Path of Exile 2's Huntress is Basically Diablo 2's Amazon
Highlights Path of Exile 2’s Huntress class draws clear inspiration from Diablo 2’s Amazon, utilizing similar mechanics and weapons such as the spear and javelin. With its multiple area-of-effect skills, the Huntress excels at clearing out packs of enemies, making her a formidable choice for players in Path of Exile 2. The Huntress can replicate the boss-killing effectiveness of the Diablo 2 Amazon, combining continuous damage and high DPS, making her a strong choice for challenging boss fights in Path of Exile 2.
Grinding Gear Games recently held its first ExileCon since 2019, back when the company first unveiled Path of Exile 2 to the world, putting a big hype train in motion that would unfortunately soon find obstructions on its path through Covid. This year, GGG doubled down on everything about the game, including the revelation that Path of Exile 2 will be a standalone game contrary to what was stated back then, all while both PoE 2 and the original game keep getting new updates for players to enjoy. Sharing the same ARPG roots means that many comparisons can be drawn between GGG’s upcoming game and the Diablo franchise, and an easy one stems from the similarities shared by the Huntress and the Amazon.
One could say that Path of Exile 2 has a clear advantage over Diablo 4 just by featuring a total of 12 base classes, all coming with three Ascendancy classes each, compared to Blizzard’s ARPG only featuring five. Diablo 4 is likely not done with its classes just yet, and there are even theories pointing out how the recent installment of the franchise could keep being a love letter to Diablo 2 by adding the Amazon. Either way, this class shares its DNA with Path of Exile 2’s Huntress, and it shows in the latter’s gameplay.
How Path of Exile 2’s Huntress Compares to Diablo 2’s Amazon
While this was not the only build available for Amazon players in Diablo 2, the javelin is arguably the most iconic weapon the class gets access to, with incredible add-clearing and endgame skills like Plague Javelin and Lightning Strike destroying monsters and demons. Packed with a skill tree dedicated to bows and crossbows, one to spears and javelins, and one to passive and magic skills, the Amazon is a great class in Diablo 2, and it looks like Path of Exile 2 is borrowing some core elements from it.
Path of Exile 2’s closed beta is still a ways off, but those who attended ExileCon could play the game and explore the various classes coming with it. The first impressions were that Path of Exile 2 is generally much slower than the original, which was also seen in the live gameplay footage provided by Grinding Gear Games, but this is not necessarily widespread to all classes – and it seems to also hold particularly true for the ExileCon beta. In fact, the Huntress comes with multiple AoE skills that make it feel a lot similar to the Amazon.
Also using a spear as the main weapon, the Huntress’ way of wielding the spear is very reminiscent of the Amazon’s hold of the javelin. On top of that, the Huntress can throw its spear with skills like Storm Spear, which hurls the weapon at an enemy and then releases bolts of lightning capable of hitting multiple monsters. With Spearfield and Whirling Slash also available to the Huntress, it’s already clear that she will be one of the best characters to pick in Path of Exile 2 when it comes to defeating packs of enemies at once.
Furthermore, the Huntress can also replicate the boss-killing efficacy of Diablo 2’s Amazon by combining the AoE continuous damage from Whirling Slash and the huge DPS coming from Rapid Assault, which can prove devastating even for Path of Exile 2’s hard boss fights. As such, it’s likely that those who enjoyed the Amazon in Diablo 2 will feel right at home when playing the Huntress in Path of Exile 2, and that’s not even counting possible direction the class could go into with Ascendancy and further endgame combos.
Path of Exile 2 is in development.