Classes and Ascendancies

Why this lesson matters

Your base class and Ascendancy are the biggest build-shaping choices you make early on — bigger than any single passive node. Get the class right for your intended weapon and playstyle, and the passive tree (see The passive tree, dual specialization, and respec) does the rest of the work for you.

How class and Ascendancy selection works

You pick one of the 8 currently released base classes at character creation. Each class starts with a fixed attribute distribution and a primary weapon identity, though nothing stops you from branching out later via the shared passive tree. Partway through the campaign — Trial of the Sekhemas in Act 2, Trial of Chaos in Act 3, same trials for every class (see Primary attributes, defenses, Spirit, and controls) — you choose one of that class's Ascendancy sub-classes. Each class has up to 3 Ascendancies; you pick exactly one per character.

GGG's stated eventual target is 12 total base classes. 8 are released; the remaining 4 — Duelist, Marauder, Shadow, and Templar — are confirmed as planned but not yet released. (If you've seen a claim that it's 6 more classes rather than 4, that's wrong — it's 4, and no other names beyond those are currently confirmed.)

Your Ascendancy choice isn't fully permanent. You can switch to a *different Ascendancy of the same base class* later — for example, a Ranger going from Pathfinder to Deadeye. The process: refund your Ascendancy points with Gold at The Hooded One, then re-run the matching trial and choose differently at the Altar of Ascension. You cannot switch to a different base class's Ascendancy this way (a Ranger can't become a Huntress) — this only moves you between the 2–3 Ascendancy options within your original class.

The 8 base classes

Warrior — Strength, Maces & Shields **Starting attributes:** 15 STR / 7 DEX / 7 INT

• Titan — Armor-scaling slam build. Gains a large Armor bonus from equipped Body Armour, empowers every second slam attack, triggers aftershock explosions, and inflicts a heavy stun (Crushing Blow) on primed enemies.
• Warbringer — Totem and Warcry specialist. Totems act as aggro draws and damage buffers for the player rather than literal damage-redirection, paired with Warcry-based crowd control and enemy debuffing.
• Smith of Kitava — A crafting-focused Ascendancy: restricted to a Normal (unmodified) Body Armour, but unlocks a set of skills that enchant that one armor piece directly with fire-infused effects. Built around your crafting choices rather than stat-stacking.

Ranger — Dexterity, Bows **Starting attributes:** 7 STR / 15 DEX / 7 INT

• Deadeye — Frenzy Charge and projectile specialist, with distance-based damage scaling that rewards kiting and long sightlines.
• Pathfinder — Flask and poison/concoction specialist, with bonus flask charges and a concoction-throwing skill that consumes flask charges instead of a normal skill cost; poison spreads between enemies.
• Third Ascendancy — still unrevealed. As of patch 0.5.4, GGG has not shipped Ranger's third Ascendancy (other classes, like Huntress and Monk, received their third slot during 0.5.0; Ranger was not among them). Don't plan a build around a specific third option.

Witch — Intelligence, Wands & Minions **Starting attributes:** 7 STR / 7 DEX / 15 INT

• Infernalist — Demonic fire caster with a summoned Infernal Hound minion, and a choice between two resource-risk playstyles for scaling spell damage.
• Blood Mage — Pays Life alongside Mana for skills, gets spell leech and life-restoring "Life Remnants" on kill, and converts Energy Shield into an offensive resource.
• Lich — Curse and minion specialist built around Energy Shield as an offensive stat. Commonly cited (though not independently corroborated by every source checked) as allowing an extra simultaneous curse and bone/"osteomancy"-themed skills — treat those two specifics as likely but not fully confirmed.

Sorceress — Intelligence, Staves **Starting attributes:** 7 STR / 7 DEX / 15 INT

• Stormweaver — Elemental crit specialist that can stack dual Shocks simultaneously (rather than the usual single-Shock model), scaling crit damage off Mana/Arcane stacking.
• Chronomancer — Time-control specialist: temporarily freezes time, reverses time on the player, and manipulates cooldowns.
• Disciple of Varashta — Officially revealed (this was still an unconfirmed rumor as of the source material this lesson was drafted from — it's been confirmed since). A djinn-summoning Ascendancy tied to three distinct djinn: one fire-damage focused, one a crit/assassination specialist, and one built around mana and Energy Shield recovery.

Monk — Dexterity/Intelligence, Quarterstaves **Starting attributes:** 7 STR / 11 DEX / 11 INT

• Invoker — Elemental-force specialist that ignores enemy resistances for flexible damage scaling, and generates Spirit from Energy Shield and Evasion on gear rather than dedicated Spirit sources.
• Acolyte of Chayula — Converts the Spirit resource into "Darkness," reserved rather than costing Life, for chaos-damage bonuses and Energy Shield leech.
• Martial Artist — Unarmed/hand-to-hand combat specialist, commonly associated with unarmed-scaling and bell-based burst mechanics in build guides — exact skill names are less firmly confirmed than the overall unarmed-combat identity.

Mercenary — Strength/Dexterity, Crossbows & Grenades **Starting attributes:** 11 STR / 11 DEX / 7 INT

• Witchhunter — Generates an elemental damage shield ("Sorcery Ward"), interrupts enemy spellcasting, and applies a stacking debuff that lowers a target's cooldown recovery as it takes damage.
• Gemling Legionnaire — Gem-quality and skill-leveling specialist: boosts Quality and Level on all equipped skills, can equip extra copies of your best support gems, and can meet off-attribute skill requirements using your highest attribute.
• Tactician — Ally-support and positioning specialist: places Banners, buffs nearby allies' damage, and unlocks a personal grenade/artillery skill.

*(Specific percentages cited for these three in community guides — e.g. a debuff threshold, a damage-buff percentage — come from community testing rather than official tooltip text; treat any exact number here as approximate.)*

Huntress — Dexterity, Spears **Starting attributes:** 7 STR / 15 DEX / 7 INT

• Amazon — Elemental-infusion specialist: infuses weapons with elemental power, leeches from elemental damage, and reveals and exploits weaknesses on Rare and Unique enemies.
• Ritualist — Corpse-sacrifice and jewelry specialist: can sacrifice a Rare monster's corpse to gain one of its affixes, and gains an extra ring slot.
• Spirit Walker — Hit-and-run combat specialist built around projectile-speed scaling and companion mechanics. This was Huntress's third Ascendancy slot, added in patch 0.5.0 ("Runes of Aldur") — all three Huntress Ascendancies are confirmed and live as of 0.5.4.

Druid — Strength/Intelligence, Sceptres & Shapeshifting **Starting attributes:** 11 STR / 7 DEX / 11 INT

• Oracle — Nature and primal-skill specialist, associated with thrown plant-based skills and elemental combo tools.
• Shaman — Shapeshifting specialist: Bear Form emphasizes attack damage and builds toward a burst release, while human form is the primary spellcasting mode — casting while shapeshifted automatically reverts you to human form.
• Third Ascendancy — still unrevealed. As of patch 0.5.4, Druid (added in patch 0.4.0, "The Last of the Druids") has shipped with only Oracle and Shaman; no third has been named yet.

Roster at a glance

Practical tips

• Two classes — Ranger and Druid — still have one unrevealed Ascendancy slot. Don't plan a long-term build around a specific third option for either.
• Ascendancy choice isn't a one-way door within your class: if Pathfinder isn't working out on your Ranger, Deadeye is a Gold-and-a-trial-rerun away, not a reroll.
• Treat any exact percentage cited for an Ascendancy node (buff amounts, thresholds) as approximate community-sourced figures, not exact tooltip text, until you check it in-game.
• If you're reading older POE2 content and see Ascendancy names like Slayer, Elementalist, or Inquisitor, that's Path of Exile 1 terminology mistakenly applied to POE2 — none of those exist here.

Sources: Maxroll — Class Overview · Maxroll — Ascendancy Overview · PoE-Vault — Classes & Ascendancy Overview · PoE-Vault — Disciple of Varashta Reveal · Mobalytics — Respec Ascendancy Guide · Mobalytics — Classes Breakdown · VULKK — Spirit Walker Huntress Ascendancy · Fextralife — Ascendancies · GameRant — All Class Ascendancies