PoE 2Path of Exile 2 Tier List

S-Tier

Deadeye

Bows and Crossbows dominate the game. As far as I understand they sit at the top of the build ladder in terms of all stats except defense. You can still build sufficient defense to level to 100 and do all bosses deathless therefore making the best builds in the game hands down for SC.

Lightning Arrow for Bows and Explosive Shot / Grenades top the best builds you can play this league so far. With Galvanic Shards and Shockburst Rounds coming in second on crossbows.

Recommended builds:

• Fubgun Lightning Arrow
• Ruetoo's Human Rhoa

A-Tier

Lich

Lich Crossbows is currently just slightly worse than deadeye crossbows in speed, single target and coverage. While being very good its just worse. Lich Essence Drain is slightly worse than Lich Crossbow, has the same coverage but much lower single target damage in exchange for defense which kind of doesn't matter in the current game.

• Lich Crossbows
• Lich Essence Drain
• Oscrix Lich build

Blood Mage

Blood mage is essentially a super high DPS build, high def, high coverage with not enough movement speed compared to the higher tiered build. The price tag of this build can get quite huge as some of the base unique items cost a ton.

• Captain Lance's Fireball BM

Tactician

Tactician is a great all-rounder. Has mortar builds crossbow builds and gets big buffs in party play and banners. A Solid Plan is very good atm because you can use multiple spirit reserve supports. Pin provides an excellent defensive option.

• Palsteron's Mortar Tactician

Amazon

Amazon worse deadeye, maybe more damage in a patch where single target does not really matter.

B-Tier

Invoker

Good all around Ascendancy. Not the best at anything except getting tons of ES. Shattering Palm remains a great clearing skill.

• Alkaizer's build

Witchhunter

The new buffs to witch hunter lets you swap huge trees. Making some builds very dynamic in nature and can do multiple builds on 1 character.

• Waggle's Exploding Palm

Titan

Still the king of area of effect which gives you decent clear on Stampede combined with Herald of Ice.

• King Kongor's Stampede

Ritualist

Shit Ascendancy compared to all the bow and crossbow ones but it starts in a good area and is better than any of the choices under this.

Infernalist

While demon mommy provides tons of damage, it is still just legit worse than blood mage in every single way.

C-Tier

Pathfinder

Only good for poison and poison is not very good. Your main node which allows you to run and shoot is essentially worse than tree nodes because it has "less" and not "reduced" penalty. Poison has subpar clear compared to the rest of the bow skills. Decent recovery with Shavronne's Satchel but that's basically all it has.

Chronomancer

Good for recoup and Temporal Chains and both are defensive mechanics that you do not need if you just destroy all the monsters. Blood Mage and Lich are both so good it makes all the other casters look extremely weak.

Warbringer

Corrupting Cry II still has decent clear and shield wall for single target damage making it a decent setup for both clearing and single target. The numbers aren't great but playable and survivability is good.

• Skadoosh's Corrupting Cry

D-Tier

Smith of Kitava - Nothing to really say here, Smith just isn't a great end game ascendency. He doesn't provide anything of value.

Stormweaver - Great in group play for double shock for your friend who actually does damage.

Gemling Legionnaire - Play anything else.

F-Tier

Acolyte of Chayula

Chonk - my mama said if i got nothing nice to say don't say anything at all. (This is a crazy statement coming from Ruetoo's mouth of all people)

S-Tier

Deadeye

De-facto best ascendacy for most build archetypes. The fastest ascendancy in a game where speed is the ultimate premium. New mark nodes enable 100%-200% more critical hit chance at worst, and at best, free 4-mark setup. Charge spending is even more absurd this patch with buffs to Snipe. Lightning Spear and Lightning Arrow still excel as Deadeye builds. Any projectile based caster is likely best on this ascendancy too.

A-Tier

Blood Mage

Best scaling caster ascendancy, possibly with a shakier league start unless you opt for a safe Essence Drain + Contagion + Dark Effigy + Chaos Bolt start before a respec into a later game. Possible levelling alternatives include Living Bomb + Fireball or other infusion-based caster league starts. Life stacking in the lategame with Rathpith Globe + Veil of the Night + Rondel of Fragility/Yoke of Suffering + Adonia's Ego.

Infernalist

Likely the best minion ascendancy.

Also incredible for real builds for players with hands. Cold Snap can be used every 1 second on bosses for fire infusion generation when paired with Loyal Hellhound. Great late-game crit scaling from Grinning Immolation. Demon Form when solved will also be much better this patch with the enabling of weapons + focus. Overall, a high-floor/high-ceiling caster.

Lich

Great defensive ascendancy that also offers supplemental clear early on with Rupture the Soul. While Blood Mage probably gives more damage to the chaos caster archetype now due to changes to Chaos Bolt and offering 15% base crit after Sekhema, Lich gives this archetype a more comfortable playstyle. Also good for minions. Can be swapped into other very powerful ascendancies if looking for more offensive firepower.

Witchhunter

100 Weapon Set passives is absurdly powerful. By default any character can be committing these nodes entirely to a curse + shock setup, offering about 150-250% more damage. There are definitely other setups that have not yet been discovered, but the floor of this node is already crazy strong. Some leaks suggest there were further buffs to this ascendancy. Otherwise, this offers a lot of base damage and supplemenetal clear.

B-Tier

Stormweaver

A few unknowns for this, but power is mostly contingent upon whether or not we need really high infusion generation. Changes to the intermediate pre-0.3 patch notes have made it so Snap can no longer generate infusions from orbs, so Elemental Storm has been inadvertently pre-nerfed.

Amazon

Still a strong ascendancy, but Deadeye does everything better. The nerf to Critical Strike is significant, but accuracy buffs may help in the low end/league start.

Pathfinder

Very good poison ascendancy still. Some questions as to how strong some of the poison skills are, but Poisonburst Arrow is solid. Acidic burst offers good supplementary damage, especially to high duration poison builds that can also benefit from crit.

Warbringer

Svalinn pushes this ascendancy into being insane defensively. The new kit is built for totems and Corrupting Cry builds can be played after first ascendancy. Very high floor ascendancy that got buffs across the board.

C-Tier

Smith of Kitava

One of the least gear reliant league starters. Very high defensive ceiling in the endgame. Mace starts/left side tree still has one of the best campaign progressions in the game, arguably the strongest levelling class. Mini-transcendence mod can be stacked on top of the ascendancy to have very high elemental mitigation.

Tactician

Could be the best ascendancy of the patch - and the fastest ascendancy of the patch. At the low end, probably quite good for Cannons, Ready! and potential scaling with Mortars. Depending on glory generation and banner uptime, it could be the best ascendancy bar none.

Chronomancer

HUGE unknown - what numbers will Inevitable Agony (new ascendancy curse) have? Curse scaling may be incredibly strong, and if it is treated as a hit, the curse detonation may be able to scale with curses or other non-increased sources of multiplying damage. Still a decent defensive ascendancy, especially with Sacrosanctum equipped for eventual multi-hit invincibility. Doesn't offer a lot of upfront damage though.

Acolyte of Chayula

Power is contingent primarily on two factors: the presence/power of Volatility support and whether "Take no Damage from Volatility" counts towards recoup.

Invoker

Okay-ish league starter. Elemental Expression is fairly strong for the first 1-3 days of gameplay. Still a VERY strong hardcore ascendancy with Meditate and QoL buffs to it (but this is a Softcore tier list). May be boosted to A+ depending on the power of Hollow Palm Technique. The addition of Elemental Weakness and changes to Frost Bomb makes Sunder my Enemies... much worse comparatively.

Titan

Warrior is always going to be at least okay at league start because of the strength of Boneshatterearly game. Hulking Form always has insane potential, but a lot of unknown is on this tree.

D-Tier

Gemling Legionnaire

Nerfed and the charge generation node is poor. Benefits from gem quality continue to be nerfed leading up to 0.3 day-by-day. Could still have some very powerful niche interactions, but not standing out immediately. If Gem Studded can be balanced to recieve all 3 benefits simultaneously, Gemling could have a reasonable amount of raw power/qol for mapping. Incinerate could be good on this ascendancy.

Ritualist

Terrible league starter, being almost entirely gear reliant. Top end scaling might be good, but probably not as good as other options still.