Grenade Ballista Totems Warbringer Endgame Build

Build Introduction

This is a fairly tanky build, quite affordable, and comes with solid DPS. It’s also a one-button build, doesn’t need mana management, and is very fun to play. It is 100% beginner-friendly, and it simply smashes! This build is an all-rounder that can do all the content inside Waystone 15 and 16 maps with ease. If you invest more currency into it, you’ll be able to farm even tougher bosses, like King of the Mists and Olroth up to the maximum difficulty.

Even for Ballistas, the Warbringer ascendancy provides significantly higher defenses compared to, let’s say, a Tactician. While both Tactician and Warbringer are viable for ballista builds, the latter is much tankier and safer to play, making it ideal for new players and casuals. The build offers decent defensive capabilities while still maintaining high damage. On top of that, there’s no need to perform any combos; it’s simply a pure one-button build.

If you’re looking for a way to league start or start a new warrior character, we’ve prepared a complete leveling guide which can be found by following the link below.

Patch 0.4.0 included minor changes. Click here to see the full breakdown of the changes.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

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Gameplay Showcase

Build Mechanics

This is a totem-based build. We place totems that target and kill enemies for us. We also don’t need to worry about Mana since we are using the Blood Magic Keystone. For this build, we scale our damage greatly via physical damage and gem levels.

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Skill Rotation

The skill rotation is pretty straight-forward. You place the totems and run in circles until everything dies. For harder enemies, we will add Voltaic Grenade setup to the mix for more damage. Voltaic Grenade applies Shock to bosses, increasing their damage taken.

1. Mortar Cannon
2. Voltaic Grenade (only for hard bosses)

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Gameplay Tips

For general mapping, try to spread out the totems. Avoid summoning them in the same spot, as this improves clear speed and helps them survive.

Always stay on the move while your totems attack. Moving around is a natural defense. This is a good practice that can help with maps that have very deadly modifiers.

For fast map clearing, try dropping a totem every half second while moving. This makes a big difference in clearing monsters quickly! We’ll be placing them rapidly anyway, thanks to the high totem placement speed from the Skill Tree.

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Skill and Support Gems

Our build revolves around the Mortar Cannon, supported with Cluster Grenade. Make sure to level up and quality both of these gems.

For the Rigwald’s Ferocity Support Gem, you will need to put your weapon in Weapon Slot II! If you put your weapon in Weapon Slot I, you will receive a significant damage penalty. Be very careful with this!

Voltaic Grenade will be used only for hard bosses. Voltaic Grenade applies Shock to bosses, increasing their damage taken.

The following Support Gems are listed in order of socket priority for each Skill.

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Spirit Gems

The Spirit Gem setup requires 100 total Spirit. Completing the campaign rewards 100 base Spirit.

Time of Need is a powerful aura that will periodically heal you as well as remove ailments and curses. This is especially good for waystones that have curse modifiers!

Ascendancy

Warbringer is a tanky ascendancy class, and also has good synergy with our ballista totems here. The most impactful nodes are Wooden Wall, redirecting 20% of damage taken from hits to nearby totems and Answered Call, which will grant us Ancestral Spirits and +1 Extra Totem.

The ascendancies should be unlocked in this order:

1. Answered Call
2. Wooden Wall
3. Jade Heritage
4. Anvil’s Weight

Try to unlock these ascendancy nodes as soon as possible; they give us a lot of power!

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Passive Skill Tree and Path of Building

To make things easier to follow, I’ve split the build into two setups. First, there’s the Normal Build, which is an excellent Waystone 15/16 mapper that can handle all map-related content with ease while being very tanky. Then, there’s the Maxed Build, which is perfect for players who like to min-max. Know that the maxed setup is not cheap! Only the normal setup is affordable.

When it comes to the node allocation order, remember that the Skill Tree is flexible. The only mandatory nodes are “Artillery Strike” and the “Blood Magic” Keystone.

For the “Gem Enthusiast” notable, you need a total of 10 red and 10 green Support Gems across your gem setups to gain the 5% increased maximum life and 5% increased movement speed bonuses. You can use random gems to meet this requirement.

Normal Version

The POB link for the normal version of the build is below. Remember that the “PoB Community Fork” program for Path of Exile 2 still needs some work. It might not track everything properly.

Maxed Version

[DISCLAIMER] The “Maxed Version” will be further tweaked to best accommodate the changes in Patch 0.4.0 (during the first days of the league launch). For example, we will no longer use the Constricting Command Helmet, as the “Surround” mechanic has been nerfed and has become inconsistent. A new skill tree progression will be provided for maxing. Until then, please stick to the “Normal Version”.(The new “Maxed Version” will include rage stacking and a different aura.)

The POB link for the maxed version of the build is below. Remember that the “PoB Community Fork” program for Path of Exile 2 still needs some work. It might not track everything properly.

Gear

The preferred gear for the “Build” is listed below with affixes ranked in order of importance. Prioritize gear with the correct base stats and beneficial explicit affixes.

Normal Version

Equipment Slot and Base Stats	Affixes	Notes
Helmet (Armour)	1. Maximum Life 2. Resistances 3. “+#% of Armour also applies to Elemental Damage”	For the rare armour items, prioritize those with high life, resistances, and, if possible: “+#% of Armour also applies to Elemental Damage” If you decide to go for corruption, look for an extra socket.
Body Armor (Ornate Plate)	1. Maximum Life 2. Increased Armour 3. Resistances 4. “+#% of Armour also applies to Elemental Damage”	The body armor must be an Ornate Plate base. This base provides significant life regeneration, which is essential for the laziness of this build. Aim for one with high life and armor above 1000 too. If you decide to go for corruption, look for an extra socket.
Gloves (Armour)	1. adds # Physical damage to Attacks 2. Maximum Life 3. Resistances 4. “+#% of Armour also applies to Elemental Damage”	For the rare armour items, prioritize those with high life, resistances, and, if possible +#% of Armour also applies to Elemental Damage. If you decide to go for Corruption, look for an extra socket.
Boots (Armour)	1. Movement Speed 2. Maximum Life 3. Resistances 4. “+#% of Armour also applies to Elemental Damage”	For the rare armour items, prioritize those with high life, resistances, and, if possible +#% of Armour also applies to Elemental Damage. If you decide to go for corruption, look for an extra socket.
Weapon (Cannonade Crossbow or Siege Crossbow)	1. A lot of physical damage DPS 2. +# to Level of all Attack Skills/ OR Projectile Skills (Optional) 3. +1 extra Ballista Totem (Optional)	For the weapon, we need a Crossbow with the implicit Grenade Skills fire an Additional Projectile. The more grenades we shoot, the more damage we do. In addition to the implicit you will also want a lot of physical damage. Later, for maxing you will want one with the modifiers +1 to Maximum Number of Summoned Ballista Totems and +6 to Level of All Attack Skills. If you decide to go for Corruption, look for an extra socket.
Idol of Uldurn OR Fireflower +4!		For the amulet, instill/anoint Heavy Ammunition. This is a cheap instilment that will give us extra damage and help us stun the bosses faster. Remember to apply 20 Flesh Catalysts to it. Volatile Grenades requires: Paranoia, Ire, Despair. If you decide to go with a Fireflower amulet, you will need to get one with +4 all Fire Skills!
Rings	1. Maximum Life 2. Adds # to # Physical Damage to Attacks 3. Resistances	Know that flat physical Damage to Attacks works with our totems! Remember to apply calatysts on your rings to further boost your stats.
Belt	1. Maximum Life 2. Resistances 3. +# Charm Slots

Maxed Version

[DISCLAIMER] The Maxed Version will be further tweaked to best accommodate the changes in Patch 0.4.0 during the first days of the league launch. For example, we will no longer use Constricting Command, as the “Surround” mechanic has been nerfed and has become inconsistent. A new skill tree progression will be provided for maxing. Until then, please stick to the Normal Version.(The new “Maxed Version” will include rage stacking and a different aura.)

Equipment Slot and Base Stats	Slot	Notes
Constricting Command	Helmet	This Helmet will give us a lot of damage! Make sure to buy one with “Require 5 Fewer Enemies to be Surrounded”. You need it with 5!
Fireflower	Amulet	This is the best amulet for maxing. Once you have enough currency, aim for one with +6 to Level of Fire Skills.

The biggest thing is that the +1 Extra Totem from Idol of Uldurn does not get tracked by the in-game DPS tooltip. You could have 3 totems, 10 totems, or even 200 totems, but the DPS number will remain unchanged! What you need to understand is that each totem is a big damage multiplier. By getting one extra totem, on top of damage, we also gain +1 extra Ancestral Spirit, making it easier to gain buffs and apply Exposure faster.

Extra totems also means extra benefits from passive nodes like Watchtowers, Supportive Ancestors, Ancestral Unity etc. On top of that, the more totems you have, the better your map coverage. By spreading your totems into different corners while mapping, you’ll clear areas much faster. It is worth considering how much easier to roll decent corruptions on Idol of Uldurn, since the amulet is fairly cheap.

Conclusion: Do not get fooled by the in-game DPS tooltip! This has been a discussion ever since Path of Exile 2’s Early Access started.

• The best Corruption for our Idol of Uldurn is +1 Level to All Skills.
• Later, for maxing out the build, you will want to transition into a Fireflower amulet. There is a step-by-step guide on how to get a +6 Fireflower yourself here.

For your rares, you want Armour base items. If you have multiple hybrid pieces (Armour / Evasion), then you can allocate the Iron Reflexes Keystone that will turn all Evasion into Armour. Sometimes getting hybrid bases is cheaper, but you should avoid Energy Shield bases since we don’t get any benefit out of that!

For the armor sockets, use “Soul Core of Jiquani” (3% Increased Maximum Life if socketed inside the body armour) or “Soul Core of Tacati” (11% to Chaos Resistance), depending on what you need.

For the weapon sockets, use “Greater Iron Rune” (boosts the Physical Damage).

Jewels

For jewels, look for modifiers such as: increased fire damage, increased attack damage, totem damage, elemental damage, increased life regeneration, increased armour, and increased skill effect duration. These all appear on the Ruby Jewel.

You can also add a Prism of Belief Diamond with +# to Level of all Cluster Grenade Skills.

Another upgrade you can go for is a Time-Lost Jewel (either Ruby or Emerald) with % increased effect of # Passive Skills in Area. These modifiers boost the potency of our nodes, giving us extra damage and defenses. Both the small passives and the notable passives are valuable (the jewel can spawn with both modifiers). Lastly, try to find one with either a medium radius or large radius to cover more area. We want to socket this jewel here (Check the Image):

Later, when you have more currency, you can also add a Headhunter belt to the build. Yes, this unique belt works with totems! Also consider the unique charm Rite of Passage, looking for either Spirit of the Bear or Spirit of the Ox.

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Campaign Buffs

During the acts, there are some quests that activate additional bonuses for your character:

• Valley of the Titans (Act 2)
  • 30% Increased Charm Charges Gained.
• Venom Draught (Act 3)
  • Stun Threshold. Since Time of Need helps us with the Elemental Ailment removal and because we don’t use mana in our build, for the first Vial Quest, our best pick will be “25% increased Stun Threshold”.
• Tattoos (Act 4)
  • All Blank Tattoos should be elemental resistance.
• Qimah Pillars (Interlude)
  • Your choice, these can be changed whenever.

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Flasks and Charms

• Life: Ultimate Life Flask.
• Mana: We don’t care about the mana flask since we are using the Blood Magic Keystone.
• Charms: Thawing Charm (Mandatory), Grounding Charm (removes Shock), Amethyst Charm (helps us with Chaos resistance).

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Common Mistakes

• The player forgets to level up their main skill gems. You need to level up both Mortar Cannon and Cluster Grenade! The player forgets to upgrade their items. The player doesn’t use Jeweller’s Orbs in order to add more support gems to their main skill (most common issue).
• The player hasn’t unlocked their ascendancy points. The player has taken the wrong ascendancy class!
• For the Endgame Phase – The player doesn’t have their Fire, Cold, and Lightning resistances capped! These should always be at 75% for the endgame. Additionally, aim for a good Chaos Resistance too. Around 50% Chaos Resistance is more than enough for this build.
• The player forgets to complete all the campaign side-quests! They give 24 Passive Tree nodes, free Resistances, and Spirit up to 100. This is a very common issue! Be careful.
• For Waystones 14, 15, and 16, you will want to have above 2700 life, above 100 life regen per second for the normal version, all 4x Trials unlocked (8 Ascendancy Points), and physical damage reduction around 60%. This should be more than enough for lazy and stress-free gameplay. Learn to press Encase in Jade skill too when needed.

Waystone Modifiers You Should Avoid

This build can do all the Waystone modifiers, but you should play more carefully when you see the following modifiers.

• Players have 60% less Recovery Rate of Life and Energy Shield.
• Monster Damage Penetrates 25% Elemental Resistances.
• -15% maximum Player Resistances.
• Monsters have 400% increased Critical Hit Chance and +45% to Monster Critical Damage Bonus.
• Monsters deal 40% of Damage as Extra Chaos. (If you have Chaos Resistance 75% you are fine!)

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[NEW!] Patch 0.4.0 Changes

• Constricting Command has been indirectly nerfed. We will no longer use it for the “Maxed Version”.
• Passive Skill Tree changes (waiting on GGG to reveal the new Skill Tree).

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Changelog

• September 21th, 2025: Allocated the “Grenadier” notable in both the Normal and Maxed versions. Swapped “Magnified Area” with “Shock” for Voltaic Grenade. Added more explanations.
• September 6th, 2025:
  • Ancestral Minions will now apply Fire Exposure (added three new support gems in this regard).
  • Swapped Oil Grenade for Voltaic Grenade. Fire Exposure will now come from the Ancestral Minions instead.
  • Removed Rapid Shot.
• September 5th, 2025: Added the Maxed version of the build.
• September 4th, 2025: Build Guide was updated for Patch 0.3, The Third Edict.