Presenting a Path of Exile 3.22 guide detailing the optimal starter builds for the highly anticipated Trial of the Ancestors Expansion. Here we showcase the Top 10 PoE 3.22 League Starter builds that stand out as the prime choices for accessing the Trial of the Ancestors league at budget and mapping fast to the endgame!

POE 3.22 Best League Starters - Top 10 Builds for Trial of the Ancestors

When discussing ideal league starters for Path of Exile 3.22, our focus revolves around builds that don't heavily rely on rare fortunate drops or extensive trading for equipment. Instead, we seek out setups that exhibit seamless scalability across content, effortlessly carrying you through the campaign and extending into the late-game challenges of mapping. However, it's important to note that while these PoE builds excel in the late-game context, they might eventually be surpassed by the absolute top-tier configurations. Nevertheless, these chosen builds serve as a means to accumulate gear and trade resources, enabling a smooth transition into one of the premier setups when you feel prepared to confront the game's most formidable trials.

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1 - Boneshatter Juggernaut

Difficulty: Easy

Budget: Low

Mapping: Great

Bossing: Weak

Defence: Excellent

This Path of Exile Boneshatter Juggernaut build centers on the Boneshatter skill, a powerful melee attack that deals damage to both enemies and yourself. Stunning enemies with this attack trigger a damaging pulse, affecting nearby monsters. Longer stun durations result in larger area pulses, making the build effective against monster groups. Striking enemies with Boneshatter accumulates trauma stacks, granting damage buffs but also dealing physical damage to you. To mitigate this self-inflicted damage, prioritize armor and life recovery. The Juggernaut ascendancy is ideal due to its armor boost and Elemental damage application. Choosing the Marauder class and then progressing to Juggernaut is recommended for a strong melee League start. While excelling against groups, the build struggles against bosses and demands some knowledge of the game's crafting system to upgrade weapons as you level up.

Check Out How To Setup Boneshatter Juggernaut Build for PoE 3.22 League Starter

2 - Righteous Fire Inquisitor 

Difficulty: Average

Budget: Low

Mapping: Great

Bossing: Good

Defence: Excellent

Righteous Fire is a self-damaging spell dealing powerful fire damage around you. To succeed with this approach, focus on life regeneration, fire resistance, life, and energy shield. The spell's damage scales with your life and energy shield, aiding survival and offense. It boosts spell damage and excels against groups but struggles against single targets. Enhance this with a fire trap for boss fights. Start as a Templar, then choose Inquisitor for elemental damage boosts. This long-standing POE build involves minimal button presses—activate Righteous Fire and use Shield Charge to burn foes. While effective, it's slower against bosses. Prolific creator Pox offers in-depth expertise on this build through guides and a dedicated Wiki.

Check Out How To Setup Righteous Fire Inquisitor Build for PoE 3.22 League Starter

3 - Explosive Arrow Ballista Elementalist

Difficulty: Average

Budget: Very Low

Mapping: Good

Bossing: Great

Defence: Good

In POE 3.22, the Explosive Arrow Ballista Elementalist build employs ballista turrets that fire explosive arrows at enemies. Arrows explode after a delay, with damage and blast radius increasing based on the number of arrows stuck in enemies. Ballistas enable more arrow stacking and thus larger explosions. Notably, the build features ignite proliferation, causing burning corpses to ignite other foes walking over them. To run this setup, start with the Witch class, progress to Elementalist for enhanced Elemental damage, bigger explosions, and elemental damage protection. It's easy to gear, serving as a smooth League starter and a good option for trading or heavy gear investment. The playstyle involves placing ballistas and seeking cover for safety. While not the tankiest choice, a sturdier version can be explored with Zizerin's Champion setup, catering to diverse preferences.

Check Out How To Setup Explosive Arrow Ballista Elementalist Build for PoE 3.22 League Starter

4 - Cold DoT Elementalist

Difficulty: Easy

Budget: Low

Mapping: Great

Bossing: Great

Defence: Great

In PoE's 3.22 League, if you seek to unleash chaos upon your foes, consider the Toxic Rain Ballista Pathfinder build. With Toxic Rain, arrows rain chaos damage pods upon enemies, which explode and linger to deal damage over time. Stacking these pods leads to potent boss damage. This build is versatile. Start as a ranger and progress into the Pathfinder ascendancy, which emphasizes flask enhancement, turning life flasks into significant regeneration buffs and boosting defensive flask effects. There are two main versions: Ballista and Non-Ballista. Here, we focus on the Ballista variant, allowing up to six Ballistas to launch Toxic Rain, creating overlapping damage areas for more damage output, particularly against bosses. This build's gear upgrades are straightforward, relying on the Quill Rain unique bow for increased projectile speed, speeding up the Toxic Rain's descent for efficient speed runs.

Check Out How To Setup Cold DoT Elementalist Build for PoE 3.22 League Starter

5 - Lightning Arrow Deadeye

Difficulty: Easy

Budget: Moderate

Mapping: Excellent

Bossing: Good

Defence: Low

In Path of Exile (PoE), Lightning Arrow hits enemies with arrows that trigger lightning bolts, dealing area damage to the target and nearby foes. For better single-target damage, the build also employs the Artillery Ballista skill, summoning Ballistas that rain fire arrows. To set up this strategy, begin with the Ranger class, focusing on bows, and then select the Dead Eye ascendancy to enhance projectile skills like arrows. The build excels in rapid map clearing, boasting unmatched speed. With proper gear, it scales effectively into the endgame, offering a smooth transition to an end-game bow build using the same character. However, be cautious, as the build is fragile without proper gear and may not suit hardcore playstyles. Boss fights can be challenging despite the artillery Ballistas, as the build prioritizes speed over single-target damage.

Check Out How To Setup Lightning Arrow Deadeye Build for PoE 3.22 League Starter

6 - Corrupting Fever Champion

Difficulty: Average

Budget: Low

Mapping: Excellent

Bossing: Good

Defence: Great

In PoE, Corrupting Fever is a life-costing spell that grants a buff enabling you to afflict enemies with Corrupting Blood, a unique damage-over-time debuff. Unlike bleed, Corrupting Blood can stack up to 10 times. Kinetic Blast, a skill firing explosive wand-projectiles on impact, pairs well with delivering Corrupting Blood efficiently due to its area splash damage. This synergy offers strong map-clearing potential. To set up this build, begin with the Duelist class, which excels in both dealing and avoiding damage. Select the Champion ascendancy for a balanced offense and defense approach, enhancing tankiness via damage reduction from Fortify and aura bonuses. While excelling in map-clearing speed and defense through gear investment, this build struggles against bosses, as Corrupting Blood stacks max out at 10, limiting further boss damage potential.

Check Out How To Setup Corrupting Fever Champion Build for PoE 3.22 League Starter

7 - Toxic Rain Ballista Pathfinder

Difficulty: Average

Budget: Low

Mapping: Good

Bossing: Great

Defence: Great

In PoE's 3.22 League, if you seek to unleash chaos upon your foes, consider the Toxic Rain Ballista Pathfinder build. With Toxic Rain, arrows rain chaos damage pods upon enemies, which explode and linger to deal damage over time. Stacking these pods leads to potent boss damage. This build is versatile. Start as a ranger and progress into the Pathfinder ascendancy, which emphasizes flask enhancement, turning life flasks into significant regeneration buffs and boosting defensive flask effects. There are two main versions: Ballista and Non-Ballista. Here, we focus on the Ballista variant, allowing up to six Ballistas to launch Toxic Rain, creating overlapping damage areas for more damage output, particularly against bosses. This build's gear upgrades are straightforward, relying on the Quill Rain unique bow for increased projectile speed, speeding up the Toxic Rain's descent for efficient speed runs.

Check Out How To Setup Toxic Rain Ballista Pathfinder Build for PoE 3.22 League Starter

8 - Hexblast Mines Saboteur

Difficulty: Average

Budget: Moderate

Mapping: Good

Bossing: Excellent

Defence: Great

Hexblast is a chaos spell that deals significant damage to an enemy. If the target is cursed, the curse is removed and Hexblast deals double damage along with a massive area explosion. To optimize the double damage, this build requires frequent curse reapplication. It can also apply Elemental ailments like ignite, shock, and freeze despite dealing chaos damage. The challenge is Hexblast's long one-second casting time in the fast-paced game Path of Exile. This can be solved by using mines to apply Hexblast, bypassing the casting time. To execute this build, start as a Shadow core class, a hybrid intelligence-dexterity character using claws and daggers. Progress into the Saboteur ascendancy class, which excels in traps and mines. The build shines in boss fights, offering high damage throughout the game, particularly against bosses. By placing mines before the boss encounter, you can initiate an explosive start. While decent for mapping due to its wide area damage, the build leans towards fragility, making it unsuitable for hardcore play due to limited defense options. Note that specific gear is crucial for this build, necessitating engagement in trading.

Check Out How To Setup Hexblast Mines Saboteur Build for PoE 3.22 League Starter

9 - Detonate Dead Elementalist

Difficulty: Very Easy

Budget: Very Low

Mapping: Good

Bossing: Good

Defence: Great

Detonate Dead in Path of Exile functions like the classic Corpse Explosion. By using the desecrate spell, which summons corpses, you're not dependent on enemy corpses. Detonate Dead's explosion inflicts fixed fire damage and additional damage proportional to the corpse's life. For this setup, begin as a witch and then advance to the Elementalist ascendancy to enhance fire damage. Since this build's power hinges on the corpse's maximum life, gear isn't a primary factor—better corpses, not weapons, amplify your damage. This approach is excellent if you wish to avoid trading or crafting. The playstyle involves two buttons: desecrate to create corpses and detonate to deal damage. Consistently using these buttons might strain wrists for some players.

Check Out How To Setup Detonate Dead Elementalist Build for PoE 3.22 League Starter

10 - Impending Doom Pathfinder

Difficulty: Average

Budget: Moderate

Mapping: Great

Bossing: Good

Defence: Great

Impending Doom is a support skill enhancing hex curses. When a curse's duration ends, it triggers a chaos explosion around the targeted area. However, you'll intentionally make curses expire prematurely, as there's a limit to the number of curses on an enemy. Surpassing this limit by applying a new curse causes the oldest to expire, creating an explosion. To swiftly exceed the curse limit, you require Vixen's Entrapment unique gloves, triggering extra curses. Using the Cascade spell support gem generates two overlapping explosions, greatly boosting area clearing speed. This approach demands specific gear for optimal performance, making it unsuitable for self-found players. Substantial gear investment is needed for effective boss damage.

Check Out How To Setup Impending Doom Pathfinder Build for PoE 3.22 League Starter