[Ranger] PoE 3.8 Frost Blades Raider Fast Build (PC, PS4, Xbox)

This build is a Claw & Shield based Frost Blades build. It utilizes a fast clear speed, high mobility, high evasion, and high damage to clear all the available content. This isn't a tanky afk build. It requires a certain amount of skill in order to clear the hardest content.

 

Quick Jump

Pros & Cons

 

Skill Tree

Ascendancy

Way of the Poacher > Avatar of the Slaughter > Rapid Assault > Avatar of the Chase

Rapid Assault > Avatar of the Chase > Way of the Poacher > Avatar of the Slaughter

Pantheon

Major: Soul of the Brine King, Soul of Lunaris or Soul of Solaris.

Minor: Soul of Gruthkul, Soul of Yugul, or Soul of Gharukan.

Bandit: Help Alira

Passive Tree & PoB

 

Path of Building Link: https://pastebin.com/sjN9UDqM

 

 

 

 

Gems Setup

Frost Blades

Frost Blades | Elemental Damage with Attacks | Hypothermia | Rage Support | Multistrike Support

Ruthless | Ancestral Call Support

When mapping, use Ancestral Call instead of Ruthless. Ancestral call together with Frost Blades is incredibly powerful.

Auras

Enlighten Support | Hatred | Herald of Ice | Precision

Keep Herald of Ice and Hatred in your shield, together with Enlighten.

If you get a shield with 15% reduced mana reserved, you can fit in another Herald or Aspect. In this case make sure to use a lvl 1 precision

We will put the Precision elsewhere. See further down.

Movement

For Movement & Debuffs there will be 2 different setups depending on if you have "Curse enemies with level # Assassin's Mark on hit" on your rare shaped ring, or not.

Whirling Blades | Fortify Support | Flame Dash

Option 1: This is the setup you use if you don't have an Assassin's Mark ring

Whirling Blades | Fortify Support | Cast On Critical Strike | Frost Bomb

Option 2: This is the setup you use if you have an Assassin's Mark ring.

(In this case Flame Dash will be placed in another item.)

Attack speed & Dmg boost

Ancestral Protector | Berserk | Haste | Ancestral Warchief

Berserk and Vaal Haste provide an incredible burst for bosses and other big mobs. Try to make sure to have these up at the end of maps, and you'll have no problem melting through the boss. (You should obviously try to be at 50 rage, but that isn't usually a problem)

Vaal Ancestral Warchief is also an incredible damage burst, and you can have both Vaal Ancestral Warchief and Ancestral Protector activated even though they are both totems.

CWDT

Cast when Damage Taken | Immortal Call | Summon Ice Golem | Blood Rage

Keep the gems on low level to make sure it proccs as often as possible. CWDT should be level 1.

Some people try to fit in an enfeeble gem in the CWDT setup. It's up to you, if you can find the space or need.

Curses and debuff

For Movement & Debuffs there will be 2 different setups depending on if you have "Curse enemies with level # Assassin's Mark on hit" on your rare shaped ring, or not.

Frost Bomb | Curse On Hit Support | Assassin's Mark | Precision

Option 1: This is what you use if you don't have an Assassin's Mark ring.

Whirling Blades | Fortify Support | Cast On Critical Strike | Frost Bomb

Option 2: This is the setup you use if you have an Assassin's Mark ring.

(In this case Precision will be placed in another item.)

 

Gear Setup

Must-have uniques

Boots

Darkray Vectors are best in slot. They are also very cheap. Only occasion where we don't use them is vs Uber Elder. We use Kaom's Roots in that fight.

Amulet

The Pandemonius. Incredibly strong amulet. It gives us a LOT of damage, but also provides us with survivability thanks to the blind. It's an expensive amulet though. If you can't afford it you can either use a Hyrri's Truth, or you can use a rare amulet.

Hp, resist, Elemental damage with attacks. Crit chance and crit multiplier would be a nice bonus if you can fit it in.

Rings

Mark of the Elder together with a shaped rare ring.

Most important stats on the rare ring are life and resist, but if you can fit in some cold/phys dmg or EDWAS, that's great.
In the best case scenario, you can get a ring with "Curse enemies with level # Assassin's Mark on hit". That frees up some gem slots for you.

Helmet

Abyssus gives us so much damage, it's insane, but most of the time Starkonja's is better. Abyssus is only really useful in certain fights where the enemy doesn't do a lot of physical damage.

Starkonja gives lots of life, evasion, attack speed, and crit chance.

40% increased Frost blades damage is ideal of course.

Jewels

We're using Frost Blades, so yeah..

Lethal Pride modifiers to the passive points within it's radius. It will give you different bonuses depending on what seed (mine is 14077) you have and where you place it. Try to get one and place it in different spots. If it's not good, use divines on it when you can, until you find a good one. You will see the bonuses you get from it by mousing over the passive points in the radius. Only way to know if it's good or not is to test it.

 

Other Gear

Weapon

A claw with high PDPS and "Attacks with this weapon penetrate 14-16% elemental resistances", is the best option. You can also go for a claw with straight up high PDPS, or a hybrid claw with high phys + added cold.

Mods to look for on claws

If you don't have a high budget my favorite alternative is a Bloodseeker. Other good alternatives are Wasp Nest and Touch of Anguish.

Shield

A rare shield with:

Anything beyond that is just a bonus. The Aura Reservation saves us a gem slot otherwise used for Enlighten. A shield with high evasion is a big source for our evade chance and helps a lot with reaching 95% evade.

You can also craft cool stuff like 5% chance to deal double damage on them.

Gloves

Shaper's Touch is best in slot. Only downside with them is the lack of resist.

Getting a pair with +1 frenzy charge corruption is surprisingly cheap.

Chest

I personally prefer a rare chest. Lot's of HP and high evasion is ideal. If you can get one with Maim and/or Crit chance on it, then that's ideal. It is super expensive unless you get lucky and make it yourself though. First priority is to get one with high life and evasion.

There are a lot of options until you find a good rare. You'll have to decide for yourself which works best for you. These can all be good alternatives if you can make them fit and make up for the lost stats you can get from a rare.

Loreweave

Probably BiS if you can't get a good rare with extra curse on it.

Cons: Can be hard to get the rolls you want.

Yriel's Fostering (Rhoa or Ursa) - This is also an incredible DPS boost. It has decent evasion and decent max life. An all around good chest.

Cons: It lacks resists

Farrul's Fur

Another really good armour. Decent evasion and decent life.

It allows for the use of Aspect of the Cat, without having to reserve any mana. Aspect of the cat is a great buff both offensively and defensively.

Belt

Stygian belts are superior to all other belts for this build.

We want Life/resists/EDWAS

Flat elemental damage on the jewel adds nice damage. Preferably cold damage. 

Flask

Move the mouse on the bold poe flask to see more information

Experimenter's Diamond Flask of Heat, Perpetual Sanctified Life Flask of Staunching, Atziri's Promise, Lion's Roar, The Overflowing Chalice, Taste of Hate

 

Leveling

You can pretty much start with frost blades from the start.

Use something like Last Resort until you get to lvl 26, and then you switch into 2xEwar's Mirage.

Ewar's mirage is a seriously underestimated weapon. You can use those badboys up to lvl 70 with ease. They scale so good.

It is also entirely possible to just pick up good rares.

In order to get the most out of Ewar's Mirage, you need to stack some flat damage on gear. There are shitloads of good options for this.

Anything with Adds # to # phys/cold/light/fire damage is good. There are lots of cheap lowlvl uniques that are great for this.

If you feel that you are having trouble with mana while leveling, I recommend using Praxis rings or Elreon rings.