[Feedback] Huntress Frenzy Charge Generation Is a Core Problem for Build Variety

After spending 42+ hours playing a bleed-focused Huntress this league, I wanted to highlight a core design issue that I think contributes significantly to why the class feels bad for many players — and it’s not just about damage or pacing. It’s about how dependent Huntress is on Frenzy charges, and how limited and awkward the options are for actually generating them.

The issue: too much power is gated behind Frenzy charges
Most of Huntress’s powerful skills scale significantly with Frenzy charges. But the ways to generate them are extremely limited — especially during boss fights, which are ironically the times when you need them most. I understand the intent: rewarding reactive play and skillful parrying. That’s cool in theory. But in practice, it just doesn’t feel good.

Parry doesn’t work on many bosses
A major problem is that many bosses simply don’t have parryable attacks. I can’t tell you how many fights I’ve gone through where I try to parry, and nothing happens. That removes my only source of Frenzy generation unless I’ve specifically built around some awkward edge-case solution — which still usually doesn’t feel good.

Real Example: Parry Punishes You for Playing “Correctly”
There’s a boss in Act 2 — the flamethrower one — who does this enraged arm-flailing attack. It looks like the perfect window to parry, so I did. But the moment the animation ends, he drops a bomb that detonates immediately. I died several times trying to engage with the fight the “right” way. Even when I successfully parried, the bomb would go off before I could Disengage or roll far enough — the radius is too massive. This is a perfect example of how even correct use of Parry can get you killed. And it sends the message that trying to engage with Huntress’s intended mechanics is a trap.

Alternate options feel clunky or ineffective
I’ve tried using Combat Frenzy by applying Pen to enemies to generate charges, but:

There aren’t many good skills that apply Pen effectively for bleed builds.

Caltrops and Spearfield didn’t feel good or reliable.

Trying to slot in Frost Bolt and Rolling Strike just to freeze enemies for charge generation — in a bleed build — feels completely disconnected and unintuitive.


GGG has acknowledged the issue, but the proposed fix may fall short
I saw the recent dev post where GGG mentioned a new skill similar to Killing Palm to help with Frenzy generation. That’s a step in the right direction, but it sounds like it’s geared toward mapping — not bossing, where the problem is most painful.

Suggestions going forward:

Introduce multiple ways to generate Frenzy charges — not just parry-based or ailment-specific setups.

Let players socket a support or utility skill to generate charges through other combat actions (hits, dots, crits, bleeds).

Introduce a weaker but universal backup method of gaining Frenzy for players who aren’t leaning into niche mechanics — something 70–80% less effective, but reliable.


Why this matters:
Right now, Huntress feels overly situational. Many builds only work for mapping OR bossing — not both — unless you respec or swap out your entire setup. We need a middle ground. Let us build around our theme (bleed, crit, dot, etc.) and still function across content without feeling punished.

I love the Huntress concept. I’ve spent real time theorycrafting and trying to make her work in my own way. But being forced into janky setups or meta builds just to make her function takes the fun out of it. And that’s not what PoE is supposed to be about.

Please give us better Frenzy generation tools — not just for flavor, but for fairness.

the whole class feels like it's designed for a completely different game

the design is good in concept, but in action in poe2 as it's designed now it's bloody awful.

the temporary band aid of giving huntress killing palm is not a proper solution to this. asking players to parry bosses actively goes against the "don't get hit" design of the entire rest of the game and actively makes many boss fights miserable as OP points out

this class feels like it was not internally playtested on this version of the game. like, at all.

Yeah, completely agree. Monsters are insanely fast, and bosses don’t seem to be designed with clear telegraphs or proper damage, parry, or dodge windows. You’re expected to react, but there’s nothing to react to — half the time you’re just guessing and hoping it works.

That Act 2 flamethrower boss is a perfect example. I parried during his big attack, and then immediately died to the bomb he drops with no time to escape. Even when you play it right, you get punished. The class just doesn’t feel like it was tested against actual boss mechanics at all.

Great post. Wait until you find out all the INSCISION choices on your passive tree cancels your bleed build up. They literally work against each other. I had no choice but to respec my bleed build to lightning only to bankrupt myself for even less damage. I am not logging back in there is no reason. I am not regrinding all that so I can take 2 days to solo the Viper.

Sniper's Mark synergizes well with the Critical Strike (Amazon ascendancy). But yeah, parry is just bad & having that be the main source of frenzy generation in early levels was a point of frustration for me.

If parry was more reliable, maybe I'd have felt differently... but asking players to stand in the way of danger for a little extra power, when a mob or AOE can (and will) frequently bypass the parry - doesn't seem well thought out.

Man, that actually explains a lot. I was wondering why Rake felt so awful after I picked up those Incision nodes — it just wasn’t performing at all. I ended up dropping it and switched over to using Spearfield, Caltrops, and Spear Throw instead.

Ah okay, gotcha — so you went Amazon for the crit synergy with Sniper’s Mark. I went Ritualist instead and focused on Corrupted Blood and the 20% extra physical damage. Totally agree with you on Parry though — even as someone not relying on crit or the Amazon side, I still ran into the same frustration.

Relying on Parry for Frenzy generation early feels rough. So many attacks either bypass it or don’t trigger properly, and it ends up punishing you for trying to engage with the mechanic. I really hope they give it another pass because right now it just doesn’t feel rewarding or reliable.

I like parry on bosses. It feels good to me and rewards skillful play. However I also agree that it depends on the boss and there are some that could be looked at with parry specifically in mind.
That a boss can trick me with certain parryable attacks by following up with unblockable damage afterwards seems ok to me and could be part of learning the boss, as long as there are other attacks that I can parry.

I have the impression that bleed builds are not intended to be played with frenzy charges: they do not consume frenzy charges. Expect maybe for the physical windsnake skill.
Snipers mark works for generating some charges though.

Combat frenzy works well for elemental builds and I think its intended for that.

I find it important that frenzy charges retain a certain scarcity, so that the player can not constantly uses frenzy empowered skills (and not use their unempowered version anymore) and has to actively play around how to generate them and on what to spend them. I dislike the newly introduced culling for that reason - it makes the generation of large number of frenzy charges too easy (just use an AoE skill on mobs and cull the low hp ones).

I hear you, and I’m glad Parry feels good for you — but I have to be honest, I really don’t agree with the idea that it’s okay for bosses to “trick” you with parryable-looking attacks that follow up with instant-death mechanics. That kind of punishment just doesn’t feel fair.

Like, how are you supposed to know what’s parryable and what isn’t on your first attempt? If the price for guessing wrong is just dying, it discourages experimentation and makes players afraid to engage with the mechanic at all. That’s not skill expression — that’s a trap.

I don’t mind learning boss mechanics, but if Parry is going to be a core tool, it needs to be more consistent and readable. Getting blown up for trying to use the class properly just makes the whole system feel punishing instead of rewarding.

On the Frenzy side, I also think this highlights a deeper issue: so much of the Huntress’s power is locked behind Frenzy charges. Pretty much every big damage skill scales off them. So if your build doesn’t have a reliable way to generate Frenzy — especially in a bleed setup — your whole kit suffers.

If it’s actually a design choice that bleed builds aren’t meant to use Frenzy, then the base damage for those skills needs to be way higher to compensate. Honestly, I’d prefer that — I don’t want to manage a clunky charge system if the class is supposed to play without it. But right now it just feels like you’re stuck in the middle: you rely on Frenzy, but the game gives you no good way to use it.

Also agree on culling — generating Frenzy should be meaningful, not just something you spam through AoE and cheese. But there still needs to be viable, consistent tools for players who are actually trying to build around it properly.

I guess I simply normalized dying: I go into a boss fight, die, respawn at the checkpoint and just continue without really caring about the death. And after the campaign I already know the bosses.
Your readability idea of what is parryable and what is not definitely has some merit. I still think there is a room for bosses tricking me and there could be a visual clue: like a monster attacking me with the right claw while clearly visible trying to hide a bomb with the other claw behind his back. I at least could get the idea "what is the bomb doing there?" - warning me it might not be safe to parry. Additionally the boss could be called "the trickster".