Warrior Mace Strike Leveling Build

Build Introduction

With the sweeping balance changes to every system coming in Patch 0.2, it is nearly impossible for us to have confidence in existing, well tested guides. While we will do our best to get these updated as soon as possible, their current state may leave them unusable. Make sure to regularly check back to see if any changes have been made.

The Mace Warrior is a tanky, slow class that uses Heavy Stuns and large hits to clear packs and take down bosses. The primary focus will be building a large life pool and carrying a big 2-handed weapon for massive damage during the leveling process.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

Path of Building

Path of Building is a fantastic community made tool that lets you see how any change you make to your characters skill tree, gear, or skill gems will impact you. If you haven’t used POB before, you can find a useful beginner’s guide here.

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Ascendancy

At the end of Act II, you can select your first Ascendancy. Your options are Warbringer and Titan. This choice is permanent so make sure you take time to determine which way you want to go. Titan is recommended for this build, but Warbringer is completely acceptable and has its own benefits so pick whichever looks the most fun to you.

Warbringer

The Warbringer has a large focus on boosting its various Warrior mechanics. A nice focus for this Mace build are the ways to affect Armor. If you want to ascend as a Warbringer, we recommend the following nodes to start:

1. Anvil’s Weight – A 10% damage Armor break is extremely useful for wearing down enemies to get even more damage through. This goes extremely well with our goal of stacking as much physical damage as possible for extremely large hits.
2. Imploding Impacts – Continuing from Anvil’s Weights, being able to break enemy Armor below 0 catapults our potential damage sky high with every successive hit. A must have node for this build.

Titan

The Titan has a larger pool of nodes for the Mace Warrior, focusing on increasing the effectiveness and damage of slam attacks. If you want to ascend as a Titan, we recommend the following nodes to start:

1. Crushing Impacts – Having all hits be Crushing Blows is decently useful, allowing for lots of heavy stuns on enemies. Though the Warrior has other means to do this, it is still a nice “always on” feature.
2. Surprising Strength – The real reason for Crushing Impacts being chosen is so we can unlock this node. 40% more damage against Heavy Stunned Enemies is an absolutely impossible node to pass up, and since so many monsters will be Heavy Stunned now you can see how the character can really start to combo.

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General Advice for Leveling

Path of Exile II’s campaign is not meant to be taken lightly. The following tips are things to keep in mind throughout the campaign and are applicable to all characters. This will help you have the smoothest leveling experience possible

• Pick up Magic (blue) and Rare (yellow) items to sell or disenchant.
• Check Vendors often (every time you return to town or level). Use vendor search feature to highlight rares/desirable stats.
• Collect socketed/superior items to salvage so you can add sockets/quality to gear.
• Dont skip secondary content (guaranteed drops etc).
• Use the Gambler.
• Don’t spam dodge roll.
• Dont rush. If you are feeling overwhelmed fall back, don’t move forward.

The most important things to look for during leveling are a high damage Mace with high % Increased Physical Damage and Added Physical Damage.

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Gear Progression and Stat Priority

Here we will have a section outlining stats to prioritize when upgrading your gear, notable leveling Uniques. Prioritize what stats on gear, what makes a good item, charms and what to use.

Slot	Affixes	Notes
Main Hand	1. % Increased Physical Damage 2. Added Physical Damage 3. Increased Attack Speed 4. + Level Melee Skills	The bigger damage on the weapon you can get the better. As with most builds, focus your currency/trading on your weapon first
Off Hand		Should be using a 2 handed Mace and not using an Off Hand.
Helm	1. Maximum Life 2. Increased Armour 3. Strength 4. Resistances	Most all of the Armour pieces will be very similar, looking to increase Life, Strength, Armour, and Resistances.
Body Armour	1. Maximum Life 2. Increased Armour 3. Strength 4. Resistances	Most all of the Armour pieces will be very similar, looking to increase Life, Strength, Armour, and Resistances.
Gloves	1. Maximum Life 2. Increased Armour 3. Strength 4. Resistances 5. Added Damage 6. Increased Attack Speed	Most all of the Armour pieces will be very similar, looking to increase Life, Strength, Armour, and Resistances. Gloves with Added Damage or Increased Attack Speed can help boost a little bit extra along the way.
Boots	1. Increased Movement Speed 2. Maximum Life 3. Strength 4. Resistances	Most all of the Armour pieces will be very similar, looking to increase Life, Strength, Armour, and Resistances. Boots will of course look for Movement Speed though as a Main Affix first
Rings	1. Maximum Life 2. Strength 3. Resistances	Jewelry is another place to just increase the tankiness of the Warrior since he will be in Melee Range and taking a lot of hits.
Amulet	1. Maximum Life 2. Strength 3. Resistances	Jewelry is another place to just increase the tankiness of the Warrior since he will be in Melee Range and taking a lot of hits.
Belt	1. Maximum Life 2. Strength 3. Resistances	Most all of the Armour pieces will be very similar, looking to increase Life, Strength, Armour, and Resistances.

Flasks and Charms

Thawing Charm or Sapphire Charm – Something for when you get Frozen or hit with Cold is useful as that is when you are pretty vulnerable.

Stone Charm – Preventing being Stunned is also extremely useful in maintaining survivability.

Life and Mana Flasks – Increased Amount and Charges gained will be best.

Jewels

jewels might not be a priority while leveling but list some affixes to look out for

Best	Good
Increased Movement Speed	Increased Amount of Life Leeched
Increased Attack Speed	Increased Cooldown Recovery Rate
Increased Attack Damage	Increased Damage against Rare and Unique Enemies
Increased melee Damage	Increased Damage with Maces
Increased Global Physical Damage	Gain Rage on Melee Hit

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Act I

Here we will outline what skills you will be getting and when, and what supports you want to cut in what priority order.

Skill Gem (In Order of Priority)	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2	Optional
Mace Strike	Martial Tempo	Rage	–
Boneshatter	Impact Shockwave	Execute	–
Rolling Slam	Fist of War	Brutality	–

Act 1 will be pretty straight forward. Getting an early mace with high damage and a few extra levels will go a long way in helping you not only survive, but crush monsters and bosses in only a few hits. The early damage output of the Warrior is extremely high when geared properly. For the Skill tree, focus on increasing Armour and Melee Damage.

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Act II

Here we will outline what skills you will be getting and when, and what supports you want to cut in what priority order.

Skill Gem (In Order of Priority)	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2	Optional
Mace Strike	Ruthless	Rage	Overpower
Boneshatter	Impact Shockwave	Execute	–
Leap Slam	Martial Tempo	Brutality	–
Herald of Ash	Vitality	–	–

For Act 2, start focusing on adding in Stun Build up in your tree with nodes like Cranial Impact and Titanic. The more often you can Heavy Stun the easier everything will be plus there are a lot of benefits to be gained in the tree.

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Act III

Here we will outline what skills you will be getting and when, and what supports you want to cut in what priority order.

Skill Gem (In Order of Priority)	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2	Optional
Mace Strike	Ruthless	Rage	Overpower, Close Combat
Boneshatter	Impact Shockwave	Execute	–
Leap Slam	Martial Tempo	Brutality	–
Herald of Ash	Vitality	Magnified EffectEffect	–
Infernal Cry	Premeditation	–	–
Perfect Strike	Window of Opportunity	Fire Infusion	–

To go along with your Stuns, moving into Break Armour is another great way to strip monsters of their defenses and leave them vulnerable. Survivability nodes are also still very important so in addition to looking for increased Armour nodes we will also take Prism Guard to boost Resistances and Max Resistances a bit more. Your mob fighting will require you to Leap into the middle of packs so having enough survivability for that is essential.

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Acts I – III Cruel

Cruel will start to get a little bit faster as the build continues to come online. The main focus will be Boosting Leap Slam and Boneshatter for your one-two punch

Skill Gem (In Order of Priority)	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2	Support Gem 3	Optional 1	Optional 2
Mace Strike	Ruthless	Rage	Close Combat	Overpower	–
Boneshatter	Impact Shockwave	Execute	Armour Explosion	–	–
Leap Slam	Martial Tempo	Stomping Ground	Holy Descent	–	–
Herald of Ash	Vitality	–	–	–	–
Infernal Cry	Premeditation	Raging Cry	–	–	–
Perfect Strike	Window of Opportunity	Fire Infusion	–	–	–

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Rotation

The rotation for this build is pretty simple. Early on, you will focus on using Mace Strike or Rolling Slam to hit into enemies and do some initial damage. Later on in the game you will unlock Leap Slam and can use this for your starting attack. This will then be followed up with Boneshatter for an AoE explosion of damage. For single-target damage, Perfect Strike with the proper timing release will be massive hits.

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Progressing into Endgame

This guide is mostly meant to get you to early maps. Progressing from there on out, will require you to follow the Endgame guide. We recommend doing this around level 80 and when you’ve amassed a little bit of currency to enable transitioning.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do I stop dying when I leap into monsters?

One of the big issues with this build is that if you don’t build up to be tanky enough, you won’t be able to survive for your combo. Physical damage is going to be the main damage dealt to you and Armour is the best way to mitigate this, so focus on increasing Armour for all of your gear pieces + nodes in your tree! Dodge Roll after Leap Slam is also a great way to avoid that first hit and let you get Boneshatter off.

How do I best use Perfect Strike?

Perfect Strike requires a little bit of learning the timing so play around with it in easy areas to improve your skills. It should be released

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Changelog

March 28th, 2025: Guide created for Path of Exile II, Early Access