Picking a first class in Path of Exile 2 is harder than it should be, and Content Update 0.3.0 — The Third Edict — reshuffled the math enough that pre-patch advice is unreliable. This guide ranks the game’s starting classes for new players using three criteria: ease of learning, gear dependence, and endgame ceiling, grounded strictly in what the official 0.3.0 patch notes document.

A quick framing note before the rankings: Grinding Gear Games stated that 0.3.0’s balance goal is to increase build diversity by making far more skills and archetypes viable into the endgame. That means the gap between “best” and “worst” first classes is narrower than older community guides suggest. The differences below are about how smooth your first campaign feels, not about whether a class can finish the game.

What changed

Three patch-wide changes affect every class decision in 0.3.0:

  • Attribute requirements dropped. Equipment and skill gem attribute requirements were lowered by roughly 20–25% at endgame levels. New players struggle less with the classic “I can’t equip my gear” wall, and hybrid classes that need two attributes are less punishing.
  • Movement improved for everyone. Holding the dodge roll button now flows into an unlimited sprint, available on all classes. Slow early-game traversal is simply less of a factor than it used to be.
  • Supports were unshackled. You can now use as many copies of one support gem as you like, supports exist in tiers, and 40 powerful Lineage Supports drop in the endgame. This compresses the advantage that used to belong to whichever class monopolized the few “best” supports, and it raises the endgame ceiling of every class.

On the defensive side, evasion now applies to all hits except red-flashing boss skills, block can stop anything without that red flash, and base maximum block chance dropped to 50%. Fire damage now builds a stacking Flammability debuff rather than igniting directly, and the new Elemental Infusion system threads through many elemental spell builds. Keep those in mind below.

How it works — the rankings

Ease of learning

Top tier: Warrior, Mercenary, Ranger. The Warrior’s melee loop (slams, warcries, shield play) is legible: you position, you swing, things fall over. Several 0.3.0 additions suit it directly — the new Fortifying Cry and Forge Hammer skill gems, and the reworked Magma Barrier, which passively raises block chance while charging a lava-spraying empowered block. The Mercenary’s crossbow archetypes also read clearly, and 0.3.0 removed the movement-speed penalty for reloading and switching ammunition, a small but real quality-of-life gain for newcomers. The Ranger’s bow gameplay is the classic kite-and-shoot ARPGARPG. Action RPG — an RPG with real-time combat rather than turn-based fights. pattern, and it received generous attention: the reworked Snipe, Escape Shot (now with an ice-fragment burst and a longer retreat), and Freezing Salvo all got documented buffs or quality improvements.

Middle tier: Witch, Huntress, Sorceress. Minion builds remain friendly to new players because your skeletons do the aiming, and 0.3.0 gave minions meaningful scaling attention — minions now deal up to 50% more damage against non-unique monsters by skill level 8, player minions always hit with their attacks, and spectres plus tamed beasts deal 25% more damage at all gem levels. The Witch’s challenge is resource management, not aim. The Huntress’s spear kit got wide-ranging numeric attention (Spearfield, Explosive Spear, Rapid Assault), which rewards players comfortable learning a less familiar weapon. Sorceress spellcasting is straightforward mechanically, but the new Flammability and Elemental Infusion systems add one more layer of “do I pick up that remnant?” decision-making to elemental play.

Hardest first class: Monk. The Monk rewards combo pacing, charge management, and positional play, and 0.3.0 added even more options to track — including the new Hollow Palm Technique keystone (quarterstaff attacks while unarmed) and the Walker of the Wilds keystone. Strong choice, wrong first choice.

Gear dependence

Lowest: Witch, Sorceress. Minion and spell builds historically function on campaign gear, and 0.3.0 quietly helps spell users further: inherent skills on wands and staves deal about 12% more damage from skill level 11 onward, and base spell damage scaling was retuned upward in the late game. The four-tier Essence rework, which guarantees specific modifiers based on essence tier and item type, also makes mid-campaign crafting more productive for everyone, but casters feel it most because their weapons matter less than their gem levels.

Middle: Mercenary, Huntress, Ranger. Attack builds scale off weapons, so you will replace gear more often — but 0.3.0 added over 50 new base item types and new Greater/Perfect currency orbs that begin dropping in the late campaign, smoothing the weapon-upgrade path.

Highest: Warrior, Monk. Melee characters carry a double burden in a new league: they need a good weapon for damage and good defenses because they stand next to enemies. The block ceiling dropping to 50% and monsters building stun faster against blocking and parrying players (roughly 30% and 12% more, respectively, per the notes) means a poorly geared Warrior feels it immediately.

Endgame ceiling

Every class gained ceiling in 0.3.0 because Lineage Supports (40 endgame-only, stronger supports) and the splintered pinnacle-difficulty system raise what a finished character can farm. Within that, two classes deserve notes based on documented Ascendancy changes:

  • Mercenary — Tactician and Gemling Legionnaire. Tactician’s new Strategic Embankments notable grants each totem type an aura with a distinct bonus, Death from Above was roughly tripled in damage, and banners gained Glory generation with no placement limit. Gemling Legionnaire’s reworked notables passively generate charges based on your socketed gems’ attribute requirements and reward your dominant gem colour. These are ceiling-raising changes for a class that also farms comfortably.
  • Ranger — Deadeye and Pathfinder. Deadeye’s Called Shots now chains projectiles to marked enemies and adds a mark-spreading meta skill, while Pathfinder’s five concoctions were rebuilt around clearer payoffs (for example, consuming poison on a target for a burst of life loss).

New-keynote spellcasters benefit from the keystone additions: Blackflame Covenant converts fire spell damage to chaos with ignite synergy, and Ritual Cadence smooths Invocation-style trigger builds — both of which sit near the Witch/Sorceress starting zones.

Build path

If you want a concrete, low-regret plan for your first 0.3.0 character:

  1. Pick by feel first. Campaign enjoyment beats theoretical power. Warrior if you like melee, Mercenary or Ranger for ranged attacks, Witch or Sorceress for magic, Huntress for spear hybrid play. Save Monk for character two.
  2. Start in the current league. The notes themselves strongly encourage starting fresh, and the passive refund only matters to returning characters. The league’s Well of Souls system, discovered in Act Two, lets you reveal a hidden Desecrated modifier and choose one of three outcomes — practical crafting help while leveling.
  3. Craft modestly, early. Use the reworked Essences to guarantee one useful modifier on campaign gear instead of hoarding.
  4. Sprint everywhere. Hold dodge roll to flow into sprint when out of combat; just remember a hit while sprinting knocks you down.
  5. Read your Ascendancy’s section of the notes before choosing it. Every existing Ascendancy changed in 0.3.0, and several notables were renamed or replaced. Don’t follow a pre-patch guide’s ascendancy order unchecked.

What it means

The honest summary for a new player: there is no trap class in Path of Exile 2 after 0.3.0, because the patch’s purpose was expanding endgame viability, and shared changes — sprint, lower attribute requirements, unshackled supports, easier mid-campaign crafting — help beginners regardless of choice. The real differences are about friction. Warrior, Mercenary, and Ranger ask the least of your hands; Witch and Sorceress ask the least of your gear; Monk offers the highest mechanical ceiling for a first character and the steepest early learning wall. Whatever you pick, the class tier lists that mattered before The Third Edict should be treated as expired documents — this patch rewrote too many notables, support rules, and defensive baselines for old rankings to survive intact.