Path of Exile 2 is getting a big update with gameplay improvements, balance changes, and new support gems.
Grinding Gear Games has just revealed the next big wave of changes for Path of Exile 2, now that the game has been live for a little longer than a week.
The developers have once again listened to feedback from the community and present a mix of balance adjustments, convenience improvements and bug fixes We’ll show you the most important changes and also have the provisional patch notes for you.
The most important changes in the big PoE2 patch
Table of Contents
Fast travel and cheaper respecs
A major convenience is the expansion of the fast travel system: Within areas, you will soon be able to travel back and forth between checkpoints. Particularly practical: checkpoints will in future be placed at all entrances and exits to areas.
In addition, the reset of passive points will be significantly cheaper. Previously, the cost of respecs increased sharply with character level. This curve has been flattened, which should result in a reduction of the gold cost by about 40-50 percent in the mid- and endgame.
Less frustration in the Trial of Sekhemas & revised opponents
Another focus was on the
- You will receive 35% less Honor Damage when in melee combat; the further you move away from enemies, the more this bonus decreases.
- A bug that caused Damage over Time to deal three times as much Honor Damage as intended has been fixed. In addition, Honor resistance now works as intended.
Further adjustments affect enemies and their abilities: Among other things, some annoying effects that allowed enemies to drag you into corruption after their death have been weakened or temporarily removed.
The endgame will be easier
The endgame was perceived by many as overly difficult challenges, leading Grinding Gear Games to ease the balance:
- Maps of tiers 6 and 11 (and higher) no longer have additional elemental resistance penalties Resistance is now consistent across all endgame maps.
- Chaos damagescales less aggressively in the endgame.
- Critical hits from monsters deal 40% less bonus damage.
- The monster density in Breach encounters has been reduced, especially the frequency of “Elite” monsters.
Skills and Support Gems: Buffs and targeted nerfs
The patch also brings some changes to the skills and support gems – including buffs for weak builds and nerfs for the biggest high-flyers. In addition, two new support gems are coming into play:
Tremors Support: Adds multiple aftershocks to abilities, but with a damage penalty.
Bidding Support: Increases the damage of minion command skills.
On the second page of this article, you will find the preliminary patch notes for the upcoming update, for which we have included all the announced changes from the Grinding Gear Games blog post.
Patch Notes for the upcoming Path of Exile 2 update
Gameplay changes
- Fast travel between checkpoints: Players will be able to quickly travel between discovered checkpoints within an area.
- More checkpoints: Additional checkpoints will be added, especially at the entrances and exits of areas.
- Passive Point Respecs: The cost of passive point resets has been significantly reduced. The cost increase has been flattened, which should reduce mid- to end-game gold costs by about 40–50%
Trial of the Sekhemas
- Honour Damage adjustment: Honour Damage now receives a reduction of 35% in melee combat This effect increases with increasing distance to opponents.
- DoT bug fix: A bug that caused damage over time (DoT) to affect Honor Damage three times as much has been fixed.
- Honour Resistance: Another bug that caused Honour Resistance to not be applied correctly has also been fixed.
- Skitter Golems: Golems no longer attack, but instead explode immediately.
- Serpent Clans: Ambush attacks now have a clearer visual cue and a shorter range.
- Rattlecage’s Fissure Slam: Volcanoes created by this attack now only last half as long
Endgame Balance
- Elemental Resistance Penalties: Tier 6 and Tier 11 (and above) maps no longer have additional elemental resistance penalties.
- Chaos Damage: Chaos Damage now scales less aggressively in the endgame.
- Critical Hits: Critical hits from monsters deal 40% less bonus damage
- Breach Encounters: Monster density has been reduced, especially the number of elite opponents.
- Volatile Crystals: This modifier has been disabled for the time being.
- Volatile Plants: Explosions from Rare monsters do significantly less damage.
- Siphons Flask Charges: The modifier that drains Flask Charges has been adjusted – it now drains ten times fewer Charges per second
Character and Item Balances
- Charm Modifiers: Modifiers on belts now appear more frequently and earlier:
- “of Symbolism”from level 23onwards.
- “of Inscription”from level 64onwards.
- Electrocute: The accumulation of Electrocute has been made more difficult by 25%, but the damage malus of the support gem has been removed.
- New Clusters: Added a new cluster for Lightning Damage and Electrocute in the Ranger and Monk passive tree.
- Freeze Buildup: Made it more difficult to re-freeze enemies by reducing the freeze buildup after a successful freeze.
- Hunter’s Talisman: The Notable now grants an additional Charm Slot The associated minor passives have been adjusted accordingly.
Skill and Support Gem Balance
Skill Buffs
- Improvements to Rolling Slamand all shield skillsin the mace section.
- Improvements to Bow skillsthat generate Frenzy Charges.
- Buffs for Bone Spells and Chaos DoT Spells in the Occult area.
- Adjustments to various Crossbow skills , especially at higher tiers.
- Improvements for selected Quarterstaff skills
New Support Gems
- Tremors Support: Adds aftershocks to skills, but with a damage penalty.
- Bidding Support: Increases the damage of the command skills of supported minions.
Exposure Support Gems
- The support gems for fire, lightning and cold exposure no longer have a damage penalty. Instead, the mana cost multiplier increases to 120%
Nerfs
- Skeletal Arsonists: Spirit cost increased, slightly reducing the number of Arsonists at higher levels.
- Tornado and Vine Arrow: The damage-over-time portion reduced at high levels.
- Magnetic Salvo: Can now only use its own tethered Lightning Arrows, no longer those of party members.
