Overview
This is a Lightning Arrow Deadeye that turns a single shot into a full-screen chain reaction. The core loop is simple to pilot but deceptively deep: Lightning Arrow builds freeze, Herald of Ice shatters the frozen packs, Herald of Thunder mops up shocked stragglers, and Herald of Ash layers on extra chaining — all amplified by an armour-break explosion package that lets those herald blasts ripple from one pack straight into the next.
What makes the 0.5 version stand out is how well the pieces line up. Lightning Arrow already brings the speed, range, and freeze build-up the heralds need, so stacking over 100% area of effect and enough cold damage to reliably freeze converts the first kill of a pack into a screen-clearing detonation. On top of the clear, the build reaches over 3 million single-target DPS through a dedicated Lightning Rod and mark setup, giving it the burst to melt pinnacle bosses while still sitting at a respectable life pool to avoid one-shots.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Explosive, one-shot-a-pack clear speed once the herald chain comes online
- Over 3 million single-target DPS via Lightning Rod for tough bosses and pinnacle content
- Long range and Farshot scaling — you delete packs before they reach you
- Extremely smooth mapping thanks to Deadeye movement/attack-speed stacking
- Strong scaling ceiling; every gear upgrade adds more chains, freezes, and boss burst
Cons
- The armour-break/herald-explosion tech is gear-intensive and not cheap to assemble
- Wants a dual-string bow with fractured cold or extra-arrow rolls plus chaos-as-extra runes for armour break
- Around 3.5k life means positioning still matters against big hits
- Heavy visual clutter — the screen becomes a wall of explosions
Key Skills
- Lightning Arrow — main clear skill; freezes packs and feeds Herald of Ice
- Lightning Rod — secondary single-target skill on weapon set two for bosses
- Herald of Ice / Thunder / Ash — the explosion engine; ice shatters, thunder cleans shocked, ash adds chaining
- Marks (Call of the Chants) — auto-applied freezing/suffering/charge marks for damage and sustain
- Warcry companion — utility and safety while your damage carries
Gear & Anointments
The bow is the single most important piece — aim for a dual-string bow with either fractured tier-one cold damage or the chance to fire an additional arrow, then roll for the other. You also want 20% of damage gained as extra cold (a perfect Essence of Ice can add it), plus-one-arrow and gain-damage-as-extra-chaos runes (the chaos powers the armour break). The quiver wants +2 to projectile gems, attack speed, and crit, and the amulet wants spirit, life, and +3 projectile gems. Jewels lean on a Megalomaniac (Doom Slayer for herald damage/AoE), From Nothing near Valkyries, and a Time-Lapse Sapphire covering freeze build-up, cold penetration, AoE, and crit. Headhunter is optional and purely for fun — the build is already very strong without it.
Endgame Notes
Start with the core bow, quiver, and herald-explosion setup plus die/movement speed, then upgrade into better spirit, sockets, and the full armour-explosion tech. The build scales cleanly from early maps into heavily juiced endgame, and the Lightning Rod plus mark burst is enough to clear pinnacle bosses quickly.
Credits & Source
Build credited to KaidGames2. The creator updates the written build link every week with new additions — see the source video for the full gameplay footage and gem/gear breakdown: New DPS-Maxxing Lightning Arrow Build Got Even More OP in 0.5.