How to survive in the harsh world of PoE2: choosing your first character

When you begin playing Path of Exile 2 during the early access phase, the first thing you encounter is choosing a character. You face the question—who to play as, who is the strongest? Currently, there are six different classes available, each with two Ascendancy Classes, making this not the easiest decision. It’s scary to think about what will happen when the developers add six more new classes and one new Ascendancy Class each! To simplify your task, we will answer the question: what are the best builds in Path of Exile 2?

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Best Witch Build in PoE2

The best build for the Witch would be the Minion Summoner Infernalist, as this path allows the class to fully utilize its potential as a summoner and is less demanding for newcomers. While the Blood Mage constantly exists on the edge of life and death, the Infernalist offers a more balanced playstyle. In battle, you will summon creatures to fight on your side. Another feature of this Ascendancy is that the Witch can transform into a demonic form, which is also very fun and adds its own flair to the gameplay!

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Minion Summoner Infernalist Important Skills

Minion Summoner Infernalist Gameplay Tips

This Witch build ranks among the top characters in PoE2. Of course, this playstyle might not suit you personally, but you never know until you try! The Minion Summoner Infernalist leads a horde of undead and demons of the Abyss into battle, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be bored. You’ll need to provide fire support to your zoo, not to mention endless jumps and rolls during boss fights. Also, don’t forget to cast Vulnerability to apply a debuff to enemies.

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Flame Wall not only deals area damage but also summons another type of minion—Raging Spirits. The Detonate Dead skill also deals AoE damage but requires fresh corpses. By the way, corpses can not only be exploded but also temporarily turned into zombies or small minions. However, Skeletons are more useful as their lifecycle is not limited by time, especially if you have Skeletal Clerics to support them.

However, not all bony guys will be lucky, as Pain Offering sacrifices one of them while simultaneously enhancing the attacks of the remaining Skeletons. The choice of creatures in the Minion Summoner Infernalist arsenal is vast, and you can have plenty of fun summoning various combinations of hellish creatures and watching them tear everything apart on the battlefield!

Best Mercenary Build in PoE2

The Mercenary will surprise you with unique gameplay specific to Path of Exile 2. The best build for early and late stages of PoE2 is the FrostFerno Witch Hunter. It combines fire and ice skills using two crossbows and two passive skill trees.

FrostFerno Witch Hunter Important Skills

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FrostFerno Witch Hunter Gameplay Tips

The main reason the FrostFerno Witch Hunter Mercenary is among the top builds in PoE2 is its unique playstyle. It’s a hybrid build that freezes enemies and then explodes them in flames and smoke. In the early stages of the game, use Permafrost Bolts and Galvanic Shards with Herald of Thunder to clear large mobs, and later, when you can use Explosive Shot, discover the full joy of pyromania!

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With Explosive Grenade, Gas Grenade, and Explosive Shot, you can blow up everything on the battlefield. But first, use Permafrost Bolts to freeze enemies and prevent them from escaping your grenades. Hypothermia and Biting Cold gems will extend the freeze duration on foes, allowing the Mercenary to deal as much damage as possible. To freeze and blow up enemies, you can use two different self-shots, each with a separate skill tree. Configure your weapons and skills to provide as many effective bonuses for ice and fire damage as possible.

Best Monk Build in PoE2

Herald of Thunder Invoker is the best Monk build in PoE2 that can be assembled at the moment. Great attention is paid to defense, yet the Monk can deal enough damage to complete the campaign and progress through endgame. Herald of Thunder is the foundational skill for this build. Herald of Thunder Invoker is one of the best PoE2 builds for newcomers thanks to its good survivability. Let’s explore the skills you need to focus on when leveling up the Monk.

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Herald of Thunder Invoker Important Skills

Herald of Thunder Invoker Gameplay Tips

At the early stage of the game, the Quarterstaff Strike skill will help you. Fast and smooth strikes on nearby enemies will keep them at bay. But you’ll start dealing true damage once you level up your hero and gain the Herald of Thunder buff. With it, you’ll become like a living storm, as each of your strikes will unleash bolts of lightning on mobs.

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With the Tempest Flurry skill, you’ll shower enemies with lightning strikes, and Orb of Storms will help control crowds of monsters. Tempest Bell and Storm Wave will finish off any wave of mobs, clearing the area with powerful AoE damage. But the key to victory is the Monk’s mobility, so Vaulting Impact will allow you to charge into enemy crowds, and Staggering Palm will stun and electrify opponents, preventing their attacks.

Best Warrior Build in PoE2

Choosing from the two Ascendancy Classes of Warrior in Path of Exile 2, we would go with the Armour Breaker Warbinger. This build is well-balanced—wielding a Two-Handed Mace, you’ll deal impressive damage while also being able to survive in the toughest melees.

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Armour Breaker Warbinger Important Skills

Armour Breaker Warbinger Gameplay Tips

In the early stages of the game, pay attention to Earthquake combined with Shockwave Totem to clear locations of hordes of enemies as quickly as possible. Mace Strike with enchanted gems will deal high damage to single targets, while Rolling Slam provides mobility and survivability. Over time, you will gain access to exclusive skills for the Warbinger Ascendancy Class, such as Anvil's Weight and Imploding Impacts. These will help you break enemy armor, increasing your outgoing damage.

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If you prefer a mace-and-shield setup, we recommend focusing on Giant's Blood. Glancing Blows, Turtle Charm, and Renly's Training will also help you survive battles. With the right equipment and skills, you can achieve the perfect balance and deliver devastating mace strikes while ignoring enemy pokes thanks to a thick layer of armor.

Best Sorceress Build in PoE2

The opposite of the Warrior is the Sorceress, specifically the Ember Fusillade Stormweaver. With this build, you can quickly reach high levels and complete available campaign acts thanks to a good balance of damage and survivability.

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Ember Fusillade Stormweaver Important Skills

Ember Fusillade Stormweaver Gameplay Tips

Starting with Spark and Flame Wall, you’ll gain access to more powerful spells. Raise Flame Walls between yourself and mobs and throw Sparks through them so your projectiles receive bonus fire damage. However, once you acquire Solar Orb, you can forget about the Spark skill. Upon gaining access to Ember Fusillade, don’t forget to enchant it with Scattershot and Controlled Destruction support gems. Flammability will also be a useful ability, weakening bosses and increasing your damage.

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As you level up, pay attention to nodes with Exploit the Element, Potent Incantation, and Dampening Shield. To deal as much fire damage to bosses as possible, try using the following rotation: Flammability, 3x Fusillade, Flame Wall, Solar Orb, and finally Firestorm. If you need more defense but have extra Spirit, use Blasphemy Enfeeble.

Best Ranger Build in PoE2

Deadeye Grenadier boasts excellent mobility while dealing a lot of area damage, which is useful both for clearing locations and battling bosses. However, the lack of survivability makes this class challenging for newcomers. If you’re not confident in your skills, it’s better to try another character. Otherwise, prepare for explosive gameplay!

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Deadeye Grenadier Important Skills

Deadeye Grenadier Gameplay Tips

Freeze enemies, throw grenades at their feet, poison, and explode them! Don’t get distracted by bows and use a crossbow for this build, which has high physical damage and additional elemental bonuses. Don’t forget to stack Evasion, Elemental Resistances, and a movement speed buff.

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Initially, your main weapons will be Fragmentation Rounds and Permafrost Bolts. Flash Grenade will allow you to stun bosses and throw Explosive Grenades at them. Gas Grenade will create a green poisonous cloud. It not only deals damage to mobs but can also weaken their armor, and a precise crossbow shot with the Explosive Shot skill will explode the gas clouds and deal massive damage!

So far, these are the best builds in Path of Exile 2, but over time we can expect new heroes and new tactics for playing them. Also, remember that balance changes may alter the top builds. In any case, we hope we’ve helped you make your choice, and now you definitely know whom to save from the gallows!

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