Ranger Ascendancies and Class Guide
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The Ranger is a class in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2) that hits every mark with her bow and can ascend into a Deadeye or Pathfinder. Check out more information on the Ranger's ascendancies, class guide, builds, skills, playstyle, and whether you should pick the Deadeye or Pathfinder for the Dawn of the Hunt update!
| All Ranger Class Guides | |
|---|---|
| Ranger Class and Ascendancies | All Ranger Builds |
List of Contents
Ranger Ascendancies
During the early access, you'll have the choice to pick between 2 Ascendancy classes for the Ranger:
| Jump to an Ascendancy! | |
|---|---|
| Deadeye | Pathfinder |
Deadeye
The Deadeye ascendancy focuses on increasing the Ranger's bow and movement capabilities. It significantly buffs her ability to move swiftly and rapidly shoot arrows with 100% accuracy, making the run-and-gun playstyle more prevalent and effective.
Notable passive skills include Endless Munitions, Gathering Winds, and Eagle Eye.
Deadeye Ascendancy Overview and Skills
Pathfinder
The Pathfinder ascendancy focuses on the Ranger's ability to poison enemies and utilize concoctions to her advantage. It allows the Ranger to throw different concoctions under various situations and increases the potency of poison skills, afflictions, and attacks.
Notable skills include different concoction nodes, Overwhelming Toxicity, and Running Assault.
Pathfinder Ascendancy Overview and Skills
Which Ascendancy Should You Pick?
The Deadeye is the Meta Pick
As of the Dawn of the Hunt update, the Deadeye ascendancy has boosted in power and is considerably one of the best ascendancies in the game currently. Not only does the Deadeye provide massive mobility and additional projectiles, the newly buffed Thrilling Chase allows the Deadeye to always double the effectiveness of consuming Frenzy Charges.
While the Deadeye is a recommendation due to being a better foundation for the current meta, the Pathfinder is still relatively balanced even with the nerfs to Concoction skills due to the Running Assault buff, allowing it to build certain set-ups exclusive to the ascendancy.
Ranger Class Overview
Overview
 The Ranger |
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| Attribute | Dexterity | |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Bows | |
The Ranger is a bow specialist that uses its agility along abilities to crowd-control targets or clear hoardes and damage bosses.
Dexterity Focused Class
The Ranger focuses on the dexterity attribute, allowing her to rapidly attack from a distance through various agile movements and mobility skills. Given this, her primary weapon is the bow.
Ranger Builds
Ranger Leveling Build
Lightning Ranger
 Lightning Ranger
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 Herald of Thunder While active, killing Shocked enemies with Attack damage, will cause subsequent Attack hits to release lightning bolts which deals Attack damage to all surrounding enemies.
 Barrage Ready a volley of arrows or spears, Empowering your next Bow or Projectile Spear Attack to repeat multiple times. Consumes your Frenzy Charges on use to add additional repeats.
 Lightning Arrow Fires a charged arrow at the target. On hitting an enemy or wall, the arrow will fire Chaining Lightning beams at nearby enemies.
 Lightning Rod Fire an arrow that drops from above, creating a Lightning burst. The arrow remains in the ground, and any Chaining Lightning beams can Chain to it. When Chained to, the arrows release another Lightning burst.
 Stormcaller Arrow Fires an arrow that embeds where it lands for a short duration. At the end of the duration, a Lightning bolt strikes the arrow, disintegrating it and damaging enemies with a high chance to Shock.
 Freezing Salvo Passively coalesces icy missiles from the air over time. Using the skill fires a missile, firing an additional missile for each that has been accumulated.
 Disengage Jump back as you rupture the earth in front of you with spearpoints, damaging enemies. Consumes the Parried Debuff on Hitting enemies to release a shockwave and grant you a Frenzy Charge. This skill can be used while using other skills, and causes Strikes and Projectiles to miss you while jumping. This skill cannot be Ancestrally Boosted.
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| Focus: Leveling, Burst Damage, Lightning, Bow and Spear | |
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Summary: This Ranger leveling build is designed around Lightning Arrow's and Lightning Rod's ability to burst along with Stormcaller Arrow's consistent AoE damage. |
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Ranger Endgame Builds
※ Search for specific builds of an ascendancy by clicking the icons below the search bar. Select the latest patch for the latest builds, but click on the earlier versions if you want to see Legacy builds!
Poison Pathfinder
Glacial Lance Deadeye
Ranger Skills
All Bow Skills
Bows are the default weapon for Rangers in PoE 2, however you can still choose any weapon to obtain any skill for your Ranger. There are twenty-one active skills for Bow which Rangers may use. Listed below are skills that are available during the Early Access:
| Tier | Skills | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 Poisonburst Arrow Poisonburst Arrow Fires a virulent arrow that creates a burst of Poison on hit, affecting all enemies in an area.
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 Escape Shot Escape Shot Leap backwards and fire an arrow which can Chill or Freeze enemies around the location you escaped from.
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Lightning Arrow Lightning Arrow Fires a charged arrow at the target. On hitting an enemy or wall, the arrow will fire Chaining Lightning beams at nearby enemies.
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Lightning Rod Lightning Rod Fire an arrow that drops from above, creating a Lightning burst. The arrow remains in the ground, and any Chaining Lightning beams can Chain to it. When Chained to, the arrows release another Lightning burst.
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| 3 |
 Snipe Snipe Channel to charge up your bow before releasing a powerful shot. Releasing the moment you fully charge causes the arrow to explode on impact for a guaranteed Critical Hit.
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 Vine Arrow Vine Arrow Fire an arrow into the air that lands after a short delay, causing a plant to spring up at the impact location. The plants sprouts vines that latch onto nearby enemies, Slowing their movement speed and dealing Chaos Damage over time. The plant can be Poisoned, causing it to deal more damage.
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Stormcaller Arrow Stormcaller Arrow Fires an arrow that embeds where it lands for a short duration. At the end of the duration, a Lightning bolt strikes the arrow, disintegrating it and damaging enemies with a high chance to Shock.
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| 5 |
Barrage Barrage Ready a volley of arrows or spears, Empowering your next Bow or Projectile Spear Attack to repeat multiple times. Consumes your Frenzy Charges on use to add additional repeats.
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 Toxic Growth Toxic Growth Leap into the air and fire a volley of arrows which cause toxic pustules to sprout from the ground on impact. The pustules explode after a delay and can be Poisoned, causing them to explode faster and more violently.
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Freezing Salvo Freezing Salvo Passively coalesces icy missiles from the air over time. Using the skill fires a missile, firing an additional missile for each that has been accumulated.
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 Electrocuting Arrow Electrocuting Arrow Leap forward into the air and fire downward. Hitting an enemy will attach an Electrocuting Rod to them, causing all incoming Lightning damage to build up Electrocution. This rod is removed when the enemy is next Electrocuted.
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| 7 |
 Sniper's Mark Sniper's Mark Marks a target. The next Critical Hit the target receives consumes the Mark to deal extra damage and grant you a Frenzy Charge.
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 Gas Arrow Gas Arrow Fires a noxious arrow at the ground, creating a cloud of flammable poisonous gas at the end of its flight. The cloud will detonate if hit by a Detonator skill or if an Ignited enemy touches it, creating a fiery explosion.
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 Voltaic Mark Voltaic Mark Marks a target, making them more susceptible to being Shocked. When the Marked target dies, a Lightning nova erupts from their corpse. This nova does not use your Weapon Damage, and instead uses its own base Attack Damage.
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| 9 |
 Rain of Arrows Rain of Arrows Fire arrows into the air, causing them to rain from above. Consumes your Frenzy Charges to fire more arrows.
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 Detonating Arrow Detonating Arrow Channel to build up power before firing off a burning arrow. At maximum charge, the arrow will detonate at the end of its flight, causing an explosion in an area around it.
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 Ice Shot Ice Shot Fires an icy arrow that sprays a cone of ice shards when it hits a target.
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| 11 |
 Tornado Shot Tornado Shot Fires a skyward shot that whips up a Tornado where it lands, dealing Physical damage over time and Hindering enemies standing in it. Arrows and Crossbow bolts fired at the Tornado are sucked into it, causing the Tornado to spit out a nova of copied Projectiles. Copied Projectiles cannot be copied again, even by further Tornados.
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 Shockchain Arrow Shockchain Arrow ires a Lightning-infused arrow that homes in on Shocked enemies. Hitting a Shocked enemy will Consume the Shock to charge the arrow, causing it to release a damaging shockwave and split beams towards up to two nearby targets, prioritising ones which are Shocked. If the beam hits a Shocked target, it will release another damaging shockwave and can continue to Chain.
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| 13 |
 Spiral Volley Spiral Volley Loads your Bow with a volley of enchanted arrows and fires them in a circle as you spin forward, firing directly at targets if possible. Consumes Frenzy Charges to cause the arrows to deal more damage and Chain to other targets. Each target can only be Hit once.
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 Magnetic Salvo Magnetic Salvo Aims skyward and fires energy missiles at lingering arrows or bolts created by other Lightning Attacks in front of you. The missiles explode if they land close to a lingering bolt or arrow, dealing more damage in a larger area but destroying that bolt or arrow in the process.
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All Ranger Persistent Skills
Rangers have 9 Persistent skills each of which grant passive buffs that can help any build regardless of class.
| Tier | Skills | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 |
Herald of Thunder Herald of Thunder While active, killing Shocked enemies with Attack damage, will cause subsequent Attack hits to release lightning bolts which deals Attack damage to all surrounding enemies.
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 Plague Bearer Plague Bearer Stores all Poison Damage you deal. Using the Plague Nova skill unleashes the stored Poison.
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 Wind Dancer Wind Dancer Grants a buff that gives you more Evasion per stage. Being Hit by a Melee Attack while you have this buff consumes all stages to damage and Knock Back enemies around you.
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| 8 |
 Combat Frenzy Combat Frenzy While active, grants you a Frenzy Charge when you Freeze, Electrocute, or Pin an enemy. This can only occur once every few seconds.
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 Herald of Plague Herald of Plague While active, killing a Poisoned enemy spreads its Poison to other nearby enemies, and has a chance to also Hinder them.
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| 14 |
 Rhoa Mount Rhoa Mount Harnesses a Companion Rhoa that you can ride. While you're mounted on the Rhoa, you can only use Bow, thrown Spear and Mark Skills, you run at full speed when attackin, and Hits against you cause Heavy Stun buildup. While you aren't mounted, the Rhoa attacks your enemies alongside you with its beak, but can be damaged.
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 Attrition Attrition While active, causes you to deal more Hit damage to Rare and Unique enemies the longer you've been fighting them, and gain Culling Strike against them once you've been fighting them for long enough.
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 Alchemist's Boon Alchemist's Boon While active, grants you Flask Charges passively and causes Life and Mana recovery from your Flasks to also apply to Allies in your presence.
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Recommended Skill
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
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Sniper's Mark
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Marks a target. The next Critical Hit the target receives consumes the Mark to deal extra damage and grant you a Frenzy Charge. |
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Wind Dancer
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Grants a buff that gives you more Evasion per stage. Being Hit by a Melee Attack while you have this buff consumes all stages to damage and Knock Back enemies around you. |
While Bow Skills does not have an active skill that is a staple for general builds, the best skill for builds that crit reliably is the Sniper's Mark due to its ability to provide Frenzy Charges and skyrocket critical hit damage.
Additionally, the Ranger possesses a strong Spirit Gem, the Wind Dancer. This skill is a staple for builds that use Evasion and/or Energy Shields for their primary defensive stat. When paired with Ghost Dance and Grim Feast, it can reliably replenish Energy Shields and act as a way of peeling enemies away from you.
How to Play the Ranger
| Tips for Playing the Ranger |
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Invest into Mana Regeneration
As Rangers rely on attacking fast and with their bow skills, they often run into mana-consumption problems. It is a general tip to use equipment with modifiers to Maximum Mana and Mana Regeneration. Furthermore, your Mana Flask should have a modifier to regenerate chargers per second!
Quivers are Essential to Builds
While they may seem minimal at first, Quivers are an essential factor when determining a build's damage as there are percentage additions through the Master Fletcher passive and the Widowhail Crude Bow that massively scale up the modifiers slotted in the Quivers.
With these equipped alongside a strong Quiver, you will gain a significant boost to your damage output! The best quivers currently are the Primed and Visceral Quivers!
Evasion is the Best Early Defence
Since Rangers emphasize dexterity gain, investing in Maximum Life and Evasion for damage mitigation is the optimal path during the early game.
After completing your ascension, you can transition into a pure Energy Shield build with Chaos Inoculation or full Evasion with Acrobatics depending on your preference!
Best Paired With Lightning, Ice, and Poison
Rangers generally revolve around using Lightning, Ice, and Poison skills given that bow skills provide a clear path for these elements. For the most part, you have the option of choosing between Lightning or Poison during the early game, where Lightning is often better with early game progression!
However, the Pathfinder ascendancy gives the Ranger various elemental options with the Brew Concoction. This ascendancy skill allows you to diversify your builds, allowing the player to even spec into Bleed or Fire!
Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2) Related Guides
List of New Classes
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List of Early Access Classes
| Class | Ascendancy Classes |
|---|---|
| Ranger |
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Huntress
Amazon 
Ritualist
Mercenary
Tactician
Witchhunter
Gemling Legionnaire
Monk
Invoker
Acolyte of Chayula
Sorceress
Stormweaver
Chronomancer
Warrior
Smith of Kitava
Warbringer
Titan
Witch
Lich
Infernalist
Blood MageList of Upcoming Classes
| Druid | Templar |
| Shadow | Duelist |
| Marauder | - |
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