Best Path of Exile Builds
Tier List for Patch 3.25
 

Path of Exile is an action role-playing game (ARPG) renowned for its deep, complex gameplay and vast customization options. Set in the dark fantasy world of Wraeclast, players navigate a harsh environment filled with dangerous creatures, traps, and powerful bosses. One of the game's standout features is its intricate system of character builds, which allows players to develop unique combinations of skills, abilities, and gear to create a personalized playstyle. The importance of these builds lies in their direct impact on a player's effectiveness and survivability; a well-constructed build can mean the difference between thriving in the game's challenging content or struggling to progress. Mastering the system requires understanding the interconnected mechanics, including the passive skill tree, gem skill synergies, and itemization strategies. This complexity is a major draw for players who enjoy theory-crafting and refining their strategies to tackle some of the game's most difficult encounters.

In the following article, we will present a Tier List with a brief explanation of each build (or skill) and its characteristics. We don't expect to have more than 15 positions on this Tier List, just to keep the best meta setups here. If you are looking for all our other builds you can check the complete list of our PoE Builds here. You will find builds for nearly all the skills and niche or even archival Guides.  

	S TIER
	HEXBLAST
	LIGHTNING STRIKE
	ICE NOVA OF FROSTBOLTS
	A TIER
	RIGHTEOUS FIRE and  FIRE TRAP
	FLICKER STRIKE
	ELEMENTAL HIT OF THE SPECTRUM
	B TIER
	LACERATE
	MOLTEN STRIKE
	FROST BLADES
	POWER SIPHON
	C TIER
	PENANCE BRAND
	SUMMON HOLY RELIC
	RAISE SPECTRE

HEXBLAST

Hexblast has been one of the best Skills in the game for quite a while now, and the overall interest in it has grown constantly since major reworks to how it interacts with curses introduced in Patch 3.16. Further changes to Doom mechanics and the implementation of Sandstorm Visage in Patch 3.20 made it one of the most powerful Spells with nearly endless damage scaling potential. It is mainly played with Mines, as you can easily spam it with all the benefits from removing Curses only by obtaining a gear that will allow you to apply a Curse on Hit - for example on Rings. Hexblast is commonly used versus Bosses due to its' massive burst and relatively low defensive capabilities.  It is also a very versatile ability that can used on various classes. The most popular ones are Occultist, Assassin, and Saboteur. If you want to use the transfigured version - Hexblast of Contradiction, it can also be exceptionally powerful on Inquisitor. 

Build examples: HEXBLAST MINER TRICKSTER, HEXBLAST OF CONTRADICTION INQUISITOR

LIGHTNING STRIKE

Lightning Strike is currently the most popular (and powerful) Attack Skill in the game. With the recent buffs, this Skill can reach tens of Millions of Damage easily, and the extra projectiles provide amazing clear speed (not just in terms of the Melee archetype). Most of the top setups revolve around dealing mixed Elemental Damage with Claws, utilizing bonuses provided by Items like The Taming, Yoke of Suffering, and the Interrogation Jewel. Two most popular classes for this Skill are Slayer and Warden. Slayer will usually use Ralakesh's Impatience Boots and benefit from Brutal Charges on top of the three main types, while Wardens are more oriented on maximizing the effectiveness of Ailments inflicted by Elemental Damage. 

Build examples: LIGHTNING STRIKE WARDEN, LIGHTNING STRIKE SLAYER

ICE NOVA OF FROSTBOLTS

The massive overlapping damage from Ice Nova explosions makes this the most commonly used self-cast Spell in the game currently. The build uses Archmage Support and scales off Mana, making it deal tons of Lightning Damage. Frostbolt projectiles required for the additional explosions are usually triggered by Kitava's Thirst, but some other interesting variants involve using Cospri's Malice to Triggering Ice Novas by Cast on Critical Support Gem or the new Svalinn Shield. In Rare cases, both Spells can also be cast manually. The number one Class for this build will be Hierophant, and when it comes to CoC variants, you can use Occultist or Assassin. 

Build examples: ICE NOVA OF FROSTBOLTS HIEROPHANT, ICE NOVA COC ASSASSIN

RIGHTEOUS FIRE

Historically, one of the most popular Skills in the game. It has always been famous for its' smooth playstyle due to solid passive DPS and tankiness. With the changes to Fire Trap and the addition of two powerful extra sources of Fire Damage from its' burning effect and Ignites to this build, Righteous Fire gained to potential to take on most of the Bosses in the game as well. The most popular class currently is Chieftain, but the Juggernaut or Inquisitor variants were also quite popular. You can also play the transfigured Gem of Arcane Devotion as a Hierophant, but the extra expenses and build's complexity, are not worth it currently.

Build examples: RIGHTEOUS FIRE CHIEFTAN, RIGHTEOUS FIRE OF ARCANE DEVOTION HIEROPHANT

FLICKER STRIKE

Flicker Strike very swift Attack that deals high base damage and makes you teleport instantly to nearby enemies offering ones' of its kind playstyles. This Skill requires you to spend a Frenzy Charge to bypass the skill's cooldown, but this downside can be surpassed by expensive Unique Equipment where Farrul's Fur or its' replica version is almost a must-have. It is used on both Slayer and Trickster Ascendency, the only two classes that can increase the number of maximum Frenzy Charges, making those the obvious choices for a build that revolves around those.

Build examples: FLICKER STRIKE SLAYER

ELEMENTAL HIT OF THE SPECTRUM

Elemental Hit of the Spectrum is the number #1 Bow Skill in the game right now. It took the crown from Tornado Shot as soon as it was introduced (alongside significant nerfs to Tornado Shot though). This Skill offers very high base Elemental Damage which fits the current meta very well, with most of the Attack Build using high triple Elemental Damage Weapons. Due to high base Damage, it is also one of the best skills for a Starter Builds in its Tier and even above. It is most often played on Deadeye, and as of 3.25, also the Warden class. 

Build examples: ELEMENTAL HIT OF THE SPECTRUM DEADEYE

LACERATE

Lacerate has reached its prime in Patch 3.25 due to the changes to Gladiator Class and the entire Melee archetype. It is widely popular currently, and its transfigured version Lacerate of Haemorrhage, with high Bleed damage, even more so. This Skill offers everything you need with nearly no required investments in gear - solid single-target, good clear speed with the Gladiator's explosions, and rock-solid defenses with capped Block Chance. Gladiator is the best and most obvious choice for Lacerate. 

Build examples: LACERATE OF HAEMORRHAGE GLADIATOR

MOLTEN STRIKE

Another historically popular skill hits the list in one of the top positions. Again, this is mainly due to the massive buffs to the Melee archetype introduced in Patch 3.25, but what makes this truly exceptional is how you can cause the additional Molten Strike Projectiles to explode multiple times, hitting the same target with greatly increased damage. This hasn't been available before the introduction of the Nimis Ring or Returning Projectile Support Gem. The transfigured variant of the Zenith is even more powerful due to the extra projectiles it can create with each Attack. The most popular Class for this build is Juggernaut, and it can be played as an expensive Strength-stacker that deals Chaos Damage, or a more budget-friendly generic Fire conversion, which might work great for a League Starter too.

Build examples: MOLTEN STRIKE JUGGERNAUT

FROST BLADES

Like Lightning Strike, Frost Blades is a quasi-melee skill that became very popular due to its Ranged nature, as it creates additional icy projectiles that hit enemies behind your main target. With high base damage and damage effectiveness, it's a perfect choice for Slayers, Wardens, Tricksters, Berserkers, and possibly other classes too. Surprisingly enough, the transfigured version of Katabasis is currently more popular among higher-level players. It does not have the extra projectiles, but instead has a much higher Strike Range, which combined with Melee Splash from Passives also makes this an amazing Attack for clearing Maps. Please not, in this case, the DoT effect is negligible.

 Build examples: FROST BLADES TRICKSTER

POWER SIPHON

Power Siphon is currently the most powerful and popular Wand Attack in the game. It scales well with Power Charges and high Critical Strike Chance, which is perfect for the current Ralakesh's Impatience meta. There are various ways to play Power Siphon, but currently, the most popular builds revolve around using Trickster and Attacking with your Wand directly or via Locust Mines. If you want o play this Skill, just decide which playstyle suits you best.

Build examples: LOCUS MINE POWER SIPHON TRICKSTER

PENANCE BRAND

Penance Brand, or its transfigured variant of Dissipation, is the most powerful Brand Spell in the game. Just recently it was #1 Skill in the entire game, being one of the very few truly overpowered abilities available. Penance Brand offers Physical to Elemental Damage conversion, offering much better DPS scaling than any other Brand, and with its' quite complex mechanics, that don't make it particularly convenient to farm Maps, it is considered one of the best Boss-killing abilities in Path of Exile. It is most commonly played on Inquisitors and Assassins, but some Slayers also use this Spell due to powerful interactions with increased number of Charges.

Build examples: PENANCE BRAND OF DISSIPATION INQUISITOR

SUMMON HOLY RELIC

Summon Holy Relic is a very unusual, yet powerful, Minion Spell. What makes it so special is the fact, that you need to Attack enemies to trigger the Relic's main damaging ability - a Physical Nova Spell. To maximize the DPS, players use the transfigured version of Conviction, which allows you to summon an additional Relic, and makes the Nova Spell to be cast at nearby enemies instead of the Relic's current location. This skill is most frequently played on a Necromancer, but some players prefer Guardian. The latter may possibly add better team utility via Auras, so if you are a team player and enjoy the game with your friends, maybe it will be a better choice for you.

Build examples: SUMMON HOLY RELIC OF CONVICTION NECROMANCER

RAISE SPECTRE

Raise Spectre is the most popular Minion Spell in the game. Of course, it had its' ups and downs in recent years, but if you want to play a Minion build you basically can't go wrong selecting Spectres as your main ability. With all the new content introduced to Path of Exile, the selection of available Spectres is really wide, and everyone can find something for themselves. The best Spectres currently are Crucible Forged Frostbearers which are back after a short absence, but also other powerful Spectres can be found in Tier 17 Maps, like for example the widely popular Wretched Defilers. Raise Spectre is most commonly used on Necromancers.

 Build examples: RAISE SPECTRE NECROMANCER BUILD

We hope the following article gave you a general understanding of the current meta, and will help you choose your desired build. We plan to update this article regularly, at least twice per League, initially when we get new Patch notes so that we can include our upcoming predictions, but also after a month or so, when the meta is well-established, and we know for sure what's best, and what ended up being a disappointment. We will also appreciate any feedback on the form of this article, as surely you might want us to add some other relevant information for all the listed builds, or include all available gameplay and such. 

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.