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Beginner Warrior Leveling Guide for Path of Exile 2

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1 week ago

December 13, 2024

Christoph Rediske

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Warrior Leveling Skills in PoE 2

Warrior Leveling Build Passives

The Warrior is Path of Exile 2’s Strength-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 almost Soulslike game 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 the max level grind in PoE 2 smoother.

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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 their Ascendancy class in PoE 2.

Core Warrior Leveling Skill Build Advertisement
Skill	Support Gems
Mace Strike (Basic Attack)	Rage Overpower
Rolling Slam	Close Combat Brutality
Boneshatter	Execute Impact Shockwave
Perfect Strike	Eternal Flame Fire Infusion
Armour Breaker	Martial Tempo
Leap Slam	Stomping Ground
Herald of Ash

Active Skills

Rolling Slam into Boneshatter is your bread-and-butter combo for mobbing. Hit once with Rolling Slam, then immediately cancel into Boneshatter if at least one enemy is Primed for Stun. This results in Boneshatter instantly stunning the target, often killing them while emitting a shockwave that damages every other nearby enemy. With Herald 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 to use Armour Breaker to reduce the enemy’s Physical defenses.

Warrior Leveling Build Passives

Armour break warrior passive tree in PoE 2

Priority Passives
Level 1-10	Brutal Smash Sturdy Metal Relentless
Level 11-28	6 points into Strength Nodes Jewel Socket Skullcrusher Split the Earth

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 to get 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 in PoE 2 is too low, consider getting Resolute Technique. WIth it, your attacks will never miss, but they’ll never critically hit either.

Recommended Items

A 2H hammer with high Physical damage in PoE 2

To keep things simple, look for items with the following modifiers:

Increased Physical Damage
Bonus Strength
Bonus Armour
Accuracy Rating/Dexterity
Maximum Life
Elemental Resistances

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 can farm gear in PoE 2 by resetting instances and targeting bosses.