Path of Exile 2 is a game renowned for its depth and complexity, offering players a vast array of skills, items, and customization options to tailor their characters to perfection. Just when you think you've mastered the intricacies of your character's abilities, the game presents you with the exciting challenge of selecting an Ascendancy Class. Currently, in the early access phase of PoE2, each class features two progression paths, but by the time of the full release, players will have the option of three paths. Let's delve into the details of the existing Ascendancies!
Before we proceed, make sure to check out our article on choosing the best build to kickstart your journey in the game.
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Table of Contents
- Witch Ascendancy Classes in PoE2
- Infernalist
- Blood Mage
- Sorcerer Ascendancy Classes in PoE2
- Stormweaver
- Chronomancer
- Warrior Ascendancy Classes in PoE2
- Warbringer
- Titan
- Monk Ascendancy Classes in PoE2
- Invoker
- Acolyte of Chayula
- Mercenary Ascendancy Classes in PoE2
- Witchhunter
- Gemling Legionnaire
- Ranger Ascendancy Classes in PoE2
- Deadeye
- Pathfinder
Witch Ascendancy Classes in PoE2
Infernalist
The Infernalist stands out as one of the most powerful Witch Ascendancies currently available. This class specializes in fire spells, offering a formidable arsenal for players to wield. If you enjoyed summoning minions early in the game, you'll be thrilled to know that the Infernalist introduces the Infernal Hound, a new skill that summons a hound from the underworld to aid you in battle.
For those who dream of becoming a hellish beast, the Infernalist allows you to transform into a demonic form, boosting your attack damage and mobility at the cost of faster health depletion. To mitigate this risk, the Loyal Hellhound skill is crucial. Additionally, the Beidat's Will node ties your Spirit to your maximum HP, necessitating investments in both HP and Strength. This setup enables you to command an impressive army of the undead!
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Blood Mage
While not as popular or balanced as the Infernalist, the Blood Mage offers a unique and engaging gameplay experience. This class revolves around the concept of Sanguimancy, where your character uses HP instead of MP, creating a thrilling balance between life and death. Recklessness can lead to quick demise, but skills like Vitality Siphon and Life Remnants allow you to drain health from enemies to stay in the fight.
Sunder the Flesh increases the critical hit chance needed to trigger buffs, while Gore Spike enhances attack damage. This class demands careful management of your health, making it a challenging yet rewarding choice.
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Sorcerer Ascendancy Classes in PoE2
Stormweaver
The Stormweaver is a Sorcerer who excels in dealing massive elemental damage, often with a high critical hit chance that triggers Elemental Storm via Tempest Caller. A key aspect of the Stormweaver's gameplay is inflicting status ailments on enemies, enhanced by the passive skill Strike Twice. Utilizing the new Spirit Gems mechanic, the hero can amplify elemental attack damage against groups of enemies affected by negative effects.
Constant Gale and Force of Will improve spell casting speed and MP regeneration, essential for a magic-heavy playstyle. The Heart of the Storm node significantly boosts survivability by converting part of Elemental Damage into an Energy Shield, ensuring your character can withstand multiple attacks.
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Chronomancer
The Chronomancer introduces a novel class to Path of Exile 2, focusing on manipulating time to control the flow of battle. This innovative approach to combat is facilitated by exclusive spells like Temporal Rift and Time Freeze, opening up new possibilities for combos and experimentation.
While not currently the strongest Sorcerer Ascendancy, the Chronomancer holds significant potential. Skills like Now and Again offer a chance to avoid cooldowns, Apex of the Moment slows down nearby monsters, and Quicksand Hourglass increases the speed of magic creation, making this class a master of time manipulation.
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Warrior Ascendancy Classes in PoE2
Warbringer
The Warbringer combines war cries with totem summons, focusing on close combat to maximize melee damage. This strategy is effective even against bosses, as totems can distract enemies and absorb some of the damage intended for the hero.
Enhance armor penetration with Imploding Impacts and Anvil’s Weight to significantly improve this build’s effectiveness. Warcaller’s Bellow causes enemy corpses to explode when you use a Warcry, while Greatwolf’s Howl removes the cooldown on Warcries. For a defensive approach, Renly’s Training and Turtle Charm will upgrade your shield and blocking capabilities.
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Titan
If you prefer a more controlled and less risky playstyle, the Titan path is ideal. With powerful yet slow attacks, Titans paralyze enemies, forcing them to break through thick armor before dealing damage. Stone Skin increases the defensive power of equipped gear by 50%, while Mysterious Lineage boosts max HP by 15%, enhancing survivability.
However, the Titan isn’t just about defense; it can deal significant damage too. Unique offensive abilities like Earthbreaker and Ancestral Empowerment strengthen Slam abilities, and Surprising Strength increases damage against stunned enemies by 40%.
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Monk Ascendancy Classes in PoE2
Invoker
The Invoker allows Monks to harness elemental power, granting access to powerful abilities and status-enhancing effects. This melee-focused class utilizes elemental damage and status effects to annihilate enemies and trigger potent effects. The ability to use Power Charges to enhance skills adds strategic depth to the class.
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Acolyte of Chayula
The Acolyte of Chayula has embraced Darkness, gaining dominion over dark forces bestowed by Chayula. The Embrace the Darkness skill allows you to forgo the Spirit resource entirely, increasing the maximum Darkness to 100 and granting exceptional survivability.
To further reinforce the Acolyte’s defenses, Consuming Questions can be used in combination with Mana Leech. However, caution is advised, as this setup removes the Energy Shield’s cooldown entirely, making it rely solely on MP drain, which (as of version 0.1.1) is not yet efficient enough. Until this drawback is addressed, this Ascendancy remains inferior to the Invoker.
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Mercenary Ascendancy Classes in PoE2
Witchhunter
The Witchhunter is one of the strongest classes in the current version of the game, excelling in hunting and swiftly eliminating demons and the undead. It deals increased damage on both the first and last hits, quickly clearing areas of weaker enemies. Against bosses, passive skills like Pitiless Killer, Damage vs Low Life Enemies, and Judge, Jury, and Executioner can be crucial in securing victory when survival hangs by a thread.
Witchbane and No Mercy enable a playstyle focused on reducing enemy concentration (affecting their skill activation speed) and dealing increased damage. The Witchhunter’s deep-seated hatred for demons and the undead is reflected in the Zealous Inquisition node, which has a 10% chance to make slain enemies explode, damaging their living allies.
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Gemling Legionnaire
The Gemling Legionnaire is a unique class whose gameplay heavily revolves around gems—not just their stats and quality, but even their color. Thaumaturgical Infusion increases the character’s resistances based on the number of equipped stones of a particular color. Meanwhile, Crystalline Potential and Implanted Gems enhance the level of all skills.
Advanced Thaumaturgy not only reduces skill costs but also lowers attribute requirements, just like Adaptive Capability. A particularly interesting gameplay-changing node is Integrated Efficiency, which expands the arsenal of active skills by three additional slots. Gem Studded is also highly useful, allowing the use of two identical Support stones, opening up vast potential for experimentation and powerful builds.
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Ranger Ascendancy Classes in PoE2
Deadeye
The Deadeye Ascendancy is perfect for players who favor ranged combat. Unique passive skills increase effective attack range and enhance damage output. Endless Munitions allows you to fire one additional projectile per skill use, which is incredibly useful for clearing entire screens of enemies.
This path is an excellent choice for those who prefer the classic bow over the modern crossbow and plan to focus on elemental damage. Increased movement speed, extra projectiles, and an additional Mark will prove invaluable.
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Pathfinder
If your favorite color is green, then the Pathfinder is the perfect choice for you. As a master of poisoning, this class constantly drains enemies’ health bars, with double effectiveness. The passive skill Overwhelming Toxicity doubles the amount of Poison applied to enemies but shortens the debuff duration.
Be careful! One of this class’s signature weapons is the gas grenade, which—when combined with high movement speed and slow resistance—allows you to quickly and efficiently blanket the battlefield in toxic mist. If you enjoy poison mechanics and unique gameplay, this path is definitely for you!
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Keep in mind that we’ve only covered twelve of the planned thirty-six Ascendancy Classes. As PoE2 enters early access, these are all the currently available specialization paths for your characters. However, more will be added over time! Additionally, future game updates may introduce changes to passive skills, meaning the details in this guide may differ from the final version.
