Hello and welcome back to another video! I will be league starting Permafrost Bolts/Fragmentation rounds this league. It’s a satisfying build to play and mainly plays like a 2 button combo build where you freeze packs with Permafrost Bolts and then blow them up with Fragmentation Rounds.

I have done a fresh SSF league start test run on the Witchhunter ascendancy in 0.4 and it was one of the smoothest Level 1’s to Tier 15 maps I’ve played! The skills are used from Level 1 and it scales nicely through to endgame on average gear. There have been some nerfs to the Witchhunter ascendancy but as the defenses were pretty OP in 0.4, I believe it is still a viable option. Refer to the 0.5 Patch Notes considerations part of the video where I go over some calculations on the extent of the nerfs (TLDR, it’s about 11-12% less survivability compared to 0.4 when factoring in the new bases).

Saying that, before league start I will be doing some further analysis on the Gemling Legionnaire (especially to check the new alt skill effects) and Tactician (mainly because of Deflection buffs and spirit reservation ease) to see if these are more viable options. I think all 3 Ascendancies will be solid to play (assuming the Gemling has good quality effects)!

Hope you enjoy the video, feel free to leave a comment and I’d be happy to discuss!

Intro: 0:00

Pros: 0:36

Cons: 1:33

Mechanics: 2:02

Ascendancy Analysis: 3:57

0.5 Patch notes considerations: 6:57

Skills: 9:06

Auras: 10:46

SSF Gear overview: 12:07

Passive Tree overview: 18:51

Levelling: 22:33

Outro: 26:20

Levelling POB: https://pobb.in/wv9zEIBO44we

Endgame POB: https://pobb.in/0jY6QStgCiF7

(POB DPS configs are a bit scuffed, these are mainly to group together my Tree, skills and gear at different points of progress)

NOTE: Sine Aequo and Hyrri’s Ire have been nerfed since I recorded the gear segment of the video! Hyrri’s is still OK, but I will update the POB notes with recommended uniques.

#poe2 #leaguestarter #pathofexile2 #crossbow #poe2builds