In thisPath of Exile 2article, we will be taking a look at how to put togetherthe Grenadier buildfor you to use to get into the late-game or end-game of the game.Path of Exilehas become notorious for the sheer amount of skills and build possibilities available in the game, and the sequel follows suit with an extensive skill tree and multitude of skill gems. This guide is here to help you get through all that and lay out a path for you to follow as you reach the end of the campaign and prepare you for your cruel playthroughs or endgame.
Introduction
The Grenadieris a build that will be usingthe Crossbowand its skills as the build’s main tool and is able to cut through any enemy with ease. And for this build, we will be focusing on the variety of grenades available combined with different ammunition types to deal with enemies tactically.
Starter Class
For this build, we will be starting withthe Mercenary Class, which is one of the seven available for now at the time, and on the expansive skill tree, the class will start on the south side.
This side of the skill tree consists mainly of passives related to attack speed, flat increase in projectile damage, and area damage, which we will be taking advantage of to maximize our damage output.
Passive Skills
Withthe Grenadier build, we will be trying to go for maximal damage output by amplifying the weapon’s strength, aiming to increase the area of coverage with our attacks. We will be investing mainly in projectile damage and attack speed as we go down the south of the passive skill tree.
The first skill group we will be going for is the attack speed passive group containingMass Hysteria.
This group includes passive nodes that increase your attack speed and will also increase the attack speed of your teammates.
After this group of skills, we will continue westward and invest in the branch containingthe Devastation node.
These will increase the area of attack and will help with the effectiveness of this build by allowing our grenades to cover a wider area of attack with their explosion.
Once we have invested inDevastation, we will move back to the southern part of the passive skill tree and takethe Volatile Catalyst node, which increases the Area of Effect and Recovery Rate of our skills.
We will be prioritizing towardsthe Grenadier skill group, which the build is named after, as this skill group forms the core of this build.
This skill group offers various buffs to our grenades such as increased damage, increased area of effect, and a chance to fire an additional grenade. But the final node of this branch,“Grenadier,”will add an extra charge to your grenade skills, and this will increase the skill rotation of our build.
After the skill group, we will be diverting our investments towardsthe Volatile Grenades node.
This branch will increase the damage dealt with our grenades and will shorten the detonation fuse of our grenades, making them deadlier in the process.
From here, we will go towards the outermost ring of the skill tree further down the southern part of the passive skill tree.
On our way, we can takethe Distracting Presence group, as it will decrease the time between our grenade skill reloads.
At the outer ring, fromthe Crossbow group of skills, we will be going forthe Repeating Explosive nodes, which give our grenades a chance to explode again. We will also be investing our points into nodes that increase our damage using the crossbow.
Then, we will be going for the area of effect skill group containingthe Authority and Crushing Judgement nodes.
These nodes mainly boost the damage of your area of effect attacks, mainly grenades, and greatly help in increasing the damage output of using the Grenadier build.
For this particular build, we will be going withthe Witchhunter Ascendancyroute forthe Mercenary class.
This is because this route gives us more straightforward options to increase either our damage output or survivability.
From this path, we will be going for the Sorcery Ward andCeremonial Ablution nodes, which give us an additional shield with the Sorcery Ward passive skill, in addition to our regular defenses of armor and evasion.
The Sorcery Ward provides us with a barrier that specifically blocks against elemental damage, which we will be facing off against quite a lot the further we get into the endgame.
Active Skill Setup
For this build, we will be using our grenades to deal the bulk of our damage output, and the first grenade available to us is theExplosive Grenade.
This skill can store up to 3 charges, which you can shoot out in quick succession, and these grenades will blow up after a short detonation time, which can be shortened even further by using the support gems and passive skill nodes.
The Explosive Grenadewill be the main source of our damage as it has the best scaling with the damage output of our crossbow.
The second grenade type we will gain access to istheFlash Grenade.
This grenade doesn’t form the core of our skills but is a good crowd control option for blinding enemies, helping with your survivability—especially early on in the game while you’re leveling up.
The next grenade will form the core combo while we are mapping and clearing mobs, and this istheGas Grenade.
This grenade unleashes a gas cloud on explosion, poisoning every enemy in range, and this cloud can be comboed with an Explosive Grenade, which will cause a huge explosion that will also ignite every enemy caught in its radius. This combo is extremely effective at dealing with groups of enemies and can deal high damage when fighting with bosses with the detonation of the poison cloud.
Another great grenade that is especially great against groups of enemies istheVoltaic Grenade, which deals lightning damage, which causes electrocution instead of shock.
Electrocution is different in that it will stun the enemies when triggered while also damaging them. Already strong by itself, this grenade can be combined with another skill,theStormblast Bolts, to trigger a huge lightning explosion, damaging huge surfaces of the arena with a single explosion.
The Stormblast Boltsfire off multiple bolts into the air per shot, which persist on the ground for a period of time. These bolts can be detonated by any skill that has the detonate attribute, and for this build, will be ourExplosive Grenade.
Another grenade type that we gain access to later on that can greatly increase the damage we deal with our Explosive Grenades istheOil Grenade.
Although this grenade has low damage potential by itself, it will coat enemies and surfaces with a patch of oil that will slow and inflict weakness against fire damage type, increasing our damage output with the Explosive Grenades while providing some degree of crowd control with the slow at the same time.
Lastly, as one of the highest-level skills available to the crossbow,theCluster Grenadeserves as a more powerful variant of the Explosive Grenade, and this will split off into multiple smaller grenades, covering a huge area by itself.
Combining this withthe Gas GrenadesandStormblast Boltsleads to the ability to explode the entire screen after shooting off this grenade and leads to an amazing way to clear mobs while mapping.
Although the grenades are powerful, it can be tough when you are leveling or just starting out with this build due to the delay in the explosion and various fuse times of different types of grenades.
In situations where you want to clearly deal with enemies that are surrounding you,Fragmentation RoundsandGalvanic Shardsare useful skills to have equipped in your arsenal to deal with close-ranged threats while your grenades aren’t immediately available to you.
Support Gems
For the support gems, we will want to maximize the effectiveness of ourExplosive Grenade,and to that end, we will be going forthe Scatter Shot gemfirst for the skill.
This will allow us to fire off 3 Explosive Grenades with each shot and allow us to cover more area quite early on in the game.
For the second gem, we will be usingthe Expedite gemfor ourExplosive Grenade.
Since this gem will shorten the fuse time on the grenade by 40%, there will be less time where you will need to kite your enemies before the grenades explode.
After these, we will want to amplify our Gas Grenade’s effectiveness as much as possible, and for that, we will be usingthe Magnified Effect gemfor the skill, which will increase the area of the poison cloud the grenade releases.
In addition to this, we will also be usingthe Corrosion gemfor ourGas Grenade.
This will give us the option to break the armor of our enemies using our grenades, leading to higher damage output when we detonate the gas cloud with our Explosive Grenades.
For theVoltaic Grenades, we will be using theLightning Infusion and Acceleration support gems, which will increase the lightning damage we deal with the grenade while increasing its projectile speed.
The Oil Grenadewill benefit from support gems that increase its crowd-controlling abilities, such asEncumbrance and Persistence, which will increase the slow the oil inflicts and allow for the oil field to stay longer, giving us more time to put it on fire using our grenades.
For the spirit gem skill,the Herald of Thundergoes great with this build, as we can inflict shock on our enemies with the explosion ofStormblast Bolts, and the Herald of Thunder skill will call down a lightning bolt whenever we kill a shocked enemy, adding to the lightning damage we can inflict with this build.
Gear and Equipment
This build is mainly built to work well with any kind of gear, as it does not require any specific uniques, but there are some gears that will greatly increase the effectiveness of this build.
When choosing a crossbow, the ideal choice will be one with a high amount of physical damage, as the grenades scale well with physical damage. Among the different crossbow types, usingthe Bombard Crossbowworks great for this build, as the weapon has the built-in property of firing off an additional grenade for all your grenade skills, increasing the damage potential even further.
Rare gear with increases to attack speed and movement speed, and gear giving +1 or more for projectile skills, works really well with this build and will enhance clearing mobs when you are mapping.
Leveling Guide
The build can run into some problems while leveling, owing to the grenades having varying degrees of fuse times and not detonating instantly, and may take some time getting used to. But as you become more accustomed to timing and rotation of all the various grenades, this build is extremely fun to play and will let you easily clear mobs without much problem.
Mapping and Bossing
Although you can clear mobs during mapping quite fast, bossing can be a challenge with this build. The grenades are amazing at dealing with massive crowds of enemies, but since the damage is spread out, it can take a while when you’re fighting against bosses using this build.
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The longer duration of the fights means that there will be more chances for you to mistime a dodge or get hit by a wide area attack during a boss fight. If you are using this build, you will need all your attention focused on dodging the boss’s attacks while you just throw out grenades that deal damage in a huge area.
Endgame Scaling and Optimization
Endgame scaling can be enhanced through cluster jewels that increaseAttack Speed, Movement Speed, Attack Damage, and Projectile Damage. The build has great options to scale by investing into pure attack damage while benefiting from high-Dexterity gear.
This build performs well inSSFbut is not recommended forHardcore playthroughs.While the build is extremely fun to play with, allowing you to blow up everything on screen—which is one of the most satisfying things to be able to do in an ARPG—it is not the most efficient tool available.
So, if you are planning to do a Hardcore run, this build is not for you, but if you are looking for a fun build that performs well,the Grenadieris an enjoyable build to use.
So, this wraps up my guide forthe Grenadier buildforPath of Exile 2.I hope you found this guide helpful, and if you have any suggestions or tips, feel free to leave them in the comment section.
