PoE2 Amazon & Ritualist Skills Reveal Preview

With Path of Exile 2's Dawn of the Hunt (Patch 0.2.0) dropping on April 4, 2025, Grinding Gear Games has been teasing us with the Huntress's ascendancies: the Amazon and Ritualist. Yesterday's reveal on March 27 gave us the big picture, but today, we're zooming into the skills leaked via the press kit. These aren't final—numbers and mechanics might shift—but they're a juicy peek at what's coming. MMOJUGG's breaking down the standout skills from both ascendancies—let's see what's hot and what's not!  

The Ritualist's dark Azmeri vibe—sacrificing flesh and spreading plague—sounds wicked on paper. Here's what's cooking:  

Enemies in your “presence” (a small radius around you) stack Blood Boils over time—not on hit, just proximity. Kill them, and each boil pops, spreading corrupted blood within 1.5 meters. That's 2% of the slain enemy's max life as physical damage per second (base 5-second duration, so 10% total).  

The upside is that it has decent base clear damage -10 % life per enemy is solid for trash mobs. It scales with enemy HP, so beefier packs could amplify it.  

The downside is that the presence range is tiny (think screen-center circle, doubled with Alpha's Howl). The 1.5-meter spread is puny—corrupted blood won't chain far. Bosses? Useless—no adds, no kills, no boils. Clear-only gimmick.

Kneel over a rare monster's corpse, stab it, and steal one of its mods for 20 seconds. Animation's 2–3 seconds long.  

The upside is that it's thematic as hell. Grabbing a mod like “Extra Fire Damage” could flex some builds.  

The downside is that animation's a dealbreaker. Stopping for 2–3 seconds mid-fight for a 20-second buff? In PoE's chaos? Nope. Needs to be instant, or it's dead on arrival.

Unfurled Finger (+1 ring slot) and Mystic Attunement (boosted ring/amulet effects) weren't detailed here, but they're the real draw. Three-ring setups with charm spam could be the Ritualist's meta ticket—Blood Boil and Sacrifice feel like side dishes. 

 

The Amazon is all about precision and elemental fury—elite guard vibes with a spear-twirling twist. Here's the star:  

Auto-triggers on projectile attacks when you've got charges—consume Power (Cold), Endurance (Fire), or Frenzy (Lightning) to infuse the first projectile. It explodes on impact (2.6-meter radius), converting 100% of the physical to the element, with a level 20 multiplier of 62% more damage.  

The upside is that 62% more damage is massive—stack it with spear throws or even Molten Strike's fireballs, and you're cooking. Auto-consumption keeps it smooth; no clunky activation. The explosion radius is decent for clear, complete conversion opens elemental scaling.  

The downside of “First projectile” is vague. Bows or multi-projectile skills (like spear throws) might only juice one arrow—lame if true. If it infuses the whole attack, though, this is bonkers—especially with charge generation (think Power Siphon or Flicker Strike synergy).

Other nodes like Predatory Instinct (exploits enemy weaknesses) and Critical Strike (excess hit chance to crit) weren't detailed, but they scream single-target DPS. Infusion's the flashy hook—projectile builds could feast. 

 

Ritualist: Blood Boil's a clear tool—nice base damage, but the proximity trigger and tiny spread limit it. Ritual Sacrifice's animation kills its vibe -20 seconds of a mod isn't worth a 3-second pause. The ring/charm play's where it might shine—stack stats and charms, ignore the skills. Quirky, not meta yet.  

Amazon: Elemental Infusion's a banger—62% more damage on a projectile explosion? That's boss-slaying juice. If it scales all projectiles (fingers crossed), it's T0 potential with spears or bows. Smoother, deadlier, and less fiddly than Ritualist's gimmicks.

Amazon's looking spicy—Infusion's multiplier and charge synergy could shred early Dawn of the Hunt metas, especially with spear skills like Lightning Spear Throw. Ritualist's got flavor, but Blood Boil's situational and Sacrifice's clunky ring stacking might save it. Patch notes next week will lock in numbers and mechanics (animation speed, projectile rules), so this is speculative hype for now. With 25 new Huntress skills and 100+ support gems dropping, expect these to evolve—maybe a gem speeds up Sacrifice or buffs Blood Boil's range. 

 

That's the skill scoop from the Dawn of the Hunt press kit! Amazon's got the edge, but Ritualist's ring lord dreams could surprise us. MMOJUGG's stoked to test these in Patch 0.2.0—drop your thoughts, and stay tuned for more!