Path of Exile 2 hit early access last Friday, and although I'm sure it will be weeks or even months before the community hammers out the finely tuned killing machines that will form the top meta, we've got some early contenders. I spent most of my weekend tinkering around with a fire Chronomancer and learning to aim Ember Fusillades, but I took enough time to forage around the web and dig up a potent build for each class in case you're looking for something way better than my scuffed jank.
As a note, these are not full build guides, just a gentle nudge in the right direction. PoE2's character customization runs deep, and you'll want to tinker with it yourself or do more research to fully finish setting up your build of choice. A word of warning, though: Grinding Gear Games is going to be doing a lot of tinkering throughout early access, and the game's already been hit by nerfs, which will have an impact on some of these builds—though not to the point that they are no longer easy to recommend.
Sorceress
Sorceress looks to be an early winner, with its ranged focus and plentiful crowd control keeping players safely away from the punishing monsters. With 4 Stormweavers in the top 10 Standard ladder at time of writing, it seems you can't go wrong slinging elemental destruction.
ZenM's Cast on Freeze Comet Stormweaver is incredibly sweet, does tremendous single-target DPS, and it levels smoothly with lots of clear speed and crowd control. It functions by slotting Scattershot and Glaciation into Frostbolt, which when combined with the Stormweaver ascendancy node Scouring Winds and more cold exposure on the passive tree makes your Frostbolts absolute freezing machines.
Once you hit Act 3 and kill the Bog Witch for your second chunk of Spirit, you'll get access to the Cast on Freeze meta gem, and this is where things really pop off. Socket that with Comet and Spell Echo, and now every time you shoot off a volley of Frostbolts it'll freeze all the monsters, triggering 2 waves of gigantic ice comets to fall from the sky and obliterate them. So satisfying.
Level with the usual Flame Wall / Spark / Frost Bomb setup, and you can make the switch to Frostbolt and Cold Snap (use this until you get comet) as early as Act 2 when you pick up your first ascendancy points.
This build was affected by the trigger gem nerf, but it's yet to be determined how much of an impact that will have. Definitely check out ZenM's stream or YouTube for updates, as I'm sure frost Sorceress will be excellent in one way or another even if the community has to retool some things.
Warrior
Warriors in Path of Exile 2 are mace specialists—heavily armored goliaths roaming battlefields of their lessers. Reviews have been a bit of a mixed bag though, with some complaining that they're a bit sluggish or lack clear speed. There is, however, one thing they do better than just about anyone right now.
Bonk.
Zizaran's totem slammer Warbringer also brings the big bonk energy, but uses a totem setup to do it. He leans on the incredible stunning capacity of Shockwave Totem slotted with Overpower combined with the Warbringer ascendancy node Anvil's Weight to deal massive AE damage, stun, and armor break to everything he can point a totem at. This has the benefit of making things a bit safer since the monsters are often stunned, and the damage is very respectable.
To take things to the next level however, he adds a fourth totem to the mix with Overabundance (take Watchtowers and Ancestral Artifice to get to 3). This one is set up with the meta gem Ancestral Warrior Totem, which casts Sunder to deal giga damage to all those armor-broken enemies.
This results in a pretty safe build with decent clear speed, lots of flexibility in how you level, and a really sweet one-two boss killer combo. Highly recommended.
Ranger
Ranger is one of the classes that carried over from the first Path of Exile, and traditionally they've been known for shooting stuff with bows and going fast. That hasn't changed, but now they get nutty boss damage on top!
Fubgun's Magnetic Salvo Deadeye is an absolute monster, even after GGG singled out the skill to be the target of one of their very first nerfs (what an honor!). It functions by using Lightning Rod to place down a field of arrows that stick in the ground (get plus arrows from your bow, ascendancy, and the Scattershot support), then hitting them with Magnetic Salvo for huge damage. Combined with a double Herald setup, this absolutely melts packs, one-shots rares, and turns bosses into ice cream cones left out in the sun.
Magnetic Salvo is a huge mana hog, so you'll want to use Lightning Arrow or Rain of Arrows to level and switch to this skill once you've gotten some mana on your gear. Having a few extra passive points at later levels to spend on nodes like Mental Toughness also helps a lot.
Witch
Every once in a while, one of the galaxy brain builders in Path of Exile finds something truly broken. This next build falls into that category, and it's one with a vaunted history in Path of Exile. The autobomber.
When you have Raging Spirits active, casting a Flame Wall summons a bunch of them. Socketing Feeding Frenzy, Infernal Legion, and Minion Instability makes it so your little skullbuddies degen their HP and eventually explode. Before last weekend's nerf, if your Flame Wall was socketed to Cast on Minion Death, all those exploding skulls (are we playing PoE here, or just really excited about Doom: The Dark Ages?) triggered the meta gem, summoning a bunch more spirits.
This infinite loop of undead minions was a little bit too strong, unfortunately, and the Cast on Minion Death trick no longer works. But the builders have already been making tweaks to account for the change, removing Cast on Minion Death but still letting you run around with an army at your beck and call.
Ghazzy's minion autobomber Infernalist uses Skeletal Arsonist for most of the damage, with all sorts of other summons providing buffs, debuffs, and support. It's a fiddly build, though, with lots of moving parts, so maybe not one for beginners.
Mercenary
Sometimes when you're playing an ARPG, you just wanna blow stuff up. In stark contrast to the complicated fussiness of the Infernalist build above, this one couldn't be simpler. Launch grenades, watch monsters explode. Thoomp!
Wudijo's Gemling Legionnaire grenadier uses a tried and true combination—launch a big gas cloud, and blow it up. This ascendancy lets you use two copies of the same support gem, which he uses to give both Gas Grenade and Explosive Grenade the Scattershot and Magnified Effect supports. This results in a one-two punch with huge coverage that does great damage both to everyday packs and bosses alike.
You'll want a bombard crossbow for the extra grenade, preferably with lots of flat and percentage physical damage, but apart from that it's all pretty straightforward. Attack speed, area damage, and anything that lets your grenades explode faster (reduced skill effect duration, Volatile Grenades) make for good choices on the passive tree.
It's a build as simple as a grenade launcher. Two button rotation, lots of room for a weapon swap Leap Slam, and very respectable damage make this a decent choice for anyone wanting to check out the Mercenary.
Monk
The Monk class embodies peace, serenity, and harmony with the elements. That's why this build mostly revolves around thwacking a bell with a zappy stick over and over until everything on the screen explodes in lightning bolts, which makes sense.
Tuadh's Tempest Flurry Invoker uses Tempest Flurry and Charged Staff to shock enemies and trigger massive Herald of Thunder lightning bolts. The Herald is actually your main damage skill here, linked with Primal Armament, Elemental Focus, and Lightning Infusion. Tempest Flurry acts as an enabler and is your main active skill, making this play out essentially like a one button build.
You'll use Profane Ritual to generate power charges for your Charged Staff (Unleash lets you get three at once, with Arcane Tempo because you won't get cast speed elsewhere). Once the Charged Staff buff is up and running, your flurries will proc tons and tons of shockwaves and Herald bolts, incinerating everything.
The combination is so effective that he spends a lot of his passive points on defense, which sounds great to me. The combination of evasion and energy shield in PoE2 is a potent one, especially with the Invoker ascendancy node …and Protect me from Harm giving us physical reduction on top.
Add in Tempest Bell for additional single target damage for bosses, and you've got a simple, potent build that frankly, I can't wait to try.
