Summary
It has been a strange couple of weeks forPath of Exile 2, which went from being hyped by fans due to the imminent release of the Dawn of the Hunt update to receiving harsh criticism across the board because of the many nerfs to existing builds, skills, and items as well as an underwhelming campaign experience. BetweenPath of Exile 2’s slow gameplaywhen the 0.2.0 patch came out and a disappointing start for the Huntress across the board, many fans were unhappy with the state of the game. However, GGG has already made some big changes since Dawn of the Hunt, and now one Huntress build is the best in the game.
Spear skills are in a much better place now than they were when the update came out, but some are still underperforming compared to the rest. Still, there are many good Huntress builds at the moment, from Bleed explosions to Explosive Spear and Storm Lance, and not all of them even end up using the Parry and Disengage mechanic to generate Frenzy Charges. One build is making the others inPath of Exile 2not worth pursuing due to how quickly it deletes the endgame, and that is Lightning Spear on the Amazon.
Path of Exile 2’s Best Build May Be Next on the Chopping Block
TheHuntress' Amazon Ascendancyis great for raw damage potential thanks to its ability to scale critical hits off of accuracy, even if some successful builds use the Ranger’s Deadeye Ascendancy for damage instead. More importantly, Lightning Spear has emerged as one of the single best skills inPath of Exile 2, if not the best, and the reason is that it has it all. This is fundamentally a one-button skill that both clears entire screens of enemies and deletes bosses at once, and it requires very little setup for it to achieve this level of power.
Players only truly need some decent gear and a consistent way of generating Frenzy Charges, and there are multiple ways to get there. An example is to make Herald of Thunder or Lightning Spear itself electrocute enemies, be it with Kitoko’s Current or with the Electrocute Gem. Another way to do this is with Herald of Ice and The Three Dragons Unique helmet to make Lightning Spear freeze rather than shock, and in both cases, Combat Frenzy provides consistent Frenzy Charge generation. With this setup, players can easily spam the buffed version of Lightning Spear, obliteratingPath of Exile 2’s endgameeven after its rework.
The thing with Lightning Spear is that it can cause massive explosions when used with its normal shock function, electrocute, or with the freeze variant, which, combined with the extra damage and AoE from consuming a Frenzy Charge that is thereby generated again, makes for an amazing clearing skill. On top of that,boss damage inPath of Exile 2is still incredibly high and players can pair the ease of use of Lightning Spear with skills like Explosive Spear, Storm Lance, and Sniper’s Mark to make short work of late-campaign bosses as well as the early tiers of the endgame, whereas more Lightning Penetration may be needed for higher tiers.
Why Path of Exile 2 Would Be Wise Not to Nerf Lightning Spear
So, while Lightning Spear may be in the fast lane for quick GGG action in terms of nerfs, there is another reason why it may be among the top-three most used skills in the entire game, and it has nothing to do with damage output. In fact, Lightning Spear’s animation and effects are very reminiscent of the so-called"Javazon" builds inDiablo 2, meaning that a good percentage of players using this skill are likely doing so to appease the nostalgia of their old gaming experiences. As such, it would make sense to nerf Lightning Spear, but GGG shouldn’t go overboard so that the Javazon fantasy can live on.
