Walking Calamity Bear Shaman

Rage is the core fuel of this Bear Druid setup, and with the recent updates it has become significantly easier to sustain at high levels. The Druid’s Furious Wellspring strongly amplifies Rage mechanics, rewarding builds that can handle the heavy Rage cost of skills. This naturally favors a playstyle built around long-duration abilities and deliberate skill usage, allowing Rage to stay high and impactful rather than being rapidly depleted.

While all shapeshifting forms are exceptionally powerful in Path of Exile 2, the Bear form stands out as the strongest of the three, offering unmatched early power, durability, and damage scaling. From the very first levels, Bear Druid excels at clearing content with ease, making the campaign smooth and efficient, and transitions naturally into mapping without requiring major build changes. Rage can be actively spent on Bear skills such as Furious Slam, which benefits heavily from the enhanced Rage scaling and delivers devastating damage in practice.

The confirmed synergy between Walking Calamity, Rampage, and Furious Slam makes this one of the strongest mapping combinations currently available, providing excellent clear speed and momentum. As progression continues into maps, items like Crown of the Eyes significantly increase attack damage through Rage scaling, while the Shaman ascendancy enables Rage to also boost spell damage, opening additional scaling paths. Other strong Bear-compatible ascendancies such as Smith of Kitava and Titan have also received meaningful buffs, further reinforcing the dominance of this archetype.

Lunar Assault Werewolf Oracle

The Wolf shapeshift is another extremely strong option in Path of Exile 2, offering a much swifter and faster playstyle focused on mobility, Cold damage, and Freeze mechanics. Wolf skills such as Pounce, Lunar Assault, and Shred allow you to rapidly engage, eliminate enemies, and move on, making the form exceptionally effective at both clearing packs and pressuring bosses. With multiple sources of added Cold damage and strong Freeze buildup, enemies are frequently locked down and eliminated before they can react.

High Movement Speed is one of Wolf form’s defining strengths, and when combined with Herald of Ice, it enables consistent, screen-wide explosions during mapping. Bhatair’s Vengeance synergizes perfectly with this setup, granting extra Cold damage when you Freeze enemies while having Rage, which naturally aligns with Wolf’s rapid-hit playstyle and Freeze uptime. The form excels at quickly stacking Freeze on tougher targets, making boss encounters noticeably smoother.

Wolf Druid is currently most popular on the Oracle, where access to Cold and Elemental scaling strongly complements the archetype. That said, it performs just as well on the Shaman, benefiting from Rage scaling, defensive Adaptation options, and Turning of the Seasons for permanent Exposure and additional Elemental Damage. Other classes can also support this playstyle effectively, and the Invoker in particular carries the potential to become the strongest endgame option for Wolf-based builds, thanks to its scaling and late-game synergies.

Flame Breath Wyvern Oracle

The Wyvern form offers a powerful and very straightforward playstyle built around Flame Breath and Oil Barrage, which are the clear go-to skills for most players. Both abilities deliver exceptional single-target damage even with minimal gear during the campaign, making Wyvern a highly effective option for early progression and boss encounters. Thanks to strong Power Charge generation, these skills can be used frequently and consistently without major downtime.

Oil Barrage scales extremely well with Power Charges and provides reliable ranged damage, while Flame Breath benefits heavily from Rage, allowing it to melt tougher enemies with ease. Wyvern has multiple ways to sustain Power Charges naturally, enabling a smooth rotation throughout leveling and into early mapping. This combination makes the form far more accessible and effective than it initially appeared.

When it comes to class choice, Shaman is currently the most popular and reliable option for Wyvern builds, with Oracle close behind as another strong league-start alternative. Both provide excellent synergy for early and mid-game progression. That said, Wyvern’s scaling leaves room for experimentation, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see another class emerge as the optimal endgame choice as the meta continues to evolve.

Toxic Growth Pathfinder

In Patch 0.4.0, the Pathfinder has firmly established itself as the single best non-Druid league starter in Path of Exile 2. Recent buffs have pushed the class well ahead of other Ranger-based options, while also granting it some of the best mobility in the game, making Pathfinder a top choice for highly efficient players and early league racers aiming to reach level 100 as quickly as possible.

The Poison archetype benefits greatly from the removal of Support Gem restrictions, allowing Pathfinder builds to scale damage far more effectively than in previous patches. The earlier rework to Toxic Growth, which removed its clunky jump behavior, continues to pay off in Patch 0.4, resulting in much smoother gameplay and more consistent Poison application. The entire Ranger class also remains a major winner thanks to the Deflection mechanic, which provides powerful mitigation reminiscent of Suppression from Path of Exile 1.

Combined with recent bow improvements, Pathfinder delivers excellent clear speed, strong single-target damage, and exceptional movement, making it one of the most efficient and reliable league starters available outside of Druid-based setups.

Essence Drain Lich

Essence Drain and Contagion remain a very strong and widely played starter setup in Patch 0.4.0, built around satisfying chain reactions and reliable Chaos Damage over Time. The core gameplay is unchanged: spreading Contagion to trigger cascading clears from Essence Drain, supported by Dark Effigy and Despair for consistent damage amplification. It’s still a build best suited for players comfortable with a multi-button playstyle.

While the build has not received any direct buffs or reworks, it has also largely avoided the sweeping balance changes that affected many other archetypes. Passive tree routes, Support Gem interactions, and overall scaling remain intact, which has been repeatedly highlighted by the community as a major advantage in an otherwise shifting meta. As a result, Essence Drain continues to perform exactly as expected from early leveling through mapping.

In Patch 0.4, this stability has kept the build highly popular among players looking for a safe, proven league starter that requires little adaptation between patches. It may not offer the flashiest mechanics or the fastest clear speed, but its reliability, consistency, and low friction make it a dependable choice for both new and experienced players.

Grenade Builds

Grenade-based builds are among the strongest and most versatile archetypes in Patch 0.4.0, offering excellent damage, crowd control, and scaling from the very early stages of the game. Several grenade skills received meaningful improvements in this patch, with Gas Grenade in particular standing out after its buffs, further cementing grenades as a top-tier option for both leveling and mapping.

There are numerous effective grenade combinations available, with Explosive Grenade and Gas Grenade being the most commonly played core setup. Many builds also integrate tools such as Flash Grenade, Oil Grenade, or Cluster Grenade to enhance clear speed, apply debuffs, or improve single-target damage. Mixing multiple grenade types is often optimal, allowing players to adapt their rotation to different encounter types without sacrificing efficiency.

Grenade builds are also notable for their flexibility in class choice. Deadeye, Witchhunter, and Amazon are among the most popular and immediately effective options, but a wide range of other classes can support the archetype just as well. Pathfinder offers strong mobility and utility, Tactician and Ritualist provide powerful scaling options, and Gemling Legionnaire is frequently mentioned by the community as a potential standout for endgame-focused grenade setups. This breadth of viable classes makes grenades one of the most adaptable and future-proof build paths in the current meta.

Plants Blood Mage

The Plants Blood Mage is one of the strongest and most accessible caster archetypes in Patch 0.4.0, combining excellent early damage with very low gear requirements. Built around the new Plant spells, this setup clears the campaign smoothly and transitions into maps without needing expensive items or complex scaling. Its damage comes online early, costs are manageable, and the playstyle remains effective even with modest investment.

The core of the build revolves around Entangle and Thrashing Vines, which provide consistent area coverage and reliable single-target damage. Entangle rapidly attaches vines to nearby enemies, creating frequent damage instances, while Thrashing Vines scales naturally with Cast Speed, making it very efficient during leveling. These plants can be further empowered by a Thunderstorm, which boosts their effects and provides easy Shock application for additional damage. Despite the active nature of the skills, the build rewards measured casting rather than spam, which helps keep resource usage under control early on.

Damage scaling is straightforward and beginner-friendly. The Vines deal Physical damage, allowing them to benefit from Impale and Armour break, while their naturally high base Critical Strike Chance makes Critical scaling extremely effective even with basic gear. The Blood Mage ascendancy enhances this further, while also providing strong early defenses through Spell Leech, delayed damage intake, and increased maximum Life. This combination makes the build both durable and forgiving during the campaign, a key reason for its growing popularity as a league starter. While Oracle is also a viable alternative for damage-focused setups, Blood Mage remains the most balanced and comfortable option for early progression.

Spark Stormweaver

Spark Stormweaver remains one of the most reliable and thoroughly tested caster builds in Patch 0.4.0, having been popular and extensively refined ever since the early 0.1 versions of Path of Exile 2. Thanks to its consistency across multiple balance passes, it is widely regarded as one of the safest spell-based league starters available.

Spark itself continues to stand out as one of the most effective spells in the game, offering exceptional area coverage, strong hit frequency, and dependable damage scaling. Its projectiles naturally fill the screen, making it highly efficient for clearing dense packs, tight corridors, and open layouts alike. Boss encounters are equally manageable, as sustained Spark uptime provides steady damage without requiring precise positioning or complex mechanics.

Community feedback throughout Patch 0.4 consistently highlights Stormweaver Spark as a “plug-and-play” option: it performs well with minimal gear, scales smoothly with investment, and avoids the pitfalls that affect many newer or more experimental archetypes. Defensive layers, stable mana usage, and predictable progression make it especially appealing to players who value consistency over risk. While it may not be the flashiest build in the current meta, Spark Stormweaver’s proven performance, wide coverage, and low friction gameplay keep it firmly among the most popular and trusted spell builds for Patch 0.4.