Best Beginner Builds in Path of Exile 2
24.01.2025 - 03:47:40
Game Guides , Path of Exile 2
Are you planning to create your very first character in Path of Exile 2 soon? Since PoE 2 Early Access went live in early December, veterans and newcomers were drawn to the game. This is not only because of the intrigue but the game is so good that it’s deemed one of the best ARPGs in recent memory!
Now, your first character in the game is crucial because it will be the one responsible for farming PoE 2 Currency for you. If it isn’t good enough, you will struggle to get enough currency to trade for highly-coveted items later on.
So, if you are looking for some build recommendations for your first toon, then you’ve come to the right place! This is our guide for the best beginner builds in Path of Exile 2!
What Makes a Beginner Build Good?
To understand how important PoE 2 beginner builds are, we must first define what the term means. A beginner build is essentially any build in the game that is easy to use, fun to play, and strong enough to tackle most (if not all) content in Path of Exile 2.
Ideally, beginner builds in Path of Exile 2 are those that can function with only rare items equipped. Some builds may utilize certain unique items, but this is only for quality-of-life and not something mandatory.
A good build for beginners in PoE 2 is also something that has plenty of room for upgrades. A minion build that can freely swap between a rare amulet and a unique amulet to get more Spirit and improved survivability is just one of the many examples in the game.
More importantly, a PoE 2 beginner build should not have any complicated mechanics. Path of Exile 2 is a really complex ARPG, so much so that its main competitors—Diablo IV and Last Epoch—do not compare in the slightest.
As you become more well-versed in the game, you can certainly delve deeper and go for highly complex yet very rewarding builds. For now, stick to our recommendations and you won’t have any problems with changing specs in the future.
Best Beginner Builds in PoE 2
Now we’re in the part that you’ve been waiting for! Before we begin, it’s important to note that any of the builds mentioned in this guide are awesome in their own way. You are free to choose whatever build suits your playstyle.
We are also happy to say that our recommendations here have survived any changes implemented in Patch 0.1.1, so you can rest assured that they are worth playing even after the update.
Anyway, without further delay, here are the best beginner builds in Path of Exile 2:
Lightning Arrow Deadeye

The Lightning Arrow Deadeye is a very strong build that has huge potential in the endgame. It uses a lightning-based skill, Lightning Arrow, that converts a considerable chunk of physical damage to lightning damage. The skill itself has an interesting property in that it fires chain lightning to nearby enemies, making it an excellent map-clearing ability.
Lightning Arrow does struggle a bit in terms of single-target damage. So, this PoE 2 build utilizes Orb of Storms and Lightning Rod as well. The former ensures that bursts of lightning damage from the latter skill occur frequently.
The passive tree setup for this beginner-friendly build is also relatively straightforward. Take Master Fletching to amplify the modifiers of your equipped quiver. This will give you a good boost in damage, especially if you use a quiver that has added physical and lightning damage.
Next, Surging Currents will give you a 10-point increase in Dexterity, as well as lightning penetration to make your skills more lethal. Since movement abilities in Path of Exile 2 are quite scarce, you can take advantage of notable passive skills that improve movement speed, such as Escape Velocity.
After taking Catalysis, make your way down to get Lightning Rod and Flash Storm. At this point, you have two choices. You can either continue getting the passive nodes at the bottom of the tree for increased attack speed and more damage against rare and unique monsters or go up the tree and improve your defenses.
Upon completing the Trial of the Sekhemas, be sure to choose the Deadeye ascendancy class and take Projectile Proximity Specialization (Point Blank) as your first ascendancy node. You can replace it with Gathering Winds to get more attack speed and movement speed, though you will lose the stackable Tailwind buff when you get hit, so keep that in mind.
When you are going to choose this build, your main rotation goes something like this: you will use Lightning Arrow to kill the trash mobs. When you encounter rare monsters, cast Orb of Storms and utilize Lightning Rod like a madman to deal huge amounts of damage. Do the same Orb of Storms + Lightning Rod combo for bosses.
The Lightning Arrow Deadeye is an awesome build that we can’t recommend enough if you want a Ranger who can demolish enemies from a distance without a problem!
Ice Strike Invoker

If you want to go melee, then you’ll definitely love the Ice Strike Invoker. The build’s main defensive layers are evasion and energy shield, which means that you’re still susceptible to big boss slams and similar attacks. However, you don’t have to worry about those things because the Ice Strike Invoker can freeze enemies quickly with a high chance of success!
Your main ability is, of course, Ice Strike. This allows you to unleash a three-hit combo that can be devastating when built correctly. Insert Ice Bite and Martial Tempo for your initial support gems and you will find that this build rocks even at an early level!
During boss fights, you will use Ice Strike along with Tempest Bell. The bell can be struck several times, causing shockwaves that deal damage to nearby enemies. Using Overabundance here allows you to land a couple more hits before the bell disappears.
Apart from the two skills just mentioned, the Ice Strike Invoker has good flexibility when it comes to the other abilities. You can use Killing Palm to delete bosses that are below 5% of their maximum HP. Hand of Chayula socketed with Freezing Mark and Hypothermia greatly boosts your single-target damage as well.
Elemental Invocation is a nice addition to the build as it allows you to trigger Ball Lightning just by attacking and freezing enemies using Ice Strike. You will need 60 Spirit, though, so invest in a body armor or amulet until you get enough of the said resource.
When you ascend and become an Invoker, take “I am the Blizzard…” and “...and I Shall Rate” as your first couple of ascendancy nodes. The former enables Ice Strike to leave a Chilled Ground, which slows down monsters in close proximity. The latter, on the other hand, grants you the power of the Unbound Avatar. Activate it to gain 40% more elemental damage for a brief period.
This is a high-speed, very damaging build that prioritizes attack speed and critical strike nodes on the passive tree. Moment of Truth and Critical Exploit will help you land more critical hits, provided that your weapon has “+ to Critical Hit Chance” for the best results.
Once you reach the right side of the passive tree (where the jewel socket is located), go down by several points and you’ll arrive at the big cluster of nodes that enhance the quarterstaff in many ways.
One with the River, for example, enables you to freeze enemies more consistently with your primary skill. Martial Artistry provides a hefty boost in dexterity, accuracy, and critical damage, making it a worthy investment.
In the endgame, you can refund your passive skill points and take more nodes that improve evasion and energy shield, such as Spectral Ward, Enhanced Reflexes, and Beastial Skin.
When you have enough PoE 2 Currency, you can even buy the Polcirkeln, which is a unique ring that makes chilled enemies shatter as if they’re frozen.
If you are wondering why we recommend Ice Strike over Tempest Flurry, the reason is that freezing enemies is actually a form of defense since they cannot do anything while you are hitting them. That is why the Ice Strike Invoker is one of the best beginner builds in PoE 2!
Hammer of the Gods Titan

The build that can destroy enemies in one blow, meet the Hammer of the Gods Titan! Well, Hammer of the Gods is just part of your kit. There are several other skills that you will use to bring the best out of this PoE 2 beginner build.
For starters, Hammer of the Gods is an ability that lets you call down a massive hammer to the ground, dealing immeasurable pain to enemies that are hit! The support gems—Rageforged, Heavy Swing, Fist of War, and Exploit Weakness all contribute to bringing down even the most formidable bosses in Path of Exile 2!
The problem with Hammer of the Gods, though, is that it has a very long cooldown of 24 seconds. Make sure to use several Gemcutter’s Prisms to reduce that a little bit.
Your main rotation involves a couple of warcry skills and two hard-hitting abilities that make enemies cower at the mere sight of you! Stampede forces you to rush in a targeted direction, mowing down all those who try to oppose you. At the end of the rush, you slam the ground, causing a massive explosion that can decimate any trash mob within the vicinity.
When fighting rare monsters, slam the ground with Earthshatter, which you can then explode with Infernal Cry. This is the same rotation you will use against bosses, albeit you use Hammer of the Gods to finish the encounter sooner rather than later.
The Titan is the quintessential ascendancy class if you like to utilize slam skills to much greater effect. Earthbreaker provides a 20% chance for your slam skills like Stampede and Earthshatter to cause aftershocks. In Path of Exile 2, aftershocks inflict the same amount of damage as the initial impact, which is why Earthbreaker is good to take.
If there is one ascendancy node that the Titan is known for, then it must be Hulking Form. This is one of the most overpowered ascendancy nodes in the game due to the fact that it increases the effect of minor nodes on the passive tree by 50%! You have to allocate Colossal Capacity before you can get to it, though. However, that is fine since you’ll get an extra 20 inventory slots anyway.
The Hammer of the Gods Titan is one of those builds that can use the new dual specialization feature really well. Basically, this lets you allocate different passive skills on the tree that will be activated depending on the weapon set you’re currently using.
So, for the first weapon set, you are going to use a hybrid mace that has physical damage and increased elemental damage with attacks. Some attack speed also helps considering that it affects your other movement abilities: Leap Slam and Shield Charge.
On weapon swap, you will wield a couple of two-handed maces that boost physical damage through the roof! You don’t need attack speed on the second weapon set, so replace that with either increased stun duration or increased level of melee skills. The “% Reduced Attribute Requirements” certainly helps, especially since you’ll be using the keystone passive, Giant’s Blood.
When allocating nodes on the passive tree, make sure to interact with the weapon set skill points in the upper right-hand corner of the UI. The first weapon set is for Stampede and Earthshatter, while the second weapon set is for Hammer of the Gods. This might seem complicated but the reality is you just want to maximize the damage of your skills. Also, you don’t need to manually switch weapons when using different skills because you can set them to swap automatically after using certain abilities.
The Hammer of the Gods Titan may not be as fast as the Ice Strike Monk. However, what you’re getting instead is a build that can take on enemies without dying, as well as gain the power to one-shot enemies with enough gear!
Poison Gas Arrow Acolyte of Chayula

If you thought that the Pathfinder is the only ascendancy class for chaos damage-oriented builds in the game, then you are mistaken. The Acolyte of Chayula is actually better in some aspects, especially if you want Gas Arrow to deal a significant amount of damage, while also ensuring that your defenses are covered.
Gas Arrow is your primary skill on this build. This prompts you to fire arrows that create a poisonous cloud in a large area on impact. The poison damage you deal with Gas Arrow powers up Plague Bearer. When the maximum amount of poison is stored, you can utilize Plague Nova (from Plague Bearer) to unleash all of it, damaging nearby enemies in the process!
Despite being a build based on chaos damage, you will also utilize the cold-based spell, Eye of Winter, to inflict Wither on your foes. Wither is a debuff in Path of Exile 2 that makes affected enemies take more chaos damage for several seconds.
When fighting bosses, you can fire multiple Gas Arrows at the boss’ location before the battle commences. Once you can damage the boss, cast Despair to weaken their chaos resistance, Eye of Winter to apply Wither, and then Vine Arrow to further boost the damage of Plague Nova. This powerful combination makes boss fights trivial, particularly when you are well-equipped for the endeavor.
The Acolyte of Chayula can greatly increase the damage output of your skills. Reality Rending allows you to leverage other damage types to gain extra chaos damage. Have some sources of physical and elemental damage on your rings, bow, and quiver to maximize this ascendancy node.
Waking Dream allows you to enter another dimension, where you can see power-ups called the Flames of Chayula. There are three different-colored flames but the ones you’re after are the blue (mana) and purple (chaos damage) flames. You can double the effect and duration of these flames by taking Lucid Dreaming for your third ascendancy node.
For your passive skills, after taking Flow Like Water, make your way down the tree and get Crippling Toxins, Master Fletching, Stacking Toxins, Lasting Toxins, Wasting, and Fast-Acting Toxins. When you have these allocated, go back up and head to the right to take Escalating Toxins and Building Toxins. You can then take the remaining passive nodes as you see fit.
While this Path of Exile 2 beginner build does not rely on unique items, it does benefit from a few, so purchase them when you have the means to do so. Ming’s Heart reduces your life and energy shield by quite a bit. In exchange, you get a massive boost in DPS.
Ryslatha’s Coil synergizes with the Acolyte of Chayula’s Reality Rending node to give you a hefty increase in Gas Arrow damage. Ingenuity is a bit expensive but it greatly enhances the modifiers of your equipped rings. If you intend to wear Ingenuity, it is imperative that you do not pair it with Ming’s Heart! Otherwise, your survivability will be affected!
Although the Poison Gas Arrow Acolyte of Chayula is incredible, be aware that it deals damage over time, which means that killing enemies is not as swift as more direct damage abilities. Be that as it may, this PoE 2 build rocks, especially if you want to try poison damage skills.
Corrupting Cry Warbringer

Are you familiar with the Singer Barbarian build in Diablo II: Resurrected? Well, this next entry on our guide for the best beginner builds in PoE 2 works a bit similar to that but better!
The Corrupting Cry Warbringer utilizes Seismic Cry to inflict a debuff called Corrupted Blood, which is possible thanks to the aptly named Corrupting Cry support gem. This makes affected enemies suffer from physical damage over time. Corrupted Blood is akin to normal bleeding except that it deals more damage based on the amount of STR you have.
That said, this build is not operational until you complete your first two Trials of Ascendancy. This is because you need Warcaller’s Bellow and Greatwolf’s Howl. The former causes corpses to detonate after using a warcry skill, dealing 25% of their life as physical damage to nearby monsters. The latter essentially removes the 8-second cooldown of Seismic Cry, thus enabling you to spam it freely barring mana constraints!
The earliest you can play this build is level 41. So until then, you can level up and proceed with the campaign by utilizing Boneshatter.
Even though Corrupting Cry has no problems dealing with trash monsters, it does mediocre damage against stronger enemies. That is why you will also use Earthshatter linked to the Ancestral Warrior Totem. The totem utilizes Earthshatter automatically, which you can then explode by using either Seismic Cry or Infernal Cry.
Just like the Hammer of the Gods Titan, you will use different weapon sets to improve your skills. Your primary weapon set consists of a one-handed mace and shield with a ton of STR to make your Corrupting Cry more painful. The secondary weapon set is all about boosting the damage of your Earthshatter, so you want to use a two-handed mace with + to the level of melee skills and physical damage.
When you want to use some unique items, you can go for The Surrender on the shield and Aerisvane’s Wings on the gloves. The Surrender is an affordable unique shield that allows you to recover life when you block. Aerisvane’s Wings take a chunk off of your enemy’s health pool the first time they’re hit with your Seismic Cry (due to Decimating Strike on the gloves).
On the passive tree, immediately go for Beef and Brute Strength to increase your STR and damage, respectively. Go down after that and take Urgent Call, as well as Ancestral Artifice so you can summon another totem on the field. Once you have enough health, you can take the Blood Magic Keystone so that all your abilities will now use life rather than mana. Again, be mindful of the weapon set passives.
Shout at your enemies and watch as they suffer, the Corrupting Cry Warbringer can do that and more!
Gas Grenades Witch Hunter

Do you like to play a Mercenary build that can take on bosses even on a budget? Well, the Gas Grenades Witch Hunter is an amazing choice if that is what you intend to do!
Before we talk about what the build is capable of, it’s important to discuss what the crossbow can do. Unlike bows, which allow you to use skills without downtime, the crossbow has a reload mechanic that is a bit cumbersome to deal with early on.
Because you have to reload your crossbow skills every so often, you want to make sure that each projectile your weapon fires deals damage that can eliminate monsters. Hence, the Gas Grenade!
The Gas Grenade deals damage in a wide area. However, it does not work alone; you have to detonate it using Explosive Shot. To improve your damage, you can apply the Exposure debuff on enemies using Oil Grenade. This will reduce the fire resistance of enemies that step on the Oil Grenade’s area of effect.
Using Explosive Shot on the Oil Grenade will make it ignite. So, when you unleash your grenades on the ignited ground, your Gas Grenades explode upon impact! If you find this skill rotation cumbersome, you can invest in a Radiant Grief so that this build turns into a one-button killing machine!
Now, crossbow skills feel a bit clunky because there is a slight delay before you can do anything else. Fortunately, you can rectify that by immediately using Dodge Roll after every use of your grenade skills. So basically, you fire Gas Grenade, then Dodge Roll. Oil Grenade, then Dodge Roll.
When leveling up, go directly to the middle of the tree to get the grenade nodes, including Cluster Bombs, Grenadier, and Volatile Grenades. After that, head to the bottom of the tree and a little to the left. Allocate “Authority” to increase the coverage of your Oil Grenade and Gas Grenade. Then, take Repeating Explosives on the lower right from where you came from, which will cause your grenades to activate a second time.
For your ascendancy nodes, Zealous Inquisition helps you clear maps faster due to the area explosion. Pitiless Killer gives you a free culling strike, which can aid in improving your clear speed as well. The third ascendancy node is reserved for Judge, Jury, and Executioner. This unlocks Decimating Strike, which can take anywhere between 5% to 30% of the enemy’s health on the first hit.
The last ascendancy node can be anything you want. If you want to get more defense, you can take Obsessive Rituals for the Sorcery Ward. Otherwise, get Witchbane to reduce the enemy’s cooldown recovery rate.
This build’s damage potential is unlocked when you equip the Bombard Crossbow. This is the only weapon you need because it allows you to fire another grenade with each use of your grenade skills!
If you want to play a Mercenary build that slaps enemies hard, then the Gas Grenades Witch Hunter will not disappoint!
Ice Shot Deadeye

If you’ve tried the Ice Strike Invoker and thought to yourself if freezing enemies easily is possible with ranged attacks, then this next build will answer that. Yes, you can freeze monsters while shooting from afar when you play the Ice Shot Deadeye!
The core skill of this build is the titular Ice Shot. This converts more physical damage than Lightning Arrow (80% vs. 40%), which means that you get more bang for the buck when wielding a powerful Dualstring Bow with physical damage mods.
Early on, you will go up the passive tree and take Essence of the Mountain to make it easier for you to freeze enemies. Go a bit to the left and allocate Step Like Mist as well. Once that is done, go back to the middle and continue on until you see Catalysis. Path downward and take Exploit for increased damage and duration of Chill and Shock.
From there, take Maiming Strike, head left a little bit and then go upward to allocate Trick Shot, Proficiency, and Falcon Technique. At this point, you can go for more offense by taking Snowpiercer or improve your defense by allocating Beastial Skin and Enhanced Reflexes.
Now, you have the option of getting the Acrobatics Keystone, but we will only recommend it if your evasion rating is at least 18,000. You can hover over “Evasion” on your character sheet to find out the exact value.
The ascendancy nodes for this PoE 2 beginner build are the same as the Lightning Arrow Deadeye. Go for Point Blank and Endless Munitions for your first two notables, or Point Blank and Gathering Winds for a more balanced approach.
As you progress through the game, this build becomes more mana-intensive due to the utilization of Lightning Rod, Cast on Freeze, Orb of Storms, and Cast on Shock. The Thief’s Torment unique ring can solve this issue thanks to the mana gain on hit. If you cannot afford it yet, stick to rare rings with resistance, dexterity, and added physical/cold damage. You may need to remove one of the meta-skills from your rotation. Just adjust this based on your build’s capability.
The Ice Shot Deadeye is a speedy map blaster that only gets better the more investment you put in! So, if you are looking for a competent ranged attacker, this is definitely one of the best!
Spark Stormweaver

And then, there’s the Spark Stormweaver. To say that this build is insane is an understatement because it has no problems deleting enemies from existence, whether early on or in the endgame!
Your bread and butter for this build is Spark. This lightning-based spell can riddle the screen with highly damaging projectiles that can inflict Shock. For those who don’t know, Shock is an elemental ailment that makes affected enemies suffer increased damage from all sources.
The projectiles from Spark interact with another spell; this time, it’s a fire spell called the Flame Wall. Each time a projectile passes through it, it will add fire damage that can cause enemies to ignite as well. This unique interaction can help you finish the campaign quickly!
Now, if you use Flame Wall without any support gem, it only covers an area in a straight line. However, when you insert Fortress, this support gem changes the behavior of Flame Wall, forcing it to form a circle instead. Go inside the flaming circle and cast Spark from there. This ensures that each and every projectile gains added fire damage.
The support gems that you’ll use on Spark vary depending on where you are in your Path of Exile 2 journey. Early on, you place Arcane Tempo for increased cast speed, Controlled Destruction for more damage (at the cost of not being able to critically hit with Spark), Unleash to cast Spark a second time, and Acceleration to make the projectiles move faster.
In the endgame, you will swap Unleash and Controlled Destruction for Persistence and Inspiration. Persistence makes the Spark projectiles linger for a couple more seconds, while Inspiration significantly reduces the spell’s mana cost.
Your passive tree will also need to be overhauled at the later stages of the game. However, when you’re still starting out, prioritize nodes that improve spell damage, intelligence, mana regeneration rate, and cast speed.
Once you ascend, take the Stormweaver ascendancy class and allocate points to get Constant Gale, which gives you Arcane Surge after using Spark for a brief period. For your second ascendancy node, take Force of Will to enhance the effect of Arcane Surge based on your maximum mana. Strike Twice can make enemies suffer from another stack of Shock at the same time. The last ascendancy node is for Scouring Winds to further amplify the Lightning Exposure you inflict on enemies.
When it comes to your weapon, we recommend a staff because it provides more spell damage and lightning damage compared to a wand and caster focus. Your armor pieces must consist of energy shield-based gear so you can easily improve your defenses by taking the appropriate nodes on the tree.
After finishing the campaign and farming enough PoE 2 Exalted Orbs, you can buy Atziri’s Disdain and Ghostwrithe to gain a significant boost in energy shield. This is a necessary step because you’ll be taking Chaos Inoculation, which makes your HP drop to 1, so you need all the energy shield you can get.
The Spark Stormweaver is quite amazing because you can literally play it as your first character and take it well into the endgame, where the build won’t have any problems obliterating pinnacle bosses and whatnot!
Final Thoughts
So there you have it! These are the best beginner builds in Path of Exile 2! This list has an assortment of builds that suit different styles of play. If you want to get up close and personal without dying from a boss slam, the Hammer of the Gods Titan and Corrupting Cry Warbringer are top contenders.
The Gas Grenades Witch Hunter, Poison Gas Arrow Acolyte of Chayula, and Lightning Arrow Deadeye are incredible builds if you prefer killing enemies from a distance.
Freezing enemies in Path of Exile 2 is not only for offense but defense as well. That’s where the Ice Strike Invoker and Ice Shot Deadeye shine. It’s just a matter of whether you like being in melee range or fighting from afar.
The Spark Stormweaver may be fragile and susceptible to hard-hitting attacks. However, when properly geared, this build deals so much damage that enemies will be dead long before they can land a hit!
Now, if you want to level up quickly, you can head to our PoE 2 Store to buy some much-needed currency, rare items, and uniques! Visit now and gain exclusive discounts, especially when buying our PoE 2 currency bundles! What are you waiting for?