PoE 2 Build Tier List (0.2.1) - Top 10 Best & Most Fun Builds in Dawn of the Hunt

As the 0.2.1 patch introduced massive changes to the game, there are some new strongest, and most fun builds to be discovered in the Dawn of the Hunt league! Let's present the new meta here with this Path of Exile 2 Build Tier List after the 0.2.1 patch buffs & nerfs!

PoE 2 Best & Most Fun Build Tier List (0.2.1 Dawn of the Hunt)

To satisfy everyone's itch, we are providing the tryhard losers with the best builds of the patch, followed by one build per class or weapon type that we found to be not only strong but also incredibly fun. Perfect for the peanut brain dad gamers that want to play a fun build and enjoy life.

1. Lightning Spear Deadeye

So, kicking things off is one of the most electrifying builds in the game, the Lightning Spear Deadeye. This build is all about high-speed projectile mayhem. You will be flinging lightning spears like Zeus having a bad day with a chain and pierce enhancements, making each cast feel like a lightning storm across the screen.

As a Deadeye, you're maximizing your projectile speed, accuracy, and multi-target coverage. With the right passive tree choices, you will be boosting the crit chance and the elemental penetration, which helps melt bosses just as easily as a pack of monsters. What makes the build really shine is how smooth and kinetic the gameplay feels. No clunky animations, no wind up, just constant satisfying zaps.

We also want to pair it with a gear that boosts elemental damage, projectile modifiers, and a touch of evasion for survivability. With the right movement skills, it becomes easy to kite enemies while outputting consistent high voltage damage. And if you build this right, then you've got a speed clearing monster with a solid bossing potential that feels great from early maps to the endgame.

2. Crossbow Witch Hunter

Next up is the crossbow witch hunter. That is a build that proves that the ranged weapons aren't just for the rangers anymore. This variant will lean into the unique mechanics of the crossbows. So, slower, heavier hitting projectiles that can be modified with the elemental types and the special bolts.

This build plays like a tactical shooter. So, you choose your bolts, explosive for AOE, grasp for control, and the piercing for single target penetration. Combine that with the chops and the curses from the witch hunter tree, and you basically are a battlefield tactician setting up devastating kill zones and watching enemies get obliterated from afar.

What sets this build apart is its hybrid nature. So the ranged physical attacks are mixed with the dark sorcery. As a witch hunter, you can enhance this versatility with the cursed synergies, traps, and debuffs by creating a layered play style where the enemies are weakened, controlled, and blasted from afar. It's a methodical and strategic build that rewards planning and precision. You're not just spamming attacks, you're setting up devastating combos and zoning enemies with a deadly intent. With clever positioning and a mix of tactical traps, you can control even the most chaotic fights.

The setup is great for players who like range combat with adept, and it shines in both mob clearing and the boss encounters by offering a unique mix of rifle style foul power and the arcane curses.

3. Chaos DoT Lich

And now for something different, we have the chaos damage over time ledge build. If watching enemies slowly wither away as they chase you is your thing, then this build is going to feel like home. It's centered around the chaos based skills like the bane, essence drain, and the wither.

This ledge build turns you into a mobile Viking curse. You tag enemies with a spell, and they melt from inside out. Thanks to the powerful synergies with the witch lich ascendancy, you're gaining energy shield regeneration, increased that multipliers and cursed enhancements that amp up the suffering.

You become a master of the withering control, laying down fields of decay that the enemy movement and quickly cut down their health. This is one of the safest builds for the hardcore players, too, so you can keep moving while your damage works passively, letting you avoid attacks while maintaining pressure. Boss fights will become less about DPS races and more about zoning and applying consistent pressure. It excels in sustained damage in the battlefield manipulation. So, this build is summarized as the dead by a thousand small curses, all stacking and suffocating enemies with the relentless decay.

4. Smith of Kitava Armor Breaker

Then, for the next build, let's talk melee. The Smith of Kitava armor breaker is a powerhouse of a build that trades finesse for raw devastation. You're building a two-handed weapon, preferably axe or a mace, and you're smashing through the armor with every swing.

Literally, this build takes advantage of the new skills like the armor rend and the slam enhancements by creating a loop where every attack lowers the enemy armor, leading to massive crit spikes and the damage stacking. This of Kitava ascendancy will enhance your physical damage and introduce infernal themed mechanics like the fire drills and the burning ground effects.

It's brutal and visceral and has some of the best impact sounds and visual feedback in the game. You're not just hitting hard, you're shattering defenses and turning enemies into a dust. This build might not be the fastest in the clearing speed, but when it comes to bossing and the big mob packs, nothing will survive more than a second or two.

It's ideal for players who enjoy very high-risk melee combat with massive visual payoff. The satisfaction of watching a pack implode under a single devastation swing is unmatched.

5. Twister Amazon

Then, for number five, we have something a little bit more whimsical. So, let's talk about the twister Amazon. This build channels elemental chaos by summoning the small tornadoes that whip across the screen, damaging enemies in their path.

It's a highly mobile caster archetype using agility and clever placement over brute force. The twister will deal mixed elemental damage, often a combination of lightning and physical, and they scale beautifully with the projectile and the spell modifiers.

With proper gear and supports, you can get a screen full of the tiny tornadoes, zipping around and dealing consistent AOE. The Amazon Ascendancy also offers dodge, elemental penetration, and damage boost to moving skills, which adds a hit-and-run flavor.

You're not just standing still, you're dancing through the enemies, and letting your storms do the dirty work. Momentum is key, and you will want to keep moving to maximize damage output and avoid danger. This play style is super fun and surprisingly effective at both clearing speed and bossing when set up right. It's like controlling a living storm, swirling through the content with a flare and fury.

6. Cold Storm Weaver

Next up, we have the chill vibes only, aka the time for the cold storm weaver build. This setup revolves around the challenging and casting powerful cold-based spells, primarily focused on the storm bind, ice nova, or a new skill called rift frost storm.

What's cool, pun intended, is the control you get. So slowing enemies, freezing weaker mobs, and layering AoE zones. You use energy to charge up areas, then detonate them with the waves of icy destruction. It's methodical, strategic, and beautiful to watch, like painting the battlefield in frost.

The storm weaver ascendancy enhances your cold penetration, critical strikes with the spells, and adds chilling ground effect that reduces the enemy action speed. It also improves the cast speed and cold damage over time scaling, making the damage consistent and reliable.

This is great for players who enjoy a bit of a setup and detonate play style, but still want satisfying clears and high ceiling boss damage. It rewards clever timing, precise targeting, and rewards players who don't mind prepping before unleashing a storm.

7. Lightning Arrow Deadeye

Next up, we have another Deadeye that makes the list, and this time we have the lightning arrow build. This is a classic that's made a strong comeback in PoE2 with updated projectile mechanics and better scaling.

The lightning arrow works by firing a single arrow that chains lightning bolts to nearby enemies. With the Deadeye enhancements to projectile speed, number of projectiles, and the chain potential, it turns into a screen clearing laser show. It's excellent for mapping as you can one-shot entire packs from the off-screen.

Bossing is handled by ramping up the attack speed and the crit chance, often using ballista or focus to boost the single-target damage. You can also build a utility with the shock effects and on-hit curses to further debilitate the enemies. It's simple, effective, and most importantly, it looks very cool.

If you want to get that classic run and gun feeling with a constant high energy gameplay, then this is a perfect build. It's highly accessible, beginner-friendly, but with enough depth to scale into the endgame content.

8. Bleed Blood Mage

Next, for number eight, we go full ledge with the bleed blood mage. This build is a fusion of self-sacrifice and overwhelming damage. Instead of the traditional mana, many of your skills will cost life. So, you trade blood for power.

Literally, you're using skills like the blood lance, sanjing spear, and the bleed enhancing curses. You're pretty much causing enemies to rupture and bleed with massive physical overtime effects. It's a thematic build that plays like a blood ritualist, especially with the right gear that boosts the bleed duration, damage, and the life leech.

You also want to stack max life, regen, and armor. Or just simply avoid incoming damage to stay alive. With the proper sustain, you can keep your blood-fueled abilities firing non-stop, creating a red mist of destruction in your wake.

It's gritty, powerful, and surprisingly tanky once it gets going. The build offers a unique aesthetic and mechanical identity, rewarding players who can juggle their life pool and maintain uptime on the high blade enemies. It's not for the faint of heart, but it's incredibly rewarding.

9. Thorns Warbringer

Then next up, we have another melee setup. The Torren's Warbringer is a tanky reflect-based build that shines with its simplicity and brutal efficiency. It's centered around the Torren mechanic, which deals flat damage back to the enemies when you are hit.

Thanks to unique items like the Crown of the Pale King, this reflected damage is not limited to melee attacks. It also applies to all types of hits, making the build far more versatile. Your gameplay loop is very simple. Dive into a pack of enemies and let them hit you. And watch as torrents reflect their damage back with the deadly results.

Against tougher targets, you'll use skills like the rapid assault and the armor breaker to weaken their armor and stack the Scavenged Plating for increased defenses and offense. Movement skills like the shield charge or the thunderous leap will help you to control positioning and stay mobile in high pressure scenarios.

You'll play as a warbringer, which is a class that synergizes perfectly with the thorns due to the anvil's weight passive. This allows the Thorns damage to break enemy armor, which in return will trigger a scavenge plating, which is a mechanic that not only boosts your armor, but also amplifies the Thorns damage output. With this loop, the more enemies you hit, the more they hurt themselves.

10. Lightning Spear Amazon

And finally, we return to the storm with the lightning spear Amazon build. Unlike the Deadeye version earlier, this Amazon build is focused more on mobility, agile base scaling, and the dodge rather than the crit stacking.

Lightning spear here is modified with the totems or the echo effects, casting multiple versions in quick succession. The Amazon passive tree will boost movement speed, dodge, and elemental avoidance, making this build feel like a fast-paced spellblade who can kite and cast with ease.

It plays more like a reactive fluid dancer than a turret. This version is better for players who want a high skill ceiling expression, so positioning, movement, and spell timing matter more. But in the right hands, your build is a flash of light followed by the empty battlefield.

You want to gear into the projectile buffs, elemental overload, and the movement enhancing items for the best results. Overall, this is a great build for the skilled players who want to test their reflexes and reward a fun gameplay that's fast, smart, and visually explosive.