Forget about Grenades, New Glacial Bolt Tech is Broken … — Transcript

Discover a powerful Glacial Bolt mercenary build in Path of Exile 2 that shatters ice walls for massive explosion damage and fast map clearing.

Key Takeaways

Glacial Bolt combined with Kil'garr and Biting Frost creates powerful ice wall explosions for fast clear speed.
The build is very accessible, requiring minimal unique gear and is solo self-found friendly.
Weapon swapping between frost and fragmentation shots maximizes damage output and efficiency.
Veridian Manifestations and supporting skills like Herald of Thunder and Blasphemy enhance damage and utility.
Explosive Grenades are used situationally, mainly for boss fights, despite the main damage coming from Glacial Bolt tech.

Summary

The video introduces a new Glacial Bolt tech combined with Kil'garr and supporting skills to create ice walls that explode upon shattering.
Ice walls can be shattered by dealing 5,000 damage or using the Biting Frost support, which consumes freeze on enemies and counts ice walls as enemies.
The build features synergy with Veridian Manifestations, which spawn minions that shoot lasers to break ice walls and trigger explosions.
Gameplay showcases fast map clearing with quick reloads or no reloads due to passive points and tactician supporting fire.
The build is highly solo self-found friendly, requiring no specific unique items and relying mostly on campaign loot.
Fragmentation Rounds and Permafrost Bolts have a strong interaction: freezing enemies with Permafrost Bolts allows Fragmentation Rounds to explode them for huge damage.
The video explains weapon swapping mechanics to efficiently use frost and fragmentation shots without reloading delays.
Supporting skills include Herald of Thunder for bonus lightning damage and living lightning minions, and Blasphemy with Repulsion for rune explosions.
Tips include using Rampart Raptor for infinite bolt ammo and Explosive Grenades mainly at boss fights for exposure and burst damage.
The build progresses smoothly from Act 1 through Act 2 into endgame, with updates planned for higher levels and more spirit investment.

Chapters

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

Forget about grenades. There's a new tech in town. Glacial Bolt plus Kil'garr and skills will create ice walls that instantly get shattered and explode enemies left, right, and center while you're zooming over the map and just right-click spamming your Glacial Bolt.

Speaker A

forward. In the background, my character after 7 hours with level 58 just having a grand old time. In today's video, we're going to cover the tech of Glacial Bolt together with Veridian Manifestations while showing you the journey from Act 1 over Act 2 all the

Speaker A

Forward, in the background, my character after 7 hours with level 58 just having a grand old time. In today's video, we're going to cover the tech of Glacial Bolt together with Veridian Manifestations while showing you the journey from Act 1 over Act 2 all the way into the end game.

Speaker A

forward and creates these ice walls. Said ice walls can then be shattered for massive explosion damage. You can either shatter these walls by doing 5,000 damage to them or use a support called Biting Frost, which consumes freeze on

Speaker A

This will then get followed up by a day one, day two update video with the end game 65-90 all the way to crazy juiced. Let's begin with Glacial Bolt. What does it actually do? It is a crossbow skill that shoots forward and creates these ice walls.

Speaker A

through everything and break all the ice, instantly shattering what you make with Glacial Bolt. On top, you can also play Blasphemy together with Repulsion, putting runes on your enemy that will explode on being hit by either your Veridian Manifestation or yourself, and

Speaker A

Said ice walls can then be shattered for massive explosion damage. You can either shatter these walls by doing 5,000 damage to them or use a support called Biting Frost, which consumes freeze on enemies and for some reason these things also count as enemies.

Speaker A

our passive points, we reload extremely quick or we don't even have to reload at all. If we want to, we can use supporting fire from the tactician to rain down these bolts and destroy everything bonus. On top, we also have

Speaker A

Now, how do Veridian Manifestations interact with this? Manifestation on hitting an enemy will spawn these tiny light blip minions that shoot out laser beams that with Biting Frost and Pierce 3 will shoot through everything and break all the ice, instantly shattering what you make with Glacial Bolt.

Speaker A

And as you can see, we're we can just zoom forward here. Like, right? That nothing is going to stop on. And that's without like any equipment that we bought from the market. It's just the solo self-found stuff that we have

Speaker A

On top, you can also play Blasphemy together with Repulsion, putting runes on your enemy that will explode on being hit by either your Veridian Manifestation or yourself, and then with Biting Frost also consume the ice around them.

Speaker A

as we then pick up more spirit to juice things tremendously. Including the Herald of Ice back in action. Despite not actually freezing enemies because we're consuming the freeze, you can still explode them if your glacial bolt that hits the enemy actually instant freeze,

Speaker A

Let's jump into our first map ever with that level 59 character. For the gameplay loop, we're simply now shooting our crossbow and everything will automatically die. I don't have to do anything bonus. And due to our passive points, we reload extremely quick or we don't even have to reload at all.

Speaker A

And those living lightning minions going around, they can actually trigger your Reposition on enemies further away. What does now look in a boss fight? Now, I said forget grenades, but we're still running our oil grenade simply for that

Speaker A

If we want to, we can use supporting fire from the tactician to rain down these bolts and destroy everything bonus. On top, we also have our friend here, the Mirage Archer, who's going—That was nice loot for a first map.

Speaker A

And that's again minimal efficiency. Not even a crosser with bonus skill rings. The very best part about the build is extremely solo self-on-friendly and does not require specific uniques.

Speaker A

Who's going to pop out glacial bolts as well that then get exploded by my Veridian Manifestation, by my Repulsion, by my supporting fire. And as you can see, we can just zoom forward here. Like, right? Nothing is going to stop us.

Speaker A

So, let's begin here and work our way all the way then to the end game. Step 1, create yourself a mercenary because we want to be a tactician. Then, take down the bloated pillar and make your way into Killer Fell. Your first two

Speaker A

And that's without like any equipment that we bought from the market. It's just the solo self-found stuff that we have gotten from the campaign so far. Hell, we're only sitting at 158 spirit and only have Eternal Rage on.

Speaker A

make this super smooth, so you don't have to reload all the time, there's a little trick. First, you're going to lock your crossbow to bows weapon sets with a lock up here. Then, you're going to put the Permafrost Bolts on weapon

Speaker A

We don't have Trinity yet. We don't have Berserk going on. Right? There's so much more that will come now with the 65 plus version as we then pick up more spirit to juice things tremendously. Including the Herald of Ice back in action.

Speaker A

You're going to put load Fragmentation Rounds and load Permafrost Bolts in, and then you're going to have crossbow shot two and crossbow shot one. And what this allows you to do is I can shoot frost, frost, and then I can instantly shoot

Speaker A

Despite not actually freezing enemies because we're consuming the freeze, you can still explode them if your Glacial Bolt that hits the enemy actually instant freezes, which happens quite a lot. So, we get the shattering.

Speaker A

anymore, then freeze the enemy, boom, explode him with the Fragmentation Rounds. Unload your Explosive Grenades again, freeze again, if you even have to and the enemy isn't dead already. Your first two supports are going to be Ice Bite and Elemental Armament. With Ice

Speaker A

We get the Herald of Thunder here going on as well for bonus lightning damage. That bonus lightning damage will actually spawn living lightning from the Herald of Thunder.

Speaker A

And we always freeze with Permafrost Bolts. As a heads-up, if you want to make things even smoother, you can equip yourself the Rampart Raptor in Act 1, which says, "Bolts fired by crossbow attacks have a 100% chance to not expend

Speaker A

And those living lightning minions going around, they can actually trigger your Repulsion on enemies further away. What does it now look like in a boss fight? Now, I said forget grenades, but we're still running our oil grenade simply for that bonus exposure.

Speaker A

Mist, Executioner, none of them are going to stand in your way. With your first tier three skill gem, there are no new skills added. You're simply upgrading your permafrost bolts.

Speaker A

You're going to put that down, have them exposed up, get your Death from Above running, roll for your handy-dandy dude, and then simply spam him with those glacial bolts watching the dude absolutely evaporate.

Speaker A

It's just simply faster clear. As you then take down the Executioner, you're going to get your first tier five skill, and there's an interesting one we can add. Also, pay very close attention to the thing after the skill choice. No, we

Speaker A

And that's again minimal efficiency. Not even a crosser with bonus skill rings. The very best part about the build is extremely solo self-found friendly and does not require specific uniques.

Speaker A

have even a little bit of lightning damage from an item, crossbow, ring, whatsoever, you're more likely going to shock, and you're faster freezing. And put Prolonged Duration one on this skill so we don't have to worry about it that

Speaker A

Plus, Glacial Bolt can be used from level 22 onwards already, which means we can start in Act 1 with Glacial Bolt.

Speaker A

Armament one. Only use the Explosive Grenades at the start of boss fights and after having exploded the freeze because there's the short phase where you can't instantly freeze again. Now, with all of this and level 12-13 in the Mana

Speaker A

So, let's begin here and work our way all the way then to the end game. Step 1, create yourself a mercenary because we want to be a tactician. Then, take down the bloated pillar and make your way into Killer Fell.

Speaker A

After you pick that up, you're simply going to kick Count Gernon into his booty hole. It's going to be your easiest kill ever. I mean, let's be real. Tell me in the comments below if I'm wrong or right about that. To the

Speaker A

Your first two skills are going to be Fragmentation Rounds and Permafrost Bolts. They have an insane interaction because if you freeze now an enemy with a Permafrost Bolt, you can explode him with the Fragmentation Rounds for an absolutely incredible damage boost.

Speaker A

recovery grenade damage something like that. We can simply zoom for all the projectile damage and then head over to the overwhelm for that 40% damage with two-handed weapons. The same as we then can go further just care about crossbow

Speaker A

In order to make this super smooth, so you don't have to reload all the time, there's a little trick. First, you're going to lock your crossbow to bows weapon sets with a lock up here.

Speaker A

ascend because your tactician ascendancy gets you the skill death from above. And that one is absolutely out of control clearing screens like there's no tomorrow. Death from above beyond the right side is from supporting fire. It deals more damage the more strength you

Speaker A

Then, you're going to put the Permafrost Bolts on weapon set one and the Fragmentation Rounds on weapon set two. Now, the last thing you have to do is in the bottom right.

Speaker A

Slap hitting one into it with brutality and suddenly you don't need any other skill anymore. Just trigger supporting fire everything dies. Supporting fire every as you're zooming through areas.

Speaker A

You're going to put load Fragmentation Rounds and load Permafrost Bolts in, and then you're going to have crossbow shot two and crossbow shot one. And what this allows you to do is I can shoot frost, frost, and then I can instantly shoot the Fragmentation Rounds without having to reload them into the crossbow because they are reloaded into the crossbow just in the other weapon set.

Speaker A

this point magnified area one. Also, if you manage to get a jeweler's orb early, put in freeze. Works very well for what we're doing. Now we can go around shoot the ground with glacial bolts and your supporting fire will actually break the

Speaker A

As a little bonus DPS, you're adding Explosive Grenade. Simply unleash all three Explosive Grenades until you have none anymore, then freeze the enemy, boom, explode him with the Fragmentation Rounds.

Speaker A

already slotting a biting frost instead of brutality two into the supporting fire. Now if you're playing solo self phone, you won't have the biting frost.

Speaker A

Unload your Explosive Grenades again, freeze again, if you even have to and the enemy isn't dead already. Your first two supports are going to be Ice Bite and Elemental Armament.

Speaker A

you're going to look for the seasonal monolith there as well because it's going to give you the next important Kelguran skill called Veridian Manifestations.

Speaker A

With Ice Bite, we're going to get 25% extra cold damage if we kill a freezing enemy. And we always freeze with Permafrost Bolts.

Speaker A

you could use this early together with Pierce one or Pierce three if you want to early juice. And at this point, multi-shot. Again, if you want to invest more into the build, lay Biting Frost.

Speaker A

As a heads-up, if you want to make things even smoother, you can equip yourself the Rampart Raptor in Act 1, which says, "Bolts fired by crossbow attacks have a 100% chance to not expend ammunition if you have reloaded recently," turning you into a rapid-fire permafroster.

Speaker A

these dudes and that's the only thing that increases. You're not going to get a longer duration, you're not going to get a higher limit of Veridian Manifestations. Now, in order to summon the Veridian Manifestations, you do actually need ward. So, make sure that

Speaker A

However, you don't actually need that because your gameplay is going to be smooth as ever. It only took me 40 minutes for Act 1. Rotting King is going to go down, King of the Mist, Executioner, none of them are going to stand in your way.

Speaker A

into your Glacial Walls since they're converting 100% of physical to cold damage and then with Elemental Armament, you're simply multiplying all that other elemental damage up. Keep in mind, if you're in Act two and you already get plus levels to projectile skills, it

Speaker A

With your first tier three skill gem, there are no new skills added. You're simply upgrading your Permafrost Bolts.

Speaker A

fight you've ever had, but it is. [laughter] That supporting fire does so much damage. I mean, you will have noticed it clearing areas. It's illegal. It's so good. It's so much fun to use. While your frost walls just explode for

Speaker A

However, your first spirit skill is super important. That's going to be the Herald of Ice because we're always freezing enemies, we're shattering them.

Speaker A

bottom right, we're going to pick up 40% increased elemental damage with attack skills during any flask effect. Means if I drink a mana potion or a life potion, during that mana life potion happening, I do more damage. Lastly, you want to

Speaker A

It's just simply faster clear. As you then take down the Executioner, you're going to get your first tier five skill, and there's an interesting one we can add.

Speaker A

that later. Which brings us to act three. In act three, the most interesting thing is your second ascension and getting the bonus spirit from the witch in the bunk. With your second ascension, you can get 8% increased spirit and persistent buffs

Speaker A

Also, pay very close attention to the thing after the skill choice. No, we don't want Gas Grenade. We're actually going to go over to Primal, the Druid side, and we're going to pick up Thunderstorm because Thunderstorm says, "Drenched enemies receive 25% more freeze build-up, and drenched enemies have more chance to be shocked."

Speaker A

put in the remnants of Kelgor early, or in your case, you're going to go for the Mirage archer, and then you're going to slap a glacial bolt into set Mirage archer. Now, on rolling, you're going to have even more ice walls that will then

Speaker A

If you have even a little bit of lightning damage from an item, crossbow, ring, whatsoever, you're more likely going to shock, and you're faster freezing. And put Prolonged Duration one on this skill so we don't have to worry about it that much in boss fights.

Speaker A

have Veridian Manifestations. The Mirage Archer on top of Glacial Bolt is going to get Elemental Armament and Magnified Area so that the ice explosions really hit everyone. Another thing we're adding in this act are going to be the oil

Speaker A

Further support-wise, your Fragmentation Rounds want Elemental Armament and Concentrated Area because we're pretty much using it to just explode bosses as hard as possible or elites that are standing instead of packs.

Speaker A

will instantly be consumed by your skills with biting frost. To be fair though, we don't need those fragmentation rounds anymore as the ice wall, together with supporting fire combo, Shavskis super OP. In Act 3, we're zooming further passive wise here

Speaker A

Explosive Grenade wants Multishot together with Elemental Armament one. Only use the Explosive Grenades at the start of boss fights and after having exploded the freeze because there's the short phase where you can't instantly freeze again.

Speaker A

even feel your reloading anymore. Good thing with this build is you don't have to look for a bombardment crossbow in Act 3. You can take whatever you actually want. Simply the highest damaging crossbow is what you're looking for. Those bonus grenades are

Speaker A

Now, with all of this and level 12-13 in the Mana Ramparts, you're going to look for the Seasonal Monolith because that early Seasonal Monolith will actually guarantee Repulsion as a skill gem.

Speaker A

chest piece or an amulet with bonus spirit which means we can start playing the Remnants of Kelgor which on killing enemies have a chance to create these remnants that will grant us runic ward making the whole Veridian Manifestation

Speaker A

After you pick that up, you're simply going to kick Count Gernon into his booty hole. It's going to be your easiest ki—

Speaker A

grenade and add a blasphemy as a curse spreader together with repulsion, biting frost and magnified area. What's going to happen now is that blasphemy applies the repulsion, and if you then hit enemies, they're going to erupt and instantly explode the ice around them.

Speaker A

Ergo, if you're actually shooting someone with repulsion on him with your glacial bolt, it's instantly just going to erupt the ice around him. Later, we're also going to add living lightning with our held of thunder, but I don't

Speaker A

think you have enough spirit to do that yet. But, repulsion makes sure that curse is not applied to enemies above level 72. You always have it at an appropriate level for your area by buying yourself thaumaturgic fluxes from

Speaker A

Angie. If you're playing solo self-on, that might be a bit trickier. Passive-wise in act four, we made a little swap of pulling these points out here on the right and rather going through the middle. You're still going to keep your crossbow shenanigans.

Speaker A

Number one goal will be then picking up your bonus area effect that your ice wall explosions are really hitting everything, and after putting up the bonus area effect on the right, you're going to get yourself more damage while

Speaker A

moving because you're always moving, you're always zooming, you're always gliding. Plus then, you could get more projectiles while you're shooting while moving, and we'll have less movement speed penalty as we're using a skill while moving, making the whole zoomy

Speaker A

thing just feel so much better. Our good old friend Tavakai, yeah, he's going to be absolutely blown into cinders with this build. I mean, if you struggle in any way, I'm going to have to eat my hands or you just simply have an

Speaker A

incredible skill issue. I'm not entirely sure what it's going to be. In the interludes, you're going to receive your final big boost. First, you're going to do interlude number three because we get another plus 40 bonus spirit. With that

Speaker A

40 bonus spirit, we can add herald of thunder together with living lightning and elemental armament. Herald of thunder will now trigger on shocking enemies, and since you have a crossbow with lightning or rings with some lightning, you'll always shock enemies,

Speaker A

and then those living lightnings pinpointing out will be able to trigger the repulsion on enemies cast by blasphemy. As a tip by the way, if you quality up blasphemy, it's going to be costing even less. And your goal will be

Speaker A

to reach level 58 as fast as possible. Because at level 58, we unlock the tier 14 spirit skills, and you will be able to afford eternal rage, which only costs us 50 spirit instead of 100. Ultimately, we also want to add berserk and trinity,

Speaker A

costing us another 50 spirit and 15 spirit. However, at this point, it's going to be turn off herald of ice and put in eternal rage. Why are we kicking out herald of ice? Because we're not really shattering enemies at this point.

Speaker A

We're just completely overwhelming them with damage. I'm sitting at 158 spirit here, 46 bonus from my chest piece, 8% bonus spirit from my ascendancy, and I can afford all the skills that we've mentioned. If you manage to already snag

Speaker A

yourself an amulet with projectile skills at this point, it's super fine because you're biting frost exploding the ice wall. It doesn't matter that the ice wall has more HP. For the rest of the gear, it's still mainly armor armor

Speaker A

armor armor with then looking to actually get the ward. Ultimately, we want to turn some of our armor into deflection rating and also increase our immobilization build up for instant freezes. Or we're going to work with banners. Not entirely sure about that.

Speaker A

However, your final passive tree will look exactly like this. We zoomed out to the left side here for that bonus maximum rage. And as you can see, there's not even a jewel in because I haven't decided which jewels are going

Speaker A

to be best. That's going to be something for the day one update. Then on the right side next to your crossbow reload shenanigans, we picked up giant slayer for more damage against rare and unique enemies. And my goal right now here is

Speaker A

we're going to get the bonus area of effect, and then we're going to get more area of effect with attacks per enemy you've ignited. I'm actually not igniting enemies at all currently.

Speaker A

However, with then more spirit and probably an unset skill ring as well, because skills are getting kind of scarce. I'm thinking about adding Herald of Ash to the build, because Herald of Ash ignites enemies around the dude we

Speaker A

kill, which is going to be bonus booms. I mean, we're exploding and it's more explosions. Why not? And that's then going to lead to a massive area increase. Very simple, but very nifty.

Speaker A

What do you think, ladies and gentlemen? The glacial bolt instant explosion mark going to be something for you? Again, this is working on minimal efficiency, very solo self and friendly. If any questions, ask them in the comments below. I'm now going to work on that day

Speaker A

one update live here on the channel, so don't forget to drop by. And if you need further help with Path of Exile, I got you covered. Take care. Have a great day.

Topics:Path of Exile 2Glacial BoltMercenary BuildKil'garrBiting FrostVeridian ManifestationsFragmentation RoundsPermafrost BoltsSolo Self-FoundTactician

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes the Glacial Bolt build effective in Path of Exile 2?

The build uses Glacial Bolt to create ice walls that can be shattered for massive explosion damage, combined with skills like Kil'garr and Biting Frost to consume freeze and trigger explosions, allowing fast clear speed and strong boss damage.

Is this build suitable for solo self-found players?

Yes, the build is designed to be very solo self-found friendly, requiring no specific unique items and relying mostly on gear found during the campaign, making it accessible for players who prefer to play without trading.

How do Fragmentation Rounds and Permafrost Bolts interact in this build?

Permafrost Bolts freeze enemies, and Fragmentation Rounds then explode those frozen enemies for a significant damage boost. Weapon swapping allows quick application of frost and immediate explosion without reloading delays.

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