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Welcome to the ultimate beginner-friendly guide for one of the most explosive and accessible league starter builds in Path of Exile. If you’re diving into the game and looking for a reliable character that can carry you through the campaign and into early mapping without breaking the bank POE currency, this Mercenary build is exactly what you need.
This character focuses on a powerful synergy between Explosive Grenade, Siege Cascade, and Oil Grenade, combining massive AoE, fire-based damage, and strong debuffs to dominate both mobs and bosses. Best of all? It’s entirely viable with no unique items and can be started from level one.
Why Play This Merc Build?
Several Mercenary abilities like Siege Cascade and Explosive Grenade received major buffs-nearly doubling their base damage. This alone puts Merc in a strong position for early progression, and this build capitalizes on that with an incredibly smooth leveling process and safe, consistent clears.
As a testament to its survivability, the creator of the build died only six times before reaching mapping, compared to over 50 deaths from friends using other setups. That kind of performance speaks for itself.
Core Skills Breakdown
Let’s dive into the core of what makes this build tick:
1. Explosive Grenade (Main Skill)
This is your bread-and-butter skill. It deals massive fire AoE damage and is used for most encounters.
Support Gems:
Scattershot: Fires multiple grenades simultaneously, increasing coverage.
Magnified Effect: Greatly boosts AoE radius, increasing clear speed.
Expedite: Reduces detonation time, making grenades explode quicker.
Defy: Makes attack damage with hits lucky when surrounded, meaning more consistent high damage.
2. Siege Cascade (Secondary AoE Clear)
Used when you encounter large packs. It launches projectiles at all enemies around you, causing wide explosions on impact.
Support Gems:
Primal Armament: Enhances area coverage.
Reach: Extends AoE range.
Fire Infusion: Converts more of your damage into fire, scaling with your primary damage type.
3. Oil Grenade (Debuff Utility)
A powerful utility skill that slows enemies, applies fire exposure, and creates burning ground when ignited.
Support Gems:
Encumbrance: Increases slow magnitude.
Despoiler: Increases the duration of ground effects by 50%.
Optional and Early-Level Skills
Galvanic Shards
An early-level filler before you get Siege Cascade. Still effective with the new patch.
Support Gems:
Pierce (or Fork, if available)
Lightning Infusion
Nimble Reload
Flash Grenade
Great for stunning enemies and applying blind. Especially helpful for bosses.
Support Gems:
Overpower: More stun buildup.
Maim: Slows enemies, synergizing well with Oil Grenade.
Cluster Grenade
A situational skill you can use when your main grenade is on cooldown. Fires a cluster of mini-grenades.
Support Gems:
Ingenuity: Reduces cooldown.
Fiery Death: Adds extra explosions.
Inspiration: Lowers mana cost.
Herald of Ash + Vitality
Herald of Ash: Adds fire DoT after kills-great for clearing.
Vitality: Passive life regen from spare Spirit.
Gear and Stat Priorities
This build is designed to function on scrap-tier gear, which means it’s perfect for SSF (solo self-found) or economy league starts. Here’s what to focus on:
Crossbow
Elemental Damage with Attacks: A must-have since all your main damage is elemental.
Added Fire Damage or High Phys Rolls
Life & Mana on Kill: Amazing QoL for sustaining through the campaign.
Armor
Stack Armor + Evasion gear wherever possible.
Max Life on all armor slots is a priority.
Resistances are key-fill gaps via rings, belt, and helmet.
Boots
Movement Speed (at least 20%)
Life Regen, Resistances, and Max Life
Helmet, Gloves, Chest
High defenses
Added Attributes like Dexterity or Strength
Resists and Life
Accessories
Rings: Added damage to attacks, life, resistances.
Amulet: All attributes, increased armor/life.
Belt: Strength, life regen, max life.
Charm
A Chaos Resistance Charm is used early to compensate for low Chaos res.Passive Tree and Ascendancy
You can run this build with any Mercenary ascendancy, but Witch Hunter offers excellent synergy early.
Witch Hunter Nodes Taken:
Culling Strike-Instantly kill low-health enemies.
Decimating Strike-Removes a chunk of health on hit.
Passive Tree Pathing Highlights:
1.Projectile Damage Cluster-Early leveling power.
2.Grenade Cooldown and AoE Nodes-Unlocks core build synergy.
3.Crossbow Damage Nodes-Synergizes with all grenade-based skills.
4.Movement Speed Cluster-Helps with mapping speed.
5.Grenade Detonation Time Nodes-Makes combat feel snappy.
6.AoE and Elemental Penetration Nodes-Boosts clear and single-target damage.
7.Defense Clusters-Grab Armor and Evasion nodes when survivability dips.
8.Culling Strike Threshold-Kill enemies earlier and more efficiently.
Final Thoughts
This Explosive Grenade Mercenary Build is one of the smoothest ways to kick off your journey in Path of Exile. With huge AoE explosions buy POE orbs site, flexible debuffs, and reliable bossing tools, you’re covered for both campaign and early mapping. It’s ideal for casual players and league starters alike.