Best Beginner Warrior Build for Path Of Exile 2

The Warrior Class in Path of Exile 2 is a literal Juggernaut – crashing and smashing enemies into Oblivion with ease! This guide will walk you through everything you need to master a powerful starting Warrior in Path Of Exile 2, from skills to passive tree choices and the best weapons and armor for optimal performance.

Best Warrior Skills

The Beginner Warrior build relies on a combination strong AOE Physical Damage (slams) as well as powerful Single-target attacks (strikes) to easily defeat both packs of enemies and bosses. These are the recommened skills and support gems for the starting Campaign in Path Of Exile 2.

1. Mace Strike

This skill can do a surprising amount of damage quickly with the right weapons and support gems and it can be used in the very early game to kill bosses in just a few hits so make sure to use it as much as possible!

Recommended Support Gems:

• Martial Tempo: Increases attack speed, allowing you to strike more quickly.
• Concentrated Effect: Boosts overall damage by 40% at the cost of slightly less area damage which is not relevant in most cases.

2. Rolling Slam

Rolling Slam offers some surprisingly mobility for the Warrior class, as its one of the few Mace skills that allows you to move while casting. This skill generates two Slam attacks which you can independently aim and control (or cancel with a roll dodge), so it’s a ton of control and finesse to the build. Plus, it’s powerful!

Recommended Support Gems:

• Magnified Effect: Adds more area, so you can damage more enemies. Eventually move this gem to Herald Of Ash.
• Brutality: Increases Physical Damage of both slam attacks.
• Inspiration: Use this early on to reduce Mana cost if you struggle sustaining this skill.

3. Bone Shatter

Bone Shatter Yyou can think of this a bit like an AOE execute against enemies that have enough stun built up, sending out a powerful shockwave of damage. This is basically your finisher for anything that happens to survive your inital rolling slam attack, which early on won’t happen very often but it will certainly become more useful in the later stages of Act 1 and beyond as enemies begin to get more health.

Recommended Support Gems:

• Execute: Increases damage against low health enemies.

4. Shockwave Totem

Against most normal enemies Shockwave Totem can serve as both a distraction and a buffer as many times enemies will stop to attack it instead of you or you can use it to plug up narrow gaps and hallways. The Totem can also deal damage and stun which makes it another useful tool against Bosses because it can do both for you while you reposition, helping to get them heavy stunned faster or just deal some extra passive damage.

Recommended Support Gems:

• Persistence: Increases Totem duration by 40%.
• Overabundance: Allows you to cast up to two Totems at once.

5. Herald Of Ash

This skill does bonus fire damage in an area based on how much you overkill an enemy, so the greater the killing blow the more damage you do. This fits perfect on the starting Warrior and helps you deal significantly more AOE for faster clearing through the campaign.

Recommended Support Gems:

• Magnified Effect: Adds more area, so you can damage more enemies.
• Vitality: Increases Life recovery but costs 20 additional Spirit.
• Clarity: Increases Mana recovery but costs 10 additional Spirit.

6. Perfect Strike (THIS IS OP!)

Perfect Strike does massive damage but does have a wind up to it, so timing is important when using. Basically the idea for Bosses would be to heavy stun them as much as possible, either by using Mace Strike, Rolling Slam, Shockwave Totem or a combination of all 3, and then once the boss is flat on the ground you’ll be able to get in 2-3 Perfect Strike attacks, pontentially ending the boss then and there.

Recommended Support Gems:

• Window Of Opportunity: 50% bonus damage but reduces the perfect strike bonus window.
• Concentrated Effect: 40% Bonus Damage with reduced area of effect.

7. Molten Blast

Molten Blast rounds out your Warrior kit nicely and can be picked up at the same time as Perfect Strike. Molten blast is your first real ranged skill on the Warrior and its a good one especially with the right gems slotted. The only downside of this skill is its slow cast time so it tends to work best on large maps with long corridors where you can ideally know that mobs are coming at you ahead of time and especially agfainst slower type enemies like zombies.

But this skill is insanely powerful because it can bounce off of nearby enemies and surfaces to create shrapnel explosions which deal additional damage and have a chain reaction effect. This works even better with Herald Of Ash slotted.

Recommended Support Gems:

• Scatter Shot: Send out three fireballs instead of one.
• Fire Infusion: Increases the damage of this skill by 25%.

Best Beginner Warrior Weapons And Armor

Two Handed Mace

I recommend you switch to a Two Handed Mace on the Warrior as soon as possible because this weapon type has more base damage and stun potential which will amplify the damage of all your skills.

Important Stats for the Two Handed Mace:

• Increased Physical Damage
• Increased Stun Buildup
• Increased Attack Speed
• Increased Strength
• Life or Mana per enemy killed

Boots

Boots are a surprisingly important piece of Armor in Path Of Exile 2 as they can substantially increase your movement speed. This is especially important to use on the Warrior class, because most of your best Armor will have a negative speed impact.

• Looking for starting boots with stats like:
  • 10-15% increased movement
  • Increased Life or Mana
  • Increased Attributes
  • Increased Armor and Evasion

Armor

Some additional important stats you need to look out for include:

• Increased Spirit
• High value Armor and Evasion
• Strength
• Maximum Life
• Maximum Mana

Passive Skills

The passive skill tree is a vital part of optimizing your Warrior build in Path of Exile 2. It provides access to defensive and offensive bonuses that significantly enhance your character’s survivability and damage potential. Below is a detailed breakdown of the key passive skills you should prioritize at the start of the game.

Recommended Starting Warrior Passives

1. 10% Increased Melee Damage
2. 8% Increased Melee Damage
3. 8% Increased Melee Damage
4. 10% Increased Melee Damage
5. 10% Increased Melee Damage
6. Brutal: 16% Increased Melee Damage, 10% Increased Stun Buildup, +10 Strength
7. 10% Increased Melee Damage
8. Smash: 20% Increased Melee Damage, 40% Increased Melee Damage against Heavy Stunned enemies
9. 10% Increased Melee Damage
10. 10% Increased Melee Damage
11. +Stats
12. +Stats
13. +Stats
14. 12% Increased Damage With Two Handed Weapons
15. 12% Increased Damage With Two Handed Weapons
16. 12% Increased Damage With Two Handed Weapons
17. 12% Increased Damage With Two Handed Weapons
18. Shockwaves: 30% Increased Area Of Effect
19. 12% Increased Damage With Two Handed Weapons
20. Singular Purpose: 20% Increased Stun Buildup, 40% Increased Damage With Two Handed Weapons, 5% Reduced Attack Speed

How To Play The Warrior Class

By the end of Act 1 you should have an amazing kit of skills on the Warrior where you start to feel truly powerful! To put things all together:

• use Rolling Slam constantly when clearing packs of enemies, powered up by herald of Ash for even more AOE damage and finish off anything that survives with Bone Shatter if needed.
• When facing off against Rares or Bosses, I like to throw up my 2 Shockwave Totems to serve as a distraction or to apply some some extra stuns and damage, while I work on stunning bosses further with some quick Mace Strikes or with a Rolling Slam to close the gap.
• Knock the boss down with Bone Shatter if you can to initate that heavy stun and then immediately charge up 2-3 Perfect Strikes if possible and with the right timing the Boss should basically be dead assuming you have solid weapons and passives.
• And don’t forget you do have ranged options on the Warrior, especially that Molten Blast skill which can be insantely powerful in the right situations.

The Final Word

I hope you enjoyed this beginner build for the Warrior Class in Path Of Exile 2! Stay tuned for more POE2 Builds and Guides as this game continues to progress through Early Access into full release!