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The Warrior isPath of Exile 2’sStrength-based melee class who specializes in big, hefty swings. They are slow, technical fighters who bide their time and strike when the right opportunity presents itself, offering an almostSoulslikegame experience that rewards patience and quick thinking.
Playing as a Warrior early on is difficult for many reasons, but most of those can be addressed by approaching this class with the right mindset and a good build that takes advantage of its core strengths. Here’s one of the many possible Warrior setups that should make themax level grind inPoE 2smoother.
Updated June 08, 2025 by Marc Santos:The Dawn of the Hunt patch negatively affected most builds, though this PoE 2 Warrior leveling build remains as viable as before. Grinding Gear Games is constantly balancing the game out, so instead of making any drastic changes to this build, we’ve instead added a section containing alternate Support Gems for players to consider. This should help anyone who’s having trouble progressing through the campaign and early endgame.
Warrior Leveling Skills in PoE 2
The following is a starter build that revolves around using stunning targets, breaking armor, blowing up large packs of mobs, and lighting bosses on fire. This should serve as a decent build up until before players start choosing theirAscendancy class inPoE 2.
Active Skills
Rolling Slam into Boneshatter is your bread-and-butter combo for mobbing.Hit once with Rolling Slam, then immediatelycancel into Boneshatterif at least one enemy isPrimed for Stun. This results in Boneshatter instantly stunning the target, often killing them while emitting a shockwave that damages every other nearby enemy. WithHerald of Ash active, this two-hit combo is enough to kill entire screens' worth of common mobs.
When fighting bosses, use Perfect Strike to melt their health bars. Hold Perfect Strike’s skill button until you see your weapon flash, then release it. This guarantees an Ignite proc on any enemy hit. Use Leap Slam to build up the stagger bar, and make sure touse Armour Breaker to reduce the enemy’s Physical defenses.
Alternate Support Gems
Dawn of the Huntadded a ton of new Support Gems, and some of them can drastically affect how thisPath of Exile 2Warrior Leveling build plays. If you’re having trouble with progression, consider picking up these gems:
Level 11-28
You can type the names of these passive nodes in the search bar of the Passive Skills Tree to see where they are.
Like the skill build above, this passive skill setup is a general one that focuses on increasing damage and stun build-up while favoring Mace-specific passives, such as Increased Damage Against Heavy Stunned Enemies and Chance to Aftershock. From here, you can spec into either Heavy Stun or Armour Break effects.
If you’re having trouble surviving, then delay Skullcrusher and Split the Earth toget Polished Iron and Made to Last. The latter increases your Armour by a significant amount, while the latter lets you recoup 15% of prevented Physical Damage as Life. If your Accuracy Rating inPoE 2is too low, consider gettingResolute Technique. WIth it, your attacks will never miss, but they’ll never critically hit either.
Recommended Items
To keep things simple, look for items with the following modifiers:
You’ll get the most damage out of this build with two-handed weapons. Dual-wielding maces or using a shield can also work, but your individual attacks won’t pack as much of a punch. Keep in mind that you canfarm gear inPoE 2by resetting instances and targeting bosses.
