Introduction
The sprawling world of Wraeclast in Path of Exile awaits, teeming with dangerous creatures and untold riches. Before you can even think about battling eldritch horrors or crafting the perfect item, you face a crucial decision: choosing your starting class. This isn’t just a cosmetic choice; it fundamentally impacts your character’s progression, available skills, and ultimately, your playstyle.
Path of Exile (often shortened to PoE) is a free-to-play action role-playing game renowned for its deep character customization, intricate skill tree, and challenging endgame content. Unlike some ARPGs with rigid class structures, PoE offers immense flexibility. However, your starting class determines your initial position on the passive skill tree, a vast web of nodes that define your character’s stats and abilities. Moreover, each class has access to three unique Ascendancy classes, specializations that further refine your character’s power and playstyle. Selecting the right class lays the groundwork for a powerful and enjoyable journey through Wraeclast.
This guide aims to provide a detailed overview of each Path of Exile class and its Ascendancy options, helping you make an informed decision and choose the best starting point for your adventures. Whether you’re a seasoned ARPG veteran or a complete newcomer, this article will equip you with the knowledge to navigate the complex world of Path of Exile classes.
Marauder
The Marauder is a powerhouse of raw strength and brutal melee combat. This class thrives in the thick of the fray, crushing enemies with powerful weapon strikes and enduring incredible amounts of punishment. If you enjoy a straightforward, in-your-face playstyle, the Marauder could be your ideal choice.
Focusing primarily on strength, the Marauder excels in dealing physical damage and wielding heavy weapons. Their inherent durability allows them to withstand significant damage, making them a solid choice for players who prefer a tankier character.
Chieftain
The Chieftain is deeply connected to fire magic and ancestral totems. This Ascendancy excels at dealing fire damage, summoning powerful totems to aid in battle, and generating Endurance Charges for increased defense. Key passive skills enhance fire damage, totem effectiveness, and offer significant life regeneration. A popular Chieftain build involves creating a powerful army of totems that obliterate enemies with fiery explosions.
Berserker
Embodiment of untamed fury, the Berserker thrives on the Rage mechanic, gaining tremendous damage output at the cost of taking increased damage. This Ascendancy is a glass cannon, capable of annihilating enemies in seconds but vulnerable to incoming attacks. Key passive skills focus on amplifying Rage bonuses, increasing attack speed, and providing life leech to sustain the Berserker’s aggressive playstyle. Consider Berserker if you favor extremely aggressive combat and don’t mind a challenging playstyle.
Juggernaut
The Juggernaut is an immovable force, a master of defense and sustained combat. This Ascendancy focuses on generating and maintaining Endurance Charges, granting massive amounts of physical damage reduction and immunity to various status ailments. Key passive skills enhance Endurance Charge generation, increase armor and life regeneration, and provide Unstoppable status, making the Juggernaut incredibly resilient. The Juggernaut excels in slow and steady attrition, gradually wearing down enemies while remaining almost impervious to damage.
Example Marauder builds often involve ground slam, cyclone, or various totem-based strategies. These builds are generally easy to gear and provide excellent survivability, making them well-suited for beginners.
Ranger
The Ranger embodies agility, precision, and ranged combat prowess. This class excels at delivering deadly strikes from a distance, evading enemy attacks with grace, and utilizing traps and other tactical advantages. If you enjoy a fast-paced, mobile playstyle, the Ranger might be the perfect fit.
Rangers primarily rely on dexterity, allowing them to wield bows and daggers with deadly accuracy and effectively dodge incoming attacks. This class is typically more fragile than the Marauder but compensates with superior mobility and ranged damage output.
Deadeye
A master of projectile weaponry, the Deadeye enhances projectile damage and utility through chain and pierce mechanics, enabling projectiles to hit multiple targets with a single shot. Deadeyes also gain increased movement and attack speed. Key passive skills focus on increasing projectile damage, granting additional chain and pierce, and providing bonuses to accuracy and speed. Deadeyes excel at clearing large packs of enemies with devastating projectile volleys.
Raider
The Raider focuses on maximizing speed, elemental damage, and the generation of Frenzy Charges. Raiders gain increased movement speed, attack speed, and elemental damage bonuses, making them extremely fast and deadly. Key passive skills enhance Frenzy Charge generation, increase elemental damage, and provide immunity to elemental ailments. This Ascendancy excels in rapidly clearing maps and delivering consistent elemental damage.
Pathfinder
The Pathfinder is a master of flask sustain and elemental manipulation. Pathfinders gain increased flask effect duration, flask charges gained, and immunity to elemental ailments while flasks are active. Key passive skills enhance flask effectiveness, provide bonuses to elemental damage, and grant access to powerful poison mechanics. Pathfinders excel at maintaining constant flask uptime and unleashing devastating elemental attacks and poison damage.
Popular Ranger builds typically involve tornado shot, ice shot, or various elemental arrow skills. The Ranger’s high damage output and mobility make it an excellent choice for clearing maps and defeating bosses quickly.
Witch
The Witch is a master of arcane arts, wielding powerful spells and commanding legions of minions. This class excels at dealing elemental damage, summoning creatures to fight alongside them, and manipulating the battlefield with curses and debuffs. If you enjoy a strategic, spellcasting-focused playstyle, the Witch is a natural choice.
The Witch relies on intelligence, granting her increased mana and energy shield. This class is generally more fragile than the Marauder or Templar but compensates with superior spellcasting abilities and minion control.
Necromancer
The Necromancer commands the power of the undead, summoning skeletons, zombies, and spectres to fight their battles. Necromancers also utilize corpse skills to unleash devastating attacks and debuffs. Key passive skills enhance minion damage and survivability, provide bonuses to corpse skills, and grant access to powerful bone offering effects. Necromancers excel at overwhelming enemies with sheer numbers and utilizing strategic corpse explosions.
Occultist
The Occultist specializes in chaos damage, curses, and cold damage over time. Occultists excel at applying powerful curses to weaken enemies and inflict devastating chaos and cold damage over time effects. Key passive skills enhance curse effectiveness, increase chaos damage, and provide bonuses to energy shield. Occultists thrive on debilitating enemies with curses and slowly draining their life force.
Elementalist
The Elementalist focuses on manipulating the elements, unleashing devastating elemental attacks, and summoning powerful golems. Elementalist gain increased elemental damage, proliferation effects, and the ability to summon multiple powerful golems. Key passive skills enhance elemental damage, improve golem effectiveness, and provide immunity to elemental ailments. This Ascendancy excels at dealing massive elemental damage and controlling the battlefield with golems.
Common Witch builds involve skeletons, spectres, chaos damage spells, or various elemental skills. The Witch’s versatility makes her a popular choice for both new and experienced players.
Duelist
The Duelist is a master of both offense and defense, wielding two weapons with deadly precision and expertly blocking incoming attacks. This class excels at dealing sustained damage, mitigating incoming attacks, and utilizing strategic positioning to gain an advantage in combat.
A hybrid of strength and dexterity, the Duelist possesses a balance of physical damage and evasion, allowing them to adapt to various combat situations.
Slayer
The Slayer is a relentless damage dealer, excelling at life leech, critical strikes, and area of effect damage. Key passive skills provide increased life leech, bonus critical strike chance and damage, and powerful area of effect enhancements. Slayers thrive on sustained combat, constantly regenerating health while delivering devastating blows.
Gladiator
A master of blocking and bleeding, the Gladiator excels at mitigating incoming attacks and inflicting devastating bleed damage over time. Key passive skills provide increased block chance, bonus bleed damage, and the ability to generate Challenger Charges. Gladiators control the battlefield with constant defensive pressure and deal significant damage over time with bleed.
Champion
The Champion is a versatile fighter who excels at supporting allies, fortifying defenses, and impaling enemies. Key passive skills grant Fortify on hit, increase impale damage, and provide powerful aura effects. Champions function as powerful support characters and deal significant damage through impale.
Templar
The Templar combines physical prowess with magical aptitude, wielding powerful spells alongside melee weaponry. He is often found at the heart of battle, healing allies and smiting foes with divine energy.
The Templar’s hybrid strength/intelligence allows him to utilize both physical attacks and powerful spells.
Inquisitor
The Inquisitor masters elemental damage and critical strikes. They often focus on consecrated ground and ensuring their attacks cannot be evaded.
Hierophant
Hierophants excel at totem builds, mana regeneration, and arcane surge. They can summon many totems and support their allies through various buffs.
Guardian
The Guardian focuses on supporting allies with powerful auras, providing defensive bonuses, and acting as a shield for the party.
Shadow
The Shadow is a master of stealth, traps, and critical strikes. He manipulates the battlefield from the shadows, using cunning and deception to outwit his enemies.
The Shadow’s hybrid dexterity/intelligence allows for strategic gameplay and intricate skill combinations.
Assassin
Assassins excel at dealing massive burst damage with critical strikes and inflicting debilitating poisons.
Saboteur
Saboteurs are masters of traps and mines, controlling the battlefield with explosions and debilitating effects.
Trickster
Tricksters are elusive and unpredictable, focusing on energy shield, evasion, and chaos damage.
Scion
The Scion is a truly unique class, able to branch out and access the best attributes of other classes. She is highly adaptable but requires a deeper understanding of the game to maximize her potential.
As the only class with a single Ascendancy, the Scion’s flexibility provides a significant advantage for experienced players.
Ascendant
The Ascendant can allocate notable passive skills from other classes, granting access to a wide array of powerful abilities and playstyles. This makes the Scion incredibly versatile but requires significant game knowledge to build effectively.
Choosing the Right Class
Selecting the right Path of Exile class comes down to personal preference and playstyle. Do you prefer a melee brawler, a ranged marksman, a spellcasting wizard, or a cunning rogue? Consider your preferred combat style, desired level of difficulty, and build aspirations when making your choice.
For beginners, the Marauder, Templar (Guardian) or Witch (Necromancer) can be good starting points due to their inherent durability and straightforward playstyles. Advanced players might enjoy the Shadow or Scion, which offer more complex and rewarding build options.
Ultimately, don’t be afraid to experiment with different classes and Ascendancies. Path of Exile offers the ability to respec your passive points using Orbs of Regret, allowing you to adjust your build as you progress. While changing your Ascendancy requires more extensive effort, it is still possible. The most important thing is to find a class and build that you enjoy playing.
Conclusion
Path of Exile’s class system is a cornerstone of its gameplay, providing endless customization options and build possibilities. Take the time to research and understand the different classes and Ascendancies before making your decision. With the right class in hand, you’ll be well-equipped to conquer the challenges that await you in the treacherous world of Wraeclast. Now venture forth, exile, and forge your own legend! You can download and play Path of Exile for free on the official website.
