Best Classes & Ascendancies in Path of Exile 2 (Dec. 2024)

Path of Exile 2 is still in very early access, but even then, players are already heavily optimizing their builds and making all kinds of busted setups for the current endgame. Although there are currently only half of the playable classes in the game at the moment, you might want to know how they currently stack up compared to one another. Here is a guide that might help you!

Best Classes & Ascendancies (Dec. 2024)

Before we get started, just take note that this is a purely subjective list. To be completely candid, you should just pick whatever you find fun at the moment because not only is the roster still half complete, but a lot of balance changes will roll out on a regular basis that shifts these ratings around.

Also, these ratings are going to be mainly based on the standard league leaderboards. If you don’t care about racing to the top (as if you can catch up at this point anyway), this should not affect how you pick your class at all.

With that said, this should give you an idea of how powerful certain classes are at the moment. Below is a list going over all of the classes in ascending order:

• #12. Acolyte of Chayula – This class is the least represented ascendancy on the leaderboards right now. It is not necessarily a “bad” choice, but it definitely clearly falls behind compared to everything else right now as the other classes outshine it in every aspect.
• #11. Witchhunter – By most accounts, Mercenaries are actually pretty strong overall. However, the Witchhunter ascendancy is not particularly popular among those at the top. It is actually pretty good at clearing due to its huge damage output, but other classes are capable of doing that (and possibly faster) as well.
• #10. Warbringer – Warbringers have good clears with all of its explosive abilities and armor breaking effects. It also has high survivability, and we think the low representation stems from the totem builds being way too slow in comparison to most of the other classes.
• #9. Chronomancer – Although it is capable of some really interesting time manipulating shenanigans, this ascendancy falls heavily behind its counterpart in the same class. It is still definitely incredibly fun to play as, though.
• #8. Pathfinder – This ranger specialization is pretty much centered around the idea of applying poison to deal damage, and with some recent balance changes, it has taken a significant hit and will likely stay relatively low in the ratings unless its main damage type is buffed again.
• #7. Blood Mage – It has a lot of potential for late game damage dealing due to its critical strike boosting, though there are other classes that clearly outshine it in this regard at the moment.
• #6. Gemling Legionnaire – The Gemling Legionnaire is actually insanely powerful under the right conditions. The main barrier to playing as it right now is that it is heavily dependent on having really good and expensive gear, which can potentially turn it into a hilariously overpowered clearing machine.
• #5. Titan – Titans are extremely tanky to the point where some builds can literally stand in the middle of dozens of mobs without getting so much as a scratch on them. It has really strong strength-based attacks and can clear with ease if played right.
• #4. Infernalist – Infenalist is where the class representation among the top players significantly gets bumped up. It has a lot of really good summoner builds that lets you, ironically, “chill” as you clear endgame content with a ton of minions and near endless energy shields.
• #3. Invoker – The number of Invokers in the leaderboard has been rising recently. They are insanely flashy and can deal a ton of elemental damage. There are a lot of blink and crit-based builds out there right now that can let them zip around and clear maps incredibly fast.
• #2. Deadeye – This ascendancy is just incredibly fast and easy to play overall. Even without the leaderboards in mind, this class is perfect for those who just want to hop in and breeze through content as they can completely negate this sequel’s slower gameplay pace.
• #1. Stormweaver – The Stormweaver ascendancy is a clear top choice right now, and by a hilariously wide margin too. It’s just insanely powerful right now that, among the top builds, it pretty much just does what most of the other classes can do, but better.

And that wraps up this list of all the ascendancies in the game right now. Only time will tell how these ratings will change in future updates, and with a whole six other classes and so many ascendancies yet to be released (for both existing and unreleased classes), things are only going to get sillier from here once they get added.

Make sure to check out our guide on how to list items for sale in Path of Exile 2 as well, as this will teach you about the game’s trading system! You will need this if you want to get the best gear for certain ascendancies and builds!