Path of Exile 2’s early access release has already been a massive success when it comes to its sheer popularity, but developer Grinding Gear Games is already hard at work trying to iron out problems and frustrations, which includes changes to loot drops.
In a lengthy blog post shared today, Grinding Gear Games reveals that some changes have already been implemented, whereas others will arrive in “an upcoming patch.” Some of these impending improvements include the option to fast travel to explored checkpoints (plus the addition of checkpoints at the entrances and exits of zones), as well as a tweak to make it easier to dodge roll between small gaps in groups of enemies.
As for things that’ve changed already, Grinding Gear Games “felt that Rare monsters were not rewarding enough.” To address this, the chance of them “inherently having more modifiers as you progress through endgame” has been boosted, in tandem with a 10% increase to Quantity bonus per rare mod, and Rarity bonus per rare mod doubling. These alterations “will cause rare monster rewards to naturally scale up as you get to higher levels,” the devs explain.
Otherwise, new measures have been put in place to protect particularly unfortunate players from “unlucky” drops, since a “Unique boss dropping badly, especially early on can significantly affect your character.” Now, both Map and Act bosses are guaranteed to drop at least one Rare, and no more than half of the drops from a Unique monster can be gold – the devs say the latter is “more significant than it first appears because players can’t see the difference between ‘normal’ and ‘rare’ gold piles.”
Also notable are the changes to the drop rates of certain currencies. Regal Orbs have seen an increase, with drop rates up by 40%, while the Gemcutter’s Prism rates have gone up by a whopping 500% and now increase the quality of gems by 5% instead of 1%, to boot. Lesser Jeweller’s Orbs are now 33% more likely to drop, while the less-valuable Chaos Orbs are a bit rarer, so they no longer take up so much space in the rare drop pool, giving others like Exalted Orbs a better chance of showing up. You’ll also now get two Regal Shards instead of just one for disenchanting a rare item with six modifiers.
This just scratches the surface of everything Grinding Gear Games is planning for its new action RPG, but these changes have certainly been better received than its plans for certain skill nerfs, which have been criticized for discouraging “creativity.”
While you’re here, be sure to check out our guide to the best Path of Exile 2 classes.