Path of Exile 2 Best Builds: S-Tier and A-Tier League Starters for Patch 0.3.1
Path of Exile 2 is on Patch 0.3.1, released alongside The Third Edict expansion, and the build landscape has shaken out into a fairly clear picture of what is worth starting a fresh league character with. This guide breaks down the current S-tier and A-tier league starters, the ascendancy and skill combo behind each one, and why they are rated where they are, plus a quick look at which classes are strongest overall right now.
S-Tier Builds
Deadeye Lightning Arrow is, by a wide margin, the most popular S-tier pick — current build guides put adoption among Deadeye players at 70-80%. The Ranger ascendancy’s mark mechanics feed directly into Lightning Arrow’s crit-focused scaling, which gives the build both rapid map clearing from the skill’s projectile spread and genuinely strong single-target damage once a mark is up, so it does not fall off the way a lot of clear-speed builds do once you hit harder bosses.
Blood Mage Ember Fusillade is the other S-tier league starter, and it takes a completely different approach: a life-cost spellcaster setup that trades your own health pool for enormous flat damage scaling on Ember Fusillade. It sounds fragile on paper, but the Blood Mage ascendancy’s life-sustain nodes are built specifically to support life-cost skills, so in practice it holds up defensively about as well as builds spending a normal mana pool.
A-Tier Builds
Lich (Infernalist) Skeletal Storm Mages is the safest pick on this list — roughly 70% of Infernalist players are running some version of it. It is a minion build, so your character stays out of melee range almost entirely, and skeletal minions provide reliable damage from the start of the campaign straight through endgame content, at the cost of the faster clear speed you get from a build like Lightning Arrow.
Invoker Ice Strike Hollow Palm leans on Hollow Palm, one of the newer keystones, to build an entirely unarmed combat character. That keystone removes the need to find and upgrade weapons at all, which makes early-game progression unusually smooth, and Ice Strike’s cold elemental scaling gives it solid damage before you have any real gear.
Two more A-tier options round out the list: Pathfinder Toxic Arrow, which offers excellent campaign progression and fantastic area clearing while still having solid single-target damage for bossing, and Ritualist bleed-focused builds, which scale bleed damage aggressively and pair it with improved trading mechanics that make mid-game gear upgrades easier to afford.
Class Tier Overview
Zooming out from specific builds, the strongest base classes in Patch 0.3.1 are Sorceress (high Intelligence and mana efficiency, built around elemental mastery and spell scaling), Mercenary (balanced attributes with high damage through ranged specialization and traps), and Beastmaster (Strength and minion scaling through pet commands and beast transformation). Just behind them, Monk, Huntress, and Warrior round out the A-tier class list, each strong enough to build a viable league starter around even outside the specific combos listed above.
Tips for Starting Patch 0.3.1
Whichever build you pick, prioritize getting your resistances capped before you push into cruel-difficulty content — elemental damage spikes hard in The Third Edict’s later zones and undercapped resistances are the single most common cause of unexpected deaths. If you are unsure which of the S-tier builds suits you, Lightning Arrow is the friendlier choice for players who want to see clear speed and satisfying feedback immediately, while Ember Fusillade rewards players comfortable managing a life-cost resource bar carefully.
Sources and Where to Play
Build data referenced from OfZenAndComputing’s Patch 0.3.1 tier list. Path of Exile 2 is free-to-play on Steam. Pick up Path Of Exile 2 PC supporter packs and stash tabs in our store with a Steam Wallet Code (US), or check out Elden Ring PC if you want another action-RPG to run alongside your league character.
