3 Recommended League Starter Builds for Path of Exile 2 0.5.0 | Ranged Area Damage or Detonating Corpses?

With the release of Path of Exile 2 0.5.0, endgame gameplay has undergone a dramatic change, meaning players' choices of league starter builds will also change. So, which builds are best suited for this league? Here are three recommended league starter builds: Grenade Mercenary, Double Djinn Blaster, and Whirling Assault.

Grenade Mercenary

Grenade Mercenary doesn't directly attack monsters with grenade attacks, but rather uses explosive shots to cover the entire battle map, dealing damage and suppressing all enemies. Combined with Trinity, it can trigger damage from three elements simultaneously, making it ideal for situations with many enemies and varying armor types.

Furthermore, even without the best Lineage Support gems, it can still deal massive damage, which is why it's suitable for early game progression. You can easily use it to progress from Tier 1 to Tier 5 on a map, making it great for beginners, although you might need to equip some items later to increase reload speed. However, to address this, we can currently use the double barrel to stun enemies and then reload during the opening.

In version 0.5.0, I recommend pairing Grenade Mercenary with gemling, as it now has an advanced thaumaturgy, providing additional effects for socketed skills.

For example, a fireball originally only has a 10% chance to fire two extra projectiles in all directions, but with gemling, you'll have a 25% chance to fire six projectiles in all directions - a significant improvement. Now imagine what interesting changes would occur when other grenade skills, such as reduced cooldown and increased ignition intensity, are combined with gemling?

In addition, we'll be getting a new weapon called Redemption Trarthan Cannon, essentially a grenade launcher. It boasts devastating firepower and critical hit damage. Another interesting skill that can be equipped on a support gem is Runeforged Blades, which fires runic projectiles at the cost of runic ward, ultimately depleting the enemy's completely damaged armor.

However, compared to the area-of-effect damage of Grenade Mercenary, these skills seem less important.

Double Djinn Blaster

Next is Double Djinn Blaster build. This build greatly reduces your risk of death because minions will fill the entire map, absorbing most of the damage. And now, since command skills have less impact on movement speed, you'll be much more agile. With minions flying everywhere and your own super-fast movement speed, it's hard for any damage to land on you.

Once you choose to use Double Djinn Blaster, my advice is to ignore the runes and just spam skills. You'll feel like you're wreaking havoc, unable to stop, unless your skills are on cooldown.

The best part of this build is that initially, you only need to absorb orbs of storm, gradually accumulating experience until around level 23, where you'll acquire Kelari's Deception. This allows you to use it for large-scale monster clearing and game completion.

Then, as you progress, the more gems you acquire, the more your skills are enhanced, your strength gradually increases, and completing games becomes easier.

Here's an additional Kalguuran Skill that enhances Double Djinn Blaster - Eternal March. It instantly revives your minions, prioritizing your strongest minions. This is extremely useful when you've sacrificed minions to prioritize obtaining reward; you can instantly revive your strongest minions, especially when facing exceptionally powerful enemies. Furthermore, it's said that the minions themselves have been strengthened to some extent, so this build is likely to become even more powerful.

Whirling Assault

The third is Whirling Assault - using a spinning attack to damage surrounding enemies while moving forward. However, remember to pair it with Smith of Kitava, as it releases fire upon impact. This significantly increases the actual attack range of Whirling Assault.

The principle behind this is that the additional fire attack triggers a corpse explosion, which in turn attacks nearby surviving enemies, causing chain damage. Furthermore, since the damage from the corpse explosion depends solely on the corpse's health, not our fire damage, we don't need to worry about anything else; just focus on swinging the staff to deal damage.

Simultaneously, your chest armor will be enhanced by Smith of Kitava - you won't even need to spend Path of Exile 2 Currency upgrade your equipment and increase your resistances to ensure high damage output while staying alive.

Patch 0.5.0 also buffed Tempest Bell, making it easier for players to execute clear-the-field combos, greatly improving the efficiency of melee-plus-AOE clearing combos. Additionally, you can use Mantra of Destruction to quickly stack charged staff, continuously dealing massive damage.

These are the three league starter builds I recommend and have already used. Each has its own advantages in different scenarios, but they are all very easy to learn and suitable for the early stages of a league. For ultimate long-range firepower, choose Grenade Mercenary; for lower risk, Double Djinn Blaster; and for the thrill of fast-paced mowing down of enemies, go for Whirling Assault. Quickly choose your favorite build and start clearing the map!