Bowmage Marksman by Lizard_IRL Build Guide (Beta 0.8.5)

Super Fun

Massive Range & AoE

Great Single Target

Fast and Mobile

Insane Arena Pusher

Satisfying Gearing

Easy Legendaries

Rewarding if Mastered

Multiple Defensive Layers

Critical Vulnerability Abuser

Requires a Unique

Gearing Min/Max Puzzle

Requires Good Positioning

Requires Game Knowledge

High Skill Ceiling

Can't Facetank

Important notes:

Icicle is a Skill with no Skill Tree, that means it has no access to the usual "more damage" nodes in Skill Trees. This will make scaling damage a bit more complex than your usual "stack as more damage nodes as possible" typical in LE builds. Do not worry, we will reach crazy DPS and AoE while also being surprisingly tanky.

Damage Scaling

• Dexterity – Luckily for us, the Icicle Spell scales with Dexterity, gaining 4% damage x point. Additionally, it will also grant 4 flat dodge x point, a very nice defensive layer for the build.
• Mourningfrost – Since the build stacks Dexterity, it can make use of this amazing pair of Uniques Boots. They grant 1 flat Cold damage to all Attacks and Spells x point of Dexterity, that includes the Icicle! The Boots come with the downside of also reducing your Cold Resistance and Physical Resistance x point of Dexterity. A final build will have around 85 Dexterity, so keep an eye on your resistances as you gear up and make sure they are capped.
• Bow Attack Speed – The faster you attack the more Icicle you will proc! Detonating Arrow has a cost of 8 mana so, in order to be able to spam it, make sure to have enough Mana Regeneration on your gear. Eventually you will be able to spam without even thinking about mana. Depending on how fast your Bow Attack Speed is, you will need between 14 and 18 Mana Regeneration to spam non stop.
• Grand Rage of Winter – Since the build can attack so fast and has so many hits, it will be extremely easy to apply 20 stacks of Cold Resistance Shred to your targets. 20 stacks will make enemies take up to 100% more damage. Yes, this Blessing can double your damage, so make sure you roll it nice (45%+) and as early as possible.
• SuffixChance To Shred Armour on Hit – Similar to the mentioned above. Each stack of this Ailment will reduce 100 Armour to your target. Enemies normally have 0 Armour, but Armour can go in the negatives! -1000 Armour on a target will increase the Cold damage they take by 16.5%, -4000 armour it will be 40%. With the amount of hits the build has, this happens almost instantly.
• Throne of Ambition – Specially recommended while Bossing. 400% increased Armour and % Cold damage on a single item its pretty crazy!
• Critical Vulnerability – Unique to the Rogue, this Ailment allows the Bowmage to Critically Strike its targets without investing on Critical Strike at all. This Ailment adds 5% flat Critical Strike Chance to your target x stack. The Weak Spot node, the Wound Maker passive and the amount of hits the build does x second is enough for the build to always Crit.

Defensive Layers

• Glancing Blows – Thanks to the Arrowguard Unique Quiver and the Marksman Passive Tree you can easily get 80% permanent Glancing Blows chance, while being able to reach 100% chance when using Smoke Bomb thanks to the Dusk Shrouds it provides. You take 35% less damage from hits with Glancing Blows.
• Smoke Bomb – Can be used as an extra gap closer that leaves a persistent Slow on the ground for better kitting. It also provides Dusk Shrouds (as described above) while standing on the smoke; Cleanse and Silver Shrouds on use.
• Silver Shrouds – As long as you have one up, the next hit you take will be dodged instead. You also gain 100 ward x Silver Shroud once they proc to dodge the incoming attack. Since they last 10 seconds each, you can time Smoke Bomb and Covering Fire apart to make sure you always have one Silver Shroud active, or quickly recover them if they proc. If you do this properly, you will always have this protection agains hits that can be dodged, including some major Boss mechanics. This will also allow to keep your buff up.
• Dodge – On top of Silver Shrouds, just by stacking Dexterity, the % dodge available on the Passive Tree and the extra dodge provided by Dusk Shrouds, it's reasonable to reach between 20% and 40% permanent dodge. The Elusive node on Shift will provide a massive dodge boost for 1 second, reaching 80%+ dodge for the duration of the buff.
• Shift – This dash gives immunity frames while it's used thanks to the Shadowslip node. Time this skill properly to avoid incoming damage or potential 1 shots. It provides a massive boost of dodge (as described above) and procs 5Shurikens on use.
• Shurikens – Can be used as an extra gap closer, for a total of 3 different dashes for this build. Thanks to the Stagger node they also Root anything that gets close to you. This is an amazing last resource defensive layer again melee enemies that rush the player. They also grants a ton of % Armour while its active.
• Armour – Surprisingly, this build can get a ton of Armour too. Just with the implicit Armour from your gear, the Grand Body of Obsidian Blessing, Shurikens you Armour will reach 35% mitigation. Thanks to Throne of Ambition this mitigation will reach 60%+ while Bossing. This is quite big on top of all the other defensive layers the build has.
• Decoy – Crazy support skill. Aside from its multiple temporary buffs, it Taunts. Enemies will focus it instead of attacking you. On top of that, you can instantly Fear anything that is in its AoE on use.
• Health – Rogue has access to Large Shadow Idol with PrefixHealth. Not all classes have access to this amazing Idols, so it is worth mentioning here.
• Health on Hit and Crit – Perfect Aim and Draining Arrows provide the build with insane sustain. With the amount of hits and how easy it is to Crit thanks to Critical Vulnerability, the build can recover all of its HP in a second.

Additional Advanced Mechanics

• Escape Tactics and Acrobatics backflips allow you to clip over certain small gaps, walls, doors and terrain. Learn this to maximise your mobility and kitting potential.
• Shift can also cross small terrain gaps, fences and obstacles. Time it to avoid certain death. An expert player will showcase this tool on their gameplay.
• Time your Decoy explosion with the dodge buff from Shift to obtain extra PrefixCritical Strike Multiplier.
• Icicle have massive range and can go through most terrain. Stay behind obstacles and take advantage of it. If you learn how to position, everything will die before it can even hit you.
• Make sure you always have at least one Silver Shroud active, so the Concentration buffs stay active.

Overall, the Bowmage is a very complete build that can deal with all the content in the game, rewards skillful gameplay, looks awesome and its super fun to play.

I hope you enjoy it!

Level with Bleed Puncture or any other Marksman build of your choice.

Switch to the Bowmage once you get the Reign of Winter bow.

Here is the Endgame Loot Filter for the build:

https://github.com/lizardirl/Filters/blob/main/BOWMAGE%20GUIDE.xml