Two new Ascendancy classes in Path of Exile 2: Return of the Ancients are exceptionally strong and rank among the best choices for Patch 0.5.1. This league also introduces Runic Ward and Kalguuran skills, which give several other builds great potential as well. One of the biggest frustrations for PoE 2 players is having too many options, making it hard to know which skills and builds are truly the best. Therefore, let us take a look at the powerful and popular builds in Patch 0.5.1. Here are the top 10 builds: Whirling Assault Martial Artist Twisters Spirit Walker Ice Shot Deadeye Vivid Stampede Spirit Walker Disciple of Varashta Minion Companion Spirit Walker Ice Shot Amazon Grim Pillar Totem Oracle Plants Abyssal Lich Grenades Gemling Legionnaire No.1 Whirling Assault Martial Artist Martial Artist is one of the strongest Ascendancy classes in POE 2 Runes of Aldur League. Whirling Assault, in turn, is the best and most efficient clear skill in this league. The core interaction of this build relies on the synergy between Hollow Form and Lochtonial Caress Tempered Mitts. Hollow Form generates a clone that performs Whirling Assault. The glove effect grants Power, Frenzy, and Endurance charges to an ally when you use Whirling Assault. Since the skill is performed by the clone, your character is considered an ally and thus receives these charges. In terms of both offense and defense, Whirling Assault Martial Artist performs at the highest level. Notably, Way of the Stonefish node greatly enhances your gloves and boosts your defensive capabilities. Meanwhile, Whirling Assault's area of effect covers almost the entire screen. This build has virtually no weakness in any aspect. No.2 Twisters Spirit Walker Spirit Walker is already an excellent choice for a twister build, because Primal Bounty node grants two additional projectiles and projectile speed bonus to empowered skills. This build deals tremendous damage, clears maps incredibly fast, and is the strongest early-game starter among all builds. Its only drawback is slightly less survivability compared to Whirling Assault Martial Artist. No.3 Ice Shot Deadeye Ice Shot Deadeye already has top-tier clear speed in Path of Exile 2. When paired with Snipe, her single-target boss damage is also excellent, and she can almost delete bosses instantly. In the late game, as bow damage scales to its peak, you can fully transition into a pure Ice Shot setup. In POE 2 Patch 0.5, buffs to evasion and deflection have raised Deadeye to a mid-to-high level of survivability. This build is extremely powerful at all stages of the game and in all aspects. It is a great fit for players who enjoy high-damage builds. No.4 Vivid Stampede Spirit Walker Vivid Stampede has high base damage and consumes one Vivid Wisp to deal 362% damage, with the ability to consume up to four Vivid Wisps at once. You only need to move 10 meters to obtain a Wisp. You can stack dodge roll distance and movement speed to consistently generate Wisps, then use other skills to trigger Vivid Stampede. Although its survivability and boss damage are somewhat lacking, its clear speed in the endgame is very fast, making it excellent for farming. No.5 Disciple of Varashta Minion This build was already strong in the previous version. Runes of Aldur League further buffed command skills, providing bonuses to minion damage, reduced movement speed penalties, skill speed, and more. This build offers good survivability and solid damage. The reduction in movement speed penalty removes its biggest weakness, greatly improving its clear speed. While it is not as efficient as the top-tier builds, it is still very strong compared to ordinary builds. No.6 Companion Spirit Walker Companion system received multiple buffs in Runes of Aldur League. Spirit Walker is also a Companion Ascendancy, allowing you to capture beast bosses as your companions. Companion Spirit Walker boasts the highest boss damage in the entire game. Its survivability is moderate, but your companions surround you and absorb damage on your behalf. Another weakness is that its clear speed is not top-tier, which is expected since this is a non-command minion build. No.7 Ice Shot Amazon In Patch 0.4, Ice Shot Amazon had better survivability than Deadeye because of its Stalking Panther Ascendancy Skill. However, in Patch 0.5, Deadeye's survivability has greatly improved, while Amazon has become relatively weaker in survival because it struggles to benefit from leech. Even though Ice Shot Deadeye has a higher ceiling, Amazon remains extremely strong when you do not have much PoE 2 currency to invest in gears. No.8 Grim Pillar Totem Oracle Oracle has always been a powerful spellcasting Ascendancy class. Force Outcome node provides a massive amount of critical strike damage and critical strike chance, while Unseen Path allows you to access unique and strong nodes on the passive skill tree. This build has decent clear speed and respectable boss damage. Unfortunately, unless you invest a large amount of PoE 2 currency into gearing the character, its survivability will struggle to reach a comfortable level. No.9 Plants Abyssal Lich Plants Abyssal Lich excels in clear speed and has far better survivability than Oracle. It utilizes the classic low-life Lich build, with Atziri's Disdain Gold Circlet directly applying damage to your health. While your energy shield is active, your health remains constant, effectively granting damage reduction. This build's boss damage is somewhat average, but you can handle that properly by incorporating Bonestorm. Although it requires a significant investment in gear, it remains a very fun playstyle. No.10 Grenades Gemling Legionnaire The playstyle of this build is to throw grenades and walk away, letting them detonate automatically behind you. Cluster Grenades serve as an excellent burst skill and can instantly delete bosses as well. The main drawback of this build is that its area of effect is not large enough, leading to somewhat slow clear speed. Nevertheless, if you want to play a grenade build, this is likely your best option. If future patches released during POE 2 Runes of Aldur League make balance adjustments, this ranking may change. However, as of now, every build listed above is very reliable.

Players, it's been so long since WoW TBC Classic Anniversary Phase 2 went live, do you still think that stacking ranged DPS and forming Warlocks, Hunters, and Mages is the only correct way to clear Lady Vashj and Kael'thas Sunstrider? If you think that way, then you're just like 99% of players, fooled by the so-called standard answer for TBC Phase 2. A newly leaked set of hardcore guild data has completely revealed the truth. Those sweating players who speedrun Tempest Keep in half an hour every week are playing a completely different game from our regular raids. They're frantically stacking Fury Warriors and Retribution Paladins, practically pushing the number of Healers to three. They're even forcing Druids to play a Dreamstate talent that has neither damage nor healing. Now let's delve into this new data to see why what you're lacking isn't Warlocks, but Enhancement Shamans that nobody wants to play, and a practical adjustment that reduced the time for a typical raid group to clear Tempest Keep from 12 hours to 7 hours. The Scarcity of Enhancement Shamans According to the latest BCC data, the biggest difference between hardcore high-end guilds and ordinary guilds is the number of Enhancement Shamans. High-end guilds typically bring two to three Enhancement Shamans, fully utilizing their Totem Twisting and other buffs to maximize melee DPS through perfect physical damage amplification. Their Warriors can easily achieve over 1500 DPS, while in ordinary guilds, even a single Enhancement Shaman is hard to find. Often, melee groups are forced to use Restoration Shamans, resulting in Warriors' DPS consistently hovering around 800. Even if the player's skill is excellent, the lack of crucial support from Windfury, Feral Druid, and Survival Hunter (armor penetration) drastically reduces damage output, placing them in a completely different league compared to their high-end guild counterparts. Core Contradiction The core contradiction in the current game environment is the enormous shortage of support classes. Most average players only want to play main DPS characters who can achieve impressive damage numbers, such as Fury Warrior, Arcane Mage, Destruction Warlock, and Beast Mastery Hunter. If you want instant entry into PUGs and a guaranteed role, you should consider playing support roles that nobody wants, as your presence can drastically change the overall DPS quality of the team. Dreamstate Druid Trap A recent, widespread misconception in BCC is that many guilds are forcing Druid players to use Dreamstate talent. This talent, marketed as a hybrid DPS build, actually produces neither decent damage nor satisfactory healing. However, ordinary guilds lack both the gear and the need for speedrunning. Blindly imitating others will only cause the team to lose both damage output and healing, ultimately resulting in more harm than good. Protection Warriors Still Have Value While the tanking role in TBC is almost entirely monopolized by Protection Paladins, Protection Warriors haven't been completely eliminated. The advantage of Protection Warriors lies in their exceptional self-preservation abilities. For example, in high-pressure fights like those against Morogrim Tidewalker where tanks frequently fall, Protection Warriors can use various abilities to survive, while Protection Paladins heavily rely on healers. Therefore, it's perfectly acceptable to bring a Protection Warrior to a raid, given the abundance of Protection Paladins. More importantly, if you're a Protection Paladin player, the smartest approach right now isn't to stubbornly stick to the tanking role, but to always have a set of Retribution Paladin gear ready. Retribution Paladin gear is extremely popular and scarce in Phase 2, and you can save up Retribution Paladin gear for raids while continuing to pursue your tanking dreams. The Real Meta of Hardcore Guilds A revolutionary finding is that before the game nerfs, everyone believed the ultimate solution for BCC was to stack ranged classes like Hunters, Warlocks, and Mages, thinking this was the only way to beat Lady Vashj and Kael'thas Sunstrider. However, recent data shows that the most hardcore guilds have completely shifted to a different strategy. They've started heavily stacking Fury Warriors and other melee classes, not to kill bosses, but to clear all mobs instantly as quickly as possible, compressing the raid completion time to half an hour to an hour. For ordinary guilds, don't blindly imitate this approach, because you don't have that overwhelming gear and coordination. Ranged compositions are still more stable and have a higher margin for error when progressing through high-pressure bosses, and stacking melee is only meaningful if you can easily farm all bosses. Healer Count Cannot Be Reduced The current trend is that high-end guilds are desperately reducing the number of healers, trying to achieve higher overall damage by reducing healing. However, if an ordinary guild reduces the number of healers from six to five in actual combat, the entire team will start wiping frequently, and the dungeon experience will deteriorate drastically. For most guilds, bringing one more healer means ten fewer wipes, ultimately resulting in a shorter clear time. Tips for Quickly Clearing Tempest Keep If your raid wants to quickly clear Tempest Keep, consider these three suggestions: First, the trash mobs in Tempest Keep are far stronger than any boss, especially the first wave at the entrance, which has absurdly high attack power and respawns extremely quickly. Therefore, it's best to prepare a team specifically for clearing trash mobs; otherwise, your raid could wipe for hours just on them. Second, it is recommended to kill Void Reaver as the second enemy after defeating the first boss, which is equivalent to boosting the team's morale. Third, regardless of how much TBC Classic Anniversary gold is needed for consumables, the entire raid must be forced to use consumables when clearing high-intensity bosses. This can significantly reduce the pressure during the weapon phase and even throughout the entire process. In conclusion, during TBC Classic Anniversary Phase 2, don't blindly follow the crowd. Inspect what your guild is lacking. After all, the data belongs to the hard-working players, but the experience in the game is our own.