S-TIER | BUILD CHASSERESSE ICE STRIKE AMAZON (@Taaki PoE) | SAISON 5

Build Video

Build Overview

This Ice Strike + Shattering Palm Amazon build is Taaki’s league starter for Season 0.5 (Return of the Ancients / Runes of Aldur). It’s a playstyle he has been running for multiple leagues: fast, satisfying, and extremely reliable at league start, combining the mobility of Shattering Palm with the icy melee strike of Ice Strike to shatter and freeze packs.

The Amazon’s true strength at league start comes down to a single node: Penetrate. It converts your weapon’s local accuracy into flat physical damage. In practice, this turns a cheap quarterstaff — the kind nobody else wants, because accuracy is a dead stat for other builds — into a powerful main weapon. While Martial Artist players fight over high-damage or elemental staves at inflated prices, you pick up their high-accuracy staves for next to nothing. That market advantage is exactly what makes this build so accessible and effective at launch.

The core gameplay revolves around using Shattering Palm to teleport into melee range and apply an explosive debuff to enemies, then following up with Ice Strike to deal massive AoE damage, freeze monsters, and trigger the chain explosions of Herald of Ice. Against bosses, you alternate Ice Strike to build up combo points, drop Tempest Bell, and hammer the target until it melts.

Pros / Cons

Gem Setup by Stage

This build offers 4 progression stages from leveling to the final build. Select a stage to see the corresponding gem setup.

Leveling Setup Ice Strike Cartes Début Endgame Ice Strike No Lineage Endgame Ice Strike with Lineage

Leveling Setup

11 skills • 38 gemmes

Déferlement de glaceGlacial Cascade

Terre geléeFrozen Locus

Bombe de givreFrost Bomb

Bondissement

Déluge céraunienTempest Flurry

Héraut de la glaceHerald of Ice

Danse fantomatiqueGhost Dance

Main de ChayulaHand of Chayula

Frappe de glaceIce Strike

Cloche tempétueuseTempest Bell

Paume fracassanteShattering Palm

Ice Strike Cartes Début

8 skills • 33 gemmes

Frappe de glaceIce Strike

Paume fracassanteShattering Palm

Cloche tempétueuseTempest Bell

Bâton chargéCharged Staff

Main de ChayulaHand of Chayula

Héraut de la glaceHerald of Ice

Frénésie du combatCombat Frenzy

Danse fantomatiqueGhost Dance

Endgame Ice Strike – No Lineage

8 skills • 38 gemmes

Frappe de glaceIce Strike

Paume fracassanteShattering Palm

Cloche tempétueuseTempest Bell

Bâton chargéCharged Staff

Main de ChayulaHand of Chayula

Héraut de la glaceHerald of Ice

Frénésie du combatCombat Frenzy

Danse fantomatiqueGhost Dance

Endgame Ice Strike – with Lineage

8 skills • 41 gemmes

Frappe de glaceIce Strike

Paume fracassanteShattering Palm

Cloche tempétueuseTempest Bell

Bâton chargéCharged Staff

Main de ChayulaHand of Chayula

Héraut de la glaceHerald of Ice

Danse fantomatiqueGhost Dance

Danseur du ventWind Dancer

Recommended Gear

The absolute priority is the weapon: that’s where the bulk of your damage comes from. The rest of your gear aims for an evasion / energy shield mix for survivability, with a few key uniques for scaling.

• Weapon (Quarterstaff) : high accuracy as your top priority — it’s what fuels Penetrate. Also look for more skill levels, attack speed, and flat damage. Favour cold or lightning, while ideally covering all elemental types to activate Yoke of Suffering.
• Helmet, gloves, boots : pure evasion pieces. During the campaign, you can use an energy shield helmet with Subterfuge Mask, swapped out once your 3rd ascendancy (Stalking Panther) is unlocked.
• Body Armour : pure evasion armour (or energy shield depending on the hybrid Ghost Dance variant).
• Amulet — Yoke of Suffering : the build’s first major upgrade. Enchant it with Ancient Aegis for additional energy shield.
• Rings : life and resistances first, with a bit of damage on top if possible.
• Charms : a silver charm, a stone charm, and a thawing charm (or Nascent Hope on an energy shield base).
• Jewels : a rage jewel (rage on hit + mana on kill) early on, then a jewel base Timeless Jewel with a rage radius to gain 3 rage on hit.
• Endgame uniques considered : Reverie paired with Asenath’s Mark Brew, Brass Dome for a Runic Ward variant, or Cloak of Crimson for a leech-based playstyle.

Gameplay Tips

• Hit with the tip of the cascade: with Glacial Cascade, always hit the Frozen Locus with the end of the cascade. Otherwise you lose a lot of damage and the Freeze won’t be consumed.
• Against bosses: spam Glacial Cascade until you freeze the target, then the tip hit consumes the Freeze for massive damage.
• Prioritize Intelligence at level 7: take Int as your first travel node to level your gems to level 3, then Strength second for early armor.
• Invest everything into your weapon before level 22: before Hollow Point Technique, put your currency and runes into the quarterstaff, then look for a good energy shield helmet and an evasion chest.
• Mapping rotation: Shattering Palm to teleport and mark, then Ice Strike to burst packs, all amplified by Herald of Ice.
• Boss rotation: Ice Strike to build up combo points, drop Tempest Bell, then keep hammering with Ice Strike.
• Frost Bomb: use it for elemental exposure, and Tempest Flurry to apply Shock.

Leveling: from Monk to Amazon

The starting sequence is well-established and borrowed from Guy That Dies’ Monk speedrun, adapted for the Amazon. Start by creating a Monk to grab a quarterstaff and the Glacial Cascade gem, then transfer them to your Huntress. Next, create Frozen Locus, and pick up Frost Bomb at the Clearfell camp.

For supports during the campaign: the first comes from the Devourer — that’s Concentrated Area for Glacial Cascade. The second comes from the Witch — Elemental Armament for Frozen Locus. The third is Cold Attunement for the cascade, and the fourth Ice Bite for the Locus. Find a talisman so you can use Pounce as your movement skill. Your spirit gem will be Herald of Ice with Magnified Area (then Cold Attunement later on). Be sure to keep a support slot free for the level 5 gem: you’ll put Tempest Flurry there to apply Shock, with Shock and Rapid Attacks.

We play Glacial Cascade + Frozen Locus throughout the entire campaign. We only switch to Ice Strike once we reach maps, around the second five-link (the first being guaranteed in Act 4 and reserved for the cascade). You can switch to Ice Strike and Tempest Bell as early as level 14 if you don’t enjoy the cascade playstyle, but the Locus/Cascade combo remains the most efficient path.

Mastering the Glacial Cascade + Frozen Locus combo

This is the signature mechanic of the leveling phase, and it takes a bit of practice before the league start. You first place the Frozen Locus in the direction of your cursor — the action nudges you slightly backward. You then strike the Locus with Glacial Cascade. If you hit it with the tip (the very last segment) of the cascade, it instantly explodes dealing heavy area damage and shatters everything that is frozen thanks to Herald of Ice.

Against bosses, repeat the process until the target is frozen. When you then hit the Locus with the tip of the cascade, the Freeze is consumed for massive damage. The golden rule: always hit with the end of the cascade — otherwise you lose enormous amounts of damage and the Freeze is never consumed. Frost Bomb provides elemental exposure and Tempest Flurry applies Shock to amplify everything.

Amazon Ascendancies: progression order

The Amazon picks her ascendancies in this order: Predatory Instinct at the first labyrinth, Critical Strike at the second, then Stalking Panther at the third. This third ascendancy marks a turning point in the build: you drop the Subterfuge Mask and the campaign Energy Shield helmet to switch over to a full evasion setup on secondary slots.

One important technical note: Hollow Point Technique only comes online around level 22. Before that, focus your currency and runes on the weapon. Once Hollow Point Technique is unlocked, you transition to quarterstaffs (Shard Staff type) and the Penetrate mechanic really comes into its own.

Endgame paths: Reverie, Runic Ward and Energy Shield

With such a massive patch, the endgame meta is not set in stone yet. The reference PoB version is an Energy Shield + life hybrid with Ghost Dance for recovery: it’s the most reliable option since all its parameters are known. But several promising avenues are emerging.

The most interesting one is Reverie, paired with Asenath’s Mark Brew and Stalking Panther: your life flask applies continuously, and the Asenath’s Mark Brew also makes it regenerate mana. This fixes both life and mana in one shot (invaluable with the leech nerf), lets you invest into « damage taken from mana before life » for more tankiness, and unlocks all the effects that require being under a flask’s influence. Since it isn’t an evasion chest, it pairs well with high evasion elsewhere.

A Runic Ward variant is also being explored, built around Brass Dome (over 1000 ward) combined with evasion via Starkonja’s Panther. Finally, a pure Energy Shield setup with Ghost Dance remains solid, and a leech-based setup around Cloak of Crimson is still viable, though it will likely fall behind this patch. The author plans to release an update video a few days after launch to settle the question.

Passive Skill Tree