Released only at the end of last year, Path of Exile 2 Early Access has gone from being wildly popular to being criticized in less than half a year, especially with the launch of the biggest patch 0.2.0 and the latest Dawn of the Hunt League last month.

Although the developers have been filling the gaps for this unpopular patch every week last month, such as major content updates, game experience improvements and bug fixes, they still cannot get the same positive reviews as before. But they are not discouraged, still listen to players’ opinions carefully, and plan to launch patch 0.2.0h this week.

Although the full patch notes have not yet been released, the announcement of this patch outlines some improvements to the quality of life and endgame challenge experience that players have been complaining about.

If you are interested, this guide will give you a detailed analysis of the series of changes that will appear in this eighth hotfix based on the patch overview released by the developers, and speculate on how they will affect your subsequent exploration and league rankings.

In Endgame Content

While POE 2 0.2.0g has significantly increased the loot drop rates across much of the game, players are still not happy with it. So, some changes have been made to the most negatively reviewed Breach: the number of monsters in maps containing this mechanic and the duration of the mechanic will be increased.

While this may make Breach maps more challenging, the quality and quantity of loot you get from it, such as POE 2 Currency and gear, will also increase, making it one of the most profitable maps in the endgame.

While the drop rate of small Breach splinters will be reduced, the drop rate of large splinters will increase, which will allow you to explore Breach at a very fast pace and shorten the time it takes to reach the encounter with Breach Pinnacle Boss Xesht, We Who Are One.

This revised Breach occurrence rate and spawning mechanism may be of great interest to players who are good at intensive combat in the game, as it will be particularly rewarding. I think the developers are also looking forward to the positive comments from the player community and social media players on this seemingly wonderful change· after the latest patch update.

In addition, the latest patch will also make some cosmetic changes to the in-game opponents Rogue Exiles added last month: making them more eye-catching in the dark-style scenes, which will reduce the number of players missing the loot they provide in the chaos of late-game battles.

In fact, players are very dissatisfied with the changes to Rogue Exiles that only stay in the cosmetic aspect. Even if it may help smooth exploration in the endgame, the genuine point of dissatisfaction with it is that the cost of investing in it is not proportional to the return. So if the developers can solve this problem this week, players may be more excited.

The last change to the endgame content in patch 0.2.0h is about another new small enemy, Azmerian Wisps, which will behave more predictably when they are activated at the same time. This is actually equivalent to fixing a bug that appeared in POE 2 before, so players’ hopes for it are not very high.

In Quality Of Life

Since the developers have been making some changes to the endgame content in POE 2 for several weeks, players are not very surprised by the above changes, as they have been waiting for a long time. But in the announcement provided by patch 0.2.0h, players can find a little comfort - quality of life improvements.

This week, Strongboxes and Essences will have their own currency icons and shortcuts, allowing players to interact with them and receive corresponding rewards without opening their inventory, ensuring uninterrupted fast player flow.

If you use this shortcut with POE 2 Vaal Orbs, these currencies can even modify the drops contained by enemies trapped in Essences, increasing your chances of getting more high-quality rewards.

Not only that, the developers also provide a filter for unidentified magic and rare items of levels 1 to 5 by level, so that you can buy POE 2 Currency to upgrade valuable equipment for the rest of your exploration process. By the way, it is reported that players will be able to customize the visual effects of all unidentified items in the next patch. Stay tuned.

In addition, two new Stash tabs, Ritual Tab and Socketable Tab have been introduced to the game. Currently, you will no longer need to adjust the stacking order of 10 Runes and Omens or other currency tabs.

Ritual Tab allows you to store all Omens and An Audience With The King, while Socketable Tab allows you to place all Runes, Talismans and Soul Cores. In this case, Runes can be upgraded directly in this stash tab, so that you can smoothly obtain higher-level runes in the early game process.

Other Additions

Finally, POE 2 patch 0.2.0h will introduce the coveted Private Leagues, a custom league that is perfect for players who like to explore a new controlled economy or plan to play with a few friends.

Or if you have explored everything in the current league and want a fresh challenge, the private league option is also very suitable for you. But it is worth noting that there is no mention of a usable league modifier in this patch, so players may have to wait for it to be officially launched.

The above are all the new changes and some content previews that POE 2 is expected to bring in patch 0.2.0h. I hope you can find a self-consistent method in this repeatedly modified game, and provide as many improvement suggestions as possible in the player community to urge the developers to make patches. I wish you a happy game!

In the current Path of Exile 2 Dawn of the Hunt league, the developers have made some very significant changes to the game’s most challenging endgame content, making it more in-depth and meaningful. They have also significantly increased the loot drop rates of some of the most tough boss encounters in the endgame, making them more profitable.

The most noteworthy one is Omniphobia, Fear Manifest, an endgame boss that can be found in Delirium maps in Atlas and Simulacrum. The loot it provides you in the current league is very important for your subsequent exploration and progress.

Since this encounter is much more difficult than the other Delirium pinnacle boss Kosis, The Revelation, this guide will give you information about the specific challenge location, combat moves, and rewards it can provide you with this boss in the game, so that you can complete this battle as quickly as possible and advance your exploration progress.

Omniphobia’s Location

As mentioned above, Omniphobia, Fear Manifest will appear in maps with Delirium mechanic, but it’s worth noting that it only appears in it with a certain chance, so you may need to farm this type of map several times to encounter it.

Alternatively, you can buy POE 2 Currency to increase the properties of Delirious modifier in Waystones that unlock maps with this mechanic, which will also make this boss with a lot of loot appear more often. But the challenge and the increase in the size of the enemy group it brings are also worth your attention.

If you don’t want to try your luck in Delirium map, you can focus on collecting Simulacrum Splinters in it first, because after you have 300 fragments, you can combine them into Simulacrum, which can be used in Realmgate to unlock the multi-wave map of the same name.

Of course, Omniphobia, Fear Manifest will only appear in higher waves. Under normal circumstances, it will appear near the end. Since you need to fight for a long time in it, you can place some gear that can increase your maximum health in the construction before entering this map, or equip some potions that can help you quickly restore health and mana, etc.

Omniphobia’s Attack Moves

Before you enter the arena with Omniphobia, Fear Manifest, you may need to know the attack moves and counter strategies used by this boss. Because once you die in this battle, all the hardships you have experienced before will be in vain, and you will need to challenge it again.

Since this boss has returned to POE 2 from the original game, its attack moves have not changed much. Besides the casting of some special moves, Omniphobia will chase you with an axe.

And when the distance between you reaches a certain degree, it will also attack you with an axe. Here are some special moves you need to pay attention to and the corresponding strategies.

Slam

The boss will slam the ground with an axe 2-3 times in a specific area; and if you leave this designated range during this period, it will also jump and slam you. Although it will keep chasing you, the most direct way to avoid taking damage from this move is to use a dodge roll.

Slash

While this move looks similar to the axe swing of Omniphobia’s normal attack, a large slashing beam is fired at you. If you are hit by it, you will suffer continuous bleeding damage.

Since the range of this beam is very large, you may not be able to dodge it, so equip some amulets or passive skills that can resist bleeding damage to reduce the damage they cause.

Vomit

During the battle, you may see the boss stand still for a second and seem to be looking for something. This means that the powerful Vomit move is about to appear: Omniphobia will throw multiple vomit projectiles at the area you are standing in.

Since you can predict the arrival of Vomit by being stationary, you can use a roll to avoid the projectiles and temporarily avoid stepping into the area, thereby avoiding the continuous chaos damage that will cause an eminent threat to you.

Omniphobia’s Loot

After you defeat Omniphobia, Fear Manifest for the first time, it will give you a Deranging Book of Knowledge, which gives you two Delirium Atlas Passive Points, which you can use to activate important nodes in Atlas passive skill tree.

It should be noted that Omniphobia itself does not directly award you Uniques, but it is only possible to obtain one of the six Uniques contained in Simulacrum and a large amount of POE 2 Currency after defeating it and completing the 15th wave of Simulacrum.

The following is a list of Uniques that can be obtained from this boss encounter and subsequent challenges in the current game, and the drop rate of each one will change accordingly depending on the difficulty level you challenge.

• Assailum Closed- Helmet
• Perfidy Knight - Body Armor
• Melting Maelstrom - Mana Flask
• Collapsing Horizon Wyrm - Quarterstaff
• Strugglescream Stellar- Amulet
• Megalomaniac - Diamond

The most worthwhile items to farm are Strugglescream and Megalomaniac. The former lets you add two instilled modifiers to it, giving your build a high damage boost.

The latter lets you equip it with three notable passives (the same one or different), allowing you to choose a passive node that’s more suitable for the current exploration process without worrying about the established passive skill activation path.

The above is the specific strategy and reward list for challenging Omniphobia, Fear Manifest, a powerful endgame boss in the current Path of Exile 2 Dawn of the Hunt league. Hopefully, with the help of this guide, you can find and defeat it faster, as well as complete Delirium or Simulacrum map run. Have fun playing!

According to Path of Exile 2 developer’s recent release of the number of players using each class in Dawn of The Hunt league, Amazon topped the list with 23.78%. Because of its powerful passive skills such as Critical Strike and Predatory Instinct, many players like to use it in single-target confrontation.

However, it is worth noting that there are currently many build options available for this powerful class in POE 2, and in the public’s perception, excellent gear can maximize the effectiveness of this character and bring an extraordinary gaming experience.

Since Amazon is the latest Ascendancy class of Huntress added in POE 2, the weapon used has always been a spear. But this does not mean that you can only choose a build method with it as the midpoint. You can even build it into a Ranger to make its powerful critical stacking ability come into play.

So here are Amazon builds that are most worth using in the current Dawn of The Hunt League, as well as some core skill gems you can choose for them, so that you can have more chances of winning in the exciting and fierce league competition.

1. Lightning Spear Amazon

Lightning Spear skill has become the most popular offensive skill in every build in POE 2 Dawn of The Hunt League with its powerful clearing ability. Amazon builds are no exception, especially if you have Volt support gems and sufficient Frenzy Charges.

With their help, your character can easily farm some low-tier but very profitable maps in the leveling stage; in the endgame stage, you can effectively farm some important in-game resources such as Breach Splinter and Simulacrum Splinter, thereby speeding up your game progress.

Since this Lightning Spear Amazon build is mainly based on lightning damage, besides the super high critical damage, you also have the ability to continuously shock enemies, and the subsequent damage received by the shocked enemies is increased by 20%, which makes it one of the most suitable builds for players to overcome difficult challenges.

In some build options, Kitoko’s Current is a must-have for helping you strengthen Electrocute and generate more Frenzy Charges. Although Tangletongue Forked Spear can make your critical hits more effective when dealing with groups of enemies, its prerequisite of consuming health every time it is used makes it an optional choice for this build.

Recommended Skill Gems And Support Gems

• Lightning Spear: Volt/Perpetual Charge/Twofold
• Storm Lance: Blindsided/Primal Armament/Lightning Infusion
• Combat Frenzy: Precision/Cannibalism/Profusion
• Herald of Thunder: Innervate/Longshot/Reach

2. Bleed Rake Amazon

A skill with Bleed is a great tool for sustained damage in any build, as it ignores Energy Shield and deals high damage to enemies, much like Chaos.

So it’s a good idea to focus on Rake skill with this effect and equip it with Herald of Blood Spirit Gem, which causes all enemies that bleed to explode upon death, dealing high range damage to nearby surviving enemies.

For equippable items, you may need the help of Saitha’s Spear, which can provide Aggravate while you apply Bleed, making less agile enemies more vulnerable.

Although this powerful weapon has the highest rarity in the game, you can still buy POE 2 Currency and apply it to Spear to re-roll the affixes it contains in order to obtain a new and more favorable affix and buff.

Recommended Skill Gems And Support Gems

• Rake: Deep Cuts/Brutality/Close Combat
• Blood Hunt: Execute/Bloodlust/Heavy Swing
• Bloodhound’s Mark: Single Out/Rupture
• Herald of Blood: Haemocrystals/Deadly Herald/Magnified Effect

3. Twister Amazon

Although the developers have nerfed Twister’s increased damage based on the number of cyclones cast in the latest patch, Amazon builds based on this skill are still very playable because it is very suitable for clearing maps.

Especially when you pair it with Whirling Slash skill, they will double the number of tornadoes in the entire arena, speeding up your effectiveness in defeating and clearing those group enemies.

Since Amazon Ascendancy class has very strong crit effectiveness, when choosing weapons, just focus on the base damage that can be cast, the hit rate, and the ability to improve all projectile skills.

Similarly, these properties still apply to defensive gear selection, so Lycosidae Rampart Tower Shield, which doubles the hit rate and increases the crit ability, will be your best choice.

Recommended Skill Gems And Support Gems

• Twister: Salvo/Persistence/Retreat
• Whirling Slash: Martial Tempo/Rage
• Frostbolt: Arcane Tempo/Despoiler
• Combat Frenzy: Precision/Profusion

4. Gas Arrow Amazon

Although Gas Arrow is not a very good offensive skill in POE 2, it can be a very effective tool for clearing maps by using the explosive reaction between poison gas and fire. It is worth reminding you that this skill can only be unlocked after you reach level 22, so before that, you can farm as much experience points and POE 2 Currency as possible to promote leveling.

The suggestion here is to use Lightning Arrow and Lightning Rod, a skill combination that will never go wrong, to help you complete the leveling process. Then, after you reach the specified level, replace them with Orb of Storms with Herald of Thunder to get more castable damage.

However, you can keep Death’s Harp Dualstring Bow, which has a lower cost but powerful performance, because it can give you a higher chance of victory in the later stage when facing a group of enemies with higher challenges. In addition, Radiant Grief Lace Hood, which can quickly ignite enemies and cause tremendous damage, can be used as your main defensive gear.

Recommended Skill Gems And Support Gems

• Gas Arrow: Martial Tempo/Primal Armament
• Flame Wall: Arcane Tempo
• Orb of Storms: Persistence
• Herald of Thunder: Innervate/Lightning Infusion

The above are the top 4 Amazon builds in the current Path of Exile 2 Dawn Of The Hunt League that are worth trying for players who like to use critical hits to eliminate enemies in one fell swoop. I hope you can complete the leveling stage as soon as possible with the help of these powerful builds and enter the newly changed endgame content. I wish you a happy game!

In December of last year, the beloved Path of Exile released its sequel, becoming one of the most concurrently played games on Steam. Although the player base churn in POE was not too severe at the time, the number of daily active players and total players was declining.

But now, nearly three months after the release of POE 2, a new event has brought numerous players back to the game: during the Legacy of Phrecia event, the number of concurrent players reached a peak of 91,948, while POE 2 was only 80,879 at its peak, which is far more than the sequel!

But strangely, the number of concurrent players of the sequel was not greatly affected during the event, so where did all these players come from? And although POE may never break the heights set by POE 2, what are the reasons behind this phenomenal popularity? Will we see this again in the future?

These questions are the topics that are currently being focused on in the player community and social platforms, and this guide will answer these questions for you one by one based on the existing information and leaks. Whether you are a loyal fan of the original game or a player who is exploring the sequel and hesitating whether to enter POE to try it, the answers here may give you a correct direction.

Reasons For The Popularity Of POE

First of all, let’s take a look at why the original POE has set off such a phenomenal popularity, that is, because its game content has not been updated or improved for a very long time. Previously, Path of Exile would update four leagues every year, and each one would bring a lot of game content updates to players, such as new mechanisms, new bosses, and new POE 2 Items.

Before the early access release of POE 2 last year, in order to ensure the normal operation of the sequel, the developer used all the work teams that originally worked on POE 1 to develop POE 2, which led to the delay of the league that should have been updated in the original game. Although POE 3.25 Settlers Of Kalguur League was highly praised by players before, players lost interest in it during this long period of repeated grinding and exploration.

When this Path of Exile 2 was released in advance, it was thought that Grinding Gear Games would return the staff of the original game, but they did not. They have been solving some minor problems that POE 2 players have been struggling with, and officially announced that they will continue to use this team to develop the sequel until the release of Patch 0.2.0.

This caused some players who were loyal to the original game to protest because the developer broke the promise to treat both games equally to all players. After that, the players in the original game had no hope for new leagues or new patches, and jokingly called this the longest drought period in POE.

But fortunately, after announcing this news, the developer released a notice about the Legacy of Phrecia event to be held in POE, which will last for a month. And announced that it would destroy all existing classes and replace them with new game-changing ascendancies, which means that all 19 ascendancies will be redesigned, and those gear that could only be upgraded with POE Currency have also received some upgrades and improvements.

This was unexpected for all players, and made players feel that they had wrongly blamed Grinding Gear Games before, because this kind of experimental design also requires a very long time to study and explore. So many players who had given up the original game before began to return, and some players who were used to the old design also wanted to try these new game rules and gameplay, which gave this long-dormant game a new lease on life.

Why Hasn’t The Number Of Concurrent Players In POE 2 Decreased?

Although POE and POE 2 are both games of the same genre and have the same unique systems, they are fundamentally different because the original Path of Exile has decades of updates and quality of life upgrades, with the depth and level design that most pleases players, and it is difficult for new games to catch up with this depth of game content in a short period.

Especially the endgame of POE 2, although it uses a lot of data from the original to determine what players want in it. For players who have only tried this sequel, this exciting and difficult battle makes it a different game experience, but for fans of the original, the endgame here is not pleasing to them.

So the explosion of POE has little impact on the player group of POE 2, because the two groups essentially like completely different things, and there will be a steady stream of new players during the current POE 2 Early Access period, because they all want to try the extremely difficult gaming experience of farming POE 2 Currency.

Most importantly, one of POE’s most impressive feats is that it can retain players longer than other games. On July 1 last year, Settlers Of Kalguur League was able to reach 228,398 concurrent online players, which is the highest record for the game. At the end of July, the number remained at 163,118, which is a very outstanding number for a game that has existed for more than ten years.

The last question is, can POE maintain this super high popularity and move forward steadily? The answer is yes, because the sequel is currently only released in Early Access, and the official release time and game content are not completely determined, which leads to the players becoming bored again after the experience time is over. At this time, a POE with a better game experience and similar gameplay may become their next prey.

As you all know, after more than 6 months of POE 3.25, the developers finally responded to the subsequent league update of POE 1, but we did not get any news about the 3.26 expansion, but instead announced that POE 3.26 would be postponed indefinitely. This news has caused a lot of anger among fans of the original game. Perhaps in order to calm the anger of the players, GGG recently chose to launch a new event, Legacy of Phrecia Event, to divert the attention of the players.

The event starts at 12 pm PST on February 20, 2025 and lasts until 1 pm PST on March 23, 2025. Players will face a series of unique challenges and experience major changes in the class system.

To perform better in this event, you must prepare an excellent build. Here we’re sharing our event starter build, Pyroclast Mine Polytheist, to help you get a head start in Legacy of Phrecia Event!

Build Overview

Recently, seeing the rise of Polytheist ascendancy class, we wanted to use it to make a build that uses skills with both Projectiles and Nova tags. The only skill that meets this requirement is Pyroclast Mine.

With Pyroclast Mine, we can hit the same enemy multiple times with a single explosion. First the initial explosion of Mine, then the projectile AoE for each explosion, and finally these fireworks-like explosions. If you like flashy builds, this one is for you.

What we’re showing here is mapping with Pyroclast Mine using a 4-Link setup, so how far can this setup take us?

In reality, since we need to stick to a budget and make sure we can complete Legacy of Phrecia Event with the least amount of POE Currency cost, our equipment is pretty crappy, focusing mainly on life, resistance, and a few attributes. Tremor Rod in particular is definitely the most cost-effective choice for this build, and should at least get you into red maps.

In addition, we only use 2 Auras, Grace and Summon Skitterbots. Since Flammability is tied to Arcanist Brand and Detonate Mines is tied to Automation, it will trigger automatically.

It is recommended that you can get Detonate Mines Skill Gem as early as possible to save extra clicks. If you don’t want to invest in it, there is a Mine Mastery that also allows you to detonate mines while moving. You can unassign it when you don’t need it.

Although we don’t use Astral Projector in this build, so sometimes the explosion won’t fall on the boss, the overall damage feels good, especially when we get Ascendancy, which will be more powerful.

Ascendancy

For Ascendancy, we would grab Devout of Lunaris first. The quality of life brought by this node is unparalleled. However, if you want more defense, then you can get Devout of Garukhan or Devout of Solaris first, and finally Devout of Ralakesh, mainly because we are already using Charged Mines Support.

Passive Tree

Now, let’s move on to the passive tree for this build. We have different levels of the tree, so if you don’t know which nodes to choose, you can follow the upgrade tree here. We usually start with some damage and life nodes here, and then go to Shadow. Also, get all Mine nodes, Life nodes, and Reservation nodes here, and then finish the build at level 95.

Gem Setup

Next, we have different gems set for endgame and early/mid game. You can re-check them when you are ready to lower your health.

If you are using Pyroclast Mine of Sabotage, you can change it here. However, it is not recommended that you switch to it before getting Mana Reservation node and equipment.

Pyroclast Mine of Sabotage does much more damage than normal Mine, but it also reserves much more mana than normal Mine. So, until you can switch to Transfigured Mine, just use the normal Mine. They function the same, the only difference is the amount of damage.

In addition to Grace and Summon Skitterbots, this build also uses Discipline. It is connected to Arrogance to preserve life instead of mana, so that we can do Pain Attunement when life is low, giving us 30% more spell damage.

Once you get Whispers of Doom anoint on your Amulet, you can use another curse, which is Assassin’s Mark. Before getting Pyroclast Mine, you can upgrade as you usually do with Templars, that is, use Rolling Magma, Holy Flame Totem and Flame Wall.

Gear Setup

Now, to the most important part, the gear.

The gear for this build is very simple, you just need to focus on getting life, resistance and attributes. Among them, Mine Throwing Speed ​​should be made on your weapons and helmets, which will make a huge difference and provide you with a smoother map experience.

You can also try to get a belt with Mine Throwing Speed, or make your own using Essence of Zeal. Once you get enough POE currency, you can slowly upgrade your gear.

Since this is an evasion character, it has low health, so getting energy shields is also important. So we use Evasion Base or ES Base as our armor, combined with Grace and our Ascendancy, our evasion chance should be pretty high.

Another important stat is spell suppression chance. Although there are some on the passive tree, it should be easy to limit spell suppression if your gear is all rare. What’s more, you should also have your Eldritch Mods at this point.

Note that the endgame setup of this build is expensive. It’s only for those who really want to invest in the build and try some of the hardest content in the game. If you’re just using this build to accumulate some Divine Orbs and move on to the next build, then I think you can stop at the mid-game setup.

Victario’s Influence is a great body armor for this build. You can even get up to +4 gem levels with Corruption alone. Additionally, it provides higher reservation efficiency, which is very necessary for Pyroclast Mine of Sabotage, and the increased AoE and aura effects are obviously nice to have as well.

Finally, Replica Dragonfang’s Flight is great for boosting our damage, as it provides 3 additional gem levels. This reservation mod is great, as it also reduces life reservations for Discipline.

Anyway, that’s all for this Pyroclast Mine Polytheist build. Hopefully, the servers will be stable during Legacy of Phrecia Event, and we’ll see you there!

During the period of Path of Exile 2 Early Access, do players still remember POE 3.25, which was released in July last year? Yes, Settlers of Kalguur league lasted for over 6 months, but we still had no news about the next league.

However, recently GGG finally responded to this issue. Unfortunately, they did not specify the release time of POE 3.26, but brought the bad news that the next league will be postponed indefinitely. Yes, this league postponement is indefinite, and it may last for a long time.

Therefore, here we are mainly to help you understand the actual future of POE 1, and why I think you should be prepared for POE 1 to be completely closed after patch 3.26.

The Player Group Split Between POE 1 And 2

Two weeks after the release of POE 2, there are a few things that you should be able to see clearly. On the one hand, there is a clear split in the players, and on the other hand, there is a rather large difference between POE 1 subreddit and POE 2.

Looking at the data from the past few years, the number of players in POE 2 Early Access is on average higher than any POE 1 league. There are more than 1 million people registered for Early Access on Steam alone, which is at least $30 million in revenue, and that’s considering people pre-ordered the minimum $30 Supporter Pack.

However, for GGG, it’s not just about money, they have to keep players happy to retain them. Of course, they can also afford to lose players, because these people will still participate in POE 1.

What we want to emphasize here is that there are actually two types of players who have diametrically opposed views on the game. Some POE 1 players like the fast-paced endgame experience, with wide explosions appearing on the screen, blowing up the map one after another, and they only need to wait a moment to click on POE Currency and rare items dropped by the boss. But there is another group of people coming from games like Elden Ring who want the endgame to be like POE 2 campaign. These are completely different audiences.

POE 2 Bugs Appear Frequently

At the same time, there are some serious issues with POE 2 that affect the gaming experience and need to be resolved urgently. I mean some of these issues may even make your computer explode, turn your GPU into a smoke screen, or you will wake up to find that your account has been hacked.

The most serious problems are not game balance, but bugs and crashes. One of the things is the careless Windows 11 24H2 update, which caused a lot of CPU problems in the game, especially a serious crash on our loading screen. When players open portals between maps, we have to enable and disable multi-threading, or sacrifice half of the CPU capacity to run this game.

We must understand that it will take Microsoft a few years to replace the useless DEI to solve these problems. Anyway, we can only hope that GGG will be able to fix their game after this bad Windows update. After all, it is just one of the serious problems they are currently solving.

1.5 months have passed since Early Access release, and POE 2 players are still eagerly waiting for a ton of fixes and endgame issues that need to be changed.

POE 1 Might Be Ready To Terminate?

Meanwhile, POE 1 subreddit is on the verge of a nuclear explosion, because more than 6 months have passed since GGG released POE 3.25 update, and we have never seen such a crisis.

Before, the developer was crucified for testing a new idea in a few leagues, but now suddenly everyone wants to see him resurrected. To be honest, we do live in the age of prophecy, and maybe we may see it soon.

But what’s worse is that more people suspect that this may be their farewell to Path of Exile 1 development. Because unless the two development teams are completely separated, you can’t maintain league updates for 2 games every 3 to 4 months. Chris Wilson himself admitted this as early as 2019.

Developers May Be Stretched Thin

You can feel the pressure from embedding the core content of the old game into the new one. They had less than a few weeks to make the endgame, which they have been working on for years.

I mean, it’s probably been 5 or 6 years since we saw a snippet of POE 2 Act at ExileCon 2019. And the carefully polished 3 Acts we see today took 6-7 years. Rumor has it that there will be more details on these contents after the official release.

So, like we mentioned before, GGG made millions of dollars from POE 2 Early Access, but their only ongoing income comes from POE 1 League, which also requires development and maintenance costs. It’s a gray area to draw the line between which one must take priority now.

After the release, the developers have clearly shown less enthusiasm for completing the remaining 3 Acts of POE 2. Honestly, ask yourself which is more important? POE 2 endgame or POE 2 Acts 4, 5, and 6?

I believe most people want to fix the endgame and continue its development. But this is where I am deeply critical. If you want to make a brand new game, then why bring back the endgame mechanics from the old game that require you to kill and clear quickly? Many POE 2 players want the endgame to be slowed down, but these mechanics are the same requirements of the old game. So, GGG must decide which group of players they must cater to. If they want to separate the game, then they should completely avoid the content from POE 1 in POE 2.

My point is that if GGG pushes hard now, both games have quite strong momentum, they will succeed in winning over both player bases. This is an opportunity that cannot be missed, and this has been proven many times.

The Success Of POE 2 Sacrificed The Development Of The Previous Game

There are many people who are deeply concerned about POE 1. Because Settlers of Kalguur is the best state of POE 1 league update so far, many players returned because of the update of patch 3.25.

But the thing is, currently GGG is still using developers from POE 1 team to develop POE 2. These developers are literally the best developers in any action RPG.

Nevertheless, GGG has good reasons to allocate more resources to POE 2 at the expense of the expansion of POE 1. Like I mentioned before, POE 2 currently has more players and everyone is a paying customer. Second, POE 2 has been a tremendous success at the beginning. Despite the criticism, once they start adding crafting, endgame mechanics, and challenge leagues, the scope of success of POE 2 will be much larger.

Final Thoughts

However, this is not a priority at the moment, GGG can always balance the game, but for a large group of POE 1 players say, 6 months without any content, it’s really hard! So it is recommended that GGG first put all resources into fixing the major issues in patch 0.2.0, and once that is done as soon as possible, they can save the rest for the release of POE 3.26. In this way, Path of Exile can keep the momentum and effectively complete both without losing more players.

In short, prioritize the right things and let the right people do the right job to improve efficiency. This may help the two games run at the same time. GGG must decide and plan the overall strategy to usher in a better future. Looking forward to seeing the early arrival of POE 3.26!