combo huntress - 9 active skills

Hello community.
I currently play this build and wanted to share it, because its really fun to play and there are not many builds like this out there.

pro:

-fun to play
-can combo skills in different ways depending on the combat situation, I'll describe those below (this is the main focus of this guide)
-allows and rewards skillful play
-my combat experience feels currently fair and balanced: I need to stay mindful to survive and mistakes can cost me my life, but I can also stay a few seconds near monsters without immediatly dying

can be a pro or con:
-we do not use currently overpowered stuff like lightning spear + volt here, meaning this build will feel significantly weaker than these, requires more effort play and does not have 1-button screen clears
-this is not a build designed for farming efficiency, meaning fastest clear times possible

con:
-since the build is based on my currents solo self found character progress, it is not finished: the passive tree lacks weapon swap points, many skill points and is not optimized, the skill gems only have 2-3 support gems each


Now to the fun part - the skill combos used during combat.

bleeding combos:

all those skills are supported by herald of blood to create chain-blood explosions, those require multiple bleeding enemies

rake -> rake
Basicially I use rake multiple times on different enemies to apply strong bleeds. Ideally these enemies have some distance to each other for maximum damage bonus.

rake -> waiting -> blood hunt
Once an enemy has suffered enough blood loss, I can explode them with blood hunt. This can be both efficient when having applied a lot of blood loss on a single rare monster or exploding multiple weaker monsters with multiple uses of blood hunt. I wrote "waiting" here, because for blood hunt to deal a lot of damage, you need to wait for the applied bleeds to have dealt their damage. You do not actually wait in the sense of doing nothing in practice and continue moving, parrying and using other skills.

blood hounds mark -....-> spear of solaris
Blood hunt mark can be applied to stronger monsters to generate stun build up, aggrevate bleed when triggering stun, apply various debuffs and deal some AoE damage. It's really good versus bosses and can also be used versus tankier monsters in general.
All the stun build up from the mark and also from other skills, will generate glory to be later spent on spear of solaris. This skill feels like an ultimate, dealing a lot of damage to get out of a dangerous situation or to burst down a rare / deal significant damage to a boss. Try kiting enemies in a way that they stay within it. You can also parry standing before the light cone, to stall enemies inside the effect area and give them the parry debuff to take extra damage.

single target combo:

rapid assault -> explosive spear -> rapid assault / explosive spear -> rapid assault
(main combo versus strong single target enemies)
Ideally I try to get as many spear heads as possible / needed for the kill stuck in the enemy and then explode them with explosive spear. In practice this is not always possible, so I try to get away with as many as I can, before the (boss) enemy does something to interrupt the combo. I can also throw explosive spear first for a smaller combo, since it has a delay before it explodes.

keeping rake and blood hunt applied
Since rake is the strongest bleed, I apply it to strong enemies like bosses for additional dps in addition to performing my main single target combo. Rake can also be used as a gap closer to follow the boss if he moves. I also apply blood hunt for additional stun build up and debuffs.


parry combos:

parry -> disengage -> explosive spear / whirlwind lance -> rake / both
After parrying, I use disengage to create 1 or 2 frenzy charges. If I generate only 1 charge, I can use it either on explosive spear or whirlwind lance. The improved explosive spear can be used to detonate rapid assault spear heads and/or to deal good AoE damage in a cross shape. The improved whirlwind lance can be followed up by rake to trigger it and deal good AoE damage in a circle shape. If I generate 2 charges (Profusion support gem), I have a third option: I can use explosive spear + whirlwind lance -> gap close with rake to generate a fire whirlwind. If the disengage is a crit, it will create shocked ground, making it a fire + lightning whirlwind. Whirlwinds can also benefit from any maps with elemental ground effects, since those can be used to amplify the whirlwind.
Together with the bleed combos, this is the primary way to deal with larger groups of monsters.

building up rapid assault stacks -> explosive spear -> parry
I can build up multiple rapid assault stacks and up to two explosive spears stuck in the ground before parrying, to have all of them and the skills used after parry benefit from the 50% more damage (parry debuff).

parry -> blood hunt
This is mainly used versus bosses. Over the course of the fight a lot of blood loss it accumulated. I wait until near the end of the fight to consume it with blood hunt and deal incredible large amounts of damage - even more if I combine it with damage multipliers from the parry debuff and predatory instincts (weakness).

parry -> rake -> rake (-> disengage)
I believe that the rake bleed strength gets buffed by 50% when hitting an enemy with parry debuff over the entire duration of the bleed (please correct me, if I'm wrong regarding this). Unfortunately, you currently can't use parry -> disengage -> rake, because disengage removes the parry debuff. You can however parry and use rake to jump away on a far target, before returning back to your original target for a maximum strength bleed. This can then be followed up by disengage.

other skill uses

This build is often close to the enemies. If there is a particular hard mob group that makes staying near enemies very dangerous, this build has some basic ranged capacity using whirlwind lance.
Use health potions liberally when near enemies once they start damaging you.
It's important for a build like this to use skills in a way that feels good for you. I encourage you to experiment with all the combos I described above, and see how they fit into your own personal playstyle. There are small alterations to them I haven't mentioned here. You can find them out on your own, based on your understanding how the skills and their synergy function. Don't feel like you have to follow a strict A -> B -> C pattern for maximum efficiency, so e.g. if your enemy doesn't offer you an easy parry for the most efficient combo, just continue a different way.

used spirit gems:

herald of blood: for additional damage and to cause blood chain explosions
wind dancer: mainly for additional evasion, can deal some extra damage
if I had another skill gem slot, I would add attrition for particular challenging boss fights

my currently used skill and support gems:
Rake - Deep Cuts, See red, Momentum -> for maximum bleed potency
Blood Hunt - Blood Lust, Magnified effect, Haemocrystals (I'm not sure if they work, I try them out currently, you can replace this game with a damage gem)
Rapid Assault - Untoucheable, Bullseye, Heavy swing
Disengage - Profusion, Shocking leap
Explosive Spear - Fire infusion, Fire penetration, Overabundance
Blood hounds Mark - Rupture, Devastate, Blood in the eyes
Spear of Solaris - Invetable Critical, Supercritical, Searing flame (I'm not sure if going for ignite damage with this skill is worth it, this can be replaced by a fire / elemental damage gem)
Whirlwind Lance - Retreat, Heft, Arms Length
Parry - Unbreakable, Spar, Mobility, Wind Wave

Herald of Blood - Brutality, Precision, Deadly Herald
Winddancer - Blind, Maim

ascendency nodes
Critical Strike + Penetrade: for extra crit chance and extra damage, we need to stack accuracy for this and blinding and maiming the enemy via wind dancer helps as well
Predatory Instinct: for an additional damage multiplier versus rares/bosses
Stalking Panther: for additional defense, we play hybrid armor and this allows us to reach solid evasion values

basic item stats and passive tree

https://maxroll.gg/poe2/passive-tree/j32wv07a
note: You need to assign as many strength passive nodes as needed to meet your gear requirement instead of dexterity.

warning: while the passive tree works - it's work in progress and is still unoptimized and misses lots of skill points + does not use the weapon swap mechanic yet (I still only have a single decent weapon due to playing solo self found)
This build currently uses armor + evasion equipment. I believe another variant using energy shield + evasion instead is possible, because ghost dance is really strong (at least it was last patch, not sure if they changed it). I haven't tried that out though and it would require a different equipment set + an entirely different passive tree.
Feel free to optimize the passive tree, use better items, supports gems than I do. The main point of this guide was to introduce the plethora of skill combos that can be used in a single build which makes combat really varied and fun.

good stats to get on equipment:
-you need a ring that grants you an additional skill slot
-75% resistances as always
-weapon with high physical damage and accuracy
-high armor, evasion, life values
-blade catcher looks like a good and cheap to acquire node on an amulet
-chance to gain a charge when you kill an enemy health potion (this is actually important, we need those charges)
-more critical damage, critical chance, accuracy or physical damage
-increased rarity on items found
-anything that supports bleed, or damaging ailments

things I'm currently interested in trying out
-using blood hounds mark more liberally for the AoE explosion.
-finding out if the exploding spead heads from rapid assault stack for a single super large bleed or if they merely cause a large explosion and only one of them causes the bleed.
-finding out if going more for direct damage or more for bleed/ignite is more efficient

closing words
I truely enjoy playing like this and hope other players find some inspiration in this.
I might update this guide in the future to improve it. I might also add some videos of the playstyle if my time, old computer and weak internet connection allow it. However I don't feel myself beholden towards the community, so I might as well do something else like creating an elemental huntress combo build if I fancy.

Kind regards
Meril

I've been playing bleed ritualist, but with fewer skills to juggle here. Cut the parry, got a shield instead. Rake (momentum), disengage (ingenuity) is a good repeatable combo. Spearfield with bleed and poison to take advantage of the ailment passives. Lightning spear, even without any elemental passives, cleans up mobs if any remain alive. It doesn't have to be the centerpiece, but it's nice to have. Running with two beasts not just for the auras but because they distract the enemies so much I can just forget about aggro. Ritualist is the defenses and utilities oriented ascendancy, so I can comfortably get many resistances and stats. Chasing DPS is an extra stress that feels unnecessary. If you have the spirit of a speed runner, your only fun is when time is fast. But if you don't, spending a couple extra seconds to kill where you aren't worrying that the next hit will kill you is also fun.