All Path of Exile Classes, Ranked Worst To Best

April 21, 2024, 11 p.m.

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All Path of Exile Classes, Ranked Worst To Best

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Summary Path of Exile offers 7 classes and 19 Ascendancy subclasses for character customization.

The choice of class determines combat style, with classes like Duelist, Witch, Templar, Ranger, Marauder, and Shadow having specific strengths and weaknesses.

Scion, unlocked after Act 3, is considered the best class due to its flexibility and access to a wide skill tree.

The dark fantasy ARPG, Path of Exile, offers players many choices about how to build out their character to fit their play style or simply to experiment with different builds to become the most dangerous adventurer in Wraeclast. While there are seven main classes, there are also 19 Ascendancy subclasses, items that can provide crucial buffs, and both Active and Support skills, all of which can be tweaked to customize a character.

When players first create a character, they will be given a choice between six initial classes, with the seventh Scion class becoming unlocked after progressing through the story campaign. Furthermore, the 19 Ascendancy classes, which are essentially subclasses used to focus abilities, are not available until after completing the Lord's Labyrinth. This means that the choice of class type is the crucial first step in determining the kind of combat style that will be used throughout the immersive game.

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7 The Duelist Class Excels In Strength And Dexterity

Best With The Champion Ascendancy Subclass

None of the classes in Path of Exile are bad, particularly with the amount of further customization one can apply with Ascendancy classes, items, and more. However, of the starting classes, the Duelist is perhaps the least impressive. Duelists are one of the classes that are often considered to be a hybrid class due to their being able to benefit from both Strength and Dexterity skill gems.

Paired with the Champion Ascendancy class, it can do a lot of damage with its Impale attack, and the dual weapons can be fun to wield. The strength and power of the Champion can create a fairly effective tank role, although it would require some elemental resistance applied through items to protect itself against much of the arcane magic seen in the game. The Champion can survive a lot of heavy hits and has a good balance between its offense and defense.

6 The Witch Class Is Effective With Spells And Arcane Magic

For Ascendancy Subclass, Consider The Necromancer Or Elementalist

As its name implies, the Witch is a class that focuses heavily on the use of arcane magic and fun spellcasting dynamics. They can use wands and scepters and have a very high Intelligence straight out of the gate. The use of the dark arts and elemental magic makes the Witch a very strong class, but also quite difficult to build well and often takes a lot of trial and error to understand what works best for the player.

Combining Witch with the Necromancer Ascendancy class provides a fun mechanic of creating a little army of dead and undead minions that spawn from corpses. When built well, a Necromancer can be one of the best classes for its versatility with minion powers and defensive abilities. Another good possibility for Ascendancy class is the Elementalist, who can not only use some incredible elemental magic but also has access to some Golem minions.

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5 Templars Use Both Strength And Intelligence

The Inquisitor Ascendancy Provides A Battlemage Feel

Templars are another example of the hybrid classes with both Strength and Intelligence represented well in the class. This combination of brain and brawn makes them a good Battlemage type of play style, and they can quickly handle a variety of things thrown at them. The unique mix also allows them to use staves and scepters while also being able to wear chainmail and carry shields.

Using the Inquisitor Ascendancy class, this character will be able to deal many critical strikes for heavy damage. Inquisitors can perform many elemental damage skills, particularly as it can have the chance to ignore elemental resistances in enemies. Inquisitor was previously one of the worst classes but was updated with Ritual to become a much more useful and entertaining choice.

4 Rangers Are Agile With High Dexterity

The Deadeye Ascendancy Provides Good Projectile Damage

Typical of Rangers in most games, the Ranger class has a naturally high Dexterity stat and can be very effective at long-range attacks with the bow and arrow. The Ranger could also be built to focus more on daggers and one-handed swords for close combat or a bit of a mix to make them more flexible to whatever situation they find themselves in.

Using the Deadeye Ascendancy class, the Ranger can become an incredibly satisfying character to play with the amount of arrows and projectiles that can be used. With skills such as the popular Tornado Shot and Lightning Arrow, it is a visually impressive adventurer that is also very deadly. Because of the power that the class has, it frequently sees updates and changes in the game mechanics, but it currently remains a very effective class in Path of Exile.

3 The Marauder Has Brute Strength And Power

Its Berserker Ascendancy Provides Heavy Damage

The Marauder starts out having the highest Strength attribute of any of the classes and is essentially a powerhouse of brute force and physical aggression. It is often compared to the typical Barbarian class from many other ARPGs, wanting to charge headfirst into battle and using its immense strength to quickly overcome enemies, and enjoys using heavy two-handed axes or maces.

Applying the Berserker Ascendancy, the character utilizes as much Rage as possible to inflict damage on everything in sight. Unfortunately, this also creates a detrimental effect of increased damage being taken, which means that the class needs to keep an eye on HP. Despite that, the Berserker offers fast-paced, non-stop carnage, with critical strike multipliers, strength-stackers, and the General's Cry warcry that can summon six mirage warriors to come out of nearby corpses.

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2 Shadow Class Combines Dexterity And Intelligence For A Sneaky Rogue

Choose The Assassin Ascendancy For A True Rogue Experience

The Shadow class is the final of the hybrid choices, with this class being good at both Dexterity and Intelligence skills. In many builds, the Shadow class can create most varieties of stereotypical rogues from other games and is the only class that can use traps. As its name and high Dex suggests, Shadow characters are adept at stealth, hiding in the shadows and sneaking around.

For the Shadow class, the Ascendancy class of Assassin is the most useful combination and is often used. The ability to include Poison with its affinity for Critical Strikes can cause a considerable amount of damage to enemies. The Assassin's high damage numbers and critical strikes are only offset by the low defensive abilities in the class, making it one that needs to use the Dex to avoid being hit as much as possible or simply take all the enemies out before they have a chance to hit back.

1 The Scion Has Only One Ascendancy But Is A Jack-Of-All-Trades

Only Unlocked After Act 3 Of The Campaign

Sadly, the Scion is not available right when a new player picks up the game, as this class must first be unlocked by playing through the game's story. In Act 3 there is a quest line that will free her from captivity, after which she will be unlocked as a choice for a new character, in future plays. Further making the Scion stand out is that she only has one choice of Ascendancy class, very uncreatively named the Ascendant class.

The Ascendant is a good balance of a bit of everything for players, and also has the largest skill tree of any class in the game. This massive skill tree means that the Scion can become virtually anything that a player wants it to be, although they also can often require the most expensive items. Because of the strength and flexibility that the Scion Ascendant offers, however, it is the best class in Path of Exile.