Crucible League Starter Builds

By David Esteban | April 8th, 2023 | Categories: Path of Exile

Path of Exile’s Crucible league is up and all players are racing towards new builds to conquer the latest mechanic added to the game. The crucible sees players forge monsters on the crucible, the longer they hold the forge the stronger the forged monsters get, and by defeating these monsters you earn experience points for the weapon of your choice. Players love this league as it introduces a new way to craft passives for their weapons. With that in mind, let us take a look at some of the best league starter builds that you can make to quickly beat your first run.

Table of Contents

Best 5 starter builds for your first run in Crucible League

Just like all other leagues, Path of Exile didn’t change the game that much. There are just some nerfs and buffs to some builds. But in the Crucible league, the new mechanic spawns mobs beside you just like a strongbox would. So you’re going to need a little bit of survivability and damage output so you can maximize the exp points you can gain from each crucible.

Here are some of the best League starter builds that you can use:

#1 Starter Build: Toxic Rain Pathfinder

We are starting this list with one of the classics in Path of Exile. Toxic Rain Pathfinder is a simple Path of Exile build that doesn’t require you to press a lot of buttons It is also one of the best league starter builds that even beginners can easily utilize. This attack lets your exile shoot arrows in the sky and produce pods as it falls to the ground. It deals tons of chaos damage.

Toxic Rain Pathfinder can be played with any set of Rare items but there is a unique item that you can use at an early level to fully maximize your damage output. Quill Rain is a great unique item thanks to its 100% bonus attack speed as well as the bonus projectile speed along with mana gain. Crucible League spawns mobs around the forge so upon spawning, you can easily dispose of the monsters with your Toxic Rain.

Pros

Has great early-game damage
Capable of beating Uber bosses with median investment
Excellent AoE clear
Cheap to make

Cons

Mana can be a problem at early levels so you might have to rely on Mana Potions.
It can be Squishy so you need to focus on casting and running away from enemies.
High intelligence is required for proper end-game build.

#2 Starter Build: Boneshatter Slayer

If you love a classic melee playstyle, then Boneshatter Slayer is the way to go. Boneshatter Slayer lets you jump around and deal tons of Physical Damage to mobs and watch them satisfyingly explode especially when you have a herald cosmetic effect. This build can easily conquer the end game and you can use it to farm maps. It is an easy build but the Trauma stack and damage you receive from it are quite bothersome, and that is why we chose the Slayer Ascendancy because of the Brutal Fervor from its ascendancy passive.

Dealing with crucible forges is quite easy as well with this build as you can easily clear them fast with your physical damage. Most mobs that spawn early on in the game have elemental resistances making your pure physical damage a great way to deal with them. Crucible crafting will also allow you to deal crazy damage even during the early game, all you have to do when starting the league is to find a decent Rare weapon and level it up as every time you see a crucible forge.

Pros

Can farm maps easily and fast.
Can easily deal with early-game bosses
Being a slayer makes you a bit tanky thanks to your life leech from Brutal Fervor
Crucible crafting from early to the late game makes your damage even crazier.

Cons

Being a melee build lets you get too close to mobs especially bosses making it a bit risky
Trauma stack damage on yourself can be a nuisance especially if you’re not that good at the game yet.
Not that beginner friendly

#3 Starter Build: Firetrap Frost Blink Elementalist

Trap builds are always a fun league starter build and can also be beginner friendly, after all the only thing you have to do is throw away your traps. This can also be great, especially in Path of Exile’s Crucible League. Before you start forging mobs, you can just lay down some traps first to deal initial damage when they spawn, that way while getting to a safer range you are already dealing damage to the mobs.

Mines and traps also have the highest damage outputs in the game as they can cast spells multiple times at once. But the high damage output comes with a price, you become squishy so you will have to resort to a cast then move away kind of playstyle which can be tiresome if you do it on extended periods. But with a little bit of practice, you can easily master this build and even farm uber bosses with it given a little bit of investment.

Pros

Has one of the highest damage outputs out of most League starter builds.
Deals very high Fire damage to enemies that can be combined with a mobility spell for fast map clearing.
Cheap to start the league with.

Cons

Needs expensive investments if you wish to survive yellow maps and Up.

#4 Starter Build: Frost Blades Trickster

My personal favorite of a league starter build. Frost Blades Trickster is also a classic build that can be extremely satisfying to play especially because it rocks the Herald of Ice passive. You can zip around the map with your mobility skill of choice and deal tons of crit and first damage to enemies and watch them pop with ice sound effects.

We chose Trickster for this build because of the +1 projectile it can get early in its passive skill tree. It deals tons of damage to bosses and thankfully it slows mobs down so you can quickly and safely farm maps. This build however can be hard to play on early-game crucible forges given that mobs that you forge have elemental resistances, but as you level your passive tree up you can deal with them eventually. Crucible forges are also great as you can craft early-game bonus attack speed to your weapons along with some negative elemental resistances against mobs.

Pros

Has high attack speed letting you use your mobility spell quite fast.
Deals tons of AoE damage thanks to the shatter effect of Herald of Ice.
Easy to build and doesn’t rely much on expensive rares and uniques.

Cons

Can be squishy if you are new to the game.
Needs proper investing for endgame content.
Has trouble with early-game Crucible forges.

#5 Starter Build: Righteous Fire Inquisitor

Now this build is the true definition of a scaling build as it scales well with the level of your gems along with damage over time multiplier. This build is also great for beginners especially players who do not want to press tons of buttons and just wanna run around and clear mobs fast by just using your movement button.

Crucible Forge would also be a walk in the park with this build as you are extremely tanky and all you have to do is walk around the mobs and get the experience points for your weapon. But the fact that all you can do is deal Damage over Time, means you won’t be able to clear endgame bosses which makes it just a league starter build. But with this build, you can farm maps pretty fast and easily making it great for your next build.

Pros

Easy to play with and extremely beginner friendly
Does not die quite often unlike all the other builds mentioned above
Great for Crucible League Mechanic
Chill playstyle

Cons

Can not farm tanky bosses
Is not for endgame mechanics.

Summary

Crucible Leagues mechanic requires builds that have great AoE damage for faster crucible clearing along with proper survivability or mobility so you can survive the mobs. This is because Mobs become stronger the longer you press the forge button making it a high-risk high reward mechanic. If you fill the bar of the forge you will be faced with insanely strong mobs that you might need to dodge or tank. Now with the league fully up and running, go try some of these builds.