In thisPath of Exile 2article, we will be taking a look at how to put together theLightning Huntress buildfor you to use to get into the late-game or end-game of the game.Path of Exilehas become notorious for the sheer amount of skills and build possibilities available in the game, and the sequel follows suit with an extensive skill tree and multitude of skill gems. This guide is here to help you get through all that and lay out a path for you to follow as you reach the end of the campaign and prepare you for your cruel playthroughs or endgame.
Introduction
The Lightning Huntressis a hybrid build for the spear where we will be using both melee and ranged skills to shock our enemies and eliminate them in a wrath of lightning. And for this build, we will be focusing on increasing our elemental attacks and maximizing our damage with the lightning element.
Starter Class
For this build, we will be starting withthe Huntress Class, which is one of the seven available for now. At the time, and on the expansive skill tree, the Huntress class will start on the southeast side.
This side of the skill tree consists mainly of passives related to evasion, attack speed, and flat increases in projectile damage and, most importantly, increases in lightning damage, which we will be taking advantage of to maximize our damage.
Passive Skill Tree
Progression for this build will focus mainly on increasing our electricity and lightning damage since we will be taking advantage of all the lightning attacks that will be available to use when using the spear as a Huntress.
During early progression, you may either go through the attack speed route or the movement speed—whichever you prefer—as both branches will go down to the elemental skill group.
The first important skill group that we will be taking full advantage of for this build includes thePrimal Sunderingnode.
Although this node is not lightning element-specific, this branch will increase our elemental damage and provide penetration through the elemental resistances of the enemies.
After this branch, just a node further down the southeastern axis, we will take the northern branch here to go for the passive skill group containing theSurging Currentsnode.
This node will allow us to penetrate lightning resistance even further. On its way, you can invest in the nodes that increase elemental damage, and you can go further and invest in all the nodes coming into theHarness the Elementsnode.Even though this node is not a crucial part of this build, it can still contribute to the damage by increasing elemental damage.
Another branch that we will go for afterPrimal Sunderingis a little to the south, and this is a passive skill group that focuses mainly on increasing our lightning damage and will contribute highly to our damage output.
In addition to an increase in lightning damage, this skill branch will make it easier to both electrocute and shock enemies owing to theThunderstrucknode.
From here, we will follow the skill tree southwards until we can get to the skill group containingForces of Nature.
We will be investing in all the surrounding elemental damage nodes and theForces of Naturenode only for this particular build, as it will give us additional resistance penetration although the other elements do not form a main part of the build.
We continue down the branch to reach theLightning Rodnode and the respective skill group, as they provide additional increases to our lightning damage with resistance penetration.
These passive skill nodes will form the core of our build and will allow us to penetrate through even the strongest of lightning resistances to deal considerable damage.
For the Ascendancy for this build, we will be going for theAmazonpath for the Huntress class, as we want to focus on maximizing our damage output.
For this particular build, since we focused on all the offensive aspects of our build in our skill tree, we will be taking advantage of theMystic Harvestnode, as it will give us Life Leech from all our lightning damage, which will help greatly with our survivability.
For the rest of the points, we can go for theCritical Strikesnode, which will give us an increase in critical hit chance that scales with ourAccuracy and Dexterityvalues.
Active Skills Setups
For the active skill rotations, we will be taking full advantage of the lightning skills available to the spear weapon and rotate through them to burst down enemies in a storm of lightning.
The first is theLightning Spearskill, which will fire off lightning bolts at nearby targets after the spear hits an initial target.
This skill is a reliable option to deal with mobs during mapping and can quickly take out most groups of enemies without even needing to rotate to other skills with this build.
The Lightning Spearis amazing because it is also a great tool to prime tougher enemies and bosses for the next skill,Primal Strikes.
Primal Strikes is a melee combo skill that performs a combo of three melee attacks that you’re able to interrupt at any time.
This skill works great in tandem with Lightning Spear because it will unleash lightning spirits that charge in the direction of your attacks, dealing additional lightning damage when you attack shocked enemies using this skill. In addition to dealing lightning damage, the spirits can also inflict a huge amount of stun buildup on your targets, making this the ideal tool to stun bosses in a boss fight.
Another skill that can help during mapping with mobs is theStorm Lanceskill.
Storm Lance puts down a spear that will zap nearby enemies periodically, acting like a turret.
This skill can be very useful when dealing with a group of ranged enemies or when you find yourself in situations where the enemies are funneled through a narrow passageway.
A skill that goes great in combination with Storm Lance isThunderous Leap, which will slam your spear into the ground after a leap, creating a shockwave and detonating every spear in its range, including the Storm Lance.
This makes these two skills a great combo, where you can throw the Storm Lance and follow up with a Thunderous Leap to unleash a huge storm of sparks and lightning, damaging and shocking everything in the area.
A skill that is great to use as a finisher for this build isElemental Sundering, which will consume any elemental status effect or ailment afflicted on your enemies to release an explosive elemental pulse.
This skill will surely finish off any enemies that are left behind if they did not die from your skill combos.
These skills form the core of this build, and they equip us with the ability to deal with any kind of enemy we may come up against, unleashing a storm of thunder and lightning as if we were a direct descendant of Thor himself.
Support Gems
Since we will be dealing mainly lightning damage with this build, we are looking for support gems that will help us maximize our damage and inflict shock on our enemies.
For theLightning Spear, having aChainsupport gem increases its effectiveness, as it will increase the chaining of the lightning after the spear is struck even further, giving a higher chance of inflicting shock on the enemies.
Another gem that increases the damage isMurderous Intent. This support gem allows the Lightning Spear skill to cull enemies, eliminating enemies beneath a certain health threshold. Combined with the chaining effect of this skill, this allows us to cull multiple enemies in a single shot.
Our best tool to use against bosses for this build,Primal Strikes, will benefit greatly from having theCrescendosupport skill, as this skill will allow us to perform our final strike of the combo twice in succession, increasing the damage and stun amount dealt by this skill.
Another support gem that can greatly increase the damage output of this skill is thePursuitskill.
Even though this gem has a requirement of hitting an enemy with a ranged effect before it can take effect, we will be doing this quite often in our build, as we will be inflicting shock on our enemies using the Lightning Spear before following with the Primal Spirits combos.
For theStorm Lanceskill, theMagnified Effectsupport gem, which increases the area of effect of the skill, works well with the Storm Lance since it will allow you to cover more area with each thrown lance.
Another good support gem that works well with Storm Lance is theOverabundancegem, as it will allow you to put down an additional lance on the ground and it also increases the duration a spear will stay on the ground, giving it more chance to shock and damage enemies before exploding or being detonated by another skill.
For theThunderous Leapskill, we will be using theExecutesupport gem, as it will increase the damage dealt to enemies with low life, enhancing its ability to finish off groups of enemies with a giant leap.
The Thunderous Leap skill also benefits from using theMartial Temposupport gem, as the skill itself can feel slower compared to other attacks.
The support gem will increase the attack speed using this skill by 20%, making it faster to use and helping greatly with clearing mobs expeditiously while mapping.
For our combo finisher skill,Elemental Sundering, we will be focusing on making its area of effect as huge as possible, and to that end, we will use theExpanseskill, which increases the area by 50% at the cost of an additional 8-second cooldown.
SinceElemental Sunderingis not a skill we will be spamming, but using only when there are shocked enemies or corpses left on the battlefield, the added cooldown is not a big detriment. As such, we will also be using theHourglasssupport gem for this skill.
The Hourglass increases the damage dealt by the skill by 30% for the trade-off of having a 10-second increase in cooldown, which works well with how we will be using the Elemental Sundering skill for this build.
Another great combination of support gems to have with this build is theLightning InfusionandConductionsupport gems, and have these slotted into the spear throw.
The Lightning Infusion will add lightning damage to your regular attacks, while the Conduction gem will make it easier to shock enemies, enabling a follow-up with the Primal Strikes without the need to use Lightning Spear.
For the spirit gem skill, theHerald of Thundergoes great with this build, as we can inflict shock on our enemies with all of the skills for this build, and the Herald of Thunder skill will call down a lightning bolt whenever we kill a shocked enemy, adding to the already huge amount of lightning damage we can inflict with this build.
Gear and Equipment
ThisLightning Huntressbuild relies heavily on dealing lightning damage, and as such, ideally, we will want our weapons to have inherent lightning damage to maximize our damage output.
For defensive purposes, this build will benefit greatly from high Evasion gear and gear with increases in attack speed and movement speed. Rare gear with boosts to Dexterity and Accuracy will help with increasing the damage output of this build, as our critical chance will scale with these stats.
Leveling Guide
The build is efficient at dealing with groups of multiple enemies and will give you little trouble while dealing with mobs. As you level up, it is beneficial to have some Intelligence attribute nodes since this will allow us to equip more Intelligence support gems in addition to increasing the mana pool.
Path of Exile 2 Phalanx Warrior Build
In this Article, we will be taking a look at how to put together the Phalanx Warrior build for you to use to get into the late-game
You can either start investing into Evasion nodes for more survivability or Elemental nodes if you want to increase your damage output while giving you more options to deal with different kinds of enemies.
Mapping and Bossing
This build is capable during both mapping and bossing — you will not run into much trouble. You can kite around the boss and deal a lot of damage with your spear throws, and combined with thePrimal Strikes, you can deal massive amounts of damage and stun the bosses during the windows you get in between the boss’s attacks.
In addition, efficient gameplay involves regularly alternating between different attacks for maximal damage output — detonating Storm Lances and shocked corpses using theElemental Sunderingfor maximum area coverage.
Endgame Scaling and Optimization
Endgame scaling is enhanced through cluster jewels that increase attack speed, movement speed, and elemental damage. The build has great options to scale by investing into either pure attack damage or critical hit chance and damage while benefiting from high-Dexterity gear to further boost damage.
This build performs well in SSF and Hardcore, thanks to its high damage and high mobility. It is not reliant on expensive uniques and offers great damage — unleashing storms of lightning, making you feel powerful and leading to satisfying gameplay.
So, this wraps up my guide for the Lightning Huntress build guide forPath of Exile 2.I hope you found this guide helpful and if you have any suggestions or tips, feel free to leave them in the comment section.
