Embarking on your journey in Path of Exile II can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to selecting a character class. Each class offers a unique gameplay experience, presenting distinct challenges depending on your chosen build.
This game allows for remarkable customization; for instance, you can equip a Mace or a Quarterstaff as a ranged class. In this guide, we will explore a build that might resemble a Monk but possesses the potential to outshine an Invoker in terms of power.
If you are just starting off as a Mercenary, this guide will equip you with all the necessary information to successfully create a Stat-Stacking Gemling Legionnaire. However, be warned: this build can be costly and is not the best choice for your initial character in PoE2.
Essential Skills & Support Gems
The true power of the Mercenary class lies in stacking a multitude of attributes together through the right gear. While this guide focuses on using Tempest Flurry, it’s important to note that this skill synergizes well with other abilities, such as Ice Strike, especially benefited by the Pillar of the Caged God.
We will go over the primary abilities and essential support gems required for maximizing performance, particularly aimed at endgame scenarios. For campaign play, feel free to utilize any available gems since their significance increases later in the game.
Core Abilities
Tempest Flurry: This becomes your go-to attacking skill once you conquer The Executioner in Act 1. It unleashes three strikes with your staff followed by a powerful lightning bolt attack. The visual effect resembles spinning like a Beyblade, which adds excitement to the gameplay.
Remarkably, the effectiveness of Tempest Flurry is highly influenced by your attack speed, enhancing both your attack frequency and movement speed. Once you optimize your dexterity and movement speed, you can outpace traditional running by utilizing Tempest Flurry—just hold down the attack key, and watch the chaos unfold.
- Support gems order: Martial Tempo, Rage, Inspiration, Crescendo, Bullseye
Combat Frenzy: Each time you electrocute an enemy (which occurs frequently with a well-built character), you receive a frenzy charge, though you won’t focus on these. Instead, leverage the Passive skill Resonance to convert Frenzy Charges into Power Charges, greatly benefiting your next skill.
- Support gems order: Profusion, Precision
Charged Staff: To utilize this skill, you must have Power Charges. Activating this ability enhances your staff with lightning damage and creates a visually striking shockwave beam, allowing attacks to reach enemies from farther away, effectively making you play as a ranged class.
- Support gems order: Persistence, Lightning Exposure, Cold Exposure, Strip Away, Culling Strike
Herald of Thunder: You will acquire this herald by defeating the King in the Mists, and it will unleash additional lightning bolts upon killing shocked enemies, providing a robust area of effect. Although the gems associated with this skill may seem unconventional at first, they yield effective results when used correctly.
- Support gems order: Ice Bite, Cold Infusion, Glaciation, Ambush, Cold Penetration
Herald of Ice: Despite focusing on lightning, this skill allows you to shatter chilled targets, creating synergies between your cold and lightning elements. By mixing cold support gems within Herald of Thunder and lightning gems with Herald of Ice, you create massive chain reactions that amplify damage output and create explosive results.
- Support gems order: Overcharge, Conduction, Magnified effect, Innervate, Shock Siphon
Additional Skills
Grim Feast: This skill allows you to replenish your energy shield from the corpses of defeated enemies, effectively doubling your energy shield without any action on your part.
Tempest Bell: Generally reserved for specific tough encounters, especially bosses, this skill may not see frequent use in regular maps.
Cast on Shock: This is a unique meta skill that triggers automatically once you’ve shocked enough enemies with spells like Ball Lightning or Eye of Winter, capitalizing on your frequent ability to shock foes.
Having limited spirit to spare generally, consider including other spirit skills like Ghost Dance or Blink for added mobility and defense.
Resistances & Defenses
As you progress past Cruel Mode into the mapping phase of Path of Exile II, you will face tougher enemies that hit harder than before. It is crucial to prioritize resistances and layered defenses; keep them maximized to at least 75%. Each act reduces overall resistances by 10%, so don’t overlook passive buffs throughout the campaign.
During your quest, don’t forget to secure the 10% chaos resistance from the Venom Crypt Quest unless you plan on utilizing Chaos Innoculation. With all the strength nodes acquired, the build naturally provides ample health, which reduces evasion concerns. Instead, focus on significantly boosting your Energy Shield, which I will elaborate on shortly.
Crucial Gear
Unique Items
Pillar of the Caged God: This weapon is essential throughout your journey as a Gemling Legionnaire. Its damage scales with your surging stats—Strength boosts damage, Dexterity increases attack speed, and Intelligence enhances area effectiveness, contributing to this build’s strength.
While initially infusing it with a Lightning Rune is a valid choice, transitioning to a Soul Core of Quipolatl, which provides a 5% boost to attack speed per rune, can significantly enhance your performance with Tempest Flurry.
Hand of Wisdom and Action: As your second most critical gear piece, it adds substantial damage to your build and offers boosts to attack speed based on dexterity and lightning damage based on intelligence, ensuring your stats climb into the hundreds.
Morior Invictus: Unlike typical armor, this chest piece can support four to five rune slots, scaling effects based on how many runes/core are equipped. Aim for enhancements that increase both attributes and elemental resistances, aiming for around 20% added attributes and 40% elemental resistance to combat the build’s inherent weaknesses.
Ingenuity: This belt enhances the power of your rings—simple yet efficient.
Atziri’s Disdain: This helmet significantly boosts your Energy Shield, increasing based on your health pool, enabling you to leverage both types of defenses.
Other Gear Considerations
For your remaining gear, prioritize achieving optimal resistances. Look for boots that provide multiple resistances or consider specialized rings to fill in the gaps.
Additionally, aim for gear that maximizes both rarity and attribute bonuses. Breach rings serve a beneficial purpose, particularly since they can be enhanced in quality by up to 50% and are strengthened further through your belt.
Ascension Selection
For the Gemling Legionnaire, choosing Enhanced Effectiveness is a straightforward decision, as it effectively doubles your inherent bonuses. While it doesn’t literally double your stats, you will witness a significant enhancement in health and mana, allowing for enhanced survivability.
Next, opt for Crystalline Potential to increase the quality of your skills and improve their effectiveness, followed by Advanced Thaumaturgy to maintain prolonged spinning without exhausting your mana reserves.
Passive Skill Tree Path & Anoint
The Stat Stacking passive tree may initially appear unconventional compared to typical builds. Instead of hunting down additional benefits, your primary goal is to focus on attribute nodes; stats will be your ultimate priority.
However, a few key notables are essential to your success.Do not overlook these choices.
Polymathy and Jack of All Trades: These two passives work synergistically to enhance builds reliant on attributes. Maintain high attribute levels, especially favoring dexterity.
Proficiency and Ingenuity: Offering a 25% boost in Dex and Int, these nodes are invaluable.
Falcon Technique: This node improves attack speed based on your dexterity level, providing significant boosts to Tempest Flurry as your dexterity increases.
Resonance: This passive is crucial when incorporating the Charged Staff skill, allowing you to convert Frenzy Charges to Power Charges efficiently.
Unbound Forces: This boosts your ability to chill or shock enemies, enhancing the synergies with your staff and herald abilities.
Additionally, pick passives that amplify your Energy Shield, such as Patient Barrier or choices promoting attack speed and attributes. When your mana pool becomes sufficient, integrating Mind Over Matter is beneficial.
Consider the potential of jewel slots, utilizing Grand Spectrums for extra resistances or rare sapphires to fortify your Energy Shield. Bolstering your defenses is imperative.
Ultimately, while this guide lays out foundational principles, your journey entails personalizing your build to excel in the game. Once you reach high attribute levels, you’ll surely feel the payoff for your efforts!
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