How to beat Balbala, the Traitor in Path of Exile 2

During the middle of Act 2 in Path of Exile 2, you'll get the opportunity to battle one of the toughest bosses in the game: Balbala, the Traitor. Balbala is not to be trifled with as she can destroy even the best of characters. With the right strategy, though, Balbala can just become another small hurdle in your way as you progress through Path of Exile 2.

Balbala is an optional boss that's first seen in the Traitor's Passage region of Act 2. This is right before you reach the Halani Gates, which is where the main story quest takes you. While Balbala is optional, you are required to defeat her in order to start the process of unlocking your Ascension class.

As such, for most players, Balbala is not an optional boss. If you're having trouble with her, check out the guide below to see exactly how to beat the traitor.

Balbala primarily uses poison and explosion attacks to deal damage to you. She also has a solid arsenal of melee combos and smaller ranged attacks that can catch you by surprise if you're not ready for them.

You'll likely have more issues with Balbala as a melee character due to her incredibly strong close-range attacks. Some of her moves are seemingly unavoidable at times if you're too close, so Warriors in particular will have some trouble trying to stay healthy. As for Monks, we recommend you try and implement some ranged skills that allow you to keep more of a distance from Balbala.

Primary ranged characters have the ability to deal damage from afar by nature. You can also play around the pit in the center of the arena, which some of Balbala's attacks can't pass through. If you navigate the pit correctly, you'll deal more damage to the boss than she can deal to you. She will attempt melee combos to close the gap to you if you try this, but when she does, simply roll away.

There are a couple of specific attacks that you need to watch out for from Balbala. These are the boss' main attacks and will be the ones to kill you more often than not. We'll briefly go over each attack below.

The first and most infamous of Balbala's attacks in Path of Exile 2 is the cloud of poison gas that she spawns from the central pit. When this attack happens, Balbala disappears and the gas cloud slowly fills the entire arena. Every second you spend in the gas costs you severe health, so you can't last too long in it.

The only way to stop the poison cloud from spreading is by running around the map and finding Balbala. She's invisible until you find her location, which is always on the outskirts of the arena. When you locate her, roll away quickly since she does a huge area of effect (AoE) attack as soon as you touch her. As long as you run around the entire arena in a circle when the gas cloud is spreading, you'll eventually find Balbala and stop the attack.

The next attack you'll see the most from Balbala is Golden Runes, which she throws all around the arena. These runes have a gold coin spinning in the center of them. As long as that coin is active, extra Spirit of Balbala enemies will spawn around you. This makes it extremely difficult to fend off Balbala's attacks since you have to deal with the smaller enemies in addition to her.

To stop the spawns from coming, all you have to do is touch the Golden Rune. However, as soon as you do, roll away from it, as Balbala comes down from the sky to do a huge AoE attack when you touch the rune. When the coin disappears, no remaining spawns will emerge but the ones that were on the map previously will continue to attack you.

We highly advise dealing with the Golden Runes as soon as you see Balbala throw them since you don't want more spawns coming than needed.

Aside from those two attacks, the only other move Balbala will throw at you is a Golden Dagger attack. Balbala will throw several daggers on the ground around you that explode after a second. She continues throwing the daggers in bunches as you roll away from the ones that have exploded, so you need to dodge for several seconds until they stop.

This attack is easily avoided, but you need to always be mindful of it or you run the risk of getting caught in a series of deadly explosions.

Those are three primary attacks Balbala has in her arsenal. However, if you decide to attack her around mid-range, she has a couple of other ranged attacks that can deal damage. One is a Poison Dart move that lasts for a couple of seconds and the other are fiery boomerangs.

Both of these require you to dodge out of the way, but they are easily telegraphed. As long as you're paying attention to Balbala, these moves shouldn't be able to harm you too badly.

And with that, you have everything you need to defeat Balbala in Path of Exile 2.

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