2-Player Push META
Last Updated:January 28, 2025|Changelog
Introduction
In this article we will talk about the 2-Player Push most effective tactic available (META) to place high on the leaderboards. It’s possible to clear the current Greater Rift cap of 150 in just a few minutes when fully optimized, even with only 2 players. However, such fast clear times require extreme dedication to fishing and team coordination to be achieved. Check our Greater Rift Post for more in-depth mechanics and the current top clears with all the individual character compositions for every Season on our rankings page.
General Strategy
In an effective 2-Player group META, every party member has a defined role with different tasks. Here is an overview of the 4 roles usually played and tasks each role is best at:
DPS
Nova Necro, Natalya DH, Meteor Wiz, Scythe Necro
This position usually requires a build with good Area of Effect (AoE) damage like Death Nova or Meteor and huge temporary buffs like Arcane Attunement, Spellsteal, Assimilation etc. The main task is executing the damage rotation properly in order to progress through the Rift. The build must also be powerful enough to finish off the Rift Guardian by equipping Bane of the Stricken.
Support
zBarb, zDH, zMonk, zNec
The Support role requires good pull abilities as well as damage & toughness boost. The main task here is to pull monsters together for the Trash Killer (for Area Damage value), drag Elite packs along, scout the map and keep up damage & toughness buffs.
While it's possible to play a double-DPS setup with a trash killer and a boss killer, using one dedicated support build with one DPS is almost always better.
Allrounder DPS + Support
Concept
With only one support and one DPS, this is much harder to play than in a 4-player team. You need to use a build that can both clear the rift well and finish off the RG. In Season 34 there's several conteners for this role of all-around DPS: LoD Death Nova Necro, LoD Wave of Light Monk and even AoV Fist of the Heavens Crusader all have a legitimate shot at it.
Death Nova Necromancer exels at decimating large packs of monsters thanks to density scaling of Bloodtide Blade. Simply wait for all the buffs and CC to be set up and spam some Death Nova into it. This uncomplicated strategy is nearly guaranteed to blow any enemy to smithereens. This build however, perform terribly against the Rift Guardian so you have to save some pylons to create density with Nemesis Bracers.
Monk with Sanctified Wave of Light has slightly less AoE damage but fares much better against bosses and is virtually invincible.
AoV Crusader is a different style of DPS. They have a lot of damage, both AoE and single target but almost no way to control it. On top of it, they struggle to stay alive while using the most offensive version of their build. Support Barb can fix both these problems by tightly grouping all enemies together and by providing insane toughness buffs.
The Trash Killers are supported by a zBarb pulling Elites and grouping monsters together with Sanctified Whirlwind. On top of that, the Barb provides massive toughness buffs with Ignore Pain Mob Rule and War Cry. Alternatively, a zDH can be used for more potent damage buffs and the ability to pull enemies with the Natalya's Vengeance (4) Bonus.
Alternatives
Check out our for Rift Trash Killer Tier List for more choices! You can always make a decent 2-man team by taking a good trash killer, giving them Bane of the Stricken and pairing them up with the appropriate support.
Conclusion
Season 34's Sanctified items only boost a handful of builds for each class and the strongest of them compete for the title of the top all-around DPS. You can have good result with basically any S-tier build but only one of them can be number 1.
Enjoy Season 34 and good luck on your Leaderboard rank. May RNGesus be with you!
Credits
Updated by Northwar