Arc

Live Wire — Oathkeeper + Trinity Ghoul (Arc Hunter)

Chain-lightning bow — bank a perfect-draw Trinity Ghoul arrow indefinitely, place it into a pack, and ride the jolt economy (Ionic Traces + Amplified) straight back to the next charged shot

Oathkeeper on light.gg

Centerpiece: Oathkeeper (Gauntlets) · Subclass: Arcstrider (Arc) · Role: Chain-lightning bow — bank a perfect-draw Trinity Ghoul arrow indefinitely, place it into a pack, and ride the jolt economy (Ionic Traces + Amplified) straight back to the next charged shot Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Trinity Ghoul turns a kill into a chain-lightning arrow that forks across a crowd and jolts everything it touches. Oathkeeper lets you sit on that perfect draw as long as you like — hold the charged shot, wait for the pack to line up, then loose it for bonus hold-damage. Jolted kills mint Ionic Traces and make you Amplified, which reloads the bow faster, which gets you to the next charged shot. One arrow, a lit-up room.

The exotic

Oathkeeper — Adamantine Brace: "Bow perfect draw can be held indefinitely. Gain a bonus to the Bow's damage when released, based on how long perfect draw was held. Provides a moderate benefit to the airborne effectiveness stat of Bows."

Trinity Ghoul — Split Electron: "Fires an arrow that splits when released. Aiming down sights and fully drawing the bow both decrease the spread."

Trinity Ghoul — Lightning Rod (intrinsic): "Precision kills grant the next shot chain-lightning capabilities." — extended by the Forked Lightning catalyst: "Lightning Rod now triggers from any Arc damage final blow."

Two exotics, one weapon. Oathkeeper is a pure bow amplifier: a full draw grants Adamantine Brace, which lets a perfect draw be held with no stamina drain and adds up to a 200% PVE damage bonus that ramps the longer you hold (about 37.5% per half- second, initial impact only, expiring 4s after the draw). Trinity Ghoul is the bow that most wants to be held — a precision kill charges Lightning Rod, turning the next arrow into chain lightning that explodes and forks through an 8-metre radius as Arc damage that jolts. Oathkeeper removes the "fire now or lose it" timer on that charged arrow, so you bank the chain-lightning shot at max hold-damage and place it exactly where the pack clusters. With the catalyst any Arc kill charges the arrow, and its draw time drops 15%.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Arcstrider (Arc)	The jolt/Amplified/Ionic-Trace verb set is what converts Trinity Ghoul's chain lightning into ability energy and reload.
Super	Gathering Storm	Throw-and-embed the staff to jolt a wide area — the single-target/boss burst a bow lacks, and jolted kills mint traces + feed Flow State.
Class ability	Marksman's Dodge	Full reload on demand — Trinity Ghoul's reserves/reload are its bottleneck, and the dodge also arms Ascension's jolt.
Movement	Triple Jump	Extra air control and hang time to line up an Ascension spin-dodge, which only fires while airborne.
Melee	Combination Blow	A neutral-game panic button between shots; chained kills heal and refund dodge energy.
Grenade	Arcbolt Grenade	Chains between targets and — with Spark of Shock — jolts them, seeding traces without spending an arrow.
Aspect 1	Ascension	Airborne spin-dodge that jolts nearby targets and amplifies allies — a ranged jolt source with no melee needed. 2 fragment slots.
Aspect 2	Flow State	Defeating a jolted target makes you Amplified → greatly increased reload (the bow's lifeblood) + faster dodge regen. 2 fragment slots.
Fragments	Discharge · Ions · Shock · Resistance	Two trace generators, a grenade-jolt enabler, and a survivability floor for a stationary archer.
Exotic armour	Oathkeeper (Gauntlets)	Banks the charged Lightning Rod arrow at full draw and stacks hold-damage onto it.
Weapons	Trinity Ghoul (Arc bow) + Arc Special + boss-DPS Heavy	The chain-lightning engine plus the ranges/targets a Primary bow can't cover.

Fragments

Spark of Discharge Arc weapon final blows have a chance to create an Ionic Trace
Spark of Ions defeating a jolted target creates an Ionic Trace
Spark of Shock your Arc grenades jolt targets
Spark of Resistance more resistant to incoming damage while surrounded

Why it works (the mechanics)

Oathkeeper turns the chain shot into a placed weapon. An Arc kill grants Lightning Rod, charging the next arrow into chain lightning; Oathkeeper lets you hold that perfect draw indefinitely, so you bank it, reposition, and loose it only when a pack clusters. The hold also stacks up to 200% PVE impact damage, so the arrow lands harder the longer you wait.
Jolt is the whole economy. The chain-lightning explosion applies jolt to the pack; jolted kills mint Ionic Traces via Spark of Ions and Arc-weapon kills mint more via Spark of Discharge, both feeding ability energy. Jolted kills also trigger Flow State's Amplified, and Amplified means greatly increased reload — enormous on a bow — putting you straight back on the next charging kill.
Ascension is a ranged jolt source. You never have to melee to keep the loop lit: the airborne spin-dodge jolts nearby targets and amplifies allies, so jolt and trace generation carry on even when a precision kill is slow to come.
Arcbolt backs up the bow. With Spark of Shock the grenade jolts everything it chains through, seeding traces and softening a pack between charged shots so the Amplified/trace state holds through a dry spell.
The artifact double-fixes reload and turns jolt into orbs. Reload at Range stacks bow reload on precision hits (layered on top of Amplified), and Dielectric converts the ever-present jolted kills into Bolt Charge, Orbs, and healing — so the room being lit up directly pays out survivability and Armour Charge.
Gathering Storm covers the burst gap. A bow has no single-target answer for a boss or a heavy reset; the embedded staff jolts a wide area, and Arc-debuffed kills trickle its energy back so it comes around fast.

Stats & mods

Weapons 200 → Class → Health. Archetype lean: Gunner / Powerhouse (Weapons) for bow throughput on top of Oathkeeper's hold-bonus, Specialist (Class) so Marksman's Dodge — your reload and your Ascension jolt — has high uptime, then Bulwark (Health) so a stationary archer survives at range. First 100 Weapons is the PVE damage bonus; push it to 200.

Mods:

Boots: Bow Reserves (deepen Trinity Ghoul's shallow reserves).
Arms: Bow Loader + Bow Targeting (speed the reload and tighten the draw).
Chest: Arc Resistance / concussive dampener (survivability for a fixed firing position).
Class item: Bomber (dodge uptime) + Arc or Harmonic Siphon (Orb generation on Arc kills).
Surge: Arc Weapon Surge ×2–3 (all damage is Arc).
Anti-Champion: Overload handled intrinsically by jolt; bring Barrier/Unstoppable via weapon frames on the Special/Heavy.

Artifact — Encrypted Data Disk

Picks (2/3/2):

Tier 1: Reload at Range · Fierce Proxemics
Tier 2: Dielectric · Blinding Jolts · Counter Energy
Tier 3: Elemental Orbs: Arc · Tazer Tag

Reload at Range grants a stacking reload bonus on precision hits with Bows and Sniper Rifles — layered on top of Flow State's Amplified, it fixes Trinity Ghoul's worst stat twice over.
Dielectric turns defeating Arc-debuffed (jolted) targets into Bolt Charge, and rapid ones into an Orb of Power plus a heal — the room is always jolted, so this is always firing.
Blinding Jolts makes final blows on jolted combatants blind nearby ones — free crowd control stapled to every chain-lightning kill.
Counter Energy returns least-charged-ability energy whenever you stun a champion, keeping Gathering Storm and abilities fed through Overload fights.
Elemental Orbs: Arc gives Arc final blows a chance to spawn an Arc orb you throw or shoot for a jolting explosion — extra AoE jolt plus Orb economy.
Tazer Tag makes Arc melee hits jolt and ramp damage, powering the Combination Blow panic button.
Fierce Proxemics refunds grenade and melee energy on finisher final blows, topping up Arcbolt and Combination Blow.

Where it shines

Add-clear and room-control — one banked chain-lightning arrow jolts and thins a whole pack, and Blinding Jolts + Ascension keep the room stunned while traces refill.
Endless-mode / survival content — the jolt → trace → Amplified → reload loop is self-sustaining, and Dielectric's Orbs + heal give a stationary archer a survival floor.
Boss and heavy-target moments — Gathering Storm is the single-target burst the bow lacks; embed it and let Arc-debuffed kills recharge it.
Champion coverage: breaks Overload intrinsically with jolt (chain lightning + Arcbolt + Ascension). Encrypted Data Disk's own anti-champion mods (Riposte/Kinetic Rupture = Unstoppable) aren't among these picks, so bring Barrier + Unstoppable weapon frames on the Special/Heavy; Counter Energy rewards the stuns you land.

Verify notes

Oathkeeper "Adamantine Brace" and Trinity Ghoul "Split Electron" quoted verbatim from `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md`; Lightning Rod and the Forked Lightning catalyst quoted from `docs/encyclopedia/perks.md` / `catalysts.md`.
Correction: Lightning Rod (precision kill → chain-lightning arrow) is Trinity Ghoul's base intrinsic, not a catalyst effect. The catalyst (Forked Lightning) broadens the trigger to any Arc-damage final blow and cuts draw time ~15% — the build wants the catalyst but the precision-kill loop works without it (`clarity_build_numbers.md`).
Oathkeeper numbers (perfect draw held indefinitely; ~37.5% PVE impact damage per 0.5s up to 200%, initial impact only, expires 4s; +40 airborne, +10 draw-time) from `docs/encyclopedia/clarity_build_numbers.md` — treat exact percentages as clarity/tuning.
Chain-lightning stats (8 m radius, 95 [50.3] per hit) from `clarity_build_numbers.md`; jolt application by the chain is the community-understood behaviour — confirm the chain reliably jolts (not just damages) in-game, since the trace economy hinges on it. Arcbolt + Ascension are guaranteed jolt fallbacks if not.
Trinity Ghoul = Arc Primary Combat Bow, no intrinsic champion (`data/weapon_facts.json`).
Aspect class-check: Ascension + Flow State are Arcstrider (Arc Hunter) aspects and the Sparks are Arc fragments (`docs/encyclopedia/aspects.md`, `fragments.md`). See [[reference_d2builds_aspect_class_gotcha]].
Artifact: Reload at Range + Fierce Proxemics (T1), Dielectric + Blinding Jolts + Counter Energy (T2), Elemental Orbs: Arc + Tazer Tag (T3) — tiers confirmed against `docs/encyclopedia/artifacts_structured.md` (Encrypted Data Disk pool), exactly 2/3/2.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

Piece	Mod · cost	What it does
Helmet (5/10)	Harmonic Siphon 1e	Rapid Arc weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Solar weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Stasis weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Void weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Strand weapon final blows create Orbs of Power.
	Harmonic Siphon 1e	Rapid Arc weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Solar weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Stasis weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Void weapon final blows create an Orb of Power. Rapid Strand weapon final blows create Orbs of Power.
	Arc Siphon 3e fill	Rapid Arc weapon final blows create an Orb of Power.
Arms (8/10)	Weapon Loader (faster reload) 3e
	Utility Kickstart 3e fill	When your class ability energy is fully expended, your Armor Charge is consumed and you gain class ability energy for each Armor Charge used.
	Momentum Transfer 2e fill	Causing damage with a grenade reduces your melee cooldown.
Chest (5/10)	Arc Resistance 1e	Reduces incoming Arc damage from combatants.
	Arc Resistance 1e	Reduces incoming Arc damage from combatants.
	Concussive Dampener 3e	Reduces incoming area-of-effect damage from combatants.
Legs (3/10)	Arc Weapon Surge 1e	Your Arc weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Arc Weapon Surge 1e	Your Arc weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Arc Weapon Surge 1e fill	Your Arc weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
Class Item (3/10)	Bomber 1e	Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability.
	Bomber 1e	Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability.
	Reaper 1e fill	Shortly after using your class ability, your next weapon final blow spawns an Orb of Power.

All 15 sockets used, 10 energy per masterworked piece; costs from the manifest. Core mods are the build's engine; fill mods are strong defaults — swap freely (chest resists should match the activity's damage types).