PoE 2 Best Spectres Tier List (0.2.0 Dawn of the Hunt)

With the Dawn of the Hunt expansion and Patch 0.2.0, Raise Spectre returns to Path of Exile 2 in a more robust and dynamic form. While traditional summoner builds remain a staple, the new mechanics, spirit system, and expanded monster database bring a refreshing layer of strategy for minion enthusiasts. With this PoE 2 0.2.0 Spectre Tier List, we'll go through the current state of the Raise Spectre skill, highlight the most powerful spectres, and recommend the best summoner builds to take advantage of them.

PoE 2 Dawn of the Hunt Spectre Tier List - Best Spectres for Minion & Summoner Builds (Early Game)

Spectres in PoE 2 0.2.0 Dawn of the Hunt league are shaping up to be just as impactful as they were in the first game. Community members have put in extensive work analyzing over 400 monsters from the datamined PE2DB info, preparing for what could become a massive shift in summoner play.

In particular, ranged spectres that deal elemental damage are standing out. Their ability to benefit from elemental debuffs like exposure and negative resistance makes them appealing. Additionally, their AI tends to avoid the common problems that plague melee spectres, such as awkward positioning and getting stuck behind doors.

Based on early access and datamining through PoE2DB, several spectres stand out for their performance, utility, and Spirit efficiency. 

PoE 2 Best Spectres for Leveling in Dawn of the Hunt

1. Treant Foulspawn (Endgame)

• Strengths: Exceptional screen-wide clear, broken interaction with shade movement, and absurd AoE scaling.

• Abilities: Fires chaos-based mortar spells while walking—these mortars shotgun, allowing overlapping hits for massive burst. The ability scales with movement speed, not cast speed. This makes them ideal for builds that exploit fast movement and area coverage.

• Why It’s Good: Treant Foulspawn is arguably one of the most broken spectres due to its unique interaction with the Raise Spectre gem’s shade form, which massively boosts movement speed. By controlling this form manually with a direct minion key, the spectres can linger in their high-speed state and fire off mortars with devastating screen coverage. Supported by Scattershot, Wild Shard, Magnified Effect, and Reach Support, these mortars benefit from both spell and attack supports due to a loophole in spectre mechanics. This results in 75% more AoE scaling, further multiplied through passive tree investment. While gimmicky and hard to obtain (only found in the Vidian Wildwood unique map), they offer unmatched map clear and are a top-tier option for experimental summoners seeking a flashy, high-speed chaos bombardment playstyle.

2. Vaal Guard (Endgame)

• Strengths: Massive base damage (440%), strong AoE scaling via shotgun effect, synergizes with multiple support minions.

• Abilities: Throws grenade-like projectiles that deal high area fire damage. These projectiles can "shotgun" enemies - multiple hits from overlapping explosions drastically increase single-target DPS. Base attack has a high cooldown and wind-up, but is mitigated through cooldown recovery and attack speed scaling.

• Why It’s Good: The Vaal Guard boasts the highest base damage among spectres, with a 440% base modifier on its primary attack. It excels in fire-based minion builds that rely on burst AoE, especially with Scattershot for shotgun mechanics. Despite its downsides—visual clutter, FPS drops, and damage delay—it shines in coordinated minion setups. The build showcased uses Feeding Frenzy, Muster, Fire Infusion, Martial Tempo, and Scattershot, along with support minions offering stun, shock, fire exposure, and healing. Boss damage is boosted with Pain Offering and Flammability, while gear focuses on +minion levels, flat damage, and scaling. Best suited for players seeking explosive AoE damage and willing to manage some technical drawbacks.

3. Frost Wraith (Act 1)

• Strengths: High energy shield from life (35%), 160% life modifier.

• Abilities: Fires area-damage projectiles that can shotgun, applies freeze, and has a powerful AoE explosion tied to proximity.

• Why It’s Good: The Forsaken Miner uses a grenade-throwing mechanic, casting dual projectile-based explosives that deal fire AoE damage. This spectre benefits from support gems that scale projectile count, AoE, and ignite. Its damage output is burst-heavy, making it especially effective against groups of enemies. During testing, it proved useful for fire-themed builds, particularly when paired with sources of fire exposure or burning ground. Its fast casting animation and solid projectile spread also contribute to its high coverage.

4. Forsaken Miner (Act 2)

• Strengths: Fires two grenades per cast, solid base damage.

• Abilities: Projectile-based explosions with potential for reduced cast time and increased projectile count via support gems.

• Why It’s Good: Frost Wraith excels at crowd control with its freezing projectiles and explosion mechanics. It is a reliable spectre for both early leveling and endgame, thanks to its durability and ability to apply freeze on enemies. Its clear speed is impressive, especially when supported with cold or AoE scaling gems. This spectre is ideal for summoners looking to apply consistent chill and freeze effects while maintaining good area coverage and survivability.

5. Priest of the Sun (Act 3)

• Strengths: 200% life modifier, 20% ES from life.

• Abilities: Beam attack similar to a “Kamehameha,” burning ground AoE.

• Why It’s Good: The Forsaken Miner uses a grenade-throwing mechanic, casting dual projectile-based explosives that deal fire AoE damage. This spectre benefits from support gems that scale projectile count, AoE, and ignite. Its damage output is burst-heavy, making it especially effective against groups of enemies. During testing, it proved useful for fire-themed builds, particularly when paired with sources of fire exposure or burning ground. Its fast casting animation and solid projectile spread also contribute to its high coverage.

6. River Hag

• Strengths: Homing orbs and cold damage over time (DoT).

• Abilities: Cold vortex and drowning orb, good for area denial.

• Why It’s Good: Offers consistent cold DoT and AoE control. Best used as a utility spectre in hybrid or DoT-focused builds.

7. Brutal Transcendent

• Area: Found in The Ziggurat Refuge and The Black Chambers.

• Abilities: Lightning Lance (area spell), grenade lob + explosion (projectile-based AoE).

• Stats: 250% base damage, 620 attack/spell damage at level 70, 20,000+ life.

• Why It’s Good: Strong lightning-based spectre with multiple AoE skills. Good AI and consistent attack patterns. Ideal for builds leveraging lightning penetration or shock application.

8. Shaman

• Strengths: Moderate life pool, reliable ranged damage output.

• Abilities: Fireball, Explosion attack, possible warcry animation.

• Why It’s Good: The Shaman spectre provides consistent fire-based damage through its Fireball ability and explosive attacks. While it lacks aura or buff utility, it fits well into fire-oriented builds, especially in the early game where reliable elemental damage is scarce. During testing, its DPS ranged from 400 to 600 per second, which is solid for low to mid-level content. Its simplicity and accessibility make it a practical choice when more advanced spectres are unavailable.

9. River Drake (Early Game Zones)

• Strengths: Visually impressive, high spirit reservation (70).

• Abilities: Basic attack only — no visible innate abilities upon summoning.

• Why It’s Good: Despite its initial appearance and listed modifiers, the River Drake does not retain any significant abilities after being bound. It serves mainly as a tanky body due to its spirit cost, but offers little to no utility or offensive power. In most cases, this spectre is not recommended unless future patches assign it meaningful abilities. It remains a cautionary example of how visible modifiers don’t always translate into usable skills.

10. Lightning Warcrier

• Strengths: AoE capability, potential for crowd control.

• Abilities: Area-of-effect lightning attack, warcry skill.

• Why It’s Good: The Lightning Warcrier stands out with its potential to affect multiple enemies through AoE lightning strikes and warcry-based support. Although not yet fully tested, its inclusion on early spectre tier lists suggests strong potential for hybrid builds needing both damage and utility. It’s expected to synergize well with shock-based setups or builds that benefit from warcry effects. Once more data is available, it could prove to be a strong mid-to-late game spectre for offense and debuff synergy.

PoE 2 Best Melee Spectres in Dawn of the Hunt

PoE 2 Best Ranged & Caster Spectres in Dawn of the Hunt

PoE 2 Best Utility Spectres in Dawn of the Hunt

PoE 2 Best Hybrid Spectres (Damage + Support)

NOTE: The tier lists will be updated with more spectres tested in the Dawn of the Hunt league.

PoE 2 0.2.0 Best Summoner Build with Spectres for Dawn of the League Starter

Based on the info we know so far, here we suggest the best class to set up the spectre summoner builds at the early time of the Dawn of the Hunt league:

Lich Ascendancy - The Meta Pick

Currently, Lich is heavily favored for spectre-focused builds. Its synergy with Chaos Damage, Unholy Might, and high mana stacking makes it a powerhouse:

• Unholy Might Scaling: Converts 30% of physical damage to chaos. This can scale up to 60% with 2500 mana.

• Explosions: Lich provides massive AoE via corpse explosions, ideal for clearing.

• CI Compatibility: Chaos immunity makes energy shield builds viable and more resilient.

Lich builds can also benefit from Rupture the Soul, potentially supporting Infernal Legion-style autobomber setups using chaos or fire minions.

Infernalist – Tankier, Spirit-Heavy Option

While Lich excels in offense, Infernalist may still find a place in the meta - especially if changes to Grim Harvest and energy shield lead to new defensive scaling approaches. It offers:

• Higher base Spirit pool.

• Potential synergy with life stacking and minion quantity.

• Better survivability in prolonged fights.

However, if Infernalist receives nerfs in the final patch, it may fall behind Lich in both flexibility and raw power.

Raised Spectres in Path of Exile 2 (Patch 0.2.0)

Raise Spectre allows players to reanimate nearly any enemy in the game as an undead ally. Unlike in PoE 1, spectres in PoE 2 are summoned by binding their spirits. Each spectre costs Spirit, a new resource, and if they die, they automatically revive as long as the summoner has enough Spirit remaining. Spectre AI has been improved, and they retain their original monster skills and stats — making corpse selection a meaningful choice.

Spectres can now include a wide range of enemies - from generic mobs to campaign bosses. While some players have even witnessed prompts to bind bosses such as Jamandra the Risen King, it remains unclear if this is intended or a bug. Nonetheless, the variety is immense: hundreds of monsters are available, and more are being added with each patch. This gives summoners vast options to build a defensive wall, a high-damage ranged team, or a blend of utility and offense.

Bind Spectre System in Path of Exile 2 (Patch 0.2.0)

The spectre system in PoE 2 is coming with Bind Spectre, a skill that unlocks with a level 7 uncut gem. The Spirit cost depends on the spectre type, and the only known modifier so far is a small boost to elemental resistance. This suggests the gem might follow the PoE 1 model, where quality adds resistance.

Getting Started with Spectres

To begin summoning spectres, you'll need the Bind Spectres gem, which becomes available at level 7. Once socketed into your skill tree, it allows you to target and bind the corpse of a slain enemy, turning it into a spectre. Keep in mind that this is a consumable gem - once used on a specific monster, it becomes bound and cannot be changed.

You can level these bound spectre gems to improve their performance. Despite being account-bound and untradable, they still benefit from upgrading through support gems or other gem level enhancements. And you can easily buy PoE 2 Dawn of the Hunt Gems from AOEAH.COM!

Capturing Spectres: How It Works

Spectres are captured by killing a desired monster and using the Bind Spectres gem on its corpse. Upon successful binding, the monster is revived with its inherent abilities and a cost in spirit reservation. Spirit cost varies significantly — weaker spectres might cost 30–50 spirit, while stronger ones can go up to 100.

Spirit reservation is a flat value and can be reduced through passive tree nodes. For example, combining 12% and 20% reductions can lower a 100-spirit spectre to around 68 spirit, which is helpful when managing multiple spectres.

Why Multiple Bind Spectre Gems Matter?

Treat Bind Spectres having several copies allows you to capture different monsters without losing previously bound ones. Because each use transforms the gem into a unique spectre summoning gem, having extras lets you test new monsters without sacrificing your current lineup.

This also helps you prepare for future content or updates, where new monsters may have better abilities or interactions.

However, many mechanics remain unclear. For example, can we rebind new spectres using the same gem, or are we required to craft a new gem each time? If it's the latter, this could make experimentation expensive due to the cost of Jeweller's Orbs. Still, the potential of spectres—especially ranged ones—makes the effort worthwhile.