Meet the Mercenary - Leveling Tips, Tricks, & Class REVIEW for Path of Exile 2

Meet the Mercenary - Tips, Tricks, & Class REVIEW for Path of Exile 2

Path of Exile 2 is a next generation free-to-play Action RPG from Grinding Gear Games, featuring co-op for up to six players. Set years after the original Path of Exile, you will return to the dark world of Wraeclast and seek to end the corruption that is spreading. Journey across the deadly continent of Wraeclast, meeting multiple immersive cultures while facing off against evil in many forms.

Do battle with Corrupted abominations and Divine creations alike wielding skills that can be used together in graceful combinations. Choose your own skills, and don equipment of your choosing. Path of Exile 2's skill tree allows any class to specialise into any style of combat. Any class can use any Skill Gem, and those Skill Gems can be further modified by up to 5 Support Gems that can drastically alter how the skill works.

In addition, you can now Dual-Specialise your passive skill tree, allowing your character to switch between two wildly different fighting styles at will.

00:00 Introduction
00:09 PoE2 Drops
00:27 Mercenary Class
00:59 Leveling Builds
01:27 Class Fantasy
02:55 Build Diversity
04:10 The Crossbow
05:43 Crossbow Shot
06:14 Early Skills
07:23 Tips & Tricks
11:43 Dual Crossbows

#Drybear #PathofExile #PathofExile2

Music by Epidemic Sound

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[DrybearGamers]

00:00 Introduction
00:09 PoE2 Drops
00:27 Mercenary Class
00:59 Leveling Builds
01:27 Class Fantasy
02:55 Build Diversity
04:10 The Crossbow
05:43 Crossbow Shot
06:14 Early Skills
07:23 Tips & Tricks
11:43 Dual Crossbows

[justintolentino]

Reloading with Xbox Elite controller feels so good. Using right trigger to fire and paddle buttons to switch ammo.

[justintolentino]

Also, Glacial bolt melts large enemies (90% of bosses). Add Double Barrel and Scattershot to it and watch damage, stun, and freeze make bosses easier than regular rare enemies.

[Blu_Moon_Owl]

I put the normal bolt reload on my R essentially turning it like a reload in a shooter which I’m use to playing a lot of FPS games. Feels natural to reload in between kills or moments of safety before gunning down the next board of enemies. All of the other bolt types are on the other Buttons acting like an actual skill to weave in different effects and combos

[strongocho]

I am a long time ARPG fan and always wondered why they do not have WASD gameplay available for ranged classes, and POE2 finally did it. This game feels SO GOOD on WASD movement and merc.

[davidponder]

It feels like merc is basically intended to be a ranged, melee multiclass. Theres quite a few melee bonuses pretty close to the start of their skill tree

[SpottedHares]

One thing I will add , having played only half of the classes, more than any other class mercenary feels like the one that the two weapon skill set were built to accommodate. Having one weapon with some life regen and lots of easy one button group and then have a second crossbow with a ton of single target damage for the oceans of hp pretending to be bosses.

[ivanc]

Does anybody have any tips for why the crossbow takes a while to shoot? Its very inconsistent for mesometimes i have to press a different ammo type for it to start shootin. Im dying to the count boss because im holding down ro shoot and nothing happens

[chrisz]

It took me 115 hours to clear cruel with mercenary. Pretty brutal start with all of the one shot deaths. And nothing to do about it besides have perfect timing with low damage output for 10 minutes straight like a piano player. I wound up spending a significant proportion of the game rolling around dropping grenades.

[strongocho]

1:45 I completely disagree. I think the reload mechanic feels SO GOOD on merc, and I like the feeling of reloading and letting my charges build up before fights. It felt like I was preparing for a fight and strategizing with my ammo, and that is exactly what is needed to make a merc feel like a merc and not just a merc themed Sorcerer like in other games.

[OrdoMallius]

Incendiary shot is super fun. It's basically dragons breath shotgun so if you like that use it.

[daydream]

The reload speed really annoyed me in early game but boy am I glad we can switch back and forth like that!

[AT-vjmz]

Your merc is too good, they nerfed railgun already 😢

Could we get a league starter ascendancy tier list?

[rabbtdotcom-ievk]

But it's not just the loading of ammo, but how you need to change it, then use a different button that's an issue. Consider this basic setup...

Standard class/weapon
Left = main attack
Right = alt/special

In a standard rotation you could be like: LM, LM, LM, RM

That triggers 4 abilities for 4 presses.

The issue with mercenary IMO is that same sequence requires 3 buttons and looks like: LM, LM, LM, Load B, LM, Load A

So that's then 6 buttons for 4 abilities.

Not to mention that becomes confusing in that you are using the same left mouse click for multiple abilities. Which maybe isn't an issue for someone who has only ever played Merc with crossbow, but no other skills in PoE 2 or 1 work like that. It's extremely counter intiutiive.

IMO they REALLY need an option to have it set up as standard, where you press the ability button it triggers the ability. I'd love to have 3 different kind of ammunitions, but it's just way too confusing to me (after 250 hrs in PoE 1 and 30 among different char in PoE 2).

[rmreagle]

Only just started the video so not sure if it gets covered, but I'm playing a non-merc merc... i like the ascendancy and proximity to weapon switching nodes, im going for a Robin hood style reg bow/quarterstaff build and think the witch hunter extra weapon passives or double gem slotting from either ascendancy will work well for blending two weapons.

Any other non-xbow mercs just here for the ascendencies?

[patriot]

Dude thank you for for showing how to assign souls to different weapons. Be literally never played these games before and I’m playing on ps5 and I was trying to figure out how to get my bolts to use different ammos quicky and I was just not getting it right lmao.

[lasseoltmanns]

i can actually recommend an build where you focus on the dhrapnell shotgun with some stunn buildup multpliers you can insta stun enemys and often stun bosses the damage is also good you just need to find an weapon with high flat damage i like to combo it with some nades and an ballistas

[boeserKadser]

Explosive shot is very good too. Especially with gas grenades

[Tonesnob]

when it came to finishing bosses of the most powerful toons i saw where necromancers sorcs and monk slowest was barb merc ranger

[coldfries]

Wooow wait hold on a second Drybear, i think you cooked like crazy..
Double Crossbow.. why didn't i think of this?
I do have 2 juiced up, one with +3 on all Projectile Abilities and a almost same strong Crossbow.

I will definitely play around with this!
Do you know if you can override the 1 support gem limit when you use 2 weapons?
(i'll go Legionnaire anyways but still)