Path of Exile 2 is a game defined by evolution. Balance passes, mechanical refinements, and new endgame challenges constantly push players to refine their builds-or rebuild them entirely. Few skills embody that long-term journey better than Ice Shot. For many bow players, Ice Shot isn't just a skill; it's a playstyle, a visual spectacle, and a mechanical puzzle that rewards careful scaling.

In this updated Mirage Archer Ice Shot Deadeye guide, we're diving deep into a hyper endgame version of the build. This is not a league starter or a budget-friendly mapper. Instead, this update focuses on pushing Ice Shot to truly ludicrous levels of damage and POE2 Currency, answering one question above all others: what does Ice Shot look like when fully min-maxed?

After extensive testing, gear upgrades, and skill tree refinements, this build now sits at over 200,000 Ice Shot damage unbuffed in hideout, with far higher effective output once combat mechanics come into play. More importantly, it does so while clearing entire screens effortlessly and surviving content that would instantly delete lesser bow builds.

Why Ice Shot Still Reigns Supreme

Ice Shot remains one of the most satisfying skills in PoE 2 thanks to its combination of:

Massive area coverage

Built-in crowd control through freezing

Exceptional synergy with critical strike scaling

Natural screen-clearing potential

With Mirage Archer supporting the skill, Ice Shot gains an additional layer of automation. While you reposition, dodge, or simply advance forward, Mirage Archer continues firing Ice Shots behind you, turning maps into cascading explosions of frozen enemies.

This build leans fully into that fantasy-fast, lethal, and precise-while reinforcing its weakest historical points: survivability and consistency at the highest tiers of content.

What's Changed in the Endgame Update

The previous version of this build was already capable of clearing all standard content comfortably. However, as more players pushed deeper into endgame and invested additional currency, a clear need emerged for an optimized, high-investment path forward.

This update focuses on three major improvements:

A reworked passive tree prioritizing critical scaling

Heavy investment into Garacon's Resolve

Gear optimization that supports both damage and defense

Rather than stacking generic attack damage, the build now leans aggressively into critical chance, critical damage, and freeze synergy, dramatically increasing both burst damage and consistency.

Skill Tree Overhaul: Crit Above All Else

The most significant changes come from the passive tree. Earlier versions of the build invested heavily in generic attack damage nodes such as Blinding Strike and Embodied Power. While effective early on, these nodes ultimately plateau at extreme investment levels.

In this update, the focus shifts to high-impact critical nodes, specifically:

Throat Seeker

Careful Assassin

These nodes dramatically boost critical strike chance and critical strike multiplier-two stats that scale exponentially when combined with Garacon's Resolve.

To make room for this shift, the build paths away from less efficient damage clusters and instead uses Subterfuge Mask allocated on the amulet. This saves a substantial number of passive points and opens the door to additional high-value damage nodes elsewhere on the tree.

Garacon's Resolve: The Core of the Build

At the heart of this endgame version lies Garacon's Resolve, one of the most powerful and misunderstood mechanics in the game.

Garacon's Resolve allows your critical strikes to effectively roll twice. Here's how it works in practice:

The build sits at roughly 38% base critical strike chance

When you attack, the game rolls to see if the hit crits

If it crits, your full critical damage applies (around 650%)

Garacon's Resolve then rolls your crit chance again

If the second roll also crits, your critical damage is applied twice

This means that some hits deal over 1,300% increased damage, creating massive spikes that instantly delete bosses, rares, and entire packs.

Even more importantly, rolling crit chance twice raises your effective critical strike chance to roughly 61%, despite the hard cap of 50%. The result is a build that crits extremely often and hits far harder than its tooltip suggests.

This synergy is the primary reason the build moved away from generic attack scaling-nothing else competes with the raw efficiency of double-rolled critical strikes.

Freeze Synergy and Thin Ice Scaling

Damage alone doesn't define endgame success. Control matters just as much, and Ice Shot excels here.

The build now incorporates Thin Ice, granting 50% increased damage against frozen enemies. Because Ice Shot naturally applies cold damage and freezes enemies consistently, this bonus is effectively always active.

Frozen enemies:

Can't retaliate

Can't cast dangerous abilities

Take massively increased damage

This synergy turns Ice Shot from a fast mapper into a build capable of safely dismantling the hardest content in the game.

Mirage Archer and Screen-Wide Clear

Mirage Archer remains a cornerstone of the build, especially in endgame mapping. While your main character fires Ice Shot into packs, Mirage Archer continues attacking from behind, creating overlapping fields of cold damage.

This interaction allows the build to:

Clear screens without stopping

Maintain DPS while repositioning

Avoid overcommitting into dangerous enemy packs

In high-density maps, this creates a near-constant barrage of Ice Shots, freezing and shattering enemies before they can react.

Survivability: More Than Just "Don't Get Hit"

Historically, bow builds struggle defensively in PoE. This version addresses that weakness directly.

The combination of:

High freeze uptime

Massive burst damage

Strategic positioning enabled by Mirage Archer

Means enemies often never get a chance to attack. When they do, improved gear choices and smarter passive allocation provide a much sturdier defensive baseline than earlier iterations.

While this is still a high-skill build that rewards awareness and movement, it no longer feels fragile or unforgiving in endgame encounters.

Gear and Investment Scaling

This guide is explicitly designed as an endgame update, and gear plays a major role in that identity.

The planner for this build includes multiple variants:

Early mapping setups for transitioning into endgame

Mid-investment versions for comfortable bossing

High-end min-maxed gear for pushing the hardest content

As investment increases, the build scales exceptionally well. Each additional point of critical chance, critical damage, or cold scaling feeds directly into Garacon's Resolve, multiplying returns rather than adding flat damage.

This makes Ice Shot one of the most rewarding skills to invest currency into over time.

Endgame Performance and Playstyle

At full investment, this Mirage Archer Ice Shot Deadeye:

Deletes screens of enemies instantly

Freezes and shatters bosses during burst windows

Maintains consistent DPS even while repositioning

Scales explosively with additional gear upgrades

With over 200,000 unbuffed hideout damage, the real power of the build only becomes apparent in combat, where critical mechanics, freeze bonuses, and Mirage Archer interactions stack together.

This is a build designed for players who want to push Path of Exile 2's endgame to its limits-and look good doing it.

Final Thoughts

Ice Shot has always been a fan-favorite skill, but this updated Mirage Archer Deadeye proves that it still has room to grow at the very top end of Path of Exile 2. By shifting away from generic attack scaling and fully embracing critical strike mechanics through Garacon's Resolve, the build achieves absurd damage levels without sacrificing control or survivability buy POE 2 Currency.

If you're looking for a bow build that rewards investment, mastery, and precision-while turning entire maps into frozen graveyards-this hyper endgame Ice Shot Deadeye delivers.

And if you thought Ice Shot had already peaked, this update makes one thing clear: it was only getting started.