Path of Exile 2: Deadeye Ranger Ascendancy Explained

This guide focuses on the Deadeye Ascendancy for the Ranger, covering their Unique Skills and Skill Interactions.

Deadeye Overview

The Deadeye specializes in Projectile Weapons, dealing high damage with incredible precision.

Deadeyes get a lot of advantages for playing projectile builds, namely increased accuracy and damage bonuses based on their distance from an enemy. This makes them stronger users of Bow Skills and Spells to a lesser extent.

Deadeyes are also able to make use of Frenzy Charges to empower their skills frequently, being able to quickly generate them and double their effect occasionally. This allows them to make excellent use of otherwise weaker skills.

Avidity

Avidity grants a chance that when gaining Frenzy Charges, we have a 50% chance to gain an additional Frenzy Charge

For the Skills that rely on consistent Frenzy Charge generation to be powerful, this is an incredibly strong passive. Bonuses from charges typically increase depending on how many charges are available for a skill to consume, and faster generation allows these skills to deal more damage consistently.

This is still excellent without a skill that consumes Frenzy Charges, at least when combined with the Charge Infusion Spirit Skill. This enables the Deadeye to quickly stack up a massive bonus to their Attack Speed.

Thrilling Chase

Thrilling Chase grants a 50% chance for the benefits of consuming Frenzy Charges to be doubled.

While Frenzy Charges are good, there are only a handful of skills that will ever want to consider this, mainly Spiral Volley and Wind Serpent’s Fury. It lost its consistency, dropping to a point of not quite being worth the Ascendancy Points.

It’s usually never going to be worth taking if Barrage is our only Frenzy Charge spender. Points are best spent elsewhere.

Bullseye

Bullseye applies 5 stacks of Critical Weakness when consuming a Mark.

This Ascendancy only works with Sniper’s Mark and Bloodhound’s Mark. Of these two, Sniper’s Mark is going to be the most consistent to consume, especially in combination with this passive.

Combined with Called Shots, we’ll be triggering this in a near-endless loop in combat. This feedback loop ends up making it easier to get Critical Strikes with lower investment.

Point Blank

Point Blank causes projectiles to deal more damage at the start of their travel time, losing bonus until it reaches 0% at 7 Meters. Point Blank and Far Shot are mutually exclusive, only one may be taken.

Point Blank is exceptionally good for skills that fire off multiple projectiles with overlapping AoE at the start of their travel time, allowing for “shotgunning”, or landing multiple hits on the same target.

This is often a slightly weaker choice, as it requires the Deadeye to play very close to their enemies. Combined with their general fragility, this is not something we’ll want to do most time.

However, there are skills like Lightning Rod, which will consider distance differently, making this a strong choice for those skills.

Far Shot

Far Shot grants a damage bonus to projectiles that starts at 0% up to 3.5 meters, then ramps up to 20% by 7 meters. Far Shot and Point Blank are mutually exclusive, only one may be taken.

Far Shot works best with skills that are more accurate, rather than those that spread out. This means powerful skills like Snipe and other strong single projectile skills work best with it.

Compared to Point Blank, this is often the safer choice for a Deadeye. This allows us to play at farther ranges and be rewarded for doing so. While some boss mechanics can be harder to deal with the farther we are from a boss, this usually isn’t too rough.

Endless Munitions

Endless Munitions grants an Additional Projectile to Projectile Skills.

In most cases, this is effectively double damage if both projectiles land. With no drawback to this passive, there’s little reason to skip it if our skill of choice can make use of it.

It is worth noting, however, that adding projectiles often alters where a projectile will go when fired. For a single projectile, it will fly straight. However, for each projectile added, they split off to the sides, with only odd values having a projectile that still goes perfectly straight.

Called Shots

Called Shots grants the Called Shot Skill, applying linked Marks to enemies in the presence radius, ignoring the usual limit. Additionally, Projectiles will always Chain against Marked Enemies.

Being able to passively apply Marks is a massive quality of life. Paired with Sniper’s Mark and Bullseye, this allows for insane potential to generate frenzy charges when we’re able to crit consistently.

Having Skills chain off marked enemies just feels excessive overall. The interaction between Called Shots and Bullseye is already exceptionally strong as is. However, it will massively improve general clear speed.

Gathering Winds

Gathering Winds grants a stack of Tailwind for each Skill use, with all Tailwind being lost on hit. Tailwind grants Movement Speed, Skill Speed, and Evasion Rating per stack up to 10 stacks.

Tailwind is incredibly strong if we’re able to avoid being hit to make full use of the effect. The Movement Speed and Skill Speed alone are powerful DPS increases, while the Evasion is not only a Defensive Increase but also helps maintain stacks for longer.

Despite being strong, Tailwind is a very Feast or Famine bonus. This will ultimately make it more effective in the hands of a more experienced player rather than a less experienced player.

Wind Ward

Wind Ward reduces the damage taken from a hit per stack of Tailwind on us when hit.

Wind Ward is a very hit-or-miss passive, as it will make mistakes less punishing while Tailwind is active. At the same time, the better we maintain Tailwind, the less useful this becomes.

This does help with making it more accessible to less experienced players who are likely to get hit more, but ultimately, we’re still going to want to avoid being hit at all making it a more temporary thing.