The Abyssal league this season is total madness, and that’s exactly why the Explosive Witchhunter Mercenary feels so good right now. This setup turns your crossbow into a screen-clearing cannon, chaining lightning-powered explosions that wipe packs before they even know you’re there. I’ve run it through high-tier encounters, Uber Arbiter melts in seconds, even full six-man juiced maps like Zarokh go down without stress. The best part? You can start it on a budget and scale it to absurd levels later, making it an easy league starter. I grabbed some core gear quickly through PoE 2 Items to get it rolling, and the build hasn’t slowed down since.



Main skills & playstyle
Explosive Shot linked with Nova Projectiles and Fork is your bread-and-butter for map clearing. It’s fast, has a great spread, and feels effortless in T16s. For single-target, swap to Shockburst Rounds—paired with big shocks, it just deletes bosses. Witchhunter ascendancy perks like Judge, Jury, and Executioner chunk rare monsters by a flat 30% life, and Pitiless Killer adds a natural cull. You’ll run Herald of Thunder, Herald of Ice, and Herald of Ash to feed chain reactions. Defensively, you stack high evasion plus a solid ES pool. Wind Dancer and Ghost Dance make a huge difference here, letting you avoid massive hits and regen ES almost instantly.



Passive tree & ascendancy path
On the Mercenary tree, start by moving right—pick up Heavy Ammo for more damage, Spray & Pray for projectile spread, and Electrifying Daze for shock synergy. Then head left into Beastial Skin for extra Evasion and ES scaling. My usual ascendancy order is Zealous Inquisition first for the AoE boost, Witchbane next, and Judge/Jury to top off boss damage potential. It’s quick to set up and feels smooth even without top-tier gear.



Gear recommendations
Your endgame weapon is a Gemini Crossbow with +Projectile Levels and an extra bolt. If you can’t afford that yet, a rare with +2 projectiles works fine in the early stages. Three Dragons helmet is a real game-changer, letting lightning damage shock—though any decent ES/Evasion helm will do until you grab one. Aim for lightning conversion gloves, movement speed boots, and stack resistances plus life or Spirit wherever you can. Even with 20–50 Divines invested, the build feels like top-tier content clear speed.



The gameplay loop couldn’t be simpler: run into a pack, loose an Explosive Shot, watch the screen light up and bodies drop. For bosses, toss a Voltaic Grenade to force a big shock, then spam Shockburst Rounds until they’re gone. If you want to speed up gearing, picking up a few PoE 2 Items for sale can help land that key unique or craft your best-in-slot weapon faster without grinding endlessly. This one hits hard, keeps you fast, and doesn’t compromise survivability—perfect for riding high on the Abyssal ladder.

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