Best Path of Exile (PoE) 3.22 Trial of the Ancestors League Starter Builds

Even though we have to wait a while for Path of Exile 2, the original is still going to be receiving new seasons. In fact, the new patch 3.22 season titled Path of Exile: Trial of the Ancestors releases tomorrow, August 18, on PC and Mac. Console players will get the new season launch a week later on August 23.

I’m a huge fan of Path of Exile, but I know it can be very hard to get into. Even back when I started playing years ago, the learning curve was a bit much. On top of that, every season adds more mechanics and features. This is great for veteran players, but for those looking to try to learn the game, it only adds to the hassle. A lot of prospective players figured they’d wait until Path of Exile 2 to try relearning the game. However, now that we know it won’t be entering beta for almost a year, I wanted to do my part to try and help make PoE more accessible.

Do I need to follow a Path of Exile build guide?

The first thing you need to do in Path of Exile is pick your League Starter Build. While in most action RPGs you can just throw points into what you want as you go, that’s unfortunately not the case for PoE. I mean, you sort of can. But, eventually, you’re going to hit a point in your experience where you will wish you had just stuck to an already existing build—especially if you’re not a veteran player. Once you’ve got a few seasons under your belt and you have a better idea of how exactly PoE works, you can definitely try to formulate your own build. Until then, trust me when I say: you can still have fun in PoE when following a build guide. 

As a final note before we jump into the builds, keep in mind that builds change with each season. It’s not uncommon for PoE developer Grinding Gear Games to do sweeping balance changes making some builds less or more viable with each season. Interestingly, this season didn’t change too much when it comes to existing builds. As such, this is a great season to jump in as we already have an idea of what builds work and which ones do not. Here is the best Path of Exile (PoE) 3.22 Trial of the Ancestors League Starter Builds.

Path of Exile (PoE) 3.22 Trial of the Ancestors League Starter Builds

For each build I list here, I will name the build, a brief summary of how the build plays, as well as a link to a reputable build guide that lays out in detail how to build your character to successfully play that build.

Righteous Fire Inquisitor — The best overall League Starter build in Path of Exile Trial of the Ancestors 3.22

Build Guide: Righteous Fire Inquisitor by Pohx

Righteous Fire Inquisitor has been a staple Path of Exile League Starter build for as long as I can remember. It’s also often recommended to beginners due to its easy playstyle. Once you have the proper gear, most content can be completed by activating your Righteous Fire and running around. Every few seconds you stop moving only to reactivate Consecrated Ground. Even though this build definitely excels at map clear, it can still be solid for most boss encounters. The only downside really is that the AoE radius of Righteous Fire isn’t astronomical. As such, you will often quite literally be face-tanking encounters. Thankfully, Inquisitor offsets this a bit with more tankiness. If you’re having a tough time surviving, you can even switch to Juggernaut for more survivability. Once you’ve reached the end-game and start farming a lot of currency, Elementalist is an option for even more damage.

Boneshatter Juggernaut Build — The best melee League Starter build in Path of Exile Trial of the Ancestors 3.22

Build Guide: Boneshatter Juggernaut by Zizaran

Melee has been in a really strange place for a while in Path of Exile. However, recent improvements to Boneshatter have made it extremely viable, especially at the league start. Its damage scales very well even without optimized gear. So long as you can get a decent weapon, you don’t have to worry about damage with Boneshatter. By going Juggernaut, survivability is also improved making this one of the best all-around melee builds PoE has to offer. If you are playing in non-hardcore, or have more experience with PoE, you could also try Slayer. Boneshatter Slayer won’t have quite the survivability as Juggernaut, but it will do more damage.

Explosive Arrow Ballista Build — The best balling on a budget League Starter build in Path of Exile Trial of the Ancestors 3.22

Build Guide: Explosive Arrow Ballista Elementalist by Palsteron

Explosive Arrow Ballista Elementalist in particular became a strong build a few leagues ago. Every league it’s assumed it’s going to get nerfed, but that’s yet to happen. This build does not require any Uniques so you can literally start decimating bosses and clearing maps without any investment into your gear. In fact, with the most basic of gear, you can start clearing maps as soon as you reach the end game. As if this wasn’t enough adding optimized gear only pushes this build even further. This means that while most League Starter builds eventually reach a cap where you have to switch to a better build, Explosive Arrow Ballista does not have that problem. Once you start clearing maps and farming currency, you can actually reinvest in your same build and eventually clear all content with it.

Detonate Dead Elementalist — The best boss-killing League Starter build in Path of Exile Trial of the Ancestors 3.22

Build Guide: Detonate Dead Elementalist by ds_lily

With most League Starter builds, boss damage can wind up being a problem. With this Detonate Dead Elementalist build, boss killing will never be a problem. In fact, this build specializes in killing bosses while also having a decent map clear speed. By going with the Elementalist ascendancy, we’re able to increase boss damage even more. However, as you could imagine, this build is not that tanky. Once you get the playstyle of Detonate Dead Elementalist down, you can literally kill uber bosses with the most minimal low-budget gear. If killing bosses is your goal with this Path of Exile league, definitely consider trying this build.

Lightning Arrow Deadeye — The best map-clear League Starter build in Path of Exile Trial of the Ancestors 3.22

Build Guide: Lightning Arrow Deadeye League Starter by Crouching_Tuna

Sometimes you just want to zip through your maps, pushing a few keys and clearing out the entire screen. If that’s your cup of tea, take a look at Lightning Arrow Deadeye. This ranged bow build is able to stack flat Elemental Damage and achieve insane DPS. Once this build gets going you can fire many projectiles at once, each of which chain through enemies as they hit them. This build excels at clearing out an entire screen full of enemies quickly. Unfortunately, it is a bit lacking when it comes to boss killing, so definitely look at other options if that’s your goal. That’s not to say it isn’t possible, just that it isn’t its strength. The build is also a bit on the squishy side, though you’re always at range with this build anyway.

As you can see, there are definitely more viable ranged than melee builds. Unfortunately, that’s just the current state of Path of Exile. Once the league starts and we get a look at how some other builds are doing we may update this list.