Path Of Exile 2: Best Classes Tier List

There are six classes available in Path of Exile 2‘s Early Access, with a total 12 planned for the game’s full release in 2025. The Mercenary, Monk, Ranger, Sorceress, Warrior, and Witch PoE 2 classes all play very differently from one another. Though you can expect to clear most content with any class, some classes have an easier time leveling, have more tools to excel in multiple combat situations, or just feel more satisfying to play.

When it comes to the new player experience, the feel of combat, and overall power level across available builds, the best Path of Exile 2 class is either the Mercenary or Monk, but the other options in this PoE 2 class tier list are far from terrible. Though the Warrior is the lowest on this PoE 2 class ranking, it excels in the endgame and on bosses, and Mercenaries and Monks aren’t without their flaws.

This guide to the best Path of Exile 2 classes is based on the state of each class at the beginning of the PoE 2 Early Access, and will be updated for balance changes and to include new PoE 2 classes as they are added to the game.

Updated April 8, 2025 by Erik Petrovich: The best Path of Exile 2 classes vary depending on your playstyle, but when it comes to the game meta, there are a few that are particularly easy to break. With the release of the Dawn of the Hunt Patch, Huntress joins this list of the best PoE 2 classes, ranked – but on launch, the class places pretty close to the bottom of the tier list. This guide to the best classes in PoE 2 has been updated to include this new Spear-wielding melee fusion class, including a brief overview of its primary attributes and weapons, playstyle, and how difficult it is to play.

7

Warrior

PoE 2 Warrior Strengths & Weaknesses

The Warrior pounds the ground with big, chunky attacks and can shrug off the hits of smaller enemies with large amounts of armour.

• Primary Attributes: Strength
• Primary Weapon: Two-Handed Mace
• Warrior Playstyle: Bash enemies to bits in melee combat
• Warrior Difficulty: Medium to Hard

The Warrior is Path of Exile 2‘s classic Melee-oriented class. Relying on brute Strength, and typically wielding a Two-Handed Mace, Warriors in Path of Exile 2 can bulldoze through enemies with their melee attacks and high defenses.

If you like playing melee classes in ARPGs, you’ll have a lot of fun as a Warrior, and can look forward to being one of the best bossing classes in PoE 2 once your build starts coming together. However, Warriors have the same problems as practically every melee class in the ARPG genre: melee combat is almost always much more dangerous than ranged combat.

You don’t have as much room for error as a player who’s 10 meters away from a boss, you’ll get hit by most melee attacks if you don’t dodge out of the way effectively, and you need to stack a lot of Defenses – Warriors can’t take out enemies from off-screen like other classes, meaning they have to deal with in-your-face enemies a lot.

But, if you can follow boss mechanics, build defenses, and don’t mind a bit of a slog while leveling, Warrior can be a lot of fun. It’s more difficult than most classes to learn for beginners, it’s difficult to maximize, but players who go all-in on the Warrior will reap the rewards with some of the best single-target damage in the endgame.

6

Huntress

PoE 2 Huntress Strengths & Weaknesses

Born into a society with strict traditions, she was exiled from her homeland after using the power of a skill gem to defend her village.

As a dexterous spear user, she specialises in both melee and ranged combat, dashing in and out of battle.

• Primary Attributes: Dexterity
• Primary Weapon: Spear
• Witch Playstyle: A mix of both close-range melee and mid-range attacks – plus the ability to summon a Rhoa
• Witch Difficulty: Hard

New with the Dawn of the Hunt update, the Huntress class brings a new weapon and gameplay style to Path of Exile 2 that’s quite unlike any other. The Huntress wields a Spear and is able to dash into and out of melee range while casting a flurry of abilities, and shares the same starting point on the Passive Skill Tree as the Ranger class. Indeed, the Huntress can be used as a ranged class just like a Ranger, but there are some things that set her apart.

For one, a lot of her melee moveset revolves around clever use of her unique Parry mechanic. As one of the only ways to parry and interrupt enemy attacks in Path of Exile 2, a well-played Huntress can dance through melee combat before dashing out to throw her Spear and cast ranged abilities.

The major downside of the Huntress is that, at least in her launch state, this class is not very powerful or fun to play in the early levels. Once you get to endgame, which is significantly harder than it used to be before the 0.2.0 update, Path of Exile 2‘s Huntress class can be a lot of fun to play, but it takes a lot of work to get there, and her fast-paced, high-APM playstyle might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

5

Witch

PoE 2 Witch Strengths & Weaknesses

Death and decay are the Witch’s weapons of choice. She can call forth hordes of undead minions to fight for her while casting powerful chaos spells.

• Primary Attributes: Intelligence
• Primary Weapon: Sceptre
• Witch Playstyle: Summon Minions and inflict Curses alongside ranged spells
• Witch Difficulty: Medium to Hard

The Witch class Path of Exile 2 offers is a spellcaster class akin to the Necromancer from Diablo 2. In addition to a slew of chaos and curse-oriented spells that she can cast from a range, the Witch class is also suited for Minion builds and can create summons with the new Spirit system.

The Witch class is one of the best classes in terms of its theme, and there’s nothing quite like exploring the world of PoE 2 with a dozen minions by your side. But at least in the Early Access, the Witch class can struggle in the early game until she gets access to more Minions and useful spells.

In the endgame, Witches can perform extremely well with a well-supported Minion army, but in contrast to the Warrior class, it can have some issues with bosses. Depending on your Passive Skill choices and your Ascendancy choices, it’s possible to make a Witch that focuses more on direct damage than supporting Minions, allowing you to play a Witch without relying entirely on summons.

4

Sorceress

PoE 2 Sorceress Strengths & Weaknesses

The Sorceress bends the elements to her will, using them to unleash devastation on her foes.

This classic spellcaster weaves a flurry of elemental magic from afar.

• Primary Attributes: Intelligence
• Primary Weapon: Wand
• Sorceress Playstyle: Bend the elements to your will with powerful ranged spells
• Sorceress Difficulty: Easy to Medium

The PoE 2 Sorceress class is the strongest ranged spellcaster class available in the game as of the Early Access based on pure damage in both single and AoE situations. The Sorceress primarily uses Intelligence to fuel her elemental AoE abilities and extremely high damage single-target spells, and has few issues throughout the campaign and beyond with great leveling and endgame builds available.

The downside of playing a Sorceress is the archetypal weakness of spellcaster classes across games – you can dish it out, but you can’t take it. The Sorceress’ defenses are usually extremely low for the types of gear she wears, and getting swarmed by enemies can quickly lead to death if she can’t react fast enough.

Though the Sorceress relies on gear with Energy Shield, which recharges, she can be incredibly squishy and you’ll want to focus equally on damage output and avoiding taking damage while leveling and playing a Sorceress.

3

Ranger

PoE 2 Ranger Strengths & Weaknesses

The Ranger is quick, but deadly, peppering her enemies with arrows and then vaulting away before they have a chance to reach her.

• Primary Attributes: Dexterity
• Primary Weapon: Bow
• Ranger Playstyle: Dart around the battlefield lobbing arrows with ranged attacks
• Ranger Difficulty: Medium

The Ranger class is Path of Exile 2‘s main Dexterity-reliant class, wielding a bow and agile movement abilities to dance around enemies while launching ceaseless ranged attacks.

The Ranger class primarily uses Evasion as its main defensive stat which, in combination with your movement abilities, makes for a playstyle where you hardly ever take damage or stay in one place.

The Ranger has a healthy variety of strong builds for both leveling and endgame, though its Pathfinder Ascendancy is markedly less powerful than its Deadeye Ascendancy. If your Evasion isn’t high, the class can feel squishy as enemy hits land more often, but when you get into the mid and late game you will have lots of ways to react and get out of dangerous combat situations should your Evasion not suffice.

Pick a Ranger if you want to play a ranged class but don’t particularly like spellcasting or the Mercenary’s much slower movement.

2

Monk

PoE 2 Monk Strengths & Weaknesses

The Monk is a fast and furious melee fighter.

He dashes in and out of combat, and has mechanics that involve building up and keeping momentum.

• Primary Attributes: Dexterity and Intelligence
• Primary Weapon: Quarterstaff
• Monk Playstyle: Mobile, complex combat with a mix of melee and ranged abilities
• Monk Difficulty: Medium

The Monk class is another melee-oriented class in Path of Exile 2, but differs from the Warrior in several ways. It does not rely on Strength like a Warrior, it relies on a mix of Dexterity and Intelligence. It doesn’t just brutishly attack enemies over the head with a club, it wields a mix of spells, self-buffs, close-range AoE abilities, and other intertwining, varied mechanics that make Monk extremely satisfying to play.

Playing a Monk is harder than playing a Warrior when it comes to maximizing combat potential, but when you set everything up just right, and have the right mix of abilities for the moment, Monk can be hard to beat in terms of clearing speed and power.

Both of its Ascendancies are powerful, it’s great at leveling and endgame with a variety of strong builds, and the feeling of melee combat as a Monk is faster and more complex than Warrior melee combat.

If you want to play a simple but strong melee class in Path of Exile 2, pick the Warrior class. But if you want something more complex, that can take on AoE and single-target situations equally easily, and has gorgeous visuals for skills, you’ll have more fun as a Monk.

1

Mercenary

PoE 2 Mercenary Strengths & Weaknesses

The Mercenary wields a crossbow that can be loaded with different ammo types, offering versatility, power, and mobility.

He also has options to combo abilities together to devastating effect.

• Primary Attributes: Dexterity and Strength
• Primary Weapon: Crossbow
• Mercenary Playstyle: Mow down enemies with your Gu- I mean, Crossbow, with customizable ammo and Grenade types
• Mercenary Difficulty: Easy to Medium

The Mercenary is the best class in Path of Exile 2 for a few key reasons. The number one thing that makes the Mercenary stand out amongst all PoE 2 classes is its shooter-style ranged combat.

As a Mercenary, Path of Exile 2 players turn the game from an ARPG into a top-down shooter with swappable ammo for the Crossbow that essentially gives it shotgun, sniper, and machine gun modes. You can lob Grenades with a Crossbow, too, which can deal a huge variety of status effects or just explode for massive damage.

The Mercenary uses Dexterity and Strength as its primary attributes, and thus has pretty good defenses for a primarily ranged class as it tends to equip Armor and Evasion gear. With the Witchhunter Ascendancy, Mercenaries sacrifice some of their physical defenses to gain unparalleled defense against non-physical damage with Sorcery Ward, significantly increasing your odds of survival if you can stay out of melee range.

Though you can’t get out of dangerous combat situations easily like a Ranger, you can blast your way through waves of enemies with your shotgunning Crossbow or a few rounds of Grenades.

The Mercenary is powerful for both leveling and endgame, and though it’s not quite as complex as some other classes, it makes PoE 2 feel more like an isometric shooter than an ARPG, with a novel playstyle that everyone should try at least once.