PoE 2 Huntress - Overview, Skills, and Guide
PoE 2 Huntress Guide
Path of Exile 2 is releasing the Huntress, one of 6 new classes releasing alongside the original 6 classes. With 6 new classes, the game will open up a lot more in terms of build diversity and character fantasy.
The Huntress will add a new style of gameplay that’s a mixture of both ranged and melee skills. There’s a lot of unknown details when it comes to the Huntress, as we’ve only seen limited gameplay.
In this guide, I’ll be covering everything we know about the Huntress class and how it works. Let’s jump right in.
Note: The Huntress is planned, but will not be available on December 6th with the release of Early Access. Expect the Class to release some time into the Early Access.
Gameplay Showcase
PoE 2 Huntress Overview
The Huntress is a new class with the DEX attribute. This means you’ll start on the same location on the passive skill tree as the Ranger. (Lower Bottom Right)
This area is close to nodes with things like Evasion, Spell Suppression, Cold Damage, Crit, Flask Effect, Attack Speed, and more.
The weapon specialty for the Huntress class is Spears. This is a new weapon type being added to Path of Exile 2. As the name suggests, there are skills that allow you to throw your spear as well as attack in melee range.
It will be interesting to see how this class comes to life. In general, the Huntress doesn’t appear to be a tanky class, so fighting in melee range can pose a greater danger. If the Ranger excels at ranged combat, we’ll have to see how the melee portion of the Huntress makes her unique and powerful.
Huntress Skill Gems
Of the revealed classes, the Huntress has the most limited gameplay showcase, only showing a few minutes. From the playtests, we have seen skill gems from the image above.
Here’s a rundown of some of the skills we see in the above showcase.
Whirling Slash
Swings your weapon around, creating a whirlwind. Casting more makes the whirlwind larger. When you exit the whirlwind, it will explode, dealing damage.
Spearfield
Rain down spears on an area, slowing enemies.
Puncture
Teleport a short distance to an enemy, puncturing them and inflicting bleed.
Rapid Assault
Rapidly strikes an enemy with your spear.
Of the revealed classes, we unfortunately know the least about the Huntress. Skills like Whirling Slash and Spearfield are great for clearing mobs, while Puncture grants you some mobility. Finally, Rapid Assault is a great skill for dealing single target damage.
The video also displays a skill that hits enemy with lightning damage with your Spear, (Likely Storm Spear)
Huntress Ascendancy Classes
We don’t have information on the Ascendancy Classes for the Huntress, but we do know there will be 3 different ones. The Huntress is a DEX class, so the Ascendancies will likely be thematic towards that attribute.
Considering the Huntress is both a melee and ranged class, we could see Ascendancies that help you specialize in one style. Or, maybe the Ascendancies will focus on other things such as movement speed, evasion, defences, etc.
There’s a lot of possibilities for Ascendancy classes, and we’ll be sure to update this section when we get more information.
Wrap Up
This wraps up everything we know about the Huntress class in Path of Exile 2.
The Huntress is a new class that has an “in and out” style of gameplay. You mix melee skills with ranged skills to adapt to your situation and benefit from both styles.
However, I do have some concerns about this style of gameplay. Ranged classes have the benefit of generally being safer from danger, while melee classes generally have more defenses to tank attacks.
It’s possible that the Huntress will be a jack of all trades class, mixing both styles. On the other hand, the Huntress may also feel weak if you can’t specialize in what makes ranged/melee classes powerful.
As we learn more, we’ll definitely be able to start identifying the new class identity and how it fits into Path of Exile 2.