Path of Exile 2: Best Gemling Legionnaire endgame build guide (Pillar-HOWA)
The Pillar-HOWA Gemling Legionnaire can easily become Path of Exile 2's strongest endgame Mercenary build. We call it the Pillar-HOWA Gemling Legionnaire because it uses the Pillar of The Caged God Quarterstaff and Hands of Wisdom and Action Unique Glove. Although it doesn't run the proposed crossbow-centric kit or Skills that Mercenary uses, it's easily the best scalable Gemling Legionnaire build to fully utilize his Attribute-stacking benefits.
Note that the build guide discussed here does not come online throughout most of Path of Exile 2's campaign. It's strictly an endgame-focused setup that you can transition to during the Cruel Acts.
Pros and Cons of the Pillar-HOWA Gemling Legionnaire build in Path of Exile 2
Unless you happen to miraculously get multiple Divine Orbs to drop during the first few hours of the campaign, Pillar-HOWA is Under no circumstance a League-starter in Path of Exile 2. That said, it deals tremendous damage and has absurdly good mobbing, to the point that it might get nerfed on a major balance update.
Pros
- You can one-tap mobs in the same way one-button meta builds work in Path of Exile 1.
- It's quite easy to play due to high durability from Mind over Matter and a chunky Mana pool.
- While its AoE lends itself to a mobbing focus, bossing is not a big headache due to Tempest Bell.
Cons
- It is one of the most expensive endgame setups in Path of Exile 2 at the moment; you'll need at least a 15-20 Divine budget.
- Mana sustain is a big problem when running the build in Pinnacle content.
How does a Pillar-HOWA Gemling Legionnaire build work in Path of Exile 2?
Since the Pillar of Caged God is a Quarterstaff, you're restricted to just using the Invoker/Quarterstaff Skills. Granted, it's potentially possible to go down the icy route and try out Ice Staff for bossing potential. However, Lightning damage (courtesy of Waggle) is the right way to go for a Pillar-HOWA Gemling build, considering the absurdly high AoE you can get.
Pillar-HOWA interaction breakdown, and why we go Lightning
If you're not sure why the Pillar-HOWA combo is the best for leveraging Gemling Legionnaire's Ascension perks, here's a simplified explanation.
Pillar of The Caged God gives you a 2% increased Area of Effect for Attacks per 5 INT, while HOWA (Hands of Wisdom and Action) adds a flat amount of Lightning damage to your Attacks (including attack-based Skill hits) per 10 INT. In other words, with INT-stacking alone, you can scale your Lightning Attack Skills without needing to rely on Physical damage conversion.
How to play Pillar-HOWA Gemling Legionnaire in Path of Exile 2
Rotation for Mobbing
The main Skill we use is Storm Wave during Mobbing. If you don't have all of your endgame gear up and there's some damage issue in a high-tier map, you can use Siphoning Strike to get Power Charges and activate Charged Staff for extra damage. For extra-beefy Rares and Expedition monsters, you can use Tempest Bell as a panic button.
Rotation for Bossing
- Opener: Hand of Chaluya
- Spam Skill: Storm Wave or Tempest Flurry; Tempest Bell off-cooldown
- Situational: Siphoning Strike + Charged Staff
Open with Hand of Chaluya, and refresh the curses whenever it's safe to do so.
Depending on the distance you want to fight from, both Storm Wave and Tempest Flurry can be used as the main bossing Skill. The other critical bossing tool is Tempest Bell.
Carefully place your Tempest Bell at a point where you are comfortable, and then hit it and the boss concurrently. A big convenience Gem-swap is putting Magnified Effect into Tempest Bell prior to the fight, so the echoes can clip the boss more easily.
Due to how Siphoning Strike functions, it's also possible to get the occasional Charged Staff activation to fasten the fight against Pinnacle bosses.
Best Pillar-HOWA Gemling Legionnaire endgame Skill Gem setup in Path of Exile 2
Due to the high AoE focus, Storm Wave is the best Skill to spam for regular trash-mob clearing. Here's what we use for our Skill Gem and Support link setup:
- Storm Wave: Lightning Infusion - Primal Armament - Martial Tempo - Upheveal for higher AoE or Rage for higher DPS - Innvervate
- Tempest Flurry: Crescendo - Longshot if using at a distance or Close Combat if using as DPS - Rage - Martial Tempo - Lightning Infusion
- Hand of Chayula: Voltaic Mark - Conductivity - Enfeeble - Heightened Curse - Persistence
- Charged Staff: Persistence - Concentrated Effect - Lightning Exposure - Close Combat
- Tempest Bell: Primal Armament - Concentrated Effect- Hourglass - Elemental Focus - Rageforged
- Herald of Thunder / Herald of Ice: Execute - Magnified Effect - Elemental Focus
- Blink: Arcane Tempo - Clarity - Ingenuity
One of the pros of this build is the flexibility of the Support Gem setup once you get all eight Ascension Points. Due to the Gem-Studded Passive on Gemling Legionnaire, you can use two copies of any given Support Gem. So, there's definitely some room for mixing and matching to experiment on your setup.
If you get enough Spirit, it's also possible to use a Herald of Thunder + Herald of Ice combo setup for even more mobbing power. However, if your central gear combo is online, you'll seldom need it.
BiS itemization options for Path of Exile 2 Gemling Legionnaire Pillar-HOWA endgame build
Of course, the first two things you want to get are the build-enabling HOWA and Pillar of The Caged God. Depending on your budget, you should go for the cheaper rolls as a mapping solution while you work towards your min-max build. All in all, gearing up for this can take anything from 20 to 30 Divine Orbs (and that is on a more budget-friendly variant, it's possible to dip into Multi-Mirror territory if you want the really good rolls).
As an Attribute stacker, the main thing you're looking for is Attribute rolls. Get a good poor man's Astramantis through a Stellar Amulet with +All Attributes, +DEX, and +INT. For your Rings, you can initially go for anything that will get you Res-capped (and at least some degree of Chaos Resistance). Later on, you'll want to swap these out for Breach Rings upgraded with Adaptive Catalysts, specifically those with +Mana and +Attribute rolls.
Here's the aspirational setup you're looking for in a HOWA-Pillar endgame Path of Exile 2 build with the Gemling:
In addition to these, the following are also worth considering:
- The Ingenuity Unique Belt is a great option to pump even more Attributes from your Breach Rings.
- The Melting Maelstrom Mana Flask is a great option to add even more offensive and defensive capabilities.
- For your Jewels, you want to use Sapphire Jewels with % Mana Recovery on Kill, Lightning Damage, and increased Shock Magnitude.
- An Against the Darkness with % Increased INT and Lightning Damage conversion is a final layer of min-maxing you can add.
Keep in mind that getting all these exact fits can prove to be very expensive, and getting semi-decent options that are weaker variants of these is also fine.
Best Ascension nodes, Keystone Passives, and other notable nodes for Gemling Legionnaire Pillar
For your Passives, you want to take as many +Attribute nodes (otherwise called Travel nodes) as possible, and the majority of them should be in INT. This is because we want to get our Mana Pool to at least 6k, and then use that as the primary defensive layer, thanks to the Mind over Matter Keystone Passive. Otherwise, your Attribute split should be 60% INT, 20% STR, and 20% DEX.
We also want to rush to the Attribute cluster at the bottom of the Passive Tree and get Polymathy and Jack of All Trades. Then, we go counterclockwise through the edge of the Skill Tree and make a beeline for Mind over Matter. A notable detour on the way is the Lightning cluster to the north, specifically for the node, Pure Power.
As for your Ascendancy Passives, get Adaptive Capability and Enhanced Effectiveness first. Then, spec the branch with Gem Studded with additional Ascendancy points.
Check out our other guides on the game:
- Path of Exile 2 Skill Gems and Gemcutting guide
- Path of Exile 2 Endgame systems guide
- Path of Exile 2 Item Crafting guide
- Path of Exile 2 Runes and Sockets guide
- Path of Exile 2 Defense guide: Energy Shield, Armor, and Evasion explained