Summary
The first major update forPath Of Exile 2,Dawn of the Hunt, adds a new class and a new league for players to start climbing. There are several other new additions inDawn of the Hunt, too, from wisps to mounts and beyond. Along with the new class, a whole new branch of skill gems has been added toPath of Exile 2: Spear skills.The new class, the Huntress, is dexterity-basedand designed to wield a spear and buckler as their armaments. The class starts at the same point in the (redesigned) passive skill tree as the Ranger, but the Huntress fulfills more of a hit and retreat role, swapping between melee hits and ranged attacks on the fly.
For players who want to build a Spear-based Huntress, there are a lot of new skills to consider. The Huntress has multiple options for build specs, even sticking with Spear skills, with elemental options like Lightning Spear, melee bleed skills like Rake, and a lot of heavy-stun-related skills that work with the Huntress' parry mechanic. For those wondering what to go for first, these are thebest Spear skills added toPath of Exile 2inDawn of the Hunt.
10Disengage
Parry And Riposte
Disengage is one of the most useful first-level skills for the Huntress inPath of Exile 2. The move itself jumps the player backwards while striking an enemy.
If the enemy has just been parried, then the move does more damage and grants a frenzy charge, which can be used to empower other moves. Hitting Disengage after a parry and then mopping up with an enhanced Spear Throw isan easy way of clearing early mobs.
9Twister
Tornado Toss
Twister is another first level skill for the Huntress, but it’s a useful one nonetheless. The skill fires a tornado with an erratic movement pattern at enemies. On its own, the damage is so-so, but it can be made more effective with the Whirling Strike move.
Twister fires an extra tornado inside Whirling Strike’s vortex, meaning that players can stack a couple of vortexes in the same spot and fire three or four tornadoes at once. This is very powerful during the early-game for mob clearing and can bescaled well with the right build.
8Lightning Spear
Ranged Elemental Damage
Lightning Spear will likely end up being one of the most popular direct damage skills for the Huntress. The base damage value is good, the move is straightforward to use, and it can inflict the shock debuff on enemies.
The Spear bursts when it hits a target, firing projectiles at other enemies nearby, and can be enhanced with frenzy charges to split into multiple Spears that burst when those hit instead. That means that this move has incredible mobbing potential when paired with a frenzy charge generation.
7Rake
Bleed Application
Rake is a reliable way for the Huntress to apply bleed, boasting a guaranteed proc of bleed on any monster it hits. The move also counts as a travel skill, as it will cause the player to move towards enemies a short distance away when executed. If the move travels its full distance before hitting a monster, it deals up to 100% additional damage with the hit.
Since the move’s damage is physical, this damage increase also translates to applying a more damaging bleed effect. It works better once the Huntress has some later moves like Blood Hunt to complement it, but it’s still a strong bleed application option.
6Rapid Assault
Multi-Stab
Rapid Assault allows for a flurry of blows that leaves foes bleeding while also leaving a spearhead stuck in them. Detonator moves can explode these stuck spearheads, causing them to deal AoE damage.
This move is excellent as part of a full bleed-based rotation, but since it needs a detonator move to take advantage of the spearheads, it only really works as part of a more fleshed-out build.
5Storm Lance
Lightning Rod
For those who want to focus on elemental damage with the Huntress, then Storm Lance is the next skill to take after Lightning Spear. This move sticks an electrified spear into the terrain,zapping nearby enemies periodicallyand exploding into shocked ground at the end of its duration.
Storm Lance offers a good way for players to deal damage across an area in a set-and-forget manner while using more focused direct attacks on their target.
4Barrage
Ranged Attack Duplicator
Barrage is a skill that now applies to both Spears and Bows, and players who want to take advantage ofthe Huntress’s ranged spear-throwing movesshould definitely pick this skill up. It may be a confusingly worded skill, but it’s essentially a ranged skill enhancer. Simply pressing Barrage and then pressing a ranged skill will allow the player to fire multiple projectiles.
The Barrage skill causes the ranged attack to repeat, twice by default but additional times if frenzy charges are available. The repeats do 50% less damage than the original hit, but it’s basically free extra damage for ranged attacks.
3Bloodhunt
Bloody Lunge
Blood Hunt is an essential skill for Huntress players who want to focus on the bleed status. The move is essentially a lunging stab with okay attack power, but when it hits an enemy who has suffered blood loss, it causes a blood explosion, dealing extra damage and consuming bleed effects on the target.
For players who choose to focus on bleed effects, this is the move that will start to make their Huntress build come together. It’s a move that helps massively with spreading damage around multiple targets.
2Thunderous Leap
Movement And Damage
Thunderous Leap isa strong level 9 attack skill, but it’s also incredibly useful as a mobility skill. It’s a skill that gives the player a pole-vault style move that clears a lot of map distance.
For those who are focusing on elemental damage, the high attack value and lightning damage conversion of this skill will be appealing enough on their own. However, the travel utility and the fact that this is also a detonator skill means that every Huntress player should probably pick this skill up.
1Spear Of Solaris
Sun Strike
Spear of Solaris is the highest damage move in the Spear skill category, but it takes some work for players to be able to use it. With this move slotted, players build glory when they heavy-stun an enemy (indicated by the bar below the enemy’s health).
Since the Huntress canapply heavy-stuns with relative easeusing parries, this move becomes a powerful nuke that players can activate once a fight has gone on long enough, making it the perfect boss-finishing attack for the Huntress.
