Bleed & Poison Ritualist Leveling Build

Build Introduction

Bleed and Poison are two of the core damage over time (DoT) types in the game. In this build we utilize both of them through skills like Rake, Spearfield, Herald of Plague, and Herald of Blood which are then supported by Bursting Plague to create some satisfying and amazing clear explosion chains.

We are also going to be using our Spear Stab a lot for additional single target as well as breaking enemy armour for extra damage while the enemy is bleeding. This build also utilizes Tame Beast to get extra bonuses to damage as well as getting a Haste Aura for extra movement speed and attack speed. The Companion will sometimes be a nice meat shield because monsters will target the beast instead of you.

This leveling build has an active combat playstyle by jumping in and out of combat to apply bleeds and poisons. This is backed up by solid evasion and block as a defense.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

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Ascendancy

In Act 2 you get access to your ascendancy choice. The trial is zone level 22, and it’s not difficult. If you have no problem clearing campaign zones level 22, you’re not going to struggle here. However, if you want to make extra sure that you don’t fail, you can always over-level and acquire better gear. At the end of the trial there is a choice to be made. You will have to choose between the Amazon and Ritualist ascendancy. This is not permanent. You can always change it by again running the highest trial that you have completed, and it does not have to be the Trial of Sekhemas.

Ritualist

The Ritualist offers power in the form of an extra ring slot and increases the effect of your rings and amulet. This is the recommended ascendancy for this build.

1. Unfurled Finger – Provides you with an extra ring slot at a cost. You can choose one of three downsides: 25% reduced spirit, -20% to all elemental resistances, or 30% reduced maximum mana. We highly suggest taking the 30% reduced maximum mana since it’s the far lower downside compared to the other two options.
2. Mystic Attunement/Wildwood Persistence – The choice between these two is up to you.
   • We recommend getting Mystic Attunement to increase the effect of our rings and amulet. This results in easier to obtain resistances, higher flat damage gains, and just overall more stats to your character.
   • Wildwood Persistence is great as a defense node. The more life you are missing, the higher the life recovery. This works for recovery for all sources. That means your leech effects, regeneration, and life flasks are all going to be stronger.

Amazon

While the recommended ascendancy is Ritualist, Amazon is also an option. It will provide you with conditional bonuses to damage, and further improving upon those with Trial 2 or mana flasks also applying to life and vice versa.

1. Predatory Instinct – This is going to provide you with a huge 50% more damage multiplier against enemies with open weakness. Open weakness is basically a portion of a rare or unique enemy’s health bar where you deal more damage to them.
2. In for the Kill/Azmeri Brew – The choice between these two is up to you.
   • In for the Kill is going to further improve upon the Open Weakness mechanic by giving you 20% increased movement speed and 40% increased skill speed while an enemy with Open Weakness is in your presence. Keep in mind that this is conditional, and the Open weakness mechanic occurs only when fighting rare or unique enemies.
   • Azmeri Brew is going to be great both defensively and as a quality of life improvement. What sometimes can happen is that you run out of life flask charges in places like difficult boss fights. With this node you’ll be able to recover life even with a mana flask and recover mana with a life flask.

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General Leveling Advice

The Path of Exile 2 campaign is no joke and can get really difficult from time to time. This advice should help you have a smoother walkthrough and an easier time.

Check for gear upgrades at the vendor every time you are in town. Defensive gear should ideally be evasion based.

Do not forget to frequently upgrade the level of your skill gems!

Don’t be afraid of using the trade! Especially when you hit Act 4, where you unlock asynchronous trade. It is so easy to just buy yourself an upgrade from someone else. Just do it!

If you start losing too much mana by using your skills, that means you are at the higher skill gem levels. Get yourself physical attack damage leeched as mana on your weapon, rings, or gloves. For some extra life recovery, get physical attack damage leeched as life. Also, don’t forget to keep your flasks upgraded.

Keep in mind that you have to meet your stat requirements for your gear and gems. You can change the skill tree attribute travel nodes to the desired ones as necessary. If you find yourself having extra attributes, ideally put some into strength because for every 1 point of strength you get +2 maximum life.

Use Runes! Don’t save them for the endgame because for every 15 levels until level 30, you unlock higher-tier runes. After you’re level 30, don’t stop using them. In the endgame they drop like candy, and most of the level 30+ Runes are worthless. You can always check their price if you’re planning to sell them. We recommend using them on the gear slots that you know you’re not going to be replacing for a while.

Pick up normal items and use Orb of Transmutation + Orb of Augmentation on them to maximize your potential for upgrades when you need them. Do this only for the right bases (evasion bases and spears).

Don’t forget to disenchant cheap rare and magic items from time to time to make sure you have enough Regal Orbs and Orbs of Transmutation. You can also salvage cheap gear with sockets to gain Artificer Orbs. Do not forget to sell items so you have enough gold to buy upgrades or do respecs on the skill tree.

Doing side quests and repeat farming zones by clicking ESC and respawn at checkpoint can help a lot. By doing that you gain extra levels, skill and support gems, gear, runes, and other useful items. The PoE 2 campaign can be difficult, so we recommend taking your time.

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Leveling Passive Tree

The Passive Tree below can be followed through the entire campaign. 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.

Skill Gems

These are the gems used during leveling. You can click through Act setups, and don’t forget to check the individual Act notes listed below this skill gem window.

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Act I Notes

When you reach Clearfell, grab Twister as your first gem and use your Whirling Slash + Twister combo for clearing. It’s also good for bosses in small arenas. This is going to be your clearing bread and butter early on.

Your first priority with support gems should be getting your Spear Stab linked with Rapid Attacks I and Concentrated Area. You are going to need single target damage, and Spear Stab is going to be your best skill for that.

Once you get a Level 3 Uncut Skill Gem, you can get Rake and start using it for clear as well as extra single target. At this point if you feel comfortable enough clearing with just Rake, you can stop using your Whirling Slash + Twister combo. However, it is recommended to keep it for situations where you need to be ranged.

After you kill The King in the Mists in Freythorn and get your first Uncut Spirit Gem. This should be Herald of Blood, providing a large spike to your clear speed.

When you get a Level 5 Uncut Skill Gem, you can grab Spearfield. This skill is going to help you with clearing and single target. You can use it to preset spears on the ground before the boss spawns, and then the boss will immediately take multiple hits. For clearing, it pairs really well with Herald of Blood. Spearfield is going to chip away at all the monsters, and then when 1 or 2 monsters die, Herald of Blood is going to do the rest.

Remember to check vendors every time you go to town and look for upgrades. Ideally your spear would have +melee skills and as much physical damage as possible. Also, if you can get your hands on gloves with +melee skills, that would be great, as well as getting Iron rings for flat physical damage.

Skill Rotation:

• Use Whirling Slash 3x and then use Twister inside Whirling Slash for maximum effectiveness.
• Always try to use Rake from a distance for maximum bonuses. Use Rake then start attacking with Spear Stab while the enemy is bleeding. Occasionally re-apply the bleed by dodge rolling back and using Rake again, and repeat the process until the enemy is dead.

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Act 2 Notes

In Act 2 you will be making some changes to the skill setup. When you reach zone Level 25, you are able to drop Lesser Jeweler’s Orbs. You will also start finding Level 2 Uncut Support Gems.

Your first priority should be for Supprt Gems should be:

1. Spearfield + Bleed I, Poison I, Bursting Plague
2. Herald of Blood + Poison I, Bursting Plague, Bleed I
3. Rake + Concentrated Area, Momentum, Brutality II

While Spearfield and Herald of Blood will deliver some decent clear, Rake is going to serve as a single target helper.

With a Level 7 Uncut Skill Gem, add the Blood Hunt skill. Use it when the enemy has accumulated a decent amount of blood loss to deal massive damage. Sockets and supports are not a priority for this one, but if you have extra, you can use Concentrated Area, Momentum, and Hourglass.

Just make sure that you use both Rake and Blood Hunt from a distance to proc the momentum support.

The skill rotation It is the same as the Act 1 skill rotation, except now you use Blood Hunt when enough blood loss has accumulated.

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Act 3 Notes

In Act 3 you are going to be doing changes to your gem setups again, because you will unlock a new tier of support gems.

You can also do your second ascendancy trial in Act 3. In my personal opinion, The Chaos Trial is a little bit more difficult, so we recommend over-leveling for this one a little bit.

Once you get your first Level 9 Uncut Skill Gem, you should get Tame Beast and keep it on you. In Act 3 you are going to find a lot of beasts to catch, so keep it just in case you find a beast with really good modifiers.

Once you reach Jungle Ruins, you will find a troubled camp, and near it, two rare beasts. DO NOT KILL THEM. You can use them as a beast farm. You can check their modifiers, and if they are not good, you can just click ESC + respawn at the checkpoint. That’s going to respawn the two rare beasts with a new set of modifiers, and you can just repeat doing that until you hit something good like a Haste Aura, extra physical damage, a trail of lightning, all damage shocks, or a combination of these. After you find the beast with ideal modifiers, use the Tame Beast on the monster before the killing blow, and you are going to get your personal Pokemon.

You can start using the Companion immediately or just keep it on you for the future. This depends on if you have Spirit on your gear. In the first interlude you are going to get your last Spirit reward, so even if you don’t have Spirit on gear, you’ll be able to finally use the Companion!

With your second Spirit quest reward you can start using Herald of Plague to proliferate your strongest poison.

At level 36 you get an additional socket for your Spear Stab. Add Armour Break I to the mix.

Upgrade supports in Spearfield with Bleed II, Poison II.

Upgrade the Herald of Blood setup to Poison II, Bleed II, and Bursting Plague.

If you have enough Spirit and you already use Tame Beast use these supports: Meat Shield II, Elemental Army, and Last Gasp.

With two maximum poisons thanks to a notable on the skill tree, you can start occasionally pressing Spearfield on bosses for some poison damage, but it’s not mandatory. You can use it when you can’t get close to the boss.

However, if you start using Saitha’s Spear at Level 33, it changes slightly. Attack with Rake from a range to get your damage bonuses, and then immediately do Rapid Assault to aggravate the bleeding. After that, start using your Spear Stab or Spearfield. Make sure you are using Spear Stab of your highest-damaging spear. Whatever the situation allows. Check the gearing progression for Saitha’s Spear.

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Act 4 Notes + Interludes

Not many changes. You can change your Spear Stab setup to Escalating Poison, Corrosion, and Poison II. This is optional but should overall give you easier time armour breaking and also more DPS.

When you are picking the Inspiring Ally and Easy Going notables on the skill tree, you should ideally have enough Spirit to use your Herald of Blood, Herald of Plague and Companion. If not, it’s not going to break the build because you’re still going to get the Companions deal 12% increased damage, and thanks to Inspiring Ally, it also affects you. You are just not going to get the effect of small nodes that say 10% increased damage while your Companion is in your Presence. In this case, we would recommend starting with the third Interlude first. That’s where you get your last Spirit reward. The Easy Going notable might not be needed for you. It depends on how much Spirit your Companion reserves.

If you can get your hands on Greater Jeweller’s Orbs, this is the recommended order of upgrades.

1. Rake: Deep Cuts II.
2. Herald of Blood: Escalating Poison.
3. Spearfield: Escalating Poison.
4. Blood Hunt: Close Combat II. Hourglass can also be changed to Heavy Swing.

Also, when you reach level 65, you can start using Brutus’ Brain lineage support if you manage to get one. It is going to make your Companion immortal at the cost of its damage, but we don’t care about its damage anyways. Put it in your Companion setup instead of Meat Shield II, Elemental Army, and Last Gasp.

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Gearing

Items and affixes to look for:

• Spear – The main priority is physical damage and +melee skill levels.
• Amulet – Priority is +melee skill levels. It’s the best place to get spirit to enable using the Tame Beast.
• Boots – Mainly increased movement speed. Other than that it would be maximum life, evasion, and resistances.
• Gloves – Ideally +melee skill levels. Other than that it would be life/mana leech, maximum life, evasion, and resistances.
• Rings – As much flat physical damage as possible. It’s important for hit damage, bleeding, poison, and leech. Other than that it would be life/mana leech, maximum life, evasion, and resistances.
• Buckler/shield – Ideally as much increased chance to block as possible. Other than that it would be maximum life, evasion, and resistances.
• Helmet – Maximum life, evasion, and resistances.
• Body armour – Maximum life, evasion, and resistances.
• Belt – Maximum life, evasion, and resistances.
• Jewels – You primarily want a % chance to poison on hit. Other useful stats are % increased magnitude of ailments you inflict, % inc magnitude of poison/bleed, % inc attack damage, % inc attack damage with spears, % inc chance to inflict ailments, damaging ailments deal damage % faster, or companions deal % inc damage if you have the Inspiring Ally skill tree notable.

Unique Weapon: Saitha’s Spear

Not necessary, but highly recommended, especially once you get into Act 4 with asynchronous trade. Ideally get one with a high chance to aggravate bleeding. It’s going to help your single target a huge amount, because most of the bosses are stationary. By aggravating bleeding on them, they will count as moving, thus giving your bleeding 100% extra damage.

Put Saitha’s Spear on weapon set 2 and get Rapid Assault with Rapid Attacks I, Rapid Attacks II, or Rapid Attacks III along with Blind I. Don’t forget to go to the skill gem menu and details of Rapid Assault, and if you look down in the details, “used with weapon set,” click weapon set 2 and unclick weapon set 1. Do the same with other skills, but put them on weapon set 1 unless Saitha’s Spear is actually better than your main spear. You can also lock your shield/buckler for both weapon sets by right-clicking the weapon set icon above your shield/buckler in your inventory. Since Rapid Assault hits 5 or 6 times with a single cast, you will usually aggravate the bleeding with 1 cast.

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Campaign Buffs

During the campaign, by completing quests or side zones, you will be offered to choose different types of rewards. Keep in mind that some of these are permanent and some are changeable. These are what we recommend for this build. Keep in mind that these are optional. For example, if you know you will need attributes in the endgame, you can take the attribute tattoos in Act 4, Halls of the Dead.

• Valley of the Titans Altar (Act 2) – 30% increased charm charges gained. (changeable)
• Venom Draught (Act 3) – 30% increased Elemental Ailment Threshold. (permanent)
• Halls of the Dead (Act 4) – 5% increased resistance for every element. (permanent)
• Abandoned Prison (Act 4) – 30% increased life recovery from flasks. (changeable)
• Qimah (Interlude 2) – 5% to all Elemental Resistances (changeable)

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

Flasks and Charms

During the campaign you will be finding flasks dropping from monsters. If you don’t find any, don’t forget that you can buy them at the vendor for gold.

Modifiers to look for on your flasks and charms:

• Health and Mana Flasks
  • Prefix: Increased Amount Recovered
  • Suffix: % increased charges or % reduced charges per use
• Charm: Stone Charm, Thawing Charm, or a charm of your choice.

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Changelog

October 27th, 2025 – Created for Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.3