5 best Amazon builds in Path of Exile 2

Despite buffs to the Ritualist in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4, the Amazon remains a lot more popular. However, considering how easy it is to build around Critical Hits with her, the popularity isn’t that surprising. While I’m not the biggest fan of the Ascendancy, it holds a lot of damage potential and can provide a great leveling and endgame experience.

Here are the five best Amazon builds you can try in the latest Path of Exile 2 update. Many of them may be a familiar setup if you’ve previously played Huntress or Ranger.

Note: This isn’t a build guide

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Best Amazon builds to try in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4

1) Werewolf Amazon

Cross Slash is essential for boss damage (Image via GGG)

Shapeshifting in Path of Exile 2 is a universal ability. With the Werewolf and Amazon combination, you can shred some of the toughest enemies in the game while keeping them frozen with your attacks. Additionally, you also gain some Wolf companions while mapping or bossing.

The build uses most of the Werewolf skills introduced with patch 0.4. That’s because mobbing or bossing requires different rotations. However, since all of them are melee-based, you can scale them together. Here’s what the setup will look like:

• Shred: Long Fuse - Cold Attunement - Close Combat - Rapid Attacks
• Pounce: Freezing Mark - Cooldown Recovery - Magnified Area - Fist of War
• Cross Slash: Cold Attunement - Inexorable Critical - Magnified Area - Close Combat
• Lunar Assault: Rage - Deep Freeze - Elemental Armament
• Lunar Blessing: Second Wind - Efficiency - Cooldown Recovery - Prolonged Duration

For mobbing, you’ll want to generate Rage and activate Lunar Blessing. It allows you to call down Moonbeams with every hit, granting good AoE damage. While fighting bosses, Shred will create ice fragments, which you can converge into a single place by using Cross Slash. The attack will also consume any mark you have on the boss to summon a minion.

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2) Bleed Rake Amazon

Hit-and-run made easy with Rake (Image via GGG)

Rake allows you to inflict Bleed on enemies in an AoE. The Ailment deals damage over time, allowing you to attack and then let enemies chase you around. Moving around with bleed turns the debuff into Aggravated Bleed that deals additional damage.

However, to take things up a bit, you can use support skills like Herald of Blood, which explodes enemies killed by Blood Loss to deal physical damage and can also apply Aggravated Bleed to surrounding enemies. If you want to play around heavy stun, you can use Bloodhound's Mark, which builds up stun on enemies through the Blood Loss mechanic.

• Rake: Momentum - Overextended - Heft - Deep Cuts
• Herald of Blood: Magnified Area - Execute - Pin
• Bloodhound's Mark: Stun - Close Combat - Rupture - Mark of Death
• Blood Hunt: Magnified Area - Rapid Attacks - Armor Break

Blood Hunt is there to proc the explosion manually and break enemy armor. The skill will consume the Bleed effect to deal more damage. Overall gameplay remains the same for mobbing and bossing, and the best part is that Rake is available early in the game, allowing for a smooth campaign run in Path of Exile 2.

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3) Lightning Arrow Amazon

The good old Lightning Arrow trick (Image via GGG)

The Lightning Arrow build was the go-to league starter for DEX characters in Path of Exile 2, and even after nerfs in the latest update, it’s still quite strong. If you’ve played LA Deadeye previously, the build remains the same with Lightning Arrow and Lightning Rod as the main skills empowered by Barrage.

For Mobbing, you’ll want to drop Lightning Rods and let Lightning Arrow chain the damage across the entire group. If you need some additional juice against Rare monsters, activate Barrage to fire a volley of your next projectile attack.

• Lightning Arrow: Projectile Acceleration - Elemental Armament - Rapid Attacks - Stoicism
• Lightning Rod: Projectile Acceleration - Elemental Armament - Lightning Attunement - Stoicism
• Barrage: Cooldown Recovery - Rapid Casting
• Blasphemy: Temporal Chains - Heightened Curse - Slow Potency
• Rhoa Mount: Meat Shield - Loyalty - Elemental Army

In PoE2 patch 0.4, the limit for the skill is 10, down from 20, so bossing may take slightly longer. However, since you’re playing Lightning Arrow build on Amazon, the Stalking Panther Ascendancy passive grants you additional Evasion as defense during longer fights.

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4) Ice Shot Amazon

Ice Shot is a good LA alternative (Image via GGG)

Ice Shot is one of the best mapping builds you can play on Amazon Ascendancy in Path of Exile 2. It features multiple ways to freeze enemies while zooming through the entire map using the new buffed Roha companion. The main damage skills are the Ice Shot paired with Herald of Ice.

The idea is to shatter frozen enemies to trigger Herald of Ice and deal damage to all nearby enemies. With the Last of the Druids update, you cannot get the ‘Bow Fires an Additional Arrow’ modifier in Path of Exile 2, which lowers the effectiveness of Nova Projectiles. However, the damage is still worth building around.

• Ice Shot: Cold Attunement - Elemental Armament - Ambush - Ricochet - Rakiata's Flow
• Herald of Ice: Cold Attunement - Overreach - Elemental Armament - Longshot
• Combat Frenzy: Charge Profusion
• Barrage: Cooldown Recovery - Perpetual Charge - Rapid Casting
• Rhoa Mount: Meat Shield - Loyalty - Elemental Army

A good unique you can use with the Ice Shot Amazon build is Cadiro's Gambit, which grants various effects to your projectile, like guaranteeing Critical Hits or returning projectiles. For defense and a little more damage, use The Black Insignia to gain Tailwind on your Critical Hits. Do note that the final build can be expensive.

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5) Explosive Grenade Amazon

Explosive Grenade provides incredible AoE damage (Image via GGG)

As a DEX character, the Huntress also has easy access to the Merc side of the passive tree, allowing her to double down on projectile-based damage. And with recent buffs in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4, grenades are worth building around. This build is similar to how you progress a regular grenadier build, with Explosive and Gas Grenade as your starter.

Also Read: Grenade Crossbow crafting guide (early and endgame)

As you progress, add more utilities to the build, like the Oil Grenade to slow enemies and reduce their resistances. The cooldown of the Skill is now four seconds, down from five, allowing you to use it more often. Around Act 3 or 4, you should get access to the Mortar Cannon to fire off one of your Grenade skills, making your rotations much easier.

• Explosive Grenade: Multishot - Deliberation - Elemental Focus - Elemental Armament - Payload
• Gas Grenade: Multishot - Elemental Armament - Fire Exposure - Blind
• Oil Grenade: Multishot - Persistent Ground - Magnified Area - Wildfire
• Mortar Cannon: Oil Grenade - Explosive Grenade - Multishot - Payload
• Herald of Ash: Fire Mastery - Swift Affliction

For the Ascendancy nodes, start by getting Predator Instinct to reveal enemy Weakness for stronger monsters and deal more damage. The next node you’ll want is In for the Kill, which grants you more Skill and Movement Speed while an enemy with Open Weakness is in your presence. Speaking of Presence, you can also get the Constricting Command Unique to make use of Presence nodes on the tree.

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Check out other related guides and features:

• Path of Exile 2: Poisonburst Pathfinder build guide
• Path of Exile 2: Disciple of Varashta leveling build guide
• Path of Exile 2: Every bonus Passive Skill Point source in the campaign

Edited by Mayank Singh Rathour