Path of Exile 2's Dawn of the Hunt expansion introduces five new Ascendancy Classes, bringing a fresh layer of depth to character builds and endgame progression. With the introduction of the Huntress class and new options for existing classes, these Ascendancies offer unique playstyles and powerful mechanics. Below, we break down each new Ascendancy Class.

1. Ritualist - Huntress Ascendancy

The Ritualist is a Huntress who harnesses the forbidden arts of blood sacrifice and plague magic, utilizing Corrupted Life Force to devastate her enemies. This Ascendancy excels in sustained damage, enemy debuffs, and self-sacrifice mechanics for high-risk, high-reward gameplay.

Key Abilities

Corrupted Life Force: Causes enemies to develop blood boils that burst upon death, spreading a powerful Corrupted Blood debuff to surrounding foes.

Unfurled Finger: Allows the Ritualist to wear an additional ring around her neck, enhancing mystical attunement and increasing bonuses from rings and amulets.

Ritual Sacrifice: Absorbs the power of slain rare monsters, temporarily granting one of their modifiers to the player.

Whispers Demand: Enables the player to sacrifice their blood instead of a corpse, further boosting their stats at the cost of life.

Playstyle & Strengths

Best for: Chaos/Blood-themed builds, self-sacrificing gameplay, and high-damage-over-time mechanics.

Weaknesses: High risk due to self-damage mechanics and reliance on life leech or mitigation.

2. Amazon - Huntress Ascendancy

The Amazon is a precision-based warrior who utilizes elemental fury and marksmanship to deal devastating ranged damage. This Ascendancy is built around critical strikes, elemental enhancements, and life leech mechanics.

Key Abilities

Predatory Instinct: Reveals weak points in enemy defenses, causing you to deal increased damage to Rare and Unique monsters. With Elemental Infusion, attacks gain elemental explosion effects.

Critical Strike Mastery: Converts excess accuracy into critical strike chance, ensuring high crit-based burst damage.

Mystic Harvest: Allows elemental damage to leech life, increasing survivability in battle.

Azmeri Brew: Enhances flask effects, letting flasks restore both life and mana simultaneously.

Playstyle & Strengths

Best for Critical Strike archers, spear users, and elemental-based ranged attacks.

Weaknesses: Requires investment in accuracy, elemental damage, and critical modifiers to maximize damage potential.

3. Lich - Witch Ascendancy

The Lich is a master of undeath and chaos, wielding powerful curses and spirit-based skills to dominate the battlefield. She specializes in energy shield manipulation and chaotic magic, making her a strong hybrid of spellcaster and summoner.

Key Abilities

Crystalline Phylactery: Stores a piece of the player's soul inside a jewel, massively increasing power. If the player runs out of energy shield, mana costs increase drastically.

Necromantic Conduit: Grants Unholy Might to the player and nearby allies, converting a portion of their physical damage into chaos damage.

Rupture the Soul: Causes cursed enemies to explode, dealing chaos damage upon death.

Dominion Over Flesh allows the player to apply an additional curse, increasing the potency of debuffs.

Playstyle & Strengths

Best for: Chaos-based spellcasters, energy shield-focused builds, and curse specialists.

Weaknesses: High mana costs if energy shield runs out, requiring careful mana management.

Bonus Update for Witch Builds

Raise Specter Skill: Now part of Occult skills, allowing players to trap and summon almost any monster in the game.

Spirit Cost Scaling: Specters will now revive automatically but will consume more Spirit based on their power level.

4. Smith of Kitava - Warrior Ascendancy

The Smith of Kitava is a blacksmith-turned-warrior who uses fire and suffering to craft deadly weapons and armor. This unique Ascendancy class allows for weapon and armor forging mechanics, fundamentally altering how gear works in Path of Exile 2.

Key Abilities

Anvil Against: Grants blacksmithing mastery, allowing players to forge their weapons before battle. Enhanced weapons release fiery explosions on hit.

Power of Kitava: Summons an animated version of the player's weapon, which fights alongside them in battle.

Custom Ascendancy Tree: Unlike traditional Ascendancies, the Smith of Kitava's skill tree modifies armor instead of passive stats.

Armor Crafting Mechanic: Players cannot wear body armor with mods but can custom-forge normal armor, granting life, resistance, and damage bonuses.

Playstyle & Strengths

Best for: Melee fire builds, forging-based crafting mechanics, and high-damage melee combatants.

Weaknesses: Loses out on traditional armor bonuses, requiring custom forging for optimal defenses.

5. Tactician - Mercenary Ascendancy

The Tactician is a military-grade combat strategist, excelling in battlefield control, suppression tactics, and squad-based synergy. This Mercenary Ascendancy is perfect for those who want to command, debilitate enemies, and support allies.

Key Abilities

Suppressing Fire: Causes all projectiles to pin enemies in place, preventing movement. With further investment, this can also prevent enemy actions, completely disabling foes.

Soldier's Training: Grants access to the Whoever Pays Best notable, allowing multiple banners to be placed simultaneously.

Watch How We Do It allows the player to share a portion of their weapon damage with allies.

Off-Screen Archer Barrage: Grants access to an army of off-screen archers, who will carpet entire areas with arrows on command.

Playstyle & Strengths

Best for: Tactical players who like battlefield control, support-based damage sharing, and ranged suppression mechanics.

Weaknesses: Requires strong minion positioning and team coordination to be most effective.

Final Thoughts & Meta Predictions

The five new Ascendancy Classes in Dawn of the Hunt bring massive gameplay variety, catering to ranged, melee, summoner, and tactical playstyles. Here are early predictions for the top meta picks:

Best New Ascendancy Classes (By Playstyle)

The best DPS: Amazon (High crit-based burst damage).

Best Survivability: Smith of Kitava (Custom armor crafting & fire-based sustain).

Best Minion/Chaos Build: Lich (Chaos explosions, curse stacking, energy shield boosts).

Best Tactical Control: Tactician (Battlefield suppression & off-screen damage support).

Most Unique Mechanic: Ritualist (Self-sacrifice, Corrupted Blood & corpse absorption).

Whether you're a returning player or a first-time exile, these new Ascendancies will shape PoE 2's future meta, offering innovative build opportunities and powerful mechanics for Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt!

If you're looking to enhance your experience with PoE 2 currency and PoE 2 items, having the right resources can make all the difference when fine-tuning your build. Have you already planned out which Ascendancy you'll try first, or are you still deciding based on the meta?