Wyvern Druid Leveling Build

Build Introduction

Obliterate your enemies as a dragon by using this leveling build! The Wyvern in Path of Exile 2 specializes in Power Charge generation which can be consumed to augment attacks to deal extra Lightning Damage and hit in a much larger area. Oil Barrage is the highlight for this build, completely destroying any and all enemies you come across all the way into maps.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

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Ascendancy

You will be able to select your Ascendancy after completing the Trial of Sekhemas during Act 2. The suggested level to run this will be at Level 22. You can wait a few levels if you’ve had really bad luck with gear upgrades. This leveling build was made specifically for Shaman, however it can also be played on Oracle with minor changes, outlined below. If you wish to change your Ascendancy later, Path of Exile 2 now allows you to respec, and it can be done at any point after completing the initial Trial during the campaign.

Shaman

Shaman is the suggested Ascendancy to level with. While Oracle is also a good choice, and will work with this, taking 10% Elemental Damage off the top of hits and gaining 10% extra Elemental Damage plus added Exposure is just too good to pass up for a quick campaign run.

1. Turning of the Seasons: Enemies with our Presence have Exposure, and we gain 10% extra damage of a random element. While it was mentioned above that Cold Damage can be detrimental, this is not enough to have enemies shatter on its own.
2. Reactive Growth: This is a massive defensive node, especially early on when you’re at the mercy of gear drops to maintain resistances. This won’t solve elemental damage reductions if you don’t have the proper gear affixes, but it will help take the edge off. Getting hit by an element will provide you with extra mitigation, displayed both in the top left-hand portion of the screen and with floating elemental shield around your character.

Oracle

1. The Lesser Harm: A fantastic defensive node, this will smooth out enemy damage against us and lower the top end of hits by making all hits unlucky and then also making the enemy critical chance unlucky as well.
2. Forced Outcome: This node will force critical hits by increasing Critical Hit Chance for each non-crit you’ve dealt at the cost of Critical Damage. If you run Oracle, move your nodes around in the tree to facilitate a little extra Critical Hit Chance as a base to ensure this node pays off. Flat Critical Chance on your Talisman is also a good idea. You’ll want at anywhere between 20% and 40% Critical Chance on your skills to make it worth it.

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General Leveling Advice

We can not stress enough how important it is to check vendors for gear. Getting a good mace will make all the difference in the world for your leveling experience. Vendors reset their inventory every time you level, so check back frequently to see if there’s an upgrade. Alternatively, use the gamble vendor to see if you can pull a good weapon that way, if you have spare gold.

Important! Since the Wyvern has a larger model, using the setting “Always Attack Without Moving” is highly suggested. Failure to enable this, at least on mouse/keyboard, will result in your character constantly trying to walk into enemies without actually attacking. You can find this setting by entering the skill menu, hitting the arrow on Rend and Wing Blast, and selecting the option in the bottom right of the menu display. These are the only two skills in this build that need to be changed.

The Wyvern is a little sluggish feeling, and suffers in tight spaces if you’re caught off guard. The model can bug out and get stuck on walls. If this happens, just aim Wing Blast in the opposite direction of where you want to go and you’ll get unstuck. Just keep in mind that this may be deadly if it happens to you in combat. Maps like The Dreadnaught (Act 2) suffer from this the most. We’ll update this again if GGG provides a fix.

Ensure you’re completing all important side quests. It’s very easy to pass up free passive points while running through campaign maps. In case you need a list of all permanent stat boosts during the campaign, you can find those on our guide using this link!

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Leveling Passive Tree

The Passive Tree below can be followed through to the end of the Interlude and into early maps. Beyond that point, you should swap to an endgame setup. Follow along as you level using the arrows on the left and the right of the progression slider at the top of the Passive Tree.

Important Nodes

Since Oil Barrage hits hard naturally, a large focus of the passive tree will be to ensure the Wyvern feels good to play, and you’re not getting one-tapped by random things. In my experience, the Wyvern feels a little clunky to control. The model is larger than a normal human character, so it’s prone to colliding with the environment much more.

• Iron Slippers: Armour and Energy Shield don’t have the best synergy, but while leveling it’s what you have access to. This node is very strong; a decent pair of boots with 200 Energy Shield in Act 4 will net you an extra 600 Armour. The 10% reduced Slowing Potency is an added bonus.
• Bashing Beast: Intimidate on enemies is incredibly strong. Our entire rotation against bosses will bank on heavy stunning them, meaning your burst will always gain this damage bonus.
• Reinforced Barrier: This node is great for protection against the first instance of damage at full health. You’ll always defend with a bit of extra Armour, making the top half of your Energy Shield worth more value.

Important! You need to limit how much Cold Damage you scale with this build. It may be tempting to take Frozen Claw or grab a weapon with a lot of Cold scaling on it, but freezing and shattering enemies is not good for the mechanics of this build! If you shatter an enemy, it won’t leave a corpse. You’ll be starved for Power Charges and Life Regen.

Skill Gems

Listed below are all Skill Gems that should be used during the leveling process. There may be a slight variation depending on which Act you’re currently progressing through. Notes for each Act will be listed below the Skill Gem tool.

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Act I Notes

The Druid starts with access to only the Werewolf and the Werebear until entering Wraeclast at Level 1. You will gain access to the Wyvern upon cutting your first Level 3 Skill Gem, which grants you access to both Rolling Magma and Wing Blast.

Until this happens, the Werewolf will be your best friend. Spend the first portion of the campaign killing enemies with Shred and Lunar Assault. Lunar Assault will quickly freeze enemies, which you can then use Shred to deal uninterrupted damage while ripping ice crystals off enemies which then explode, dealing AoE damage. It’s not listed in the planner above, but feel free to cut a Rapid Attacks I to place on Shred; you’ll be able to repurpose this later. Lunar Assault will do well with an Ice Bite I.

Once you do receive your Level 3 Skill Gem, your first cut should be to obtain Wing Blast. Make sure you also select Wyvern Form on your Talisman (it’s the yellow icon) to gain access to Rend. These two skills combo well together. Rend enemies until a yellow indicator pops above their head. This means they are Primed for Stun, at which point you should hit them with Wing Blast. Depending on the tier of monster you just stunned, there will be a chance you gained a Power Charge. The Power Charge can then be consumed to empower Rend to deal extra Lightning Damage and also hit in a much larger area.

Clear is made much easier upon killing The King of the Mists and cutting Herald of Ash from your first Spirit Gem. Upon overkilling enemies, they’ll explode and ignite nearby enemies for a portion of the overkill.

As you kill the Executioner, you’ll free an NPC from the guillotine. She teleports back to camp, and if you talk to her there, she’ll give you a Level 5 Skill Gem. This should be used on Devour. You’ll no longer be dependent on Wing Blast alone to generate Power Charges, as you can eat enemies either when below a certain amount of health (similar to Stun Primed, a blue icon will appear telling you an enemy can be culled with Devour) or after they die by consuming their corpse.

Skill Rotation:

1. Slap enemies with Rend.
2. Once Primed for Stun, use Wing Blast to immediately stun enemies and consume the debuff, granting a Power Charge.
3. Continue using empowered Rend to deal higher amounts of damage.

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Act 2 Notes

Act 2 won’t see much change from the way you played at the end of Act 1. With Devour still being relatively new, remember to consume corpses frequently. Not only will they keep you topped up on Power Charges, but consuming corpses will also regenerate a ton of Life. This Life Regeneration scales off Skill Gem Level, meaning it’s extra important to keep Devour on par with character level. If you forget about it (which is easy to do, it isn’t really your main source of damage), you’ll quickly feel yourself gaining less and less Life relative to your Life Pool when consuming corpses.

The first two Ascendancy points don’t provide much in terms of gameplay mechanics. Being in melee range of enemies will apply Exposure, meaning you’ll deal more damage to enemies with Elemental Damage. On top of this, we’ll gain extra random Elemental Damage, rolled on each attack.

You’ll hit Level 31 around the time you reach the final Act 2 map, The Dreadnaught. This is important because it’s also the point in which you gain access to Oil Barrage. The fight against Jamanra will either be really hard, or really easy depending on if you take the time to get a Level 9 Skill Gem. It is in your best interest to kill enemies in this last map until one drops.

You’ll have a new way to spend Power Charges now through Oil Barrage. Normally the attack is just a quick spit of black goo at an enemy, which applies Exposure and can be ignited through igniting enemies standing on the oil. However, if used with a Power Charge this ability turns into a channel and gains a ton of extra Lightning Damage. Through Perpetual Charge we can kind of RNG our way into a much longer channel, and when paired with Burgeon I this will cap damage, turning the skill into a destructive force.

At this point in the campaign, your only way to generate Power Charges on a boss is by stunning them. Jamanra is a bit hard to avoid in Wyvern Form, so be diligent to watch his attacks and dodge at the right times to avoid taking extra damage. Once Jamanra is Primed for Stun, Wing Blast and immediately channel Oil Barrage and watch him fall over. This is how you’ll deal with every boss going forward until you gain access to Lingering Illusion in Act 3.

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Act 3 Notes

With access to Oil Barrage and a new tier (Level 3) of Support Gems, you’ll feel much more powerful going forward. Rush the the next two maps to get to Ignagduk and claim an extra 30 Spirit. With this, you’ll cut Lingering Illusion on the Spirit Gem. Every time you dodge roll, a blue clone of your Wyvern will appear. If hit by any enemy attack it will disappear and leave behind a Power Charge (or two).

This completely fixes boss fights going forward. You’ll no longer need to build up the stun meter on bosses with Rend. Instead, dodge roll out of attacks from them, let the boss kill your clone, and immediately rip Oil Barrage at your first safe opportunity.

Don’t forget to complete the Temple of Chaos at this point. Empowered Rend and Oil Barrage will completely decimate everything going forward, so grabbing your next two Ascendancy points should be done as early as possible, usually at Level 36. Reactive Growth really helps with Elemental Damage you take from enemies, and it’s worth prioritizing this over campaign progression.

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Act 4 and Beyond

Nothing much else changes going forward. Continue upgrading your Skill Gems, and take advantage of the market upon entering Act 4 to pick up a nice upgrade with the currency you’ve found so far.

It’s worth noting that as of right now, Tivakai (the final boss of Act 4) is bugged while you’re in Wyvern Form. Tivakai has an attack where he throws a grappling hook at you, and if it hits, you’ll be permanently stunned until you die. There are reports that transforming into a human when this happen will knock you out of the stun, but otherwise take extra care to watch when he shoots out the line and get out of Phase 1 as quickly as possible to avoid extra issues.

Deadly Resolve

It is worth mentioning the new support gem, Deadly Resolve. Compared to most other things in the game, it’s unique. This Support Gem will deal damage to enemies that attack you within melee range after you’ve channeled an attack, but the attack itself scales like a spell with flat damage based on the Gem Level of the Skill Gem it’s attached to.

Additionally, it scales multiplicatively with your Armour. This provides a good way to protect ourselves from enemies while channeling Oil Barrage and mobs approach from behind. In most cases, we can continue to focus the enemies in front of us and let the ones behind us kill themselves.

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Boss Rotation

1. Rend enemies and dodge roll out of attacks to create Lingering Illusion clones.
2. If the enemy is Primed for Stun, use Wing Blast to immediately stun.
3. Unload Oil Barrage.

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Gearing Progression

Gearing for this will be slightly more specific than what most leveling builds call for. The node Iron Slippers gains a huge benefit from pure Energy Shield boots, so you won’t want to use anything else once you take it. Otherwise, prioritize very high Physical Damage on your Talisman. Elemental Damage may seem enticing, but you’re relying heavily on Physical Damage to Stun enemies.

+Melee Levels are nice, but it won’t scale Oil Barrage. If you get them, great. The affix is not worth chasing though, and the leveler was tested without them.

Attributes can be a little tight. You’ll need Strength, Intelligence, and a little bit of Dexterity in order to make this work as intended. Your amulet and rings are the best options for this.

Offensive Modifiers

• Increased Physical Damage
• Added Physical Damage
• Increased Attack Speed
• Increased Shock Magnitude (if possible, this only appears on a specific base)
• Movement Speed

Defensive Gear

• Energy Shield and/or Armour
  • Individual pieces will vary outside of Boots and Helmet (because of passive tree nodes), but generally you can flip flop between hybrid, pure Energy Shield, or pure Armour based on the affixes and Level of a certain piece. Take what you need to cap Resistances and ensure your character is sturdy enough to clear maps.
• Resistances
• Life
• Stun Threshold

Runes

The main priority for sockets will be to keep your resistances as close to, or above, the resistance cap as possible. For your weapon, prioritize Iron Runes for the extra Physical Damage. If those are unavailable, or if you currently have a low Physical Damage Talisman, insert Storm Runes instead.

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Campaign Buffs

• Valley of the Titans Altar (Act 2)
  • 30% increased charm charges gained. This can be swapped later.
• Venom Draught (Act 3)
  • The Venom Draught selection should be made based on what you plan on playing for endgame. Mana Regeneration is useless for this build, however you may want it depending on your plans.
• Halls of the Dead (Act 4)
  • Largely up to the player, these are permanent. Our suggestion is to take the elemental resistance for all three.
• Qimah (Interlude 2: The Stolen Barya)
  • 5% Elemental Resistance or 3% Movement Speed. This can be swapped later.

For more details, check the guide on Campaign Difficulties and Permanent Stat Bonuses.

Flasks and Charms

While leveling, you will find several flasks and Charms. Upgrade your flasks as you go along, and if you fail to find flask upgrades, check vendors to buy them with gold.

Modifiers to look for on your flasks and charms:

• Health and Mana Flasks
  • Prefix: Increased Amount Recovered
  • Suffix: # Charges gained per second
• Charm
  • Staunching Charm
  • Stone Charm.

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Changelog

• December 20th, 2025: Leveling build created.