In Path of Exile (PoE), one of the most fascinating and versatile playstyles involves summoning minions to fight by your side, and Spectres are among the POE 2 Currency most powerful and popular minions in the game. These spectral creatures are summoned from the remains of slain enemies and can be commanded to fight your battles, effectively extending your character’s damage output and survivability. With the upcoming Path of Exile 2 release, Spectres are set to remain an integral part of the summoner archetype, with new changes, mechanics, and possibilities.

In this guide, we’ll explore the best Spectres to summon in PoE 2, focusing on the classes, their ideal abilities, and how to optimize your minion builds around Spectres for both general content and endgame bosses.

What Are Spectres in Path of Exile?
Spectres are one of the types of summonable minions in PoE. Unlike Zombies or Skeletons, which are raised from your own resources, Spectres are summoned from enemy corpses. They are particularly unique because their abilities and stats are inherited from the monsters they were summoned from, allowing for a wide variety of playstyles. Some Spectres can deal immense amounts of damage, while others can provide useful utility, such as buffs or debuffs.

In PoE 2, the mechanics surrounding Spectres may undergo slight adjustments, but the core gameplay remains. Spectres will likely still require the use of the Raise Spectre skill gem, and they will need to be “discovered” by defeating specific monsters in the world. This means that different Spectres will be better suited for different types of content, and part of the fun is experimenting with various Spectres to find the best combination for your build.

How Do Spectres Work?
Summoning Spectres:
To summon Spectres, players use the Raise Spectre skill gem, which is placed in a socketed item. When you kill a monster that you want to turn into a Spectre, you can click on its corpse to capture it. From there, you can summon the Spectre anywhere within range. Once summoned, these creatures will follow your character around and fight nearby enemies.

Spectre Stats and Skills:
Each Spectre has a set of stats (such as health, energy shield, damage, and resistances) that are derived from the original monster it came from. These stats are further enhanced by the passive tree, items, and support gems linked to the Raise Spectre gem.

Upgrading Spectres:
Spectres can be upgraded with various support gems, like Minion Damage, Spell Echo, Faster Casting, and Melee Physical Damage, depending on whether they are ranged or melee Spectres. These upgrades boost their effectiveness in combat.

Spectre Resurrection and Control:
Some Spectres can be quite fragile, so it’s important to ensure that they stay alive during combat. Players can use the Minion Instability node or other defensive means like Necromantic Aegis to increase their survivability. Many summoner builds also include minion resistance and life-based scaling to keep their Spectres fighting.

Best Spectres in Path of Exile 2
Different Spectres excel at different types of content, so selecting the right one for your build and goals is crucial. Here are some of the best Spectres to consider in PoE 2, along with their strengths and optimal uses.

1. Solar Guards (Best for Damage and Utility)
The Solar Guards are some of the most beloved Spectres in PoE for their powerful ranged attacks and excellent crowd control abilities. These Spectres fire projectiles that explode on impact, dealing massive elemental damage and hitting multiple enemies in a wide radius.

Strengths:

Solar Guards deal high elemental damage, particularly through their fire-based projectiles.

Their explosions provide excellent area-of-effect (AoE) damage, making them perfect for clearing large groups of enemies.

They are a versatile choice for many types of builds, including those focused on elemental damage.

Best For:

Mapping and general content clearing.

Synergizing with elemental damage-based summoner builds.

Notes for PoE 2:
Solar Guards may receive slight changes to Path of Exile 2 Currency for sale their elemental damage scaling, making them more potent for certain builds focused on fire damage or elemental damage amplification.