PoE 2 Builds: Forbidden Rites 0.5.5, Runes of Aldur ranks last measured

Filter by class chips. Tiers are a consensus last checked 12 August. They combine a 0.5 starter ranking, a 0.5.4 league-start ranking last updated 24 July 2026, and mid-league popularity on the Runes of Aldur ladder. Where those rankings disagree by a full letter, the Why column says so.

DeadeyeS · Ice Shot

Martial ArtistS · Whirling

Spirit WalkerS · Twister

TacticianA · Galvanic

InfernalistA · Demon

OracleA · Plants

Tier	Ascendancy	Headline build	Damage	Cost	Difficulty	Why (Jul 2026)
S	Deadeye	Ice Shot / Snipe	Cold / Projectile	Budget→Mid	Medium	Consensus S on both starter lists. Freeze safety plus boss Snipe. Defenses catch up in maps.
S	Martial Artist	Whirling Assault / Storm Wave	Physical / Attack	Mid	Hard	S on both lists; ~20% poe.ninja share on latest snapshot · Hollow Form / combo kits.
S	Spirit Walker	Twister	Cold / Wind	Mid→High	Hard	S on the endgame list, A on the league-start list. About 12% ladder share (#3). Huge clear. Combo skill ceiling.
A	Tactician	Galvanic / Stormblast	Lightning	Mid	Medium	S on the endgame list, A on the league-start list. Pin CC plus fullscreen clear. Low button count.
A	Titan	Whirling Assault	Physical	Mid	Medium	S on the league-start list for comfort. Tankier melee cousin of Martial Artist.
A	Infernalist	Demon / CoC Comet	Fire / Spell	Mid→Premium	Medium	S on the campaign list. Mid-league lists park it at B. Still viable. More kit-specific.
A	Oracle	Plants / Totems	Nature / Spell	Budget→Mid	Easy–Med	S on the league-start list, A on the endgame list. Smooth campaign. Plant and totem paths stay A-tier in maps.
A	Shaman	Bear / Calamity	Phys / Fire	Budget	Medium	A both sides · rune bonds shine in Runes of Aldur; clear needs Herald of Ice for peak.
A	Lich	Essence Drain	Chaos DoT	Budget	Easy	Comfy starter: defenses + mana QoL; trades burst for consistency.
A	Disciple of Varashta	Djinn minions	Minion	Mid	Easy	0.5 Sorceress ascendancy · tanky, strong ST; clear weaker until minion splash tech.
B	Witchhunter	Oil / Explosive Grenades	Fire	Budget	Medium	S on early starter lists. B on mid-league lists. Still clears. Deadeye and Martial Artist outgun it for softcore speed.
B	Gemling Legionnaire	Twister / alt-quality skills	Varies	Premium	Hard	C on the starter list. S on the endgame list once alt-quality gems exist. About 16% ladder share (#2) mid-league. The investment spike has arrived.
B	Stormweaver	Spark / elemental niches	Lightning	Mid	Medium	B both lists · still the home for awkward elemental skills. The default caster pick.
B	Pathfinder	Poison / flask pathing	Chaos / Phys	Budget→Mid	Medium	S on the early starter list. Lower mid-league presence. Solid if you want flask playstyle.
B	Amazon	Twister / spear kits	Phys / Cold	Mid	Medium	A on both lists at launch; mid-league usage sits behind Spirit Walker Twister.

Read the cost column: Budget = campaign + early maps on rares/cheap uniques; Mid = a few divines of focus gear; Premium = mirror-adjacent stacking (Gemling Twister, low-life Crit Infernalist).

What is live: Runes of Aldur challenge league inside Return of the Ancients (content patch 0.5.0, realms live May 29, 2026).

How long the league has left: Forbidden Rites and Runes of Aldur both run until 1.0 on 11 December 2026. 0.5 is the final Early Access content patch. ExileCon is 7–8 November 2026 in Auckland. Natalia_GGG posted the 1.0 date on 25 August and the event FAQ on 30 August.

Patch cadence so far:

• 0.5.1 (4 June) · Atlas passives, lineage support, tree additions.
• 0.5.2 (Jun 11) · Delirium + Runes of Aldur tuning, endgame monster adjustments.
• 0.5.3 (deployed mid/late Jun per GGG 0.5.3 preview) · endgame investment + risk/reward clarity.
• 0.5.4 (GGG patch notes, Jun 24) · Atlas Passive Tree for Runes of Aldur, Expedition customisation, level-scaling uniques; early hotfixes Jun 25–28.
• 0.5.4b (GGG patch notes, Jul 2) + Hotfix 3 (Jul 3) · boss telegraphing, Expedition/Atlas bugfixes, Martial Artist QoL; no Deadeye/Martial Artist/Twister skill nerfs. Jul 13 notes bump = Server Maintenance only.
• 0.5.4c (GGG patch notes, Jul 16) · 1 line, Added support for the new Supporter Packs. No gameplay content at all.
• 0.5.4d (GGG patch notes, Jul 24) · Ritual tribute and Breach resources now carry across on Migrate All from SSF and private leagues. Stash plumbing, no balance.
• 0.5.4e (GGG patch notes, Jul 29) · shader load times, a Vulkan crash fix and Vsync now defaulting to Locked. Then a client-crash hotfix (Aug 4) and a restart patch (Aug 6, Escape Shot can no longer leave boss arenas).
• 0.5.4f (GGG 0.5.4f notes, 12 August, Stacey_GGG). Bugfixes only: skills targeting the wrong enemy, shapeshift grab lock, dodge-roll after sprint, Charged Staff energy waves, MTX, PlayStation client crash, 2 instance crashes. No skill-balance nerfs, so the ladder on this page did not move.
• 0.5.5 Forbidden Rites launched 4 September 2026 at 1 PM PDT. Fresh event economy. Ritual, Trial of Chaos, Expedition to core, new Soul Cores. Ice Shot, Martial Artist and Twister were not named. Runes of Aldur characters keep playing on that realm until 1.0.

What that means for builds: bow/projectile and Martial Artist attack loops that looked cracked at league start are still the safe money · but mid-league patches keep nudging Atlas farming and individual skills. Treat any YouTube "day-1 S-tier" from May as stale until you check a Jun/Jul update stamp.

League starters (campaign → early maps)

Pick these if you need smooth Acts + 1st Atlas progression without a mirror:

• Ice Shot Deadeye · fastest freeze-everything campaign on the starter lists.
• Plant / totem Oracle or Essence Drain Lich · low APM comfort.
• Grenade Witchhunter · still fine; slower clear than Deadeye for softcore racing.
• Bear Shaman · tanky early armour, scales with league runes.

Endgame / currency sinks

Once you have divines, the ladder looks different from day-1 tier lists:

• Martial Artist Hollow Form / Whirling Assault · mid-league popularity king.
• Twister Spirit Walker duration/crit stackers · premium clear speed.
• Gemling Legionnaire · weak starter, strong once alt-quality + gear come online (ninja #2 share vs C-tier start rank).
• Tactician buff-stacker · boss delete + map clear with investment.

Rule of thumb: start a build that is S or A on both starter lists for campaign, then respec or reroll into whatever the live ladder is printing in week 6+.

Budget vs premium still prices against the Divine Orb rate this league.

PoE2 Early Access leagues have run 5 to 6 months. 4 · 0.4 Fate of the Vaal ran Dec 12, 2025 to May 29, 2026 (24 weeks), and GGG said of this one that “normally we would do our next big content release in August, but… our plan is to take a little longer on this one”. 0.5 is the last Early Access league, so there is no 0.6 to cycle into · the next reset is 1.0. Inside a league, expect:

• Week 1–2: creator starter lists dominate. Great for starters. Noisy for endgame.
• Week 3–6: balance hotfixes (0.5.1–0.5.3 style) trim outliers and buff dead skills; check patch notes before mirroring a glass-cannon clip.
• Mid/late league (0.5.4+): Atlas/farming patches change what you farm more than which ascendancy exists · builds die when their clear speed or boss pattern stops paying. Only from direct nerfs.

How to not brick a character:

1. Prefer ascendancies with multiple skill shells (Martial Artist, Infernalist, Spirit Walker) so a single skill nerf is not a full restart.
2. Keep a budget rare setup that still maps if your unique spikes get price-fixed.
3. After every numbered patch, re-check the skill gem + support changes . Just the ascendancy node text.

Base classes → ascendancies relevant to the July table (icons = ascendancy art):

Class	Ascendancies in meta talk	Playstyle bias
Ranger	Deadeye, Pathfinder	Bows, projectile, freeze/poison
Monk	Martial Artist (Invoker / Acolyte exist but trail)	Attack channeling, combo
Huntress	Spirit Walker, Amazon	Twisters, spears, companions
Mercenary	Tactician, Witchhunter, Gemling	Crossbows, grenades, gem stacking
Warrior	Titan (Smith/Warbringer lower)	Melee, slam, armour
Witch	Infernalist, Lich, Blood Mage	DoT, demon form, chaos
Druid	Oracle, Shaman	Plants, bear, calamity
Sorceress	Stormweaver, Disciple of Varashta (0.5)	Elemental spells, djinns

Martial Artist and Disciple of Varashta are the headline new 0.5 ascendancy toys; everything else is a returning shell retuned for Runes of Aldur.

The S-tier row is 3 different games. This table is the decision. Another popularity summary lives elsewhere. Pick the row that matches your week, then open the planner linked below.

Your week	Take this	Do not take this yet	Why
6–8 hours, 1st PoE2 character	Ice Shot Deadeye, or Essence Drain Lich / Plant Oracle if you hate bows	Gemling Legionnaire, stacked Twister, low-life Crit Infernalist	Deadeye is S on both starter lists as a campaign start. Gemling is C on the starter list and only S on the endgame list once alt-quality gems exist. That is a currency problem. A skill problem.
You like melee / combo, and you will map every night	Martial Artist (Whirling Assault / Storm Wave)	A bow respec “because ninja says Deadeye is easier”	~20% of the Aug 12 poe.ninja Runes of Aldur snapshot is Martial Artist. It is the mid-league popularity king because the shell has more than 1 skill to fall back on if a single gem gets named.
You want the fastest maps and can pay for it	Twister Spirit Walker, or Gemling Twister after the 1st divine spike	Twister as a league-start on a fresh stash	S on the endgame list, A on the league-start list. About 12% ladder share (#3). The ceiling is real. Button count and unique cost keep it off day-1 S.
You mostly boss. Juice maps.	Deadeye Snipe, Tactician buff-stack, or invested Martial Artist	A clear-speed Twister with no single-target plan	Ice Shot’s Snipe and Tactician’s pin / fullscreen kit are the boss-delete rows on both editorial lists. Twister can boss · it is not the reason people play it.

0.5.4f (Aug 12) did not change this table. It fixed targeting, shapeshift grab, and a handful of crashes. If your build “died” in the last 2 weeks, it died to the economy or to a clip you copied. To a numbered nerf.

The page you may still see in a cached result can say 0.5.4e or 0.5.4f. The live numbered line on 20 September 2026 is 0.5.5 Forbidden Rites, launched 4 September at 1 PM PDT.

• What 0.5.4f shipped (12 August): skills hitting the wrong target; stuck after a shapeshift grab; dodge-roll failing after a sprint; Charged Staff energy waves; MTX display; a PlayStation client crash; 2 instance crashes. Official notes: 0.5.4f.
• What 0.5.5 shipped: Forbidden Rites event league, Ritual, Trial of Chaos, Expedition moving to core, new Soul Cores. Ice Shot, Whirling Assault, Storm Wave, Twister, and the 3 S-tier ascendancies were not named. Official notes: 0.5.5 Forbidden Rites.
• What that means: a mid-league popularity snapshot from 12 August (Martial Artist ~20% / Gemling ~16% / Spirit Walker ~12% / Deadeye ~9%) is still the last measured ladder to quote. 0.5.5 did not publish a skill-balance pass on those shells.
• Realms: Forbidden Rites is a fresh economy. Runes of Aldur keeps running until 1.0, so unfinished 0.5 challenges stay finishable there.

1.0 is 11 December 2026. ExileCon is 7–8 November 2026. The Duelist arrives with 1.0. 0.5.5 has no Duelist row.

3 realistic 1st characters, judged head-to-head on the questions that actually decide a reroll.

	Ice Shot Deadeye	Martial Artist	Twister Spirit Walker
Class	Ranger	Monk	Huntress
Editorial	S + S on both starter lists	S + S	S / A · the 2 lists split a full tier
Aug 12 ninja share	~9%	~20% (#1)	~12% (#3)
Campaign feel	Freeze everything; defenses catch up in maps	Harder buttons; pays you once Hollow Form / combo is online	Awkward until the Twister loop clicks
Maps	Safe. The fastest juice.	The default mid-league farmer	The clear-speed ceiling
Bosses	Snipe is the reason this row exists	Fine with investment	Needs a single-target plan on purpose
Cost to feel “done”	Budget → mid	Mid	Mid → high
Dies to a single gem nerf?	More than Martial Artist · Ice Shot is the identity	Less · Whirling Assault and Storm Wave are both live shells	Twister is the identity; Amazon / spear kits are the backup. The same build.

Rule we will keep using until a numbered patch names one of these skills: start Deadeye if you need the campaign to be kind; roll Martial Artist if you will live in maps; pay for Twister only after you have seen a divine drop. 0.5.4f did not change the rule.

Letters on this page are a consensus last checked 12 August 2026. They fold a 0.5 starter ranking, a 0.5.4 league-start ranking last updated 24 July 2026, and the 12 August Runes of Aldur popularity snapshot (Martial Artist about 20%, Gemling about 16%, Spirit Walker about 12%, Deadeye about 9%). Official patch dates come from GGG notes: Return of the Ancients on 29 May, 0.5.4 on 24 June, 0.5.4f on 12 August, Forbidden Rites 0.5.5 on 4 September. 1.0 is 11 December 2026. Open a planner for your own patch before you commit currency.