PoE Update 3.15 has thrown the meta over the top. Therefore we present you strong builds from the community for the start into the new league.
On 23 July 2021, the newest league in Path of Exile started with Expedition. This not only brings a cool new season mechanic with it, in which you become a treasure hunter, but also a lot of balance adjustments. These are currently causing quite a bit of chaos in the community, as the long existing meta has been thrown overboard with just one patch.
As with every start of a new league, we present some of the best Starter Builds for the new season. So if you feel like taking a closer look at the somewhat complicated but extremely fun action RPG, we’ll provide you with the right skill from the community for every player type.
Table of Contents
What is a Starter Build anyway?
Many experienced PoE players advise starting each new season with a “League Starter Build”. These builds have the advantage that they are easy to level and work without extremely expensive items. If special unique items are needed for a build, they can be obtained relatively cheaply by trading with other players.
With our presented builds, you can reach the endgame more easily, so that you can farm strong items and currency on the maps there. These in turn finance your equipment for Twink characters, which can be min-maxed even better.
Path of Building will help you
Path of Building is a programme that allows you to plan your PoE builds down to the smallest detail. In our case, however, the most important feature is that you can import builds from the linked guides, which are usually shared via pastebin link.
Download Path of Building in the Community Edition, click on “Import/Export Build” in the top left corner and then on “Import from Pastebin” in the screen that follows – then simply copy the link, confirm, done!
You should now be able to see the distribution of skill points in the skill tree. Many builders divide the skill tree into several levels so that you know where you should put your points first when levelling. To do this, click on the area marked in the screenshot below on the left:
1. Forbidden Rite Totems Hierophant (Templar)
As always, we recommend a totem build for the Expedition League, as this is one of the easiest builds in the whole game and is especially suitable for newcomers and returnees.
After recommending the Freezing Pulse Totems Hierophant again and again for a long time, we use the big balance adjustments to focus on a completely new skill: Forbidden Rite. This skill causes enormous damage, but normally also a whole 40 percent damage to the health points and energy shield of its caster. However, you can avoid this penalty if you pair Forbidden Rite with a Totem Support Gem. They will then cast the skill fully automatically until they die – but you can always just set them up again.
Thanks to its easy playability, the build is particularly suitable for players who are trying out PoE for the first time or have no previous experience with similar action RPGs. In addition, it is extremely cheap and works very well even with rare (yellow) items.
However, the Forbidden Rite Totems Hierophant also relies on one of the most unspectacular game variants PoE has to offer: You set up your totems, they fire at all nearby enemies and all you have to do is collect the loot.
For maximum effectiveness, the inventor of the build – YouTuber Zizaran, well-known in the PoE community – relies on Cluster Jewels to increase the health points of the totems. This allows them to fire more often before you have to rebuild them.
So be sure to check out his video and the skill tree in Path of Building. Both will help you understand the build quickly.
Advantages:
– Very beginner friendly
– Very good “clear speed” due to high AoE damage
– Works very well to a certain extent even with rare (yellow) items
– Strong defence through Mind over Matter
Disadvantages:
– Gameplay can get boring in the long run
– Requires expensive Cluster Jewels later on
– Endgame bosses comparatively difficult to do
2. Enki’s Archmage Hierophant (Templar)
Those who have searched the official Path of Exile forum for a suitable build in the past will almost certainly have stumbled across Enki’s Arc Witch. The lightning witch by streamer Enki is one of the oldest and most popular builds, the corresponding forum thread has collected almost 2000 pages of comments.
The big balance patch has now put an end to this, because after more than seven successful years, the popular build simply no longer works well enough and has now been declared dead by the creator. But Enki has already presented a successor.
The build is quickly explained: With your Templar, all you have to do is stand still, cast the chain lightning spell Arc continuously and cause millions of damage. You don’t really have to aim with the lightning, because as long as enemies are in range, they will reliably find their target – even behind corners and out of your field of vision! Ball Lightning is also a strong single-target spell that lets bosses and rare enemies die quickly.
Advantages:
– Very cheap to build
– Good damage scaling
– Smooth Gear Progression
Disadvantages:
– Not all map modifiers possible
– Two active skills
Go to the full build in the PoE forum
3 Cold Skeleton Necromancer (Witch)
As always, we are once again presenting a pure Summoner build – ideal for all those who enjoyed playing the Necromancer in Diablo 2. This time we recommend the Cold Skeleton Necromancer. This one relies entirely on the bony helpers, who this time come to your support as warriors, archers or mages – depending on what you feel like!
Besides the totem build, there is probably no better skill for beginners: you summon your servants and let them do the work, while you only have to pick up the loot. Since the skeletons also attract the attention of enemies and take damage, this is one of the safest ways to play.
Even the boss fights in the endgame are relatively easy to master with this build, as you can focus on dodging and thus internalise the mechanics of the encounters.
But like all other builds, this Summoner loses around 30 to 40 percent of the damage compared to patch 3.14 – so you have to be prepared for slightly longer boss fights. You can see what such a fight looks like here:
Advantages:
– Very beginner friendly, easy to play
– Even manages red maps with cheap items worth 2 Exalted Orbs.
– Lots of items to work towards for big strength boosts
– Maximum DPS while focusing on survival
Disadvantages:
– Poor overview due to many servants
– Summoner play style is not for everyone
Go to the full build in the PoE forum
4th Ball Lightning Miner Saboteur (Shadow)
Mine-based builds are a bit more difficult to play, which is why we’ve been happy to forgo them in our starter builds in the past. However, the so-called miners were extremely powerful in past leagues, so they simply belong in this list.
Miners are therefore more challenging to play because we first have to throw our mines at the enemies and then detonate them with an additional button press – in combination with consuming our potions, this can lead to quite a bit of “button mashing”.
The mines themselves don’t do any damage though, after all we have to combine another skill with them, which is then triggered by the mines – here you use the lightning spell “Ball Lightning”.
If you are confident enough to master the increased effort (and be happy with it – the constant detonating is not fun for everyone), you get a strong build, which according to the guide author g00fy_goober will be a good choice in 3.15 again.
However, the Ball Lightning Miner has also received some nerfs: Because the Awakened Hextouch Gem was generated, you have to do without a curse like Sniper’s Mark or Elemental Weakness. Also, it is no longer possible to level up all auras completely, otherwise the mana multiplier would increase too much.
Advantages:
– Incredible single-target damage against bosses.
– Shocks, ignites, hypothermises and freezes enemies
– Nearby enemies are blinded
-Can handle all map mods
– Any content can be completed, including the hardest end-game bosses
– Strong defensive capabilities
– Easy to equip, but also strong upgrade potential
Disadvantages:
Endgame equipment can be very expensive
Gameplay is more demanding as more keys are required than other builds
Go to the full build in the PoE forum
5th Earthshatter Juggernaut (Marauder)
After some of you complained in the last patch that we recommended Earthquake instead of Earthshatter for melee fighters, we’re heeding your call this time.
Just like all the other starter builds, the Earthshatter Juggernaut is an extremely powerful and easy-to-play build that stands out for its truly absurd area of effect damage. With one blow, you can virtually hit all the enemies on your screen at the same time.
The skill works like this: First you hit the enemies with Earthshatter, then spikes shoot out of the ground when you use Leap Slam or War Cry. In this way, you clear large numbers of enemies out of the way in a flash.
In addition, there is an absolutely powerful defence: over 15,000 armours and eight Endurance Charges are easily possible. In the end, you will take 90 percent of the physical damage, plus occasional blocks and a large HP regeneration.
The creator of the build explains all the advantages and disadvantages in his YouTube video:
Advantages:
– Extremely hard to kill thanks to high HP, up to 90 percent physical damage reduction.
– Requires only a few, cheap items and no expensive Cluster Jewels
– Very mobile, as you can constantly hop around with Leap Slam
– Free choice between staffs (more defence) or maces (more damage)
Disadvantages:
– Vulnerable to elemental damage
– You must pay attention to your Endurance Charges
Go to the full build in the PoE forum
What’s new in PoE 2?
As you surely know, developer Grinding Gear Games has been working on the official sequel Path of Exile 2 for quite some time, which was announced at ExileCon 2019. Next year at the latest, it should be ready and we can finally play the highly anticipated title ourselves – at least in a beta version.
