Path of Exile 2 presents players with exciting new possibilities for starter builds. While the game retains its deep customization systems, certain builds stand out for their effectiveness in the early to mid-game progression. This guide will explore some of the most efficient and beginner-friendly leveling builds in PoE 2 Early Access.
Best Path of Exile 2 Leveling Builds
While Path of Exile 2 offers numerous viable builds, these three options stand out for fast leveling in Early Access because of their combination of safety, single-target damage, clear speed, scaling potential, and other advantages. The key to successful leveling lies in choosing a build that matches your playstyle while maintaining good clear speed and survivability. Here let's go through the details of the best PoE 2 leveling builds including skills, support gems, passive tree nodes, ascendancy, and more.
1. PoE 2 Monk Leveling Build
The first Path of Exile 2 leveling build for Monk focuses on the powerful synergy between Tempest Flurry and Tempest Bell, the build excels by utilizing Tempest Flurry's rapid-hitting mechanics, particularly its third strike that hits three times in quick succession, to proc Tempest Bell's shockwaves. These shockwaves convert physical damage to elemental damage, primarily focusing on shock and chill effects, which creates a strong damage scaling mechanism through elemental ailments while providing good clear speed and boss damage during the campaign and early mapping phases.
Main Skills
Tempest Flurry
Tempest Bell
Support Gems
Martial Tempo (25% more attack speed)
Rage (1% more damage per stack, up to 30)
Close Combat (25% more damage within 1m range)
Primal Armaments (25% more elemental attack damage)
Concentrated Effect (skills deal 40% more area damage, 50% less area of effect)
Overabundance (skills have +1 to limit, supported skills have 50% less skill effect duration)
Passive Tree Progression
Early Game:
Start with "Essence of the Mountain" (5% damage as extra cold damage, 20% increased freeze build-up).
The path toward Freeze Buildup nodes.
Progress to the Blinding Strike node with increased attack damage.
Mid Game:
Take the nodes for increased damage per elemental ailment.
Pick up Lightning Penetration.
Path to Falcon Technique for increased attack speed.
Get the nodes like Reaching Strike and Rapid Strike for extra strike range and attack speed.
Late Game:
2. PoE 2 Witch Necromancer Leveling Build
This Path of Exile 2 Witch build uniquely combines the power of automated minion summoning with direct spell damage, creating a versatile and powerful character capable of handling both clearing and boss encounters effectively. The build requires minimal gear investment, making it an excellent choice for league starters and new players alike. Its main damage comes from the synergy between Raging Spirits and Flame Wall. When you cast Flame Wall, it automatically summons up to 10 Raging Spirits, creating a constant stream of aggressive minions. These spirits not only deal direct damage but also explode upon death, thanks to the Minion Instability support gem, creating a chain reaction of damage.
Skill Gem Setup
Raging Spirits + Minion Instability + Fire Infusion
Flame Wall + Magnified Effect
Essence Drain + Minion Pact (optional)
Unearth + Brutality + Lacerate
Enfeeble + Impending Doom + Decaying Hex
Alternative: Contagion for better clear speed
Passive Tree Progression
Early to Mid Game:
Prioritize both Spell and Minion damage nodes in the starting area, these nodes are abundant in the Necromancer starting area, making it ideal for minion builds from the beginning.
Pick up Life Recoup nodes (approximately 12% damage recuperation as life).
Gravedigger (focused on minion revival speed).
Restless Dead (minion movement speed, Increased minion damage, Minion attack speed, and Elemental resistance for minions).
Late Game:
Move towards the dual-socket area.
Pick up additional Life Recoup nodes.
Focus on nodes that provide more minion buffs, physical damage reduction, maximum life increases, and area of effect improvements.
Ascendancy
The Infernalist ascendancy is recommended for this build due to its synergy with fire damage and defensive capabilities.
1 Altered Flesh
2 Beidat’s Gaze
3 Beidat’s Will
4 Beidat's Hand
5 Demonic Possession
6 Mastered Darkness
7 Pyromantic Pact
8 Bringer of Flame
9 Seething Body
10 Loyal Hellhound
11 Grinning Immolation
3. PoE 2 Infernalist Leveling Build
This is a minion-focused Witch build using the Infernalist ascendancy, primarily utilizing Infernal Hound, Skeletal Arsonists, and Raging Spirits for damage. The build excels at both clear speed and boss damage through fire-based minion damage and ignite mechanics. It becomes very powerful around level 40, capable of quickly clearing content and melting bosses.
Skill Gem Setup
Summon Infernal Hound + Meat Shield + Elemental Army
Skeletal Arsonists + Scattershot + Acceleration + Martial Tempo
Raging Spirits + Persistence + Fire Infusion
Flame Wall + Fortress + Arcane Tempo
Pain Offering
Unearth + Brutality
Flammability + Magnified Effect + Inspiration
Gearing Priority
Weapon: Scepter with +2 to skill gems
Amulet: +1 to minion skill gems
Chest: High Spirit value
Other slots: Focus on life and resistance
Stats needed: Intelligence, Dexterity, Strength for gem requirements
Passive Tree Progression
Early Game:
Minion Life and Damage: Begin by picking nodes like Spell and Minion Damage. Prioritize Minion Life early to counteract squishy minions dying frequently. This helps sustain their presence in fights.
Minion Movement Speed: Grab any nearby nodes that improve Minion Movement Speed, as faster minions will clear content more efficiently.
Player Life and Stats: Pick up nodes that provide Life and core stats (Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence) to meet gear or gem requirements. These are situational and can be adjusted based on your needs.
Mid Game:
Fire Damage and Minion Life Scaling: Transition into boosting Fire Damage for your Raging Spirits and Immolation Aura.
Minion Tankiness: Pick the Minion Physical Damage Reduction and Chaos Resistance nodes to prevent them from dying to physical or chaos-heavy enemies.
Player Tankiness: Start exploring Energy Shield nodes for yourself, as this will provide additional survivability when combined with life and evasion.
Late Game:
Minion Damage and Health Scaling: Focus on 25% Increased Minion Damage and 25% Increased Minion Life nodes to significantly boost their effectiveness.
Area of Effect (AoE): Consider taking Increased Area of Effect Nodes to enhance the Immolation Aura from the Hound and the AoE of Flame Wall. This can also benefit other skills and general clear speed.
Minion Resistance: Add all Elemental Resistances for Minions if your minions are struggling against elemental-heavy content.
Physical and Chaos Damage Reduction: If further survivability is needed, round out your tree with additional Physical Damage Reduction and Chaos Resistance nodes.
PoE 2 Leveling Builds for Other Classes
PoE 2 Railgun Mercenary Leveling Build: If you are playing Mercenary for leveling, you can focus on on obtaining high damage output through skills like High Velocity Rounds, Gas Grenade, and Shard Scavenger. The key is to shred enemy armor using a Gas Grenade with Corrosion and other supports, then unleash powerful single-shot bursts from High Velocity Rounds that take advantage of the broken armor. Boosting reload speed and ammo capacity through skills like Double Barrel and Ammo Conservation allows for sustained damage output, while Emergency Reload provides a burst of extra firepower when needed. The build can clear content up to the endgame by consistently keeping up the armor shred and maximizing the damage of each High Velocity Rounds shot. With the right gear, this mercenary build can dish out massive single-target damage.
PoE 2 Lightning Ranger Leveling Build: This build utilizes a combination of lightning, physical, and poison damage to create an effective and versatile Ranger. The core skills are Lightning Rod, which plants lightning arrows that can be triggered to explode, and Lightning Arrow, which chains lightning beams to detonate the lightning rods for massive AoE damage. The Pathfinder ascendancy provides access to a fulminating concoction, which further reduces enemy lightning resistance. For single-target boss fights, the Ranger build focuses on bow attacks, starting with the Stormcaller arrow to apply shock debuff, followed by poison burst arrows to break enemy armor, allowing the powerful physical bow shot to deal maximum damage. The passive tree should emphasize nodes that increase shock effect, lightning penetration, and projectile damage.
PoE 2 Cold Sorceress Leveling Build: This Sorceress build focuses on a cold-based playstyle, utilizing skills like Ice Nova, Freezing Shards, and Cold Snap to freeze and shatter enemies. The key is building up freeze chance and cold damage through items like spell damage, cold damage, and +levels to cold skills. The skill tree prioritizes energy shield and cast speed early on to enable the close-quarters combat style, before investing heavily in the top cold nodes for maximum freeze buildup and damage. Flexibility is built into the approach, allowing the player to adapt defensive or offensive nodes as needed while leveling through the acts. The end goal is a powerful Sorceress that can efficiently clear packs and boss encounters by freezing and detonating frozen enemies.
PoE 2 Fire Warrior Leveling Build: This Warrior build focuses on a powerful fire and AoE damage playstyle. The key is spamming the Raise Shield skill, which triggers the Magma Barrier ability to release a fire Nova when blocking attacks. Combining this with Bone Shatter for additional AoE, the build excels at quickly clearing large groups of enemies. To enhance the fire damage, the player has taken passive skills that boost ignite chance, duration, and damage against burning foes. Survivability is enhanced through increased armor and block chance. The build is well-suited for efficient farming of dense enemy packs, such as the Dreadnought Vanguard encounter at the end of Act 2. By spamming Raise Shield, Boneshatter, and utilizing Infernal Cry's explosion on enemy death, the Warrior can efficiently clear large mobs while maintaining good defenses through shield blocking and armor.
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