Path of Exile 2 (Path of Exile 2 Currency) is a game where nearly every skill, no matter how absurd it sounds, can become deadly in the hands of a creative exile. But among the endless whirl of blades, flames, and lightning, one build stands out for its sheer audacity and hilarity — the Warbringer War Cry build. Imagine clearing maps not with spells or weapons, but by screaming your enemies to death. That’s right: in this setup, your character literally shouts so hard that everything around them explodes into pieces.

It’s loud, it’s relentless, and it’s far more effective than anyone expected.

The Concept: Turning a Shout into a Weapon

Traditionally, War Cries in Path of Exile have functioned as utility skills — buffs that enhance nearby allies or debuff enemies. Rarely were they considered sources of direct damage. In earlier versions of PoE, players experimented with strength-stacking or corrupted blood synergies to make War Cry-centered builds viable, but those often struggled with slow clear speeds and clunky mechanics.

In PoE2, however, a combination of mechanical reworks, support gem innovations, and ascendancy tweaks has changed everything. The Warbringer Ascendancy, specifically its Warlord’s Bellow and Anvil’s Weight nodes, completely redefines how War Cries behave. The most crucial aspect: War Cries no longer have cooldowns.

That’s right — you can now spam Seismic Cry continuously as you move, unleashing devastating soundwaves that kill everything in your path. The result is a fluid, high-mobility, and absurdly fun mapping experience.

The Core Skill: Seismic Cry

At the heart of this build lies Seismic Cry, the “scream that kills.” By default, Seismic Cry deals modest physical damage and lacks traditional tags like spell or attack, meaning it doesn’t scale with most conventional modifiers. This makes damage scaling more complex — but also more interesting.

The solution is to exploit global damage modifiers, skill levels, and extra elemental damage sources. When combined properly, these can transform Seismic Cry from a modest shout into a city-levelling sonic boom.

Scaling Skill Levels

Skill level is the backbone of this build’s damage.

Start with a level 21 corrupted Seismic Cry gem, the highest base you can achieve.

Pair it with Physical Mastery Support for flat physical scaling.

Equip a Prism of Belief Diamond with +3 to skill levels.

Add an amulet with “+1 to all skill levels.”

This setup pushes Seismic Cry to level 25 or higher, giving it a massive base damage increase.

Damage Scaling: How Screams Kill Faster

Since War Cries can’t be boosted through spell or attack damage, we focus on modifiers that apply globally.

1. Global Damage and Physical Modifiers

Nodes like Lay Siege and Inspiring Ally are critical here. Lay Siege increases damage based on block chance, while Inspiring Ally grants companion-based global damage — both apply directly to War Cry damage.

2. War Cry Speed: The Hidden Multiplier

The faster you scream, the more damage you do — literally. The Deafening Cries passive node increases global damage for each War Cry used within a short timeframe. This turns cast speed into a hidden damage multiplier.

Here’s where things get spicy: using an Adorned Diamond Jewel, you can amplify the power of corrupted magic jewels socketed near it. By slotting jewels that roll War Cry speed and damage modifiers, you can push your cry time to an insane 0.18 seconds per cast — or roughly 22 casts in four seconds.

That equates to a 176% global damage increase from Deafening Cries alone.

3. Gained Extra Damage: The Elemental Boost

Next, we tap into gained extra damage — one of the strongest multiplicative modifiers available.

Chernabog’s Pillar grants extra fire damage equal to your block chance. With 48% block, that’s a free 48% fire conversion.

A crafted wand with three “gained as extra” prefixes (fire, cold, lightning) adds even more power.

Each rune socket in the wand adds 15% total elemental damage, so a three-socket wand grants 45% extra elemental damage. Combined with Chernabog’s Pillar, the total gain is an eye-watering 182% extra elemental damage — all applied to your Seismic Cry.

Breaking Resistance: Rakiata’s Flow

With so much elemental damage added, enemies’ elemental resistances become the main obstacle. Enter Rakiata’s Flow, a support gem that inverts enemy resistances.

Normally, an enemy with 75% fire resistance would take 25% of your fire damage. But with Rakiata’s Flow, that flips — the same enemy now takes 175% damage.

This gem singlehandedly makes the Warbringer War Cry build viable against resistant foes and juiced maps. Without it, all your beautiful elemental scaling would fizzle out against tanky rares and bosses.

Corpse Explosions: The Unseen Power

Seismic Cry is only half of the carnage. The other half comes from Warbringer’s Warlord’s Bellow ascendancy node, which triggers corpse explosions upon killing enemies. These explosions deal 25% of the monster’s maximum life as base physical damage, scaling with your global modifiers and extra damage sources.

Even though these explosions don’t appear on your stats panel, they’re devastating in practice — often clearing entire packs off-screen.

This makes the build doubly efficient: Seismic Cry kills the first few enemies, and their corpses explode to wipe out the rest. It’s a rolling wave of sound and fire that never stops.

Armor Breaking and Infernal Cry Synergy

One major advantage of the Anvil’s Weight node is that it allows all damage types to contribute to armor breaking. Every hit reduces the target’s armor by 10% of the hit damage. Because this build hits so frequently, enemies quickly become “fully broken” — losing almost all their physical mitigation.

Once they’re in that state, we unleash Infernal Cry. Supported by Battleshout, it consumes the broken armor debuff to cause massive burning detonations. These not only amplify your clear speed but also ensure that elite monsters and rares melt instantly.

It’s the perfect one-two punch: break their armor, then burn them alive with a shout.

Mobility and Mapping Efficiency

One of the biggest perks of the War Cry playstyle in PoE2 is mobility. Unlike most melee or channeled builds that require standing still to deal damage, War Cries can be cast while moving.

This means you’re constantly repositioning, dodging, and killing simultaneously. You can literally hold down the Seismic Cry key and walk through maps — enemies explode before you even see them clearly.

The result? Top-tier mapping efficiency, comparable to some of the fastest clear builds in the game, but with far more survivability and flavor.

Gear Summary

Here’s a quick breakdown of the ideal gear setup for this build:

Weapon: Wand with triple “gained as extra” prefixes (Fire, Cold, Lightning) and rune sockets.

Shield: Chernabog’s Pillar for fire scaling and block synergy.

Helmet: War Cry speed or global damage rare.

Body Armour: Anything that boosts skill levels or global modifiers (Influenced bases are ideal).

Amulet: +1 to all skill levels, global damage modifiers.

Rings: War Cry speed, resistances, and life.

Belt: Stygian Vise with global damage and cooldown recovery (even if War Cries ignore cooldown, this helps other skills).

Jewels: Adorned Diamond Jewel plus corrupted rubies with War Cry speed and damage.

Playstyle Tips

Keep Moving: This build thrives on momentum. The more you move and cry, the faster you clear.

Switch to Shield Wall for Bosses: Seismic Cry is excellent for mobs, but Shield Wall provides better sustained damage for single-target fights.

Manage Your Elemental Balance: Avoid over-investing in a single element; your scaling thrives on multiple types.

Use Infernal Cry Wisely: Save it for high-health packs or rare monsters with fully broken armor.

Don’t Over-optimize Damage: Once Seismic Cry clears white and blue monsters efficiently, extra investment often yields diminishing returns — focus on survivability and speed instead.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths:

Extremely fast mapper.

Surprisingly tanky with block synergy.

Unique, satisfying playstyle.

High mobility and active gameplay.

Corpse explosions clear entire screens instantly.

Weaknesses:

Not the best bossing build unless heavily optimized.

Gear-dependent for full power scaling.

Loud — literally and figuratively (turn your volume down).

Why This Build Represents PoE2’s Evolution

The Warbringer War Cry build embodies what makes Path of Exile 2 so compelling: creative freedom, mechanical complexity, and the joy of discovering synergy where none seemed possible.

It transforms an old, underused skill archetype into something new and exciting. Instead of buffing allies or taunting enemies, you’re turning the very act of shouting into a lethal weapon — powered by physics, strategy, and raw absurdity buy Path of Exile 2 Currency.

Grinding Gear Games has done an incredible job of making off-meta playstyles viable. With the removal of War Cry cooldowns, improved scaling options, and new support gems like Rakiata’s Flow, players are finding new ways to make the unthinkable not just possible, but powerful.

Final Thoughts

If you’re tired of cookie-cutter meta builds and want something that’s equal parts fun, functional, and ridiculous, the Warbringer War Cry build in Path of Exile 2 might be your next obsession.

Few things in Wraeclast feel as cathartic as walking into a map and literally screaming it to death. It’s a build that rewards creativity, mechanical understanding, and a bit of madness — the perfect combination for any true exile.

So grab your Chernabog’s Pillar, polish your Adorned Jewel, and let your lungs do the talking. After all, in PoE2… the loudest warrior wins.