Best PoE 2 Mercenary Endgame Build in Early Access

Gas Grenade Mercenary is a powerful PoE 2 Mercenary Build, perfectly suited for endgame content. With highly effective grenade usage and unique mechanics, this build combines massive damage, solid survivability, and flexibility in challenging situations. It stands out for its balance between offense and defense, allowing it to handle both single bosses and large groups of enemies. In this article, we will take an in-depth look at the key aspects of Gas Grenade Mercenary, including active skills, passive abilities, and gear.

Gas Grenade Mercenary– OP Endgame

The main strength of this PoE 2 Mercenary Build lies in its massive damage, achieved through the efficient use of grenades. They provide a powerful effect against both single targets and groups of enemies, combining physical damage with ignite damage.

The build is well-balanced, which is especially important for the Mercenary class, as it often struggles with survivability. Defense is ensured through passive nodes, buffs, and skills that boost evasion and armour, allowing it to withstand hits even in endgame content.

Gas Grenade Mercenary is a powerful build with high damage, reliable survivability, and flexibility, making it ideal for tackling any challenging Path of Exile 2 content.

Gas Grenade Mercenary Endgame Skills

Our main skill in this poe 2 mercenary build is Gas Grenade. The key to enhancing this ability is fire—we need to ignite our Gas Grenades. For this, we first use the Immolate gem, which boosts damage against ignited enemies, paired with the Fire Infusion gem, which ensures our grenades ignite on every attack. The best part is that neither of these gems requires mana.

The next support gems for Gas Grenade are Scattershot, which slightly reduces attack speed and damage but allows you to fire 2 additional projectiles—quite a worthwhile trade-off. Lastly, we add Elemental Focus, which increases our overall elemental damage from attacks and, like the others, doesn’t require mana.

Our second damage skill is Explosive Grenade, primarily used against bosses. For this, we build a support gem setup tailored to maximize single-target damage. First, we include Concentrated Effect, which reduces the AoE but significantly increases the damage—a perfect choice for boss fights. Next, we add Heft, which boosts the skill's damage by 30%. To further enhance it, we include Ingenuity, which reduces the ability's cooldown. Finally, we use Payload, granting a 50% chance for the grenade to trigger twice.

The third skill we need is Flash Grenade, which we enhance with Overpower and Brutality to increase our damage and stun potential. We also add Devastate, which applies the Broken Armour effect to our enemies, further amplifying our damage output.

Among active skills, we also need Oil Grenade, which we enhance with Persistence to increase its duration. We add Magnified Effect to expand the grenade's radius, and finally, Strip Away to apply Exposure, reducing the enemy's resistance to a specific type of elemental damage—in our case, fire.

Regarding Stormcaller Arrow, it’s important to note that this skill is focused on the bow. If you don’t plan to play with dual weapons, you can instead opt for an additional grenade, such as the Cluster Grenade, which was a significant part of the PoE 2 Mercenary Build in the early game. However, if you decide to incorporate the bow into your build, you need to enhance it with the gems Conduction, which increases the chance to apply Shock by 100%; Overcharge, which strengthens the Shock effect; and finally, Stormfire, which extends the duration of Shock on enemies already affected by Ignite.

The aura that must be active at all times is, of course, Wind Dancer. One of its most important features is the 15-19% increase in Evasion per level, which is absolutely amazing for us. We enhance this aura with the support gem Clarity, which provides a nice bonus of +30% mana regeneration rate while the aura is active. Additionally, we socket the Precision gem, which increases our accuracy while the aura is active.

The final recommended skill is the buff Scavenged Plating, which proves extremely useful for clearing maps. We enhance it with a single gem, Cannibalism, which provides decent health regeneration upon killing enemies.

Gas Grenade Mercenary Endgame Passives Tree

Of course, to create a strong path of exile 2 mercenary endgame build, the passive skill tree must also be adjusted for this stage of the game. The good news is, you don’t need to create a new character to tackle EndGame content. You simply need to respec your passive skill points, and in this guide, we’ll explain How To Refresh Passives in PoE 2. Let’s dive into the Passives Tree.

First and foremost, we focus on increasing our survivability. To achieve this, we upgrade the nodes Battle-hardened, Feel no Pain, and Backup Plan. These three nodes significantly improve our defense, Evasion Rating, add some stats, and increase our stun threshold.

To enhance our damage, we take the nodes Remorseless and then move down to grab Ricochet. Both nodes provide additional projectile damage, and Ricochet adds a 10% chance for projectiles to chain an extra time off a surface. This means that after hitting an obstacle, the projectile can redirect and hit another enemy, making attacks much more effective against large groups and increasing overall damage through extra hits.

From here on, we’ll focus on the nodes necessary for the build rather than the order of progression. How you connect these nodes depends on your preferences and the situation you’re in, so proceed as needed. Screenshots are provided only as a reference to make the explanation easier.

Devastation improves the damage and radius of all area attacks, making it perfect for our skill set and the overall path of exile 2 mercenary build. Moving slightly higher, we take Relentless followed by Sturdy Metal. These two nodes significantly boost our Armour and overall survivability.

After that, we grab Blade Catcher, which enhances our defense against enemies with high critical damage, further reinforcing our resilience.

Continuing along the tree, we take Curved Weapon, Overwhelm, and Colossal Weapon. These three nodes add a significant amount of damage, and while Overwhelm reduces attack speed, it’s not an issue. This reduction is compensated by our Dexterity from the passive skill tree, as well as our weapons and other gear, which we will discuss later.

Quick-change Act increases our weapon swap speed, reducing downtime and allowing you to reuse grenades more efficiently. This ability is particularly useful against bosses, letting you spam different skills that are enhanced by switching weapons. Its applications are quite versatile.

Next, we focus on damage by upgrading Grenadier, which increases the number of times you can use a grenade before its cooldown. For example, if a grenade normally allows 2 uses, this node increases it to 3. We complement this with Cluster Bombs and Volatile Grenades. Cluster Bombs adds an additional projectile to our grenades, though it increases their fuse duration by 50%. Volatile Grenades, on the other hand, reduces the fuse duration by 25%, partially offsetting the drawback of the previous node while retaining its added damage benefits.

Another highly useful skill is Distracting Presence, which reduces your cooldown recovery time by 10% while also increasing enemy cooldown recovery time by 10%. This provides both offensive and defensive advantages.

Next, we upgrade two nodes: General's Bindings and Leather Bound Gauntlets, which significantly boost our Armour and Evasion in the EndGame, greatly enhancing our survivability.

You might have already noticed what makes this one of the best poe 2 mercenary build. If not, it’s the balance between damage and survivability. Now, we focus on increasing our damage by upgrading nodes like Authority, Smoke Inhalation, and Incendiary. These nodes greatly enhance our explosions and ignites while reducing enemy resistances. This combination provides incredible AoE damage, allowing for rapid map clearing.

The progression in this PoE 2 Mercenary Build continues as follows: we upgrade Sand in the Eyes, which increases our attack speed and grants a chance to blind enemies. We then boost our damage with Repeating Explosives, which provides a 15% chance for grenades to trigger a second time, synergizing well with grenade damage and passive skills that reduce enemy resistances.

Of course, we also need to prepare for stronger enemies. For this, we upgrade Giantslayer, which enhances our damage, accuracy, and the chance to apply negative effects on rare and unique enemies, which often pose significant challenges during map clearing.

We complement this with Forces of Nature, which ignores 15% of the enemy's elemental resistances, making it a great addition to our poe2 mercenary endgame build. We wrap up this phase by taking Multitasking, which increases the duration of skill effects by 15% and boosts Cooldown Recovery Rate by 12%.

Finally, regarding the passive skill tree, we’ve managed to unlock four Jewel Sockets during the progression, where you will need to insert appropriate jewels. By "appropriate," we mean those that fulfill your current needs. If you need extra stats, use a jewel with additional stats; if you need more damage, use one with damage modifiers, and so on. The key points to focus on are crossbow damage, attack speed, weapon swap speed, and fire damage. Prioritize improvements that align with your weapon and build strategy.

Gas Grenade Mercenary Endgame Ascendancy

Let us reiterate that this ascendancy progression is specifically suited for the EndGame due to certain conditions and the capabilities of your character at earlier stages.

The first skill we recommend upgrading is Zealous Inquisition. This skill grants a 10% chance for enemies you kill to explode, dealing damage equal to 100% of their maximum health as physical damage. This provides an incredible amount of damage during map clearing, helping you acquire necessary items and levels for further progression and smoother gameplay.

Obsessive Rituals will help with survivability, though it does require sacrificing a small amount of damage. Despite this drawback, it is a viable choice but demands significant investment. As you progress to higher levels, enemy health and damage increase substantially, making this a crucial adaptation for the endgame. By this point, your gear should provide a total of 3k, or preferably 4k, Armour and 5k Evasion after activating Sorcery Ward, plus 4k from the Sorcery Ward itself. However, AoE attacks and Chaos effects remain deadly, but your survivability improves significantly.

The final notable ascendancy node for now is Ceremonial Ablution. This effect enhances Sorcery Ward, increasing its defensive capabilities by 50%. This means any damage absorbed by Sorcery Ward is now blocked more effectively. Additionally, the recovery rate of Sorcery Ward is 50% faster, which is critical for survivability, as it reduces downtime when your shield is unavailable.

If you become strong enough and decide to take on Pinnacle bosses, here’s what you need to do. You’ll need to drop Zealous Inquisition and Obsessive Rituals. Instead, allocate points into the middle branch with Witchbane and No Mercy, which provide more consistent damage against bosses.

Gas Grenade Mercenary Endgame Items

Now let’s talk about the gear recommended for acquiring during the early game or in the endgame phase.

First and most importantly, let's talk about our weapon. We highly recommend using the Expert Bombard Crossbow. Its only downside is its high stat requirements, making it challenging to achieve the necessary levels of Dexterity and Strength. If you cannot use it, the Advance Bombard Crossbow is a good alternative.

The reason we choose this crossbow lies in its massive physical damage. For runes, we prioritize those that increase physical damage. The need for physical damage is simple: it serves as the base damage for our skills, and all multipliers scale from this primary value. Other useful mods include increased attack speed, grenade throw speed, and a mod that grants mana or health on enemy kills.

The second weapon we need is a bow with specific characteristics. The most important stats are physical damage and lightning damage, which are crucial for this build. The lightning damage will scale from our physical damage and also increase our chance to Shock enemies. Additionally, having attack speed on the bow is highly beneficial.

An essential item for our build is Radiant Grief, a very powerful piece of equipment on its own. What makes it even better is its ability to ignite enemies in your presence, making map clearing almost instantaneous. We simply throw grenades, and the enemies around us just die.

As for the rest of the gear, it’s pretty standard. We aim to stack as much elemental resistance, base defense, and stats as possible. For gloves, it’s preferable to find ones with the highest defense, as we have a passive skill that provides a bonus from this. For boots, we prioritize those with the highest movement speed. Rings and amulets should ideally add flat damage to further boost our effectiveness.

If you fully optimize this build, I believe you’ll agree during gameplay that this is undoubtedly one of the best path of exile 2 mercenary build you’ve ever played.

How to play Gas Grenade Mercenary in PoE 2 Endgame

Start with the Arena and use Ignite floor a moment before the Boss becomes targetable. This will give you an advantage as the damage process will begin immediately. After that, use Shock, which will not expire as long as you remain within its radius or the Boss stays on the Burning Ground created by Ignite floor. This process allows you to maintain consistent damage effectively, which is especially useful against tougher Bosses.

Throw all available Grenades at the Boss to deal maximum damage in a short amount of time, and monitor the Boss's status. If the orange bar indicates that it is close to being stunned, keep attacking to secure your advantage.

If the Boss changes position, be sure to reapply Shock and Ignite floor to sustain damage and maintain control of the area.

When exploring maps, throw Grenades to clear large groups of enemies effectively. For big packs, use Ignite floor to regenerate mana if needed and simultaneously gain Armour Plating for protection. If rare enemies appear, apply Shock to boost your damage and speed up their elimination.

In critical situations, use the universal Grenade as a "panic button." This tool will knock back enemies, blind them, restore health (if Life Leech or Life on Attack is active), restore mana (if Mana Leech is available), and provide Armour Plating for extra defense. It’s an excellent way to survive when surrounded or during challenging moments.

During the campaign, for clearing enemies, throw one Grenade and one Shock at each group of enemies. If necessary, use Ignite floor to clear the area until the effect wears off. This approach helps you progress through levels quickly and efficiently while minimizing resource and time costs.

Conclusion

Gas Grenade Mercenary is one of the strongest poe2 mercenary build in the game at the moment. It combines high attack power with survivability and versatility. This build not only allows you to handle any content but also ensures a comfortable gaming experience thanks to the well-designed mechanics of skills, passive nodes, and properly selected gear. Whether you are facing bosses or clearing maps, Gas Grenade Mercenary is always ready for any challenge, providing the player with complete freedom of action and consistent success.