Path of Exile 2: All Classes And Ascendancies

Path of Exile 2 introduces an exciting progression system for classes through Ascendancies, allowing players to further specialize their builds. Each class in the game has access to unique Ascendancies, which unlock powerful new abilities and passive bonuses to enhance specific playstyles. These Ascendancies are designed to provide depth, versatility, and customization, making them a key feature for mastering your character. In this article, we’ll break down all the Ascendancies available in Path of Exile 2, along with the notable Ascendancy Nodes tied to each class, helping you plan the ultimate build for your journey through Wraeclast.

Mercenary Ascendancies

Gemling Legionnaire

The Gemling Legionnaire Ascendancy for Mercenaries focuses on enhancing skills and support gem interactions, making it ideal for players who enjoy gem-based builds. Here are the notable nodes and their effects:
• Crystalline Potential: Increases skill effectiveness with a 10% boost to all Skill Quality.
• Implanted Gems: Grants +1 Level to all skills for increased power and effectiveness.
• Advanced Thaumaturgy: Reduces the cost of all skills by 30% but increases their Attribute Requirements by 30%.
• Integrated Efficiency: Provides an additional 3 Passive Skill Points, offering more flexibility for build customization.
• Gem Studded: Allows you to use two copies of the same Support Gem for different skills, significantly enhancing their versatility.
• Thaumaturgical Infusion: Improves elemental resistances by adding:
• +1% to Maximum Cold Resistance for every 4 Blue Support Gems socketed.
• +1% to Maximum Fire Resistance for every 4 Red Support Gems socketed.
• +1% to Maximum Lightning Resistance for every 4 Green Support Gems socketed.
• Adaptive Capability: Lets your highest Attribute satisfy all Skill Gem requirements, simplifying gear and build optimization.
• Enhanced Effectiveness: Doubles the inherent bonuses from Intelligence, Strength, and Dexterity, amplifying core character stats.

Witchhunter

The Witchhunter Ascendancy focuses on weapon mastery and unique mechanics like Concentration and Sorcery Ward. This makes it a versatile choice for players who favor high-damage, calculated combat. Key nodes include:
• Weapon Master: Converts 20 Passive Skill Points into Weapon Set Skill Points, offering more versatility when swapping between weapon setups.
• Pitiless Killer: Unlocks the Culling Strike ability, instantly killing enemies with less than 10% health.
• Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Grants the powerful Decimating Strike ability, delivering devastating damage.
• Witchbane: Introduces the Concentration mechanic, where enemies have Concentration capped at 40% of their Max Life. Concentration depletes with damage dealt and recovers over time after 5 seconds.
• No Mercy: Deals up to 30% increased damage based on the target’s remaining Concentration, rewarding sustained aggression.
• Obsessive Rituals: Grants Sorcery Ward, providing a defensive barrier, but at the cost of reducing your Armor and Evasion by 50%.
• Ceremonial Ablution: Enhances Sorcery Ward by increasing its effectiveness by 50% and halving its recovery time.
• Zealous Inquisition: Enemies you kill have a 10% chance to explode, dealing damage equal to their Maximum Life. The explosion chance doubles for Undead and Demonic foes.

These two Mercenary Ascendancies bring unique strengths to Path of Exile 2, catering to different playstyles, from gem-heavy builds to high-damage combat strategies.

Monk Ascendancies

Acolyte of Chayula

The Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy transforms the Monk into a Chaos damage-focused powerhouse, blending unique mechanics with potent buffs to Chaos Resistance and Darkness Reservation. Here are the notable nodes and their effects:
• Ravenous Doubts: Converts Mana Leech into an instant ability, drastically improving resource recovery during combat.
• Consuming Questions: Enhances Mana Leech to also replenish Energy Shield, though it disables Energy Shield’s natural recharge.
• Chayula’s Gift: Increases Chaos Resistance by +10% and doubles your total Chaos Resistance, providing substantial durability against Chaos damage.
• Reality Rending: Adds a stacking chance to deal extra Chaos Damage with hits:
• 23% chance for 25% extra Chaos Damage
• 13% chance for 50% extra Chaos Damage
• 7% chance for 100% extra Chaos Damage
• Waking Dream: Unlocks the Into The Breach skill, which allows players to activate Breach zones in regular areas.
• Lucid Dreaming: Doubles the duration of Flames of Chayula, extending its utility and damage potential.
• Embrace the Darkness: Replaces Spirit with Darkness as a resource. Darkness is reserved at a 1:1 ratio instead of consuming Life.
• Grasp of the Void: Converts 1% of damage dealt into extra Chaos Damage for every 20 points of unreserved Darkness.
• Inner Silence: Reduces the duration of Darkness Reservation by 50%, making it easier to manage this unique resource.

Invoker

The Invoker Ascendancy focuses on Energy Shield, Evasion, and elemental damage, creating a versatile playstyle for players who want strong defenses paired with devastating elemental abilities. Below are its notable nodes:
• Lead Me Through Grace…: Modifies Spirit generation to scale with Body Armor stats:
• Gain 1 Spirit for every 6 Energy Shield on Body Armor.
• Gain 1 Spirit for every 15 Evasion on Body Armor.
• Disables Spirit generation from equipment.
• …And Protect Me From Harm: Enhances survivability by converting Evasion into Physical Damage Reduction, though at the cost of reducing Evasion by 40%.
• Faith Is a Choice: Grants the Meditate skill, enabling you to Overcharge your Energy Shield, doubling its maximum capacity temporarily.
• I Am the Blizzard…: Adds an extra 10% of your damage as Cold Damage and creates Freezing Ground whenever you hit frozen enemies.
• …And I Shall Rage: Unlocks the Unbound Avatar skill, temporarily granting massive empowerment for unparalleled combat performance.
• The Soul Springs Eternal: Increases Energy gained from Meta Skills by 35%, improving resource management during extended fights.
• Sunder My Enemies…: Allows Critical Hits to bypass non-negative Elemental Resistances, significantly increasing damage output against resistant foes.
• …And Scatter Them to the Winds: Grants the Elemental Expression skill, creating a massive elemental explosion on melee Critical Hits, devastating surrounding enemies.

Both Acolyte of Chayula and Invoker offer unique playstyles, allowing players to explore Chaos-damage-focused or Energy Shield and elemental-based builds that fit a variety of combat scenarios.

Ranger Ascendancies

Deadeye

The Deadeye Ascendancy specializes in projectile-based attacks and mobility, making it a versatile and powerful choice for long-range builds. Here are the notable nodes and their effects:
• Avidity: Grants a 30% chance to instantly gain your maximum number of Frenzy Charges instead of a single one when you gain Frenzy Charges.
• Thrilling Chase: Provides a 5% chance for benefits from consuming Frenzy Charges to be doubled, enhancing your burst damage potential.
• Eagle Eyes: Eliminates accuracy penalties when attacking enemies from a distance, ensuring your hits are precise no matter the range.
• Specialization: Far Shot: Projectiles deal increasing damage the farther they travel, gaining up to 20% more damage after 7 meters.
• Specialization: Point Blank: Projectiles deal maximum damage at close range (up to 20% more damage within 3.5 meters), with this bonus diminishing at longer distances.
• Endless Munitions: Grants an additional projectile for all projectile-based skills, significantly boosting your area-of-effect potential.
• Called Shots: Enables you to apply an additional Mark, enhancing your ability to debuff enemies.
• Gathering Winds: Activates Tailwind on skill use, which stacks to increase movement and skill speed. All Tailwind stacks are lost when hit.
• Wind Ward: Reduces damage taken by 3% for each Tailwind stack, improving survivability.

Pathfinder

The Pathfinder Ascendancy focuses on Flask mechanics, poison stacking, and unique concoctions, offering incredible utility and damage potential. Here are the key nodes:
• Connected Chemistry: Increases Flask Charge gain by 50%, allowing for more frequent Flask usage.
• Enduring Elixirs: Keeps Life Flask effects active even after your Life is fully replenished, and prevents Flask effects from queuing, providing consistent healing.
• Contagious Contamination: Spreads the most damaging poison from killed enemies to others within 1.5 meters, making poison builds much more effective in clearing groups.
• Overwhelming Toxicity: Doubles the number of poisons you can apply to enemies, though Poison duration is reduced by 35%.
• Brew Concoction: Unlocks the ability to craft five unique thrown weapons using Mana Flask charges, each with distinct effects:
• Poisonous Concoction: Deals Chaos damage and applies poison.
• Fulminating Concoction: Deals Lightning damage and inflicts Lightning Exposure.
• Shattering Concoction: Delivers Cold damage and causes Cold Exposure.
• Explosive Concoction: Causes Fire damage and triggers Fire Exposure.
• Bleeding Concoction: Deals Physical damage and inflicts bleed.
• Traveller’s Wisdom: Grants 5 additional Passive Skill Points, offering more customization.
• Running Assault: Reduces the movement speed penalty by 30% when using skills while moving, improving mobility during combat.
• Relentless Pursuit: Completely negates any effects of slows on your movement speed, ensuring unmatched agility.

Both Ascendancies provide distinct playstyles, with the Deadeye excelling in ranged combat and projectile specialization, while the Pathfinder offers unparalleled versatility through poison stacking, Flask efficiency, and concoctions.

Sorceress Ascensions

Chronomancer

The Chronomancer specializes in time manipulation, offering incredible utility and survivability for Sorceress builds. Below are its key nodes and effects:
• Now and Again: Grants all skills a 33% chance to bypass their cooldown, allowing for more frequent ability usage.
• Unbound Encore: Unlocks Time Snap, a skill that instantly resets the cooldown of all other abilities, enabling quick consecutive skill activations.
• Ultimate Command: Provides access to Time Freeze, which immobilizes all enemies in a large area, offering both crowd control and breathing room during combat.
• Footprints in the Sand: Unlocks Temporal Rift, allowing you to return to a previous location with the Life and Mana values you had at that time, making it a powerful defensive tool.
• Quicksand Hourglass: Grants 50% increased cast speed for 4 seconds every 12 seconds, enhancing your overall damage output during combat bursts.
• Apex of the Moment: Creates a slowing aura, reducing the action speed of nearby enemies by 20%, making it harder for them to react.
• Circular Heartbeat: Recovers 30% of all damage taken as Life, increasing sustainability in prolonged fights.
• The Rapid River: Converts all recoup effects to occur over 4 seconds, smoothing out healing and recovery over time.

Stormweaver

The Stormweaver excels in elemental damage, with a focus on storms, shocks, and powerful area-of-effect abilities. Here are its notable nodes and effects:
• Scouring Winds: Enhances your elemental Exposure effects, reducing enemy resistances by an additional 20%, making them more vulnerable to your attacks.
• Tempest Caller: Grants Elemental Storm, a skill that creates a devastating storm dealing elemental damage at a targeted location. This ability automatically triggers on critical hits with all spells, improving your offensive capabilities.
• Rain Dancer: Boosts the cooldown recovery rate of Elemental Storm by 150%, allowing for more frequent use of this powerful skill.
• Heavy Snows: Enables your Chills to stack and slow enemy action speed by up to 35%. However, the overall Chill effect magnitude is reduced by 25%.
• Shaper of Water: Converts all damage from hits into Chill magnitude, making it easier to slow enemies regardless of damage type.
• Strike Twice: Allows your Shocks to stack twice on targets, significantly increasing their vulnerability, though the duration of Shock effects is halved.
• Shaper of Storms: Applies Shock effects to enemies with all damage types, greatly expanding the versatility of your build.
• Constant Gale: Unlocks Arcane Surge, boosting both cast speed and Mana regeneration, providing sustained damage and resource management.
• Force of Will: Increases the potency of Arcane Surge by 1% for every 15 points of maximum Mana, rewarding Mana-focused builds.
• Heart of the Storm: Redirects 40% of elemental damage taken into your Energy Shield, enhancing your survivability against elemental attacks.

Both Chronomancer and Stormweaver offer distinct benefits. The Chronomancer is perfect for players seeking utility, mobility, and crowd control, while the Stormweaver focuses on raw elemental power and devastating area-of-effect damage, making it ideal for those who want to dominate the battlefield with storms and shocks.
PoE 2 Warrior Ascensions

Titan

The Titan specializes in durability and devastating melee abilities, making it the perfect choice for players who want to tank damage while dishing out powerful strikes. Here are the key nodes and their effects:
• Stone Skin: Increases the Armor gained from your equipped Body Armour by 50%, significantly boosting your physical damage reduction.
• Earthbreaker: Provides a 20% chance for your self-cast Slam Skills to trigger powerful Aftershocks, adding extra damage.
• Ancestral Empowerment: Grants an Ancestral Boost to every second Slam Skill you cast, enhancing its effectiveness.
• Colossal Capacity: Adds 20 extra inventory slots by allowing you to carry a chest, reducing trips to town for storage.
• Hulking Form: Increases the effect of small Passive Skill Tree nodes by 50%, making minor upgrades more impactful.
• Crushing Impacts: Converts all hits into Crushing Blows, which reduce enemy Life by a percentage of their maximum value.
• Surprising Strength: Boosts your damage output by 40% against enemies that are Heavy Stunned, making crowd control even more rewarding.
• Mysterious Lineage: Provides a 15% increase to your maximum Life, improving your overall survivability.

Warbringer

The Warbringer is a versatile and aggressive ascension that focuses on manipulating armor, summoning ancestral powers, and leveraging Warcries for powerful effects. Here are its notable nodes and their effects:
• Anvil’s Weight: Breaks enemy Armor equal to 10% of the damage dealt with each hit, making it easier to deal with high-armor foes.
• Imploding Impacts: Allows you to reduce enemy Armor below zero, amplifying the damage they take even further.
• Jade Heritage: Unlocks the Encase in Jade skill, which makes you invulnerable to all damage at the cost of being completely immobile.
• Answered Call: Grants the Ancestral Spirits skill, summoning a powerful Ancestral Spirit minion whenever you summon a Totem. The spirit vanishes if the Totem is destroyed.
• Wooden Wall: Redirects 20% of the damage you take from hits to your nearest Totem, reducing the strain on your own Life.
• Renly’s Training: Converts 40% of your base chance to Block from equipped Shields, instead of relying on the Shield’s intrinsic block value.
• Turtle Charm: Reduces your Block Chance by 35% but allows you to block attacks without needing to raise your Shield.
• Warcaller’s Bellow: Causes corpses within your presence to explode when you use a Warcry, dealing 25% of their maximum Life as Physical damage, making it an excellent tool for crowd control.
• Greatwolf’s Howl: Completely removes cooldowns from Warcries, letting you use them as often as needed for constant buffs and utility.

Both Titan and Warbringer cater to different playstyles within the Warrior class. Titans excel at survivability and melee dominance, offering massive durability and hard-hitting abilities. Meanwhile, Warbringers thrive on summoning ancestral powers, breaking enemy defenses, and utilizing Warcries to devastating effect. Whether you prefer to tank and smash or manipulate battlefield tactics, these ascensions provide powerful tools to make your Warrior unstoppable.

Witch Ascensions

Blood Mage

The Blood Mage Ascension focuses on harnessing Life as a resource to amplify damage and survivability, offering a unique playstyle that combines offensive spells and sustainability. Here are the key nodes and their effects:
• Sanguimancy: Unlocks the Life Remnants skill, allowing you to harvest Life from enemies and create Life Remnants that restore Life and even exceed your Max Life.
• Vitality Siphon: Converts 10% of Spell Damage into Life Leech, providing constant healing during combat.
• Open Sores: Grants infinite duration for all your Curses, removing the need to recast them.
• Blood Barbs: Adds 10% of damage as bonus Physical Damage and enhances Bleeding strength with Elemental damage.
• Gore Spike: Increases your Critical Damage Bonus by 1% for every 40 Max Life, rewarding high Life builds.
• Sunder the Flesh: Sets your Spells’ base Critical Hit Chance to 15%, significantly improving their crit potential.
• Grasping Wounds: Spreads 25% of Life loss from Hits over 4 seconds, smoothing out incoming damage.
• Crimson Power: Converts your Body Armor’s Energy Shield value into additional Max Life, further enhancing survivability.

Infernalist

The Infernalist Ascension revolves around unleashing demonic power and fire-based abilities, turning your character into a devastating force of chaos. Below are the notable nodes and their effects:
• Altered Flesh: Converts 20% of Cold and Lightning Damage into Fire Damage, and 20% of Physical Damage into Chaos Damage for better mitigation.
• Beidat’s Gaze: Reserves 25% of your Life and grants +1 Max Mana for every 6 Max Life you have.
• Beidat’s Will: Reserves 25% of Life, adding +1 Max Spirit for every 25 Max Life, enhancing your resource pool.
• Beidat’s Hand: Reserves 25% of Life while granting +1 Max Energy Shield for every 8 Max Life, creating a balance between Life and Energy Shield.
• Demonic Possession: Grants the Demon Form skill, allowing you to shapeshift into a demon, amplifying your spells until your Life depletes to 1.
• Mastered Darkness: Increases your maximum Demonflame resource to 10, allowing for longer durations in Demon Form.
• Pyromantic Pact: Replaces Mana with Infernal Flame, turning Mana costs into an Infernal Flame meter. Casting builds the meter, with devastating consequences if it overflows.
• Bringer of Flame: While Infernal Flame isn’t at a critical level, all nearby allies gain increased Ignite Chance.
• Seething Body: When your Infernal Flame is high, you and nearby allies gain 20% of all damage as Fire Damage.
• Loyal Hellhound: Summons an Infernal Hound minion that absorbs 20% of incoming damage, ignites enemies, and self-revives.
• Grinning Immolation: Causes you to Ignite yourself on Critical Hits, dealing 15% of your Life and Energy Shield as Fire Damage per second but granting a massive +30% Critical Damage boost.

The Blood Mage and Infernalist Ascensions offer wildly different but equally powerful playstyles. Blood Mages thrive on Life manipulation and sustainability, providing excellent synergy for builds that want high survivability and spell damage. Infernalists, on the other hand, unleash devastating fire and chaos abilities, combining demonic transformations with explosive Ignite mechanics to destroy everything in their path. Both options present unique and rewarding choices for Witch players looking to dominate in Path of Exile 2.

Conclusion

In Path of Exile 2, Ascendancies offer players the opportunity to take their chosen class to new heights with unique abilities, specialized playstyles, and powerful nodes tailored to different builds. Each Ascendancy provides game-changing benefits that allow you to customize your character’s strengths, whether it’s summoning hordes of minions, unleashing devastating elemental spells, or becoming an unrelenting melee tank. Understanding each Ascendancy and its nodes is key to creating a build that suits your preferred playstyle and maximizes your potential. Whether you’re a fan of intricate mechanics or straightforward power, these Ascendancies ensure every player finds something to enjoy. Dive in, experiment, and embrace the possibilities that these advanced specializations offer in Path of Exile 2.