In Path of Exile 2, classes determine the passive tree and game themes that players can access at the beginning. Ascendancy further refine the character’s growth path, allowing players to focus on specific game mechanics based on their personal preferences.

Although Path of Exile 2 will not immediately provide all Classes and Ascendancies in its Early Access. Players can still experience a rich selection of character choices and development directions.

PoE 2 plans to open six Classes for players to explore in its Early Access, and each class will be equipped with two Ascendancies, so there will be twelve unique character builds waiting for everyone to try in the early stage.

It is expected that by the time the official version is released, it will increase to 12 Classes, and each class will have three Ascendancies, resulting in up to thirty-six diverse character development possibilities.

Classes

In Path of Exile 2, different classes not only determine the passive skill tree that players can unlock at the beginning, but also affect their basic play style in the game and the type of weapons they carry by default.

The following 6 classes are available in Path of Exile 2’s Early Access:

• Mercenary
• Monk
• Ranger
• Sorceress
• Warrior
• Witch

Mercenary is perfect for players who like to control the situation by combining physical and elemental attacks. It is good at using explosives such as grenades and mines to create chain reactions, causing a lot of range damage to the enemy, and is particularly proficient in using crossbows as the primary means of attack.

Although each basic class has its recommended or specialized weapon type, in fact, all classes can freely equip and use any type of weapon in the game. In addition, according to official information, Druid and Huntress are not expected to appear in the initial early access, and players can only have them when the game is officially released.

Ascendancy

In Path of Exile 2 Early Access, each class offers two different Ascendancy classes to choose from. These Ascendancy classes allow players to customize the character’s development path according to their own play style and preferences.

Ascendancy classes are earned by completing Ascension Trials. These trials are a comprehensive test of the player’s operational skills, strategic planning, and teamwork. Players need to defeat numerous enemies, avoid deadly traps, finally defeat a powerful boss and obtain Path Of Exile 2 Currency.

After successfully completing all four Ascension Trials, the player will receive 8 Ascension points. These 8 Ascension points can be allocated to an Ascension-specific skill tree, which is unlocked when the player completes the first Ascension Trial.

Here is an introduction to Ascendancy classes available to each class:

Mercenary

Gemling Legionnaire: Focuses on improving the efficiency of socketed gems, thereby extracting the maximum attack and defense power from various gems.

Witch Hunter: Witch Hunter is perfect for players who like to quickly defeat powerful enemies with fast and fierce attacks. This Ascension class excels at using its agility and powerful burst to deal a lot of damage to the target in a short period, thereby quickly ending the battle.

Monk

Invoker: Invoker is a class that uses summoning elemental powers as its primary combat method. It focuses on maximizing its output by increasing critical hits and elemental ailments.

Acolyte of Chayula: For Acolyte of Chayula, Darkness is no longer a simple negative energy, but has been transformed into a new resource. This resource can not only be used to strengthen its own attack and defense but also to absorb Mana and Energy Shield, and peek into the territory of Breachlords to find useful health and other resource bounties.

Ranger

Deadeye: With a bow in hand and extraordinary movement speed, Deadeye has already shot a fatal arrow before the enemy has reacted. Their passive skills can increase the number of arrows and increase the dodge rate, ensuring that they are at ease in combat.

Pathfinder: Pathfinder excels in using a variety of throwable attacks, which use the charges in the player’s Health flasks to cause various effects. Their poison attacks are particularly powerful, and once they hit, they can continue to weaken the enemy’s combat effectiveness.

Sorceress

Storm Weaver: Storm Weaver is known as Master of Element, allowing players to specialize in lightning-based attacks, whether it is to summon lightning with a critical hit or to stun enemies beyond their capabilities.

Chronomancer: Chronomancers focus on manipulating time. They can distort reality through a series of powerful spells, such as returning to the past state. They can also make the enemy’s movements extremely slow or even stop completely, giving players a great opportunity to adjust tactics or launch a critical strike.

Warrior

Warbringer: Warrior is a group of warriors who can summon Ancestral Totems and Ancestral Spirits to assist in battle. In addition, Warrior also has a special skill called Warcries, which can produce a variety of effects depending on different situations, such as exploding corpses, which will transform the fallen enemy into a devastating explosion, posing an enormous threat to all living creatures around.

Titan: No matter how strong the armor is, it seems vulnerable in front of Titan. They can easily smash any protective gear worn by the opponent and use the impact force to put the target into a short state of dizziness. More importantly, once the enemy is unconscious, Titan can also attack it more violently and accurately, causing additional high damage.

Witch

Infernalist: Infernalist not only inherits all the servant abilities of the witch but also has the unique skill of summoning Hellhound. In addition, it also can convert Mana into Infernal Flame. At a critical moment, Infernalist can transform into a Demon to obtain extremely fast attack speed and casting speed, but the corresponding cost is a significant decrease in defense and greater vulnerability to fatal damage.

Blood Mage: They sacrifice their own health or use the blood of enemies on the battlefield as a casting resource. Depending on the current remaining healthy ratio, Blood Mage can obtain different degrees of critical hit rate improvement.

As PoE 2 develops and improves, players can expect to see more exciting content and challenges.

In Path of Exile 2, Ranger returns with its speed and agility at its core. Players can shoot on the move and choose between ranged or melee combat styles to suit their personal play preferences.

Ranger can be challenging to deal with against fast-moving groups of enemies, but the developers aim to create a Legolas-like experience that emphasizes fast movement, high jumps, and the ability to retreat quickly. We’ve come up with an optimal Ranger build based on the skills and gems we know so far.

Ranger Overview

Ranger is known for its diverse range of arrows and shooting skills, which can be combined with unique elements, such as lightning, poison, fire, and frost, as well as using plants and vines. Although the specific build is up to the player, each element and skill can be combined to powerful effect.

One of the biggest changes to Ranger in Path of Exile 2 is the introduction of the mount Rhoas. After riding Rhoas, Ranger can shoot while moving at full speed, without being affected by movement speed like traditional shooting. This ability allows Ranger to quickly shuttle around the battlefield while maintaining efficient attack output.

Even more exciting, Ranger can also leap from the back of Rhoas, this mobility allows Ranger to quickly change position or escape danger. Rhoas will participate in combat by attacking monsters. Therefore, it is recommended that you spend some Path Of Exile 2 Currency to unlock Rhoas when you enter Path of Exile 2.

Ranger Abilities

• Lightning Arrow–Fires a shot of lightning.
• Frost Escape–Leaps back and shoots a freezing arrow at the ground.
• Sniper–Charges and releases a powerful shot that causes AoE damage if it hits.
• Lightning Rod–Shoots an arrow that attracts lightning to the ground.
• Stormcaller Arrow–Lightning falls from the sky and attacks the enemy, with a high chance of shocking, and the shocked enemy receives 30% more damage.
• Barrage–Enhances your next attack to fire three times.
• Electrocuting rod-Slows enemies by shocking them.
• Vine Arrow-Fires an arrow into the air that lands after a temporary delay, causing plants to pop up at the impact location. Sprouting vines that wrap around nearby enemies, poisoning and slowing them.
• Poison Bloom Arrow-Creates an exploding plant bulb.
• Poison Burst Arrow-A poison arrow that bursts on impact.
• Gas Arrow-Fires an arrow that bursts into a cloud of poison gas upon hitting an enemy or reaching the target location, applying poison to enemies inside.
• Plague Bearer-When using Plague Nova, stores a portion of all poison damage dealt, released, and applied to all nearby enemies. This skill uses a poison counter that, once at 100%, releases poison for damage.
• Rain of Arrows-Ranged damage and range.
• Sniper’s Mark-Marks a target, causing the next critical strike to deal extra damage and grants a frenzy charge.
• Detonating Arrow-Builds up energy before firing a flaming arrow that explodes at full charge on impact, causing an explosion in the surrounding area.

Skill Support Gems

• Multiple Projectiles Support-Fires 66% less damage but fires two additional bullets.
• Faster Projectiles Support-Increases projectile velocity by 30%.
• Chain Support-Each hit deals half the damage, triggers a chain, and each additional chain source increases the duration of the effect.
• Less Duration-Skill effect duration is reduced by 20%.
• Shock Spread-Supported skills have a 20% chance to also shock enemies within 2.5 meters of hit.
• Neural Overload Support-Electrocute primed enemies on hit.
• Frozen Nexus Support-Increases freezing effects on enemies by 400%, and creates frozen ground that lasts two seconds when freezing an enemy.
• Deep Freeze Support-Freeze effects applied by enhanced skills last an additional 0.5 seconds longer.
• Pierce Support-Pierces an additional target, but deals 30% less projectile damage.
• Corrosion Support-Poisons applied by enhanced skills break armor for 3500% of the poison damage dealt.
• Exploit Weakness Support-When an enemy’s armor is completely broken, skills enhanced by this deal over 50% more damage to them.

Best Ranger Build

With so many skills to combine and choose from, the variety of builds is seemingly endless. But whether facing a boss or a large group of enemies, combining plant attacks with poisonous skills is a good choice. You can use Poison Bloom Arrows to create plant bulbs that grow from the ground and deal continuous poison damage to enemies.

Vine Arrows work similarly to Poison Bloom Arrows, both of which grow plants after being fired at the ground. However, the difference is that Vine Arrows will spawn vines that wrap around enemies, poisoning them and slowing their movement speed. These vines can also pass additional poison to the entangled enemies. When used with Gas Arrows, hitting the target will create a gas cloud.

If aimed directly at plants, it can cause continuous poison damage to enemies and provide additional damage to plants. This combination is very effective against bosses and large numbers of normal enemies. It can also be used with Corrosion Support to break the armor of stronger enemies.

In addition to the above builds, as the release date approaches, we look forward to seeing more players explore and create their own best Ranger builds.