We’re only in the second week of Path of Exile 2 early access, but a lot has already changed. Developer Grinding Gear Games has been quick to respond to player concerns and feedback, deploying all manner of fixes and updates. As it winds down for the holidays, one more major set of Path of Exile 2 patch notes have now arrived, delivering some promised skill buffs and reductions to difficulty scaling in the endgame. In even better news, you can take advantage of these changes with much cheaper respec costs.
Grinding Gear Games explained its desire to make PoE 2’s endgame less punishing, and the full Path of Exile 2 0.1.0e patch notes certainly deliver on that. The 20% resistance penalty in higher-tier maps is now gone, monster critical strikes have been dampened to deal 40% less damage, and many of the most frustrating modifiers to grace one of 2024’s best RPGs have either been made dramatically less punishing or are disabled altogether pending further adjustments (goodbye for now, Volatile Crystals). Chaos damage, ever a serious threat, will now scale less dramatically as you push through the PoE 2 endgame.
Gaining your Path of Exile 2 ascendancy points should now be a lot easier. The Trial of the Sekemas (known to PoE 1 players as Sanctum) has been made less punishing for melee players. The Honor damage dealt by enemies has been reduced by 35% at close range, with that reduction tapering off as you get further away. Damage over time was dealing three times the intended damage to Honor, so that’s been fixed. The burrowing serpent attacks have also been made easier to spot, and Rattlecage’s arena-filling volcanoes now last half as long. Over in the Trials of Chaos (Ultimatum), Stormcaller Runes are now slower and smaller, making them easier to escape.
One of the most frustrating enemy modifiers, ‘Siphons Flask Charges,’ was accidentally taking ten times the flask charges it was supposed to, which explains why your health and mana reserves emptied out near-instantly upon approaching one. This has now been fixed. On the player side, it’s a little harder to build up Electrocute, and Freeze buildup after a successful Freeze has been lowered to make it tougher to continually chain it. Charm modifiers on belts are “substantially more common,” so unlocking more slots should be easier.
The much-touted ability to fast-travel between checkpoints is finally here. First discussed last week, this will allow you to click on any checkpoint in a zone and teleport to any other that you’ve unlocked in the area. GGG adds that “many more checkpoints have been added to areas generally at all the entrances and exits.” Wandering about a map looking for something you missed can be one of PoE 2’s biggest frustrations, so this is a very big quality-of-life upgrade across the entire game.
Most of the rest of the patch notes involve skill changes, and the vast majority of these focus on buffs to underperforming skills, although there are a few small nerfs in there. Crucially, changing your passive points to take advantage of this should be a lot cheaper, as PoE 2 respec costs have been lowered, especially at high levels. GGG estimates that players in the early endgame should expect “an approximately 40-50%” reduction in the gold required to reallocate your points.
You’ll likely find at least a buff or two almost regardless of class – and even some of the best PoE 2 builds such as Lightning Arrow have dodged any major nerfs (in fact, there’s even a new Lightning damage cluster on the skill tree). There are two new support gems – Tremors boosts Aftershock effects, while Bidding boosts the damage of command skills on supported minions. Many others that affect skill damage or the chance to inflict ailments have been upgraded dramatically.
Among the other big winners are Warrior’s Rolling Slam and Shield skills, Bone spells for Witches, higher-tier Crossbow skills for the Mercenary, and some of the weaker Monk skills. Gaining Frenzy Charges should be a lot easier, and a lot of the Bow skills outside of the popular Lightning options have been given some welcome improvements.
Path of Exile 2 patch 0.1.0e is out now. You can read the full patch notes courtesy of Grinding Gear Games to dig into the nitty-gritty details.
Looking to start a new character? Our PoE 2 tier list can help you decide which to pick next, and we’ve got an explanation of how the Path of Exile 2 passive skill tree works if you’re still trying to wrap your head around all those nodes.
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