10 Tips For Defeating Bosses

Summary

• Level up through grinding mobs to improve skills and stats to gain an edge over difficult bosses.
• Switch to singleplayer for easier boss fights due to lower enemy health and no need to revive teammates.
• Customize weapons with runes to enhance damage and resistances based on boss vulnerabilities for a strategic advantage.

Path Of Exile 2 is not an easy game. Even the best players can easily be overwhelmed, especially by the game’s bosses. From werewolves to Djinns, players have to face dozens of foes that can easily send them back to a checkpoint without missing a beat.

It can be extremely frustrating for players to be up against a boss that they just can’t defeat.

No matter how well they dodge or how hard they hit, sometimes the boss just won’t go down. It can be tempting to give up at this stage; to go play on a different save or just boot up another game. But there are little things that players can try to make those fights ever so slightly easier.

10 Leveling up

Classes Need Experience

It might seem obvious, but this is generally a go-to in any game with a leveling system, and Path Of Exile 2 is no different. Grinding mobs and clearing instances will give players ample experience with which to improve their passives, no matter the class.

Assuming players have a plan for their build, this can push them towards a skill that might just be the edge needed over the boss. If they’re struggling with the boss’ damage, then they can invest in skills, increasing health regen, armor, or evasion. If the boss isn’t losing much health, then investing in elemental or physical damage, or critical chance, will help.

9 Singleplayer

Go It Alone

Switching to single-player is something players can try if they’re facing down a boss that might be demolishing their party. Bosses have higher health when facing a team and going it alone can make defeating them slightly easier, especially if they’re mainly relying on area-of-effect attacks.

This can be a double-edged sword. If a boss is resistant to certain types of damage, then players might find themselves in an even more difficult situation depending on the damage types their build is focused on, or the class they’re playing. But with lower enemy health and no need to worry about reviving teammates, single-player can be a way to get an advantage over certain bosses.

8 Co-op

Group Up With Friends

Players can play with friends in Path Of Exile 2, in both split-screen and cross-platform multiplayer. Getting a few higher-level friends to drop in and obliterate bosses with their extra damage may seem like an easy fix. If only it were that simple.

Higher-level players will scale to the instance they have joined, so players will be dealing damage and feeling hits at about the same level. The main advantages of co-op are the variety of attacks, helping players to deal with bosses that are resistant to specific damage types, whilst dividing a boss’ attention, making single target attacks much less effective.

7 Resistance Items

Charmed I’m Sure

Something newer Path Of Exile 2 players might not have discovered yet or might not know about are charms and rings. These items can be extremely useful when dealing with a boss that relies on elemental damage or effects such as stun.

It’s always a good idea for players to hold on to a few of the rings and charms they find on their adventures. As the resistances stack, these items can severely reduce damage dealt by bosses that focus on a singular damage type, making defeating them much easier. Charms are especially useful, letting players ignore status effects such as freezing or stun that might otherwise doom their chances in a battle.

6 Resetting Passives

A Fresh Start

Resetting passives is crucial for players who might not have planned out their build earlier. A flawed build can make defeating bosses virtually impossible. A player might last a long time in a fight but not do any damage to the boss, or they might hit like a truck only to fall to a single hit.

Passives give players stat boosts and multipliers related to their class and abilities. This includes new abilities that automatically activate under certain conditions, and can allow players to equip new gear, and gain buff to their stats that can allow them to overcome bosses.

5 Memorizing Attack Patterns

Know Your Enemy

Memorizing a boss’ attack patterns is vital in Path Of Exile 2. To veterans of the Dark Souls series, this isn’t going to be anything new. Dodging telegraphed attacks is a staple in that series. But these attacks can look more like something out of Final Fantasy 14.

Massive arena sweeping moves that require players to stand in specific spots or focus specifically on repetitive timing rather than reactions. Where many RPG bosses can be defeated by simply out-leveling them. The bosses in POE2 are designed to give players a challenge no matter what. Sometimes, being killed by a boss is simply a way of learning their weaknesses, providing stepping stones to defeating them.

4 Changing Skill Gems

Gems Are An Exile’s Best Friend

Typically, this will be a tip for newer players. Anyone who has gotten deeper into the game will probably have more skill gems than they know what to do with.

But it is important for players to remember to keep upgrading their skills as they go. An under-leveled skill can be anything from simply un-optimized to downright useless, depending on the skill and level. Players should be sure to switch out support gems to suit the boss they’re fighting. If a boss comes with an entourage, buffs to a skill’s area of effect and effect duration would be useful. If the boss is alone, then skills should maximize damage to make defeating them that much easier.

3 Grinding Better Gear

Back On The Daily Grind

Given Path Of Exile 2’s randomized loot pool, it’s difficult to find weapons that truly give players an edge in a boss fight, even more so if players don’t have a loot filter.

Unique and rare weapons are going to generally have better stats and anything that can equip runes will allow players to decide how that weapon will perform, targeting a boss’s weaknesses. Anything with additional skill stats, armor, or damage might be worth keeping even if it’s under-leveled. If a player is struggling, then trying to find new gear with better stats can really tip the balance.

2 Defeating Other Bosses

Stealing From The Boss To Beat Other Bosses

It might seem contradictory, but defeating optional bosses will almost always give players an advantage in later boss fights.

In act one, for example, players can fight ‘Beira Of The Rotten Pack’ in ‘The Clearfell’, the second area of the game. Defeating Beira will provide a unique item that provides a permanent boost to cold damage resistance. The final boss of Act One primarily deals in cold damage, meaning Beira is a must-beat boss for new players. Other bosses throughout the game will continually give players unique items and useful stat boosts that can be the difference against later bosses. These bosses can be difficult to find, so players should make sure to keep their eyes open.

1 Equipping Runes

Rune Their Day

Runes are Path Of Exile 2’s way of letting the player customize their weapons and armor. Providing enhanced damage buffs and resistances. But be careful, there’s no way to remove them once equipped.

Runes can be a useful way of dealing extra damage to bosses that are vulnerable to certain damage types, or adding even more resistance on top of charms and rings. This requires that players know the resistances and elemental damage used by the boss they’re fighting. A desert rune is wasted on a boss resistant to fire, and a thunder rune won’t protect players from a boss’ cold damage. But, if properly equipped, they can be what stands between the player and defeat.