe

Tornade de flèchesSet 1Tornado Shot

Marque glacialeSet 2Freezing Mark

Tir de barrageSet 1Barrage

Héraut de la glaceHerald of Ice

Danse fantomatiqueGhost Dance

Danseur du ventWind Dancer

Archer mirageMirage Archer

Tireur d'élite mirageMirage Deadeye

Uber Endgame

10 skills • 49 gemmes

Tir de glaceSet 1Ice Shot

Tornade de flèchesSet 1Tornado Shot

Marque glacialeSet 2Freezing Mark

Tir de barrageSet 1Barrage

Héraut de la glaceHerald of Ice

Danse fantomatiqueGhost Dance

Danseur du ventWind Dancer

Reliquats de ManaMana Remnants

Archer mirageMirage Archer

Tireur d'élite mirageMirage Deadeye

Live Gear

10 skills • 52 gemmes

Tir de glaceIce Shot

Tornade de flèchesTornado Shot

Tireur d'élite mirageMirage Deadeye

Danse fantomatiqueGhost Dance

Archer mirageMirage Archer

BondissementPounce

Danseur du ventWind Dancer

Reliquats de ManaMana Remnants

Tir de barrageBarrage

Héraut de la glaceHerald of Ice

Recommended Equipment

• Bow: a good rare bow carries you a long way. For the crit swap, aim for a tier 3 or better crit roll (crit essence) with at least 400 DPS. On a very high-end bow, prefer a Waring base over an Obliterator base: the latter shortens projectile range, which hurts your clear speed, whereas damage is no longer a problem at this stage.
• Quiver: Cadiros Gambit, the centerpiece for the crit version. Failing that, a rare quiver with flat damage and crit chance does the job.
• Belt: Headhunter, clearly better than Mageblood on truly juicy maps (30 to 40 rare monster modifiers).
• Rings and gloves: double flat damage (cold and physical first), crit chance, resistances and rarity. Aim for triple flat damage on the gloves. Bestiary gloves add two arrows plus a chance for an extra arrow, making them the best endgame option.
• Helmet: Energy Shield version for the hybrid setup, with high resistances and rarity. A helmet around 30% crit chance is very strong after the crit swap. A new unique this patch, Raven Touch, lets you enchant the helmet in addition to the amulet — the enchant that adds a jewel socket is the most interesting one.
• Amulet: a four-affix piece with +2 projectiles (ideally +3) is a huge offensive upgrade. Also keep an eye on maximum spirit, which caps how many auras you can run.
• Body armour and boots: stack deflection on both, with chaos resistance, rarity and 35% movement speed on the boots. On the body armour, maximum evasion counts double if you’re running Spectral Ward, which converts evasion into energy shield.
• Runes: Legacy of Greymake gives 50 attributes, which feeds straight into your travel nodes once you switch to Pathfinder.
• Jewels: crit chance, cold damage, and above all at least one jewel with 2% mana on kill. Heart of the Well and Against the Darkness remain excellent unique jewels.
• Flasks and charms: Laviangas Spirits for mapping, an instant-recovery life flask, plus the Nascent Hope, The Fall of the Axe and Rite of Passage charms.

Gameplay Tips

• Manage your rarity: aim for around 115% spread across rings, gloves, helmet and boots. Past 100%, returns diminish — no need to sacrifice everything to push higher.
• Prioritize flat damage: on rings and gloves, cold and physical pay off the most. Fire and lightning are fine as a fallback.
• Stack deflection: having it on both your body armour and boots is essential to survive in the endgame.
• Adapt your flasks to the content: Laviangas Spirits works well for mapping; for bosses, switch to a mana flask with increased recovery.
• Don’t rush the crit swap: wait for a good crit bow and level 90 before reinvesting your tree into crit.

The Cadiro’s Gambit quiver

This unique quiver has been in the game since 0.2, but plenty of players still don’t fully understand how it works. Every shot randomly grants one of six properties: sixfold chaining with increased damage, split to six targets, pierce with return projectiles, guaranteed hits, 600% increased damage on kill, or 600% increased stun buildup.

Two of those properties are where the real value lies. Pierce with return makes projectiles hit enemies again on the way back, roughly doubling your damage. Guaranteed hits, meanwhile, are decisive on a crit build: they bypass the 50% crit chance cap imposed by Garrick’s Resolve, and since the hit counts twice, critical damage stacks on top. That’s why this quiver only gets equipped once you’ve switched to crit — without a crit investment, you lose nearly half its potential. Expect to pay around 12 divines, a price it earns.

Headhunter or Mageblood?

This is one of the most common questions about this build. For Fubgun, Headhunter is clearly better on genuinely juicy content. When you’re chaining maps carrying 30 to 40 rare monster modifiers, stealing modifiers generates a level of power that Mageblood simply can’t match. Mageblood is still a great belt, but it’s nowhere near as dominant here as it was in the original Path of Exile. If your goal is farming high-tier maps, put your investment into Headhunter instead.

Solving your mana problems

Mana is by far the most common issue on this build. The base rule doesn’t change: equip at least one jewel with 2% mana on kill — 1% isn’t enough. From there, three solutions depending on your content.

The mana flask with increased recovery is free. You need to press the button regularly, but combined with the jewel, it’s enough. Laviangas Spirits only suits mapping; for bosses, swap it for this flask.

Conservative Casting requires three tree points near the monk area, for 31% mana cost efficiency and 20% regeneration. Excellent value for three points.

Mana Remnants settles the question for good, both in mapping and against bosses: every critical hit or every kill drops a remnant that you pick up automatically. This is the solution Fubgun settled on in his final version, giving up Wind Dancer — at the cost of the extra 30% evasion it provided. This setup requires 147 spirit points with Diallas Desire, or 150 without, by taking a reservation node in the tree.

The crit swap: going critical

Going critical shouldn’t be rushed. It’s only worth it with a quality critical bow: tier 3 or higher (critical essence), at least 400 DPS. Also aim for level 90, since the crit tree spreads wide and needs a lot of points before it becomes worthwhile.

Once these conditions are met, the swap is simple: you need a Cadiros Gambit or a very good double critical quiver, and nothing else changes. Neither a critical amulet nor a critical helmet is necessary, although a helmet offering around 30% critical chance remains very strong if you find one.

The hybrid setup: life and energy shield

The switch to hybrid is just as simple: an energy shield helmet, preferably hybrid boots, then the lower branch of the tree. Nothing more, and the survivability gain is immediate since you pick up both evasion and a large shield pool.

You can stay pure life, but hybrid is the goal to aim for. Even with average hybrid gear, you already reach 800 energy shield; when optimized, you sit around 2,300 to 2,500 shield on top of 1,500 life — a pool of roughly 4,000 points, well above a life, evasion and ward setup, all while keeping deviation and evasion stacked. Ghost Dance also remains excellent despite the nerfs.

Five-passive jewels, the change of scale

This patch introduced a crafting method that makes jewels far more powerful than before. A new modifier adds an extra suffix slot: you apply it, remove it, then add a modifier that increases the jewel’s effect in its place. The result is a jewel carrying three amplified suffixes instead of two normal ones.

Concretely, a jewel that would give 20% critical damage, 4% attack speed and 6% critical chance now gives 31% critical damage, 6% attack speed and 24% critical chance. On a build that stacks jewel sockets, the cumulative gap is considerable — it’s actually one of the reasons to go out of your way for the far-flung sockets in the tree.

Two unique jewels round out the picture. Heart of the Well returns mana and life on every kill, which offsets the life lost while sprinting. Voices adds two abyssal jewel sockets, meaning two extra jewels — a direct gain now that each one is worth this much.

Swapping to Pathfinder: the final evolution of the Ice Shot Deadeye build

Late in the season, Fubgun changed his character’s ascendancy: from Deadeye, he moved to Pathfinder. He sets the condition himself, and it’s a strict one: this swap only makes sense once you’re already strong enough not to feel the loss of defense and damage that giving up Deadeye brings. It’s not a starting alternative, it’s an end-of-run comfort pick.

What it brings comes down to one word: mobility. Pathfinder grants immunity to slows — chilled ground, chill, Hinder, Temporal Chains — and above all it stops you from being knocked down while sprinting. Sprint therefore becomes permanent, which matters all the more now that Grinding Gear Games has fixed the trick that let you reset it by disconnecting.

Four ascendancy nodes are involved: Relentless Pursuit, Running Assault, Path Seeker and Traveller’s Wisdom. The last one is the most cost-effective on this build: every small travel node grants 5% increased damage instead of an attribute. On a tree that crosses the whole map to reach jewel sockets, that conversion alone comes close to a 100% increased damage gain — hence the value of the Legacy of Greymake rune, whose 50 attributes cover the remaining requirements.

The secondary gain concerns speed: with boots built for sprinting, the character goes from around 71% to 180% movement speed, and up to 216% by swapping weapons. That’s what makes sprint preferable to the Rhoa mount, whose advantage disappears the moment you can no longer be knocked down.

One warning, to close. The version Fubgun filmed runs on gear worth several mirrors — a bow refined with over a thousand divines, unique gloves worth around a hundred divines. Those numbers describe a ceiling, not a target: the build remains fully playable and effective at the three tiers described above, and the Pathfinder swap is only worth it once that journey is complete.

Skill Tree