Master the Ranger in PoE 2 – Build Strategies and Ascendancy Tips

PoE 2 Ranger Guide: Overview, Skills, and Ascendancies

Introduction to the Ranger Class

The Ranger returns in Path of Exile 2 as one of the six original classes from PoE 1. While familiar to players of the original game, the Ranger in PoE 2 is expected to include new features and mechanics that will refresh the experience for veterans and newcomers alike.

The Ranger has long been a fan-favorite class due to its ability to deal damage from range, offering both safety and versatility. With access to powerful clearing abilities for groups of enemies and single-target skills for tough encounters, the Ranger remains one of the most dynamic and impactful classes in Path of Exile.

This guide will cover everything currently known about the Ranger class, its mechanics, and its role in the evolving PoE 2 landscape. Let’s dive in!

Ranger Overview

The Ranger class in Path of Exile 2 is a Dexterity-based class that starts on the lower-right side of the passive skill tree. This starting position provides proximity to nodes that enhance key aspects of the Ranger’s playstyle, including Evasion, Cold Damage, Critical Strike, Bow Damage, Flask Effectiveness, Attack Speed, and more.

As the name suggests, the Ranger specializes in Bows, offering access to all of the arrow-based skills in the game. The class also benefits from the Quiver as its offhand equipment, providing additional stats that can be tailored toward offensive or defensive playstyles.

Returning players will find that the Ranger retains many similarities to its Path of Exile 1 counterpart. However, PoE 2 places greater emphasis on combining multiple skills together, encouraging a more dynamic and synergistic approach to combat.

Mounts in Path of Exile 2

In the recent gameplay overview for Path of Exile 2, GGG showcased a new mechanic: Mounts. The Rhoa Mount introduces exciting new gameplay possibilities for characters, including the Ranger (Охотница). Players can attack while riding their Mount without suffering any movement speed penalties, making mounted combat highly efficient for both mobility and offense. Certain skills, like Escape Shot, have special interactions when used on a Mount. For instance, Escape Shot allows you to fire an attack while jumping off the Rhoa backward, creating distance from enemies and positioning yourself safely.

When dismounted, the Rhoa will attack nearby enemies, providing additional support in combat. However, taking a stunning hit while mounted will knock you off the Mount. Once dismounted in this way, your character will take time to recover and get back up, leaving you vulnerable to enemy attacks.

The Rhoa Mount appears to be linked to a new skill being introduced in Path of Exile 2. While exact mechanics and details remain unknown, it’s an exciting addition that adds both tactical depth and a new layer of gameplay to PoE 2. Mounts could open the door to more creative builds and strategies, blending mobility, offense, and support in innovative ways. This feature is definitely something to look forward to as we approach the release of Early Access.

Ranger Skill Gems in PoE 2

The Ranger (Охотница) in Path of Exile 2 has access to a variety of skill gems that emphasize its ranged playstyle. Many of these skills return from PoE 1, while others are new additions or spiritual successors to older abilities. Below is an overview of the showcased skills:

Key Skill Gems

• Lightning Arrow
  Fires an arrow that chains lightning to nearby enemies.
• Escape Shot
  Fires a shot while leaping backward, creating distance from enemies.
• Poisonburst Arrow
  Launches an arrow that explodes, spreading poison to nearby enemies.
• Lightning Rod
  Summons a lightning strike at the target location.
• Stormcaller Arrow
  Fires an arrow that creates a storm effect at the point of impact.
• Snipe
  A precise, high-damage shot aimed at a single target.
• Vine Arrow
  Fires an arrow that creates plant-like growth in the area, slowing and poisoning enemies.
• Barrage
  Enhances your next attack, causing it to fire three times.
• Toxic Growth
  Summons toxic plants that spread poison in the area.
• Electrocuting Arrow
  A lightning-based attack that shocks enemies.
• Sniper’s Mark
  A curse that increases the damage taken by a single target.
• Gas Arrow
  Fires an arrow that creates a cloud of poison upon impact.
• Rain of Arrows
  A rain of arrows that deals area-of-effect damage.
• Detonating Arrow
  An arrow that detonates after a short delay, dealing high area damage.

Returning and Notable Skills

Several iconic skills from PoE 1 make a comeback, such as Lightning Arrow and Tornado Shot, ensuring familiarity for returning players. Skills like Herald of Thunder are also returning with a twist; it reserves Spirit to add Lightning Damage to your attacks.

Other notable additions include Vine Arrow, a new skill that functions similarly to Toxic Rain by slowing and poisoning enemies in an area.

Versatility and Synergies

The Ranger’s skill set is designed for versatility, allowing players to specialize in single-target damage or crowd control:

• Skills like Barrage, Poisonburst Arrow, and Snipe are ideal for high-damage, single-target encounters such as bosses.
• Area-of-effect skills like Rain of Arrows, Gas Arrow, and Toxic Growth excel at clearing packs of enemies.
• Barrage, as a cooldown-based enhancement, synergizes well with both AoE and single-target skills by amplifying their output.

The wide variety of skills gives players the freedom to experiment and tailor their builds, combining both returning classics and new options to suit their playstyle.

Support Gems in PoE 2

Support Gems remain a crucial component of character builds in Path of Exile 2, providing enhancements and modifications to active skills. These gems allow players to tailor their abilities for specific playstyles or scenarios, creating powerful synergies.

In the official gameplay walkthrough, several Support Gems were showcased. Here's a breakdown of those revealed so far:

Revealed Support Gems

• Multiple Projectiles
  Enhances projectile-based skills by making them fire additional projectiles, increasing area coverage and overall effectiveness.
• Faster Projectiles
  Increases the travel speed of projectiles, allowing them to hit targets more quickly and potentially extend their range.
• Chain
  Modifies projectile and chaining skills by allowing them to chain additional times, making it easier to hit multiple enemies in succession.
• Less Duration
  Reduces the duration of any skill that has a duration component, often used to shorten the delay of skills like explosions or traps for faster activation.
• Shock Proliferation
  Adds utility to skills that hit enemies by giving them a chance to spread Shock to nearby targets when a shocked enemy is hit, increasing area-of-effect damage potential.

Putting It All Together

The Ranger (Охотница) in Path of Exile 2 offers a wealth of skills and combinations, allowing for diverse and creative builds. The introduction of the dual specialization system further expands the possibilities, making the class even more versatile and customizable.

Skill Combinations and Interactions

One of the standout interactions showcased is the use of Lightning Rod with support gems. This skill allows you to shoot a rod into the ground, creating a point for Lightning Arcs to chain to. For instance, in the gameplay video, Lightning Rod was paired with Multiple Projectiles and Faster Projectiles, enabling rapid placement of rods. Following this, Lightning Arrow combined with the Chain Support Gem was used to unleash devastating lightning attacks that bounced around the rods, dealing massive damage.

Another powerful combination involves Snipe and Sniper’s Mark. Snipe is a charge-up skill that guarantees a critical hit, ideal for dealing large bursts of damage. When combined with Sniper’s Mark, a curse applied to enemies, every critical hit on a marked enemy generates a Frenzy Charge, increasing your Attack Speed and Damage. This synergy not only boosts your damage output but also enhances your character’s overall combat efficiency.

Additional Mechanics

These examples highlight just a fraction of the potential interactions within the Ranger’s arsenal. Skills like Armour Break, Poison/Plant Skills, and others add even more layers of depth and variety to build crafting. The ability to combine support gems, specialization paths, and complementary skills ensures that every build can feel unique and tailored to the player’s preferred playstyle.

The Ranger in Path of Exile 2 is shaping up to be one of the most dynamic and customizable classes, offering players endless opportunities to experiment with skill combinations and strategies.

Ranger Ascendancy Classes

In Path of Exile 2, each class will eventually have three Ascendancy Classes, but during Early Access, only two will be available per class. For the Ranger (Охотница), these are the Deadeye and the Pathfinder, offering distinct playstyles and mechanics that cater to different approaches to ranged combat.

Deadeye

The Deadeye is the quintessential Bow and Arrow archetype, focusing on Arrow Skills to deal damage. This Ascendancy specializes in enhancing your projectile abilities and provides access to Tailwind, a buff that significantly increases your character’s speed.

One of the Deadeye’s key mechanics is the ability to adapt your damage output based on positioning. You can specialize in dealing more damage either by attacking enemies from a distance or by engaging up close.

This Ascendancy is ideal for players who want a straightforward yet highly effective Bow and Arrow playstyle with a focus on speed and precision.

Pathfinder

The Pathfinder is a more utility-focused Ascendancy, offering unique mechanics that revolve around Concoctions. These are specialized consumables that provide bonuses tailored to your build, such as Poison, Lightning, Physical, or other damage types. This flexibility allows you to adapt your Pathfinder’s playstyle to a wide variety of situations.

In addition to her focus on Concoctions, the Pathfinder has a unique passive ability that grants extra Passive Points on your regular Skill Tree. This mechanic opens up additional opportunities for customization and optimization, making the Pathfinder an excellent choice for creative and experimental builds.

Wrap-Up

This concludes everything we currently know about the Ranger class (Охотница) in Path of Exile 2.

The Ranger remains a beloved class from Path of Exile 1, and the gameplay shown so far suggests it retains its power and versatility. The ability to deal damage from range has always been a significant advantage in Path of Exile, offering safety and efficiency. However, Path of Exile 2 introduces new mechanics, such as the dodge roll, which places a greater emphasis on movement and evasion. This may reduce the dominance of ranged classes compared to PoE 1.

Despite these changes, the Deadeye Ascendancy captures the fantasy of a nimble, fast-moving archer, annihilating enemies with devastating volleys of arrows. Alternatively, the Pathfinder Ascendancy offers a more strategic approach, leveraging Poison and other status effects to decimate entire packs of enemies.

The Ranger in Path of Exile 2 is shaping up to be a dynamic and engaging class, offering players multiple playstyles and strategies to explore.