PoE 2 Dawn of the Hunt: Ascendancy Buffs & Nerfs

Path of Exile 2's Dawn of the Hunt update introduced 5 new ascendancies to the game alongside a slew of updates to the older ascendancies, but how have these changes impacted the meta? Read on to find out!

Amazon

The biggest winner for patch 0.2 is a new ascendancy on the new class; the Amazon, a Huntress ascendancy with strong attack-based themes throughout.

The Amazon has cleared the Stormweaver's popularity in patch 0.1 by claiming over 50% of character builds above level 90 by day 10 into patch 0.2. This ascendancy is an offensive powerhouse, with Critical Strike providing easy access to attack based crit scaling and Penetrate allowing the usage of high-accuracy weaponry in place of a more standard craft. Meanwhile Predatory Instinct provides a generic damage boost regardless of build archetype, while Elemental Infusion massively empowers projectile-based builds.

The most popular ability on the Amazon is Lightning Spear, providing incredible clearing, while Storm Lance is a popular option for single target damage.

Whilst the Amazon may lack in defensive options, it more than makes up for that downfall with extreme offensive potential. A true kill or be killed class.

Lich

Another new addition in Dawn of the Hunt, the Lich ascendancy for the Witch class finds itself alone in the top half of ascendancy popularity as the only spell-based archetype in a sea of attack-based builds.

The Lich was an early favourite prior to the launch of Dawn of the Hunt, largely due to the unprecedented Eternal Life notable, but the Lich has a bit more going for it than just that. In fact, whilst the majority of builds on this ascendancy are playing Chaos DoT with skills like Essence Drain and Contagion, the Lich has found itself as the go-to minion class for patch 0.2, taking most of the share from the Infernalist in the previous patch.

Unlike the Amazon however, the Lich is quite balanced in terms of offense and defence, providing appeal to many different types of players as a result.

Deadeye

The Deadeye Ranger ascendancy continues to climb in popularity following not only buffs to this class, but also to the power of Crossbows and their skills, and the introduction of Spears.

Deadeye was a solid choice in 0.1, largely due to it's speed with Gathering Winds being a notably popular option in a game that's typically fairly slow in term of the speed of actions. Patch 0.2 provided buffs to Crossbows and their skills, with Galvanic Shards and Shockburst Rounds being popular options for the Deadeye, making up around a 5th of all builds on this ascendancy by day 10. But the most notable addition is the Spear, with Deadeye Spear-based builds making up about half of all of the builds playing on this ascendancy, and likely more to come thanks to Fubgun's recent Deadeye build using Lightning Spear and Wind Serpent's Fury.

Smith of Kitava

The third and final Warrior ascendancy, the Smith of Kitava is a popular option due to its incredibly powerful defensive loadout in a game with very limited defensive options.

Both Coal Stoker and Forged in Flame together provide incredibly easy resistance capping and maximum resistance scaling, especially when combined with nodes such as Unnatural Resilience and Unique items like Infernoclasp. Meanwhile players using the Smith of Kitava ascendancy can craft their own body armour using Smith's Masterwork, with powerful options such as Support Straps and Leather Bindings in a Path of Exile 2 that currently has very underwhelming deterministic crafting, this is quite useful as a result.

If the Amazon is the offensive powerhouse in Dawn of the Hunt, the Smith of Kitava is the complete opposite, a defensively solved giant with a blank canvas for creativity.

Warbringer

The Warbringer was one of the most underwhelming ascendancy classes in patch 0.1 with less than 0.5% share of characters between all ascendancies. In Dawn of the Hunt this class received the largest list of buffs out of all of them, with many of those buffs hitting on crucial pain points such as Encase in Jade no longer locking the player in place and instead providing a useful Guard buff.

Whilst the amount of Warbringer characters in patch 0.2 pales in comparison to options such as the Amazon or the Lich, this class has still seen a very healthy increase in its popularity, and would likely be higher still if it wasn't for the addition of the Huntress in this update.

Stormweaver

The Stormweaver is by far the biggest loser in Dawn of the Hunt, going from around a third of character build share in patch 0.1 to less than 1% in patch 0.2. The most devastating change was that to mana stacking, a classing GGG triple tap to Archmage, Ingenuity and the Stormweaver ascendancy itself, not to mention the nerf to Spark which has largely left the self-cast spell archetype in shambles even after several buffs to those abilities in Dawn of the Hunt.

This class now lacks a place in the meta, and likely won't find one for several patches until mana stacking receives some needed buffs.

Gemling Legionnaire

Likely the nerfs that everyone saw coming, attribute stacking is significantly weaker in patch 0.2, and at the heart of this archetype was the Gemling Legionnaire with its double inherent attribute bonus perk from Enhanced Effectiveness. The 20% less Attributes modifier that was added to this notable likely would have been enough on its own to remove this ascendancy from its peak of play-rate in patch 0.1, but items such as Pillar of the Caged God also took a hit, and Gemling finds itself struggling to find a place in the new meta of patch 0.2.

Invoker

Possibly the most powerful 'non-cheese' class in patch 0.1, the Invoker's quarterstaff setups blasted through maps and bosses like no tomorrow and were less reliant on powerful Unique items to get the job done, but that doesn't mean they'd survive the nerf hammer in Dawn of the Hunt. Crucial skills such as Tempest Bell took a large hit and the Invoker has massively fallen off as a result, but it still finds itself with a respectable share across all ascendancies in patch 0.2, especially compared to both the Stormweaver and the Gemling Legionnaire.

Infernalist

The Infernalist had two extremely popular archetypes in patch 0.1: minions and spell casters using Demonic Possession. Both of these archetypes took massive hits in Dawn of the Hunt, with Demon Form now requiring maximum Life scaling and therefore needing a different setup entirely, whilst Loyal Hellhound had it's damage transfer mechanic removed entirely in one of the most bizarre changes in this patch, largely nerfing minion setups on this class. The Lich has swooped in to claim a bunch of these archetypes, leaving the Infernalist with just 1% of character share in patch 0.2.

Ritualist

As a new ascendancy for the new Huntress class in Dawn of the Hunt, the Ritualist has had a fairly disappointing showing considering its counterpart, the Amazon, represents over half of level 90+ character builds just 10 days in patch 0.2. Unfurled Finger and Mystic Attunement are both extremely good notables, but they do require good gear before their benefits are fully realised, and the ascendancy overall does feel like the rest of it is a bit lacking just so the extra ring slot can exist.

Ritualist is likely to gain popularity over the duration of a league as the average level of gear increases and having three rings slots starts to really pay off.

Acolyte of Chayula

The Acolyte of Chayula finds itself at the bottom of ascendancy share for the second update in a row, only receiving some buffs to the Embrace the Darkness branch, which is still pretty much unusable due to deleting your Spirit. Meanwhile Ravenous Doubts was changed to allow other Damage types to benefit from Mana leech, but Consuming Questions still requires you to actually be leeching Mana to recover Energy Shield, a serious flaw in its design because leech is immediately removed upon reaching full Mana.

This class will need a serious review come 0.3 if GGG want players to interact with it in any meaningful way, with much of its design requiring full overhauls.

Tactician

Another new ascendancy, the Tactician Mercenary class is also off to a fairly lackluster start which was always likely due to its largely defensive and support-focused design. Look for potential improvements to Cannons, Ready! and Unleash Hell! in patch 0.3 before more players pick up this class.

Titan, Witchhunter, Pathfinder, Blood Mage & Chronomancer

The remaining ascendancies are divvying up a small share of the play-rate between them for patch 0.2. These classes are often lacking identity, with notable options for meta builds that just end up being the less favourable compared to the stronger classes.

The Titan and the Blood Mage are interesting exceptions here considering the strong buffs they received in patch 0.2, but this is an indication of the state of Mace melee and self-cast spells in Dawn of the Hunt overall.

Meanwhile the Chronomancer lost its 30% Life Recoup node in favour of Flood of Echoes which may see some usage over time if spell are buffed in future updates.

The Witchhunter, like the Titan, only received buffs to both its Concentration Damage branch and the defensive Sorcery Ward branch, but these changes weren't enough to improve its popularity.

On the other hand, the Pathfinder had a mixed bag in the Dawn of the Hunt update, with some significant nerfs to the Concoction Skills, a rework to the movement branch and two entirely new notables, but this class finds itself worse off in patch 0.2 compared to the previous update.