With Path of Exile 2 version 0.2.0, Grinding Gear Games announced the beginning of Dawn of the Hunt, the very first new league after the game’s initial release in Early Access. Players hoping to jump back into PoE 2, or those who are thinking of joining in for the first time, will want to know which league they should play.
Is it worth creating a brand new character for Dawn of the Hunt and abandoning the Exile they spent hundreds of hours on, or is sticking to the Standard League and old characters the way to go? Here’s the breakdown.
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Is Starting a New Character For the Dawn of the Hunt Worth it?
Yes, it most certainly is. For first-time players of PoE 2, there is no reason to go to the Standard League as the Dawn of the Hunt is catered first and foremost to them, as is the case with every new league in PoE 2. Additionally, for players hoping to get the full experience of all the changes introduced with 0.2.0 in Path of Exile 2, creating a new character in the Dawn of the Hunt League is the optimal way.
Fresh Economy
Dawn of the Hunt will have a completely refreshed economy, allowing players who are just jumping into Path of Exile 2 for the first time to start on the same footing as the veterans who have been playing since Patch 0.1.0.
This means that players who have a massive advantage in the Standard League, thanks to their hundreds upon hundreds of hours of playtime, do not have that advantage in Dawn of the Hunt.
New Class and Ascendancies
Playing as the Huntress Class or experimenting with any of the new ascendancies added by Dawn of the Hunt requires starting a new character. While you can experience all of this in the Standard League, Dawn of the Hunt is undeniably better for fresh characters.
Campaign QoL Changes
In Patch 0.2.0, Path of Exile 2 offers players a more streamlined onboarding transition when going from the campaign to the endgame. In particular, the in-game story justification for why the Exiles need to clear endgame map nodes and ‘cleanse corruption’ has been better explained. For players who remain on their ultra-late endgame characters in the Standard League, there is no way to experience these changes without starting a new character. And where better to do that than in the new league?
Access to New Content in the Standard League
All changes introduced in the Dawn of the Hunt patch will be made available for both old and new characters. So, players who don’t care about playing in an old economy—either because they’re comfortable with the state of the market or because they are playing Solo Self Found—playing in Standard carries no downsides.
This is because most of the new changes introduced in Patch 0.2.0 are centered around the endgame, and these changes are present both in the Standard and the Dawn of the Hunt leagues. Players who are only interested in experiencing the endgame and have no interest in repeating the campaign may find Standard more to their tastes.
Item Nerfs in Dawn of the Hunt
With Patch 0.2.0, a lot of the most broken builds in Path of Exile 2 have been nerfed to the ground by severely weakening or adjusting the effects of certain uniques. However, in typical GGG fashion, players who already own these broken items will be able to keep them as is in most cases.
However, any new drops of these items, both in the Standard League and in Dawn of the Hunt, will be the nerfed variants. Therefore, players who have their MF endgame character built and ready with these items may find that staying in Standard is the better option.
