In Path of Exile 2, Warcry skills return more ferocious than ever, delivering powerful area-of-effect effects, resource recovery, and POE2 Currency synergistic mechanics that can make or break your melee or slam-focused build. These active skills are not just for flavor—they're tactical tools that, when used skillfully, can shift the tide of battle in both solo and group play. In this guide, we’ll break down the fundamentals of Warcry skills, explain how to integrate them into your build, and reveal advanced tips to fully unleash their potential.

What Are Warcry Skills?

Warcry skills are a special category of active abilities that shout, applying powerful effects to nearby enemies and allies. In Path of Exile 2, these skills have evolved to become more reactive and responsive, with changes to cooldown mechanics, visual clarity, and interaction with core game systems such as Rage, Exerted Attacks, and Taunt.

Each Warcry affects a specific radius around the character and is influenced by nearby enemies or allies. Some warcries buff the user, others debuff foes, and many do both. Their power scales primarily with the number of nearby enemies, making them especially deadly in packs or when facing bosses with summons.

The Core Warcry Skills in Path of Exile 2

Let’s review the main Warcry skills and their core functions:

1. Enduring Cry

Effect: Instantly regenerates life and grants Endurance Charges.

Use Case: Core for survival-based builds, tanky characters, or melee builds that expect to take damage.

Synergy: Works well with any build needing endurance charges for elemental or physical mitigation.

2. Seismic Cry

Effect: Empowers your Slam attacks, increasing their area of effect and staggering power.

Use Case: Ideal for Ground Slam, Earthquake, and Fissure builds.

Synergy: Boosts damage through exerted attacks and scales with AoE modifiers.

3. Rallying Cry

Effect: Grants a portion of your weapon damage to allies and regenerates mana.

Use Case: Group play, summoner hybrids, and mana-hungry melee builds.

Synergy: Enhances party DPS and reduces reliance on mana flasks.

4. Infernal Cry

Effect: Causes enemies to explode on death and applies Fire Exposure.

Use Case: Fire-based builds or clear-speed setups.

Synergy: Devastating when paired with ignite, combustion, or corpse-explosion scaling.

5. Intimidating Cry

Effect: Doubles damage of next attacks and Intimidates enemies.

Use Case: Boss-killer or burst damage builds.

Synergy: Slam builds and crit-based melee setups benefit most.

6. Ancestral Cry

Effect: Grants additional targets for strike skills.

Use Case: Strike skill builds like Double Strike or Heavy Strike.

Synergy: Crucial for single-target melee characters to improve coverage.

Key Mechanics: Cooldowns, Exertion, and Scaling

Warcries operate on cooldowns, which can be reduced by certain passives and gear. Unlike most attack skills, Warcries do not cost mana and can often be used even under resource strain.

A vital concept is Exerted Attacks: warcries like Seismic or Intimidating Cry exert your next few attacks, enhancing their power with bonus effects. Knowing when and how to time your exerted attacks—especially when paired with high-impact slams—can drastically increase your burst damage.

Scaling Warcries:

Nearby Enemies: Many warcries become stronger based on how many enemies are around.

Cooldown Recovery Rate: From passive tree or gear, this lets you shout more often.

Duration and AoE: Modifiers to skill effect duration and area of effect improve usability and range.

Integrating Warcries into Your Build

Warcries aren't meant to stand alone—they're support mechanics that amplify your core playstyle. Here's how to integrate them based on your build type:

Slam Builds (e.g., Earthquake, Ground Slam):

Best Warcries: Seismic Cry + Intimidating Cry

Usage: Pop Seismic before initiating AoE combos, Intimidating Cry before big boss hits.

Strike Builds (e.g., Heavy Strike, Viper Strike):

Best Warcries: Ancestral Cry + Rallying Cry

Usage: Maintain Ancestral Cry uptime for extra targeting and buff Rallying Cry for damage boost and mana regen.

Tanky Melee Builds:

Best Warcries: Enduring Cry + Intimidating Cry

Usage: Cycle Enduring Cry for sustain, use Intimidating Cry during windows of damage opportunity.

Fire-Based or Explosive Builds:

Best Warcries: Infernal Cry + Rallying Cry

Usage: Apply Fire Exposure, trigger corpse explosions, and keep the pressure with fire AoE skills.

Passive Tree and Gear Recommendations

Several notable passives and gear mods enhance Warcry effectiveness:

Passive Tree Notables:

Lead By Example: Grants allies bonus damage after using a Warcry.

Warcry Mastery: Various options to increase cooldown recovery or exerted attack effects.

Cry Wolf: Counts you as having more enemies nearby, increasing Warcry potency.

Gear:

"Wurm’s Molt" Belt (if returning): Bonus with Warcries and life regen.

Rare Helmets with +1 to Warcry Gems: Increases base effectiveness.

Cooldown Recovery Rate suffixes** on gear**: Speeds up Warcry rotation.

Advanced Tips and Strategy

Macro Usage: Keybind Warcries to easily rotate them mid-combat without disrupting flow.

Cluster Timing: Use Warcries when enemies are grouped for maximum effect, especially with Infernal Cry or Seismic Cry.

Pre-buffing: Warcries can be used before engagements for stacking buffs, making you more explosive in opening strikes.

Warcry Looping: Some builds use multiple Warcries on rotation to maintain uptime and exert synergy.

Final Thoughts

Warcries in Path of Exile 2 are more than just utility—they're strategic tools that shape your combat rhythm, amplify your attacks, and cheap POE2 Currency keep you alive in the fiercest battles. Mastering them means understanding the timing, effects, and synergy that fit your build. Whether you're roaring into a horde of foes with Seismic Cry or shattering bosses with Intimidating Cry, the path to victory is paved with your voice.

So shout with purpose—and let Aeternum tremble.