Path Of Exile 2 Artillery Ballista Witch Hunter Build: Why Can The Build Clear Monsters Quickly?

Posted: Mar 14, 2025 Views: 55

Posted: Mar 14, 2025

Source: IGGM

Farming currency in Path of Exile 2 has always been an important part of the game. The new league will arrive in early April, and players will have to start all over again. So here is a build that can efficiently clear monsters. Artillery Ballista Witch Hunter, this build allows you to bombard monsters. The more monsters there are, the more efficient you are.

Advantages And Disadvantages

Advantages

Automatically lock monsters in a large range.
Not bound to unique equipment, suitable for improving the efficiency of POE 2 currency.
Very suitable for Witch Hunter’s Ascendancy.
Ballista can reduce the survival pressure of Witch Hunter.

Disadvantages

The number of projectiles increases the damage and cannot provide gains.
The skill level required is too high, so it cannot be used in the early stage of the game.
There is a significant time difference between attacking and causing damage, and the operation feels a bit strange.
There are requirements for weapon types or affixes

Main Skills

Artillery Ballista

Artillery Ballista, the core of this build, is characterized by the fact that Artillery Ballista burst is a large-scale automatic locking AOE skill. Each attack will cause two damages to enemies within the range.

The shortcomings are also obvious. Affixes such as projectile +1 cannot affect this skill. The most powerful damage increase cannot be used directly, and the skill damage multiplier is low. It is necessary to rely on additional damage to enemies who control the field to ensure damage. At the same time, the skill attack has a significant delay. It takes more than 1 second from the arrow being launched into the air to the explosion after landing. This time difference makes it impossible for you to hit the moving enemy and will lose a lot of DPS. So you also need to increase the means of field control to ensure maximum output.

Although this build has many buffs, there are still many limitations. One is the weakness against a single unit, and the other is how to reduce the impact of the attack time difference on this skill. Therefore, this build adopts the following two skill combinations.

Glacial Bolt

There are many skills in POE 2 that can interact with Ice Crystals, including Artillery Ballista. Ice Crystals on the field can be used as targets to attack, and your crossbow has Glacial Bolt that can generate Ice Crystals. The basic Glacial Bolt will create 9 destructible Ice Crystals. After further matching Glacial Bolt with the support gem Fortress, the original ice wall will change from V-shaped to circular, and the number of Ice Crystals will increase to 17, which can instantly increase Artillery Ballista to 18 times the number of attacks. After the two are matched, a powerful means of single-target attack is obtained.

Ripwire Ballista

Ripwire Ballista mainly causes physical damage, providing a rare control ability to pin the enemy in the game. Although the damage caused by Ripwire Ballista is very low, it is the easiest to achieve control effect in the game. Even rare monsters can be pinned in 2-3 attacks, and bosses can be pinned almost instantly under concentrated attacks. We can easily surround and kill the pinned enemies with Glacial Bolt.

In addition, Ripwire Ballista will give priority to attracting enemy hatred, and will attack turrets as long as there are turrets within the enemy range, so throwing a Ripwire Ballista under your feet from time to time when farming maps can greatly increase your chances of survival.

Whether it is a group of monsters or elites, this build is an equal bombing. And because of the large locking range of Artillery Ballista, you can also easily attack enemies outside the screen. When encountering a map with many monsters or narrow terrain, let Ripwire Ballista test first, and when encountering an elite monster, just use Glacial Bolt to surround and blow it up. As long as you use this build, find a place with more monsters and repeatedly farm, you can quickly accumulate many items and You don’t even need to buy POE 2 Currency.

Main Weapon Skill

Artillery Ballista

For normal cleaning, it is recommended to use Magnified Effect support gem to clear the field quickly. When fighting BOSS, you can consider switching to Minion Pact support gem, because Ripwire Ballista can be used as a summon to consume health and increase damage.

Flash Grenade

Flash Grenade is very good at dealing with monsters that rush in front of you. After carrying Scattershot support gem, Flash Grenade can enhance the ability to stun monsters.

Oil Grenade

It can work when encountering monsters with elemental resistance.

Secondary Weapon Skills

Ripwire Ballista and Glacial Bolt.The support gem Fortress is a must for Glacial Bolt, and the others are optional.

POE 2 Main Skills

Ascendancy

Zealous Inquisition + Pitiless Killer

Since Artillery Ballista’s damage can only be effectively concentrated on the last few monsters in the group, there will always be a few small monsters left in each attack. At this time, Zealous Inquisition can solve the problem of inconsistent damage to monsters! And by stacking many area effects, as long as any one of the monsters in the group is triggered, the other monsters around can also be wiped out. For single-shot, high-damage explosive arrows, there is no way to make good use of this talent. Artillery Ballista itself is multi-stage damage, and its multiple hits can more frequently meet the requirements of Pitiless Killer and kill monsters.

Judge Jury And Executioner + No Mercy

Since this build already carries Ripwire Ballista as a means of survival, there is no high demand for an additional survival talent. Of course, if you like to play it safer, you can also adjust it according to your personal preferences.

In terms of attributes, you need about 20-30% of the projectile speed to be comfortable in clearing the map, so try to use as many Jewels as possible in the configuration, hoping to make up for the projectile speed and attack speed that are difficult to obtain near Mercenary talent tree. The affix priority is recommended as follows:

Emerald: Projectile Speed > Attack Speed and Crossbow Attack Speed > Dodge > Pins > Crossbow Attack Damage
Ruby: Range Increase > Fire Penetration > Life Recovery

These Jewels usually have these affixes, and there is no need for currency such as Exalted Orb.

Equipment selection

Attack

You must find a crossbow with at least two bolt. Because you need to use Glacial Bolt to fight Boss, and the number of reloads will greatly affect the efficiency of fighting the boss.

For the secondary weapon, choose a crossbow with a higher projectile level. The higher the projectile level, the greater the health and damage of Ripwire Ballista. Ripwire Ballista does not rely on weapon DPS, so DPS of the secondary weapon does not matter.

Defense

There is no special configuration, the main thing is to increase health and resistance.

The above is a brief introduction to this build. The most important thing is the skill combination. You can adjust and modify the other parts according to the items you own.

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Previous: Path Of Exile 2 Speedrun Contest: Warrior Is The First

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Path Of Exile 2 Speedrun Contest: Warrior Is The First

Before the arrival of Patch 0.2.0 of Path of Exile 2, the developers plan to hold three events to help players pass the time. They are March 6, March 9, and March 16. The winner of each game will receive a unique item. And the final winner will also receive a customized laptop!

Two contests have been held so far, and what is shocking is that the winner of both contests is the same player: Angormus#4067. And he used the least favored class in Path of Exile 2, Warrior.

Normally, it takes about 10 hours for players to complete the first three acts. In this contest, no one except Angormus could compress the time into 3 hours. In the first contest on March 6, Angormus brought this record to 2:28:37, leaving the second place behind by about 40 minutes! On March 9, Angormus broke the record again, reducing the time to complete the challenge by another 2 minutes. The current record is 2 hours 26 minutes 19 seconds! (Warrior level 28)

But the other players in the second competition were not as miserable as the first time. The 2nd place player was XiaoGe#1377, who used Infernalist (lv 26) and set a record of 2h 33m 50s, while the third place was Sarge2#0184, who used Monk (lv 31) and took 2h 37m 39s.

It seems that Angormus has almost won the final prize. Do you want to win it too? Although there are no prizes like the official Path of Exile 2 events, you can enter POE 2 Currency Giveaway In IGGM Discord. There are various raffles on this channel, and you may also win some small prizes.

How Did He Do It?

Warrior is the least respected character in Path of Exile 2. The damage is average and the movement is not fast enough, which makes it slow to clear monsters and difficult to obtain POE 2 Currency. The only advantage is that Warrior has a relatively high HP. And the high armor of Warrior has almost no advantage under the attacks of various bosses using elemental damage. It is such a class that has become the best choice for speedrunning games.

Trick

When using Warrior as the main character of the speedrunning game, Angormus took advantage of a clever animation cancellation trick that players discovered in the first few months of PoE2. When you perform a Rolling Slam, hitting Boneshatter after the first attack will cancel the second attack. This operation allows Warrior to replace the slow second animation with a huge AE slam. If you can put the first monster hit above the 40% stun threshold, Boneshatter can create a larger and stronger area damage. This will help Warrior quickly clear monsters and turn them into currency and equipment all over the ground.

Skill Combinations

The final area of Act 3 is at level 45, and to defeat the final boss of this game, the player’s level must be at least around level 30. However, players usually reach this level by the end of Act 2. Speedrunners should be below this level, but after reaching Act 3, they will also quickly reach the level they need. In other words, when speedrunners reach Act 3, they need to race against time to get to the final boss.

Because of the above reasons, Warrior has some advantages in Act 3. He can use Leap Slam and Shield Charge to allow himself to cross a large distance in an instant. Skip the battle with the monster and go straight to the final boss. To achieve the perfect combination of Leap Slam and Shield Charge, the game’s input delay and timing control are very demanding.

Luck

In addition to the above two reasons, the most important reason should be that Angormus had very good luck in both challenges. Yes, luck. No matter how fast you are, you must have good enough equipment to defeat the boss and monsters.

And in the first challenge, luck seemed to follow Angormus like a shadow. The items he dropped throughout the process were very powerful. He got 15% movement speed boots early on, and armor with solid life and resist affixes. Xyclucian, the Chimera even dropped a unique belt for him! He also got a very powerful two-handed mace from Dreadnought’s treasure chest! This made the enemies whose heads he smashed realize that this Warrior had increased physical damage by 67%. In addition, he also got a lot of currency, such as Regal Orb and Exalted Orb. The whole speedrun process was extremely smooth. Ordinary players often get stuck in the game due to lack of specific currency. If you want to pass the game as smoothly as Angormus, you can buy POE 2 Currency or items to do it.

Angormus’s operation method obviously inspired other players. In the second challenge, more players chose to use warriors as the speedrun character. Therefore, in the top ten of the game on March 9, 4 players used Warriors, and they were 1st, 4th, 7th and 8th. In addition, there are three Monk players, two Pathfinder players, and an Infernalist in the top ten this time.

Some players think that although the influence of RNG system has a great impact on the results of the game, for Warriors, this impact is not as great as imagined. Because Angormus once obtained two weapons in the live broadcast, one is a hammer that can only cause 115 damage, and the other can cause 185 damage. The time difference in killing the boss is not big, just a few less perfect strikes in the middle.

The next game time is March 16, and let’s see if Angormus can continue to win the speedrun game with Warrior.
Path Of Exile 2 Act 1-3: How To Clear Game Efficiently?
Currently, Path of Exile 2 has only opened the content of the first three acts, which have provided players with rich game content. But the end of these three acts is the real beginning of the game. So how can we efficiently clear the game? The following is an idea for efficiently clearing the game.

Weapon Upgrade

Weapons are the first priority to be upgraded. It is recommended that you change a weapon at least every 10 levels. So, in addition to dropping from monsters, is there an efficient way?

Merchant

There are three types of merchants in the town of each act:
- Weapon/armour vendor: provides military weapons and armor.
- Caster/trinket vendor/Disenchanter: provides magic weapons, jewellery, flasks, charms, and Scrolls of Wisdom. He can also decompose items into currency fragments.
- Gambler: provides equipment of random rarity.
Every time you complete a task and return to the town, you can go to see if the merchant has good rare equipment. When you reach Jungle Ruins and Infested Barrens in Chapter 3, there is a camp in each of these two maps. You can also check the equipment of the merchants here. There is a chance that very good equipment will appear.

Orb Of Alchemy

If you find some common equipment with basic affixes, such as +1 arrows, +1 bombs, +3 summons, etc., you can collect them. Use Orb of Alchemy to turn these common equipment into rare equipment with 4 affixes. If they are equipment with slots, it will be better.

If the affixes of rare equipment are good, use Exalted Orb to add another affix to it. Rare equipment can add up to 6 affixes.

However, the drop rate of currency in POE 2 is a bit low. If you don’t have the currency mentioned above for the time being, it doesn’t matter. You can buy POE 2 Currency and then upgrade your equipment. New players don’t have to worry about whether it is not worth using Exalted Orb at this time. When you change to a better weapon, you can exchange your current weapon with other players for some currency.

The main popular currency in this game is Exalted Orb. If you happen to get a particularly good affix randomly, you can make a small profit.

Orb Of Augmentation + Regal Orb

This method works the same as the normal equipment mentioned above. If you encounter magic equipment with good basic attributes and built-in affixes, you can first use Orb of Augmentation to add to 2 affixes on it, and then use Regal Orb to add another affix.

At this time, your magic equipment will become rare equipment. You can continue to use Exalted Orb to add affixes to your rare equipment.

This method is suitable for magic items with good built-in affixes, such as + melee skill level, + projectile level, + summon level and other affixes. If you are lucky enough, you can even get super good equipment.

Defense

In addition to basic health and secondary armor, dodge and shield, resistance is actually something that needs more attention in the pioneering stage. Because resistance equipment can be adjusted according to the battle scene.

It is recommended to use rings as the core of resistance equipment. In the initial stage of the game, remember to pick up the ordinary rings that fall on the ground, such as Ruby Ring, Sapphire Ring, and Topaz Ring. Use the above method to create three rare rings with fire resistance, cold resistance, and lightning resistance. When you encounter a boss with different attributes, you can use them.

For example, the boss at the end of the first chapter, Geonor, The Putrid Wolf. As long as you have 40% to 50% ice resistance, it will be extremely easy to fight and you will not be killed instantly.

Item Drop Rate

When you feel that you are not hindered in advancing the game progress and resisting the boss, you can start to focus on the item drop rate. The item drop rate of Path of Exile 2 is relatively low, and it cannot give players the same excitement as in Diablo 4. Therefore, it is recommended that you wear more equipment with the “Increase item rarity” affix. This affix has a chance to appear on helmets, gloves, shoes, rings, and amulets.

In the initial stage of the game, wearing equipment that increases the item drop rate by 20%-30% will basically ensure that you will not lack rare equipment. And the drop rate of currency will also increase, such as Exalted Orb, Orb of Alchemy, Regal Orb, etc.

If you don’t want to exchange equipment with other players, then this affix is a good choice, which can help you accumulate a lot of resources.

Shoe Movement Speed

The shoe movement speed affix is relatively difficult to appear in the first act, but after the second and third acts, as long as you regularly go to the merchant, there is a high probability that you will encounter shoes with the movement speed affix.

In the later stages of the game, this affix is basically a must-have. Running fast is not only more convenient when exploring the map and finding the way but also makes you safer when kiting enemies. Especially when fighting BOSS, many skills that are difficult to dodge will become much easier to dodge. If your skills are better, you can also turn around many moves by moving.

Trial Of Ascendancy

If you are fully prepared, clear the first two trials of Ascendancy, Trial of the Sekhemas and Trial of Chaos, as soon as possible. Both trials are very difficult, but after clearing them, you can get a total of 4 Ascendancy Points, which can help you complete one Ascendancy, which really improves your character a lot.

Take Deadeye as an example. After getting Ascendancy Point of Endless Munitions, the speed of clearing the map and defeating the boss is just like Pikachu who can only use Spark has learned MegaVolt. So it is recommended that you beat the trial as soon as possible.

There are various negative effects in the trial. In Trial of the Sekhemas, it is recommended to avoid Gauntlet Trial and Escape Trial. It is easy to lose Honor in Gauntlet Trial, while if you fail to escape in Escape Trial, you will die immediately.

Trial of Chaos is too complicated, with too many affixes, it is hard to say which debuff is the worst. Impending Doom is very tricky, and there is also Unstoppable Monsters affix, so try not to choose it. It will put you at a disadvantage when fighting the boss. The other affixes are barely acceptable.

As long as you follow the above steps, you will not encounter too many obstacles when clearing the first three acts of the game, and you will be able to reach the endgame smoothly.
Path Of Exile 2 Update 0.2.0: Dawn Of The Hunt Release Date

As the most anticipated game of 2024, Path of Exile 2 has finally arrived amid the attention of many players. It has lived up to the expectations of the original fans. After Early Access was released, it set a feat of more than 500,000 concurrent online players on Steam, which is twice the same indicator of POE 1!

Currently, Early Access is still ongoing, and there are still a few months before the full version will be launched in May this year as previously stated by Grinding Gear Games. However, if you are an old player of POE 1, you know that Early Access of the original game lasted much longer than 6 months. In fact, they lasted for more than a year before launching the full version 1.0. Therefore, considering that its sequel may also take the same time to debut, we speculate that POE 2 is likely to miss their original Early Access deadline in May.

Speculations are speculations, after all, it is indisputable that POE 2 Early Access will continue for a while. Of course, GGG doesn’t want to let players idle. In addition to a series of new race activities for players to compete with each other and win loot, more importantly, in the upcoming Patch 0.2.0, the new season of POE 2 has also quietly arrived!

POE 2 New Season Release Date Prediction

So when will this new season be released? I believe this is what everyone cares about first. To be honest, GGG has not yet announced the release date of the first season of POE 2, but according to speculation, it will be around March 22, 2025.

This is not an illogical prediction. First of all, Grinding Gear Games has a tradition of updating seasons every 3-4 months, and Early Access has lasted for 4 months. It’s time to release a new season to change the rhythm of the game for players. In the meantime, the launch of the new season will help to better connect the economic system in POE 2 with the season mechanism, providing a better direction for the next season update.

In addition, Path of Exile 2 development team has postponed POE 3.26 league update for more than seven months in order to maintain the endgame content. This is a serious mistake! At present, many players have chosen to return to POE 1, which also proves that the update of the next league must be put on the agenda. If POE 3.26 is scheduled to return in April-May, then the new season of POE 2 will start in mid-to-late March as scheduled, which is also in line with the normal cycle of alternating between the old and new leagues. Players don’t have to worry about being overwhelmed in both games.

Path Of Exile 2: Dawn Of The Hunt Release Date Revealed!

GGG has finally released a trailer for the upcoming Path Of Exile 2 patch 0.2.0, the first season of POE 2, called Dawn of the Hunt. The update will be released on PC and Consoles at 12:00 PM PDT on April 4. Until then, don't forget to follow GGG Live on March 27 at 12:00 PM PDT or March 27 at 7:00 PM GMT to learn all about the upcoming 0.2.0 content update. Let's look forward to what explosive content this update will bring!

How Will POE 2 Season Work?

To be honest, GGG has been seeking breakthroughs, trying to get players out of the stereotype that POE series of games has always maintained the inherent style of ARPG, but the results are not obvious. Okay, this new season update is also a change that the developers have made. However, some players are worried that POE’s season mechanism will follow the old path of Diablo 4, forcing people to play seasons and restart every few months to play new content?

What we want to know is, when the new season starts, is it like Diablo, you have to create a brand new character to participate? Or are these new contents designed for character builds that we have already invested time in?

To answer this question, we may have to go back to the original game. Leagues in PoE 1 were always centered around a major new game mechanic, and did require you to make new, season-exclusive characters. Once a league ended, these characters would move into the permanent game along with all the other characters from the previous league.

So, you can still play these characters, but you can’t use them in any subsequent leagues. However, please note that in this permanent league, even the most basic items will cost hundreds of POE 2 Chaos Orbs. Of course, you can create a new character in the current league and fill your available character slot.

Therefore, we guess that this may be the case in PoE 2 as well, as this mode is so popular and successful.

So will PoE 2 force you to play seasons to play new content like D4? Honestly, I think they will have seasonal content, but you won’t be forced to do so. Because GGG places a top priority on maintaining the integrity of the standard leagues so that your characters will remain valid and over time. Therefore, this will actually be much more powerful than anything you created in the previous season.

What Content Will Be Added In The First Season?

The first season in Path of Exile 2 will still be in Early Access, but will reset everything for everyone who wants to participate. This season is expected to last for a few months and introduce new things for players, including new POE 2 currency, classes, acts, mechanics, and more.

New Classes

Honestly, we think that the remaining classes and Ascendancies of POE 2 may be released gradually over time, rather than launching all six remaining classes and their respective Ascendancies at once when the game leaves Early Access. Therefore, we guess that in the first season, another base class may be released, along with its signature weapon and two Ascendancies.

New Acts

Also, just like a new class with its Ascendancies and associated weapons, it is not impossible that the remaining few Acts of Path of Exile 2 campaign will appear in the new season. However, referring to the original Act 4, which was released a few years after the initial release of that game, and POE 2 is now much larger, there is still a lot of work to be done on the new Acts, so players should not have too high expectations.

Endgame & Balance

Just like the previous PoE 2 patch nerfed OP skills, there will probably be more balance updates coming to the game in this new season. Also, the same is true for Path of Exile 2’s endgame, which will probably make some adjustments to certain Waystones and monster affixes, as well as quality of life improvements.

In short, the release of Path of Exile 2’s first season is getting closer, but the jury is still out, and we’re looking forward to the key missing pieces of the puzzle that we can reveal soon. Let’s wait and see!
Path Of Exile 2 Beginner Builds: Which Builds Are Suitable For Beginners?
Whether you have played Path of Exile 1 or not, and whether you are a fan of Diablo series or not, when you first open Path of Exile 2, you are a novice player. Maybe you can quickly figure out the use of the first currency you get, but you will always have a period of confusion.

You may ask the following questions: Where to go now? Is this equipment good? What is the use of this item? And what build should I play?

The next patch of Path of Exile 2 will be coming soon, and maybe new players will be attracted by Path of Exile 2. So here are some builds recommended for new players.

Leap Slam Titan Warrior

The following are the weapons, skills and supports gems required for this build.
- Brain Rattler Mace (Weapon): N/A
- Leap Slam (Skill): Concentrated Effect, Momentum, Overpower
- Boneshatter (Skill): Impact Shockwave, Execute, Rage
- Infernal Cry (Skill): Corrupting Cry, Raging Cry
- Herald of Ash (Buff Skill): Magnified Effect, Vitality
Warrior is the least chosen class in Path of Exile 2. This is mainly because in the current situation, although Warrior has high armor, it does not perform well in boss battles due to insufficient damage. Secondly, his mobility is not as good as that of Monk, which means that he often has to take damage.

But this does not mean that Warrior is a complete failure. He is still the best tank in the game so far. In the early game, using a shield and a mace, combined with Leap Slam, you can happily jump and trample on the monsters.

Infernal Cry can enhance Warrior’s attack power and also cause fire damage. This allows Warrior to improve the efficiency of some farming monsters.

Titan Ascendancy is the most suitable Ascendancy class for this kind of play. After getting familiar with Warrior, you can switch to Hammer of the God Warrior build.

Lightning Arrow Deadeye Ranger
- Advanced Dualstring Bow (Weapon): N/A
- Lightning Arrow (Skill): Pierce, Martial Tempo
- Lightning Rod (Skill): Scattershot, Primal Armament
- Herald of Thunder (Buff Skill): Lightning Infusion, Innervate
- Orb of Storms (Skill): Chain, Overabundance, Unleash
Compared with the melee classes, the ranged class in Path of Exile 2 brings a much better experience to players. Ranger has high damage and can quickly clear enemies. But at the same time, her health is relatively low and she can’t withstand too much damage from the enemy. But Ranger is very good at dodging, which allows Ranger to shuttle in the battlefield safely and always keep a distance from the enemy.

Lighting Arrow and Lightning Rod are the core skills of this build. These two skills will cause chain damage and accumulate continuously. Lightning Arrow Deadeye Ranger can clear enemies quickly, which makes Ranger very efficient in farming currency or upgrading in the early game.

Deadeye Ascendancy is more suitable for this build, because Point Blank allows Ranger to cause huge damage.

Raging Spirits Infernalist Witch
- Rattling Sceptre (Weapon): N/A
- Raging Spirits (Buff Skill): Bullseye, Feeding Frenzy, Culling strike
- Flame Wall (Skill): Arcane Tempo, Fortress, Mobility
- Skeletal Arsonist (Skill): Scattershot, Immolate, Martial Tempo
- Summon Infernal Hound (Skill): Meat Shield, Last Gasp, Fire Exposure
Witch is quite suitable for novice players. Witch is both a caster and a summoner. She can summon minions to fend off enemy attacks. Flame Wall can protect herself while dealing fire damage to enemies. Witch can handle most situations easily.

Witch’s weakness is that she doesn’t perform well against bosses, but her survivability is somewhat better than Ranger. In order to summon more summons, Witch needs Spirit. Equipping a sceptre in the off-hand can help, but it’s not enough. POE 2 Chaos Orb can randomly change the affixes of items. You can use it to change the affixes of your equipment and add more affixes that increase Spirit.

Witch’s Ascendancy class can choose Infernalist. Infernalist can enhance Witch’s fire damage and provide her with a new summons. Infernalist Witch can replace the sceptre in the off-hand with a shield to improve survivability.

Ice Strike Invoker Monk
- Slicing Quarterstaff (Weapon): N/A
- Ice Strike (Skill): Ice Bite, Martial Tempo, Primal Armament
- Tempest Bell (Skill): Magnified Effect, Font of Rage, Overabundance
- Herald of Ice (Buff Skill): Vitality, Cannibalism, Clarity
- Elemental Invocation (Buff Skill): Ball Lightning, Deceleration, Scattershot
Monk is a very powerful class, with much more damage than Warrior and very fast. Monk is very good at dodging, and if the enemy can’t touch Monk at all, then armor doesn’t seem to matter.

Monk’s Ice Strike can cause very high damage, and you can even end the abnormal boss battle before the boss can stand firm. Monk has certain equipment requirements. If you plan to play Ice Strike Invoker Monk, then the unique ring Polcirkeln is a must-have in your equipment. It is recommended to use some POE 2 Divine Orbs to exchange one with other players.

Spark Stormweaver Sorceress
- Lifesprig (Weapon): N/A
- Spark (Skill): Acceleration, Conduction, Inspiration
- Orb of Storms (Skill): Lightning Exposure, Strip Away, Overabundance
- Mana Tempest (Skill): Premeditation, Murderous Intent
- Archmage (Buff Skill): Lightning Mastery
If Infernalist Witch is about simplicity, then Spark Stormweaver Sorceress is even simpler than Infernalist Witch. Just release Spark to solve most of your problems.

At the same time, Sorceress’s survivability is also very strong. Although it seems that Sorceress’s life is similar to Witch, as long as you focus on Energy Shield, no monster can break through your defense.

Another advantage of choosing Spark Stormweaver Sorceress is that the equipment required for this build is not too precious, and you can easily match a set of powerful equipment.

Read More: How To Complete Trial Of Chaos In Path Of Exile 2?

Tempest Flurry Gemling Leggionaire Mercenary
- Pillar of the Caged God (Weapon): N/A
- Tempest Flurry (Skill): Martial Tempo, Rage, Inspiration
- Charged Staff (Skill): Persistence, Lightning Exposure, Cold Exposure
- Herald of Thunder (a Buff Skil): Ice Bite, Cold Infusion, Glaciation
- Herald of Ice (Buff Skill): Overcharge, Conduction, Magnified Effect
Mercenary is a special class that allows you to experience a variety of play styles. You can shape him into a Ranger, a Warrior, or even a Summoner. Mercenary is not good at moving quickly, but he has the ability to lay traps and Energy Shield, which makes Mercenary a one-man army.

Mercenary has some powerful skills. As long as he uses Tempest Flurry, almost no enemy can stand in front of him. Although Mercenary’s weapon is a crossbow, due to its flexible fighting style, you can even finish off the enemy without a crossbow.

If you are not sure what class you want to play, you might as well try Mercenary first. Use this class to find a style that suits you.

The above is the recommended builds for beginners of Path of Exile 2. What class did you use when you first played?
Path Of Exile 2 0.2.0 Patch: This Patch Will Have A Great Impact
Path of Exile 2 0.2.0 patch will be available to players in late March. This update will bring great changes to the game, including maps, classes and new leagues. I believe that players should have enjoyed the content of Diablo 4 Season 7 for a while. It’s time to return to POE 2.

Date

The developer said that patch 0.2.0 was going to be released a month after February 20, 2025. According to this news, the expected opening time of patch 0.2.0 is March 17 to March 20, 2025 (Pacific Daylight Time).

At the same time, the developer is holding a competition event for Path of Exile 2, which is undoubtedly a warm-up for the arrival of patch 0.2.0. There are three competitions in total. Each competition has 6 Demigod’s Virtue Unique Helmets as rewards.

Here are the competition times:
- First: Sunday, March 2, 11 am PST / 2 pm EST / 7 pm GMT
- Second: Sunday, March 9, 12 pm PDT / 3 pm EDT / 7 pm GMT
- Third: March 16 Sunday, 12pm PDT / 3pm EDT / 7pm GMT
Are you excited about seeing these competitions? If you want to improve your skills, you can enter POE 2 Orbs Giveaways In IGGM Discord. There will be some raffles here, and you have the chance to win prizes such as currency or equipment.

0.2.0 Patch Content

The content of 0.2.0 patch is very rich, including new New League, New Classes and Ascendancies, New Support Gems and New Uniques. All players can experience the content of the game again.

New League

In 0.2.0, the game will introduce a new New League. All players have to choose a new character and start over. This means that all players’ currencies and items will be reset. At the same time, the balance changes in the new patch may affect your character’s data. Players can consume all your POE 2 Divine Orb and Exalted Orb currencies before the arrival of the 0.2.0 patch.

New Class

The developer The preview of the 0.2.0 patch hints that new classes will be introduced, and these professions may bring new skill combinations. At the same time, the game will also add six new weapon combinations, which means that the new classes will bring new options to the game battles. There may be 1 or 2 new classes in the 0.2.0 patch.

According to the preview of the 0.2.0 patch, Gladiator is almost confirmed to appear in the next update. Of course, this new class may also be Duelist like Path of Exile 1, and Gladiator may be one of Ascendancy Classes of Duelist.

If Gladiator follows the design ideas of PoE 1, then Gladiator may focus on blocking mechanisms, bleeding effects, and posture-based combat.

It is revealed that Druid and Huntress classes are basically completed, and players may be able to play these two classes in the 0.2.0 patch.

New Support Gems

The developers will introduce 5 new support gems in the 0.2.0 patch.
- Range Support: Increases Chaos damage as the fight lasts longer. Higher intelligence costs more energy shield, but increases damage.
- Volcanic Eruption: Supports melee attack skills. Hitting an ignited enemy triggers Molten Strike-style Fireballs.
- Embitter: Chaos damage bonus converted to cold damage bonus
- Concoct: Consumes part of life flask to increase bleeding damage.
- Commiserate: Enhances ailment effects. When you apply ailment to an enemy, remove the ailment effects from you.
These support gems will play an important role in the 0.2.0 version, and it is worth your currency to cultivate them.

New Uniques

The developers have announced two unique items so far.

Bringer of Rain (Reworked): This unique item comes from POE 1. This unique helmet allows the player to dual-wield two-handed axes and swords, but the player will not be able to wear the chest armor.

Hammer of Faith: This unique weapon is a two-handed mace with medium DPS. Grants your character a random Shrine buff every 10 seconds.

Patch 0.2.0 is also expected to introduce new two-handed weapon subtypes, which are:
- Two-handed Axe
- Two-handed Sword
The unique item “Bringer of Rain” allows two-handed weapons to be used in both hands, which will greatly enhance the character’s DPS, but will also bring high survival pressure.

Endgame Mapping Changes

This part of the content is the most controversial content. Although the developers want to fill the endgame content, players don’t like Lost Tower.

Lost Tower Changes:
- Lost Tower will now function like an actual map. Players must clear the rare monsters in it to activate the tower.
- Lost Tower is now affected by Precursor Tablets, and all alliance mechanisms can appear in the tower.
- There will be a boss in Lost Tower, and the currently confirmed boss is Karash, The Dune Dweller.
The reason why Lost Tower was disliked by players before was that the rewards inside were very scarce but the terrain inside was very complex. Exploring Lost Tower was usually a thankless task. Now that more monsters and items have been added to the tower, some players may change their perception of the tower. In the 0.2.0 patch, the tower may become a good place for farming currency.

The above is the current known content of the 0.2.0 patch. The developers may still be thinking about what other content to add, and more news will be released in succession.
Path Of Exile 2 Towers Updates In Patch 0.2.0: Can These Changes Bring Back A New Life To Towers?

Since Path of Exile 2’s Early Access release, players have been very enthusiastic about many of the existing systems and features, but there are still a few mechanisms that are still controversial. For example, Towers in POE 2, players question its necessity and would rather Towers disappear from the game.

In order to improve players’ perception of Towers and give this mechanism a new lease of life, GGG plans to introduce some new changes to Towers in Patch 0.2.0, allowing all content, including bosses, to spawn in Tower maps. This seems to be a good move, as these new additions make Towers more interesting. However, GGG overlooked that many players don’t even want to fight Towers, so spending more time to complete Towers may only make the feature worse in the minds of players.

Towers Explained

First, let’s take a look at how Towers actually work. Towers in Path of Exile 2 are structures that can be found in the endgame map system, once you reach a Tower you can place Waystones into it and run that map like any other map.

However, Towers have specific layouts and can only be rolled on a Tower map that is randomly selected from five layouts. Once you complete a Tower map, you can place Precursor Tablets into Tower to add extra content to the unfinished map within the radius of Tower.

For example, a Breach Precursor Tablet can add extra Breaches, or an Overseer Precursor Tablet can add map bosses, you can also roll tablets to add extra power-ups such as Item Quantity and Item Rarity dropped.

Running Maps Inefficiently

Now, this system presents the first problem, players who want to be more efficient need to figure out the best map route to reach Tower.

First, they need to reach Tower with the worst layout and the least juice maps, so that they can use Precursor Tablets to provide better support for the layout of the surrounding map. But this problem becomes more severe when there are multiple Towers, because their radius overlaps on multiple maps.

Now, players need to find the best route to each Tower without exhausting the best maps in the surrounding area. They need to reach all Towers first, and then they can use Tablets to support the remaining maps. However, many players just want to run maps and collect Divine Orbs, and don’t want to solve puzzles on Atlas.

Without a doubt, Towers are one of the biggest problems with POE 2’s Atlas map system, and they just cause unnecessary friction.

Tower Updates In Patch 0.2.0

And through the update trailer for the upcoming POE 2 patch 0.2.0, we saw GGG’s new adjustments to Towers. They will give all content the ability to spawn in Tower maps, including Bosses, which means that Towers will have the same clearing requirements as regular maps, and you need to meet these requirements to activate Tower.

In addition, Towers will be able to randomly spawn content on Atlas, and they can also obtain content by using Tablets on other Towers within this radius.

The Problem Could Get Worse

We can see GGG’s efforts to get players to like Tower mechanic again, but it may be the opposite, and this update will only exacerbate the problems of Tower in the upcoming patch.

Towers can now spawn additional content, such as Ritual, Atlas, or map bosses, and they can also add additional content by providing any Precursor Tablets to other Towers in range. However, they now also have the same completion conditions as normal maps, so you need to kill all rare creatures and any existing map bosses to complete Tower before you can apply Towers to enhance the surrounding map.

Bad Layout

This may seem like an upgrade, but this change leads to more problems. The first is that no one wants to run content like Breaches in this layout. Because it’s bad enough when Breaches spawn in the bad layout of normal maps and you can’t take advantage of them, but in several Tower maps, this is almost always the case.

This is because their layouts are always terrible for this type of content, meaning you always need to kill all the bosses and win rare items and materials to complete Towers. This is so inefficient that some players who are just trying to farm POE 2 Currency quickly might as well just run a normal endgame map.

While this is fine for layouts like Bluff, which is pretty much the only really good Towers layout, for layouts like Lost Towers, you really just want to get to the end of the Tower as quickly as possible to complete it. This is really bad because it inevitably leads to a lot of backtracking to find some rare items you missed.

Tablets Are Wasted

Honestly, this was already a common problem with most bad layouts in normal maps, but now there’s more of a problem. Because Towers maps can now add additional content by applying Tablets from other nearby completed Towers, this means that Towers will now consume one of your Tablets of progress again.

This can be beneficial if you want to top up Bluff map, but if that Tower has a bad layout, which happens often, then you have to make sure to reach every Tower in the area before placing any Tablets into it to avoid topping up other poorly laid out Towers.

Imagine adding more Breaches to Lost Towers map. Towers can then spawn the map boss, preventing some players from completing them. If they can’t beat that boss, they still need to run a low-level Waystone to complete the Towers, meaning that any extra content that exists on that map is worthless and any Tablets that were taken up by that Tower are wasted.

It’s clear that the problem with Towers isn’t that they don’t have any extra content, but rather their functionality and how players deal with them. If GGG doesn’t make changes to this fundamental problem, perhaps this patch will end up being a waste of time.