Path of Exile 2 introduces a wealth of exciting new mechanics, builds, and strategies, and one of the standout approaches for leveling through the campaign is the Explosive Grenade Gas Grenade Mercenary Build. This build excels in both speed and efficiency, making it a perfect choice for those looking to blaze through the campaign, optimize their skill points, and rack up permanent stat bonuses. Whether you're tackling a fresh character start or embarking on a speedrun, this build offers high damage output, good survivability, and a clear path toward success. Not only will this build accelerate your campaign progress, but it also makes it easier to farm POE 2 Currency to fund your further adventures or acquire essential items.

Why Choose Explosive Grenade Gas Grenade Mercenary for Leveling?

The Explosive Grenade Gas Grenade Mercenary is a unique, proven League Start leveling build that focuses on explosive area-of-effect (AoE) damage while maintaining strong utility and mobility. It combines the high damage potential of Explosive Grenades with the crowd control and poison spread effects of Gas Grenades, all while benefiting from the Mercenary's innate support and buffing abilities.

The Mercenary class is ideal for this build due to its ability to provide both offense and defense. With a Mercenary, you can summon powerful allies that provide both damage and defensive buffs, which complements the fast-paced playstyle of an explosive grenade build. This synergy ensures that you can keep moving through the campaign without getting bogged down by excessive downtime or tough enemy packs.

Unlike many other leveling builds that may require precise timing or extensive micromanagement, the Explosive Grenade Gas Grenade Mercenary Build allows you to unleash powerful AoE damage with minimal effort. This makes it especially effective for newer players or those who want a more relaxed yet powerful experience in Path of Exile 2. Whether you're focusing on clearing maps or diving into boss fights, this build offers excellent coverage for both, allowing for seamless progression.

Leveling the Explosive Grenade Gas Grenade Mercenary Build

When starting out, your primary focus should be on maximizing Explosive Grenades for their high burst damage and AoE effects. You'll want to use them frequently to clear large packs of enemies, especially in early acts where trash mobs can be overwhelming. The Gas Grenades provide essential crowd control through poison damage and lingering area effects, making them perfect for bosses and tougher mobs that need to be handled with caution.

Explosive Grenades deliver massive burst damage that excels at clearing out mobs quickly. As you advance, focus on increasing both the damage and AoE of your grenades. Early on, you'll want to pick up passives that boost your explosive damage, AoE radius, and critical hit chance. Additionally, look for items or passives that enhance elemental or fire damage, as these will synergize well with your explosive grenades.

Gas Grenades provide a more methodical approach to clearing content, thanks to their poison spread and lingering damage over time effects. This makes them particularly effective against bosses or mobs that have high health pools and are resistant to instant burst damage. Investing in passives that increase poison damage, area duration, and poison spread will ensure your gas grenades remain effective throughout the campaign.

As a Mercenary, you also have the added benefit of summoning powerful allies to assist you in battle. These summons provide a great mix of offensive and defensive support, allowing you to focus on throwing grenades while your minions tank damage and distract enemies. This enables you to take a more relaxed approach to combat, relying on your Mercenary's support while you focus on maximizing your grenade damage.

Key Skills and Passives

Explosive Grenades

This skill is the cornerstone of your build, delivering a high burst of damage that can clear entire mobs of enemies in seconds. Explosive Grenades benefit from AoE scaling, elemental damage increases, and critical hit chances. Ensure that you pick up passives early in your leveling that increase both your damage output and AoE radius for maximum effectiveness.

Suggested Passive Nodes:

Grenade Damage Increase: Boosts the explosive potential of your grenades.

AoE Radius Scaling: Expands the area in which your grenades explode, making it easier to hit large groups of enemies.

Critical Hit Chance: Boosts the likelihood of landing a critical hit, which can further amplify your damage.

Gas Grenades

The secondary core ability of your build, Gas Grenades provides excellent crowd control and poison spread. They are perfect for spreading debuffs across multiple enemies, especially during boss fights or when you need to deal with high-health monsters over time. As the grenades deal damage in a persistent area, increasing the duration of their effect and poison damage scaling will ensure maximum damage output.

Suggested Passive Nodes:

Poison Damage Scaling: Increases the poison damage dealt by the Gas Grenades over time.

AoE Duration: Extends the duration of the poison effect on the ground.

Damage Over Time: Boosts overall damage for any effect that lingers, making the Gas Grenades even deadlier.

Mercenary Support

The Mercenary class offers unique support capabilities, allowing you to summon soldiers and provide buffs that increase both your offense and defense. Mercenary summons can distract enemies, tank damage, and deal significant amounts of damage themselves, which is an essential asset when clearing through difficult content. These soldiers allow you to focus on throwing grenades, rather than worrying about direct combat, providing a significant quality of life boost.

Suggested Passive Nodes:

Minion Health and Damage Scaling: Increases the survivability and damage output of your summoned allies.

Buff Duration: Extends the duration of your Mercenary's buffs, keeping your offensive and defensive bonuses active for longer.

Summon Speed: Increases the rate at which you can summon new soldiers, ensuring you have constant support.

Stat Priority

When building your character, focus on boosting the following stats throughout your journey:

Intelligence/Strength/Dexterity-Depending on your character's base attributes, prioritize the stats that allow you to scale your grenade skills and Mercenary support abilities effectively.

Area Damage & AoE Radius-These are key to making your grenades effective, allowing you to deal more damage to larger groups of enemies.

Movement Speed-Ensuring quick clear times and faster mobility during the campaign. Speed is important for keeping up the momentum and avoiding being overwhelmed by enemies.

Don't forget to focus on Energy Shield, Health, and Defensive Resistances to make sure you're well-equipped for tougher encounters and boss fights.

Conclusion

The Explosive Grenade Gas Grenade Mercenary Leveling Build is a highly efficient and powerful choice for any Path of Exile 2 player looking to complete the campaign quickly. With strong AoE capabilities, survivability, and a high ceiling for damage output, this build ensures you'll progress rapidly while maximizing your stat bonuses and skill points. Whether you're starting fresh or aiming for a speedrun, this build is a fantastic way to conquer the challenges of Path of Exile 2's campaign. Moreover, its flexibility makes it a great choice for farming POE 2 Currency, and if you need a little help along the way, you can always buy POE 2 Orbs to enhance your experience and further strengthen your build.