Overview
Poison Burst Arrow Pathfinder is a ranged chaos build that wins fights before enemies close the gap. The core loop is straightforward: fire Poison Burst Arrow into a pack, drop Toxic Growth and Gas Arrow to deny the ground they need to cross, then keep moving while poison stacks and plague spread finish the job. Nothing about it asks you to stand still or absorb a hit.
The archetype’s appeal is consistency rather than spike damage. Because the kill pressure comes from damage over time already applied, repositioning costs nothing — the poison keeps ticking whether or not you are attacking. That makes map clear feel unusually stable compared to bow builds that rely on landing a burst.
Defensively the build stacks avoidance rather than mitigation. Wind Dancer, Barkskin, and Ghost Dance layer on top of evasion and life, which is enough because the playstyle never requires you to be in melee range in the first place.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Safe by construction — all damage is applied from range and keeps working while you move
- Excellent pack clear through plague spread and overlapping poison ground
- Strong area denial from Toxic Growth and Gas Arrow against grouped enemies
- Works early: the creator rates league start 4/5 on the strength of raw bow damage before supports come online
- Layered defensive skills give real survivability without gear investment
Cons
- Damage is not instant — bosses take sustained uptime rather than a burst window
- Wants poison chance, poison duration, and attack speed all scaling together to feel good
- Weak against anything that forces you to reposition constantly out of your own ground effects
- Herald-dependent clear means the build feels noticeably worse before those come online
Key Skills
- Poison Burst Arrow — main damage and clear, supported with Bursting Plague, Deadly Poison, and Multishot
- Toxic Growth — concentrated poison ground for grouped enemies and tougher single targets
- Gas Arrow — the second area tool, built for persistent ground and spread
- Herald of Plague / Herald of Blood — the chain reaction that turns single kills into pack clear
- Bloodhound’s Mark — single-target pressure for rares, elites, and bosses
Gear & Anointments
Stat priority runs poison damage, chaos damage, damage over time, bow damage, attack speed, and projectile scaling — in roughly that order. Defensively the build invests in life, resistances, and evasion, letting Wind Dancer, Barkskin, and Ghost Dance do the rest. The creator names supports rather than specific bases, so specific uniques and anointments are to be confirmed against the source video.
Endgame Notes
Mapping is where the build peaks — the creator rates it 5/5 there and 4/5 for both bossing and scaling. It scales cleanly with poison damage, chaos damage, bow upgrades, attack speed, and damage over time, so there is no hard wall, but boss fights remain an uptime exercise rather than a burst one.
Credits & Source
Build credited to RNGenius. See the source video for the full build’s gameplay footage + voice commentary: POISONBURST ARROW PATHFINDER BUILD GUIDE | POE 2 PATCH 0.5.