Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.3.0, known as The Third Edict, introduces a wealth of new skills, keystone passives, and mechanics that shape the way characters play and develop. For players starting fresh in the Rise of the Abyssals League, efficient leveling requires a balance of clear speed, survivability, and scalability. This guide highlights several S-tier builds optimized for rapid leveling, providing both newcomers and veterans with reliable options to progress through the campaign.

Why Build Choice Matters in PoE 2 0.3

 Leveling in Path of Exile 2 is more than just fighting enemies—it's about navigating quests efficiently, picking up key gear upgrades, and unlocking passive nodes in the skill tree to maximize damage and survivability. Essential items like Path Of Exile 2 currency, movement speed boots, upgraded flasks, and early weapons drastically improve the speed of progression. Choosing a build with early-access skills, simple mechanics, and strong scaling ensures smooth progression without frustrating downtime.

1. Lich Leveling Build: Essence Drain Contagion Chaos DoT

The Lich Essence Drain Contagion build is perfect for newcomers to the Rise of the Abyssals league. It leverages chaos damage over time (DoT) and AoE debuffs to clear enemies efficiently. Patch 0.3 has enhanced Contagion quality, target count, and clear speed, making this build consistent from the campaign through the endgame.

Main Skills:

· Essence Drain with Swift Affliction and Chain for damage and AoE.

· Contagion with Unleash and Magnified Effect spreads debuffs rapidly.

· Flame Wall (Arcane Tempo) and Unearth (Feeding Frenzy, Minion Instability) add early damage and survivability.

· Despair Curse reduces enemy chaos resistance.

· After the first spirit quest, Withering Presence (Persistence) applies the Wither debuff for added damage.

Passive Tree & Ascendancy:

Focus on chaos damage, DoT, and survivability. Lich ascendancy boosts tankiness and damage, while Blood Mage is an alternative for late-game scaling.

2. Witch Leveling Build: Fire-to-Chaos Minion Synergy

This Witch build blends fire-to-chaos conversion, ignite effects, and minion support, allowing easy mob and boss clearing. Weapon swapping with items like Dark Defiler enhances chaos damage and corpse generation for minions.

Main Skills:

· Living Bomb detonates on enemy damage, maximizing ignite chance.

· Essence Drain is optimized through weapon swaps.

· Unearth summons aggressive minions.

· Curse setup: Decaying Hex, Impending Doom, Enfeeble triggers contagion-based bursts.

· Minions spread contagion automatically.

Passive Tree & Ascendancy:

Prioritize minion power, chaos damage, skill duration, and minion survivability. Lich ascendancy grants Unholy Might, boosting chaos damage for both player and minions.

3. Tactician Leveling Build: Ballista Totems & Banners

Ideal for solo self-found (SSF) players, this Tactician build focuses on ranged totems and buffs, providing safe and effective campaign progression.

Main Skills:

· Ballista Totems are available around level 31.

· Banners enhance damage and survivability.

· Early-game skills: Fragmentation Rounds and Contagion.

· High Velocity Rounds debuffs enemies for increased damage.

· Disengage improves mobility.

Passive Tree & Ascendancy:

Invest in totem damage, attack speed, poison damage, and survivability. Cannons, Ready! grants extra totems early, but can be respecced later.

4. Amazon Leveling Build: Elemental Surge Burst

The Elemental Surge Amazon uses high critical strike chance and elemental scaling to deal wide AoE and burst damage. Despite nerfs to some ascendancy nodes, the build remains effective for leveling and bosses.

Main Skills:

· Elemental Surge fires Galvanic Shards for multi-hit coverage.

· Shard Scavenger refreshes the surge buff continuously.

· Damage types include shocks, ignites, or freezes.

· Plasma Blast boosts shock damage by 50%.

Passive Tree:

Focus on elemental damage, crit chance, and charge generation. Rare amulets with energy shield enhance survivability and surge uptime.

5. Deadeye Leveling Build: Bow Clear Speed

This Deadeye build is fast, safe, and easy to gear, making it ideal for new leagues. Multiple rune sockets on bows increase arrow output, greatly boosting AoE and single-target damage.

Main Skills:

· Voltaic Mark and Sniper's Mark increase crit and attack speed.

· Bow attacks shoot multiple arrows via rune sockets.

Passive Tree & Ascendancy:

Focus on projectile damage, critical strikes, and evasion. The new Deflection mechanic synergizes with evasion to reduce incoming damage.

6. Monk Leveling Build: Hollow Palm Unarmed

The Unarmed Monk utilizes the new unarmed keystone for weaponless quarterstaff skills. Evasion and energy shield synergize to enhance attack speed and critical strikes.

Main Skills:

· Tempest Flurry and Flicker Strike for fast melee damage.

· Unarmed keystone enables quarterstaff skills without weapons.

Passive Tree:

Invest in evasion, energy shield, attack speed, and crit nodes.

7. Warrior Leveling Build: Smith of Kitava Melee

The Warrior build excels at clearing mobs and bosses with two-handed maces, leveraging stun mechanics and fire damage. Smith of Kitava ascendancy converts elemental resistances efficiently.

Main Skills:

· Rolling Slam: Two-stage AoE attack, stunning enemies.

· Boneshatter: Heavy stun with shockwave damage.

· Infernal Cry: Empowers next attack based on nearby enemies.

· Basic attacks enhanced by Mace Strike and Perfect Strike.

Passive Tree & Progression:

· Act 1: Melee and fire damage nodes, unlock Infernal Cry.

· Act 2: Health and resistance nodes for durability, emphasize two-handed maces.

· Act 3: Convert all damage to fire, balance offense and defense, upgrade three-link gems for optimal skill support.

Conclusion

Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.3.0 introduces The Third Edict, offering exciting opportunities for experimentation with new skills and passives. Whether you prefer chaos DoT, minion summoning, ranged totems, elemental bursts, unarmed melee, or traditional maces, these S-tier leveling builds ensure fast, safe, and enjoyable progression through the Rise of the Abyssals League. By focusing on early skill access, survivability, and clear speed, players can dominate both the campaign and endgame efficiently.