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It’s never an easy thing to pick a class in an ARPG, especially in one so huge and spiraling likePath of Exile II. Every class has its weaknesses and strengths, some are easier, some more tricky to get to grips with.
Path of Exile 2: 6 Best Early Game Builds
For those struggling to pick a Class in Path of Exile II, this list covers a selection of great early-game builds to get you started!
However, this guide will seek to unravel the Ranger class, one of the simpler classes to play,and yet also one of the strongest. This class is perfect for anyone who doesn’t have a lot of experiencewith ARPGs or with Path of Exile.
She may be a little squishy, but with the right setup, she can deal a whole load of damage from a distance,and delete bosses in seconds. Nock those arrows, draw those bowstrings, and get ready to zap your enemies into Oblivion.
Skills & Support Gems
Main Abilities
Lightning Arrow- This nice thing about this build is that, realistically, it only really revolves around two main abilities. That means, for example, if you’re playing on mouse and keyboard (which you really should be) you can bind them both to the left and right buttons and not have to worry about anything else.
Lightning Arrow is simple: You imbue your arrows with lightning and send them flying into the faces of your opponents, as the electricity arcs between them. This is brilliant for dealing withlarge groups of enemies,but it’s not as good for bosses.This will carry you through the entire game. It’s just that good!
The support gems listed are mainly for the Endgame. Choose whichever gems you have access to as you run through the campaign. They’re not as important until later. Final Support gem slot is unnecessary.
Lightning Rod- This is your second most important ability, and another that you unlock right from the get-go. This will also be with you for the whole game, so bind it somewhere easy to click, and get used to the feel of it.
Lightning Rod will fire an arrow that sticks into the ground for a period of time. When you fire, for example, a Lightning Arrow, the rod will flare and deal extra lightning damage to anything around it.
For getting through Maps or the campaign, fire a rod or two, and then a couple of lightning arrows to sort out any groups.Scattershot is essential for this, as you will get an extra 2 rods. you may stack a big pilewhen dealing with bosses.
Orb of Storms- This skill will be your main boss killer. While on the tooltip, it may look like Orb of Storms doesn’t do much damage, but that’s not the point. This skill will trigger anything that’s within its circumference.
First, put down an orb around a boss, then start firing a bunch of lightning rods on top. All the rods will trigger and do a huge amount of damage to anything within the circle. It’s really simple. If the boss moves, simply reset your orb and lay down some rods again.You don’t need Lightning Arrow here. That’s only for groups.
Cast on Shock: This is the final tool in your arsenal, and thankfully one we don’t need to manually trigger.While it may cost a hefty amount of Spirit, the reservation is worth it. For the tougher bosses,this will absolutely shred.
You will need to insertBall Lightninginto a Support Slot to make this work. The more you shock your opponents (which of course is all the time), the more charge you will get for this skill. When it reaches 100% it willauto-castBall Lighting.
Once you have an Orb of Storms down and a bunch of lightning rods all triggering at once, you may send out a flurry of Lightning Balls from Cast on Shock and obliterate any bosses in your path. It seems complicated, but trust me, it’s not once you get the hang of it.
You can switch Support gems from Lightning Arrow to Lightning Rod on more difficult bosses to make it fire faster and build more Meta charges.
Extra Abilities
Herald of Thunder- This is perfect for us as we are going to be constantly shocking enemies. Any enemy killed with shock will cause this herald to zap anything around it.Pick this one up as soon as you get access to Spirit from the King in the Mists.
Herald of Ice- This is the twin piece that’s going to trigger a lot of craziness on your maps. When you insertLightning gemsinto this skill and vice versa with the other Herald, they will trigger off of each other and blast everything on the screen into pieces. This is why we haveIce Biteon our Lightning Arrow.
Voltaic Mark- This isn’t as important later on in the game but may help with earlier bosses. Apply this mark to a boss to make them more susceptible to lightning damage. Do I really need to explain more?
Wind Dancer- This will passively give us more evasion, which is great, because the Ranger doesn’t want to get hit very often.
Grim Feast- This is for a bit later on in the game when we have better gear and more points to invest. Once you get a decent amount of evasion and grab Acrobatics, you will want to focus on Energy Shield. This helps recharge that shield and can overcharge it, giving you essential double the shield. Handy, right?
Resistances and Defences
Here, I’m going to elaborate a little bit more about what I was saying earlier about Energy Shield. It’s really important for a class like the Ranger to layer her defences because of how squishy she is.
First, we’re going to want to focus on gettingour Evasion as high as possibleto avoid those pesky physical attacks from bosses and regular enemies. Once you grabAcrobaticsand have around 70% evasion, you’ll have the ability to dodge not just physical attacks, but everything else too.
Path of Exile II: Every Class Ranked
For those struggling to pick a class in Path of Exile II, this list will show you some of the most powerful classes to play and why to pick them.
Then, you need to figure out your resistances. Due to the resistance penalty after all 6 acts, you need to get these as high as possible, or you’re going to have a really hard time when dealing with elemental attacks, which is basically all the time when you get to T15 maps.
Resistances can go as high as 75%,but try and go for a base level of around 50%. Anything above that is just extra security. Great things to get resistances on are amulets, rings and boots.
Important Gear
Widowhail- This bow is fantastic but really depends on the quiver that you have equipped. If you have a bad quiver, then forget this. Instead, search for aDualstring Bowwith good physical damage modifiers.
Of course, if you find a good quiver that hasincreased damage, increased speed, + projectile skills or flat elemental damage, then this bow is incredible, and super cheap too! Whack someElemental Soul Coreson that bad boy, or maybe some storm runes for a good time.
Hand of Wisdom and Action- This old pair of gloves again??? Yes, again, we’re going to need the HOWA. Why? Because they’re incredible and give you a ridiculous boost to your damage.
No, there are no substitutes.Buy these now!
But seriously. They give you more attack speed based on your dexterity, and extra lightning damage based on your intelligence. These are pretty much the exact two things that this build really wants. It’s a no-brainer.
Path of Exile 2: How to Trade
The easiest way to get valuable loot!
Ingenuity- Try and find a cheap one of these if you don’t have the currency. It goes great with your gloves and gives you a good boost to your stats by augmenting your rings.
Atziri’s Disdain- This is certainly one for later on Mapping stages when you start to get absolutely smashed by everything. This will give you a massive boost to your Energy Shield, which is the best defence in PoE2.
Everything Else
In terms of Rings and Amulets, you want to prioritise resistances, flat damage boosts, and bonus intelligence if you may.Remember, intelligence is king when you have these gloves.Try and get some extra spirit on your amulet if you can. That is crucial to having Cast on Shock for bosses.
If you’re struggling to clear with your heralds, consider ditching one of your normal rings and grabbing a Polcirkeln.
More Evasion and Energy Shield are nice on your Body Armour, while movement speed and resistances can be gained from your boots.
Ascension Choice
Grab Deadeye as soon as you can in Act II. Deadeye has a number of brilliant passives that are going to augment your damage a tonne.The other Ascendancyis more for poison-specific builds, which isn’t really what we’re going for here.
All of these are great passives. What’s best is that you don’t even need to activate anything.They’re all just straight buffs.
Passive Skill Tree Route + Anoint
Now, our skill tree here is going to be a little bit all over the place. But bear with me.
There are a number of great passivesthat we’re going to want to pick up, no matter what stage of the game we’re in.
Master Fletching- Pick up all the nodes in this branch. It will massively augment your quiver, which is great for ourWidowhailBow.
Enhance Reflexes and Bestial Skin- These are right next to each other and give great bonuses to our evasion and our dexterity.
Coming Calamity- This will give us a nice boost to our Herald abilities, allowing them to chain off each other even more, and blast more things on the screens into little frozen chunks.
Falcon Technique- More Attack Speed: Tasty.
Unbound Forces- This will seriously increase theMagnitude of Shock and Chillthat we inflict. Similarly toComing Calamity, this just helps our crowd control abilities, as well as our ability to build up Cast on Shock charges.
Pierce the Heart- This whole branch is great for anyone using a bow, and will give you a lot of damage and the ability to pierce an extra target.Consider changing this later on in the lifecycle of the build.
In terms of anointing your amulet, you might want to have a look atPatient Barrier. This is pretty far away on the tree and will give you a tonne of extra Energy Shield to play around with. Or, if your Herald skills aren’t clearing as well as they should be, check outDoomsayerto give them a bit of extra juice.
While there are certainly more passives you can angle yourself towards, including things that give you more area of effect or that increase your energy shield, these will cover the basics and will certainly carry you through a good chunk of the PoE2 experience. The rest is just down to your own preferences and customisation. Go nuts!
Path of Exile II
WHERE TO PLAY
Path of Exile 2: Hardest Act Two Bosses Ranked
For those about to enter Act 2 in Path of Exile II, this list will give you a heads-up as to what to look out for! These bosses are tough!
