Djinn Commander Disciple of Varashta Leveling Build

Build Introduction

The Djinn Commander combines the feel of playing a spellcaster with the power fantasy of a minion build to excel through the campaign at lightning speed. This build combines the Sand Djinn, Kelari, alongside the Fire Djinn, Ruzhan, to deal destructive damage to enemies while keeping mobile.

This build is specifically created for the Disciple of Varashta Ascendancy. It will not work with Stormweaver or Chronomancer, as it relies on specific skills that only Disciple of Varashta has access to.

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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. This build makes the Trial extremely easy, so get it out of the way as early as you unlock it. This leveling build was made specifically for Disciple of Varashta; if you wish to use another Ascendancy, 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.

Disciple of Varashta

Disciple of Varashta is a little different from normal Ascendancies. Rather than getting powerful nodes every two points of investment, you have the option to grab Djinn Commands, each costing one point, with the initial point in a specific Djinn unlocking access to it. This allows you to customize your loadout for whatever Command combination you want without feeling like you’re locked into two-point investment nodes.

For this leveling build, we’ll be focusing entirely on Ruzhan and Kelari. While Nevari has her uses, our goal here is to speed through to endgame, and the Sand and Fire Djinns do it better.

• Barya of Kelari: This will unlock Kelari, the Tainted Sands as a usable Djinn summon. Kelari’s main use for this setup will be to inflict Critical Weakness (any hit from Kelari inflicts this), clear maps, and deal the majority of our single target damage.
• Barya of Ruzhan: This will unlock Ruzhan, the Blazing Sword as a usable Djinn summon. Using a self-casted spell (not a Djinn Command) will cause Ruzhan to appear and swing his sword. This applies Exposure to enemies hit, which will increase Elemental Damage taken for a period of time. When needed, we’ll be using Flame Wall to proc this and summon our Raging Spirits at the same time.
  • Ruzhan’s Trap: Ruzhan will target the area you select and place down hazards (fire traps). Once stepped on by an enemy, the trap produces an immobile fire tornado that will persist for a few seconds, dealing hit damage in quick succession for any enemy that stays inside of it. This skill has a slightly higher cooldown compared to Kelari’s Brutality, but it is much more effective in clearing maps. With Archon of Undeath, this command can be spammed, making map clearing infinitely faster than any other option.

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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.

This cannot be stressed enough, but the main driver of your damage will be a multiple, different reviving minions and +Levels to Minion Skills! Aside from the Sceptre, Minion Levels can be found on an Amulet and a Helmet, but can also be acquired through Support Gems.

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 all damage dealt will be done with the Djinns, our main priority for the passive tree is acquiring Minion Damage and Energy Shield for survivability. All damage dealt by the Djinns is considered “Command Skills”, which opens up further opportunities in the top portion of the tree to scale them. The nodes below are the most important.

• Entropic Incarnation: The Chaos Resistance here doesn’t really matter (the Djinns are invincible), however extra Chaos Damage here is quite important, and will only continue to be more important should you stick with Kelari as your main damage dealer into endgame maps.
• At your Command: Djinns don’t cost Spirit! So what do you do with all of that extra Spirit? Summon a bunch of Skeletons, of course! We’ll be taking as many unique types of Persistent Minions as we possibly can to inflate this node, while also taking full advantage of Muster.
• Splintering Force: This causes Kelari to break Armour when he deals damage. This is a requirement if you wish to deal respectable amounts of damage.
• Gigantic Following: This adds another 20% more damage to your minions, Djinns included. You’ll likely have to drop a single unique minion to make this work, but it far outweighs that loss. Even when considering Muster, this is a huge gain. All of your minions will body block much better now on top of that, making Wraeclast just a bit safer for you.
• Archon of Undeath: Similar to Elemental Archon, this will buff your character significantly for a duration, before setting the Archon back on cooldown. At base, Archone of Undeath provides 200% Cooldown Reduction for Command skills, making it easily one of the strongest nodes in the tree for Djinn usage.
• Pupper Master: These are multiple nodes, but you will acquire surpassing chance to gain Pupper Master when using Command skills which give you a pretty hefty damage increase.

An extra important mention, but all Djinn Commands come with a cooldown, which makes Minion Cooldown a highly sought after stat. It’s imperative you grab these at the first opportunity. Similarly, any sort of Area of Effect increase will also aid you in map clearing.

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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

Important! Starting with minions on a Sorceress is a bit rough. The starting nodes are different than on Witch, which does have access to early increased minion damage nodes. Instead, Sorceress will path through the Energy Shield nodes. This is mainly for league start. If you have resources (gold, mainly), we suggest doing a respec in Act 2 and simply leveling using casted spells until that point.

We heavily suggest running a sceptre focus for this entire Act.

Skill Rotation:

1. If enemies are dead near you, cast Unearth to raise an army of cute dogs.
2. Once you gain access to Spirit, cast Flame Wall to summon your Raging Spirits.

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Act 2 Notes

Act 2 is when we can move into the playstyle you came here for. It’s in your best interest to do the Trial of Sekhemas as soon as possible. This means either Level 21 or Level 22. The Trial is fairly easy, just focus on not getting hit and you’ll be fine. This will open up the real Disciple of Varashta gameplay where you turn into a summoner!

Lesser Jeweler Gems are useful for most builds, and will start dropping in Act 2, but they’re borderline useless for this setup. Djinns are not normal Skill Gems, you’ll gain sockets simply by leveling your character. A third socket becomes available during Act 3, while a fourth socket becomes available either during the Interlude or in very early maps. Patch 0.5 did not change this, the only thing that has changed are Skill Gems from weapons!

The two new Commands we gain are extremely strong, and both are used to map and boss effortlessly. Due to how Disciple of Varashta works, we won’t really need many Skill Gems. Kelari’s Brutality is a multi-hit AoE in a moderately large area, which conveniently comes with a low cooldown, making it ideal for clearing out mobs. Ruzhan comes with a melee strike that will proc off using any spell, abiding by the command’s cooldown. Proc this with Flame Wall.

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Act 3 Notes

Act 3 will provide you a way to gain an extra two Ascendancy points. These are used to unlock access to Navira, the Last Mirage (not extremely useful for this build, but does provide a damage boost through Muster) and Ruzhan’s Trap, ramping our damage and making mapping effortless.

At this point, you should have access to both Archon of Undeath and Pupper Master stacks. It’s worth waiting a few seconds to make sure Archon of Undeath can be used for a boss fight, since the 200% Cooldown Reduction off this means you can spam Kelari’s Brutality for the entire duration. Most, if not all bosses, will die before the Archon buff wears off.

Minion Collecting

While the functions of the build change very little going forward, there’s one massive difference; Muster becomes available. All the extra Spirit you’ve had this entire time? You can now use it. As the campaign continues, one of your main goals will be to acquire as much Spirit as you can, collecting one of each minion until you fill in all of your Skill Slots.

Each persistent minion you gain will add 7% more damage to both Ruzhan and Kelari. It doesn’t matter if the persistent minions die, but the game is easier when they’re alive. Because of this, all Skeletal Minions will be equipped with Last Gasp and Meat Shield I. The outlier here is Wolf Pack, you’ll be allocating Loyalty. This is a massive 10% damage reduction for us, and takes the edge off nearly all damage you’ll take from mistakes.

The Skill Planner linked on this page is an example of “best guess” for how much Spirit you’ll have. You may have less, or more, depending on your luck with gear. Work around this as best you can.

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Act 4 and Beyond

Continue upgrading your gear, searching as best you can for Spirit, Energy Shield, and +Levels to Minion Skills. These three things will carry you into the endgame where you can start working on your endgame build. You’ll also gain another 40 permanent Spirit during the Interlude, however instead of gaining an extra minion, we highly suggest grabbing a purity sceptre. Spirit-consuming Support Gems can be socketed into these for free, giving you some much appreciated increased minion damage and providing a solid defense against elemental ailments afflicted on your character.

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Boss Rotation

1. Throw down Ruzhan’s Trap.
2. Pop Navira’s Embrace. This is an okay way to prevent damage, but it’s mainly for the fact it can activate a Puppet Master stack and activate Archon of Undeath.
3. Use all charges of Kelari’s Brutality. If Archon of Undeath activates, you can spam this indefinitely until the buff runs out or the boss is dead.
4. If Archon of Undeath hasn’t popped, continue to lay down tornado traps or use Brutality until it does, and finish the boss off when it has.

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Gearing Progression

While a sceptre is mandatory, it’s up to you on if want to run a focus or a shield. We suggest a Focus, however a shield does work well and provides similar defensive benefit.

Offensive Modifiers

• +Levels to Minion Skills
• Spirit
• Allies in your Presence have Increased Damage
• Allies in your Presence have Increased Critical Damage Bonus
• Movement Speed

Defensive Gear

• Energy Shield
• Resistances

Runes

The main priority for sockets will be to keep your resistances as close to, or above, the resistance cap as possible. Nothing else really matters early on, just focus on living.

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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 build 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.
• Shark Fin (Act 4)
  • Up to the player, however we suggest 30% increased Energy Shield, especially if you plan on taking Sacred Rituals (Disciple of Varashta Ascendancy node).
• Qimah (Interlude 2: The Stolen Barya)
  • 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

• August 28th, 2026: Updated for Patch 0.5.5. Reworked and optimized, providing a smoother leveling experience from Act 1 and much higher damage potential overall.
• June 1st, 2026: Updated for Patch 0.5 with Puppet Master nodes included.
• May 27th, 2026: Preliminary pass for Patch 0.5.
• December 15th, 2025: Leveling build created.