Path of Exile 2 May Be Shooting Itself in The Foot With Its Endgame Approach

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 25, 2024 5 Views 8 Min Read
Path of Exile 2 May Be Shooting Itself in The Foot With Its Endgame Approach



Summary

  • Path of Exile 2’s endgame changes the game’s slow ARPG premise, which emphasizes dodge rolls and tough boss fights.
  • The game’s current endgame design is challenged by powerful player builds and fast monsters, making strategic encounters difficult.
  • To address endgame challenges, the developers face balancing enemy modifiers to align monster speed with players and adjust overly safe builds.

With Path of Exile 2 launching in early access on December 6, 2024, many players were able to get to the endgame portion of the action RPG, test multiple classes and skills, explore the various intricacies of the game’s mechanics, and more. There is most likely a lot left in store for the game throughout 2025 and ahead of its full release, and it’s equally plausible that many things may change over time to make Path of Exile 2 the best version of itself it can be. Although the game launched in a great state overall for an early access release, it already has some clear pain points, one of them being how its endgame approach completely shifts the premise of a slower and more methodical ARPG.

One could argue that Path of Exile 2 has multiple Soulslike elements and even features, such as death removing all loot from the screen as all the monsters respawn. The fact that Path of Exile 2 focuses on dodge rolls and tough boss fights is perhaps the most telling sign that GGG’s new title aims at a different gameplay loop compared to the first game, but the current endgame design can swiftly change that.

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Path of Exile 2’s Focus on Survivability is Hindered By Its Endgame

Path of Exile 2‘s slow and difficult fights are part of the game’s identity, as they were always front and center in its marketing material, with even GGG developers struggling to beat bosses and dying to them. With early access came a much larger audience than GGG’s playtests could ever account for, with around 400,000 to 500,000 daily players on Steam alone. What follows is that some parts of the game for players who are not newcomers or otherwise just starting their first characters can be trivialized already – including those same hard boss fights where dodge-rolling and learning the attack patterns was theoretically mandatory.

This is because players quickly found some of the best builds in Path of Exile 2, to the point that some were nerfed because they were simply overtuned compared to most others. But while players are “breaking” the game with the best items and skills and making Path of Exile 2 fundamentally easier than intended, the current endgame design makes monsters potentially very aggressive, fast, and dangerous in close quarters due to on-death effects and one-shots. The game is made to be slower and give players time to strategize encounters, but the best way to survive the endgame is to do the opposite.

Path of Exile 2’s Endgame is History Repeating Itself

Path of Exile - Atlas Region Map

As such, the current best builds in the game involve skills like Lightning Arrow, Spark, Gas Arrow, and the like, which can quite easily clear the screen relatively fast and from the safety of being at range. This avoids monsters rushing toward the players, as multiple modifiers make them much faster and act much more quickly than players, meaning that the intended slower and methodical approach can’t exactly work. Path of Exile 2‘s endgame is essentially retreading the same steps as its predecessor, where power creep and builds that clear the screen easily and safely are more rewarding.

How Path of Exile 2 Can Change The Pace of The Game

The consequence is that GGG is at a crossroads, as it can keep things as they are, make changes to enemy modifiers to bring monsters more in line with players’ speed, or address the safe and strong builds so that players can’t clear the screen from afar. The latter would most likely be received poorly, as Path of Exile 2‘s skill nerfs already sparked debate on free respecs, and the former wouldn’t really solve the problem. However, the solution of removing modifiers that make monsters faster and thus allowing for the more methodical fights that the campaign brings can only help with the current meta, but not drastically reshape it.

It’s unclear how GGG can get out of this pickle, but it can be problematic to reshape the current endgame, as some parts of it affect other sides of the game. For example, modifiers that make enemies much faster exist in Path of Exile 2‘s Trial of Chaos as well. Fans will have to wait and see if any changes are made, but the experience within the confines of the campaign (arguably up until Cruel Act 1 or Act 2) can quickly shift to Path of Exile 1 standards in terms of gameplay.

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