Best PoE 2 Huntress Build in Early Access

The release of the first season of PoE 2 - “Hunt of the Dawn,” marked the debut of a brand-new character — Huntress. Everything about this hero is unique and fresh, down to the animations. It took quite a bit of time and effort to figure out how to play her comfortably — and most importantly, how to make the build as effective as possible.

Today, we’ll talk about what I consider to be one of the best Huntress builds — Lightning Spear Amazon. So, let’s get into it.

Lightning Spear Amazon Huntress

The major update and launch of the new season brought a lot of buzz — both positive and negative. Developers at Grinding Gear Games introduced many changes that made the game incredibly challenging — and according to some players and streamers, even borderline unplayable.

But after spending time testing and researching various builds, I believe I’ve found something truly worthwhile — one of the Strongest Huntress Builds right now: Lightning Spear Amazon.

This version of Amazon with Lightning Spear offers some of the fastest and most efficient map clear in Path of Exile 2. When consuming a Frenzy Charge, the main projectile splits into several additional ones that automatically seek out nearby enemies, chaining through packs with ease. With Herald of Ice, enemies explode on death, creating a smooth, fast-paced clear with solid single-target damage as well.

However, since Lightning Spear depends heavily on Frenzy Charges, it doesn’t reach its full potential until you unlock Combat Frenzy and get the unique ring Call of the Brotherhood. Because of that, it’s not recommended to use this skill as your main damage source until after the second Trial of Chaos and entering Cruel difficulty. Until then, Glacial Bolt serves as a great alternative — offering strong boss damage and remaining useful even into the endgame.

Early on, the build focuses on a Life + Evasion setup for consistent defensive layering while clearing. As the character progresses, it transitions into a hybrid Life/Energy Shield + Evasion build, which boosts survivability and enables the use of defensive auras like Ghost Dance.

For Lightning Spear to work at full capacity, Call of the Brotherhood is absolutely essential. Uniques like Tangletongue and Lycosidae further empower the build, taking both clear speed and boss damage to the next level.

Lightning Spear Amazon Huntress Skills

Let’s start this guide with skills — for me, the most exciting part, since everything else builds around them: from the passive skill tree to gear choices.

Levels 1–21: Fast start with Lightning Arrow

Right from level 1, use Lightning Arrow as your main clear skill. To boost your single-target damage during Acts 1 and 2, add Lightning Rod and Flame Wall. These can be quickly dropped onto the field and help a lot with bosses and tankier enemies.

Tip: engrave Flame Wall into a low-level Uncut Skill Gem — that way, you avoid high Intelligence requirements early on, which is really important during the leveling phase.

The combo is simple and effective: place a Lightning Rod, then shoot Lightning Arrow at enemies — the projectiles also trigger extra hits through the rod. It’s smooth and satisfying in practice.

Level 31 and beyond: Transition to Glacial Bolt

Once you unlock Glacial Bolt (around level 31), start using it immediately. It works especially well with Artillery Ballista, which instantly detonates the Ice Crystals left behind by the Bolt.

Ballistas are not only great against regular enemies, they also clean up freeze-immune or high-resist mobs with no problem. Just place at least one Ballista every couple of screens — this helps finish off enemies knocked away by explosions that didn’t take full damage.

Artillery Ballista is also very useful against bosses with broken hitboxes — the kind that technically aren't “on the ground” and don’t trigger Ice Crystal explosions. In such cases, Ballista becomes your best friend.

Lightning Spear: when to make the switch

Lightning Spear isn’t just a flashy skill — it’s your future go-to tool for annihilation. But before you commit to it, there are a few requirements you absolutely need to meet. The good news? The passive tree supports both early and late-game setups, so the transition feels smooth — as long as you’ve got the right gear.

Here’s what you need to start using Lightning Spear effectively:

• Your second key Ascendancy passive: Penetrate
• A spear with a high Accuracy Rating
• The Combat Frenzy skill
• The unique ring Call of the Brotherhood

Don’t rush it — until you have all of the above, Glacial Bolt and Artillery Ballista will carry you through the campaign far more reliably.

The build truly shines with Elemental Infusion

This is where things get exciting. Once you pick up your third Ascendancy passive — Elemental Infusion, your Frenzy Charges begin to significantly boost your attacks. That’s when the full power of the build kicks in.

Picture this: enemies freeze, explode from Herald of Ice, and those explosions chain through packs like lightning. If you support Herald of Ice with Lightning Infusion, you’ll also trigger Innervate, adding even more damage on top.

Frenzy Charge generation and consistent damage

To generate Frenzy Charges more reliably, start with Cast on Freeze — it automatically casts Sniper’s Mark on enemies, making charge generation smooth during map clear. Once you reach at least 150 Spirit and equip Tangletongue, you can safely switch to Cast on Critical, which works more consistently against bosses.

Ghost Dance and defense

After picking up a good Energy Shield helmet and investing in Subterfuge Mask on the passive tree, it's time to enable Ghost Dance. This is a great defensive layer — it restores your Energy Shield on evasion, which helps a lot against frequent small hits and chip damage.

Auras and Spirit

You can run Precision and Cannibalism to support one of your auras, but keep in mind that both require an extra 10–15 Spirit. If you're running low, it's okay to skip them — Spirit is a top priority in this build, so try to stack it on your body armour and amulet whenever possible.

Huntress Lightning Spear Amazon Passives Tree

Proper distribution of attributes and passive skill points is key when transitioning from Lightning Arrow to Lightning Spear, especially as you approach the endgame.

Start by picking up just enough Intelligence and Dexterity to meet the requirements of your skills, support gems, and gear. After that, put the rest into Strength — this gives you extra life and improves survivability.

If you change gear during the game and no longer meet the requirements for certain skills or items, check out How To Refresh Passives in PoE 2, where I explain how to respec and adjust your points to better fit your current setup.

While you’re leveling with Lightning Arrow and Lightning Rod, focus on passive nodes that boost Attack Damage, Elemental Damage, Accuracy, and Attack Speed. These will give you a smooth and effective early game.

Once you unlock your first Ascendancy node (Critical Strike), it’s worth doing a respec of the starting passives and reallocating them toward Accuracy — this helps unlock the full potential of spears and critical scaling.

Keep in mind: Critical Hit Chance and Critical Damage aren’t top priorities early on, but they become much more impactful in the endgame.

Preparing for Lightning Spear

Switching to Lightning Spear only makes sense when you have enough Spirit — at least +50 — to activate essential skills like Herald of Ice, Combat Frenzy, and Cast on Freeze.

The easiest way to get that Spirit is by rolling it on your amulet or body armour.

Mana fix for leveling

While leveling and clearing maps, a Sapphire with "2% mana gained on kill" works perfectly — it solves your mana issues entirely during clears without needing to invest into mana regen.

Best Jewel Stats to Look For

Jewels can significantly boost your build, especially in the endgame. Keep an eye out for these valuable modifiers:

• Increased Critical Damage
• Increased Critical Damage with Spears
• Increased Elemental Damage
• Increased Cold Damage
• Increased Critical Hit Chance
• Cold Resistance Penetration
• Increased Energy Shield
• Increased Freeze Buildup

Of course, when working with your passive tree, you might find yourself branching off in a slightly different direction — and that’s totally fine. PoE 2 gives you the freedom to experiment, so don’t be afraid to tweak things and make your own Best PoE 2 Huntress Build.

Lightning Spear Amazon Huntress Ascendancy

Unfortunately, Ascendancy is where a lot of players make mistakes, which often leads to problems later in progression. In this build, I’ll clearly show you what to take — and more importantly, why.

Critical Strike

This node increases your Critical Hit Chance based on your Accuracy. The higher your Accuracy, the more frequently you land crits — and since Accuracy is heavily stacked through gear in this build, the bonus from this node kicks in right away.

Important note: to get the most out of this, you should fight at close range. That’s where your Accuracy is fully applied, and every hit counts. This is especially true when using Lightning Spear, which thrives on precision and consistency.

Penetrate

One of the strongest nodes for this build. Penetrate converts your weapon’s Accuracy Rating (in this case, from a spear) into extra Physical Damage. The higher the Accuracy on your weapon, the more raw damage you’ll deal.

It also simplifies gear choices — you don’t need expensive or rare weapons. As long as your spear has high Accuracy, it’s good enough to make the build work.

Elemental Infusion

Elemental Infusion adds Elemental Damage to your projectiles — including Lightning Spear and Storm Lance — based on the types of charges you consume. This massively boosts your damage and enables on-hit effects like Shock or Herald of Ice explosions.

It shines especially well with Frenzy Charges and synergizes perfectly with Combat Frenzy, which you unlock during the campaign.

Predatory Instinct

Predatory Instinct gives you a powerful damage bonus against single targets, which is crucial for boss fights — whether you're up against map bosses or tough endgame encounters.

Even though the build is primarily designed for clearing, this node ensures that you can still handle bosses with ease, turning the build into a well-rounded powerhouse.

Huntress Lightning Spear Amazon Gear

The Lightning Spear build doesn’t rely on expensive or rare items, but careful gear choices are still crucial. The build is built around Accuracy, Critical Hits, Spirit, and proper Resistances. Below are the key gear slots and stats you should look for.

Spear

Your best option is the unique Tangletongue. It enhances critical strikes and allows projectiles to fork on crits — making clear much smoother and faster. Until you find it, any rare spear with the following stats will work just fine:

• High Accuracy Rating (the higher, the better — especially with the Penetrate passive)
• Added or increased Physical Damage
• Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Multiplier

This setup gives you strong and stable damage even before acquiring uniques.

Shield

Lycosidae is one of the top picks for this build. It grants guaranteed hits, meaning you can ignore Accuracy rolls on other pieces of gear. It also boosts crit and attack speed, which helps maintain a smooth, aggressive playstyle.

Jewelry

The Call of the Brotherhood ring is absolutely essential. It converts part of your Lightning Damage into Cold, allowing Herald of Ice to trigger icy explosions on kill. Without it, the build loses a lot of fluidity and clear speed.

Your amulet and body armour should give you at least +50 Spirit — this is the minimum needed to run core abilities like Herald of Ice, Combat Frenzy, and Cast on Freeze without running into Spirit issues.

Armor

Early on, prioritize gear with Evasion and Life to help you stay alive during the campaign. As you progress, shift into a hybrid setup with Evasion and Energy Shield. This opens up access to Ghost Dance, which restores Energy Shield every time you dodge — a big boost to survivability.

Look for:

• Helmets with high Energy Shield
• Boots with high Movement Speed
• Gloves and Body Armour with solid resistances and added Spirit

One important note: Boots are a top priority. Movement Speed plays a huge role in this build’s pacing and safety, so make sure your boots roll high in that stat.

Resistances

It’s absolutely critical that all three major resistances — Fire, Cold, and Lightning — are capped at 75%. It doesn’t matter which gear pieces give them, as long as your total setup hits the cap.

Also, don’t overlook Ailment Resistance. Effects like Shock, Freeze, and Ignite can completely disrupt your flow if left unchecked. The higher your resistance to ailments, the smoother and safer your gameplay becomes.

The specific unique items mentioned earlier — Tangletongue, Lycosidae, and Call of the Brotherhood — are essential for this build. Do your best to acquire them. As for the rest of your gear, adapt based on what you need — be it more defense, resists, or Spirit.

How to play Huntress Lightning Spear Amazon

Lightning Spear is your main tool for both clear and damage. When consuming a Frenzy Charge, its projectiles automatically split and chain between enemies, making clearing feel fast and effortless.

You only need to throw a spear once per screen while moving — Volt charges up on its own, and everything around you simply dies.

After hitting a wall or any obstacle, the projectiles auto-target nearby enemies, so precise aiming isn't even required.

This skill scales incredibly well into the endgame and can melt bosses when positioned correctly.

To fully unlock its potential, make sure to grab the Critical Strike passive and stack Accuracy on your gear — this is what pushes your crit chance to reliable levels.

And finally, Herald of Ice is the icing on the cake: enemies don’t just die — they explode in beautiful, cold-chained detonations across the screen.

Conclusion

So that’s the build — not exactly short, but Path of Exile 2 is full of details, and skipping them just wouldn’t do it justice. To sum it all up: the Huntress Lightning Spear Amazon Build is easily one of the strongest PoE 2 Huntress builds available right now. It’s relatively budget-friendly, easy to pick up, and works great for both new players and experienced veterans.

If you’re still unsure which class to play, check out the Leveling and Endgame Build for Every Available Class — I’ve gathered all the classes there, with direct links to their builds, so you can explore your options and pick the one that fits your style best.

As for this build specifically — I recommend using it as a foundation, but don’t be afraid to experiment. One of the best parts of PoE 2 is how much creative freedom it gives you. Try new things, tweak existing ideas — and if anything goes wrong, you can always respec and adjust your skill points later. Good luck out there, Exile — and may RNG be on your side.