The Mercenary class appears to be a highly expected choice for Path of Exile 2 Early Access. Let's take a look at the class mechanics (ascendancy, skills, weapons, pros, cons) and best builds for PoE 2 Mercenary.
Path of Exile 2 Mercenary Class Overview
The Mercenary in Path of Exile 2 is a versatile crossbow specialist who excels at adapting to various combat situations through different firing modes and ammunition types. This class can utilize Rapid Shot, Burst Shot, Power Shot, and grenade launcher attachments, along with specialized ammunition skills like Armor Piercing Rounds to handle diverse combat challenges.
PoE 2 Mercenary Ascendancy
The Mercenary's adaptability extends to two initial Ascendancy paths: the Witchhunter, who specializes in anti-magic capabilities and can cause enemies to explode (particularly effective against demons and undead), and the Gemling Legionnaire, who can embed gems in their flesh to gain additional skill slots and ignore attribute requirements for gem usage.
PoE 2 Mercenary Skills
With 22 available crossbow skills and various grenade types at their disposal, the Mercenary can effectively handle both single-target and crowd-control situations while adapting their damage type and approach based on enemy resistances and combat conditions.
Armor Piercing Rounds
Inciendary Rounds
Permafrost Rounds
Explosive Grenade
Flash Grenade
Oil Grenade
PoE 2 Mercenary Pros and Cons
Pros:
Unique Playstyle: It introduces an entirely new ammunition-based playstyle to the game that combines elements of both traditional Gunslinger and Crossbow mechanics.
Build Diversity: The variety of ammunition types allows for diverse builds specializing in AoE, single-target damage, or defensive strategies.
League Mechanic Potential: Certain ascendancy choices, like the Witchhunter's Zealous Inquisition, may offer advantages for specific league mechanics, potentially making the Mercenary a strong choice for targeted farming.
Cons:
Ammunition Reliance: The dependence on ammunition could introduce resource management challenges, potentially impacting sustained damage output.
Defensive Layer Trade-offs: Some ascendancy choices, such as the Witchhunter's Obsessive Rituals, require sacrificing defensive stats for offensive power, potentially making the character more vulnerable.
Untested Potential: As a new class, the full potential and viability of various builds remain to be seen and will require thorough testing during early access and beyond.
Best Path of Exile 2 Mercenary Builds in Early Access
The Mercenary class offers exceptional versatility through its ammunition system, allowing players to switch between different combat styles - from grenade-like explosives to rapid-fire assault patterns, and even elemental effects like creating ice walls. Both ascendency options provide strong endgame potential, with Witchhunter excelling at boss fights through concentration breaking and high single-target damage, while Gemling Legionnaire offers unique gem-focused mechanics and potential minion build opportunities. Below are the recommended builds for the Mercenary class in PoE 2 EA.
1. Fragmentation Rounds/Glacial Bolt Mercenary Build
This PoE 2 mercenary build focuses on the synergistic use of Fragmentation Rounds and Glacial Bolt. Fragmentation Rounds is used as the primary damage dealer, benefiting from its shotgun effect at close range and its inherent knockback. Glacial Bolt creates a V-shaped area of ice crystals. When Fragmentation Rounds hit these crystals, they explode, creating an area of effect (AOE) damage. This is further amplified by the support gem, which transforms the Glacial Bolt's V-shape into a large circle, maximizing the area covered by ice crystals and thus the potential AOE damage from Fragmentation Rounds. Early on, Flash Grenade supplements this combo by providing stun and crowd control, allowing for safer close-range combat. This build is effective due to the synergy between the skills, allowing for high AOE damage output, particularly against single targets or clustered enemies. It's suited for players who prefer a more tactical approach, requiring positioning and timing to maximize the impact of the combo. The build also highlights the importance of skill combinations in Path of Exile 2, emphasizing that combining skills can lead to significantly greater power than using individual skills in isolation.
2. Witchhunter Mercenary Clearing Build
This build centers around maximizing the Zealous Inquisition node, capitalizing on the 10% chance for killed enemies to explode for 100% of their maximum life as physical damage. This percentage doubles against Undead and Demons. This build excels at clearing maps quickly, especially those populated with Undead and Demons, including those found in the Beyond mechanic. It's less effective against bosses due to the reliance on explosions for damage, which are less impactful against single targets with high health pools. The focus is on swift, efficient clearing of packs of monsters, making it ideal for farming specific content and potentially less challenging map tiers.
3. Witchhunter Mercenary Bossing Build
If you want to create a build for boss killing, focus on Witchbane and Judge, Jury, and Executioner. Witchbane disrupts boss abilities by introducing a "concentration" mechanic, limiting their ability to spam powerful attacks. Judge, Jury, and Executioner provide a massive damage spike on the first hit against a boss, significantly chunking their health. This build excels at taking down challenging bosses efficiently, mitigating their threat through ability disruption, and dealing high initial burst damage. Clear speed might be less of a focus, requiring supplemental skills or strategies for dealing with packs of monsters.
4. Gemling Legionnaire Minion Mercenary Build
This build utilizes the Gemling Legionnaire Ascendancy to create and empower a formidable army of minions. Crystalline Potential provides a substantial quality bonus to all skill gems, directly enhancing minion damage and survivability. The additional skill slots granted by the Ascendancy allow for a wider array of minion types and support gems. Thaumaturgical infusion provides substantial resistance scaling based on socketed support gems, further bolstering minion survivability. This build focuses on overwhelming enemies with sheer numbers and leveraging the inherent tankiness and damage output of a well-supported minion army.
5. Hybrid Gemling Legionnaire Mercenary Build
The last build takes advantage of the Adaptive Capability node, allowing for a flexible approach to skill and support gem selection. By allowing gem attribute requirements to be met by the character's highest attribute, this build can combine various damage types, defensive layers, and utility skills without being constrained by traditional attribute limitations. This opens up possibilities for unique and unconventional builds, potentially combining elements of different archetypes. This build offers high customizability, allowing players to tailor their character to their preferred playstyle and experiment with diverse skill combinations.
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