In Path of Exile 2 Early Access, Ascendancy classes offer a deeper level of character customization, allowing you to tailor your abilities to fit your preferred playstyle. Each of the six base classes—Warrior, Sorceress, Ranger, Monk, Mercenary, and Witch—has two distinct Ascendancy options, providing specialized paths that unlock powerful skills and bonuses.
These Ascendancy choices impact how you interact with the world of Wraeclast, whether through devastating combat prowess, elemental magic, or tactical manipulation of time. This guide will break down the Ascendancy classes available in Early Access, helping you understand how each path shapes your gameplay experience and unlocks new strategic possibilities.
- Path of Exile 2: What are Ascendancy Classes?
- Path of Exile 2: List of all 12 Ascendancy Classes
- Path of Exile 2 Base Class: The Sorceress
- Path of Exile 2 Base Class: The Warrior
- Path of Exile 2 Base Class: The Ranger
- Path of Exile 2 Base Class: The Witch
- Path of Exile 2 Base Class: The Mercenary
- Path of Exile 2 Base Class: The Monk
Path of Exile 2: What are Ascendancy Classes?
In Path of Exile 2, Ascendancy classes are specialized sub-classes tied to the six base classes available in the Early Access phase. Unlike the original game, where each class had three Ascendancy options, PoE 2 currently features two Ascendancy options per class. This offers players a more focused way to tailor their character’s playstyle with powerful bonuses and abilities, which become accessible through completing specific Ascension Trials during the campaign.
Path of Exile 2: List of all 12 Ascendancy Classes
During Early Access, players will have access to 12 Ascendancy Classes, with 2 options available for each of the 6 base classes.
Path of Exile 2 Base Class: The Sorceress
The Sorceress is one of the two intelligence-based starting classes in Path of Exile 2. She focuses on elemental damage, ailments, mana, and energy shields, making her similar to the Elementalist from Path of Exile 1. The Sorceress is great at casting powerful elemental spells and uses staves and wands to do so. You can switch between different staves to access a variety of elemental attacks, adding versatility to combat. Some of the best skills for her are Flame Wall, Spark, Comet, Ice Nova, and Arc.
The Sorceress can also customize her playstyle through Ascendancy Classes: Stormweaver, which boosts elemental damage, and Chronomancer, which uses time to her advantage. By combining different elemental skills, she can control the battlefield and take advantage of enemy weaknesses. Switching weapons increases her damage output, making her playstyle dynamic and flexible. Overall, the Sorceress is a ranged class that uses powerful elemental magic, but she’s not meant for close combat like the Warrior.
Path of Exile 2: Sorceress Ascendancies
1. Stormweaver
The Stormweaver is an Ascendancy for the Sorceress class in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2) that harnesses the power of storms. Learn more about how the Stormweaver works and its confirmed skills.
Stormweaver Ascendancy Mechanics and Skills
Mechanics: Stormweavers, with their control over lightning, call upon the power of storms to strike down their enemies.
All of the Stormweaver’s skills focus on dealing Lightning and Shock damage to foes, even when using other elements like Fire and Ice.
Skills: Stormweavers, with their mastery of lightning, channel the power of storms to strike down their enemies.
Each of the Stormweaver’s skills is designed to focus on and enhance the use of Lightning and Shock damage, even when using other elements like Fire and Ice. Below are the skills featured in the Stormweaver Ascendancy showcase:
- Scouring Winds: The exposure you apply reduces the affected Resistance by an extra 20%.
- Tempest Caller: Grants Skill by creating a stationary Fire, Cold, or Lightning Storm at a target location for a duration, determined by the highest Elemental Damage type from the Hit that triggered the storm. Hits that don’t deal Elemental Damage will not trigger the storm.
- Rain Dancer: Elemental Storm has a 150% increase in Cooldown Recovery Rate.
- Heavy Snows:
- Targets can be affected by two of your Chills simultaneously.
- Your Chills can reduce Action Speed by up to 35%.
- You inflict 25% less Chill Magnitude.
- Shape of Winter: All damage from hits contributes to the Chill Magnitude.
- Strike Twice:
- Targets can be affected by two of your Shocks at once.
- 50% reduced Shock Duration.
- Shaper of Storms: All damage from hits contributes to Shock Chance.
- Constant Gale: Arcane Surge provides 10% increased Cast Speed and 20% increased Mana Regeneration Rate.
- Force of Will: 1% increased Effect of Arcane Surge on you for every 15 maximum Mana.
- Heart of the Storm: 40% of Elemental Damage taken is recouped as Energy Shield.
2. Chronomancer
The Chronomancer is an Ascendancy of the Sorceress class in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2) that specializes in manipulating time. Discover more about the Chronomancer’s mechanics and confirmed skills.
Chronomancer Ascendancy Mechanics and Skills
Mechanics: Chronomancers combine their abilities with their control over time. They can reset cooldowns, freeze enemies, and reverse time to restore their lost health and mana.
Skills: Chronomancers can control time, offering powerful utility skills to enhance their damage and survivability. Below are the skills featured in the Chronomancer Ascendancy showcase:
- Now and Again: Skills have a 33% chance to avoid consuming a Cooldown when used.
- Unbound Encore: Manipulates time to reset the cooldowns of your other skills.
- Ultimate Command: Releases a powerful wave that freezes time for all affected enemies for a duration. The duration is shorter the more times the enemy has experienced time being stopped.
- Footprints in the Sand: Passively creates afterimages of your recent past. Cast the spell to return to the oldest afterimage, teleporting to that location and resetting your Life, Mana, and Energy Shield to the values they had at that time.
- Quicksand Hourglass: Every 12 seconds, gain 50% increased Cast Speed for 4 seconds.
- Apex of the Moment: Enemies within your Presence are Slowed by 20%.
- Circular Heartbeat: 30% of damage taken is recouped as Life.
- The Rapid River: Recoup effects are instead applied over 4 seconds.
Path of Exile 2 Base Class: The Warrior
The Warrior Class in Path of Exile 2 focuses on the strength attribute, which gives high damage. Warriors mainly use shields, maces, and two-handed weapons to adapt to both offensive and defensive roles in combat. This makes them powerful in many situations. They are great at dealing heavy physical damage through attacks like ground slams and seismic waves. Warriors wear heavy armor and use shields to block attacks, including spells, to reduce damage. However, blocking for too long removes your stance and prevents you from blocking powerful or charged attacks.
Warrior playstyle can be customized by choosing one of two Ascendancy Classes: Titan, which focuses on crowd control and defense, and Warbringer, which emphasizes melee damage and exploding fallen enemies. Key skills for Warriors include Earthquake, Infernal Cry, and Stampede. Balancing offense and defense is crucial for Warriors.
To improve survivability and damage, time your mobility skills well. Use life nodes and physical damage while leveling, and equip the right gear to boost both damage and durability. Choose your Ascendancy carefully to shape your playstyle, and use support gems to enhance your abilities.
Path of Exile 2: Warrior Ascendancies
1. Warbringer
The Warbringer is an Ascendancy class under the Warrior class in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2), specializing in summoning powerful spirits and using war cries. Explore the Warbringer Ascendancy’s overview and its skills below.
Warbringer Ascendancy Mechanics and Skills
Mechanics:
- The Warbringer Ascendancy class focuses on harnessing the power of ancestral spirits. It increases the frequency of spirit spawns and extends their duration through skills like Answered Call.
In addition to ancestral summons, the Warbringer can access spiritual powers that grant additional buffs and new abilities. For example, the Jade Heritage skill provides a new armor ability that enhances the Warrior’s defensive strength.
- Another key feature of the Warbringer Ascendancy is the enhanced use of war cry abilities. Passive skill nodes improve and modify War Cry skills, boosting their effects or strengthening existing ones.
For example, skills like Warcaller’s Bellow cause corpses to explode when a War Cry is used, adding an offensive element. Another skill, Greatwolf’s Howl, allows players to bypass war cry cooldowns, enabling the Warrior to maintain constant buffs.
Overall, the Warbringer Ascendancy shapes the Warrior’s playstyle to focus on being a semi-summoner and self-enhancer, relying on buffs and support from war cry skills and ancestral spirits.
Skills: Below are the skills of the Warbringer Ascendancy class that were mentioned and showcased during the livestream:
- Anvil’s Weight: Breaks Armor by 10% of the Hit Damage dealt.
- Imploding Impacts: You can reduce enemy Armor to below 0.
- Jade Heritage:
- Consumes all stacks of Jade to grant a buff that absorbs damage from hits for a duration, up to a maximum based on the amount of Jade consumed. While encased, you cannot move or take actions.
- Gain one stack of Jade per second.
- Answered Call:
- Each of your Totems will summon an Ancestral Spirit Minion to fight alongside you. If the Totem that summoned the Minion dies, the Ancestral Spirit will also be destroyed.
- Summon Ancestral Spirits whenever you place a Totem.
- Wooden Wall: 20% of damage from hits is absorbed by the nearest Totem’s Life before it affects you.
- Renly’s Training: Gain 40% Base Chance to Block from your equipped Shield, instead of using the Shield’s original value.
- Turtle’s Charm:
- 35% reduced Block chance.
- Can block damage from all hits while the Shield is not raised.
- Warcaller’s Bellow: Corpses in your presence explode when you use a Warcry, dealing 25% of their Life as Physical Damage.
- Greatwolf’s Howl: Bypass Warcry cooldowns.
2. Titan
The Titan is an Ascendancy class under the Warrior class in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2), specializing in powerful hits, strong stuns, and continuous earth-based attacks. Explore the Titan Ascendancy’s overview and its skills below.
Titan Ascendancy Mechanics and Skills
Mechanics:
- The Titan Ascendancy class focuses on boosting the damage of the Warrior’s powerful attacks and improving the effectiveness and reliability of stunning enemies. With skills like Crushing Impacts, the Warrior’s hits become more powerful and can consistently stun foes.
Stuns also gain added benefits from skills like Surprising Strength, making stunning enemies an even more important part of the Warrior’s playstyle.
- In addition, this Ascendancy class makes earth-based attacks more common in combat. With skills like Earthbreaker, Aftershocks can now be triggered by basic attacks, rather than only by active skills like Earthquake.
Overall, focusing on this Ascendancy turns players into heavy hitters, with a playstyle centered around dealing massive area damage in just a few strikes and using Stuns to control enemy movement while dealing damage.
Skills: Below are the Titan Ascendancy class skills that were highlighted and showcased during the livestream:
- Stone Skin: 50% increased Armour from your equipped Body Armour.
- Earthbreaker: 20% chance for Slam Skills you perform to trigger Aftershocks.
- Ancestral Empowerment: Each Slam Skill you use is Ancestrally Boosted.
- Colossal Capacity: Carry a Chest that adds 20 Inventory Slots.
- Hulking Form: 50% increased effect of Small Passive Skills.
- Crushing Impacts: Your Hits count as Crushing Blows.
- Surprising Strength: 40% increased damage against heavily stunned enemies.
- Mysterious Lineage: 15% increased Maximum Life.
Path of Exile 2 Base Class: The Ranger
The Ranger is a ranged class that focuses on dealing physical damage rather than magic. Unlike the Sorceress, the Ranger is highly agile, able to vault away when necessary. She excels at dealing physical and elemental bow damage from a distance and has the unique ability to shoot while moving, giving her a significant advantage in combat. While there is a slight movement penalty, basic arrow skills can still be fired on the move, allowing the Ranger to reposition and keep attacking.
Key elements for the Ranger include lightning, poison, fire, frost, and the use of plants and vines. Her ability to shoot while moving provides a lot of freedom on the battlefield. As a dexterity-based class, the Ranger is known for her quick attacks, agility, and proficiency with bows. The Ranger starts in the lower right area of the passive skill tree, near Cold Damage, Critical Strike, Bow Damage, Flask Effect, Evasion, and Attack Speed.
Path of Exile 2: Ranger Ascendancies
1. Deadeye
The Deadeye is an Ascendancy class under the Ranger class in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2), specializing in swift movement and fast attacks. Explore the Deadeye Ascendancy’s overview and its skills below.
Deadeye Ascendancy Mechanics and Skills
Mechanics: The Deadeye Ascendancy class enhances the Ranger’s mobility and damage output. It offers powerful buffs to bow abilities through passive skills like Endless Munitions and Eagle Eye, which increase projectile shots and eliminate accuracy restrictions. This allows for higher damage in less time.
Overall, the Deadeye Ascendancy enhances the run-and-gun playstyle that the base Ranger already excels at. With movement improvements from skills like Gathering Winds and the aforementioned abilities, players can easily dodge enemies while dealing significantly increased damage.
Skills: Below are the Deadeye Ascendancy class skills that were highlighted and showcased during the livestream:
- Avidity: 30% chance that instead of gaining Frenzy Charges, you gain up to your maximum Frenzy Charges.
- Thrilling Chase: There is a 50% chance that the benefits of consuming Frenzy Charges for your Skills will be doubled.
- Eagle Eyes: You have no Accuracy penalty at a distance.
- Point Blank: Projectiles deal 20% more Hit Damage to targets within the first 3.5 meters of their movement, with the damage decreasing gradually until it reaches 0% after 7 meters.
- Far Shot: Projectiles deal 0% more Hit Damage to targets within the first 3.5 meters of their movement, with the damage increasing gradually to 20% after traveling 7 meters.
- Endless Munitions: Skills fire one extra Projectile.
- Called Shots: You can apply one more Mark.
- Gathering Winds:
- Gain Tailwind on using a Skill.
- Tailwind is lost when you are Hit.
- Wind Ward: 3% reduced Damage taken per Tailwind.
2. Pathfinder
The Pathfinder is an Ascendancy class under the Ranger class in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2), focusing on using poison and various concoctions to their advantage. Explore the Pathfinder Ascendancy’s overview and skills below.
Pathfinder Ascendancy Mechanics and Skills
Mechanics:
- The Pathfinder Ascendancy class lets the Ranger throw different concoctions, consuming flask charges with each use. Each concoction has various effects depending on the situation, and using them strategically can provide a combat advantage.
For instance, the Bleeding Concoction causes enemies to bleed, dealing damage over time, while the Fulminating Concoction applies Shock, making enemies more susceptible to damage.
- In addition to Concoctions, the Pathfinder also boosts the potency of poison effects, making them more lethal than ever.
Passive skills like Overwhelming Toxicity and Contagious Contamination enhance poison’s effectiveness in combat, making it easier to poison enemies and increasing the damage they take from accumulating poison stacks.
- Similar to the Deadeye, the Pathfinder Ascendancy class enhances the Ranger’s mobility with skills like Running Assault and Relentless Pursuit, which reduce attack movement penalties and grant immunity to being slowed.
This makes the class well-suited for a run-and-gun playstyle, allowing players to throw concoctions while on the move, rather than just rapidly firing arrows.
Skills: Below are the Pathfinder Ascendancy class skills that were highlighted and showcased during the livestream:
- Connected Chemistry: 50% more Flask Charges are gained.
- Enduring Elixirs:
- Life Flask effects are not removed when unreserved life is filled.
- Life Flask effects do not queue.
- Contagious Contamination: The most damaging poison on enemies you kill is spread to other enemies within 1.5 meters.
- Overwhelming Toxicity:
- You can inflict twice as many poisons on enemies.
- 35% reduced poison duration.
- Brew Concoction: Consumes charges from your Mana Flask to throw a bottle that explodes, dealing unarmed damage in an area based on the brew used.
- Poisonous: Chaos damage and Poison have increased effectiveness.
- Fulminating: Lightning damage and applies Lightning Exposure.
- Shattering: Cold damage and applies Cold Exposure.
- Explosive: Fire damage and applies Fire Exposure.
- Bleeding: Physical damage and Bleed has increased effectiveness.
- Traveler’s Wisdom: Provides 5 Passive Skill Points.
- Running Assault: 30% reduced Movement Speed penalty while using skills while moving.
- Relentless Pursuit: Your speed is not affected by slow effects.
Path of Exile 2 Base Class: The Witch
The Witch Class in Path of Exile is great for players who want to control a powerful army of undead minions. While other classes can summon a few minions, the Witch excels at commanding a large variety of them. She uses a special weapon, the Scepter, to summon minions like warriors and also generate a resource called spirit.
The spirit bar, which is shown above your mana, is important for summoning minions. You use spirit to choose what kind of minions to summon and how many you can have. The Witch also uses chaos-based spells that deal damage over time and weaken enemies. The Infernalist ascendancy focuses on using fire and demonic powers. Minions automatically come back to life after dying, and you can control them, telling them where to go or what to attack.
The Witch specializes in dark magic, summoning undead creatures like Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages, and Zombies, and using spells that deal chaos damage. The number and strength of your minions depend on your spirit. Spells like Contagion and Essence Drain deal ongoing damage and spread harmful effects to nearby enemies.
Path of Exile 2: Witch Ascendancies
1. Infernalist
The Infernalist is an ascendancy for the Witch class in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2), centered around tapping into the forces of hellfire and brimstone. Discover more about the Infernalist’s mechanics and its confirmed skills.
Infernalist Ascendancy Mechanics and Skills
Mechanics:
- When the Witch ascends to the Infernalist, she forms a Pyromantic Pact that empowers her flamebound incantations. This pact replaces the standard mana bar with Infernal Flame, where each spell cast builds up Infernal Flame instead of using mana.
With the Pyromantic Pact, you can cast your spells without worrying about mana usage. However, you’ll need to manage your skill usage carefully to maintain stable levels of Infernal Flame, as exceeding its maximum cap will cause significant damage to you.
This system either requires you to hold back on using your abilities to stabilize your heat levels or sacrifice some of your health to unleash greater power. In essence, the Infernalist demands a high-risk, high-reward playstyle that will keep you constantly engaged!
- As an envoy of the Infernal Flame, the Infernalist commands the forces of hell in addition to their undead summons. Similar to the Loyal Hellhound, hell-based minions will likely deal Fire damage, complementing and enhancing the Infernalist’s abilities.
Skills: The Infernalist ascendancy is fully centered around mastering the Infernal Flame mechanic to unleash hell on earth and drag enemies into the depths of hell. Below are the skills featured in the Infernalist Ascendancy showcase:
- Altered Flesh:
- 20% of Cold Damage taken is converted to Fire Damage
- 20% of Lightning Damage taken is converted to Fire Damage
- 20% of Physical Damage taken is converted to Chaos Damage
- Beidat’s Gaze:
- Reserves 25% of Life
- +1 to Maximum Mana for every 6 Maximum Life
- Beidat’s Will:
- Reserves 25% of Life
- +1 to Maximum Spirit for every 25 Maximum Life
- Beidat’s Hand:
- Reserves 25% of Life
- +1 to Maximum Shield for every 8 Maximum Life
- Demonic Possession: Transform into a demon, greatly enhancing the power of your Spells. While in Demon form, you gain Demonflame every second, causing your life to drain at an increasingly rapid rate. You will revert to human form if your life reaches 1, you use a non-Spell Skill, or you reactivate this Skill.
- Mastered Darkness: Maximum 10 Demonflame
- Pyromantic Pact:
- Maximum Mana is replaced by Maximum Infernal Flame
- Gain Infernal Flame instead of using Mana for Skill costs
- Take Fire Damage equal to your Maximum Life and Energy Shield when Infernal Flame reaches its maximum
- Lose all Infernal Flame when it reaches its cap
- Lose 10% of Infernal Flame per second if none was gained in the last 2 seconds
- Bringer of Flame: As long as your Infernal Flame is not low, all Damage dealt by you and Allies within your presence contributes to Ignite Chance and Magnitude.
- Seething Body: While at High Infernal Flame, you and Allies within your presence gain 20% of your Damage as Fire Damage.
- Loyal Hellhound:
- Grants Skill: Summon Infernal Hound
- 20% of Damage from Hits is absorbed by your Hellhound’s life before affecting you.
- Grinning Immolation:
- Become Ignited when you land a Critical Hit, taking 15% of your Life and Energy Shield as Fire Damage per second.
- 30% increased Critical Damage Bonus.
2. Blood Mage
The Blood Mage is an ascendancy for the Witch class in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2), harnessing their own vitality to power their spells while draining the life force of their enemies. Discover more about the Blood Mage’s mechanics and confirmed skills.
Blood Mage Ascendancy Mechanics and Skills
Mechanics:
- Upon ascending to the Blood Mage, the Witch delves into the art of Sanguimancy, channeling her life energy into her spells. Sanguimancy imposes a life cost equal to the spell’s base mana cost, meaning you sacrifice HP to cast your abilities.
To offset this blood cost, Sanguimancy introduces the Life Remnants skill, which causes every enemy killed to drop a life orb that restores the HP spent.
While Sanguimancy may seem risky at first, progressing through the Blood Mage’s skill tree reveals synergies that enhance and support this self-damaging playstyle. Ultimately, the Blood Mage ascendancy requires a self-sustaining, high-risk approach that challenges your build knowledge!
- Blood Mages are renowned for their immense vitality, as they sacrifice their own life force to fuel their spells. As an exclusive perk of their ascendancy, Blood Mages can double the cap of their HP reserves.
Not only can Blood Mages deal devastating amounts of damage, but they are also resilient enough to endure the toll, allowing for a potential Strength/Wisdom build.
Skills: The Blood Mage ascendancy revolves around mastering the management of one’s life force to sustain HP while overwhelming enemies with empowered spells. Below are the skills featured in the Blood Mage Ascendancy showcase:
- Sanguimancy:
- Grants Skill: Life Remnants
- Skills have a Base Life Cost equivalent to their Base Mana Cost.
- Vitality Siphon: 10% of Spell Damage is leeched as Life.
- Open Sores: Your Curses have unlimited Duration.
- Blood Barbs:
- Gain 10% of Damage as additional Physical Damage
- Elemental Damage contributes to the magnitude of Bleeding
- Gore Spike: +1% Critical Damage Bonus for every 40 Life.
- Sunder the Flesh: Spells have a Base Critical Hit Chance of 15%.
- Grasping Wounds: 25% of Life lost from Hits is prevented and instead taken as damage over 4 seconds.
- Crimson Power: Gain additional Maximum Life equal to the Energy Shield provided by your equipped Body Armour.
Path of Exile 2 Base Class: The Mercenary
The Mercenary class in Path of Exile 2 delivers a unique ranged combat experience focused on crossbows, ammo, and attachments. As a Strength/Dexterity hybrid class, the Mercenary emphasizes crossbow-based gameplay, offering an experience unlike any other RPG. Rather than relying heavily on skills or passive nodes, players can customize their playstyle by selecting various crossbows, ammo types, and attachments, each influencing their approach to combat.
At the core of the Mercenary’s gameplay is the versatile crossbow system, offering weapon archetypes inspired by real-world firearms. Players can opt for sniper rifle-style crossbows for precise, long-range attacks; assault rifle-like crossbows for rapid-fire projectiles; shotgun-style crossbows for devastating close-range bursts; or SMG-inspired crossbows for high-speed attacks. Each crossbow type comes with unique mechanics, making them ideal for either clearing mobs or tackling powerful bosses.
Attachments further enhance the Mercenary’s versatility, with most crossbows capable of equipping underslung modifications. Grenade launchers, for example, allow players to unleash devastating area-of-effect (AoE) attacks, such as fire grenades for clearing clustered enemies. These attachments are more than just cosmetic—they are integral to the Mercenary’s build, enabling creative solutions to complex combat scenarios.
Adding another layer of depth is the ammo system, which is central to the Mercenary’s customization. Ammo isn’t just about dealing damage—it’s about controlling the battlefield, applying utility effects, and amplifying strategic options. Different ammo types offer unique benefits, such as armor-piercing rounds for dealing with heavily armored foes or elemental rounds like incendiary and frost for crowd control and additional utility.
Path of Exile 2: Mercenary Ascendancies
1. Witchhunter
The Witchhunter is an ascendancy of the Mercenary class in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2), focused on eliminating the occult. Discover more about the Witchhunter’s mechanics and confirmed skills.
Witchhunter Ascendancy Mechanics and Skills
Mechanics: Witchhunters, with their deep understanding of the occult, specialize in hunting Witches, Undead and Demons.
Each of the Witchhunter’s skills is designed to weaken the strengths of those affected by the arcane, though this comes at the cost of some of their natural physical abilities.
Skills: The Witchhunter ascendancy is centered around exploiting the weaknesses of the occult forces in Wraeclast. Below are the skills featured in the Witchhunter Ascendancy showcase:
- Weapon Master: 20 Passive Skill Points are converted into Weapon Set Skill Points.
- Pitiless Killer: Culling Strikes instantly kill normal enemies whose life is at 30% or lower. For Magic enemies, the threshold is 20%, for Rare enemies it’s 10%, and for Unique enemies, it’s 5%. These thresholds are checked before the damage from the hit is applied.
- Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Hits against enemies at full life remove between 5% and 30% of their life, before the damage from the hit is applied.
- Witchbane:
- Enemies have a maximum Concentration equal to 40% of their Maximum Life.
- Break an enemy’s Concentration on hit by 100% of the damage dealt.
- Enemies regain 10% of their Concentration every second if they haven’t lost any in the past 5 seconds.
- No Mercy: Deal up to 30% more damage to enemies based on the amount of Concentration they are missing.
- Obsessive Rituals:
- Grants the Skill: Sorcery Ward.
- 50% reduced Armour and Evasion Rating.
- Ceremonial Ablution:
- 50% increased effectiveness of Sorcery Ward.
- Sorcery Ward recovers 50% more quickly.
- Zealous Inquisition:
- 10% chance for enemies you kill to explode, dealing 100% of their maximum life as Physical Damage.
- The chance is doubled against Undead and Demons.
2. Gemling Legionnaire
The Gemling Legionnaire is a Mercenary ascendancy class that boosts its powers by embedding gems into its flesh. This class can gain additional skill slots, elemental resistances, and use any gem color without being restricted by attribute requirements.
Gemling Legionnaires also have the ability to enhance the quality of their gems, improving their effectiveness.
Gemling Legionnaire Ascendancy Mechanics and Skills
We are currently updating this section, please check back soon.
Path of Exile 2 Base Class: The Monk
The Monk is a new class that focuses on using elemental damage and has intelligence and dexterity attributes. It starts near the Shadow class on the passive skill tree and gains early access to skills that boost lightning and cold damage, as well as defensive abilities like Spell Suppression and Energy Shield. The Monk’s main weapon is the Quarterstaff, which rolls attack modifiers. Monks specialize in fast melee combat with elemental damage.
For powerful attacks, Monks can use skills like Falling Thunder, Killing Palm, and Glacial Cascade. They can further specialize through two Ascendancy classes: Invoker, which enhances skills, inflicts ailments, and boosts elemental magic; and Acolyte of Chayula, which uses the Spirit of Darkness to deal damage. Monks can crowd-control enemies, freeze them, and deal area damage while staying active and mobile.
The key aspects of playing a Monk are mobility, elemental effects, and using skills dynamically. New skills like Frozen Locus and Vaulting Impact improve movement. Shocking and freezing attacks can weaken enemies and increase damage. The Monk is a great choice for players who enjoy fast-paced combat and elemental power, balancing offense, defense, and speed.
Path of Exile 2: Monk Ascendancies
1. Invoker
The Invoker is an Ascendancy for the Monk class in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2) that specializes in harnessing elemental powers. Discover more about the Invoker’s mechanics and confirmed skills.
Invoker Ascendancy Mechanics and Skills
Mechanics: The Invoker combines their martial skills with elemental power, delivering quick and powerful attacks that inflict status ailments on enemies. Although they use all three elements, Invokers can focus on either Ice or Lightning, adjusting their base attacks to align with their chosen element.
Skills: The Invoker Ascendancy mainly focuses on using Wind, Ice, and Lightning elements to deal damage and inflict status ailments on enemies. Below are the skills displayed in the Invoker’s Ascendancy showcase:
- Lead me through Grace…
- Gain 1 Spirit for every 6 Energy Shield on your equipped Body Armour.
- Gain 1 Spirit for every 15 Evasion Rating on your equipped Body Armour.
- Spirit cannot be gained from Equipment.
- …and Protect me from Harm: Evasion Rating also provides Physical Damage reduction, with 40% less effectiveness based on your Evasion Rating.
- Faith is a Choice: Channels to recharge Energy Shield and can overcharge it up to twice its normal maximum. Channeling ends if you take damage or if your Energy Shield reaches double its normal maximum. This skill cannot be used if your Energy Shield is already at double its normal maximum or if you have no maximum Energy Shield.
- I am the Blizzard: Gain 10% of your Damage as Extra Cold Damage against Frozen enemies, creating Chilled Ground.
- I am the Thunder…
- Gain 10% of your Damage as Extra Lightning Damage.
- 25% chance to create Shocked Ground when hitting Shocking enemies.
- … and I Shall Rage: Gain Unbound Fury by inflicting Elemental Ailments with Hits on enemies. When you reach maximum Unbound Fury, consume it to become unbound for a duration, greatly enhancing your Elemental abilities.
- The Soul Springs Eternal: Meta Skills gain 35% increased Energy.
- Sunder my Enemies… : Critical Hits bypass non-negative Elemental Resistances of Enemy Monsters.
- … and Scatter Them to the Winds:
- Grants the Skill: Elemental Expression
- Trigger Elemental Expression on a Melee Critical Hit.
2. Acolyte of Chayula
The Acolyte of Chayula is a Monk ascendancy in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2) that harnesses the power of darkness. Discover more about its mechanics and confirmed skills.
Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy Mechanics and Skills
Mechanics: Acolytes of Chayula tap into the forces of darkness, exchanging their Spirit resource for Darkness. This new resource allows them to absorb damage and enhance their own. Rather than focusing on elemental mastery, Acolytes specialize in dealing chaos damage alongside their martial skills.
Skills: The Acolyte of Chayula uses chaos to amplify their damage while sustaining their life and mana. Below are the skills featured in the Acolyte of Chayula’s ascendancy showcase:
- Ravenous Doubts: Mana Leech occurs instantly.
- Consuming Questions:
- Energy Shield cannot be recharged.
- Mana Leech effects also restore Energy Shield.
- Chayula’s Gift:
- +10% to Maximum Chaos Resistance
- Chaos Resistance is increased twofold.
- Reality Rending:
- 23% chance to gain 25% of damage dealt with hits as extra Chaos damage
- 13% chance to gain 50% of damage dealt with hits as extra Chaos damage
- 7% chance to gain 100% of damage dealt with hits as extra Chaos damage
- Waking Dream: Creates a Breach around you, revealing nearby Flames of Chayula. While this skill is active, you are considered to be within a Breach.
- Lucid Dreaming: The effect and duration of Flames of Chayula on you are doubled.
- Embrace the Darkness:
- Remove all Spirit
- Base Maximum Darkness is 100
- For each Life or Energy Shield lost to damage, reserve 1 Darkness instead, if possible. Darkness reservation lasts for 10 seconds
- +5 to Maximum Darkness per level
- Grasp of the Void: Gain 1% of damage as extra Chaos damage for every 20 unreserved Darkness.
- Inner Silence: 50% reduced duration of Darkness reservation.
And there you have it, all the information you need to know about the 12 Ascendancy Classes in Path of Exile 2!