The Warrior is a classic ARPG class that features some ground-shattering skills in Path of Exile 2. However, in the beginning stages of early access, many players are already calling for buffs to the Warrior due to the sluggishness of its abilities and weaker attacks in the endgame. While the Warrior very well may get buffed in the future, its currently designed for more advanced Path of Exile players.
Of course, if you follow the right build guide, it won’t matter how much time you have played in the series. Below, you’ll find the only viable Warrior build in the current state of Path of Exile 2.
Warrior Overview in Path of Exile 2
As you might expect, the Warrior is the definition of a melee class in Path of Exile 2. The class’ main damage dealers are two-handed weapons like mauls and maces, which each come with skills of their own. However, players are allowed to switch things up and make use of a one-handed weapon along with a shield if they’re looking to play more defensively. Shields also has its own defensive skill that allows you to block attacks, but you won’t deal as much damage with this kind of build.
Fortunately, Path of Exile 2 allows you to swap freely between two different builds. So, you can have a two-handed weapon on one build and a one-handed weapon/shield on another build. This allows you to easily change up your playstyle depending on whether offensive or defensive strategies are required for a certain fight. You can also dual-wield one-handed weapons and this does come into play with certain skills.
Generally, though, the best build for a Warrior in Path of Exile 2 relies on dealing damage with two-handed weapons, as it’s very easy to get overwhelmed by mobs or bosses if you try to get too defensive.
As a Warrior, you’ll want to put as many attribute points as possible into Strength. The other two attributes, Dexterity and Intelligence, won’t come into play too much unless you want to be a more nimble Warrior. In that case, putting some points into Dexterity could be a good idea for certain gear.
Best Warrior Skills in Path of Exile 2
With the overview of the Warrior out of the way, it’s time to talk skills. The Warrior has access to a wide variety of powerful attacks, but the main downfall of a lot of them is their overall slowness. You’ll find yourself mashing buttons trying to get attacks off quicker, but the Warrior is simply a sluggish class that takes plenty of patience.
For the most part, the Warrior relies on AoE damage to hurt and kill enemies. You’ll want to stay as close as possible to enemies to inflict the most damage possible, but this also means you’ll be taking more damage in return. This is where swapping back between different weapons and your shield can come into play. Using an AoE attack and then changing to a shield to survive enemies that weren’t killed and repeating the process is an effective gameplay loop you’ll find yourself using.
Below, you can find the skills we recommend for the Warrior in Path of Exile 2:
- Mace Strike
- Earthquake
- Boneshatter
- Shockwave Totem
- Infernal Cry
- Leap Slam
- Sunder
- Ancestral Warrior Totem
- Hammer of the Gods
The best Warrior build really can’t come to fruition until you complete Act 3 on standard difficulty in Path of Exile 2. The build’s best skills don’t come until after you get into the acts again on Cruel difficulty. Skills like Sunder, Ancestral Warrior Totem, and Hammer of the Gods are quite effective for mobs and bosses but are unlocked late.
As such, using skills like Earthquake, Boneshatter, Shockwave Tote, and Infernal Cry is going to be your best bet for the early game in Acts 1-3. The build really picks up when you unlock Leap Slam, which pairs perfectly with Bone Shatter and a two-handed weapon. You can use these two skills in concert to deal massive damage and also avoid enemy attacks in the process. Also, using Infernal Cry before performing a combo will only boost the damage you deal, so make sure you’re spamming that as much as possible.
In the early game, Mace Strike is an effective way to clear mobs, but it slowly gets out-paced by other skills. Earthquake, Boneshatter, and Shockwave Totem are decent skills that deal AoE damage, but they take a while to get off.
Best Warrior Support and Spirit Gems
Moving on with your build, your next task is to equip your Skill Gems with the right Support Gems as well as equip some Spirit Gems to grant you persistent buffs during combat.
Here are some Support Gems we recommend for a few skills, as well as the best Spirit Gems to use:
Support Gems
- Martial Tempo (all skills, but Leap Slam specifically)
- Momentum (Leap Slam)
- Holy Descent (Leap Slam)
- Magnified Effect (all skills, but Earthquake/Shockwave Totem specifically)
- Impact Shockwave (Boneshatter)
- Brutality
- Fist of War (Hammer of the Gods)
- Primal Armament (Hammer of the Gods)
- Supercritical (Sunder)
- Concentrated Effect (Sunder)
- Premeditation (Infernal Cry)
- Raging Cry (Infernal Cry)
- Rage
- Deep Cuts (Mace Strike)
- Heft (Mace Strike/Hammer of the Gods)
- Font of Rage (Ancestral Warrior Totem)
- Splinter (Ancestral Warrior Totem)
Spirit Gems
- Overwhelming Presence
- Scavenged Plating
Best Warrior Passive Skills
As you level up with the Warrior, you’ll gain one Passive Point to allocate to the Passive Ability Skill Tree. The Warrior’s skill tree is fairly straightforward, as you want to mainly put points toward Strength, physical damage, and AoE damage.
Here are some Passive Abilities we suggest for the Warrior:
- Brutal
- Sturdy Metal
- Smash
- Unstoppable Barrier
- Blade Catcher
- Beef
- Sudden Infuriation
- Lasting Trauma
- Skullcrusher
- Split the Earth
- Resolute Technique
You’ll also want to put points into different Strength attribute nodes wherever you can, as the Warrior can never have too much of it.
Best Warrior Ascendancy in Path of Exile 2
Finally, we’ve arrived at the Warrior’s Ascendancy, which you can choose after slogging through the leveling process with the class. There are two choices for the Warrior’s Ascendancy, which are: The Titan and Warbringer.
The key difference between the two Ascendancies is what you want to prioritize. The Titan is more about dealing damage while the Warbringer has some more defensive-minded abilities that help you survive against large mobs and bosses. With the current state of the Warrior being a little weaker, we recommend the Warbringer. You can take advantage of abilities like the Jade Heritage skill to absorb damage without it affecting your HP, making boss fights much more bearable.
However, in the future, the Titan Ascendancy will likely be the stronger pick after some buffs to the Warrior as a whole.