So you’ve taken the path of fury and berserk with the Warrior, who deals knockout blows that stun the enemies with his hammer or mace in Path of Exile 2? Warrior starts a little slower than some other classes in the early part of the game, but one thing they do have is a strong defense. For this reason, you want to aim for attack passives at the beginning to make up for your lackluster attack in the early levels, while not foregoing defense. Read on to find out what passives you should take for Warrior in the first two acts of the game.

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What the Warrior has in defenses in the early game, it lacks in the damage department. Get those damage skills as soon as you can!

Warrior Passive Skill Choices for Acts 1 and 2¶

When you first get your hands on the Warrior, the first thing you’ll notice is that you don’t die in two hits, unlike some other classes. You’ll also notice that you hit like you’re using a wet noodle, although the impact the skills make leaves a hefty thump.

For that purpose, you need to invest in your attack as soon as possible, otherwise, you’ll be fighting each boss for two weeks before you get to half health. Although you want predominantly attack damage, you don’t want to neglect your defense, and there are some strong passives for that at the start too. Let’s take a look at what passive skills you want to take for the first couple of acts.

Right from the start, take the second increase melee damage +10% and follow the line left until you reach the Brutal passive to get a further 16% increased melee damage as well as 10% increased stun buildup. Continue along the line left and pick up the Reverberating Impact passive to increase the Area of Effect of your attacks by 16% while also increasing the break damage you do to the armor of the enemies.

Return to the Brutal passive and follow the line down, taking the armor skills, and then head left from the first attribute node until you reach the third attribute node. Go down the line, picking up another four attribute nodes, and then take the southwest line to acquire the Blurred Motion passive to obtain a 5% increase in Attack Speed, 10% increased Accuracy Rating, and 5% increased Dexterity.

Return to the attribute node that led to this line, and continue heading right, going down at the next attribute node to get the powerful Cruel Methods passive, which gets you a huge 40% break damage to Armor and a massive 25% increase to Global Physical Damage.

Head back up, and continue right until you reach the third attribute node along the line, go down, and get every node here, which includes the three passive skills, Colossal Weapon, Curved Weapon, and the strong Overwhelm passive. All of these will get you 40% increased Damage with Two-Handed Weapons (switch to two-handed if you haven’t already), 5% reduced Attack Speed, 20% increased Stun Buildup, 15% Accuracy Rating, and 15% increased Area of Effect attacks.

This doesn’t include the further 60% increased Two-Handed Weapons damage you get from the smaller nodes as well! If you still have some points to spend by the end of Act 2, you can head up to the nearby Bloodletting passive to add the Bleed effect to your hits, with this particular passive giving you 10% to inflict Bleed on Hit, and 15% increased Magnitude of Bleeding you inflict.

That will take you to approximately 40 skill points. If you’ve been grinding, or have been lucky finding skill point books, start heading to the left toward the Beef passive skill. That’s it for the early game of Warrior. For the most part, you’ll be hitting enemies with your regular attack as it has the highest DPS, preferably with a two-handed weapon. Throw a few Earthquakes in there, and you’re good.