Path of Exile 2 Ascendancies: all 22 in one place

All Ascendancy classes in one table

An Ascendancy class is your class's specialisation with its own small tree of 8 points. The rating is Maxroll's league starter tier list (September 19, 2026); popularity is the share of characters in the Forbidden Rites league on poe.ninja (October 14, 2026, about 124,000 characters from the public ladder).

In the other league, Runes of Aldur, the picture is different: Spirit Walker (29%) and Martial Artist (19%) lead, while Gemling Legionnaire has 10% (poe.ninja, October 16, 2026). Maxroll notes that "generally every single Ascendancy is powerful if build correctly". A C or D rating does not mean an Ascendancy is unplayable.

Ascendancies by class

Node names are given exactly as in the game (poe2db data, October 16, 2026).

Warrior

Titan. Heavy slams and stuns. Hulking Form gives 50% increased effect of small passives, and Mysterious Lineage 15% more maximum life. Bonus: Colossal Capacity is a chest with 20 extra inventory slots.

Warbringer. Shield, warcries and totems. Anvil's Weight breaks enemy armour (Break Armour), and Answered Call grants the Ancestral Spirits skill and an extra totem. In 0.5.5 it is also played with crossbow grenades.

Smith of Kitava. Smith's Masterwork limits you to a Normal body armour, but unlocks 12 nodes that give that armour new properties. Coal Stoker makes fire resistance also grant cold and lightning resistance at half its value.

Ranger

Deadeye. Bows and projectiles. Endless Munitions gives your skills an extra projectile, and Gathering Winds grants Tailwind (speed) when you use skills. In 0.5.5 Ice Shot and Tornado Shot dominate.

Pathfinder. Flasks, poison and mobility. Path Seeker lets you take passives from the Sorceress or Warrior starting point, Relentless Pursuit makes your speed immune to slows, and Overwhelming Toxicity doubles your maximum poison stacks.

The Ranger has no third Ascendancy in 0.5.5.

Witch

Infernalist. Fire and demons, with a demon transformation (Demonic Possession) and a hound (Loyal Hellhound). Pyromantic Pact replaces mana with twice as much Infernal Flame. On the ladder it is mostly a caster with Comet and Spark.

Blood Mage. Spells paid with life. Sanguimancy gives skills a life cost equal to their mana cost, and Vitality Siphon leeches 20% of spell damage as life.

Lich. A chaos caster or a minion summoner built on Energy Shield. Eternal Life stops your life from changing while you have Energy Shield, and Crystalline Phylactery gives a jewel socket with 100% increased effect.

Abyssal Lich (Lich variant). This is not a separate Ascendancy. A Lich takes Kulemak's Invitation to the Well of Souls and, in The Black Cathedral, can switch between both versions. Its own node Steward of Kulemak grants the Abyssal Apparition skill.

Sorceress

Stormweaver. Elements and spell crits. Tempest Caller triggers Elemental Storm on spell critical hits, and Constant Gale gives permanent Arcane Surge. Typical skills: Spark, Comet, Frost Bomb.

Chronomancer. Rewinding time, stopping time and resetting cooldowns. Phased Form reduces damage taken by 30%, but 4 seconds later you take 30% of that hit's damage, and Now and Again repeats your spells.

Disciple of Varashta. You summon djinn (Ruzhan, Navira, Kelari) and command them through the Barya of Kelari and Barya of Navira nodes. Sacred Rituals adds 60% of your current Energy Shield to your Armour. Usually a sceptre with a focus.

Mercenary

Witchhunter. Obsessive Rituals grants the Sorcery Ward shield at the cost of 50% less Armour and Evasion, and Pitiless Killer culls enemies (Culling Strike). Crossbow or bow with cold skills.

Gemling Legionnaire. Implanted gems. Essence of Virtue grants the Virtuous Barrier skill, and Advanced Thaumaturgy an extra effect from gem quality. Since its 0.5.0 rework it fits any weapon.

Tactician. Support and crowd control. A Solid Plan gives persistent buffs 50% less reservation, and Unleash Hell! grants the Supporting Fire skill. Most often played with a crossbow.

Monk

Invoker. Cold and lightning. Sunder my Enemies... makes critical hits ignore non-negative enemy monster elemental resistances, and I am the Thunder... and I am the Blizzard... each add 10% of damage as extra lightning or cold damage. The least played Ascendancy in Forbidden Rites (0.2%).

Acolyte of Chayula. Chaos and Darkness. Waking Dream grants the Into the Breach skill, and Chayula's Gift doubles your chaos resistance. Often a bow with Poisonburst Arrow.

Martial Artist. Quarterstaff combat, illusions and runes on the body. Way of the Stonefist turns your gloves into Fists of Stone with stronger modifiers (Maxroll: possibly the strongest Ascendancy node in the game), and Runic Meridians gives 5 rune-only sockets.

Huntress

Amazon. Crits from accuracy. Predatory Instinct gives 50% more damage against Rare and Unique enemies with an Open Weakness, and Critical Strike turns surplus hit chance into critical hit chance.

Ritualist. Unfurled Finger gives a third ring slot in exchange for one penalty (mana, Spirit or resistances), and Mystic Attunement increases bonuses from rings and amulets by 25%. Maxroll: "similar to a mini Headhunter".

Spirit Walker. Azmeri spirits and animal companions. Wild Protector grants a bear spirit, and The Natural Order lets you tame Unique beasts. A popular companion: Zekoa, the Headcrusher.

Druid

Shaman. Animal shapeshifting plus spells. Sacred Flow gives +40 Spirit for each empty Charm slot (more in our Spirit guide), and Wisdom of the Maji activates hidden (Bonded) modifiers on Runes and Idols.

Oracle. Foresight. The Unseen Path reveals passive tree nodes available only to the Oracle, and Forced Outcome grants Inevitable Critical Hits. Often Entangle and Spell Totem.

The Druid has no third Ascendancy in 0.5.5.

How to get Ascendancy points

Your first completed trial of any kind unlocks the Ascendancy choice. You earn 8 points in 4 stages, and at each stage you can choose the Trial of the Sekhemas or the Trial of Chaos (Maxroll, June 21, 2026).

How to change Ascendancy

You can only switch within your class: a Titan can become a Warbringer, but not a Deadeye. Your base class cannot be changed at all. Since version 0.5.0 changing is simpler (as gameplay videos from June 1, 2026 and September 5, 2026 show):

1. Complete a whole Trial of Chaos (an Inscribed Ultimatum of any area level and with any number of trials) or the 1st floor of the Trial of the Sekhemas (a Djinn Barya of any level).
2. In the reward room, talk to The Trialmaster or Balbala and choose "Change Ascendancy". You will see the Ascendancies of your base class.
3. Pick your new Ascendancy and click "Change". You pay gold: as much as refunding all your allocated Ascendancy points would cost.

GGG has not described this change in the patch notes and has not given an official price. You can work out the cost without committing at The Hooded One or Doryani: the refund price of one Ascendancy point times the number of points you have allocated. Older guides still describe the patch 0.2.0f rule, where you had to repeat a trial that grants as many points as you already have and refund all your points first. The 0.5.5 notes do fix a crash when changing Ascendancy, so the feature works.

The Duelist in 1.0 and what it means for this list

Version 1.0 arrives on December 11, 2026 with the Duelist (swords). So far GGG has only shown art of its Ascendancies: names and nodes come at ExileCon (keynote on November 6, 1 PM PST). There is no official word on a third Ascendancy for the Ranger or the Druid. Steam describes the full game as 12 classes with three Ascendancies each, so 36. More in our Path of Exile 2 1.0 guide.

New to the game? Our guide on which class to start with helps you choose your first character.