The Huntress emerges as a formidable class in Path of Exile 2: Dawn of The Hunt. With her unique ability to deflect damage and unleash potent projectile and melee skill shots, players are eager to explore her capabilities. This class specializes in triggering powerful effects like bleeding and elemental ailments, making effective use of her diverse skill set a rewarding endeavor.
While mastering the Huntress can be challenging, the benefits are significant. This comprehensive guide will provide essential strategies for leveling up and optimizing her skills in PoE2.
Essential Skills for Efficient Leveling
The Huntress’s basic skill set includes prioritized abilities that enable her to trigger the three elemental ailments crucial for her playstyle, alongside Blinding and Bleeding mechanics. Focus on leveling these key skills:
- Parry: A fundamental skill utilized with Round Shields, allowing the Huntress to deflect attacks, exposing enemies. However, excessive holding can stun her, and there’s no mana cost associated.
- Spear Throw: Launches a spear; if the Huntress possesses a Frenzy charge, it detonates automatically without any mana cost.
- Whirling Slash: The Huntress generates a swirling storm that blinds foes in the vicinity. By performing this skill three times consecutively, she amplifies the storm’s effect, which lasts as long as she remains stationary in its center. This skill can absorb elemental hazards like Fire, Ice, and Lightning to augment its damage.
- Twister: When cast, the Huntress sends forth a gust of wind that bounces off surfaces, dealing damage and blinding enemies. The Twister skill synergizes with Whirling Slash, creating more gusts and absorbing elemental effects for greater impact.
- Disengage: A tactical retreat that allows the Huntress to leap away from melee attacks and capitalize on the Deflect effect, gaining one Frenzy charge.
- Explosive Spear: This spears lands and detonates shortly after impact. It can utilize a Frenzy charge for immediate explosion, producing a Cross-pattern fire effect while leaving lingering fire hazards.
- Lightning Spear: A continuously cast skill that releases electricity on impact, generating shockwaves that further empower her attacks with Frenzy charges.
- Fangs of Frost: A melee strike that can build up freeze potential. When attacking an enemy under the Deflect condition, it creates an explosive ice effect.
- Rake: An aggressive lunge that inflicts damage in a semi-circle while applying the Bleed effect on enemies.
- Cull the Weak: A swift strike that executes enemies with low health, also granting a Frenzy Charge upon success.
Players can acquire these foundational skills up to Level 10 to create the optimal build for leveling. Combining skills effectively is crucial for mastering the Huntress’s potential. Additionally, invest in perks that enhance Attack Damage, Projectile Damage, Frenzy Duration, Deflect Duration, and Elemental Damage as you progress.
Incorporate Skill Duration Support Gems to extend effects from Twister and Explosive Spear, along with Elemental Damage Support Gems that increase elemental prowess by 25%. Now, let’s explore the most effective combos to expedite leveling.
Top Combo Strategies to Clear Adds
Basic Area Damage + Blind: The primary combo for controlling space is Whirling Slash x3 followed by Twister. This sequence generates numerous bouncing projectiles that absorb other elemental damage types, along with the AoE blind effect from Whirling Slash, enhancing survivability.
Physical AoE Combo: Initiate with Parry and then Disengage before deploying a Frenzy Empowered Spear Throw for explosive physical damage, ideal against enemies resistant to elemental attacks.
Fire Damage Combo: When besieged, utilize Parry and Disengage followed by Frenzy Empowered Explosive Spear. Then, strike with Cull the Weak, followed by Whirling Slash x3 to gather Fire before unleashing Twister for an area attack that ignites enemies.
Lightning AoE Combo: Similar tactics can be employed with the Lightning Spear: start with Parry, followed by a Lightning Spear throw, after which players engage with Cull the Weak or Rake to accumulate lingering elemental effects using Whirling Slash and Twister.
Ice Freeze AoE Combo: For a defensive option, use Parry followed by Fangs of Frost, then unleash Whirling Slash x3 + Twister. This combo excels at building up Freeze effects in a large area.
These foundational combos should support players through early and mid-game. However, as players become more familiar with the Huntress, they can experiment with advanced combinations.
Barrage Combo: At level 5, the Barrage skill can be enhanced with Parry + Disengage + Frenzy for successive waves of physical area damage—implement it early to boost physical damage output.
Once players reach Level 42, the Combat Frenzy skill becomes available, allowing for a chain of unlimited Frenzy Charges with skills that apply ailments, further enhancing the Huntress’s capabilities.
Maximizing Elemental Attacks
For players looking to leverage the Huntress’s elemental attacks effectively, consider these vital strategies:
- Monitor the Frenzy Meter. It has a core duration of 15 seconds but can be extended via various perks. Frenzy is critical for activating potent effects, making it an essential resource.
- Fire inflicts Burning, particularly effective against swarms of weaker enemies.
- Ice applies slow and can lead to freeze, proving useful against Elites and Bosses.
- Lightning delivers Shock, advantageous when facing clusters of foes in tight quarters.
- Elemental damage scales with a percentage of Physical Weapon damage (10-25), augmented by Elemental Support Gems and gear perks. Utilize this framework to amplify your damage output.
Upon reaching a higher level (42+), players gain access to Level 11 Skill Gems. Players should prioritize Elemental Sundering, a significant bonus that unleashes an additional pulse effect based on the enemies’ ailments, consuming their effects for maximum elemental damage.
Leveling Tips for the Huntress in Path of Exile 2
Players should focus on the fundamental elemental skills and optimize the interactions between Twister and Whirling Slash to create vast area effects for wiping out numerous enemies. An investment in Elemental Damage and Ailment Threshold will significantly boost overall damage output, facilitating the swift clearing of enemy waves.
However, leveling isn’t solely about defeating regular foes; conquering Boss Fights is crucial for advancing in the story and progressing toward the endgame. Players should tweak their builds accordingly before engaging bosses, employing effective strategies for avoiding damage and surviving encounters. Next, we’ll delve into specialized tactics for Boss Fights using the Huntress.
Optimal Tactics for Boss Fights with the Huntress
By this stage, players should have a firm grasp of the Huntress’s abilities. Here’s a concise breakdown of effective strategies for tackling elite enemies and bosses:
- Leverage Parry effectively to mitigate damage. Holding the skill followed by Disengage helps build Frenzy and prepares for impactful skill shots, such as Lightning Spear or Explosive Spear.
- Skills like Rake inflict Bleeding. A recommended approach is to combine Rake with Parry, Disengage, and Empowered Spear Throw for optimal bleed damage.
- Prepare for the Huntress’s vulnerability at mid-range. Consider investing in movement speed gear to maintain agility and avoid enemy attacks.
- Be aware of the bosses’ typical attack patterns, as they often perform 2 to 3 attacks before unleashing powerful skills that cannot be parried.
- Utilize Fangs of Frost effectively to manage bosses by building up Freeze effects. However, be cautious of overusing Parry, as it could lead to vulnerability.
- Note that repeated use of Parry makes it less effective, which could result in the Huntress being stunned and exposed to lethal damage during critical boss encounters.
There are numerous combinations and effects that unfold as players advance through levels. Upon reaching Act 2, players can select their Ascendancy between Ritualist for a buff-oriented build or Amazon for a tactical-parry focused approach, both of which are highly effective based on player preference.