The Best Builds
For Path of Exile 2 - 0.2.0 Patch

Last update: March 20, 2025

Best Builds and Predictions for Path of Exile Patch 0.2.0: Dawn of the Hunt Expansion

The upcoming Dawn of the Hunt expansion promises to breathe new life into Path of Exile, offering players a fresh opportunity to rediscover the game. With massive balance changes and a wealth of new content to explore, excitement is at an all-time high.

However, it’s important to note that the amount of information we currently have about the new patch is limited. The builds presented here are more of an overview and prediction for the new classes rather than definitive best builds, which will require much more testing once the patch is live. We will continue to update this article as more details are revealed.

While it’s still too early to make conclusive predictions—especially without the patch notes and full item reveals—we do have some insights into what archetypes the five new ascendancies might embody. To help you prepare for the Dawn of the Hunt expansion, we’ve compiled a list that summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of each ascendancy, their optimal use cases, and their potential integration into existing builds. Additionally, we’ll share a few innovative ideas that might not be immediately apparent.

We’ll be cautious about diving too deeply into the Huntress ascendancies since their power hinges heavily on the new content introduced alongside the class. However, rest assured that we’ll keep this page updated with our discoveries as more information becomes available. While the sheer number of additions makes it almost certain that some will be unbalanced, it’s still too early to determine whether they’ll be overpowered or underwhelming.

	Huntress, Ritualist
	The selling point of this ascendancy is the ability to wear one additional ring and increase the bonuses gained from rings and the amulet by 25%; it's nearly certain that all players will go for Unfurled Finger and Mystic Attunement. Ritualists Sacrifice lets you harvest one modifier from a slain rare enemy (like Inspired Learning from PoE1 does), and the passive further on the branch will allow you to get one random modifier on demand at the cost of 20% of your maximum life. It's unpredictable, erratic, and the long animation time to acquire the mod compared to the boon Duration is rather bad, so we doubt it'll be a popular pair of passives, although the concept is fun. Another branch leads to Intricate Sigils and Mind Phylacteries that add a charm slot and let you use them more often. You could achieve a similar result with the Pragmatism Armour, but it was very rarely used before. It might change depending on the new unique charms, but with today's knowledge, we would not recommend this option. The last two passives are Wildwood Persistence, for increased life recovery per missing life, and Corrupted Lifeforce with its signature skill Blood Boil which boosts your clear speed via physical damage over time on kill. It's overall a very versatile ascendancy with no clear gimmick and over-reliance on items, so starting with it in a fresh economy will be tough.
	Huntress, Amazon
	Amazon offers a few ways to boost their damage. There are three four-point branches, each catering to a specific gimmick, to choose from. One can go accuracy-stacking with Penetrate, boss damage with In for the Kill, or elemental infusion/projectile damage with Infused Avatar. This Ascendency offers potent Life Recovery bonuses in the form of Elemental Life Leech and improved Flasks, but does not grant any Damage mitigation. Stalking Pather doubles the evasion from Helmet, Gloves, and Boots, but halves the evasion from body armour. It might lead to potent hybrid setups with pure Energy Shield Body Armours or unique Armours like Cloak of Flame, but it is very Build-specific.  It's more than definitely a glass-cannon Ascendancy with rather mediocre survivability tools. In contrast, its offensive capabilities are impressive and can work with almost any Weapon type, not just the Spears.
	Mercenary, Tactician
	It's a projectile-based/summoner ascendancy. For the solo playstyle, Suppressing Fire and Right Where We Want Them passives could be amazing, and any player who had the opportunity to freeze bosses will attest to the infinite utility of this ailment. It'll make bossing and mapping much safer. Polish That Gear with Stay Light, Use Cover passives will enhance your survivability with the additional stun and ailment threshold. Having your armour and evasion be more effective, be it you won't need as much of it since chance to evade is capped at 50% and physical damage reduction is capped at 50%, is a conditional upgrade similar to that of Imbalanced Guard from PoE1, great if you don't plan to accumulate extremely high armour or evasion anyway. Passives supporting the minion playstyle, or upgrading the persistent buffs' potential, are Watch How I Do It, A Solid Plan, Whoever Pays Best, Cannons, Ready!, and Unleash Hell!. Reducing the reservation of all persistent buffs by 50% is definitely a boon you want in pretty much any build, but it's much more desirable in minion ones since they have to share spirit with such buffs. Other passives we've listed are all tailored to suit more specific archetypes - banners, totems, dexterity/strength stacking, or adding damage to your allies' attack based on your own weapon (it's similar to the rallying cry from PoE1). It's overall a good crossbow/minion ascendancy; it can even support both playstyles at the same time. It's a unique and experimental concept, but it seems like this hybrid class has everything that's needed to pull it off. Pinning enemies and sending your allies to slay them seems safe, and all you need for it is a weapon with high damage.
	Warrior, Smith of Kitava
	Coal Stoker and Forged in Flame are the two most prominent passives defensive-wise; they make this ascendancy unmatched when it comes to mitigating elemental damage. You should now each 90% fire, cold, and lightning resistance on it with minimal investment. The damage-oriented passives are Temper Weapon, to enhance your attacks with fiery explosions, Manifest Weapon, to summon a minion-weapon (similarly to Animate Weapon of Self Reflection from PoE 1), and Fire Spell on Hit, which triggers any fire spell on hit once you accumulate enough Energy. That gives you three options to choose from: classic melee playstyle, minion build, or a cast-on-hit archetype. It's also important to mention Smith's Masterwork - a very unusual passive. In exchange for the inability to wear magic or better body armour, you can enhance your character with various bonuses like 20% increased strength or +75% fire resistance. It will definitely be big during leveling, but also might be good in very specific end-game builds. Don't forget that normal Armours don't have to be completely useless thanks to Corruption and Runes. After taking care of physical and chaos damage taken, this one has the potential to become the most durable ascendancy, and we definitely recommend it for players tired of dying. If you don't want to experiment with a new, uncertain build, you can then allocate Against the Anvil and attack with the old reliable Hammer of the Gods. Take a look at the Hammer of the Gods Titan build to familiarize yourself with this idea (this new class is arguably better suited for it than Titan anyway). After all, you can always re-roll into something more novel later on.
	Witch, Lich
	Lich is undoubtedly the most exciting Ascendancy in the new Patch. The Eternal Life might be the strongest defensive Notable in the game, surpassing even the Smith of Kitava, but is much harder to properly utilise. As long as you can retain your Energy Shield, your Life cannot be changed, so any Damage that bypasses your ES will be nullified. The obvious choices are Items like Atziri's Disdain or the Black Doubt, which would mean over 40% Damage Mitigation or immunity against DoTs, but be careful, as those Items might receive a substantial nerf to their potential or rarity. Another interesting Unique is the Burden of Shadows, which grants you extra Chaos Damage and converts Mana Costs to Life Costs. Keep in mind the Soulless Form can prove to be problematic in terms of Mana Sustain, as we all know how problematic Mana Costs can become once you raise the Gem Levels too much.  Other aspects of this Ascendency are also powerful. You can get the Unholy Might Buff and scale its effect with Mana, explode Cursed Enemies, or massively boost your Spells with Power Charges or by spending a small percent of your Energy Shield upon every Cast.  The last passive worth looking into is the Crystalline Phylactery. It increases the mana cost of skills if you have no Energy Shield, but increases the effect of a non-unique basic jewel socketed there by 100%. It's incredibly strong if you have an equally strong jewel.

Evolving Builds for Dawn of the Hunt: Share Your Best Strategies

This list is just the beginning! Dawn of the Hunt is still fresh, and as players experiment and optimize their builds, the meta will continue to evolve. We expect further adjustments as new strategies emerge, especially with potential updates and community discoveries.

If you’ve found a build that’s performing exceptionally well or have a unique setup you’d like to share, let us know in the comments. We are committed to keeping this guide up-to-date throughout the expansion and beyond, adding new builds and refining existing ones based on player feedback and ongoing gameplay developments.

We hope this guide helps you find the perfect build for your journey in Dawn of the Hunt! Stay tuned for regular updates, and may your loot be plentiful and powerful.

If you have any other build requests, please leave them in the comments below. Also, we are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.