PoE Sanity

My Minion TIERLIST for PoE2 0.5

By GhazzyTVWatch videoDuration: PT11M58S

This guide provides a personal, biased assessment of various minion types in Path of Exile 2 for the 0.5 version, categorizing them by effectiveness for leveling, endgame performance, and utility.

Summary

  • S-Tier: Spectres, Tamed Beast (Infernal Legion), and Varas (Ascending Jins).
  • A-Tier: Sniper Skeleton, Zombies, Clerics, Storm Mages, Radiant Spirits, Wolf Pack, and Hellhound (Infernalist).
  • B-Tier: Arsonist, Frost Mages, Reavers, Ancestral Spirit Warbringer, and Unborn Litch.
  • C-Tier: Unearth, Skeletal Warriors, Brutes, Ravena’s Swarm, Hyenas, Skittering Stone, Supporting Fire, and Manifest Weapon.
  • F-Tier: Roa Mount.

S-Tier

  • Spectres: Offers a tremendous amount of utility and choice.
  • Tamed Beast (Infernal Legion): A consistently strong build that remains highly effective for the 0.5 version.
  • Varas (Ascending Jins): One of the best leveling options, capable of being used from the first ascendancy in Act 2 and remaining powerful into the endgame.

A-Tier

  • Sniper Skeleton: Versatile; offers various build approaches and playstyles.
  • Zombies: Highly effective at single-target damage output, especially when empowered with power charges (though poor at clearing).
  • Clerics: Go-to utility choice; they heal, resurrect, and act as fodder for charges or rituals.
  • Storm Mages: Frequently used as a “shock bot” to apply shock debuffs.
  • Radiant Spirits: Performance is strong, but they are considered somewhat cumbersome to summon.
  • Wolf Pack: Provides loyalty support, monster scaling, and pounce scaling.
  • Hellhound (Infernalist): Utilized for utility and powerful “Mark” mechanics.

B-Tier

  • Arsonist & Frost Mages: Perform well but are generally outperformed by higher-tier minions. These are considered high B-tier (B+).
  • Reavers: Benefited from recent changes where they remain immortal once the death-trigger effect occurs; potentially useful with minion splash.
  • Ancestral Spirit Warbringer: Shows decent performance but lacks the consistency of A-tier options.
  • Unborn Litch: Lacks sufficient performance to compete with top-tier options.

C-Tier & F-Tier

  • Unearth: Struggles due to being a temporary minion that dies if the player outranges it.
  • Skeletal Warriors: Primarily used for monster scaling/debuffs; otherwise lackluster.
  • Brutes: Damage output to spirit cost ratio is inefficient.
  • Ravena’s Swarm, Hyenas, Skittering Stone, & Supporting Fire: Generally considered low-impact, though future unique item effects might change their viability.
  • Manifest Weapon: Not considered a true minion build; copies the main-hand weapon but lacks main-source damage potential.
  • Roa Mount (F-Tier): Characterized as ineffective and difficult to justify using.

Honorable Mentions (Unknown/Future Potential)

  • Living Lightning: Recently received mechanical fixes; performance is currently untested.
  • Kalgurian Skills (e.g., Skyfall): Visually impressive, but operating mechanics are not yet understood.
  • Spiraling Conspiracy (Righteous Fire Raven Flock): Likely focused on on-use skill effects and slow amplification rather than direct damage.
  • Mist Raven (Body Armor Companion): Potentially useful for on-use explosion effects, though its interaction with low-life deflection builds is debated.
  • Spirit Walker Bear Ascendancy: A free companion; its damage potential is currently unknown.
  • Wardbound Minions: Information is currently limited to text descriptions.
  • Periphery Bow Minions (Ismarian Swarm): An on-kill effect that holds potential for hybrid builds.
  • Ismarian Wolf Spirit: Shows strong command-skill scaling, but baseline performance is still to be determined.