How to survive in the harsh world of PoE2: choosing your first character

Path of Exile 2: Top Builds for Early Access

Choosing your first character in Path of Exile 2's early access can be daunting. With six classes and two Ascendancy classes each, the possibilities are vast. This guide highlights the best builds currently available, categorized by class, providing crucial skills and gameplay tips. Remember, the meta may shift with future updates and balance changes.

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Witch: Minion Summoner Infernalist

This build maximizes the Witch's summoning potential, offering a balanced and beginner-friendly experience compared to the riskier Blood Mage. You'll command a horde of undead and demonic minions, requiring strategic fire support and skillful maneuvering during boss encounters.

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Key Skills: Skeletal Brute, Skeletal Cleric, Pain Offering, Skeletal Arsonist, Detonate Dead, Flame Wall, Raging Spirits, Vulnerability, Summon Infernal Hound.

Gameplay Tips: Utilize Flame Wall for area damage and additional minion summoning (Raging Spirits). Detonate Dead provides AoE damage but requires corpses. Strategic minion combinations and Vulnerability debuffs are key to success. Pain Offering sacrifices a minion to enhance others.

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Mercenary: FrostFerno Witch Hunter

This hybrid build combines fire and ice skills, utilizing two crossbows and dual passive skill trees for early and late-game effectiveness.

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Key Skills: Permafrost Bolts, Explosive Grenade, Gas Grenade, Explosive Shot, Herald of Ash, Galvanic Shards, Herald of Thunder.

Gameplay Tips: Freeze enemies with Permafrost Bolts and Galvanic Shards (early game), then unleash Explosive Shot (late game) for devastating damage. Utilize Explosive Grenade and Gas Grenade for area-of-effect destruction. Maximize ice and fire damage bonuses through skill and weapon choices.

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Monk: Herald of Thunder Invoker

This build prioritizes defense while delivering significant damage, making it ideal for newcomers. The Herald of Thunder skill is central to its effectiveness.

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Key Skills: Tempest Flurry, Tempest Bell, Staggering Palm, Vaulting Impact, Orb of Storms, Storm Wave.

Gameplay Tips: Early game utilizes Quarterstaff Strike. Herald of Thunder empowers attacks with lightning. Tempest Flurry and Orb of Storms provide crowd control and AoE damage. Vaulting Impact and Staggering Palm enhance mobility and crowd control.

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Warrior: Armour Breaker Warbinger

This balanced build utilizes a two-handed mace for high damage and survivability in melee combat.

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Key Skills: Mace Strike, Stampede, Leap Slam, Ancestral Warrior Totem, Scavenged Plating, Hammer of the Gods, Seismic Cry, Attrition.

Gameplay Tips: Early game focuses on Earthquake and Shockwave Totem for crowd clearing. Mace Strike excels against single targets. Rolling Slam provides mobility and survivability. Warbinger Ascendancy skills (Anvil's Weight, Imploding Impacts) enhance armor break and damage. Mace-and-shield variations can prioritize Giant's Blood, Glancing Blows, and defensive gems.

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Sorceress: Ember Fusillade Stormweaver

This build offers a strong balance of damage and survivability, facilitating quick leveling and campaign progression.

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Key Skills: Spark, Flame Wall, Ember Fusillade, Solar Orb, Firestorm, Flammability, Blasphemy (Enfeeble).

Gameplay Tips: Early game utilizes Spark and Flame Wall. Ember Fusillade (with Scattershot and Controlled Destruction) becomes the core damage skill. Solar Orb and Firestorm provide additional AoE damage. Flammability weakens enemies and boosts fire damage. Blasphemy (Enfeeble) provides additional defense.

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Ranger: Deadeye Grenadier

This build emphasizes mobility and area damage, but its lower survivability makes it less suitable for beginners.

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Key Skills: Permafrost Bolts, Fragmentation Rounds, Flash Grenade, Gas Grenade, Explosive Shot, Explosive Grenade, Rapid Shot.

Gameplay Tips: Utilize a crossbow for high physical and elemental damage. Freeze enemies with Permafrost Bolts, then use grenades (Flash, Gas, Explosive) for massive AoE damage. Focus on evasion, elemental resistances, and movement speed.

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These are the top builds currently available, but future updates and balance changes may alter their effectiveness. Choose wisely, and may your adventures in Wraeclast be successful!