In Path of Exile 2 the bow playstyle has seen a surprising evolution with the unique Fairgraves’ Curse and the explosive skill gem Detonating Arrow. Traditionally, high-tier ranged builds have been the domain of agile Rangers and Deadeyes, but a POE 2 Currency bold community-driven build concept is pushing this fiery bow into the ranks of Titan ascendancy characters, blending heavy damage with surprising durability.

At its core, the Fairgraves’ Curse Detonating Arrow Titan build leans on the power of fire, ignite mechanics, and area damage. Fairgraves’ Curse is a unique artillery bow that grants the skill Phantasmal Arrow, applies spectral fire on hit, increases flammability and ignite effectiveness, and trades range and life recovery for big elemental pressure. This weapon fundamentally shifts how a bow user interacts with damage over time and explosion-centric effects.

Meanwhile, Detonating Arrow is a high-tier bow skill gem that channels a powerful projectile which explodes on impact after charging, dealing strong area fire damage with each stage of channeling. The skill’s unique mechanic lets players scale damage by holding the charge, offering both strong single-target bursts and crowd control potential.

What’s fascinating about this build is the way it bridges two very different mechanics: ignite pressure from spectral fire and large AoE explosion damage from Detonating Arrow. Normally, these components wouldn’t be paired—Detonating Arrow players often lean into precise, channel-driven clear, while ignite builds focus on stacking ASE (added skill effectiveness) and dot multipliers—but community innovation has found synergy between them.

The build was first spotlighted in community forums as a Build of the Week submission, where proponents highlighted its defensive footing through life regen and life on kill mechanics and its offensive punch via fire scaling and ignite stacking. Community posters emphasized that the bow’s special effect—applying spectral fire on hit for 6–9 seconds—creates a window for huge ignite explosions, which can then be further amplified with supporting gear and unique interactions.

Why Titan?

Choosing Titan as the ascendancy class gives this build unexpected staying power. Titans have access to nodes that increase maximum life and defensive buffs that make them more forgiving in close engagements—critical when you’re channeling a skill like Detonating Arrow that demands a stationary caster. Their passive tree also opens up opportunities to boost elemental damage, life regeneration, and effect duration—areas that directly enhance both Detonating Arrow explosions and ignite duration/magnitude.

Playstyle & Gear

In practice, the build plays more like a reactive artillery caster than a mobile archer. You pull enemies into tight clusters, channel Detonating Arrow to stack stages, and let the fiery blasts rip through packs. Fairgraves’ Curse boosts ignite effectiveness and adds spectral fire, which consumes ignite damage to turn it into explosive bursts—adding another layer of damage scaling that synergizes beautifully with fire-based support gems.

Overall, while this build isn’t necessarily the meta fastest farmer, it offers a fresh, satisfying playstyle that turns a ranged weapon into a fire-powered siege engine—especially fun for players tired of traditional bow builds and eager to cheap POE 2 Currency experiment in POE2’s evolving endgame.