Best Path of Exile 2 Mercenary build
Dec. 10, 2024The best POE 2 merc build is focused on armor, evasion, frost and fire
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The best Path of Exile 2 Mercenary build takes the crossbow and grenades the character is known for and bolsters them to breaking point with frost and fire modifiers, resulting in one of most powerful builds in POE 2. This will handily carry any player through the early and mid game towards the Witch Hunter Ascendency, at which point you can really start flexing and experimenting with builds and loadouts accordingly. We’ll go into the best POE 2 Mercenary Witch Hunter build below, and how you can make it for yourself.
Best Mercenary build in Path of Exile 2
The best POE 2 Mercenary build focuses on the following elements:
With these elements you can then work towards the Witch Hunter ascendancy and all the prizes therein. We have to credit Mobalytics userFearlessDumbofor inspiring many of the choices behind this build, and providing the central point around which the build can be tested and experimented with.
The key here is that the Mercenary is capable of ridiculous damage at range, so by leaning into that with some clever skill synergies, not to mention protecting yourself from the melee enemies that manage to get through your barrage, you can pretty decisively prove why the Merc is top of the list in thePath of Exile 2 class tier list. If you want to build towards it yourself, here’s the key skills, equipment for your loadout, and more besides.
The way to play here is by keeping a constant distance and using your grenades and crossbow to hold the enemy at bay - frost to freeze them and fire to maintain damage. A near-constant barrage of fire should eventually be possible, while your armor should keep you safe from any that break through the line. Later on you’ll want to lean even more into the freezing and ignition status effects, and make you knowhow to trade in Path of Exile 2wisely - the right crossbow can make or break a build like this.
Want to go from long-range to close quarters? We’ve also got the bestPath of Exile 2 Monk buildfor you to try out, based around sparking lightning damage and the Invoker ascendency.
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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and raconteur with a Masters from Sussex University, none of which has actually equipped him for anything in real life. As a result he chooses to spend most of his time playing video games, reading old books and ingesting chemically-risky levels of caffeine. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at USgamer, Gfinity, Eurogamer and more besides.
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