Welcome, spirit-walkers of the Azmeri wilds! With the launch of Dawn of the Hunt, Path of Exile 2 introduced the fierce and agile Huntress class — and alongside her, two powerful Ascendancies: Amazon and Ritualist. In this guide, we’re diving deep into one of the smoothest and most explosive leveling PoE 2 Huntress builds in early access — the Ritualist build. While most builds use Amazon Ascendancy, the second option currently dominates the Leaderboard!
This PoE 2 Huntress Ritualist build guide gives you everything you need to tear through the campaign and set yourself up for success in the endgame. With fast-paced spear skills like Explosive Spear and Lightning Spear, empowered by Ritualist synergy and buffed by spirit-based utility like Tame Beast and Wind Dancer, this build offers insane speed, satisfying AoE, and deadly single-target options.
Whether you’re blazing through Acts or prepping for Trials of Chaos, this is one of the top early meta Huntress builds in PoE 2.
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Huntress Ritualist Build Overview
This Path of Exile 2 Huntress Ritualist build taps into the raw elemental fury of Explosive Spear and Lightning Spear, combining relentless projectile damage with the supernatural utility of Azmeri spirit magic. It’s fast, it’s fiery, and it’s built to dominate both leveling and endgame — no micromanagement, just fluid destruction with every spear thrown.
The core loop of this build revolves around empowering your spear attacks using Barrage, then detonating enemies from a distance with massive area explosions. Explosive Spear delivers high-impact fire damage and battlefield control, while Lightning Spear chains across packs with devastating AoE. Your spear skills scale with flat elemental damage, attack speed, and spirit-based buffs — all of which are naturally supported by the Ritualist ascendancy.
The Ritualist, added in the Dawn of the Hunt update, has quickly risen to the top of the current PoE 2 leaderboard — and this build shows exactly why. You gain access to powerful spirit generation, enhanced utility scaling, and synergy with persistent buffs like Wind Dancer, Herald of Thunder, and Tame Beast, the latter offering you the ability to capture and summon rare beasts for extra passive power and battlefield support.
What makes this PoE 2 Huntress Ritualist build truly shine is how smoothly it plays from Act 1 all the way to maps. It’s explosive, mobile, and incredibly efficient — both in clear speed and bossing. There’s no awkward setup, no heavy minion micromanagement, and no reliance on rare uniques to get going. Just you, your spear, and a storm of elemental destruction waiting to be unleashed.
PoE 2 Huntress Ritualist Build Skills
Disclaimer: This build was created during Path of Exile 2's early access period, where frequent patches may adjust the functionality of skills and passives. We will continue to monitor these updates and revise the guide as necessary to ensure it remains accurate and up-to-date.
POE 2 skills are the backbone of this build, shaping how it clears enemies, moves through zones, and handles boss fights. While passives and gear provide the framework, it’s your active and support gem combos that bring this Huntress Ritualist setup to life.
Below is a table outlining the core PoE 2 Huntress Ritualist build skills through Skill Gems, alongside the Support Gems socketed into them. These combinations are optimized for leveling speed, elemental damage scaling, and fluid spear-based combat.
| Skill Gem | Support Gem Sockets |
| Explosive Spear | Expedite • Overabundance • Primal Armament |
| Lightning Spear | Volt • Lightning Infusion • Innervate |
| Spear Stab | Rage • Martial Tempo • Close Combat |
| Barrage | Premeditation • Ingenuity |
| Thunderous Leap | Holy Descent |
| Herald of Thunder | Magnified Effect |
| Wind Dancer | — |
| Tame Beast | Elemental Army • Meat Shield |
| Disengage | Untouchable |
Let’s go through each skill gem setup in more detail, highlighting what each one does and how the support gems enhance its function.
Explosive Spear
Launches a single spear that pierces through enemies and detonates after a short delay, or instantly if a Frenzy Charge is consumed. This is one of the main damage sources and is especially effective against tightly packed groups.
- Expedite: Cuts down the detonation delay significantly, making Explosive Spear much more responsive.
- Overabundance: Increases the number of active spears at once, letting you keep pressure up, at the cost of duration. BLOG20
- Primal Armament: Boosts the elemental weapon damage, scaling your fire explosions even further.
Lightning Spear
Throws a lightning-infused spear that explodes on contact and sends out additional lightning projectiles, creating a chain reaction across enemies.
- Volt: Charges up lightning energy as you move, then releases it to boost damage and chaining when cast.
- Lightning Infusion: Converts more of your base damage into lightning, at the cost of cold and fire — a perfect fit here.
- Innervate: Grants bonus lightning damage after killing shocked enemies, further rewarding aggressive play.
Spear Stab
Your straightforward melee skill for single-target damage. It’s not flashy, but it scales well and is excellent for bossing in the early game.
- Rage: Builds Rage on hit to improve melee pressure.
- Martial Tempo: Significantly increases attack speed, improving clear and DPS.
- Close Combat: Boosts damage based on proximity — ideal for close-range spear thrusts.
Barrage
Applies a buff that empowers your next spear or bow attack to repeat multiple times. This massively increases damage when paired with Explosive or Lightning Spear.
- Premeditation: Increases the damage of skills empowered by Barrage.
- Ingenuity: Speeds up Barrage’s cooldown recovery, letting you rotate empowered attacks more frequently.
Thunderous Leap
A mobility skill that lets you leap into the air and land with a lightning-charged shockwave.
- Holy Descent: Adds Consecrated Ground on landing, offering sustain and extra survivability in fights.
Herald of Thunder
Grants a buff that causes lightning bolts to strike nearby enemies after killing a shocked target — a great auto-clear tool to support your main skills.
- Magnified Effect: Increases the area of effect of those lightning bolts, turning small shocks into screen-wide chains.
Wind Dancer
A defensive buff that grants evasion over time. When hit, it releases a knockback pulse and resets — great for crowd control and mitigating damage. No support gems needed.
Tame Beast
Marks and captures rare beasts, turning them into summoned companions with retained modifiers. Adds utility and passive bonuses when slotted.
- Elemental Army: Increases the elemental resistances of your summoned beasts.
- Meat Shield: Makes them tankier so they can soak hits instead of you.
Disengage
A fast backward leap that also damages enemies in front of you, generating a Frenzy Charge if you consume the Parried debuff. Great for repositioning during combat.
- Untouchable: Increases evasion based on the attack time of the supported skill, adding a defensive layer during leap animations.
PoE 2 Huntress Ritualist Build Passives
The passive tree offers countless choices, but you won’t need to overthink this one. Below is a curated list of the most important notables that shape the core of this build, from early leveling to endgame optimization. These are the best defensive passives for Ritualist build, which were selected to boost projectile scaling, elemental damage, survivability, and spear synergy — all critical for the fluid, fast-paced feel this build thrives on.
Here’s a reference list of the key passive nodes you’ll want to unlock, roughly in the order they’re picked up:
- Projectile Damage x4
- Honed Instincts
- Evasion
- Blur
- Projectile Damage x4 (second cluster)
- Heavy Ammunition
- Careful Aim
- Primal Sundering
- Harness the Elements
- Surging Currents
- Escape Velocity
- Catalysis
- Maiming Strike
- Coming Calamity
- Dance with Death
- Surging Currents
- Focused Thrust (Spear Passive)
- Roll and Strike (Spear Passive)
- Forces of Nature
- Emboldened Avatar
- Flash Storm
- Lightning Rod
Start by connecting these passives in the order listed above. Many of the early ones are focused on scaling projectile and elemental damage, giving you a strong base for Explosive Spear and Lightning Spear. As you move deeper into the tree, you’ll pick up key spear-specific bonuses and survivability nodes to round out the build.
If charms continue to scale well with the Ritualist ascendancy — especially if you're using unique options like Valako’s Roar — consider investing around the Hunter’s Talisman cluster for uptime and utility. This can open up new support layers through spirit passives and boost your scaling even further.
Depending on your playstyle and gear, going into the Monk side of the tree for more Evasion and Energy Shield can also work well, especially with how well Wind Dancer and Disengage support a defensive loop. Even without investing into nodes like Grim Feast, energy shield remains a solid layer of mitigation on this setup. BLOG20
This tree keeps your build fast, deadly, and easy to gear for — without compromising on defense or control.
Bonuses from Passives
This build takes full advantage of the Huntress’s agility and the Ritualist’s elemental scaling, amplifying everything from projectile damage and spear synergy to ailment stacking and herald buffs. The passive tree prioritizes clear speed, elemental penetration, and precision strike mechanics, while still offering a strong base of defense and utility.
Attributes
- +30 Dexterity
- +95 to any Attribute
| Projectile and Spear Damage | 122% increased Projectile Damage |
| 40% increased Projectile Damage with Spears when no enemies are within 3m | |
| 75% increased Melee Damage with Spears while Surrounded | |
| 55% increased Damage with Spears | |
| 63% increased Attack Damage | |
| 40% increased Accuracy Rating at Close Range | |
| Elemental Scaling | 116% increased Elemental Damage with Attacks |
| 34% increased Lightning Damage | |
| 24% increased Elemental Damage | |
| Damage Penetrates 12% Elemental Resistances | |
| Attack Damage Penetrates 15% of Enemy Elemental Resistances | |
| Damage Penetrates 60% Lightning Resistance | |
| 15% increased Damage for each type of Elemental Ailment on Enemy | |
| 30% chance for Lightning Damage with Hits to be Lucky | |
| Herald Buffs | 50% increased Lightning Damage while affected by Herald of Thunder |
| 50% increased Cold Damage while affected by Herald of Ice | |
| 50% increased Fire Damage while affected by Herald of Ash | |
| 24% increased Damage while affected by a Herald | |
| Attack Speed and Skill Flow | 8% increased Attack Speed |
| 25% more Skill Speed while Off Hand is empty and you have a One-Handed Martial Weapon equipped | |
| 16% increased Attack Speed with Spears | |
| Ailment Support | 85% increased chance to Shock |
| 25% increased chance to Ignite | |
| 25% increased Freeze Buildup | |
| 25% increased Electrocute Buildup | |
| Area and Utility | 10% increased Area of Effect for Attacks |
| 9% increased Movement Speed | |
| 8% increased Projectile Speed | |
| 15% increased Stun Buildup | |
| 40% increased Projectile Stun Buildup | |
| 5% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Damage of a Random Element | |
| Defensive Stats | +16 to Evasion Rating |
| 80% increased Evasion Rating | |
| 8% reduced Attack Speed (tradeoff from Blur node — worth it for Evasion scaling) |
This combination of bonuses delivers fast-paced, high-impact spear combat with excellent projectile scaling, heavy elemental penetration, and powerful utility from Heralds and spirit synergy. Whether clearing packs or nuking bosses, the passive tree keeps this build explosive, agile, and consistently in control.
PoE 2 Huntress Ritualist Build Ascendancy Passives
PoE 2 Huntress Ritualist build Ascendancy passives are few and far between so far, but they can completely shape how your build plays. You'll unlock two Ascendancy passives after completing the Trials of Sekhemas and two more after finishing the Trials of Chaos. Here’s the recommended order for choosing your Huntress Ritualist passives:
- Reduced Spirit – 25% reduced Spirit cost
A foundational pick early on, this passive allows you to reserve more Spirit for key buffs like Wind Dancer and Herald of Thunder, without choking your resource pool for active skills. - Unfurled Finger – +1 Ring Slot
This is a massive utility boost and one of the strongest Ritualist passives overall. The extra ring opens the door to powerful prefix stacking, elemental resists, and added flat damage — especially valuable with Herald and elemental synergy builds like this one. - Attributes – 3% increased Attributes
Simple but effective. This node makes gearing smoother, opens up stat-threshold passives, and helps meet scaling requirements for Dex-heavy spear skills and attribute-based Spirit reservation. - Mystic Attunement – 25% increased bonuses gained from Equipped Rings and Amulets
This synergizes perfectly with Unfurled Finger. With the right gear, this passive becomes a raw stats amplifier, turning rare gear bonuses into meaningful offensive and defensive boosts.
These Ritualist ascendancy passives lean into gearing flexibility, Spirit efficiency, and smart scaling through rings and amulets. Together, they give you more build freedom, more power per gear slot, and a smooth ramp into endgame with less dependency on perfect item rolls.
Huntress Atlas Passives
The best Atlas passive setup for the Huntress Ritualist build is still being finalized, as ongoing testing and updates continue to shape the most efficient routes through endgame content. With Dawn of the Hunt still fresh and Ritualist rising fast on the leaderboard, we’re waiting on more data to determine which mapping passives best complement this build’s strengths.
Once the full passive setup is confirmed, we’ll update this section with the optimal nodes to take — whether you're looking for faster progression, better loot, or smoother bossing. Stay tuned!
PoE 2 Huntress Ritualist Build Gear
This build doesn’t rely on specific uniques or exact item rolls — and that’s a huge strength. Instead of chasing rare drops, you’ll be focusing on core modifiers that enhance your elemental spear attacks, smooth out your progression, and keep your defenses stable from Acts to endgame. So I’ve put together a little PoE 2 Huntress Ritualist build gear guide that will help you pick the right gear for this build.
Prioritize Flat Elemental Damage
Flat damage adds directly to each hit, making it incredibly effective when scaled with attack speed and projectile multipliers.
How to Achieve It:
- Look for weapons with flat Lightning or Fire Damage to Attacks, % Physical Damage, and + levels to Projectile Skills.
- Rings and amulets should also stack flat damage where possible, especially in synergy with your Ascendancy’s +1 Ring slot.
- Elemental damage sources scale both Explosive Spear and Lightning Spear exceptionally well.
Resistances and Life Scaling
Survivability is critical in PoE 2’s campaign and map progression. Capping your resists and stacking life early will help you avoid gear bottlenecks later.
How to Achieve It:
- Prioritize Life and All Resistances on your chest, belt, boots, gloves, and rings
- Get attributes where needed to meet Dex/Int requirements for skill gems
- Belts and boots are particularly useful for stacking defensive stats and filling resistance gaps
Attack Speed and Crit Scaling
While the build isn’t built around crit early on, scaling into Attack Speed gives you smoother, faster clears — and Crit Chance can be a bonus once you’ve invested enough passive points.
How to Achieve It:
- Gloves with Attack Speed and optional Crit Chance are ideal at higher levels
- Consider amulets or rings with Critical Strike Multiplier if pushing into crit later in maps
- Faster attacks also pair well with Barrage, letting you cycle empowered hits quickly
Movement Speed and Utility
Speed equals safety and efficiency. The faster you move, the faster you clear, escape, and reposition in boss fights.
How to Achieve It:
- Boots should have Movement Speed, Resistances, and Life
- Added Stun Threshold Reduction or Dexterity rolls are nice extras
Spirit Management
Some of your best utility skills — Herald of Thunder, Wind Dancer, and Tame Beast — require Spirit reservation. Managing this stat smoothly is important as the build evolves.
How to Achieve It:
- Look for Spirit on chest armor or amulets
- Use the Reduced Spirit Ascendancy to free up more space for buffs without limiting your active skills
Jewels and Modifiers to Look For
The general rule for PoE 2 best Jewels for Ritualist build is as follows: use them to cover gaps and amplify damage scaling.
Key Mods to Prioritize:
- Increased Attack Speed
- Flat Lightning or Fire Damage
- Projectile Speed or Damage
- Chance to Shock or Ignite
In summary, gear in this build is currently all about simplicity and synergy. Stack flat elemental damage, scale it with attack speed and projectiles, and plug in defensive stats wherever possible. Thanks to the +1 Ring Ascendancy and Mystic Attunement, even rare jewelry can carry huge value. As long as you follow the core stat priorities, this build stays lethal, mobile, and durable across every phase of the game.
PoE 2 Huntress Ritualist Build Rotation
Time to bring all your skills together and see how this build plays in real combat. The good news? You don’t need to juggle two skill bars or mash buttons like a madperson. The rotation here is smooth, fast, and deadly — as long as you understand the purpose of each ability and when to use it.
Here’s the typical flow during combat:
Explosive Spear → Barrage → Lightning Spear → Thunderous Leap (Position) → Spear Stab (for Bossing or Finishers)
- Explosive Spear
This is your high-impact nuke and primary bossing tool. Use Barrage to empower it and land multiple overlapping explosions in a tight area. It's excellent for taking out rares, elites, and chunky targets quickly. - Barrage
Before casting either Explosive Spear or Lightning Spear, pop Barrage to empower the attack. This lets it repeat multiple times — a massive DPS boost. Since it consumes Frenzy Charges, you’ll want to keep the rotation tight and efficient rather than spamming. - Lightning Spear
The clear tool. Use this after Barrage when entering a room or during mapping. The spear splits and chains bolts across targets, tearing through packs with ease. It's your bread-and-butter for AoE farming. - Thunderous Leap
A fast, responsive mobility skill. Use it to reposition mid-fight, jump over hazards, or dive into packs before unloading your spear combo. With Holy Descent, it also drops Consecrated Ground, adding sustain. - Spear Stab
When everything else is on cooldown or in tight spaces where projectiles don’t land properly, this simple strike gets the job done. Not flashy, but reliable for sustained single-target output — especially early in the game.
This build doesn’t currently incorporate Frenzy Charge generation, as the tools for it either slow the gameplay down or overcomplicate the rotation. There’s some experimentation potential with charge setups using Cranial Impact, Break Endurance, or Resonance, but the current rotation is clean and powerful without them. BLOG20
The rhythm of this build is fast throws, empowered hits, repositioning, and detonations — a perfect storm of spear-based pressure and Ritualist control.
Conclusion
This Huntress Ritualist build combines raw elemental power with a high-speed, spear-based playstyle that feels great right from the start. With explosive clears, smooth mobility, and strong passive scaling, it’s no surprise Ritualist is sitting at the top of the current meta. Whether you're leveling through Acts or mapping deep into endgame, this setup keeps things simple, satisfying, and seriously powerful.
F.A.Q.
What is the best Huntress build in Path of Exile 2?
Right now, the Ritualist is dominating the leaderboards thanks to its flexible scaling, spirit efficiency, and ring-based utility. This Explosive Spear + Lightning Spear setup is one of the smoothest leveling and early endgame builds available.
How to get gear for a Huntress build in Path of Exile 2?
Focus on gear with flat elemental damage, life, resistances, and Spirit. Most of your power comes from modifiers, not uniques, so prioritize stats over rarity.
How to increase damage with a Huntress build in PoE 2?
Stacking elemental damage is the way to go:
- Stack flat Lightning and Fire damage
- Use Barrage to repeat attacks
- Scale Elemental and Projectile Damage via passives and gear
What are the best skills for a Huntress build in PoE 2?
- Explosive Spear (single target & burst)
- Lightning Spear (AoE clear)
- Barrage (empowerment engine)
- Thunderous Leap (mobility)
How to make the best build for Huntress in PoE 2?
Build around fast, high-damage projectiles. Then use the Ritualist Ascendancy to scale Spirit and jewelry bonuses and keep gear focused on elemental scaling, evasion, and utility buffs like Heralds.
