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In almost every Path of Exile 2 league, certain builds or classes rise to prominence, defining the meta-game for that period. As of Patch 0.5.5, Gemling Legionnaire has emerged as the most popular Ascendancy class.

Prior to the release of Patch 0.5.0, this Ascendancy was relatively unpopular; however, PoE 2 implemented mechanical optimizations specifically to address this, quickly making it a player favorite.

This shift resulted in Gemling Legionnaire dominating the player base even after the launch of Forbidden Rites league, creating a somewhat unbalanced meta for Patch 0.5.5.

In this article, we analyze the current state of Gemling Legionnaire, the reasons behind its rapid rise in popularity, and the changes needed to balance the meta before the official 1.0 launch.

Current state of Gemling Legionnaire

Since the launch of Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.5, over 30% of players have chosen to play Gemling Legionnaire, whereas the runner-up, Martial Artist, accounts for only 9% of the player base.

Meanwhile, many established or non-core Ascendancy classes, such as Invoker, Smith of Kitava, and Ritualist, have seen their play rates drop to below 1%.

This extreme disparity in usage figures isn't simply because Gemling Legionnaire is stronger than other classes; rather, it highlights deeper differences in Ascendancy design within the current version.

In other words, PoE 2 Gemling Legionnaire isn't just about high damage numbers; its mechanical design offers unprecedented fun and freedom in build crafting. By comparison, older classes that haven't received updates feel increasingly stale.

What makes Gemling Legionnaire so powerful?

The class has managed to retain a massive player base since Patch 0.5.0 release in May largely due to the development team's successful rework, specifically, the adjustments made to Advanced Thaumaturgy Notable Passive.

This passive ensures that skill gem quality provides more than just minor percentage bonuses; it now grants entirely new, additional effects.

Take Explosive Grenade skill as an example. In a standard design, increasing gem quality might only yield a slight boost to its radius or a marginal increase in damage.

However, with Advanced Thaumaturgy enhancement, gem quality translates directly into additional projectiles.

The benefits become significant once quality reaches +6. If you stack quality even higher through gear and resource investment, the projectile count explodes, resulting in final damage output that far exceeds expectations.

This fundamental shift in mechanics renders traditional grenade-focused classes, such as Witchhunter and Tactician, obsolete. While these classes have their own merits, they pale in comparison to the bonuses provided by Advanced Thaumaturgy.

Reasons for the decline of certain classic Ascendancies

Compared to the high damage output and mobility of Path of Exile 2 Gemling Legionnaire, other Ascendancies have fallen out of favor not only due to a lack of updates but also because their underlying mechanical flaws have become increasingly apparent.

Take Smith of Kitava for instance. The class's core issue lies in the lack of effective synergy and rotation between its mechanics.

For one, the mechanic involving forging weapons on an anvil is virtually never used, and the signature skill Manifest Weapon is consistently ignored. There is also a mechanic that triggers fire spells on hit, yet there are no truly effective fire spells to synergize with it.

The only viable playstyle for Smith of Kitava involves combining Whirling Assault with Detonate Dead, dealing damage based on a corpse's maximum health by detonating it.

The problem, however, is that Detonate Dead is quite weak against bosses; furthermore, if you intend to play Whirling Assault, Martial Artist is a far superior choice.

Reasons for the success of other promising classes

Although the player base for Martial Artist doesn't quite match that of Gemling Legionnaire, it still significantly outpaces other PoE 2 Ascendancies. Its success stems from its unique, driver-style mechanics.

Martial Artist's Hollow Form allows you to create powerful clones that fight alongside you; when combined with other AoE skills, this enables instant screen-clearing.

In contrast, Invoker, which shares the same base class, offers only marginal Spirit gains, elemental effects triggered by critical hits, or chilled ground created upon freezing enemies.

These incremental stat bonuses pale in comparison to the screen-clearing power offered by Hollow Form.

How should the current meta be adjusted in preparation for the 1.0 launch?

While Gemling Legionnaire is currently performing exceptionally well, its dominance in player attention could prove detrimental to the future of Path of Exile 2, particularly regarding game balance post-launch.

First and foremost, a simple, blanket nerf to Gemling Legionnaire is not the answer; instead, the developers should preserve its core identity while making reasonable numerical adjustments to the bug-tier stacking mechanics that exceed intended design parameters.

As the 1.0 launch introduces additional classes and Ascendancies, early-game options should be reworked sooner rather than later to highlight their unique characteristics and ensure they remain viable and engaging choices.

For builds centered around specific themes, the development team should implement clearer and more powerful mechanical support within the relevant Ascendancy passive trees following the 1.0 release.

In short, while Gemling Legionnaire has caused a slight imbalance in the current PoE 2 meta, it demonstrates a strong player appetite for playstyles driven by the unique mechanics of Ascendancies.

By using this insight to guide the optimization and reworking of other classes, the developers can ensure that the combat experience in Path of Exile 2 becomes both balanced and richly varied upon the game's full launch.

In Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.5 Forbidden Rite League, Ritual has received some additions from the developers. Although the changes are not particularly significant, Ritual is still a source of valuable Crafting Omens and Jackpot Uniques.

In Forbidden Rite League, Ritual Tablets are not particularly valuable, so you can easily run this strategy. Below are the details of the required passives and the basic process for running it.

How to Run Ritual?

In Forbidden Rite League, Ritual replaces Expedition and appears in every area. After completing a Ritual, the button in the bottom-right corner no longer appears. You must complete all Rituals and click the final Ritual site to collect the full set of rewards.

There are mainly two types of Rituals you will encounter on each map: regular Rituals and Rite of the Nameless.

Regular Rituals appear on every map. Clear the map first and then complete Rituals, keep and purchase valuable items, check through all the pages, and finally hand the remaining Tribute over to the boss.

Rite of the Nameless is slightly more complicated. You need to give Tribute to the king and convert it into an Audience with the King. Then, defeat the boss, take Head of the King, and use it to anoint a map area.

Rite of the Nameless

When farming Atlas maps, if you have an Audience with the King in your inventory, you will see some locations that can reveal Crux of Nothingness as you explore outward from the starting fortress. This consumes one Audience with boss.

You must be close enough to the target before you can place it, and there are usually several maps between you and the target. Doryani's Hidden Patterns Perk can help you skip maps and find the final boss faster.

Head of the King is worth approximately 1 Divine Orb, so farming Rituals for an Audience with the King, defeating the boss, and then selling Head of the King is also a viable way to generate currency.

You only need to enter Caer Tarth, anoint it with Head of the King, and then choose a chain consisting of 6 maps. Head of the King is not consumed until you select the 6 maps. Cleansed Areas or Cities are recommended. Cleansed Areas increase the number of monsters, which is exactly what Ritual needs because more monsters mean more Tribute.

Across these 6 maps, the modifiers and rewards increase. For example, you may get modifiers that reduce the cost of rerolling Favours, increase Tribute, or cause Ritual Altars to provide 20% more Favours.

Map Bosses carry over from one map to the next. By the 5th and 6th maps, you may face five or 6 Map Bosses at the same time and gain a large amount of Tribute.

You also gain an additional Reroll on each map, giving you around seven Rerolls by the end. This is ideal for hunting for high-value Omens and Legendaries.

Ritual Passive Tree

The Invigorated Sacrifices node on Ritual Passive Tree is extremely powerful because it allows Ritual Altars to offer more selectable items. This node increases Ritual skill damage by 50%, but the skill itself deals very little damage, so its negative effect can be almost completely ignored.

Between Two Worlds node can generate a Wildwood Wisp. It creates a small white circle, and killing Ritual monsters inside the circle grants 30% more Tribute. This is another very powerful node, but if your build cannot stand in one place while dealing with monsters, you should avoid taking it.

Another core passive is Tainted option on Traveller's Woe. Its damage is easy to avoid, while it increases the chance of Unique Belts, Charms, and Flasks appearing. In other words, it also increases the chances of finding Mageblood and Headhunter.

Ritual Tablet

Ritual Tablets are the most important part of the setup. Use four Tablets when running Cities and three Tablets for regular maps.

Tablets with a modifier that allows Ritual Altars to reroll Favours an additional 1 to 3 times are extremely valuable. If the prefix is good, such a Tablet can even be worth dozens of PoE 2 Divine Orbs. You can choose to sell it or use it yourself to gamble for Mageblood and Headhunter.

The suffix that reduces Tribute cost of rerolling Favours is also very strong because each reroll normally costs 1,000 Tribute. You can stack this modifier, and once it reaches 100%, you can reroll for free.

The modifier that reduces Tribute cost of Deferring is also useful, but Patient Devotion node on the passive tree already provides a 50% reduction, so having this modifier on at most one Tablet is enough..

Modifiers that increase the chance of Omens appearing are also excellent, since Omens are one of the main sources of income for this strategy. Some Omens only appear through Ritual, and they can be worth several Divine Orbs.

Prefixes are not particularly important. You can choose modifiers related to Rare Monsters, Effectiveness, Item Rarity, and so on. They can provide some additional basic currency, but they are not mandatory.

Maps

For maps, mainly use Tier 15 Waystones, roll them to 6 modifiers, and then Corrupt them. 8 modifiers are also good if you can get them. If a Waystone becomes Tier 16, it is better to save it for another strategy.

This strategy does not care much about monster effectiveness, item rarity, and similar modifiers. It prioritizes rare monsters, pack size, and additional monsters instead, allowing more enemies to spawn during Rituals and generating more Tribute.

In PoE 2 Forbidden Rite League, Ritual may not be the fastest strategy, but it is fun to run and can also deliver big jackpots, providing large amounts of currency and valuable rewards. The difficulty is also relatively low, making it suitable as a main farming strategy during the early and mid stages of the league.

PoE 2 Forbidden Rites event league has been live for a few days now, how are you finding it? While the novelty might not last all the way until the 1.0 launch, it's certainly engaging enough for a solid month of play!

Although Patch 0.5.5 lacks sweeping balance changes, meaning traditional builds remain dominant, Poison Bow Acolyte of Chayula build stands out. Thanks to its unique mechanics and high damage output, it can definitely elevate your experience in this patch!

What is the core mechanic of this build?

The build's massive damage boost stems from Remnant mechanic within Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy tree, combined with PoE 2 current weapon-swapping mechanics.

You achieve this by allocating all passive nodes related to Remnants and pickup radius, and setting up specific gear in your secondary weapon slot. When entering an area, if you start with your secondary weapon active, the game registers that specific pickup radius for Remnants.

Once the mechanic is active, any Remnants (generated by killing monsters or specific mechanics) are automatically drawn to and instantly absorbed by your character. By taking the core passive Choice of Power, your character can absorb high-tier purple Remnants.

Each stack of purple Remnants grants a 7% extra chaos damage bonus, stacking up to 10 times. With additional modifiers that boost Remnant effects, this damage bonus is amplified significantly.

It is worth noting that benefiting from secondary weapon passives without actually switching weapons is essentially an exploit within Path of Exile 2. However, even if this is patched out in the future, the build can still function effectively through other methods.

You will need to stack Pickup Radius modifiers on gear or allocate Crimson Further passive node to increase your Remnant pickup range by 50%.

Afterward, you can reallocate the passive points originally used for the weapon-swap setup to focus on mobility and utility, using the weapon-swap action itself to trigger massive movement speed boosts and apply additional damage effects.

Focusing on chaos damage scaling via gear

This build does not limit its damage output to raw chaos base damage; instead, it maximizes chaos damage scaling by converting other damage types into chaos damage via the purple flames known as Remnants.

Gear selection is crucial for achieving this, and you will need to swap out certain items as you progress through the league.

Initially, Blightlord Bow serves as your base weapon. While its attack range is somewhat limited, Poison Bow Acolyte of Chayula build relies on Poison Burst detonating in a concentrated area at close range to achieve peak stacking and explosion efficiency.

Later, you can switch to Splinter Heart bow to accelerate your leveling. It boasts excellent projectile speed and base damage, providing enough power to tackle high-level maps.

Regarding weapon affixes, focus on boosting added base damage to enhance the conversion effect of the purple remnants. If rerolling yields poor results, it's best to buy PoE2 currency to fund further attempts.

For other gear pieces, if there is spare room in the prefix slots, you can supplement Remnant Effect stat; however, there is no need to over-stack it, as the passive skill tree already provides a sufficient baseline.

Additionally, in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.5, socketing specific variants of Soul Core into your melee weapon or off-hand slot grants up to 25% Poison Power, a damage-boosting mechanic that poison builds simply cannot afford to overlook.

Skill synergies

The reason this PoE 2 build achieves a perfect balance between highly automated map clearing and the ability to instantly eliminate single targets lies primarily in the synergy between its various skills.

For map clearing, Poison Bow Acolyte of Chayula build relies on a self-sustaining chain reaction involving Poisonburst Arrow, Herald of Blood, and Herald of Plague.

First, use Poisonburst Arrow to inflict Poison and Bursting Plague on enemies; the latter also applies the bleed status.

When a bleeding monster dies, Herald of Blood triggers, detonating the target simply because it is bleeding. The resulting explosion deals damage that applies further poison and works with Herald of Plague to spread the effect to surrounding enemies.

When facing single targets, Toxic Growth serves as your primary skill, firing toxic projectiles.

You can then incorporate Withering Touch to apply Wither effect. When the target is poisoned, it triggers additional poisoning and instantly detonates all Toxic Growth projectiles, dealing a burst of poison damage.

Finally, Archon buff provides excellent Wither uptime and an additional tornado. Through amulet anointing and unlocking minion-related passives, the skill's cooldown recovery period can be further eliminated.

Passive skill tree setup

For this build, unlocking Acolyte of Chayula passive node should be done in stages. In the early game, focus on poison mechanics by prioritizing Leeching Toxins, Escalating Toxins, and Building Toxins to establish an efficient poison cluster.

In the late game, once you have high-stat Path of Exile 2 gear, you can invest more points into critical strike and critical strike damage nodes, as critical strikes benefit both the initial hit damage and the poison DoT.

How to improve defenses?

While the content above focuses primarily on the build's damage output, that does not mean its defensive capabilities are weak.

The build utilizes a hybrid defense system combining Life and Energy Shield. Since Energy Shield normally takes double chaos damage, high chaos resistance is crucial; Chayula's Gift synergizes with this hybrid setup to neutralize the threat of chaos damage.

Hollowkeeper notable passive allows for easy chaos immunity, while other passives provide movement speed bonuses and significantly reduce the slowing effects of movement-impairing debuffs.

The right side of Acolyte of Chayula passive tree also offers abundant Deflection bonuses. With a finalized gear setup, the character can easily reach the 80% Deflection cap, drastically reducing incoming direct damage.

That covers everything for this guide. If this PoE 2 build matches your preferred playstyle, give it a try, it might just offer a unique experience for your Forbidden Rites league journey!