The long-awaited sequel to one of the most popular and best aRPGs in history is finally here. Its early access launch has six classes available in total, with more to come as the game continues to be developed over the next six months.
But with the game’s new mechanics and systems, not all classes are easy or friendly for newbies, so here are our picks for the best Path of Exile 2 classes for beginners.
Beginner-friendly Path of Exile 2 classes
Of the six classes in PoE 2, we have selected three as the most beginner-friendly due to their ranged, mobile, and devastating capabilities. These are the Witch, the Mercenary, and the Ranger, and here’s each of them broken down:
Witch
The Witch class offers players a combination of spellcasting and necromancy, allowing them to decimate large groups of enemies using elemental and occult spells and to throw an army of skeletal and undead warriors at them. It’s more or less the best class for beginners in all of PoE 2 simply because the Witch plays itself. She can keep a good distance between herself and the enemies and utilize the undead minions to both tank and deal damage. All you’d have to do is take the Unearth skill gem obtained early in the run and spam it as much as possible to spawn waves of skeletal scorpions that can brutalize enemies.
When combined with Contagion, Raise Zombie, and the Skeletal Warriors, Arsonists, Mages, and Snipers, you’ll have an undead army crowding your screen, preventing the enemies from even reaching you. Enemies killed while afflicted can be risen as Contagious skeletons with Unearth, letting you spread the debuff to any enemy they touch, with each spread dealing more damage. You can already see how quickly the Witch can deal with any group of enemies, though she does have one flaw.
In one-on-one encounters, the Witch can seldom raise enough undead to help her in her fights, which is why you should either upgrade all the Skeletal Warrior spells as much as possible to make room for more of them or simply pick out an elemental spell or two to help you with boss fights. Most bosses tend to spawn minions of their own, which you can utilize to raise more Zombies and Skeletons, which is also a nice touch by the developers. At any rate, the Witch basically plays herself, especially outside of boss fights.
Mercenary
Unlike the Witch and her many minions, the Mercenary is a one-man army, sporting a trusty crossbow with high attack speed and loads of damage. He can keep a tremendous range and distance and take down his foes from afar, not allowing them to come near him. If they do, he has a lot under his sleeve to solve that as well.
From the get-go, the Mercenary receives a solid single target and a multi-target attack, and he is free to switch between them as the situation requires. He can take down vast groups of enemies with his AOE shots, grenades, and other sorts of ranged attacks while also having the ability to focus on a single target and decimate their health bar with relative ease. What he lacks in protection and frontline compared to the Witch, the Mercenary makes up for with his raw damage, with his passive skill tree immediately granting him projectile damage bonuses right off the bat.
Once you find a proper weapon and put some levels into those passives, you should see enemies and their health bars falling like there’s no tomorrow, allowing you to easily push through the game unscathed. Remember to learn how to roll, though, as the Mercenary is no tank and can go down quickly if a powerful foe gets a few hits on him, especially if you’re running him solo.
Ranger
The Ranger is very similar to the Mercenary, but she enjoys a lot more speed and mobility than he does. This quick and lethal class is the perfect choice for first-time players who neither wish to manage minions and spells nor want to be slow and methodical. The Ranger utilizes a bow whose damage and effects are amplified by a quiver, and she is perhaps one of the hardest-hitting classes in PoE 2, at least in the early game.
From the onset, you’ll receive some fantastic AOE skill gems, such as the Lightning Arrow, that chains between enemies, doing great damage. The Lightning Rod and other early spells amplify this effect, giving the Ranger more than enough firepower to take down even the largest groups of enemies. Paired with her fantastic single-target damage output and inherent mobility, she can move quickly, decimate groups, and take on bosses one-on-one with relative ease, fixing that one issue the Witch has with her minion build.
The passive skill tree also immediately gives you buffs to your Evasion and projectile damage, making the Ranger hard to hit and highly effective. Of the three, I’d say she’s probably the easiest, if not the most “absent-minded” class since you still need to do a lot without having the minions around you play the game for you.
