What are the Path of Exile 2 ascendancies? If you’re already spending skills, but want to know at what point in the campaign you can build your character out into a specific subclass, here’s everything you need to know about ascendancy and Ascension Trials.
Each Path of Exile 2 class has access to three ascendancies, though only two are available during the early access build. PoE 2 ascension essentially gives you access to a subclass, allowing you to specialize in certain builds and further develop your character. There are currently six classes available in the early access RPG game, but a further six classes will be added on the full Path of Exile 2 release date in 2025.
Path of Exile 2 Ascension Trials
PoE 2 ascendancies are available in Act 2 of the campaign, check out how long it’ll take to reach Act 2 in our Path of Exile 2 length guide. It’s at this point where you come across Ascension Trials, which are tests you must complete to unlock the ascension subclasses.
In order to ascend your class, you must complete one of the great trials, linked to one of the major cultures of Wraeclast. There are two trials to pick from in early access with a third coming in the 1.0 release.
The Trial of the Sekhemas
The Trial of the Sekhemas is one of the trials, and it’s a tough road ahead as you have to prove your worth by first trapping the soul of a Djinn in a coin. Once you have successfully completed this, the coin is placed on the Relic Altar to begin the official trial.
The trial itself hosts different rooms with their own unique challenges, such as filling a chalice with blood by killing monsters, or avoiding deadly traps. Within the trial, you have an honor meter that takes a hit when you’re damaged by a monster, and if this meter runs out, you are cast from the trial and need to start over by finding another coin.
After each room, you have a choice on how you progress, choosing your path forward by seeing what you can earn from the room ahead, such as keys to unlock chests or a room type you might prefer. Some rooms have debuffs that affect you for the entire trial, but between rooms you’re able to gain boons to aid you throughout the trial, such as Sekhema’s Cloak to revive you once if you die. You can also pick up Sacred Water which can be traded with the Djinn between levels to recover honor or buy boons or remove afflictions.
Once you make it through to the end of the trial and defeat the boss waiting for you on the final level, you can use the keys you’ve collected on the way to unlock bronze, silver, or gold chests, depending on how many and what types of key you have. You can then pick an ascendancy and you’ll have two skill points to use within that skill tree.
The Trialmaster’s Challenge
If the first trial isn’t for you, you could always try completing The Trialmaster’s Challenge. Instead of trapping a Djinn in a coin, you need to seek a token from an entity known as The Trialmaster.
Each chamber starts with The Trialmaster presenting an award and a choice, meaning you have to choose from three tribulations to affect you for the rest of the trial. These tribulations can range from Unstoppable Monsters where monsters can’t be slowed or stunned or Impending Doom that creates rings of chaos that grow over time, detonating certain areas, or turrets that send shockwaves around the chamber.
At the end of each chamber you can pick an award such as a weapon, or you can continue to double down on the tribulations, increasing the reward size. Like the first trial, the chambers are varied and include challenges such as surviving for a certain amount of time or escorting a stone idol to safety through the chamber. Also like the first trial, there’s a deadly boss waiting for you at the end, and the added bonus that it includes all the tribulations throughout the challenge…
All Path of Exile 2 ascendancies
Now you know how to ascend, it’s time for the fun part, choosing which subclass you’ll ascend into from the six classes available. You might want to do this before you pick a class at the beginning of the campaign, so it’s worth reading into what each ascendancy does. As with the passive skill tree, each ascendancy has a mini skill tree that you can spend skill points in.
Witch ascendancies
The Witch specializes in summons and decay magic, read our Path of Exile 2 Witch class guide to find out more.
- Infernalist: Summon a loyal hellhound companion, taking a percentage of damage when you’re hit, as well as setting enemies on fire. Pyromantic Pact replaces your maximum mana with Infernal Flame, which can be used to cast spells, building up until it spills over and you take damage. Use Bringer of Flame to take advantage of high infernal flame, when it’s above 30%, you and your minions ignite enemies. You can also transform into a demon using Demonic Possession, increasing your cast speed and damage, while also making you more vulnerable to damage.
- Blood Mage: A master of life and energy, skills now cost life as well as mana, but monsters killed drop Life Remnants, which can be used to gain back life. Gain an enemy shield with Crimson Power for extra life and Vitality Siphon means 10% of your spell damage is leeched as life. Once life has been replenished, Gore Spike deals increased critical damage bonus based on life.
Sorceress ascendancies
The Sorceress specializes in elemental magic and destruction, read our Path of Exile 2 Sorceress class guide to find out more.
- Stormweaver: A master of the elements, gaining abilities such as Tempest Caller that allows you to cause elemental storms when landing a critical hit with spells, and Strike Twice, so targets are affected by two of your shocks at the same time.
- Chronomancer: Control time by using Time Freeze and time manipulation abilities such as Temporal Rift to teleport back to a previous location, resetting life and mana to what it was in that previous location, and Time Snap to reset cooldowns.
Warrior ascendancies
The Warrior specializes in strength and brute force with slam attacks and warcries.
- Warbringer: Channel the might of the Warrior’s ancestors to gain power, using skills such as Answered Call to trigger ancestral spirits when a totem is summoned, or create a defensive barrier with Jade Heritage, to absorb damage. Warcaller’s Bellow explodes the corpses of enemies when you Warcry, dealing 25% of their life as physical damage, and Greatwolf’s Howl ignores Warcry cooldowns.
- Titan: Maximize your damage by using heavy hitting skills like Earthbreaker to cause Aftershocks from Slam skills, and Crushing Impacts to deal blows with every hit to stun enemies. This subclass is all about power, and skills like Surprising Strength deal 40% more damage against heavy stunned enemies.
Ranger ascendancies
The Ranger wields a bow and arrow, dealing ranged damage with elemental arrows and deadly projectiles, read our Path of Exile 2 Ranger class guide to find out more.
- Deadeye: Become an expert markswoman using attacks such as Endless Muitions so every skill fires an additional projectile, and Gathering Winds to gain increased speed with each attack. Eagle Eye removes accuracy penalty at a distance.
- Pathfinder: A master of flasks and poison, you’re able to choose from several throwable flasks that deal various types of damage, such as Bleeding Concoction and Fulminating Concoction. You can also use Contagious Contamination to spread poison between enemies and Overwhelming Toxicity doubles the number of poison stacks. Running Assault also allows you to move quickly while firing and makes you immune to slow.
Monk ascendancies
A quick and agile melee fighter with elemental magic skills, read more about the Path of Exile 2 Monk class in our breakdown of this new class.
- Invoker: Using the elements to change the tide of battle, such as Elemental Expression to create waves of elemental power, utilizing both the Monk’s magic and melee skills. Faith is a Choice allows you to meditate, doubling your energy shield. You can also specialize in cold or lightning and turn into an Avatar for a powerful rage attack.
- Acolyte of Chayula: Exchange your Mastery of Spirit for Darkness, which can be used to absorb and deal damage. Lean into skills like The Shroud of Darkness, that protects you from incoming damage and Grasp of the Void to deal extra chaos damage from stored darkness, and Chayula’s Gift to double chaos resistance.
Mercenary ascendancies
The Mercenary packs a punch with a crossbow that functions like a gun, flipping between assault rifle, sniper rifle, and shotgun. Read our Path of Exile 2 Mercenary class guide to find out more.
- Witchhunter: Gain a sorcery ward to fend off elemental damage and use skills such as Zealous Inquisition to explode enemies and Judge, Jury, and Executioner to land a large powerful strike on enemies.
- Gemling Legionnaire: Embed gems into your flesh, gaining extra skill slots, extra maximum resistances, and extra support gems.
Now you’re up to date with the Path of Exile 2 ascendancies for each class, here’s whether Path of Exile 2 has co-op, if PoE 2 has crossplay and cross platform progression, and the latest Path of Exile 2 Twitch drops for free items.