Path of Exile 2’s early access has six distinct classes with two Ascendancies or subclasses each. That number will increase upon release, but in the meantime: which of these classes is the best so far? Several builds out there have trouble getting past the campaign bosses but get extremely strong in the late game. Some are strong throughout, and we’ve even seen one get an immediate nerf.
So here are the best classes in Path of Exile 2’s early access.
Path of Exile 2 Early Access Class Tier List
S Tier | Sorceress and Witch |
A Tier | Ranger |
B Tier | Mercenary and Monk |
C Tier | Warrior |
S Tier – Sorceress and Witch
The spellcaster classes top the list as SRS or Summon Raging Spirit from the Witch and Comet and Spark from the Sorcerer show massive potential from start to finish. Spellcasters are quite strong in the game, as you aren’t exactly going toe-to-toe with the grueling campaign bosses in Path of Exile 2.
Most of your playstyle revolves around casting and kiting, giving you a larger window to dodge attacks and react. However, the Witch’s ability to summon minions and let them do the work makes this class one of the strongest leveling characters in the game.
As for Sorcerers, the Spark build, in particular, shows massive potential with the ability to clear a huge wave of monsters in a few seconds. You can check out our Stormweaver Spark build if you want to try it out.
A Tier – Ranger
The Ranger class isn’t as popular as expected, but strong enough to clear all types of content in the game. Since the Ranger class is almost a carbon copy of the Ranger class/ascendancy in Path of Exile, most veterans strayed away from it to test out new classes.
However, the Ranger class is in a good place since it can also kite enemies and deal damage from afar. Popular builds like Gas Grenade or Magnetic Salvo have been popularized by content creators like CoffeeBns and Fubgun.
The only bad thing about the Ranger is that everyone is going for Deadeye instead of Pathfinder because the Pathfinder ascendancy is quite lost right now with the loss of the utility flasks in Path of Exile 2. Nevertheless, Deadeye is still quite strong, especially when you want something that can handle all the content with ease.
Related: Complete Beginner’s Guide to Crafting in Path of Exile 2
B Tier – Mercenary and Monk
Mercenaries and Monks are probably the two most popular classes outside the Witch class. Mercenaries have a different version of the Gas Grenade build, popularized by Lolcohol and Empyrian — more content creators. The build utilizes different types of grenade skills, focusing mainly on Gas Grenades to clear hordes of enemies.
On the other hand, Monks are probably the most versatile class in terms of build diversity. There are plenty of strong and popular builds like CoC/Eye of Winter, Tempest Flurry, Lightning Comet, and several other elemental-based builds for the Monk. It takes a while for the Monk class to gain power during the campaign, but once you get the right skill gems, it could be A or even S tier.
C Tier – Warrior
While there are many Warrior builds, the class is basically in “hard” mode during the campaign because of its lack of mobility and clearing speed. It takes so long to get a Warrior strong enough, and you would need to be very comfortable with the defensive mechanics in order to blast through the campaign.
Some unintended bugs catapulted the Warrior class to beating bosses in one second (using the charged-up Slam), but it was nerfed immediately. Getting through the campaign with any Warrior class will be a challenge, but once you get your ascendancies and skill gems, it is still a decent class to play, especially in the endgame.
Boneshatter and Totem builds are some of the most popular Warrior builds out there, and they can be on par with some of the best builds out there once you reach the endgame.
And that’s my class tier list for the current version of Path of Exile 2. In future, I fully expect more classes to arise as the game gets new updates, and I’ll be sure to update this article when the time comes.
Published: Dec 12, 2024 2:02 AM UTC