What is the best Path of Exile 2 Mercenary build? The Mercenary takes advantage of PoE 2’s new movement mechanics in combat, letting you stay light on your feet while unleashing volley after volley of crossbow ammo to inflict crippling passive effects.
The PoE 2 Mercenary class is an excellent option for players new to Path of Exile 2. As a long-range character, the Mercenary is one of the more forgiving PoE 2 classes. Unlike the Warrior or Monk, you have room to beat a hasty retreat, and the crossbow’s rapid fire gives it an edge over the PoE 2 Ranger‘s bow. We’ve scoured through all the skills, passives, and ammo types available to help you craft the best build for the Mercenary class in GGG’s ARPG.
Best Path of Exile 2 Mercenary build
The best PoE 2 Mercenary build is:
- Key skills: Armour Piercing Rounds, Fragmentation Rounds, Permafrost Bolts, Incendiary Shot, Ripwire Ballista, Emergency Reload, Cluster Grenade
- Key persistent Spirit buffs: Shard Scavenger, Overwhelming Presence, Attrition
- Key passives: Remorseless, Instant Reload, Advanced Munitions, Sand in the Eyes, Reusable Ammunition
- Ascendancy: The Witchhunter
Best PoE 2 Mercenary skills
Before reaching the Cruel difficulty, skills like Armour Piercing Rounds, Permafrost Bolts, and Incendiary Shot are great to rely on as you can almost always target the weakness of an enemy. Typically, your ideal attack rotation should be Permafrost Bolts followed by Fragmentation Rounds, which combines well with Shard Scavenger to keep your crossbow reloaded.
When playing on Cruel difficulty, however, defensive skills should be your top priority. The Ripwire Ballista Totem helps you pin down enemies to keep them from reaching you, and Emergency Reload buffs your elemental or armor-piercing rounds to skewer them where they stand. Cluster Grenade is also just too good at clearing weak mobs to leave out as well.
Best PoE 2 Mercenary persistent Spirit buffs
Shard Scavenger is the best persistent buff to take with the Mercenary as it greatly increases the number of shots you can get out with your crossbows when consuming freeze or breaking an enemy’s armor. That said, you will have to rely on PoE 2 support gems to trigger this effect consistently.
Next up, Overwhelming Presence and Attrition are also excellent choices for the best PoE 2 Mercenary build. The former simply makes it easier to Freeze or Ignite enemies, while the latter grants you more damage the longer you face difficult foes. As a class that requires a lot of kiting, you’ll be spending more time than others fighting foes.
Best PoE 2 Mercenary passives
Similar to the Sorceress, we highly recommend choosing Raging Spirits as your first Spirit skill as its useful throughout your entire run, including during the endgame content. This skill summons fiery heads that increase the damage of your fire skills.
The best way to navigate the Mercenary passive tree is to hit notables like Remorseless and Instant Reload that buff your crossbow reload speed or damage output. From there, you’re going to want to work your way up to Advanced Munitions to ensure you’re inflicting ailments on enemies, then move to Advanced Munitions for an attack speed buff and the chance to blind enemies with every attack. Afterward, you’ll want to close out by filling up the nodes around Reusable Ammunition.
Don’t neglect to take some armor and evasive buffs along the way, as you aren’t always going to be able to dodge your way out of getting hit. Some nodes around the Thrill of Battle notable provide decent buffs, as well as more attack speed.
Best PoE 2 Mercenary Ascendancy
The Witchhunter Ascendancy is the ideal choice for the best PoE 2 Mercenary build, not least because it’s easier to understand for new and returning players alike. The Gemling Legionnaire, on the other hand, is demands many hours of experimentation to find the proper build. Instead, Witchhunter gives you a safe chance to cause enemies to instantly explode or to sap 30% of their total health immediately. You can also break your foes out of lengthy spell animations, avoiding heavy hits coming your way.
Best PoE 2 Mercenary equipment
It goes without saying that the best weapon for the Mercenary amounts to the heaviest-hitting crossbow that you’ve got to hand. Keep a close eye out for crossbows that offer bonuses to your physical damage and attack speed to maximize your damage-per-second. You can push it even further by equipping armor that also buffs your damage, but don’t neglect your survivability. A Mercenary might not be as squishy as a spellcaster, but he still takes a beating as a ranged class. Offset this with suffixes that boost your health and resistances.
Path of Exile 2 Mercenary overview
The Mercenary’s main weapon is the crossbow, and there are several styles of crossbows you can equip that are designed to feel like traditional guns, including sniper rifles, shotguns, and assault rifles. You’re also able to switch between two crossbows, allowing you to hold different ammo types and attachments for deadly combinations.
Grinding Gear Games designed the Mercenary for the crossbow to feel like a gun and the abilities to pack a punch, focusing on large damage dealing blows and armor piercing shots.
All PoE 2 Mercenary skills
The Mercenary focuses on high damage shots, but has many crowd control skills, with the added benefit of equipping two crossbows to set up and execute combinations. Each crossbow responds differently depending on the ammo you use, including armor piercing ammo, incendiary ammo, and permafrost ammo.
All PoE 2 Mercenary active skills
| Skill Name | Requirements | Effect |
| Fragmentation Rounds | Level 1 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow | Load your Crossbow with piercing bolts that fragment in flight. If you hit a frozen enemy, they consume the freeze and cause an explosion. |
| Armour Piercing Rounds | Level 1 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow | Load your Crossbow with bolts that fire rapidly and can break enemy armor. |
| Permafrost Bolts | Level 1 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow | Load your Crossbow with icy bolts that fragment in flight, damaging an enemy and the area behind them. |
| Explosive Grenade | Level 1 Uncut Skill Gem | Fire a bouncing grenade that causes an explosion when it expires. |
| High Velocity Rounds | Level 3 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 6 10 Strength 10 Dexterity | Load your Crossbow with piercing bolts that deal extra damage against enemies with fully broken armor. |
| Incendiary Shot | Level 3 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 6 10 Strength 10 Dexterity | Load your Crossbow with flaming bolts that fragment in flight, damaging and building Ignite on enemies and the area behind them. |
| Flash Grenade | Level 3 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 6 10 Strength 10 Dexterity | Fire a bouncing grenade that blinds and stuns foes when it expires. It can also blind allies. |
| Rapid Shot | Level 5 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 14 20 Strength 20 Dexterity | Load your Crossbow with a large clip of bolts that build up heat that can be discharged in a stream of fire. Heat also grants bonuses to grenades. |
| Ice Shards | Level 5 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 14 20 Strength 20 Dexterity | Load your Crossbow with a clip of icy bolts that fire at the ground, leaving shards of ice. The ice shatters when an enemy steps on them. |
| Galvanic Shards | Level 5 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 14 20 Strength 20 Dexterity | Load your Crossbow with a clip of charged bolts that fragment in flight, causing a chained lightning effect when they hit enemies. |
| Gas Grenade | Level 5 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 14 20 Strength 20 Dexterity | Fire a bouncing grenade that causes a burst of poison gas when it explodes, damaging enemies and leaving behind a poison cloud. Detonation or fire-based skills can detonate the cloud. |
| Ripwire Ballista | Level 7 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 22 30 Strength 30 Dexterity | Deploy a ballista Totem that fires pinning bolts that maim enemies. |
| Explosive Shot | Level 7 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 22 30 Strength 30 Dexterity | Load your Crossbow with flaming bolts that explode on impact. This also causes grenades to explode prematurely. |
| Glacial Bolt | Level 7 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 22 30 Strength 30 Dexterity | Load your Crossbow with icy bolts that create ice crystals. |
| Voltaic Grenade | Level 7 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 22 30 Strength 30 Dexterity | Fire a bouncing grenade that discharges an electrocuting lightning blast when it explodes. |
| Artillery Ballista | Level 9 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 31 40 Strength 40 Dexterity | Deploy a ballista Totem that fires a bolt that explodes shortly after landing. |
| Stormblast Bolts | Level 9 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 31 40 Strength 40 Dexterity | Load your Crossbow with charged bolts that land at the target location, exploding if hit by a detonator skill. |
| Oil Grenade | Level 9 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 31 40 Strength 40 Dexterity | Fire a bouncing grenade that bursts in a spray of oil. Oil can be ignited by detonator or fire skills. |
| Hailstorm Rounds | Level 11 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 41 52 Strength 52 Dexterity | Generate bolts of ice at a frequency equal to reload time. All loaded bolts are fired at once, raining down over an area. |
| Shockburst Rounds | Level 11 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 41 52 Strength 52 Dexterity | Load your Crossbow with charged bolts that release damaging pulses when hitting enemies affected by a lighting-based ailment. |
| Emergency Reload | Level 11 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 41 52 Strength 52 Dexterity | Instantly reloads your active Crossbow ammunition and causes the bolts to deal more damage. |
| Siege Cascade | Level 13 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 52 66 Strength 66 Dexterity | Load your Crossbow with enemy-seeking bolts that are fired into the air, dropping near enemies and exploding after a short delay. |
| Plasma Blast | Level 13 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 52 66 Strength 66 Dexterity | Load your Crossbow with unstable bolts that have a long charging period but deal massive damage, piercing through enemies and exploding. |
| Cluster Grenade | Level 13 Uncut Skill Gem Crossbow Level 52 66 Strength 66 Dexterity | Fire a bouncing grenade that explodes when its fuse expires, throwing out a nova of smaller grenades that also explode. |
All PoE 2 Mercenary persistent Spirit buffs
| Skill Name | Requirements | Effect |
| Herald of Ash | Level 4 Uncut Spirit Gem Any Martial Weapon Level 10 25 Strength Reservation: 30 Spirit | Enemies you overkill with attacks will cause a large explosion, causing Ignite. |
| Herald of Thunder | Level 4 Uncut Spirit Gem Any Martial Weapon Level 10 25 Strength Reservation: 30 Spirit | Grants a lightning-type buff upon killing an enemy. |
| War Banner | Level 4 Uncut Spirit Gem Level 10 15 Strength 15 Dexterity Reservation: 30 Spirit | Killing enemies generates Valour. Using this skill consumes Valour and grants increased attack damage and accuracy. |
| Shard Scavenger | Level 8 Uncut Spirit Gem Crossbow Level 26 34 Strength 34 Dexterity Reservation: 30 Spirit | Consuming Freeze, Shock, Ignite, or Fully Broken Armour from an enemy reloads your Crossbow. This can only happen every few seconds. |
| Overwhelming Presence | Level 8 Uncut Spirit Gem Level 26 61 Strength Reservation: 30 Spirit | Enemies near you are easier to stun and inflict elemental ailments upon. |
| Defiance Banner | Level 8 Uncut Spirit Gem Level 26 34 Strength 34 Dexterity Reservation: 30 Spirit | Killing enemies generates Valour. Using this skill consumes Valour and increased movement speed and armor. |
| Attrition | Level 14 Uncut Spirit Gem Level 58 73 Strength 73 Dexterity Reservation: 60 Spirit | Deal more damage to rare and unique enemies the longer you’ve been fighting them, gaining Culling Strike after a certain period. |
| Dread Banner | Level 14 Uncut Spirit Gem Level 58 73 Strength 73 Dexterity Reservation: 30 Spirit | Killing enemies generates Valour. Using this skill consumes Valour and grants various resistances. |
All PoE 2 Mercenary ascendancies
Here are the Path of Exile 2 Mercenary ascendancies:
- The Witchhunter: With extra magic defense, and the ability to break their enemy’s concentration, the Witchhunter is perfect for taking down opposing magic users.
- The Gemling Legionnaire: A gem-augmented human, the Gemling Legionnaire can use more skills than any other class, and gains power with skill use.
Now you’re caught up on the Mercenary class in Path of Exile 2, check out the best PoE 2 builds for a change of pace. We also have a complete guide to all the PoE 2 bosses to help you out in a pinch. Finally, check out our Path of Exile 2 review for a comprehensive overview of everything this sequel’s early access launch brings to the table.
