2019, Beginner - Path of Exile Classes and Attributes Guide

Path of Exile has seven Classes, although only six are available to someone just starting out (the seventh is unlocked by playing about a third of the way through the story on any character). These classes, in turn, are associated with one of PoE's three main Attributes (Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence), with a mix of two of them, or (in the case of the seventh unlockable class) with all three.

Each of the starting six classes also has three sub-classes, called Ascendancies, that grant very powerful bonuses. Your choice of class matters relatively little in and of itself because all seven classes share the same passive tree, but your Ascendancy choices matter a lot and are usually one of the first considerations in creating a build.

Each of the main attributes is associated with a color, a type of equipment, certain classes of weapons, an element, and certain types of skills. That doesn't mean that these associations are absolute, but they're a good rule of thumb when first starting out. Note, however, that there are exceptions to almost all of these - it is entirely possible to build against these broad trends.

Don't worry if you don't know what all the terms listed here are, most of them will be introduced shortly in the sections to follow.

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What is the Path of Exile Attributes?

Strength: associated with red, Armour equipment, maces and axes, fire damage, and melee attack skills. The Strength-associated classes can be found at the lower-left section of the passive tree, and most of the "roads" in that section of the tree give Strength. In addition to enabling you to wear various equipment, skills, etc, Strength also grants minor bonuses to Life and Melee Physical Damage, helping you perform in Melee combat.
Dexterity: associated with green, Evasion equipment, bows, and rapiers, cold damage, and ranged attack skills. The Dexterity-associated classes can be found at the lower-right section of the passive tree, and most of the 'roads" in that section of the tree give Dexterity. In addition to enabling you to wear various equipment, skills, etc., Dexterity also grants minor bonuses to Evasion and Accuracy, making you more likely to hit with Attacks and less likely to be hit by them.
Intelligence: associated with blue, Energy Shield equipment, wands, lightning damage, and spells. The Intelligence-associated classes can be found in the upper section of the passive tree, and most of the "roads" in that section of the tree give Intelligence. In addition to enabling you to wear various equipment, skills, etc., Intelligence also grants minor bonuses to Mana and Energy Shield, allowing you to cast more and potentially build a bit of a secondary health pool.
Again, these rules are not hard and fast! There are, for example, Intelligence-based skills that deal Cold damage, even though Cold damage is nominally associated with Dexterity.

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How many Character in Path of Exile?

When you create your character, you'll have to pick one of Path of Exile's classes. You won't pick your Ascendancy (subclass) until later in the game. Note that Path of Exile's characters does not have gender options, so if you care about that aspect of a class choice, you'll need to pick a particular class: the Witch, Ranger, and Scion are female, and the Shadow, Duelist, Marauder, and Templar are male.

Starting from the top of the tree and working our way clockwise, the seven classes available, their associated stats, their starting point on the tree, and the Ascendancy subclasses they contain, are:

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 Duelist: 

Bases Attributes:
- Strength:23
- Dexterity:23
- Intelligence:14




Build Recommended:
- Sunder
- Double Strike + Ground Slam
- Rain of Arrows
- Frost Blades + Molten Strike

Usually associated with aggressive melee builds, and has easy access to most of the tree's weapon-type-specific clusters. His Ascendancy classes are:
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The Gladiator, who focuses on Blocking and applying Bleed effects to enemies.

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The Champion, who gets defensive and party-utility-related bonuses.





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The Slayer, who focuses on two-handed weapons and boss-killing bonuses.





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 Shadow: 

Bases Attributes:
- Strength:14
- Dexterity:23
- Intelligence:23




Build Recommended:
- Arc
- Blade Vortex
- Mine

Can aim for the Intelligence side and go for spells, or the Dexterity side and go for (usually ranged) attacks. His Ascendancy classes are
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The Assassin, who focuses on Critical Strikes and Poison.





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The Trickster, who gets defensive and utility bonuses around dealing Damage over Time and mixing Evasion and Energy Shield defenses.




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The Saboteur, who uses skills attached to Traps and Mines.





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 Witch: 

Bases Attributes:
- Strength:14
- Dexterity:14
- Intelligence:32



Build Recommended:
- Blade Vortex
- Arc
- Vaal Flameblast

Naturally associated with casters, thanks to her start in the Intelligence section of the tree. Her Ascendancy classes are:
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The Necromancer, who focuses on minion-based bonuses.





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The Elementalist, who gets bonuses to Cold, Fire, and Lightning effects and to her elemental Golem minions.

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The Occultist, who focuses on Curses and Cold and Chaos Damage over Time.





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 Marauder: 
Bases Attributes:
- Strength:32
- Dexterity:14
- Intelligence:14





Build Recommended:
- Sunder
- Frost Blades + Molten Strike
- Double Strike + Ground Slam

Usually used for melee builds or totem- or fire-based casters. His Ascendancy classes are:
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The Chieftain, who gets bonuses related to using Totems that use skills for him and to converting Physical damage into Fire damage.




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The Juggernaut, who focuses on consistency and defense.





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The Berserker, who gets offensive and speed-related bonuses at the cost of fragility.





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 Templar: 

Bases Attributes:
- Strength:23
- Dexterity:14
- Intelligence:23


Build Recommended:
- Blade Vortex
- Arc
- Vaal Flameblast
- Frost Blades + Molten Strike
- Sunder

Typically used for durable casters or support builds. His Ascendancy classes are:
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The Hierophant, who gets bonuses to Totems that use skills for him and Brand skills that he can attach to enemies to deal damage.




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The Guardian, who can play a pure support role or run a specialized minion build from the front lines.




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The Inquisitor, who gets bonuses to critical-strike related builds using elemental damage and Consecrated Ground.




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 Ranger: 

Bases Attributes:
- Strength:14
- Dexterity:32
- Intelligence:14




Build Recommended:
- Sunder
- Frost Blades + Molten Strike
- Rain of Arrows
- Toxic Rain

Associated with projectiles, particularly projectile Attacks, although melee rangers are reasonably common as well. Tends towards fast-moving builds with an emphasis on fast trash clearing. Her Ascendancy classes are:
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The Deadeye, who gets lots of Projectile-related bonuses.





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The Raider, a fast-moving general-purpose attacker.





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The Pathfinder, who gets bonuses related to Flasks, PoE's equivalent to other RPGs' consumable Potions.



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 Scion: 

Bases Attributes:
- Strength:20
- Dexterity:20
- Intelligence:20




Build Recommended:
- Sunder
- Rain of Arrows
- Blade Vortex

Available only after completing most of the first third of the game. Can be used for a variety of different builds, since she begins in the middle of the tree. Unlike the other classes, Scions only get one Ascendancy choice:
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The Ascendant, who can pick and choose portions from the Ascendencies of two other classes and access one of those classes' starting points on the tree.



These general trends are, again, not set in stone! It truly is pretty achievable to make a Witch that attacks in melee or possibly a Marauder that casts spells, and at times these builds can be rather robust. In truth, at 1 point my major character was a Marauder (Strength class) who applied Blade Vortex (a Dexterity talent that may be also a Spell).

These are guidelines, not guidelines, and are here as rules of thumb to assist you to understand the game and, in the event you pick out to do so, to make your own personal character builds. As you acquire expertise with all the game, builds that look to contradict these recommendations could present themselves, and I'd encourage you to attempt them out anyway.

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What is POE Guided Builds?

Considering that developing a build of the person as a brand new player might be quite hard, I've integrated a Guided Develop for every single on the 18 Ascendancies out there to a brand new player. These are not totally optimized builds, in portion because freshly optimizing every single make for each and every patch could be a prohibitive volume of operating. However, they may be really viable, and they'll you started together with the game without dying horribly every single couple of minutes.

They're developed to make use of skills readily available to you extremely early within the game (within the first act, which really should not take a new player greater than probably two hours to finish), to not need any distinct gear, and to make use of relatively mechanically-simple expertise whilst still providing a fair sample of your possibilities within PoE's mechanics.

You are able to obtain these builds inside the "Guided Builds" section. The key page consists of an indexed list of all of them, to ensure that it is possible to browse for one particular that suits you.