Overview
This is a preview rather than a single build guide: a German-language rundown of six league-starter candidates for the PoE 2 0.5.5 event. The framing matters — the creator points out that 0.5.5 ships with practically no balance changes, so everything that worked at the 0.5 league start still works, and the whole community’s accumulated knowledge carries over intact.
The one genuine disruption is Grim Pillar. Remnant encounters no longer appear in every campaign zone, only from act four onward, so the skill arrives far later than it did in 0.5 and the first gems on trade are expected to be expensive. Every recommendation below is shaped by that constraint.
Each entry is a pointer to another creator’s full guide, not a self-contained build. Treat this page as a shortlist for deciding what to level, then follow the linked creator for the actual gem, tree, and gear detail.
The Six Recommendations
- Spirit Walker Monkey (Captain Lance) — the lowest-budget pick on the list. Nearly all the power comes from the tamed monkey minion granted by the Spirit Walker ascendancy, giving strong boss damage and comfortable defences with very few buttons. The catch is timing: you cannot tame until the ascendancy is unlocked, so the opening hours are played on something else. Clear speed is not its strength.
- Granite Gemling Legionnaire (DeadRabbit) — recommended less for a specific skill than for flexibility. Gemling levels smoothly on grenades, has fast campaign clear and strong boss damage with minimal gear, and leaves every endgame archetype open afterwards. The creator expects many players to run grenades well into the endgame simply because it feels good, then respec once they can afford their real build.
- Twister (Snobby) — currently one of the strongest concepts for speed and campaign comfort, but it demands a strict skill rotation. Playable on either Spirit Walker (faster and easier to get online) or Gemling (slower ramp, far more endgame flexibility).
- Discipline of Rarasta / Djinn (Blazeworks) — a minion build that plays like a caster. It scales minion damage but the moment-to-moment feel is closer to Spark than to a follow-the-army summoner, so it is a poor fit for players who want passive minion gameplay. Named as one of the best options in SSF hardcore, with extreme defence and damage handed over largely by the ascendancy through Archon and command skills.
- Grim Pillar Totems (Lowepe) — the creator’s own 0.5 pick and, in their words, the strongest of the set for progression feel, clear, and bossing. The only real drawback is access: expect to level something else, most likely a plant-based Druid caster into Spark Totems, and swap to Grim Pillar only once the gem is obtainable or affordable.
- Bonestorm Totem Infernalist (Lowepe, in progress) — the creator’s actual 0.5.5 starter and the closest thing here to a sleeper pick. Very strong endgame single target with easy scaling through low life and the Infernalist ascendancy, well suited to Ritual and the reworked Trial of Chaos where fights happen in small areas. Clear speed is decent but more delayed than Grim Pillar. Levelling is done through Essence Drain and Contagion; a full guide is still being written, with SaltyWarrior’s video covering the endgame version in the meantime.
Endgame Notes
The creator’s own plan for the event is Bonestorm Totems on Infernalist, targeting Ritual and Trial of Chaos specifically. Gemling is flagged as the ascendancy most likely to attract future nerfs, given how many distinct builds it currently supports.
Credits & Source
Recommendations credited to Lowepe, who also credits the individual guide authors named above. See the source video for the full commentary: 6 League Starter Build-Empfehlungen für das PoE 2 0.5.5 Event.