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PoE 2 Build

Mercenary Pillar of the Caged God Alt Leveling

Mercenary

Speed Leveling

0.5 RotA

Creator

Featured

By Lazy Exile

Updated on Jun 12, 2026

Jun 12, 2026

Build Overview

Hey guys, I'm Lazy Exile, and this is my ALT LEVELING SETUP that works on ANY CLASSES.

Pillar of the Caged God got buff in 0.5 with runeforge and now we can enjoy the once king of alt leveling build flying through the campaign one tapping bosses.

˚₊‧✩*☆˚‧˚ᡣ𐭩︵‿༻☆༺‿︵ᡣ𐭩˚‧˚☆*✩‧₊˚˚₊‧✩*☆˚‧˚ᡣ𐭩︵‿༻☆༺‿

Setup for all other classes here:

Sorcerer, Warrior, Ranger, Witch, Monk, Huntress, Druid

₊‧✩*☆˚‧˚ᡣ𐭩︵‿༻☆༺‿︵ᡣ𐭩˚‧˚☆*✩‧₊˚˚₊‧✩*☆˚‧˚ᡣ𐭩︵‿༻☆༺‿

Disclaimer:

This build is not intended for endgame content and is meant to take you through the campaign from level 1 to 65 only. This build uses a specific attributes-stacking tree and will require you to respec later on to your build.
You'll also need some currency, support gems. Basically, this will need to be done on your second character.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Tanky (Strength stacker)
Big Damage
One Setup for Classes

Build Variants

Level 1 - 30

Level 30 - 65

Check out the tab below for the gear, gems, and skills setup for different progression levels.

Equipment

Level 1 - 30

Level 30 - 65

Set 1

Set 2

Jewels

Equipment Priority

Equipment Guide

Pillar of the Caged God

The concept is simple, we build around Strength stack.

Pillar of the Caged God

Anything that add Strength in our setup directly add more damage to our weapon and therefore our damage.

Very Important that you swap to the Runeforged version at level 38

Grip of Kulemak

For the Grip of Kulemak, you want at least these line:

% increased strength
damage as extra (fire/cold/lightning)

Skill Gems

Level 1 - 30

Level 30 - 65

Support Gem Requirements:

Str 50

Dex 55

Int 40

Falling Thunder

Rend

Herald of Thunder

Pounce

Devour

Storm Wave

Siphoning Strike

Lingering Illusion

War Banner

Gem Priority

+29

₊‧✩*☆˚‧˚ᡣ𐭩︵‿༻☆༺‿︵ᡣ𐭩˚‧˚☆*✩‧₊˚˚₊‧✩*☆˚‧˚ᡣ𐭩︵‿༻☆༺‿

Gem Progression Mini Guide

You can add Lesser Jeweller Orb or Greater Jeweller Orb on the skills, and prepare a bunch of Tier 5 Support Gem ahead of time to bring into campaign.

Act 3

Level 9 Spirit Gem | Lingering Illusion
- Location: Azak Bog
- Source: Ignakduk (drop)

Interlude

Level 14 Spirit Gem | War Banner
- Location: Kriar Village
- Source: Lythara (drop)

₊‧✩*☆˚‧˚ᡣ𐭩︵‿༻☆༺‿︵ᡣ𐭩˚‧˚☆*✩‧₊˚˚₊‧✩*☆˚‧˚ᡣ𐭩︵‿༻☆༺‿

Passive Tree

Level 1 - 30

Level 30 - 65

main:

123

set 1:

set 2:

Attributes

We are stacking attributes for damage, and with Pillar of the Caged God, we only need strength, so for all attribute nodes, grab +5 strength, take other attributes as necessary.

How it Plays

Single Target Rotation

Falling Thunder + Siphoning Strike

Before Siphoning Strike, use Killing Palm or Devour to get Power Charges before boss

AoE Clear

Storm Wave

Buff

Rend

Once you unlock Devour, you can turn into Wyvern and get access to Rend, use it to consume Power Charges and give you Extra Damage as Lightning buff