Summary
The Mercenary is a class designed to makePath of Exile 2players feel like a commando blasting through hordes of enemies. Using a Crossbow with some cool features like the ability to turn bolts into spread shots, launch various kinds of grenades, anduse several types of elemental ammo, the Mercenary is a force to be reckoned with.
This list will shine the spotlight on the best Skill Gems for Mercenary builds, including the strongest of them all, and feature information on the most optimal combinations of Support gems and passive skills to make the most out of them.
Updated Jun 03, 2025, by Lucas Simons: With the recent drop of the Dawn of the Hunt expansion, Path of Exile 2 has suffered some unintended nerfs to some of its classes. Among them, the Mercenary was one of the most affected, with severe reductions to its Elemental Damage, Ailment threshold, and utility build-up. But, it got a sick support Ascendancy Class called Tactician, which has some interesting Perks that make him great for solo or party play. With that in mind, Banner skills have been greatly buffed, so their value has significantly magnified.With that in mind, there are some new additions to this list that reflect these changes, and some tweaks to already existent entries.
Vitality, Cannibalism
Best Perks
Herald Skill Reservation Reduction, Stun Threshold, Ailment Threshold, Tactician: Presence Area, A Solid Plan
Overwhelming Pressence is a Debuff AOE skill that causes Enemies in the Mercenary’s presence to have an 18% reduced elemental Ailment Threshold and 19% reduced Stun Threshold (At base Skill level). This means that they will be easier to stun, and they will receive additional Elemental Ailment build-ups like Freeze, Shocked, and Burning.
Needless to say, this skill was already moderately good prior to Dawn of The Hunt, but now that the Tactician Class exists, it can become extra powerful thanks to this Ascendancy Class Perks that reduce Spirit Reservation, which means that Overwhelming Presence can be stocked with Support Gems without having too much Spirit taken from the players. Having Vitality and Cannibalism active at the same time can be quite powerful, since the players will leech life and regenerate life even faster at a reduced spirit cost.
Level 10, 15 STR, 15 DEX
Magnified Effect, Persistence
Totem Duration, Tactician: Whoever Pays Best, Banner Area, A Solid Plan
War Banner projects an aura that grants 30% increased Accuracy and 8 % increased Attack Damage to all allies (and minions) in a wide area. What makes this Herald Skill Gem particularly strong in Dawn of the Hunt, is that the Tactician Ascendancy Class for the Mercenary has several Perks that enhance both Banner skills, persistent buffs, and also minions.
Even combining several Banner skills will be possible since the Tactician’s Whoever Pays Best perk allows for a second Banner deployment. Combining two of these effects at once is guaranteed to create a powerful synergy that raises the odds for the players considerably. More so, if they’re playing in a party. Another detail is that the new intrinsic skill of the Tactician Ascendancy (Support Fire) scales with Minion Damage, so War Banner will empower the attack and accuracy of this skill.
Level 58, 73 STR, 73 DEX
Upon deployment, Dread Banner grants 0.17 Flask Charges per second, as well as an aura buff for 23% More Stun Threshold and Elemental Ailment Threshold to all allies in its AoE. It is a powerful Persistent Buff skill that can be greatly enhanced with the Tactician Ascendancy Perks, and with Totem Duration perksfrom the Mercenary regular Perks.
Combined with Aura Herald skills like Overwhelming Presence, Dread Banner can cause enemies to be stunned, shocked, frozen, and burned more often. Crowd Control is essential in Path of Exile 2, and if players want to overcome the endgame challenges, having this Banner skill is a must.
Level 26, 34 STR, 34 DEX
Totem Duration, Tactician: Whoever Pays Best, Banner Area, A Solid Plan, Stay Light use Cover, Armour and Evasion
Defiance Banner’s Buff grants 12% more Armour and Evasion, and 8% increased movement speed. With Tactician having new and powerful Perks that greatly enhance Persistent Buffs, plus its focus on empowering Armor/Evasion builds, it makes sense that this banner gains more utility in Dawn of The Hunt.
Path of Exile 2 Mercenary players who are looking into building a decent support build with great mobility and tankiness should pick this Skill Gem and level it up as soon as possible. More so if they are building a Necromancer/Mercenary hybrid or they like to enjoy cooperative play. It won’t take much time until they become the ultimate Tacticians.
Projectile Damage, Chain, Projectile Speed, Pierce
Armor Piercing Rounds will accompany mercenaries from the lowest levels to the endgame like a faithful one-click skill that requires little combo. It is basically focused on breaking armor, piercing several targets, and it can even be modified to bounce between them and cause severe AoE damage. With the latest nerfs in Path of Exile 2 0.2, Armor Piercing Rounds has been greatly deprecated, but it is still great for penetration builds.
The Skill loads a cartridge of fast-flying piercing rounds that will penetrate the first targets they hit, and do consecutively less damage to the targets behind them. At the same time, it will createa debuff in the target called Armor Breaking, which will eventually become Broken Armor. Enemies with Broken Armor take more Physical Damage.
Grenade Damage, Grenade Fuse reduction, Fire Damage
The Explosive Grenade fires a lob of Elemental Fire that has a 3-second delay fuse, after which it explodes in a medium AoE that causes Fire Damage and ignites Gas and Oil. Ignited enemies take additional fire damage over time for a brief period. These grenades are quite useful in dealing with huge chunks of enemies.
When modified with Grenade Fuse Time Reduction, it explodes faster becoming even more lethal for regular enemies. During boss battles, Explosive Grenades serve a better purpose: to combo with other grenade types to create powerful AoEs where boss enemies will constantly lose health and help players deal with summoned minions.
Lightning Damage, Elemental Damage, Shock Increase, Crossbow Reload Speed
Galvanic Shards are a powerful AoE attack (in a conical pattern) that looks like an Electric Shotgun blast and causes Shock and Electrifying build-up on hit. Electrified enemies take even more damage from projectiles and lightning elemental attacks, and spread shock to nearby enemies.
This Skill Gem can wipe entire waves of enemies if combined with Herald of Thunder and Support Gems that increase Shock build-up and Lightning Damage. Combine it with a decent crossbow equipped with two Storm Runesfor an even more powerful effect. If players build for Elemental Damage and Projectile.
30 spirit (base)
Herald AoE Damage, Herald Reservation decrease
Herald Of Thunder is the first Herald skill Mercenary players should unlock since it offers a powerful buff that empowers Electric Damage after shocking an enemy. This translates into a powerful AoE blast that can be modified to blind, cause even more damage, and even chain between more enemies. It will require 30 Spirit from the player reserve to be constantly active, but the payoff is great.
It can be improved using certain support gems, but the spirit cost will increase. To cope with this, select the Herald AoE Damage Passive Skill section alongside its Herald Reservation decrease which reduces the cost of the skill by 4% with each node.
Elemental Damage, Projectile Damage
Rapid Shot is a skill similar to a Gatling gun, it has a brief period of “cooldown” and then it starts shooting a barrage of fire elemental projectiles that can cause Ignition on targets. This skill can be further improved by taking the Ignition, Fresh Clip, Martial Tempo, and Primal Armament support gems. By doing so, it turns bosses into mincemeat in a matter of seconds.
Combine it with Elemental Damage,and Projectile Damage passives, and top it off with Emergency Reload to create a stream of fiery darts that will melt down any foe, no matter how big and powerful they are. Rapid shot also generates Heat, a passive that empowers Grenades and makes them gain extra Fire Damage when per Heat charge.
Grenade Damage, Grenade effect duration increase
Launches a lob that bounces over surfaces and then, after a brief period (2.5 sec) explodes into a cloud of toxic gas that causes damage over time and poisons enemies. Targets who get out of the toxic cloud will remain poisoned for a brief period, and continue to lose health.
Combining it with Bursting Plague, Primal Armament, and Ingenuity will ensure Mercenaries can fill the battlefield with toxic gas, which can be ignited by Explosive Shot, or Explosive Grenade effects for a powerful combo.
