The new 0.5 update to Path of Exile 2 is upon us, and it’s the biggest update the game has seen since its original release.
With such a huge release and a small mountain of content to get through, Path of Exile 2 is undoubtedly drawing in new and excited players. However, PoE isn’t exactly the easiest franchise to get into. With hundreds of skills, complicated build interactions and a Skill Tree that is more like a Skill Forest, all these things in tandem can feel like information overload to many new folk.
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!
This guide aims to cut through the noise, offering newer players a fantastic, simple starting build that will take them all the way through the campaign and into the first few levels of the maps. Let’s get into it.
Build Overview
General Strategy
This build is extremely powerful throughout the campaign, including on maps. Not only is it simple, but it can also be played by multiple characters, such as the Druid or Witch. I played a Blood Mage for this run; however, Lich can work great too! This choice is ultimately up to the player.
The best thing about this build is how easy it is to play. Many builds rely on 3,4 or even 5 skills used in tandem to output a good amount of damage, which can be a bit of a barrier to entry for those not used to combo gameplay. This build simply relies on 2 Primal skills: Entangle, a plant-based physical damage skill, and Thunderstorm.
Entangle sends a bunch of roots out in a straight line in the direction of your choosing, dealing serious damage to anything in its path. However, by itself, this isn’t that great. The real potential comes from Thunderstorm. Many plant-based abilities have something called Overgrow, which buffs their power when watered.
Using entangle while it’s being rained upon by the Thunderstorm causes grasping vines and explosions to ripple down the roots and deal huge amounts of damage. This is going to be our bread and butter. First, cast a thunderstorm in front of you, and then send a few entangles through the rainfall, causing them to overgrow. You’ll also spawn little lightning orbs to hunt down opponents from the Thunderstorm.
This interaction is available as soon as you get a level 5 skill gem and enter Ogham Manor. Until this point, the Essence Drain + Contagion is a good starting combo.
Bossing Encounters
This dual-skill setup is pretty much perfect for the majority of the campaign, in terms of white and magic-tier mobs that don’t have massive amounts of HP. You can also use these 2 skills for bosses if you wish, but it might take a little longer.
If you want to speed up the bossing side of things, you can allocate the Bonestorm skill, a fantastic single-target ability. This does more damage the longer you charge it up, impaling the opponent with a hail of sharpened bones.
Path of Exile 2: How To Beat Doryani
For anyone struggling to beat Doryani in Act 3 of Path of Exile II, take a look at our comprehensive guide.
Every time you cast this, it will deal more damage based on the number of stacks on the opponent. So you can enter a boss, cast thunderstorm, a single entangle and then unleash Bonestorm to take them out extremely fast. This works so well because, like Entangle, Bonestorm scales with physical damage.
While you don’t need any more skills to make this work, you might as well add on Blasphemy with Temporal Chains to slow your opponent down.
Skill Gems and Support Gems
So we have our main skills, but each has a bunch of support gem slots we need to fill to really boost their power. If the support gem has a level upgrade, for example, Rapid Casting 1 & 2, this should be applied when you reach the next level of uncut support gem. Let’s take a look at each skill:
- Entangle – Rapid Casting, Brutality, Accelerated Growth, Branching Fissures
Rapid Casting and Brutality increase both the speed and main damage of the skill. Accelerated Growth causes explosions when the vines are overgrown, and Branching Fissures will cause the main Entangle to branch off in separate directions, which is great for larger packs of mobs.
- Thunderstorm – Rapid Casting, Prolonged Duration, Magnified Area, Living Lightning
Rapid Casting and Prolonged Duration will cause the skill to be quicker and last for a longer period of time. Magnified Area will enhance the area of rainfall, allowing for more vine explosions and a larger overgrowth rate. Living Lightning will cause the little lightning orbs to chase down your enemies when you cast Thunderstorm.
- Bonestorm – Rapid Casting, Brutality, Burgeon, Considered Casting
Once again, like with Entangle, Rapid Casting and Brutality enhance speed and damage. Burgeon causes even more damage the longer you charge the skill, and Considered Casting trades cast speed for even more damage.
These are the main ones you need to constantly upgrade. However, remember to slot in Blasphemy and Temporal Chains when you have 60 Spirit. Or, if you want, try Convalescence and Ravenous Swarm if you find yourself dying a lot.
Armour and Weapons
Another lovely thing about this build is that you don’t need much gear to make it work! The most important thing you need to upgrade throughout your campaign journey is, of course, the weapon.
Here, you can choose either a wand-and-focus combo or a staff. The thing is, we aren’t going to be using the in-built skill on this weapon; we’re just using it for the stats that it provides.
For your weapon, the main things you need to look out for are: + Level to Spell Skills and Increased Spell Damage. Anything on top of this, like added Crit, is just a nice bonus. You can easily find this by checking the vendors whenever you advance a level or by checking the market. At this point, you can find great weapons for just a couple of Exalted Orbs.
For everything else, it makes sense to grab yourself some Uniques while levelling, as these are often very cheap and will generally last a good long time. Here are a couple of decent suggestions:
|
Gear Slot |
Name |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Helmet |
Rare Helmet |
This is a really great place to get a lot of Energy Shield and Resistances. |
|
Body Armour |
Ghostwrithe |
This carried me through the entire campaign, giving me a ridiculous amount of Energy Shield, so I basically never died. More life = More Shield |
|
Boots |
Wanderlust / Luminous Pace |
These both give you a nice amount of movement speed and are available from a very early level. |
|
Gloves |
Lochtonial Caress |
Extra Life and Skill Speed are great for survivability and damage. |
|
Belt |
Midnight Braid |
This will give you a nice amount of resistance and extra mana when you take damage. Feel free to swap this for a rare belt with even more resistances if you’re taking too much damage. |
|
Jewellery |
Any Rare Amulet and Ring |
In terms of amulets, try to grab something with + Level to Spell Skills or Spell Damage. In terms of rings, go for Cast Speed and resistances or maximum life. If you’re struggling with mana, Glowswarm can help. |
Make sure you’re constantly upgrading your flasks as you level up. In addition, ensure you’ve placed runes into your gear. At this point, Iron Rune variations will do fine for the majority of your items.
Skill Tree
So, you’ve got a couple of levels, and you’re looking at the Skill Tree, and you’re quite sure which direction to go. It’s intimidating, I know. Even after playing through every patch of PoE2, sometimes the skill tree still baffles me.
Long story short, the main things we want here are nodes that boost our Spell Damage, Physical Damage, Cast Speed, Area of Effect and our Energy Shield. Anything that specifically interacts with plants and Critical Hits is great too.
Here are some major nodes that you’ll want to hit during the course of the campaign. Check the picture above for a rough example. You can follow the nodes in the order listed for optimal progress:
|
Node |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Raw Destruction and Practised Signs |
These can be grabbed right from the get-go, giving us more damage and cast speed. |
|
Jagged Shards |
Perfect for bonus Physical Damage and Critical Hits |
|
Wildsurge Incantation |
This makes our main combo last a shorter time but massively boosts its damage. |
|
Boundless Growth and Constricting |
These nodes are right next to each other and buff our plants and physical damage. |
|
Proliferating Weeds and Blossom |
Again, these can be found next to each other, giving us more physical damage and increasing the number of times Entangle with branch off. |
|
Potent Incantation |
Less cast speed but more damage |
|
Sudden Escalation |
More Critical Hit Chance |
|
Cut to the Bone |
More damage and greater impale magnitude for our Bonestorm |
|
Heavy Buffer and Melding |
These are really easy to path to and give us a massive amount of energy shield. |
These aren’t the only major nodes you can path to – just a couple of good examples. Look around the surrounding areas of the tree and see if there’s something you find yourself lacking. You can’t go wrong with more damage and energy shield. Everyone has a different playstyle, so experiment and see what fits.
With all this information, you should have enough to at least get yourself through the main campaign and the interludes. If you find the build struggling a bit, you can even change course and try something new during the mapping phase. Good luck, and stay sane, Exiles!
Path of Exile 2: Best Monk Build Guide
If you’ve been struggling to get through the Campaign of Path of Exile II while playing a Monk, then this guide is perfect for you.
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