For this build in particular, I use Zizaran’s Explosive Arrow Champion guide as a template for reference when gearing up and progressing my league starter. Throughout the course of these last two months, I’ve pushed my character CityGymGuard all the way to level 99 from league starts.

In this guide, I want to talk about how I leveled my character in POE 3.22 Trial of the Ancestors league, the strategies I’ve deployed to farm POE Currency and upgrade gear, and my approach to completing my Atlas progression.

Bleed Lacerate Champion

To start off the season, I actually leveled as a Bleed Lacerate Champion. If you I think this is a perfectly normal build to be playing during league start, trust me, it is about as bad as it sounds.

Why Play Bad Builds?

Typically during league start, I like to try leveling with old builds that used to work in order to be reminded that I should have just chosen one of the top five meta builds from the previous league.

How To Recover From Bad League Start Build?

So, after pushing my build to about level 75 and realizing that there was just no way I could reasonably scale this build into midgame Atlas progression, I started to buy up some Blighted Maps and farming them for the currency to respec into Explosive Arrow Champion.

The reason that I usually opt for this farming strategy is because the minimum requirement to farm it is that you anoint your rings with Meteor Towers drop Burning Ground and Empowering Towers have 25% increased Range.

After farming quite a few of these maps until around level 89, I was able to use whatever profits I earned in order to convert my Champion to a more typical league starter build, Zizaran’s EA Champion.

Boss Carries For Voidstones

After converting to this build, I was able to finish up my Atlas completion by which point. I also decided to purchase boss carries for Uber, Elder, and Maven so that I could access the remaining Voidstones and sustain T16 maps.

Alch n’ Go Farming Strategy

The strategy I decided to farm in order to continue upgrading my league starter was a simple Alch n’ Go farming strategy that involves farming Delirium Orbs with Wandering Path, Eater of Worlds Influence, and Expedition.

My favorite maps were Beach and Strand because Beach dropped the Divine Orb card and strand was really effective for farming Delirium Mirrors.

Also Read: How To Farm Harvest With Wandering Path In POE 3.22? - Zero Investment

20 Divine Bow

For my gear, I went with a +3 to socketed gem bow with Attack Speed and Fire DoT Multi.

Since this build scales especially well with attack speed, I chose to enchant the bow with more attack speed. And the extra crit roll was just a little cherry on top in order to sustain Elemental Overload.

Earlier in the league, I purchased this bow for around 20 Divine Orbs after having sold a few of my own bows for five Divine Orbs each.

Resistance Rings

For my rings, I aimed for as high of a resistance profile as I possibly could and also chose Amethyst Rings for an additional 46% chaos resistance in the implicit modifier.

The extra flat cold damage modifier here was especially important to have in order to proc Elemental Equilibrium, which would inflict an additional minus 25% fire resistance on enemies.

Quiver

My quiver was one that I bought during week 1 for 30 Chaos Orbs and it has attack speed, high damage increase, a high life roll, and a bit of fire resistances and crit chance.

Dyadian Dawn

For the belt, I went with a Dyadian Dawn since this is a very efficient item for this build in particular due to the ignite modifier.

Enchanted Helmet

On the helmet, I was able to purchase a Pig-faced Bascinet with the attack speed enchant for one Divine Orb on week one.

After that, I simply spammed the helmet with Deafening Essences of Greed until I hit triple elemental resistance and an open prefix where I crafted +1 to socketed AOE gems. This POE Item was where I socketed my auras.

+1 All Fire Amulets

Since this league allowed players to optimize their characters with tattoos, it was important for me to fit as many attributes as I could onto my amulets.

This amulet grants 68 intelligence, 42 strength, and 23 dexterity. It is also very important to have the +1 to all fire skill gems here in order to scale the damage of Explosive Arrow. I bought this amulet for 60 Chaos Orbs.

Fractured Body Armor

For the body armor, I was able to purchase this base for one Divine Orb and just spammed Deafening Essences of Greed until I hit the following resistance modifiers with an open prefix where I crafted percent life and mana.

The nice thing about this build is that a second six-link isn’t necessary since the body armor can be used for utility gems.

I like to have my Infernal Cry, Frenzy, Blink Arrow, and Vitality socketed into the body armor here.

30% Movement Speed Boots

For the boots, I bought this base for one Divine Orb as well and spammed Essences of Envy until I hit high lightning resistance in an open prefix where I crafted life.

Suppression Gloves

Since I needed to fill out my spell suppression, I bought this pair of gloves (Honour Fist Gragonscale Gauntlets) for one Divine Orb and spammed it with Defening Essences of Greed for the life roll and got really lucky with the T1 attack speed and open suffix.

Flask Setup

On my flask, I prioritize armor, evasion rating, movement speed, and reduced curse effect.

Since the build doesn't do too well against Bleeds or Corrupted Blood, especially in maps that reduce life recovery, I run with a Corrupted Blood cleansing modifier on my life flask.

Most Important Tattoos & How To Use Them

For the tattoos, the most important tattoos to run are the Honoured Tattoo of the Hunter on agility, Tattoo of the Ramako Makanga next to Elemental Equilibrium and as many life regeneration tattoos as you can fit.

The hunter tattoo grants +1 to all dexterity skill gems. And since Explosive Arrow scales well with gem level, this was an absolute no-brainer.

An important thing for the Ramako Makanga tattoo that grants an additional projectile is that you need to socket a Warrior's Tale Crimson Jewel nearby in order to fire two additional projectiles.

Aside from the tattoos, I did also path down to Graceful Assault and grab the Mastery there in order to improve the build survivability and clear speed, which allowed me to push CityGymGuard all the way to level 99 by farming Delirium and T16 maps.