Path of Exile 2 Early Access: All Ascendancy Nodes Revealed

Ben Author

Created - 05.12.2024 Updated - 07.12.2024

19302 0

Grinding Gear Games, the esteemed developer of one of the most popular ARPGs of all time, is kind enough to provide the public with information about the new ascendancy nodes in Path of Exile 2.

If you do not know, PoE 2 Early Access allows you to choose from six playable classes. Each one has a couple of ascendancy classes that provide unique skills and synergies, which we will be talking about today.

Come, join us as we talk about all of the ascendancy nodes you can expect in the game’s open beta launch!

What Are Ascendancy Nodes?

When you are able to ascend to one of the ascendancy classes for your particular character, you will gain access to a new passive tree. What’s interesting about this tree is that it provides you with different skills that you cannot find anywhere else.

That said, each tree comes with small nodes and bigger nodes, the latter of which is known as the “Ascendancy Nodes.” They are also called notable ascendancy skills because they define a specific subclass in Path of Exile 2.

For example, the Bloodmage is an ascendancy class that specializes in siphoning life off of her enemies, as well as using blood magic to decimate her foes. Her “Vitality Siphon” node, which we are going to talk about shortly, allows her to regain life based on the damage of her spells.

PoE 2 Ascendancy Nodes Revealed

Now that you know what ascendancy nodes are in PoE 2, we will discuss each one in greater detail in the following sections. Don’t worry, we are going to provide you with some helpful tips on how you can maximize your chosen ascendancy class.

Bloodmage

1. Sanguimancy

• Grants Skill: Life Remnants

Mage archetypes in ARPGs are not known for their tankiness and survivability. However, the Bloodmage quashes that notion because she possesses abilities that allow her to regain life back and then some.

Sanguimancy grants the Bloodmage a buff that allows her to create Life Remnants. These things have a chance to spawn upon killing enemies, though they are created when the Bloodmage is able to land a critical hit as well.

The Life Remnants are special because they have the power to “overflow” the Bloodmage’s maximum life. Overflow, in this context, means that the Bloodmage will have double the amount of HP for a limited period.

While Sanguimancy is nice from a survival standpoint, it does come with a small downside, where the Bloodmage’s skills also cost life equal to their base mana cost. Fortunately, this is no problem when she has more than enough HP to work with.

2. Vitality Siphon

• 10% of Spell Damage Leeched as Life

The man himself, Path of Exile 2 Game Director Jonathan Rogers, said that life leech is only available for attacks, not spells. Well, that is not entirely true because the Bloodmage actually has a life leech in the form of Vitality Siphon.

She can survive longer than other mages in the game because 10% of spell damage is leeched as life. This is quite powerful, especially in the endgame, where damage can go through the roof due to well-crafted gear and access to amazing notable passive skills.

Open Sores

• Your Curses Have Infinite Duration

Curse skills in Path of Exile 2 last for about six seconds on average. By that time, you are going to eliminate most of the monsters you encounter in the game. However, if you want the curse skills to last indefinitely, there is Open Sores available for you.

We don’t feel that this is a necessary ascendancy node, though. That’s because you’d have to take Sanguimancy before you can allocate points to Open Sores. Still, the option is there if you want infinite curse duration.

Blood Barbs

• Gain 10% of Damage as Extra Physical Damage
• Elemental Damage also Contributes to Bleeding Magnitude

Bleeding is a damaging ailment in PoE 2 that is caused by hitting enemies with physical damage skills. However, Blood Barbs provide you with a means of not only inflicting bleed on your foes, but also influencing how much damage the ailment will do to those affected.

The 10% of damage as extra physical damage is a nice touch, but you are better off improving your elemental damage, assuming that is what your Path of Exile 2 build is all about.

Gore Spike

• 1% Increased Critical Damage Bonus per 40 Life

GGG probably saw how powerful the Gore Spike is, so much so that the company nerfed it. It used to grant a 1% increased critical damage bonus per 20 life, in case you’re wondering.

Be that as it may, this ascendancy node is still amazing, especially if you are able to land critical hits more often. It is also a good idea to raise your maximum HP as high as you can by wearing the appropriate gear.

Sunder the Flesh

• Base Critical Hit Chance for Spells is 15%

On the surface, Sunder the Flesh is good because it sets the base critical hit chance for spells at 15%. However, most spells already have a much higher base crit compared to attacks, so spending two ascendancy points for this may not be the most ideal course of action.

If there is a scenario where Sunder the Flesh is serviceable, it would probably be a PoE 2 build that uses fire spells. This is because they have the lowest base crit chance among other spells in the game.

Grasping Wounds

This is essentially the “Progenesis” from PoE 1. This, in our opinion, should be a part of your notable ascendancy skills. While the Dodge Roll enables you to avoid most attacks and projectiles, it cannot save you from boss slams.

Grasping Wounds almost prevents you from dying due to the fact that 25% of your HP that is lost from a recent attack is doled out as damage over time.

Crimson Power

• Gain Energy Shield from Equipped Body Armor as Extra Maximum Life

Gore Spike amplifies the damage of your spells, right? In order for the said ascendancy node to do that, you must have a pretty large life pool. The good news is that the Bloodmage can do that easily.

Aside from Sanguimancy’s overflow mechanic, Crimson Power grants extra maximum life based on the energy shield of your equipped body armor. To maximize this, you have to wear good body armor that has energy shield as its main defensive layer.

Stormweaver

Scouring Winds

• Exposure you inflict lowers the affected resistance by an additional 20%

For the uninitiated, Exposure is a type of debuff in Path of Exile 2 that reduces the elemental resistance of affected enemies depending on the type of exposure that was inflicted.

Scouring Winds amplifies the exposure debuff by lowering the monsters’ resistance to elemental damage by an additional 20%.

Tempest Caller

• Grants Skill: Elemental Storm
• Trigger Elemental Storm on Critical Hits with Spells

While Rogers said that critical damage builds in PoE 2 are not the only ones that are great in the endgame, having the ability to land critical hits more consistently is something that you could achieve.

Tempest Caller incentivizes you to attain a 100% crit chance because doing so enables you to trigger Elemental Storms more frequently.

An Elemental Storm is a powerful storm that stays in one place and deals damage based on the highest elemental damage that triggered it. So, if you’ve used Spark and Winter Orb recently, and the latter did more damage, then that will create an Elemental Storm that deals cold damage to nearby enemies.

Rain Dancer

• Elemental Storm Has a 150% More Cooldown Recovery Rate

The Elemental Storm can deal damage every 0.25 seconds. Despite its power, though, the storm has a lengthy five-second cooldown, which means that you’d have to wait several seconds before you create one again.

If you really like how the Elemental Storm performs while mapping, then you might want to take Rain Dancer as well. This significantly lowers the cooldown of Elemental Storm, allowing you to create one every couple of seconds.

Ideally, you take Rain Dancer only if your critical strike chance for spells is at least 50%. But, you can certainly take it much earlier if you like.

Heavy Snows

• Targets can be affected by two of your chills at the same time
• Your Chills can reduce action speed by up to a maximum of 35%
• 25% less magnitude of Chill you inflict

Chill is a cold damage ailment in PoE 2 that reduces the action speed of affected targets depending on the magnitude of the debuff. Normally, you could only apply one stack of Chill on the target. With Heavy Snows, you can inflict two!

Heavy Snows amplifies that by reducing the action speed of enemies affected by your Chills by up to 35%, which is actually pretty substantial!

Only take this ascendancy node if you are using mainly cold damage spells. If you use other elemental skills, you should take the next node as well, which is…

Shaper of Winter

• All Damage from hits contributes to Chill Magnitude

The Elementalist’s ascendancy node from Path of Exile 1 returns, albeit with a slightly different effect. In the original game, Shaper of Winter basically makes all of your hits, regardless of damage type, inflict Chill.

However, in Path of Exile 2, this ascendancy node only makes all damage from hits contribute to Chill magnitude, meaning, the cold damage ailment is no longer guaranteed with each cast of your spells.

If you like to make your enemies suffer from slow attack/cast/movement speed, then Shaper of Winter is not bad at all.

Strike Twice

• Targets can be affected by two of your Shocks at the same time
• 50% less Shock Duration

Shock is another elemental ailment in PoE2 that is applied when dealing lightning damage. This is one of the more interesting debuffs because it causes monsters to take increased damage from all sources.

Strike Twice enables you to apply two stacks of Shock on the enemy, making them take even more damage as a result! Don’t mind the shorter duration because inflicting Shock is easy if you constantly put pressure on your foes.

Shaper of Storms

• All damage from hits contributes to Shock chance

This is just the same as Shaper of Winter, albeit for a different type of elemental ailment. Take this ascendancy node if you use spells that kill enemies with other damage types, such as fire, cold, chaos, or physical.

Constant Gale

• You have Arcane Surge

Arcane Surge is a useful buff that grants 10% more cast speed and 20% more mana regeneration rate. Emphasis on the word “more” here because, in PoE 2, that signifies that the modifiers are calculated multiplicatively. In other words, you actually gain better benefits!

Force of Will

• 1% Increased effect of Arcane Surge on you per 15 maximum mana

Do you plan on creating a mana-stacking Stormweaver? If so, the Force of Will is incredibly appealing. This significantly boosts the effects of Arcane Surge when you have a large mana pool to go along with it.

Take note that Arcane Surge is also available as a support gem. Getting both Constant Gale and Force of Will allows you to replace that with another damage-boosting support gem.

Heart of the Storm

• 40% of Elemental damage taken recouped as energy shield

Spellcasters like the Stormweaver can take advantage of energy shield to help them survive tough battles. Heart of the Storm ensures that her energy shield recovers, particularly after receiving elemental damage.

If you don’t know, energy shield in PoE 2 does not recharge until you do not receive damage for a few seconds. Heart of the Storm recouping some of the ES that was lost after suffering an elemental damage hit addresses that.

Infernalist

1. Altered Flesh

• 20% of Cold Damage Taken as Fire Damage
• 20% of Lightning Damage Taken as Fire Damage
• 20% of Physical Damage Taken as Chaos Damage

Are you familiar with the Dawnbreaker? If not, it is one of the unique shields in Path of Exile 1 that is quite popular for improving defenses, specifically by converting cold, lightning, and physical damage to fire damage.

Well, the Infernalist’s Altered Flesh notable ascendancy skill is quite similar to that, with the exception of “20% of Physical Damage Taken as Chaos Damage.”

The fact that you can take it as a first ascendancy node is enticing, given that the monsters you encounter in the campaign do not have enough damage to kill you in one blow.

2. Beidat’s Gaze

• Reserves 25% of Life
• +1 to Maximum Mana per 6 Maximum Life

Mana is the resource that is needed to cast most skills in PoE 2. As a spellcaster, the Infernalist can take advantage of Beidat’s Gaze to greatly increase Mana based on her maximum life.

3. Beidat’s Will

• Reserves 25% of Life
• +1 to Maximum Spirit per 25 Maximum Life

If you’ve closely followed our Path of Exile 2 articles, you know that Spirit is a new resource that is specifically meant for ongoing skills and persistent buffs. Having a resource dedicated to those things is amazing, which is why Beidat’s Will is so powerful.

Yes, taking this does reserve a quarter of your total HP. But in exchange, you get an additional point of Spirit for every 25 points of your maximum life. So, if you want to have a lot of Spirit for your buffs and whatnot, getting Beidat’s Will is a no-brainer.

4. Beidat’s Hand

• Reserves 25% of Life
• +1 to Maximum Energy Shield per 8 Maximum Life

The previous ascendancy classes that were mentioned so far have some form of defensive mechanics that they can rely on to survive. Thankfully, GGG did not forget about the Infernalist by providing a means of boosting her energy shield with Beidat’s Hand.

Again, this notable ascendancy skill also reserves a considerable chunk of the Infernalist’s life. However, this is compensated by the huge ES that can be gained, assuming that she has a relatively large HP pool.

5. Demonic Possession

• Grants Skill: Demon Form

Those who intend to play the Infernalist in PoE2 Early Access are probably going to take Demonic Possession as one of their ascendancy nodes. This grants the Demon Form, which allows the Infernalist to transform into a demon with powerful bonuses.

When the Infernalist is in Demon Form, she enjoys the following:

• +4 to All Skill Gems
• 16% Increased Cast Speed
• 10% Increased Spell Damage per Demonflame

Spells in Path of Exile 2 actually gain more benefits from gem levels compared to attack skills. That is why the “+4 to level of all skill gems” while in Demon Form is quite powerful.

In addition, you gain 10% increased spell damage for each stack of Demonflame on you. By the way, Demonflame is a stackable debuff that causes you to lose 1% life per second. This scales infinitely, so you have to make sure that your life regeneration is on point. Otherwise, you return to your normal form after a short time.

Take note that the Demon Form has a 20-second cooldown, so you cannot just switch between forms easily.

6. Mastered Darkness

• Maximum 10 Demonflame

Do you like to be in Demon Form for a longer period of time? If so, take Mastered Darkness. This caps the Demonflame that you receive to just 10 stacks for a life loss rate of 10% of your maximum HP per second.

Keep in mind that because you can only get 10 stacks of Demonflame with Mastered Darkness, you only receive up to 100% increased spell damage as a result.

7. Pyromantic Pact

• Maximum mana is replaced by Maximum Infernal Flame
• Gain Infernal Flame instead of spending mana for skill costs
• Take maximum life and energy shield as fire damage when Infernal Flame reaches maximum
• Lose all Infernal Flame on reaching maximum Infernal Flame
• 10% of Infernal Flame lost per second if none was gained in the past two seconds

GGG introduced mechanics in Path of Exile 2 that completely replace certain resources for some interesting outcomes. Pyromantic Pact is just one of them.

When this ascendancy node is allocated, your mana is completely replaced by Infernal Flame. This means that your skills now use this new resource for each cast.

You start at zero Infernal Flame and you slowly get some when casting your spells. This is useful if you want to continually cast your devastating skills without worrying about mana.

The fire damage that you receive upon reaching the maximum Infernal Flame can be mitigated by fire resistance. Therefore, it is wise to achieve a 90% maximum fire resistance to significantly reduce that damage.

If your max fire resistance is still at 75%, you might want to stop casting spells until your Infernal Flame meter goes back to zero.

8. Bringer of Flame

• While not on low Infernal Flame, all damage from you and allies in your presence contributes to Ignite Chance and Magnitude

Bringer of Flame is potentially good, especially if you decide to party up with other people. This is because the said ascendancy node allows you to inflict Ignite on your enemies. Ignite, in case you don’t know, is an elemental ailment that deals fire damage over time.

What’s more, Bringer of Flame makes all damage from you and your allies inflict Ignite, so you don’t even have to cast fire spells to apply the said elemental ailment. This is only ever useful, however, if you have plenty of allies with you.

If you do take this ascendancy node, ensure that your Infernal Flame does not dip below 35%.

9. Seething Body

• While on High Infernal Flame, you and allies in your presence gain 20% of damage as fire damage

Once you have a 90% fire resistance and you took the Pyromantic Pact earlier, then Seething Body is a good choice. This takes 20% of your total damage and converts that to fire damage. As you can tell, only get Seething Body if one of your main spells deals fire damage.

Having a “High Infernal Flame” means that the said resource must be above 75% for it to provide you with a fire damage boost.

10. Loyal Hellhound

• Grants Skill: Summon Infernal Hound
• 20% of Damage from Hits is Taken from Your Hellhound’s Life Before You

If you have played the Guardian ascendancy class in Path of Exile 1, this is virtually the same as the Radiant Crusade notable ascendancy passive skill.

Basically, Loyal Hellhound grants the Infernalist the ability to summon an ally that soaks a portion of the damage she receives from hits.

Do not worry about the Hellhound’s health because you can now improve its survivability by using the appropriate support gems, such as Meat Shield, Elemental Army, and Last Gasp.

11. Grinning Immolation

• Become Ignited when you deal a critical hit, taking 15% of your life and energy shield as fire damage per second
• 30% more critical damage bonus

Grinning Immolation is risky to take early on. Although it grants a huge 30% more critical damage bonus, you receive fire damage based on 15% of your life and energy shield per second if you land a critical hit, which can be lethal.

So, we recommend that you raise your maximum elemental resistance to 90% to greatly reduce the fire damage you receive from Ignite. This is not going to be an issue in the late game, though.

Titan

1. Stone Skin

• 50% more armor from equipped body armor

Do you love playing the Juggernaut in PoE 1? If so, the Titan’s Stone Skin ascendancy node should be familiar to you. That’s right! It’s very similar to the Juggernaut’s “Unbreakable” ascendancy node.

2. Earthbreaker

• 20% Chance for slam skills you use yourself to cause aftershocks

Slam skills like Volcanic Fissure and Furious Slam can create aftershocks when you have the Earthbreaker ascendancy node.

Aftershocks basically deal the same amount of damage as the initial impact, unless otherwise specified. Because of this, clearing huge packs of monsters should be a cinch!

3. Ancestral Empowerment

• Every second slam skill you use yourself is Ancestrally Boosted

The Titan is our preferred ascendancy class for those who like to use slam skills, primarily because of Ancestral Empowerment.

This ascendancy node enhances the damage and widens the area of effect of slam skills by 20%. Sunder, Stampede, and Earthshatter can truly benefit from this!

4. Colossal Capacity

• Carry a chest which adds 20 inventory slots

In PoE1, there was a secondary ascendancy class called the “Wildwood Primalist” that gave you some additional storage space to keep more items. Well, the Titan’s Colossal Capacity does the same thing!

With Colossal Capacity, you can improve your mapping efficiency by not going to town every so often to store some stuff.

5. Hulking Form

• 50% Increased effect of small passive skills

This is probably one of the most exciting notable ascendancy passives in Path of Exile 2 Early Access. Hulking Form increases the effect of all small passive skills on the tree. This includes travel nodes, attribute nodes, and minor nodes!

You could take nodes that improve melee damage, armor, and resistances, which are then amplified by Hulking Form!

6. Crushing Impacts

• Your hits are Crushing Blows

To understand how good this next ascendancy node is, you have to know what Crushing Blows, Heavy Stun, and Primed for Stun mean.

Whenever you attack enemies, each hit contributes to the heavy stun meter. When the meter is full, the affected target is completely immobilized, rendering them unable to act for a brief period.

Primed for Stun is a term in Path of Exile 2 that refers to enemies that are on the brink of getting heavy-stunned. Monsters are considered such when they reach certain stun thresholds depending on their type. Here is a rundown:

• Normal monsters: 40% heavy stun build-up
• Magic monsters: 60%
• Rare monsters: 70%
• Unique monsters: 80%

Crushing Blows, not to be confused with the mechanic in Diablo II: Resurrected that reduces the life of affected enemies by a certain percentage, causes enemies to get heavy-stunned when they are already Primed for Stun.

Now that you know what those terms are, the Crushing Impacts ascendancy node becomes even more appealing to take, doesn’t it?

7. Surprising Strength

• 40% more damage against Heavy Stunned enemies

If you are going to get Crushing Impacts, then you should complement that with Surprising Strength. The damage bonus against heavy-stunned enemies is huge, which makes this ascendancy node worth the investment.

8. Mysterious Lineage

• 15% more maximum life

You might think that Mysterious Lineage is bland, but wait until you hear that there aren’t a lot of nodes on the passive tree that increase your health pool in some way.

Although Mysterious Lineage works for all PoE 2 Titan builds, this ascendancy node is even more valuable to a strength-stacker due to the fact that each point of STR grants more life now than in Path of Exile 1.

Acolyte of Chayula

1. Ravenous Doubts

• Mana leech is instant

The Monk class in Path of Exile 2 attacks rather quickly, so running out of mana is a common occurrence early on.

Ravenous Doubts from the Acolyte of Chayula is incredibly useful to address those mana problems by making sure that the mana you recover from leech is applied instantly.

2. Consuming Questions

• You cannot recharge energy shield

• Mana leech also recover energy shield

Energy shield recharge happens automatically, but that is if you do not receive damage for a few seconds. That is a bit hard to do given that monsters in Path of Exile 2 are programmed to hound you.

Consuming Questions is even more powerful when you consider boosting mana leech in any way you can. Gaining the ability to recover energy shield, coupled with the Acolyte of Chayula’s rapid martial arts moves, make this ascendancy node quite appealing to take.

3. Chayula’s Gift

• +10% to maximum chaos resistance

• Chaos resistance is doubled

Among the many resistance modifiers in PoE 2, chaos resistance is the most challenging to cap. Chayula’s Gift not only raises your maximum chaos resistance to 85%, but it doubles the value of chaos resistance modifiers from your items as well.

This allows you to gain a considerable amount of chaos resistance by only investing in two or three pieces of gear.

4. Reality Rending

• 23% Chance to gain 25% of damage with hits as extra chaos damage

• 13% Chance to gain 50% of damage with hits as extra chaos damage

• 7% chance to gain 100% of damage with hits as extra chaos damage

Reality Rending provides you with extra chaos damage based on a percentage of your overall damage. You don’t necessarily have to utilize skills that deal chaos damage to avail of its effects! However, we still recommend that you use chaos skills when you have Reality Rending allocated, mainly for the purpose of better damage scaling.

5. Waking Dream

• Grants Skill: Into the Breach

This is akin to Vaal Breach in PoE 1. When you use “Into the Breach,” you gain the ability to obtain the Flames of Chayula. The Flames of Chayula grant specific bonuses depending on the type. Here is a rundown:

• Red Flames: 7% Life Leech
• Blue Flames: 7% Mana Leech
• Purple Flames: 7% of Damage as Chaos Damage per Stack for 5 Seconds (stacks up to 10 times)

This ascendancy node should be taken along with the next one, which is…

6. Lucid Dreaming

• Effect and duration of Flames of Chayula on you are doubled

Although you can get the Flames of Chayula just by having the Waking Dream ascendancy node, Lucid Dreaming makes those temporary buffs work much better.

With Lucid Dreaming allocated, you enjoy 14% life leech, 14% mana leech, and 14% chaos damage that lasts for 10 seconds depending on the type of flame you’ve acquired.

7. Embrace the Darkness

• Remove all Spirit
• Base Maximum Darkness is 100
• For each life or energy shield lost to damage, reserve 1 Darkness instead if possible
• Darkness reservation lasts for 10 seconds
• +5 to Maximum Darkness per level

Embrace the Darkness replaces Spirit with a new resource called “Darkness.” Every time you lose life or energy shield by taking damage, you reserve Darkness equal to the amount that was lost. The reserved Darkness has a duration of 10 seconds, after which, it dissipates so you can repeat the process.

To be honest, we see this as a possibly underutilized ascendancy node in PoE 2 due to the fact that Spirit is just too useful for it to be replaced with something else. Granted that the improved survivability is appealing in the early stages of the game, the buffs that reserve Spirit are just better overall.

8. Grasp of the Void

• Gain 1% of Damage as Extra Chaos Damage per 20 Unreserved Darkness

If you take Embrace the Darkness for some reason, then you should also get Grasp of the Void for that extra chaos damage. The damage bonus it provides is increased every four levels.

9. Inner Silence

• 50% Reduced Darkness Reservation Duration

Inner Silence is more about surviving longer on the battlefield. The six points that are needed to obtain Embrace the Darkness, Grasp of the Void, and this ascendancy node are just too steep and something that the vast majority of people will probably not do.

Deadeye

1. Avidity

• 30% Chance that if you would gain Frenzy Charges, you instead gain up to your maximum number of Frenzy Charges

Charges now work a lot differently in Path of Exile 2 than its predecessor. Frenzy Charges, in particular, enhance some bow skills in a number of ways.

Rain of Arrows, for example, can produce more arrows on a single cast depending on how many Frenzy Charges you have.

That said, Avidity is pretty useful for ensuring that you get the most out of your bow skills.

2. Thrilling Chase

• Benefits from consuming Frenzy Charges for your skills have a 50% chance to be doubled

Thrilling Chase is a good complement to Avidity, but that is only if you invest in PoE 2 items that increase your total number of Frenzy Charges.

3. Eagle Eyes

• You have no accuracy penalty at distance

One of the best new features in Path of Exile 2 is the ability to use abilities while moving. As you fire your arrows from basic attacks or bow skills, you incur an accuracy penalty when you fire at enemies from a considerable distance. In other words, you run the risk of not hitting the intended target when you are too far away.

Eagle Eyes is a Path of Exile 2 ascendancy node that ensures you always hit your primary target. This is actually more useful than you think because every missed shot is a reduction in your overall DPS.

4. Point Blank (a)/Far Shot (b)

• Projectiles deal 20% more hit damage to targets in the first 3.5 meters of their movement, scaling down with distance traveled to reach 0% after 7 meters

• Projectiles deal 0% more hits damage to targets in the first 3.5 meters of their movement, scaling up with distance traveled to reach 20% after 7 meters

You might get confused when reading the descriptions of both Point Blank and Far Shot, but they’re actually quite easy to understand.

Basically, Point Blank grants a 20% more damage modifier to enemies that are close by. Far Shot does the same but for monsters that are relatively far away.

We believe that Point Blank is useful for many Path of Exile 2 bow builds simply because enemies often pursue you relentlessly.

Far Shot could be useful but only if you are able to slay monsters before they have a chance of landing a hit.

5. Endless Munitions

• Skills fire an additional projectile

Looking at this ascendancy node’s description, you might think that Endless Munitions is lackluster compared to others. However, that is actually not the case!

You see, the ability to fire an additional projectile is huge given that this has no damage penalty whatsoever.

Moreover, that one extra projectile applies to all projectiles, including bow attacks and grenades.

6. Called Shots

• You can apply an additional mark

For those who are new to the franchise, you can only apply one mark on the enemy. Now, there are about three “Mark” skills in Path of Exile 2 Early Access, namely Voltaic Mark, Freezing Mark, and Sniper’s Mark. Called Shots is good only if you are willing to cast a couple of mark skills manually.

7. Gathering Winds

• Gain Tailwind on skill use

• Lose all Tailwind when hit

Tailwind is a stackable buff that grants 1% increased movement speed, 3% increased skill speed, and 15% increased evasion per stack (maximum of 10 stacks). The effects of Tailwind last for 10 seconds, though you lose all stacks when you are hit.

Although Tailwind is quite helpful for a Ranger ascendancy class, the fact that you lose all stacks on a single hit is a heavy downside. Mind you, this didn’t exist in Path of Exile 1!

The question now is: should you still take this notable ascendancy passive skill? Well, that depends. Can you evade hits effectively so that you have Tailwind up all the time? If the answer is yes, then sure!

8. Wind Ward

• 3% Less Damage per Tailwind

Another reason to take Gathering Winds is if you complement it with Wind Ward. The Deadeye ascendancy class is not particularly strong on defense, so being able to receive 30% less damage from the enemy’s assault is a godsend!

Witchhunter

1. Weapon Master

• 20 passive skill points become weapon set skill points

Dual specialization allows you to tinker with a couple of different setups for more dynamic gameplay. If you really like to take advantage of this PoE 2 feature, then Weapon Master is not bad at all.

2. Pitiless Killer

• Culling Strike

Enables the Witchhunter to instantly slay enemies when they drop to a certain HP threshold. Here are the values that you need to hit:

• Normal monsters: at or below 30% of maximum life
• Magic monsters: at or below 20%
• Rare monsters: at or below 10%
• Unique monsters: at or below 5%

Whether you intend to create a Witchhunter in Path of Exile 2 Early Access primarily for mapping or boss-killing, Pitiless Killer is such a wonderful ascendancy node to take.

3. Judge, Jury, and Executioner

• Decimating Strike

If Culling Strike in PoE2 refers to killing enemies instantly when they drop below a certain HP threshold, Decimating Strike is the opposite.

Decimating Strike instantly removes a considerable chunk of the monster’s life (about 5-30%) on the first hit. This is guaranteed, by the way, which makes it a powerful ascendancy node for sure!

4. Witchbane

• Enemies have maximum concentration equal to 40% of their maximum life
• Break enemy concentration on hit equal to 100% of damage dealt
• Enemies regain 10% of concentration every second if they haven’t lost concentration in the past five seconds

Okay, this next ascendancy node can be confusing, so let us break it down for you. Witchbane imposes a new resource on enemies called “Concentration.” As to how much Concentration a monster has, that depends on 40% of their maximum life.

When you hit monsters with your attacks, they slowly lose the said resource. Once their Concentration is completely broken (or reaches 0%), they are unable to use their most damaging spells often because of that huge 50% less cooldown recovery rate.

5. No Mercy

• Deal up to 30% more damage to enemies based on their missing Concentration

Witchbane is already pretty useful but it becomes even more so when you take No Mercy as well. This notable ascendancy passive grants a damage bonus that is amplified when you consistently hit enemies with your attacks.

Both Witchbane and No Mercy should be taken together to make the most out of the Concentration mechanic.

6. Obsessive Rituals

• Grants Skill: Sorcery Ward
• 50% Less Armor and Evasion Rating

Sorcery Ward is similar to the Elemental Aegis in PoE1. This is a protective barrier that absorbs elemental damage from hits. What’s interesting about Sorcery Ward is that it recharges automatically when it is fully depleted, so even if you do get hit when the barrier breaks, it will be up and running shortly after.

The 50% less armor and evasion rating is quite a huge penalty, though. So you have to ask yourself: do you care so much about physical damage mitigation or avoiding attacks? If not, the Obsessive Rituals ascendancy node is fine for defensive purposes.

7. Ceremonial Ablution

• 50% Increased effect of Sorcery Ward
• Sorcery Ward recovers 50% faster

Sorcery Ward is helpful in making you survive maps that are abundant with monsters that deal elemental damage. If you want to make it your primary defensive layer, then you should take Ceremonial Ablution for that 50% increased effect and faster recovery time.

8. Zealous Inquisition

• 10% Chance for enemies you kill to explode, dealing 100% of their maximum life as physical damage
• Chance is doubled against undead and demons

True to his name, the Witchhunter can effectively slay demons and the undead thanks to Zealous Inquisition. The chance of making enemies explode on kill is essentially doubled when you have this ascendancy node, though this only applies to the aforementioned monster types.

Warbringer

1. Anvil’s Weight

• Break armor equal to 10% of hit damage dealt

“Break Armor” is a PoE 2 mechanic that makes enemies take increased physical damage based on the percentage of broken armor. Once the armor is completely broken, you could utilize Sunder or Leap Slam to gain additional effects.

Sunder, for example, allows you to critically hit enemies when their armor is completely broken, guaranteed!

If you want to take full advantage of the armor break mechanic, Anvil’s Weight is there to help you. This ascendancy node enables you to break the enemy’s armor quickly for more damage.

2. Imploding Impacts

• You can break enemy armor to below 0 (zero)

You could take Imploding Impacts if you use skills other than those that remove the broken armor status, such as Leap Slam and Sunder.

Because the enemy’s armor value can go to negative values, your attacks become even more potent with each hit!

3. Jade Heritage

• Grants Skill: Encase in Jade

• Gain a stack of Jade every second

Taking the Jade Heritage notable ascendancy skill allows you to accrue Jade stacks over time. When you use the “Encase in Jade” skill, you gain a buff that absorbs all damage from hits, up to a certain extent. As to how much damage the Jade barrier can take, that depends on the number of stacks that were consumed upon activation.

Jade Heritage is best taken when you want the Warbringer to become your go-to boss killer. The ability to not take damage for a brief period is enough for you to use a Life Flask to stay alive.

4. Answered Call

• Grants Skill: Ancestral Spirits

• Trigger Ancestral Spirits when you summon a totem

Unlike the totems that you lay down on the ground, the Ancestral Spirits summoned by Answered Call can move freely. Furthermore, since you can boost their damage and survivability with the appropriate support gems, the Ancestral Spirits are more useful than you think.

The only thing that could hold you back from taking this ascendancy node is whether you are willing to commit to the totem playstyle or not.

5. Wooden Wall

• 20% of damage from hits is taken from your nearest Totem’s life before you

On the topic of totems, Wooden Wall makes the totem closest to you absorb 20% damage. Take note that this only applies to “hits,” whether they may be from attacks or spells. You still take the full extent of damage over time effects like poison or bleeding, though.

6. Renly’s Training

• Gain 40% of base chance to block from equipped shield instead of the shield’s value

Most shields in Path of Exile 2 have a mediocre block chance. Unless they come with increased chance to block modifiers, you are better off using Raise Shield to fend off incoming attacks or spells.

Renly’s Training is a Warbringer-only ascendancy node that enforces a 40% base block chance no matter what shield you use. This is pretty useful if you equip a weapon on one hand and a shield on the other.

7. Turtle Charm

• 35% Less block chance

• Can block damage from all hits while shield is not raised

If you want to gain the ability to block attacks without relying on Raise Shield, then Turtle Charm is a must-have. That 35% less block chance is a non-issue when you consider the effect of Renly’s Training.

8. Warcaller’s Bellow

• Corpses in your presence explode when you warcry, dealing 25% of their life as physical damage

Slam skills, though quite devastating, have a rather slow attack animation that could prevent you from completing maps in several minutes. Warcaller’s Bellow can address that by making corpses in your proximity explode, dealing 25% of their life as physical damage to nearby enemies.

In addition, Warcaller’s Bellow encourages you to use warcry skills often. Infernal Cry and Seismic Cry exert your next slam skill to do even more damage, so why not take advantage of that?

9. Greatwolf’s Howl

• Ignore warcry cooldowns

Speaking of utilizing warcries more frequently, Greatwolf’s Howl is good if you want to ensure that every slam skill you use has its damage boosted.

Despite ignoring warcry cooldowns, we think that Greatwolf’s Howl is not going to be popular in Path of Exile 2 Early Access. This is simply because there are better ascendancy nodes to spend your skill points on, such as Anvil’s Weight, Jade Heritage, and Renly’s Training.

Invoker

1. Lead Me Through Grace…

• Gain 1 Spirit for every 6 energy shield on equipped body armor
• Gain 1 Spirit for every 15 evasion rating on equipped body armor
• Cannot gain Spirit from equipment

As mentioned earlier, you need Spirit to cast your buffs and auras, as well as summon minions. Lead Me Through Grace is only really helpful when you have a good energy shield/evasion-based body armor equipped. You might have to insert specific runes or soul cores that increase either of these defensive layers to make this ascendancy node count.

2. …and Protect Me from Harm

• Evasion rating also grants physical damage reduction
• 40% less evasion rating

Physical damage reduction is a defensive stat in PoE 2 that can normally be gained from wearing armor-based equipment. Since the Invoker is a DEX-INT character, this ascendancy node works if you want to have a considerable amount of physical damage mitigation.

The 40% less evasion rating is rough, so you have to wear all evasion-based gear if you want to attain a 90% physical damage reduction.

3. Faith is a Choice

• Grants Skill: Meditate

Do you want to gain the ability to recharge energy shield on command? Well, Faith is a Choice does that by allowing you to meditate. What’s more, recharging energy shield this way can even lead to an “overcharge,” where you gain double your maximum ES!

It is important to note that Meditate is a channeling skill. Even though being able to manually recharge ES is a good idea on paper, in practice, it’s not really feasible. That is because you barely have enough time to stay in one place for several seconds given that PoE 2 is a fast-paced game.

4. I am the Blizzard…

• Gain 10% of Damage as Extra Cold Damage
• Create a Chilled Ground on freezing enemies

I am the Blizzard is an ascendancy node that allows you to create a Chilled Ground when you freeze enemies. Chilled Ground is a detrimental ground effect in PoE2 that slows monsters that step on it.

That extra cold damage is good but not nearly enough to warrant two ascendancy points. If you really want to take this node, you must consider using the Eye of Winter so that it “takes” the Chilled Ground, and applies its chilling effect to nearby monsters.

5. I am the Thunder…

• Gain 10% of Damage as Extra Lightning Damage
• 25% Chance to Create a Shocked Ground when shocking enemies

Another detrimental ground effect, Shocked Ground makes enemies take increased damage so long as they step on the affected area. Although the 25% chance to create a Shocked Ground is a bit low, that is misleading because the Invoker can attack rather quickly.

Because this ascendancy node cannot be taken without also spending points on I am the Blizzard, we don’t recommend that you get I am the Thunder. The only time that it’s worth it is if you take advantage of the detrimental ground effects to the fullest.

6. And I Shall Rage

• Grants Skill: Unbound Avatar

Unbound Avatar is quite similar to the skill of the same name in Path of Exile 1. You gain Unbound Fury when you inflict elemental ailments, such as Chill, Freeze, and Shock. When you reach 100 stacks, you can activate Unbound Avatar to gain a massive elemental damage boost.

We don’t know yet if it grants 80% more elemental damage in PoE 2 just like it did in the original game. However, any increase in damage is still welcome regardless of the amount.

7. The Soul Springs Eternal

• Meta Skills gain 35% more energy

Meta skills, for those who don’t know, are those that trigger socketed skills once the maximum Energy is reached. Some examples of this include Cast While Channeling (CWS), Cast on Critical (CoC), and Cast on Freeze, to name a few.

The Soul Springs Eternal makes meta skills trigger more often because of how quickly you can accumulate Energy. If you happen to employ some meta skills, then this ascendancy node is mandatory.

8. Sunder My Enemies…

• Critical hits ignore non-negative enemy monster elemental resistances

Remember the Inquisitor in PoE? This ascendancy class has Inevitable Judgement, which is an ascendancy node that makes critical hits ignore enemy monster elemental resistances. Well, the Monk’s “Sunder my Enemies…” node works exactly the same, albeit more accessible.

9. And Scatter Them to the Winds

• Grants Skill: Elemental Expression
• Trigger Elemental Expression on Melee Critical Hit

This ascendancy node resembles the Wild Strike of Extremes Transfigured Gem in Path of Exile 1. To put it simply, Elemental Expression is a skill that unleashes a certain type of attack, and the chances of it happening are contingent upon your attributes.

Strength influences fiery explosions, dexterity boosts the chance of an arcing bolt to be fired, and intelligence creates an icy wave of projectiles. Based on the wording, it seems that all three attacks are possible, though one of them is triggered more frequently than the rest.

Chronomancer

1. Now and Again

• Skills have a 33% chance to not consume a cooldown when used

The Chronomancer ascendancy class is essentially the resident time mage in Path of Exile 2. That said, Now and Again is an ascendancy node that allows you to use skills twice in a row, with a considerably high chance of it happening!

2. Unbound Encore

• Grants Skill: Time Snap

While Now and Again provides you with a 33% chance of not consuming a cooldown on skill use, this next ascendancy node enables you to cast spells again with one click of a button!

Time Snap effectively resets all of your cooldowns, allowing you to use your skills again. Keep in mind that this particular skill has a cooldown of 36 seconds, so taking increased cooldown recovery rate nodes on the passive tree is a must.

Both Now and Again and Unbound Encore are highly valuable ascendancy nodes to take, so it’s now a question of which other two notable passives you need to allocate to complete your PoE 2 build.

3. Ultimate Command

• Grants Skill: Time Freeze

Do you want to have the power to manipulate time to freeze enemies in place? Well, the aptly named Time Freeze skill is yours if you take Ultimate Command as one of your ascendancy nodes.

It is important to note that while Time Freeze is useful for both mapping and bossing, the skill has an incredibly long cooldown of 61 seconds. Only cast it when you’re in a bind.

4. Footprints in the Sand

• Grants Skill: Temporal Rift

Some enemies in Path of Exile 2 could deplete your HP without a moment’s notice. To go back to a healthier state, you should take advantage of Temporal Rift, which is granted by Footprints in the Sand.

Temporal Rift allows you to create afterimages or snapshots of the last four seconds of play. When you cast the spell again, you return to your oldest afterimage, restoring your life, mana, and energy shield to the same values at the time.

5. Quicksand Hourglass

• Every 12 seconds, gain 50% more cast speed for 4 seconds

Comet, Eye of Winter, and Firestorm. These are just some of the spells in PoE 2 that have relatively long cast times. To hasten them up, the Chronomancer can utilize time magic to gain 50% more cast speed for a brief period. This is all thanks to the Quicksand Hourglass, of course!

What we love about this is that the greatly increased cast speed occurs automatically, albeit every 12 seconds. Still, being able to cast more devastating spells in a jiffy makes this ascendancy node worthy of consideration.

6. Apex of the Moment

• Enemies in your presence are slowed by 20%

Slowing enemies down and priming them for the kill is always a good idea, but if you had to take an ascendancy node to achieve that? Well, that’s a hard sell!

If you really want to stop enemies in their tracks, you can go for Temporal Chains instead. This is the preferred option, especially considering that you can manually cast Temporal Chains at any time.

All we are trying to say is that there are better notable ascendancy skills out there, so save your two points for something else!

7. Circular Heartbeat

• 30% of Damage Taken Recouped as Life

The Chronomancer can employ a couple of mechanics to keep her alive. Aside from Time Freeze, she has Circular Heartbeat, which allows her to recoup some of her life back after suffering a recent attack. You can focus on this by adding a similar modifier on some of your items as well.

8. The Rapid River

• Recoup effects instead occur over 4 seconds

Circular Heartbeat instantly recoups a portion of the damage you’ve received as life. If you want to recover life this way over a period of time, then The Rapid River can be a worthwhile investment.

But, if you ask us? Footprints in the Sand is a better option, provided that you cast Temporal Rift often.

Pathfinder

1. Connected Chemistry

• 50% more flask charges gained

The Pathfinder ascendancy class in Path of Exile 2 specializes in deadly concoctions and heavy flask use for the purposes of killing enemies and survival. Connected Chemistry ensures that you gain more than enough charges to sustain yourself throughout the campaign.

2. Enduring Elixirs

• Life flask effects are not removed when unreserved life is filled
• Life flask effects do not queue

Enduring Elixirs is a better version of “Master Surgeon” in PoE1. It still allows life recovery from flasks to continue even when your life is full. However, it no longer has that dreaded reduced life recovery from flasks!

3. Contagious Contamination

• The most damaging poison on enemies you kill is spread to other enemies within 1.5 meters

Poison proliferation provided by this ascendancy node is not necessary. Why? Because Herald of Plague exists, which does exactly the same thing, if not better!

4. Overwhelming Toxicity

• Double the number of poisons you can inflict on enemies
• 35% Less poison duration

Overwhelming Toxicity is undeniably good, particularly when you plan to create a PoE 2 build that kills enemies with lethal poisons! To understand why this ascendancy node is great, you have to know how poison works in the game.

Poison is an ailment in PoE 2 that causes those affected to suffer from chaos damage over time. While this ailment can kill monsters, the problem is that you can only apply one stack of poison on each target.

With Overwhelming Toxicity, you can apply a second stack of poison. What’s more, you can apply up to six stacks if you take both “Building Toxins” and “Stacking Toxins” on the passive tree!

5. Brew Concoction

• Poisonous Concoction (chaos damage)
• Fulminating Concoction (lightning damage)
• Shattering Concoction (cold damage)
• Explosive Concoction (fire damage)
• Bleeding Concoction (physical damage)

Brew Concoction is an interesting ascendancy node, mainly because it gives the Pathfinder several deadly concoctions to choose from!

Poisonous Concoction was a popular league starter in PoE1, but is now an attack skill that can only be accessed by taking Brew Concoction.

If you use any of the elemental concoctions, you can inflict exposure debuff that matches their elemental damage type.

For example, Fulminating Concoction allows the Pathfinder to hurl a bottle that explodes, dealing lightning damage in an area, and inflicting lightning exposure to nearby enemies.

Unlike in the original game, all of these concoctions now consume charges from the Mana Flask as opposed to the Life Flask.

6. Traveller’s Wisdom

• Grants 5 Passive Skill Points

With over 1,500 passive skills on the tree, you only have a finite number of points to allocate. Traveller’s Wisdom just straight-up gives you five additional skill points. This is quite useful when you only need several points to reach your favorite notable passive skill.

7. Running Assault

• 30% Less movement speed penalty when using skills while moving

Remember what we said earlier about strafing using the WASD keys? Attacking while moving actually slows you down quite a bit. If you want to gain some of the movement speed back, Running Assault can help you with that.

8. Relentless Pursuit

• Your speed is affected by Slows

Is Relentless Pursuit really necessary? No. However, Running Assault certainly is.

Gemling Legionnaire

1. Crystalline Potential

• +10% to Quality of All Skill Gems

Skill gems in Path of Exile 2 have innate bonuses that can only be unlocked when you increase their quality. Right now, there are a couple of ways to do that. The first is to use the PoE 2 Currency, Gemcutter’s Prism, and the second is to take the Gemling Legionnaire’s Crystalline Potential.

Crystalline Potential is a watered-down version of Ashes of the Stars in Path of Exile 1. If there is a particular skill that you want to enhance even further, then taking this ascendancy node is not bad at all.

2. Implanted Gems

• +1 to Level of All Skills

The other effect of Ashes of the Stars is to increase the level of all skill gems by one if you equip the said amulet. Well, that is now an ascendancy node, which you can get from the Gemling Legionnaire. Should you take it, though? If you’re mainly using attack skills, then it’s unnecessary.

3. Advanced Thaumaturgy

• 30% Less cost of skills
• Skill gems have 30% more attribute requirements

The Mercenary and Gemling Legionnaire rely on powerful combos to defeat enemies in a matter of seconds. Of course, spamming skills do require a lot of mana. Therefore, if you have problems with mana, you could take Advanced Thaumaturgy to address that.

Every support gem that you link to your active skills now requires five points of a specific attribute depending on its color. The 30% more attribute requirement of Advanced Thaumaturgy is not that big of a deal considering that it translates to a 1.5-point increase only.

4. Integrated Efficiency

• Grants 3 additional skill slots

Path of Exile 2 builds have nine active skill slots at their disposal. If you absolutely need additional slots, there is Integrated Efficiency to give you a few. Another good reason to take Integrated Efficiency is if you will also take the next two ascendancy nodes on this list.

5. Gem Studded

• You can use two copies of the same support gem in different skills

In case you were unaware, you can only use one support gem to enhance an active skill in Path of Exile 2. This means that you cannot use the exact same support gem on another skill in your toolkit.

Well, the Gemling Legionnaire has the upper hand on this because of Gem Studded. This ascendancy node allows you to use two copies of the same support gem in different skills.

For instance, if you want to put Chain Support on both Explosive Grenade Launcher and Flash Grenade, you can do that if you have Gem Studded allocated.

6. Thaumaturgical Infusion

• +1% to Maximum Cold Resistance per 4 blue support gems socketed
• +1% to Maximum Fire Resistance per 4 red support gems socketed
• +1% to Maximum Lightning Resistance per 4 green support gems socketed

If you have a 90% on all your elemental resistances, you take significantly less elemental damage as a result. This is incredibly useful in the endgame, particularly when you decide to hunt map bosses and other formidable enemies.

Thaumaturgical Infusion was actually nerfed a bit because it now requires you to have four support gems of a single color to gain an additional 1% to maximum elemental resistance.

That is why Thaumaturgical Infusion is only really viable when you get at least Integrated Efficiency along with it. The three additional skills can accommodate up to 15 support gems, so that’s already plus 3%!

7. Adaptive Capability

• Attribute requirements of gems can be satisfied by your highest attribute

It is true that each support gem now requires five points of a certain attribute. However, you are unlikely to come across a situation where you lack the attributes to use whatever support gem you need. Thus, it is not ideal to get Adaptive Capability.

8. Enhanced Effectiveness

• Inherent bonuses from Intelligence, Strength, and Dexterity are doubled

In Path of Exile 2, every point of STR gives you HP, INT grants mana, and DEX provides accuracy. If you’d like to go STR-stacker, for example, then you might find Enhanced Effectiveness to be somewhat useful.

The thing is, you’d have to take Adaptive Capability to get to this ascendancy node. If you do not find any of the previously mentioned notable ascendancy skills useful, then maybe Enhanced Effectiveness isn’t too bad.

Final Thoughts

Each ascendancy class in Path of Exile 2 can only take several notable ascendancy skills, so you have to decide beforehand which ones you are going to take.

Be mindful of the pathing, especially the thin lines that connect to individual nodes. If they are far down the bottom or way up there, then you need at least four ascendancy points to obtain them.

So there you have it! We hope that you’ve found our PoE 2 ascendancy nodes guide helpful. With all of the notable skills already revealed, this begs the question: which ascendancy class are you going to play in Path of Exile 2 Early Access? Let us know in the comments!