Taking an Ascendancy is an important part of customizing your character build in the latter half of PoE 2 build guide online). You'll choose everything from your character's class, to the equipment they use, to the skills they learn, to ive buffs that affect all of the above. It can get complicated, but only because of how deep it goes, how customizable every aspect of your character is.

And sometime in the game's second act, you'll have the opportunity to choose an Ascendancy class. This additional wrinkle in your character customization can be hard to understand at first, but it's a necessary part of continuing to progress your character build. Without further ado, here's everything you need to know about unlocking and choosing an Ascendancy in Path of Exile 2.

​What Are Ascendancies In Path Of Exile 2

How Ascendancies Work

In short, a Path of Exile 2 Ascendancy is basically a subclass. Each Ascendancy unlocks a handful of unique skills and perks that you can only purchase with Ascendancy Points, which you earn by completing various trials. Although they work just like skill points, unlocking nodes along a tree, they're an entirely separate resource that you'll have to seek out in order to gain some of your class’ most powerful skills.

In the early access version of the game, each main class has two of its own Ascendancies, which are listed in the table below. More may be added before the final release of the game. If you're having trouble deciding, take a look at the skills included in each, and base your decision on which seem more useful to the PoE 2 build you've been working with.

Despite the fancy name, Ascendancy is actually quite an easy concept to understand if you're familiar with how RPG classes work in general. Unlocking and progressing one, however, is another matter entirely.

How To Ascend In PoE 2

The Trial Of The Sekhemas

You'll unlock Ascendancies in Path of Exile 2 after completing the Trial of Sekhemas, a dungeon in Act Two. First, though, you'll have to beat Balbala in Traitor's to gain Balbala's Barya. This optional dungeon is located in The Ardura Caravan. You'll find Balbala in the Six Sisters area of the dungeon, and must free her from the Prison of the Disgraces before you can fight her.

Balbala is a quick and highly mobile boss, whom you'll fight in a cramped arena. Make sure to keep a finger on the dodge button, and always dash away when she teleports behind you. Just avoid her AoEs, and take out her adds as soon as she summons them. Eventually, she'll fall, and you can pick up Balbala's Barya.

With that behind you, you'll officially begin the quest “Ascent to Power,” which proceeds when you travel to the Trial of Sekhemas within the desert map, and start tackling this difficult dungeon. The gist here is that you need to complete the entire dungeon without dying or losing all your Honor, a unique resource you'll have to manage in this dungeon alone. See our Trial of Sekhemas guide for more info.

At the end of the dungeon, you'll find the Altar of Ascension; interact with it to unlock and choose your Ascendancy class. In effect, you'll receive two Ascendancy Points, which you can then spend to unlock two nodes on the skill tree of your choice.

Trial Of Chaos

In case you miss the Trial of Sekhemas in Act Two (or just want more Ascendancy Points), you can also unlock an Ascendancy class by completing the Trial of Chaos in Act Three. To unlock this one, you'll have to beat Xyclucian in the Chimeral Wetlands, then use the Chimeral Imbued Ultimatum you receive to unlock the Trial of Chaos in the same area. Even if you've already done the Trial of the Sekhemas, you can still take on the Trial of Chaos to get more Ascendancy Points.

How To Get More Ascendancy Points

To continue progressing along your chosen Ascendancy skill tree, you'll need more Ascendancy Points. You can earn more Ascendancy Points in PoE 2 by completing additional runs through the Trial of the Sekhemas and the Trial of Chaos, usually with additional floors and higher difficulty.

You can respec Ascendancy Points at any time by speaking to the Hooded One, just as you would for regular skill points. Respeccing Ascendancies is, however, much more expensive.

In order to do that, though, you'll need to find further Trial Coins to unlock the dungeons once again. These seem to drop randomly throughout high-level areas in the game, so there's no established way to farm them just yet. Simply hang around endgame areas, take out enemies, and beat bosses, and a Trial Coin is likely to fall in your lap before long.

And with that, you should have everything you need to start your Ascendancy journey. The harder part is picking which skills are best for your Path of Exile 2 build.