Path of Exile Guide: Late Upgrades & More Damage for the Ancestral Commander Explosive Arrow Build

Summary

Once your Ancestral Commander Explosive Arrow build can comfortably clear maps, the next goal is improving damage and survivability through efficient upgrades rather than expensive gear alone. This guide explains the most impactful improvements in order, helping beginners invest their resources wisely while avoiding common mistakes. 

Prioritize Gem Levels Before Expensive Gear

For the Ancestral Commander Explosive Arrow build, gem levels provide one of the largest damage increases available. Before chasing expensive unique items or perfect rare equipment, increase the level of your main Explosive Arrow gem whenever possible.

Useful upgrades include:

Equip items that grant +1 to Fire Skill Gems.

Upgrade later to equipment providing +2 total gem levels.

Replace lower-level Explosive Arrow gems with a Level 21 version when available.

Eventually use Empower Support Level 4 instead of Cruelty Support for a noticeable damage increase.

Since Explosive Arrow scales exceptionally well with gem levels, these upgrades often provide more value than simply increasing weapon damage.

Upgrade Tattoos Early

The build makes extensive use of Tattoos, making them one of the highest-priority investments.

Begin by obtaining the Hunter Tattoo that grants an additional Dexterity Gem Level, as this directly increases the power of Explosive Arrow.

After that, gradually add supporting Tattoos such as:

Fire Damage Tattoos

Projectile Speed Tattoos

Blind Chance Tattoo

Resistance Tattoos if your character needs defensive stats

Projectile Speed Tattoos are especially valuable because the passive tree converts projectile speed into additional damage, allowing a single upgrade to improve multiple aspects of the build.

Improve Your Gloves

A strong pair of gloves contributes both offense and defense. 

When crafting or purchasing gloves, prioritize Eldritch implicits that provide:

Fire Exposure on Hit

Intimidate on Hit

After obtaining these effects, look for useful modifiers such as attack speed, life, and elemental resistances.

Even inexpensive Eldritch currency can eventually produce these powerful implicits, making gloves one of the easiest upgrades for new players.

Optimize Rings and Amulet

Your jewelry should do more than simply cap resistances. 

Good rings should include:

Elemental Damage with Attacks

Maximum Life

Resistances

The amulet should eventually provide:

+1 to Fire Skill Gems

Elemental Damage with Attacks

Increased Fire Damage

An appropriate anointment

A budget anointment works well early on, while stronger offensive anointments become worthwhile after the rest of your equipment is upgraded.

Upgrade Your Helmet and Passive Tree Together

One important late-game improvement is switching to the recommended unique helmet.  

After equipping it, remember to refund the corresponding passive points that previously granted Ancestral Bond manually. Many players forget this step and lose valuable passive points that can instead strengthen other areas of the build.

Whenever you replace a major unique item, double-check that your passive tree still matches your equipment.

Use the Correct Jewels

Jewels contribute a surprising amount of power.

Priority upgrades include:

A jewel that grants permanent Onslaught while summoning Totems.

A Small Cluster Jewel providing reliable Endurance Charge generation.

A Timeless Jewel that grants useful notables such as Projectile Damage, Totem Damage, or Alchemist's Genius.

When shopping for Timeless Jewels, compare multiple seed combinations instead of purchasing the first result you find. Similar bonuses can often be obtained for a much lower price.

Farm Content That Matches Your Build

The build performs particularly well in beginner-friendly farming content.

Good choices include:

Heist contracts

Heist Blueprints

Blighted Maps

These activities generate steady rewards while requiring relatively modest gear compared to some endgame encounters.

As your equipment improves, you can gradually move into more demanding content while continuing to earn POE Currency for future upgrades.

Upgrade Your Body Armour Carefully

A six-linked rare body armour works well during the early stages.

Later, transition into Brass Dome for significantly better defenses.

The additional armour combines extremely well with the build's Ascendancy bonuses, creating a substantial increase in physical damage mitigation.

However, remember that Brass Dome changes how certain life masteries function. After equipping it, review your passive tree and remove any mastery that no longer provides its intended benefit.

Improve Corrupted Equipment Last

Corrupted upgrades are powerful but should be considered luxury improvements.

Useful corruption outcomes include:

Additional Gem Levels

Extra Projectile Levels

Additional Projectile modifiers

Point Blank corruption on equipment to save passive points

These upgrades provide noticeable improvements but should only be pursued after completing your primary equipment setup.

Level Extra Gems for Future Profit

Instead of leaving unused weapon sockets empty, level additional copies of Explosive Arrow.

Once they reach Level 20:

Increase their quality.

Corrupt them with Vaal Orbs.

Keep successful Level 21 gems for yourself or sell the extras.

This process not only upgrades your own character but can also generate additional currency over time.

Finish the Small Details

Several small improvements combine to noticeably strengthen the build:

Upgrade important support gems to 20% quality.

Automate utility flasks.

Roll Corrupted Blood immunity on your Life Flask.

Fully unlock your Pantheon.

Confirm you have all available passive skill points.

Although each upgrade is relatively small, together they improve both survivability and overall mapping efficiency.

Conclusion

The Ancestral Commander Explosive Arrow build becomes much stronger through a series of focused upgrades rather than one expensive purchase. Prioritizing gem levels, Tattoos, proper glove implicits, optimized jewelry, useful jewels, and efficient farming creates steady progression without wasting currency. By following this upgrade order, new Path of Exile players can continue improving their character while preparing for more challenging endgame content.