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PoE 2 Passive Tree Guide: Classes and Builds Application

PoE 2 Passive Tree Guide: Classes and Builds Application

PoE 2 introduces a highly intricate skill tree system, Dexterity, Strength, and Intelligence offering unique passives tailored to specific playstyles.  This guide will focus on key passive nodes revealed so far, including those related to Attack, Chaos, Minion, Defence and Utility Passives.

 


↖ Attack Passives 

For players who want to upgrade their builds, the Attack Passives are extremely critical since they increase damage output as well as boost attack time and accuracy. 

PoE2 Attack Passive Overview

 

let's break down the major Attack Passives, what they do, and for what kinds of builds they can be used.

Passive Name Effect Key Benefits Use Case
Wild Storm Grants 15% more maximum lightning damage.
  • Increases the gap between minimum and maximum lightning damage, enhancing overall DPS.
  • Particularly effective when paired with items that boost lightning damage.
 Ideal for lightning-based builds aiming to maximize damage variance.
Unexpected Finish
  • Increases Arctic damage by 10%.
  • Grants accuracy rating equal to your strength.
  • Perfect for Arctic-based builds.
  • Enables strength-stacking builds to boost both damage and accuracy.
 Highly recommended for strength-focused characters like warriors.
Psychic Fragmentation Provides a 24% chance for spell skills to fire two additional projectiles.
  • Significant DPS boost for projectile-based spell builds.
  • Requires only three passive points to unlock.
 Best suited for builds using single-projectile spells.
Falcon Technique Increases attack speed by 1% per 15 dexterity.
  • Excellent for dexterity-stacking builds.
  • Enhances attack speed significantly with minimal investment.
 Optimal for dexterity-heavy characters, such as bow or ballista builds.
Falcon Dive Increases attack speed by 1% per accuracy rating.
  • Synergizes well with dexterity and accuracy stacking.
  • Requires minimal passive points to unlock.
 Great for builds focusing on both dexterity and accuracy.
Explosive Impact
  • Increases area of effect.
  • Burning enemies killed have a 5% chance to explode.
  • Enhances clear speed with explosive effects.
  • Adds utility without relying on specific items.
 Suitable for area-of-effect and burning builds.
Endless Blizzard Grants +1 level to all cold skills.
  • Directly boosts cold skill damage.
  • Synergizes well with other cold-related passives in the tree.
 Essential for cold-based builds.
Elemental Equilibrium
  • Hits that deal fire damage remove fire exposure and inflict lightning exposure (and vice versa for other elements).
  • Enables creative use of dual-elemental skills.
  • Adds versatility to elemental damage types.
 Best for characters utilizing multiple elemental skills.
Pure Power Increases lightning damage by 2% per intelligence.
  • Encourages intelligence stacking for additional lightning damage.
 Suitable for intelligence-heavy lightning builds.
Climate Change
  • Increases freeze buildup by 20%.
  • Converts 25% of cold damage as extra fire damage against frozen enemies.
  • Enhances clear speed through freeze and fire synergy.
 Effective for builds focusing on freezing mechanics.
Catalyzes
  • Increases elemental damage with attack skills by 20%.
  • Converts 5% of physical damage from hits taken as a random elemental type.
  • Boosts both offensive and defensive capabilities.
  • Requires only two passive points to unlock.
 Ideal for elemental attack-based builds.

 

↖ Chaos Passives

These Passives are quite important for players using builds based on poison and chaos damage. 

POE2 Chaos Passives Overview

 

Let's break down the key passives starting with Stacking Toxins, Spaghettification, Low Tolerance, Escalating Toxins, Building Toxins, and Dark Entries.

Passive Name Effect Analysis Recommendation
Stacking Toxins
  • Allows poison to be applied an additional time.
  • Reduces the effect of poison by 20%.
  • Highly beneficial for poison builds as applying an additional poison can nearly double your DPS.
  • The 20% reduction in poison effect is a minor downside compared to the massive damage increase.
 Essential for fast-attack poison builds to maintain consistent poison application.
Spaghettification
  • Increases chaos damage.
  • Provides additional attributes and movement speed.
  • Reduces chaos resistance slightly.
  • Offers a well-rounded set of bonuses for chaos builds, making it valuable for poison and chaos spell-focused characters.
  • The reduction in chaos resistance (-13%) is a manageable drawback for most builds.
 Highly recommended for chaos-related builds due to its versatility and minimal downsides.
Low Tolerance
  • Increases poison effect by 60% against enemies that are not already poisoned.
  • Strong effect, but its value depends on proximity to your starting point on the Passive Tree.
  • If located too far from your core path, it may not be worth the investment.
 Consider this passive if it is easily accessible within your build path; otherwise, prioritize other nodes.
Escalating Toxins
  • Increases poison duration by 10% for each poison inflicted recently, up to a maximum of 100%.
  • Excellent for stacking poisons on enemies, allowing for sustained damage over time.
  • Particularly useful in difficult encounters where dodging and survival are crucial.
 A strong choice for players aiming to maximize poison duration and improve quality of life during combat.
Building Toxins
  • Reduces poison duration by 20%.
  • Allows poison to be applied an additional time.
  • When paired with Escalating Toxins, the reduction in poison duration is offset by the increased duration from Escalating Toxins.
  • The additional poison application significantly boosts damage output.
 Take both Building Toxins and Escalating Toxins together for optimal synergy and maximum poison efficiency.
Dark Entries
  • Provides +1 level to Chaos Skill Gems.
  • Requires a significant investment of five points but offers a substantial boost to chaos skill effectiveness.
 Ideal for chaos spell builds, particularly those that rely heavily on skill gem scaling.

 

↖ Minions Passives

Minions Passives Abilities augment the potency of minion-based builds by providing them with various useful bonuses and alterations. 

POE2 Minions Passives Overview

 

Let's analyze the currently shown Minion Passives, their benefits in the minion build, and the situations or criteria where one must select them in the minion build.

Passive Name Effect Analysis Recommendation
Lords of Horror
  • Minions have 12% reduced reservation.
  • Highly valuable for minion builds, as reducing reservation costs allows for more efficient use of auras and other abilities.
  • With two additional passives linked to this node, it is likely worth investing in this path to maximize its benefits.
 A must-have for builds heavily reliant on minions and aura support.
Necromantic Talisman
  • All bonuses from an equipped amulet apply to your minions instead of you.
  • Provides a unique mechanic that allows the stats from your amulet to directly enhance your minions.
  • Boosts both survivability and damage output for minions, making it a versatile and powerful choice.
  • Similar mechanics in Path of Exile 1 were highly effective for improving overall minion performance.
 Highly recommended for most minion-focused builds, as it offers significant utility and flexibility.
Right Hand of Darkness
  • Minions have increased area of effect and a chance to inflict Wither on hit.
  • Increased area of effect is beneficial for clearing larger groups of enemies.
  • Wither effect is more situational and depends on the type of damage your minions deal.
  • Historically, Wither has been a powerful mechanic in Path of Exile 1, so its potential value in Path of Exile 2 should not be overlooked.
 Consider this passive for chaos-damage-oriented minion builds or if increased area of effect aligns with your strategy.

 

↖ Defence Passives

The Defence Passives provide a lot of different possibilities for feeling more survivable. These passives benefit builds with Energy Shield, hybrid builds and evasion based builds as they present necessary resources for both early and end game stages. 

POE2 Defence Passives Overview

 

Let's now go through the essential Defence Passives, their impact on other passives that replace or benefit from them and where to put them in the combinations of passives.

Passive Name Effect Applications Recommendation
Eternal Youth
  • Life recharge instead of Energy Shield recharge.
  • Life recovery from flasks applies to Energy Shield.
  • Ideal for hybrid builds combining life and Energy Shield.
  • Allows players to recover Energy Shield using life flasks, effective for survivability in challenging encounters.
 Strong choice for Energy Shield builds in both early and late game due to its versatility.
Encanter Barrier
  • +1 to maximum elemental resistances.
  • 25% increased maximum Energy Shield.
  • Excellent for builds that aim to maximize Energy Shield while improving elemental resistance.
 Highly beneficial for Energy Shield-based builds, especially for endgame content.
Acrobatics
  • Can evade all hits (including spells).
  • 50% less evasion rating.
  • Provides strong evasion against both physical and spell attacks.
  • The reduction in evasion rating makes it challenging to stack high evasion values, especially in the early game.
 Best suited for endgame builds with sufficient gear to mitigate the evasion penalty.
Cannoles
  • 50% reduced Energy Shield recharge rate.
  • 40% faster start of Energy Shield recharge.
  • Utility passive for builds relying on faster recharge starts.
 Works well when combined with other passives that enhance Energy Shield recharge.
Dampened Shields
  • 28% increased maximum Energy Shield.
  • Gain a percentage of maximum Energy Shield as additional stun threshold.
  • Essential for low-life or Energy Shield-based builds to prevent frequent stuns.
 A must-have for builds operating on low life or relying heavily on Energy Shield.
Dependable Ward
  • 20% increased Energy Shield recharge rate.
  • Faster start of Energy Shield recharge.
  • Complements other recharge-related passives like Cannoles.
 Excellent for builds aiming to maximize recharge efficiency.
Eldritch Battery
  • Converts all Energy Shield to mana.
  • Enables the use of Energy Shield as a resource for skills while maintaining its defensive utility when paired with Mind Over Matter.
 Ideal for mana-intensive builds that also require defensive capabilities.
Self-Mortification
  • Gain 20% of maximum Energy Shield as additional stun threshold.
  • Increased stun threshold while on full life.
  • Perfect for chaos inoculation or full-life builds where maintaining full life is critical.
 Highly synergistic with chaos inoculation setups.
Rapid Recharge
  • Increased Energy Shield recharge rate.
  • Faster start of recharge.
  • Enhances overall recharge speed, making it a valuable option for sustaining Energy Shield in combat.
 Works well in combination with other recharge-focused passives.
Patient Barrier
  • +60% maximum Energy Shield.
  • 20% slower start of recharge.
  • Provides a massive boost to Energy Shield capacity, outweighing the slower recharge start penalty in most cases.
 A core passive for any Energy Shield-based build.

 

↖ Utility Passives

These passives provide situational resources in the form of mitigating debuffs and enhancing resource recovery, effectively enhancing survivability, damage output, or even quality of life.

POE2 Utility Passives Overview

 

Now, let's look at the pros and cons of the different Utility Passives and how each of them can be used.

Passive Name Effect Evaluation Recommendation
Slippery Ice
  • 25% reduced effect of Chill on you.
  • Unaffected by Chill during Dodge Roll.
  • Reduced Chill effect is situationally useful but mitigated through other means.
  • Helpful against specific bosses but requires multiple points.
 Only invest if this passive aligns with your specific build or boss encounters.
Sound Recovery
  • Recover 2% of Mana on kill.
  • Increased Mana Leech rate.
  • Excellent for Mana-based builds, especially those utilizing Energy Shield recovery tied to Mana Leech.
  • Works well with Ascendancies enhancing Mana Leech mechanics.
 A strong option for Mana-focused builds; worth considering for just two passive points.
Resonance
  • Gain Power Charges instead of Frenzy Charges, Frenzy Charges instead of Endurance Charges, and Endurance Charges instead of Power Charges.
  • A niche passive for unconventional charge mechanics.
  • Utility depends heavily on specific charge interactions in your build.
 Likely to see limited use but could shine in niche scenarios.
One with the Storm
  • Spells consuming Power Charges count as consuming an additional Power Charge.
  • Highly effective for Power Charge consumption builds.
  • Enhances damage output and efficiency without requiring additional charges.
 A valuable choice for Power Charge-based builds; highly recommended.
Zas
  • Cannot use Charms.
  • 30% more recovery from Life and Mana Flasks.
  • Inability to use Charms limits its appeal.
  • Recovery bonus is modest and replaceable by other methods.
 Not worth the investment unless heavily flask-reliant.
Manifold Method
  • 50% increased Mana Leech rate.
  • 30% increased chance to inflict ailments against unique enemies.
  • Strong synergy with Mana-based Ascendancies and builds focusing on Energy Shield recovery.
  • Instant Mana Leech is a significant resource advantage.
 Promising for Mana-focused builds; consider it if your build relies on ailments or Energy Shield recovery.
Ice Walls
  • 200% increased Ice Crystal life.
  • Utility depends on future mechanics involving Ice Crystals.
 Skip for now unless Ice Crystals become core to your build.
Followed
  • 20% increased Stun and Block Recovery.
  • Gain additional Stun Threshold based on Maximum Energy Shield.
  • Improves survivability but may not be critical unless facing frequent stuns.
 Consider only if stuns are a significant issue for your build.
VPO (Vulnerability Passive Option)
  • Apply an additional curse.
  • Double the activation delay of curses.
  • Powerful for curse-based builds; downside is minor in most cases.
 A top-tier passive for curse-based builds; highly recommended.
Woodland Aspect
  • Charms have a 10% increased effect.
  • Best suited for builds relying heavily on Charms.
 Monitor its viability post-release; suited for Charm-centric builds.
BR Caras
  • Gain significant Stun Threshold increase for each recent stun.
  • Useful against chain stuns from high-damage enemies.
 Situationally useful; invest if stuns are a recurring issue.
Energized
  • Skills have a 35% chance to refund half of their Energy spent.
  • Improves resource management for Energy-intensive builds.
 A strong choice for Energy-based builds; evaluate based on point availability.

 

Knowing the limitations and strengths of each Utility Passive allows you to make choice angled in the direction of your expected playstyle and goals in Path of Exile.

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