Deadeye Ranger Summon Skeletal Brute Build Guide – High Damage Poison Build

The hype for Path of Exile 2 (PoE2) continues to grow, with players diving into unique builds. Today, we explore a powerful and creative build: Deadeye Ranger Summon Skeletal Brute Build. This setup combines high damage poison, efficient map-clearing, and fun mechanics, perfect for those who enjoy summoner playstyles and bizarre poison builds.

Core Build Mechanics

The core of this build lies in the clever synergy between Decomposition and Skeletal Brutes:

Corpsewade Interaction

Corpsewade are the key item, triggering corpse explosions that create poison clouds based on 38.5% of corpse max life as chaos damage.

Skeletal Brutes and Decomposition

The Skeletal Brute, when Sacrificed, provides a corpse substitute. When your character moves, the Decomposition skill automatically triggers, consuming corpses at a fast pace. However, you might occasionally run out of corpses to detonate.

This mechanic performs well on regular maps and clears mobs effortlessly. But challenges remain—mainly managing corpse supply and durability during boss fights. Solutions to these issues are addressed below.

Practical Solutions

Support with Cleric: Revive Behemoths or use Cleric summons to sustain Behemoth health. However, this is risky—Behemoths may still die easily, especially during boss fights or high-difficulty Mirage Depths (Tier 15) illusion.

Main-hand / Off-hand Swap

Main-hand: Summon weapon for calling Skeletal Brutes.
Off-hand: Sceptre for manually triggering Decomposition.

This setup allows better manual control. When movement no longer auto-triggers Decomposition, you can cast it manually—though doing so amid piles of corpses can get clunky.

Recommended Gear Setup

Weapon Set 1 (Control & Survival)

• Wand 1: Min 170 Spirit, +1–2 to minion skill levels, boosts Grim Feast.
• Shield 1: Prioritize high block chance. Prefixes: block, energy shield, max ES. Suffixes: attributes, resistance, all-res.

Weapon Set 2 (Summoning)

• Wand 2: Min 192 Spirit, +4 minion levels, enhances minion max life, and supports Intelligence.
• Shield 2: Same as Set 1. Identical setups recommended for seamless swaps.

Other Core Gear

• Boots: Corpsewade (try to Vaal for resistance).

• Gloves: Snakebite, for boss fights. Paired with support gems and passive for max poison stacks—up to 10 layers for quick boss kills.

• Helmet: Energy Shield helmet with +2 to minion gems. Look for resists and rarity.

• Armour: Ghostwrithe Tattered Robe (3-Socket ideal, 2-Socket works).

• Rings: Chaos damage, attributes, resistances, life, rarity.

• Necklace: +3 to minion gems, max ES, attributes, resistances.
• Belt: Extra Amulet slot + resistances.

• Charms: Freeze immunity, stun immunity.

Amulet Anoint:

• Damage: Instant Poison (expensive).
• Budget: Persistent Trauma (cheap).

Jewel Setup

Requires 7 jewel slots total:

• Red Jewels (5): Must-have: +15% minion life, +7% block. Optional: skill duration, weapon swap speed.
• Blue Jewels (2): Must-have: increased max ES. Optional: increased ailment effectiveness, ailment damage speed.

From Nothing to Oasis-Sanctum of the Scourged (available at level 93+): Enables Instant Poison passive. If not reached, anoint Instant Poison on amulet.

Attribute Point Suggestions

• Strength: 65–70 (needed for shield).
• Dexterity: At least 191 to use Plague Bearer at level 19. With budget, push to 205 for even better scaling—post level 20, it gets very powerful.
• Intelligence: Over 205 to summon level 20+ Skeletal Brutes. Go beyond 205 if possible for stronger overall build.

Passive Skill Tree Focus

• Block, Curse Effect, Area of Effect, Spell AoE
• Minion Life, Skill Duration, Spell AoE

Skill Setup

Decomposition (Main Damage Source)

• Decomposition: The skill carried by the shoe should be upgraded to level 18.
• Farming: Extract - Deadly Poison - Magnified Effect - Spell Echo.
• Boss: Extract – Deadly Poison – Concentrated Effect – Deadly Poison.
• Simulacrum Wave 15 specialization: Extract – Deadly Poison – Magnified Effect – Persistence.

Mobility

The shoes move slowly, relying on Shield charge and Blink to meet the needs of movement.

• Martial Tempo – Ingenuity – Unbreakable.

Utility

• Eye of Winter: Key for bossing and Tier 15 challenges.
• Withering Touch – Deceleration – Unleash – Persistence.

Weapon Skill Binding Suggestions

Weapon Set 1

• Plague Bearer: Astral Projection – Chaos Mastery – Mobility (Use this skill to ease corpse reliance and improve mapping experience.)
• Desecrate: Temporal Chains – Desperation – Enhance Curse – Ritual Curse.
• Blink Movement: Blink – Second Wind – Arcane Tempo.

Weapon Set 2

• Skeletal Brutes: Meat Shield – Minion Mastery – Physical Mastery (Brute need to get: 20% quality, Vaal +1 level, 3-Socket)
• Sacrifice: Cast on Minion Death – Ball Lightning – Lightning Warp – Power Charge – Contagion (Contagion is essential for handling burning ground.)

Resurrection Mechanic Tip (Potential Bug)

Currently, there’s a useful trick (possibly a bug): After summoning Skeletal Brutes using Weapon Set 2 and triggering Decomposition, switching back to Set 1 shows a 10-second cooldown—however, in reality, you can resummon after only 4 seconds. If this gets patched, it might affect build rhythm, so keep an eye on future patch notes.

Conclusion

The Deadeye Ranger Summon Skeletal Brute Build in Path of Exile 2 is a unique blend of poison damage, summoning, and automated map-clearing mechanics. By effectively decomposing corpses into deadly toxic clouds and maintaining movement-based skill automation, this build handles most maps with ease. If you're a fan of offbeat mechanics, toxic builds, or summoner playstyles, this is one build that deserves your attention.