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This is a Fire Grenade Witchhunter Mercenary build for Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2). Check out the Witchhunter Mercenary build, including its gear, socketables, skills, and playstyle!
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This build was last updated for patch 0.1.1g. We're rushing to update the build to the newest 0.2.0 patch. Please check back later on! |
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List of Contents
※ Switch tabs to view build progression: Early Game (Acts 1-2), Mid-Game (Act 3 to Cruel Mode), Endgame (Atlas).
| Build Setup | |
|---|---|
 Fire Grenade Witchhunter |  Herald of Ash While active, enemies you sufficiently Overkill with attacks will cause an explosion that ignites nearby enemies based on the Overkill damage dealt.  Gas Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade that causes a burst of Poison gas when its fuse expires, damaging enemies and leaving behind a growing Poison cloud. Burning effects or Detonator skills will cause the cloud to explode in a fiery blast.  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.  Incendiary Shot Loads your Crossbow with flaming bolts that fragment in flight, damaging and igniting enemies on hit and in a small cone behind their final target.  Blasphemy Turns socketed Curse skills into vile Auras, applying their effects to all nearby enemies.  Oil Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade that bursts in a spray of Oil when the fuse expires or when it impacts an Enemy, dealing minimal damage but covering the ground and nearby enemies in Oil. Oil created this way can be Ignited by Detonator Skills or Ignited Ground.  Explosive Shot Loads your Crossbow with flaming bolts that explode on impact. The explosion will cause any Grenades in its area of effect to also explode. |
 Great Mob ClearingHigh DoT Low MobilitySquishy | |
| Build Setup | |
|---|---|
 Fire Grenade Mercenary | Herald of Ash While active, enemies you sufficiently Overkill with attacks will cause an explosion that ignites nearby enemies based on the Overkill damage dealt.  Plague Bearer Stores all Poison Damage you deal. Using the Plague Nova skill unleashes the stored Poison. Gas Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade that causes a burst of Poison gas when its fuse expires, damaging enemies and leaving behind a growing Poison cloud. Burning effects or Detonator skills will cause the cloud to explode in a fiery blast. Incendiary Shot Loads your Crossbow with flaming bolts that fragment in flight, damaging and igniting enemies on hit and in a small cone behind their final target. Blasphemy Turns socketed Curse skills into vile Auras, applying their effects to all nearby enemies. Oil Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade that bursts in a spray of Oil when the fuse expires or when it impacts an Enemy, dealing minimal damage but covering the ground and nearby enemies in Oil. Oil created this way can be Ignited by Detonator Skills or Ignited Ground. Explosive Shot Loads your Crossbow with flaming bolts that explode on impact. The explosion will cause any Grenades in its area of effect to also explode. |
| Great Mob ClearingHigh DoTLow MobilitySquishy | |
The Fire Grenade Witchhunter Mercenary build makes use of igniting your enemies with Oil Grenade + Radiant Grief and clear large packs of mobs easily with Galvanic Shards and Gas Grenade explosions.
When starting out, you can keep using Incendiary Shot to ignite Oil Ground until you either reach Act 2 for Explosive Shot or obtain the Radiant Grief unique helm.
| Date | Changes |
|---|---|
| 01-08-2025 | Added Radiant Grief unique helm to equipment. Added Herald of Thunder persistent skill and replaced Explosive Shot with Galvanic Shards. Passive Tree and Support Gems were updated. |
| Gear | Modifiers | |
|---|---|---|
| Radiant Grief (Helm) |
・Increased Evasion Rating
・Fire Resistance ・Increased Light Radius ・Enemies in your Presence are Ignited |
|
| Armor | ・Spirit
・Evasion Rating ・Maximum Shield ・Increased Evasion and Energy Shield ・Dexterity ・Lightning Resistance ・Life Regeneration per Second | |
| Gloves | ・Evasion Rating
・Increased Evasion Rating ・Dexterity ・FIre Resistance ・Lightning Resistance |
|
| Belt | ・Flask Recovery Applied Instantly
・Armour ・Maximum Life ・Maximum Mana ・FIre Resistance ・Lightning Resistance |
|
| Boots | ・Evasion Rating
・Increased Evasion Rating ・Maximum Mana ・Fire Resistance ・Lightning Resistance |
|
| Prismatic Ring | ・All Elemental Resistances
・Added Fire Damage ・Added Cold Damage ・Maximum Mana ・Dexterity ・Cold Resistance ・Mana Regenaration Rate |
|
| Amulet | ・Mana Regeneration Rate
・Spirit ・Accuracy Rating ・Maximum Energy Shield ・All Elemental Resistances ・Fire Resistance |
|
| Amethyst Ring | ・Chaos Resistance
・Added Fire Damage ・Increased Cold Damage ・Evasion Rating ・Dexterity ・Life per Enemy Killed |
|
| Bombard Crossbow | ・Grenades Skills Fire an Additional Projectile
・Added Physical Damage ・Added Fire Damage ・Increase Elemental Damage ・Level of All Projectile Skills ・Strength ・Dexterity |
Bombard Crossbow is the best crossbow for Grenade builds as it provides you with an additional Grenade projectile. Make sure you have this equipped with damage modifiers for Fire and Elemental Damage to maximize your damage output.
Your most important equipment to aim for endgame would be the Radiant Grief unique helm as this is capable of passively igniting your Oil Grenade and gives you a good amount of Evasion Rating and Fire Resistance.
Most of the equipment for Fire Grenade Witchhunter focuses on taking Evasion Rating for survivability and Elemental Resistances to help against Spells since they cannot be evaded. Maximum Life is a good secondary priority as well to keep yourself from getting one-shotted. For your weapons, make sure to take Fire Damage as this will be your main way of boosting the damage of your skills.
Keep in mind that the goal is to have at least 100 Spirit so you can equip all your Persistent skills for maximum effect.
| All Armors and Accessories | |
|---|---|
| List of Armors | List of Accessories |
Note: The modifiers listed are arranged according to priority.
 Emerald |
・Increased Elemental Damage
・Increased Attack Damage ・Damage with Crossbow ・Increased Fire Damage |
|---|
For your jewels, focus on getting Emeralds that boost your Ignite effects as this will help you spam explosions longer. You can opt to go for defensive stats such as Armor, Life, or Evasion in case you are having trouble surviving but it is highly recommended to focus more on damage.
Note: The modifiers listed are arranged according to priority.
 Any Elemental Charm |
・Increased Duration
・Increased Charges ・Recover Life when Used |
|---|
The best charm to slot in would be any Elemental Resistance Charm to help you reach the 75% resistance cap is this is key towards surviving higher tiers. If you have an extra charm slot, you can use the Stone Charm to negate stun effects.
| Equipment | Sockets |
|---|---|
| Weapon | |
| Armor |
The best slot-in for the Weapons is the Iron Rune for more Fire Damage, and Soul Core of Zalatl to help recover Mana better. As for Armor, the Soul Core of Citaqualotl can help you reach the Elemental Resistance cap for all elements so try to equip as much of these as you can.
| All Runes and Soul Cores | |
|---|---|
| List of Runes | List of Soul Cores |
※ Switch tabs to view build progression: Early Game (Acts 1-2), Mid-Game (Act 3 to Cruel Mode), Endgame (Atlas).
| Skill | Support Gems |
|---|---|
| Gas Grenade Gas Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade that causes a burst of Poison gas when its fuse expires, damaging enemies and leaving behind a growing Poison cloud. Burning effects or Detonator skills will cause the cloud to explode in a fiery blast. |  Bursting Plague Bursting Plague Supports skills that can Poison enemies, causing poisoned enemies to gain Plague over time and explode in a Plague Burst on death. Cannot support the skills of minions.  Comorbidity Comorbidity Supports any skill that hits enemies, allowing it to inflict an extra poison on enemies but shortening the duration of those poisons.  Corrosion Corrosion Supports ay skill that hits enemies, causing Poison it applies to also break any armour. Cannot support skills that consume Fully  Armour Explosion Armour Explosion Supports attacks, causing them to trigger a Fiery explosion when they Fully Break an enemy's Armour. |
 Galvanic Shards Galvanic Shards Loads your Crossbow with a clip of charged bolts that fragment in flight, releasing Chaining Lightning beams when they Hit enemies. Using this skill again reloads the clip. |  Innervate Innervate Supports attacks you use yourself. Killing a Shocked enemy with supported skills infuses all of your attacks with Lightning damage for a short time.  Soul Drain Soul Drain Supports any skill that Hits enemies, causing you to recover Mana when it Culls an enemy.  Lightning Penetration Lightning Penetration Supports any skill that hits enemies, making those hits penetrate enemy Lightning Resistance.  Nimble Reload Nimble Reload Supports Crossbow Ammunition skills, causing them to Reload bolts significantly faster. |
| Oil Grenade Oil Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade that bursts in a spray of Oil when the fuse expires or when it impacts an Enemy, dealing minimal damage but covering the ground and nearby enemies in Oil. Oil created this way can be Ignited by Detonator Skills or Ignited Ground. |  Scattershot Scattershot Supports Projectile skills, making them fire extra Projectiles. Also lowers Attack and Cast speed of supported skills, as well as lessening their damage.  Inspiration Inspiration Supports any skill, making it cost less to use. Cannot support skills which reserve Spirit.  Despoiler Despoiler Supports skills that create Ground Surfaces, causing those surfaces to last longer. |
| Herald of Ash Herald of Ash While active, enemies you sufficiently Overkill with attacks will cause an explosion that ignites nearby enemies based on the Overkill damage dealt. |  Clarity Clarity Supports Persistent Buff Skills, causing you to gain increased mana Regeneration while the skill is active.  Precision Precision Supports Persistent Buff Skills, causing you to gain increased Accuracy while the skill is active. |
| Blasphemy Blasphemy Turns socketed Curse skills into vile Auras, applying their effects to all nearby enemies. |  Magnified Effect Magnified Effect Supports any skill with an area of effect, making it larger.  Heightened Curse Heightened Curse Supports curse skills, magnifying their power.  Flammability Flammability Curses all targets in an area after a short delay, lowering their Fire Resistance. |
| 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. |  Unbreakable Unbreakable Supports any skill that you can use, making you harder to Stun while using it. |
 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. |  Concentrated Effect Concentrated Effect Supports any skill with an area of effect, causing that area to be smaller but any area damage it deals to be higher. |
| Skill | Support Gems |
|---|---|
| Incendiary Shot Incendiary Shot Loads your Crossbow with flaming bolts that fragment in flight, damaging and igniting enemies on hit and in a small cone behind their final target. |  Ignition Ignition Supports any skills that Hits enemies, making it more likely to Ignite.  Fire Infusion Fire Infusion Supports Attacks, causing them to Gain Fire Damage but deal less Cold and Lightning Damage. |
| Gas Grenade Gas Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade that causes a burst of Poison gas when its fuse expires, damaging enemies and leaving behind a growing Poison cloud. Burning effects or Detonator skills will cause the cloud to explode in a fiery blast. | Bursting Plague Bursting Plague Supports skills that can Poison enemies, causing poisoned enemies to gain Plague over time and explode in a Plague Burst on death. Cannot support the skills of minions. Comorbidity Comorbidity Supports any skill that hits enemies, allowing it to inflict an extra poison on enemies but shortening the duration of those poisons. Corrosion Corrosion Supports ay skill that hits enemies, causing Poison it applies to also break any armour. Cannot support skills that consume Fully |
| Explosive Shot Explosive Shot Loads your Crossbow with flaming bolts that explode on impact. The explosion will cause any Grenades in its area of effect to also explode. |  Primal Armament Primal Armament Supports Attacks that use a weapon, causing them to deal more weapon Elemental Damage. Fire Infusion Fire Infusion Supports Attacks, causing them to Gain Fire Damage but deal less Cold and Lightning Damage.  Fire Penetration Fire Penetration Supports any skill that Hits enemies, making those hits penetrate enemy Fire resistances. |
| Oil Grenade Oil Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade that bursts in a spray of Oil when the fuse expires or when it impacts an Enemy, dealing minimal damage but covering the ground and nearby enemies in Oil. Oil created this way can be Ignited by Detonator Skills or Ignited Ground. | Scattershot Scattershot Supports Projectile skills, making them fire extra Projectiles. Also lowers Attack and Cast speed of supported skills, as well as lessening their damage. Inspiration Inspiration Supports any skill, making it cost less to use. Cannot support skills which reserve Spirit. Despoiler Despoiler Supports skills that create Ground Surfaces, causing those surfaces to last longer. |
| Herald of Ash Herald of Ash While active, enemies you sufficiently Overkill with attacks will cause an explosion that ignites nearby enemies based on the Overkill damage dealt. | Clarity Clarity Supports Persistent Buff Skills, causing you to gain increased mana Regeneration while the skill is active. |
| Blasphemy Blasphemy Turns socketed Curse skills into vile Auras, applying their effects to all nearby enemies. | Magnified Effect Magnified Effect Supports any skill with an area of effect, making it larger. Heightened Curse Heightened Curse Supports curse skills, magnifying their power. Flammability Flammability Curses all targets in an area after a short delay, lowering their Fire Resistance. |
| Plague Bearer Plague Bearer Stores all Poison Damage you deal. Using the Plague Nova skill unleashes the stored Poison. | Precision Precision Supports Persistent Buff Skills, causing you to gain increased Accuracy while the skill is active.  Vitality Vitality Supports Persistent Buff Skills, causing you to gain Life Regeneration while the skill is active.  Expanse Expanse Supports any skill that you use yourself, granting it significantly higher Area of Effect but causing it to gain a long cooldown. Cannot support skills which already have a cooldown. |
The skills for leveling as a Fire Grenade Witchhunter are practically the same as the endgame version with a few minor tweaks. In the beginning, keep using Incendiary Shot until you acquire Explosive Shot, which will become your main skill for Detonating and procing Ignite. Once you obtain the Radiant Grief unique helm, you can swap out your Explosive Shot for Galvanic Shards since this clears mobs much easier and your helmet will be your main way for procing Ignite.
As for your Persistent skills, Herald of Ash is great for spreading Ignite on kill, while the Herald of Thunder works in tandem with your Galvanic Shards. Make sure to take Blasphemy with Flammability as well to reduce the Fire Resistance of your enemies for more damage.
| Passive Nodes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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2. |  |
| 3. |  |
4. |  |
| 5. |  |
6. |  |
| 7. |  |
8. |  |
The passive skill tree for Fire Grenade Witchhunter focuses on taking nodes that can boost your Fire Damage and Ignite damage and chances to consistently apply damage over time. Make sure to get the required stats for your skills and invest the rest on Intelligence to help manage your mana.
As for your Ascendancy tree, Zealous Inquisition will give you a chance of exploding your enemies on kill which helps you greatly for mobbing, and Pitiless Killer to deal with Rare and Unique enemies. If you have extra points you can aim to get Judge, Jury, and Executioner as this will give you a chance of procing Decimating Strike to help deal with high HP enemies.
Passive Skill Tree Guide and List of Passives
The skill rotation for the Fire Grenade Witchhunter build revolves around igniting your enemies with huge AoE skills that can spread ailments in a wide area. The rotation is as follows:
| Rank | Build |
|---|---|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 Strike Warrior
|
 Lightning Ranger
|
 Spark Sorceress
|
 Arsonist Minion Witch
|
Lightning Mercenary
|
 Lightning Monk
|
 Bleed Huntress
|
| List of Builds by Class | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Huntress |
 Mercenary |
 Monk |
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 Witch |
 Sorceress |
 Warrior |
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 Ranger |
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| Other Build Guides | |||||||||||
| Dawn of the Hunt Leveling Builds | How to Make a Good Build | ||||||||||
| Bleed Bow Witchhunter |
 Barrage Ready a volley of arrows, Empowering your next Bow Attack to repeat multiple times. Consumes your Frenzy Charges on use to add additional repeats.
 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.
 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.
 Rain of Arrows Fire arrows into the air, causing them to rain from above. Consumes your Frenzy Charges to fire more arrows.
 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.
 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.
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.
Focus: DoT, Burst Damage, Bossing, Mobbing |
| Fire Grenade Witchhunter |
Herald of Ash While active, enemies you sufficiently Overkill with attacks will cause an explosion that ignites nearby enemies based on the Overkill damage dealt.
Gas Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade that causes a burst of Poison gas when its fuse expires, damaging enemies and leaving behind a growing Poison cloud. Burning effects or Detonator skills will cause the cloud to explode in a fiery blast.
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.
Incendiary Shot Loads your Crossbow with flaming bolts that fragment in flight, damaging and igniting enemies on hit and in a small cone behind their final target.
Blasphemy Turns socketed Curse skills into vile Auras, applying their effects to all nearby enemies.
Oil Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade that bursts in a spray of Oil when the fuse expires or when it impacts an Enemy, dealing minimal damage but covering the ground and nearby enemies in Oil. Oil created this way can be Ignited by Detonator Skills or Ignited Ground.
Explosive Shot Loads your Crossbow with flaming bolts that explode on impact. The explosion will cause any Grenades in its area of effect to also explode.
Focus: DoT, AoE, Mobbing |
 Gunslinger Gemling Legionnaire |
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.
 Fragmentation Rounds Loads your Crossbow with Piercing bolts that fragment in flight. Bolts that hit a frozen enemy consume the Freeze and cause an explosion of Shrapnel. Bolts that hit an Ice Crystal cause it to explode.
 High Velocity Rounds Loads your Crossbow with Piercing bolts that can consume Fully Broken Armour on enemies to deal extra damage.
 Herald of Plague While active, killing a Poisoned enemy spreads its Poison to other nearby enemies, and has a chance to also Hinder them.
 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.
 Cast on Freeze While active, gains Energy when you Freeze enemies and triggers socketed spells on reaching maximum Energy.
 Emergency Reload Instantly relaods your active Crossbow Ammunition and Empowers the loaded bolts to deal more damage.
Galvanic Shards Loads your Crossbow with a clip of charged bolts that fragment in flight, releasing Chaining Lightning beams when they Hit enemies. Using this skill again reloads the clip.
 Withering Presence While active, periodically Withers enemies in your Presence.
 Blink Replaces your dodge roll with a short-cooldown Spell that allows you to tunnel through space, instantly reappearing a medium distance away.
Focus: DoT, Crowd Control, Bossing |
| Grenadier Gemling Legionnaire |
 Explosive Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade that unleashes a devastating fiery blast when its fuse expires.
 Flash Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade that unleashes a Blinding, Stunning explosion when its fuse expires. This explosion can Blind both Allies and Enemies.
Gas Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade that causes a burst of Poison gas when its fuse expires, damaging enemies and leaving behind a growing Poison cloud. Burning effects or Detonator skills will cause the cloud to explode in a fiery blast.
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.
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.
Oil Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade that bursts in a spray of Oil when the fuse expires or when it impacts an Enemy, dealing minimal damage but covering the ground and nearby enemies in Oil. Oil created this way can be Ignited by Detonator Skills or Ignited Ground.
 Cluster Grenade Fires a bouncing Grenade That explodes when it's fuse expires, throwing out a nova of mini Grenades that explode when they come to a stop.
Focus: AoE, Burst Damage, Crowd Control |
| Base Class | |
|---|---|
| Mercenary |
|
| Ascendancies | |
| Gemling Legionnaire |
Witchhunter |
PoE 2 Fire Grenade Witchhunter Mercenary Build
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