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Ascendancies in Path of Exile are your biggest power-ups. They also can majorly change the way your character plays. So, how do you get your Ascendancies? I’m going to show you the basics of how to get your Ascendancies, but also some hints and tips along your way to help you be more successful.
Ascendancies in Path of Exile are gained via the Labyrinth. Try to get into the Labyrinth for the first time, you have to run Trials of Ascendancy. These are scattered throughout the campaign. Each character gets eight Ascendancy points. But you only get two Ascendancy points from each Labyrinth.
There are four different levels of Labyrinth to get these eight points. These labyrinths are named Normal, Cruel, Merciless and the Eternal Labyrinth. Most players call the last lab the Uber lab, not the Eternal lab. So you probably won’t hear that phrase very often.
The first Labyrinth requires six Trials of Ascendancy to be completed first. The second and third require three more each and then the final one just requires an Offering to the Goddess.
Thankfully, the completion of these trials is tied to your account per league, which means once you starters run these, you don’t need to run them again on any subsequent character. Even though the trials only take about 30 seconds to run a piece, this is actually really nice. Because they slow down your leveling, no end as you’ve got to find them first.
Once you have the six Trials of Ascendancy for the normal Labyrinth, go to Act 3 and you’ll see the tomb type thing, which is called Ascendancy Plaque. And this tomb has six indicators on it that are glowing green. If you don’t have all the trials, you will have less than six glowing. Once you’re fully lit up, click on the front door and it will open upwards. You can now go in and grab the Waypoint. Once you have this, you can just get here from any Waypoint in the game. It’s much quicker.
So, what are these Trials of Ascendancy and where the hell do you get them?
First off, their small areas are completely full of traps and luckily we know roughly where each of these is. The normal lab, but the first one is in Act 1 in the Lower Prison. The next two are in Act 2: the first one in the Crypt Level 1 and the second in the Chamber of Sins Level 2. The final three are located in Act 3 and they’re in the Crematorium, the Catacombs and the Imperial Garden.
For the Cruel lab, these are located in Act 6 and Act 7. The Act 6 one is in the Prison and the Act 7 one is in the Crypt and the Chamber of Sin Level 2 again. And the most of the lab trials are in Act 8, 9 & 10, which are located in the Bath House, the Tunnels and the Ossuary, respectively.
For the Uber lab, you used to have to find six Trials of Ascendancy randomly scattered throughout maps. Because it was RNG based, it could take days to get your last ascendancy. Thankfully, those days are gone and now all you need is an Offering to the Goddess, which you can get from a single one of these trials in maps. But these can still be quite annoying to find. So, I tend to run the Delve, which also has a chance to drop them .
Apart from the normal lab, these are no joke and they will kill you if you’re trying to run them too early. So, when should you actually aim to run them? I won the first one somewhere between level 31 and 33 and this tends to coincide with me getting to the Crystal Veins Waypoint in Act 4.
For Cruel lab, I tend to run this just before entering the temple to kill Arakaali at the end of Act 7. And for Merciless, I run this just before I kill the Kitava in Act 10. For Uber lab, I run this around level 80 and I want at least 4,000 life if I’m a Melee character. Non-meta characters can do much earlier. But they have to keep moving. If they get hit, you will get one shot crit.
Also Read: Everything You Need To Know About Creating Poison Soulrend Build In POE 3.21!
You’ve already had trials now. What to expect when you get into the Labyrinth?
The Labyrinths are made up of interconnected areas that form a maze. The higher the level of the Labyrinth, the more interconnected areas you’ll get to get to the end. It can be hard to find your way through the Labyrinth.
Thankfully, a great set of guys has set up a resource to help you get through it introducing www.poelab.com. For each Labyrinth, someone runs it each day and then records the path through the Labyrinth. As a beginner, the key things you care about are as follows.
The intellected lines between areas tell you roughly what side of the Arena the exit will be at. So, it could be top right, bottom right, or top left.
The next thing you’ll care about is the areas marked with a ‘D’. This stands for Darkshrine. A Darkshrine is always located in a little offshoot in the area accessible by a switch. These can be hard to find until you get used to looking for them. Don’t try to give you a wide range of bonuses that will help you complete the lab.
Most importantly, traps are disabled in the final trial. This disables traps in the final boss room, which will make the lab so much easier. Second up is some kind of power up for your character. These comes in many forms, such as character always crits or run really fast.
As a minimum on my first run through each lab, except for the normal lab, I will go for these two in the normal lab traps are not in the final boss room, anyway. So, this one is kinda pointless. Once I’ve found these two, I’ll stop looking for Darkshrines. The final group of Darkshrines either make the boss drop extra things like Treasure Keys or unique items or they can give you two roles in the enchant thing in the final room, which enchant your gear.
When running through the interconnected rooms, you want to find the shortest path to the end without going through any room that has the big dangerous trap icon. This has so many traps that it will probably kill most characters.
Now, the ascendancy at the end of the Labyrinthy is protected by a boss named Izaro, and you’d have to fight him three times. The first time you need to drop him down to 33% health; the second time 66% health and then the final time, you kill him.
Now, this boss is helped by different creatures that come up in the room. If you kill these bosses, you will drop fewer Treasure Keys. Each time you kill the boss and Treasure Keys open chests at the in the end of the Arena. These come in many flavors.
It’s important to note that each time you fight Izaro, he gets stronger and stronger. To make yourself powerful, you’d better use POE Currency in advance to buy some better weapons and armors to equip yourself. In the last round, he come one shot most players because he crits almost every hit.
Now, Izaro can also use two different kinds of weapons. One is a sword where he’ll do big swipes across the arena. The other’s a hammer where he creates a circle on the floor and does a big crash. I find the hammer is easier to deal with. You just need to get out of the circle. For the big blade, you have to try and work out where he’s going to fire it and keep rotating around him to make it less likely he’s goinr to actually hit you.
By the way, Diablo 4 has been all the rage lately. Many players are basically in the leveling stage now. Because the higher the level, the greater the challenge. If you don’t want to spend most of your time on leveling, but want to challenge yourself more. You might as well take a look at D4gold.com’s Boosting service. Hope you can have a better gaming experience!
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As we all know, class is the foundation of Path of Exile series' gameplay and is crucial to every player's build and endgame journey. Your class choice determines your starting position in the standard passive tree, while also allowing you to add a sub-class called Ascendancy.
The passive tree is shared by all classes, meaning your base class choice doesn't directly limit your access to any skills in that tree; it simply determines how many points you need to spend to reach different points in the tree.
However, your class choice does limit your access to Ascendancy, a sub-class that players can unlock in Act 2 of the campaign. Each base class includes a certain number of Ascendancy abilities; currently, most classes have two, but some have three.
It's important to note that your Ascendancy options are not locked, but reselecting them requires some effort. In contrast, your base class choice is locked; if you want to switch classes mid-game, you'll have to level up a completely new character.
In Path of Exile 2 patch 0.3.0, many class skill and passive trees have undergone major overhauls for balance, so sticking with your previous Ascendancy class and build choices in The Third Edict is clearly unwise.
So, you might be wondering: Which Ascendancy class should I choose? Honestly, it's best to first consider your archetype: a lightning caster, a bow ranger, or a giant hammer-wielding tank? Choosing a class and sticking with it is crucial. After all, reselecting a class mid-game can be costly, and all PoE 2 currency and effort you've invested in it will be wasted!
Your chosen skills, passive nodes, and equipment are not locked to your class choice. The only constant is your Ascendancy - the place where your archetype comes into play.
Here, we're sharing a list of Ascendancy classes from the S-C tier. I must disclaim that the tier rankings aren't based on each class's overall strength, but rather on their accessibility for new players.
Since Path of Exile 2 has a vast array of build options, you'll likely see dozens of different builds using the same Ascendancy class. This tier list is simply to point you in the right direction in Path of Exile 2 0.3.0 and minimize your frustration.
Starting with the S-tier, these Ascendancy classes are almost certain to be a delight for new and returning players, as their Ascendancy nodes offer immediate and significant power, lack any drawbacks, and synergize well with their respective passive tree areas.
In the S tier, we have Deadeye, who boasts extremely high movement and action speed and is easy to maintain. More importantly, this Ascendancy has good general bonuses to all projectile-related skills and even has some decent one-shot defense options, something most classes struggle to find.
So, if you're looking to mow down enemies with a bow and move quickly, Deadeye is almost certainly your best choice in patch 0.3.0.
Next up is Stormweaver. If you're looking to be an excellent spellcaster, you've come to the right place. Excellent casting speed, critical chance, and the ability to trigger other spells are all qualities Stormweaver possesses.
It's important to note that fire spells have historically been considered the weakest of the three different elemental spells. The Stormweaver Ascendancy doesn't have any fire-specific nodes, but it does have some lightning-specific nodes. So, keep all of this in mind when looking for a skill build guide for PoE 2 patch 0.3.0.
Next up is Invoker, one of Monk's Ascendancy classes. He's a quintessential staff master, with nearly all of his staff skills dealing significant cold or lightning damage.
The Invoker offers a strong utility, including two core abilities, along with some very good defensive options and a scalable energy shield.
In addition, in 0.3.0, a new keystone was added to the normal passive tree, called Hollow Palm Technique, which allows you to use your fists to cast staff abilities.
Titan is the ultimate choice for S-tier Ascendancy. While the three current Warrior Ascendancies are all excellent, the Titan is the strongest of them all.
Almost all existing Titan builds have Hulking Form, which increases the effectiveness of all normal passive tree nodes by 50%. This means it's nearly impossible to mess up a Titan build, as these small nodes will always synergize well with any existing setup. Furthermore, it offers a strong boost to general damage and survivability.
We keep using the word "universal" because many of the nodes in lower-tier Ascendancy require significant investment elsewhere or are highly conditional before they truly become effective. Therefore, the more versatile a node is, the greater its value to new players, as you don't have to worry about any single change completely destroying the class.
Next up is the A-tier. These classes still have many versatile abilities, but may also have some more insane aspects related to their nodes.
Almost everyone plays Amazon for its high flat critical chance based on accuracy, which makes it easy to achieve a high critical chance.
While the Ascendancy node that grants this mechanic was nerfed in update 0.3.0, it should still provide nearly the same effect thanks to increased player accuracy and reduced monster evasion, both of which make the critical chance boost more effective.
In addition, Amazon offers some specific elemental damage bonuses to projectiles, making it well-suited for spear builds, as well as some interesting damage avoidance and resource recovery options.
The highlight of Smith of Kitava is undoubtedly his ability to focus on fire resistance and apply it to both cold and lightning, greatly simplifying resistance caps and making it ideal for beginners to quickly get started.
Additionally, Smith of Kitava offers a largely fire-based skill set, allowing players to forgo the random stats on their armor and opt for custom crafting.
Next up is Warbringer, who excels at confronting enemies head-on. While the other Warrior Ascendancy classes clearly share this philosophy, Warbringer excels in this regard. This is because of its emphasis on Warcry + Block, both of which require you to be more or less within line of sight of all enemies.
Due to the weight of Anvil, Armor Break debuff it triggers is also quite impressive, allowing any damage it deals to penetrate armor, not just physical damage.
Next up is Infernalist. While this Ascendancy's synergy seems obvious at first glance, as you gain experience, you'll realize its power is actually quite nuanced. A good beginner will almost certainly use it for fire damage, but it's by no means your only option.
Of the three Mercenary Ascendancy classes, Witchhunter offers the most versatility. However, given its position in the passive tree, you're best off sticking with ranged attacks, whether with a bow or crossbow.
But honestly, I think it's a true all-around talent for beginners. If you're looking for a ranged build, that's different from Deadeye, the Witchhunter is an excellent choice.
Finally, the other Ascendancy in the A tier is Gemling Legionnaire.
To be honest, it takes a while for new players to grasp the power of Gemling Legionnaire, as it requires mastery of lock-on skills and support gem selection. However, with a guide, the power it offers becomes readily apparent.
Next is the B tier, where the class starts to lose some of its base power and increasingly draws its power from conditional or ambiguous mechanics.
In previous patches, Tactician would have ranked much lower than it does now. Thankfully, it received some nice changes in PoE 2 The Third Edict, making its strength more apparent, especially for new players.
If you're looking for a minion or totem build at the bottom of the skill tree, the Tactician is a brilliant choice.
Similar to Tactician, Acolyte of Chayula also received some changes in Patch 0.3.0. While it's hard to say exactly how much these changes will impact new players, it seems he's much easier to pick up than before. If you're craving some Monk abilities and prefer a Chaos build over an Elemental one, this Ascendancy might be a better fit.
Now, at C tier, if you're inexperienced, I recommend choosing carefully starting here.
Blood Mage requires you to consume life to use skills, and this is unavoidable. Of course, Ascendancy provides some ways to mitigate this issue, or even turn it into an advantage. But as a new player, the last thing you want is to be running low on health.
Also, while you'd expect Blood Mage to have some blood-related skills, it doesn't. PoE 2 is still in Early Access, which means a lot is still in development, and bleed skills are no exception.
For new players, mastering Pathfinder can be a bit tricky. It doesn't have any particular skills, so you often feel like it just grants you generic powers like increased movement speed when attacking.
However, with the release of patch 0.3.0, this isn't even a Pathfinder-specific effect anymore, which is too bad. Beyond that, its nodes are primarily related to flasks and poisons. However, both archetypes, especially the Flask, are far from fully implemented in Early Access. Therefore, new players should proceed with caution.
Finally, there are a few remaining Ascendancy classes, which we'll discuss collectively: Lich, Ritualist, and Chronomancer. They are all very specific and highly conditional.
Lich and Ritualist excel only if you properly understand gear and PoE gameplay, which requires some time to learn. Chronomancer, on the other hand, requires a deep understanding of the skill system and near-perfect execution of your skill rotation to be truly effective.
Finding a build suitable for new players with these classes isn't impossible, but it can be challenging. Good luck!
Regardless, the release of patch 0.3.0 means we're really not far from getting the full version of PoE 2. Choosing a suitable Ascendancy class will allow you to more easily build your skill tree and enter the endgame while enjoying the game. I hope this Ascendancy tier list can provide you with a new direction!
Now it's time to talk about the brand new league introduced in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.3.0! That's right, the developers say they're launching the first league of Early Access period - Rise of the Abyssal - to ensure players' experience something completely different in each zone each time they return, providing a more diverse experience.
This new league not only features a new economy but also new quests and bosses unique to this league. So, let's take a deeper look at what Path of Exile 2's first official league has to offer!
In this new chapter, as you delve deeper into Wraeclast, you'll discover numerous fissures above ground, connected to larger pits. The monsters that inhabit these areas are being affected and even harmed, their souls being devoured to bolster the defenses of Abyssal races hiding underground.
As you defeat monsters, fissures close, and Abyssal monsters emerge, enraged that you've killed their prey.
Once all of these fissures are sealed, the pit activates, and more Abyssal monsters emerge to devour your soul. Then, larger, more dangerous monsters reveal themselves.
If you kill a magic pack, a magic Abyssal appears. If you kill a rare pack, a rare monster appears in the pit, which absorbs some or all of the monster's attributes. This means that the monsters that appear are generally more difficult to defeat. Of course, PoE 2 currency and equipment they drop are also more valuable, as each modifier grants better rewards.
If you manage to kill them all, the pit closes. Each time a pit closes, a potential Abyssal Trove appears as a reward. This chest rises from the pit, granting you some epic loot.
Note that each area typically contains numerous pits and fissures, and the number of Abyssal Troves increases as the game progresses, making the experience even more exciting!
Not only that, when monster mods are absorbed, they have a chance to be infused with the dark necromancy spell, transforming into Abyssal Modifiers, amplifying both the danger and the rewards.
Abyssal pits also interact with other monsters and mechanics. If you defeat a Rogue Exile near a pit, it will transform into a Lichborn with multiple Abyssal Modifiers. If you're lucky enough to encounter and kill a Lichborn Exile, it may even drop a unique Jewel.
If a pit appears near a boss, killing it will summon a gigantic giga-larvae creature. Monsters trapped in Essences near an Abyssal pit are also affected. They will also receive an additional new Essence item, making them an excellent crafting material.
So, your mission in Rise of the Abyssal League is simple: kill surface monsters, defeat emerging Abyssal monsters, find and overcome pit encounters, and reap the rewards.
However, there's more to this League. After completing Abyssal Pits, you can find Ancient Bone Fragments, preserved from the remains of fallen Lichborn. This is one of the many rewards for completing pit encounters.
You can use this fragment on a rare item, imbuing it with magic, adding a special hidden Abyssal modifier to your item.
But how do you find it? In Act 2 of the campaign, you'll encounter a new area. This area has been overrun by Abyssal creatures. After clearing this area, you'll find Well of Souls, a hollow containing a massive vortex of souls. Throw your Abyssal-infused items into it; it's the only way to activate them!
Before you throw them in, though, you can choose how to craft them, with three different modifiers to choose from. These modifiers can be core modifiers or special modifiers not normally found on items.
After selecting your desired modifier, drop it into Well of Souls. It will absorb the soul's power, which ominous creatures will then retrieve for you.
During the campaign, you can use this to more easily add existing useful modifiers, but in the endgame, you can add a whole new range of powerful modifiers to your items.
We previously discussed how closing the pits grants you Abyssal Troves, but sometimes, closing the pits will reveal an underground cavern leading to the Depths.
After entering the pits, you'll find an Abyssal city teeming with undead hordes. While underground, every rare Abyssal enemy will have an Abyssal Modifier, and at the end of the dungeon, you'll even find a rare enemy with the even more powerful Lichborn Modifier.
Once you can defeat this powerful rare enemy, you'll be rewarded with some pretty impressive rewards. Because besides the Abyssal Modifiers on monsters making the entire zone's loot drops more valuable, it also has its own unique drops.
In the endgame, you'll still find Abyssal Depths, but you'll also begin to discover a different kind of crypt. In these areas, you'll find an Ancient Spire, the key device used by Abyssal Factions' Commander to push Wraeclast into the Lightless Void. Your objective is simple: kill this Commander and destroy the spire.
The final item this Abyssal Commander can drop is a Lich's Finger. So what's the point? In fact, the next time you return to Well of Souls, the items you drop return even more powerful, so your character will almost feel compelled to do so.
Regardless, in Rise of the Abyssals League, you have the opportunity to uncover the secrets of the Abyssal creatures lurking underground and diversify your loot by challenging these unique foes. So don't hesitate, be prepared, and face the rise of this ancient evil!
Exiles, the long-awaited Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict update has finally been revealed! Are these updates and changes what you expected?
This Patch 0.3.0 is still a very heavyweight update. I'm afraid you will feel tired just reading all the patch notes! Just kidding! But if you really don't have the time to delve into all the details, this guide might help you catch up quickly.
Here, let's talk about some of the highlights of The Third Edict and how they impact our gameplay! Let's get started.
We'll begin by reviewing Act 4, which picks up where Act 3 left off.
Doryani must search for an ancient weapon that can be used to fight corruption - a symbol of the Third Edict. The weapon was damaged long ago, but he believes the fragments can be found in Karui Archipelago, home to Karui tribes.
You'll then need to travel to Kingsmarch, rent a boat, open the map, and sail to any destination you like.
Yes, Act 4 is non-linear, meaning you can explore the islands in any order. No matter where you choose to go, you'll fight dangerous beasts, find rich treasure, and battle incredible bosses.
Act 4 offers eight islands to explore, each with unique flora and fauna and many other fascinating encounters.
Until now, players had to replay the entire campaign to reach the endgame, so what else could we do between the end of Act 4 and the endgame?
The developers have added three new Mini-Acts, which you can think of as interludes leading up to the endgame.
These Interludes consist of three temporary side stories that will remain in the game until Act 5 is released, bringing you to level 65 and then unlocking the endgame. Who knows what you'll find there?
Each Interlude contains six to seven areas and typically four boss fights. Including Act 4, the campaign will have 35 new areas and 24 new boss fights.
It's important to note that these Interludes are temporary. With the addition of Acts 5-6, the Interludes will disappear; after all, they're side stories.
While the campaign has been overhauled with each major update, it's inevitable that returning to it can become tedious. Thankfully, the developers have taken this into consideration, launching the first league during POE 2's Early Access period - Rise of the Abyssal - to ensure a fresh experience when returning between expansions.
This brand-new league not only features a new economy but also offers new content unique to that league. The core mechanic of Rise of the Abyssal League is Abyssal.
Here, players will encounter a race called Abyssal, masters of forbidden magic and necromancy. Once thought extinct, they now lurk underground.
They create massive fissures across the continent, devouring the creatures that inhabit them. Therefore, the townspeople need your help to investigate the monsters' source and stop their attacks. The best way to drive out Abyssal is to destroy their food source and defeat the monsters inhabiting the fissures before they are devoured by Abyssal.
Deactivating fissures will activate nearby Abyssal pits, triggering more Abyssal battles. However, once you defeat Abyssals, the pits will be sealed, and you can enjoy your bountiful loot.
Fissures and pits will only become more dense as you progress, and they have a chance to gain buffs from the monsters they absorb, affecting their encounters and subsequent loot.
Remember, be extremely cautious if an Abyssal Pit appears near a boss, as it may trigger the appearance of a massive monster that you'll be almost powerless against. Run away!
Many players have complained that replaying the campaign with each character is tedious, making the entire game tedious. To address this, the developers have introduced a new feature: Sprint.
In POE 2 0.3.0, holding down Dodge-Roll button will cause your character to enter a Sprint state after completing a roll. This feature applies to all characters, and there's no limit to the duration of Sprint. However, if you're hit by an enemy while Sprinting, you'll be knocked to the ground.
The primary purpose of Sprint function is to increase the efficiency of traversing areas outside of combat, making it particularly useful for quickly mapping and farming PoE 2 currency. Since you're less vulnerable to damage while rolling, and your Sprint speed is faster than any other monster in the game, you can retreat from combat and increase your farming efficiency.
Next, let's take a look at Support Gems in PoE 2, one of the game's most important new systems.
It's no secret that Support Gems are one of the most important elements of a complete build, enabling numerous interesting mechanics and rich gameplay.
However, it's important to admit that PoE 2's Support Gem system has always been somewhat imperfect. One major issue was that each character could only possess one Support Gem of each type. However, this design significantly hindered players from effectively using a variety of skills.
Therefore, in Patch 0.3.0, the developers have removed the one-of-a-kind limit per character. Now, we can use any number of gems, significantly expanding the number of possible skill combinations and increasing skill diversity.
While this is already a great way to level up the campaign, the developers haven't stopped there. They've added a brand new Support Gem system to spice things up: Lineage Support.
Think of these as unique items specific to Support, but with far greater power. And just like unique items, many Lineage Support Gems can be obtained from specific bosses, some of which are crucial to determining your build's power.
All told, approximately 40 Lineage Support Gems will be added throughout the endgame, so there's a lot of power to discover!
With the release of Act 4 and Mini-Acts, we're adding 25 new endgame maps featuring all the new monsters and bosses, significantly increasing the game's variety and giving you the opportunity to experience new boss battles multiple times!
With new content to explore, you'll be able to invest in Atlas trees faster, experience Pinnacle content, feel less intimidated when challenging Pinnacle bosses, reach higher levels more easily, and all while finding many new PoE 2 orbs and endgame items.
Finally, we'd like to mention the feature many exiles have been eagerly awaiting for years: Asynchronous Trade.
While the in-game trading mechanism meets basic player needs, some issues have emerged over time. For example, it often requires players to stay in hideouts for extended periods of time instead of going out to fight monsters, or it prevents players from receiving replies who are temporarily away or too lazy to contact.
To finally address these issues, the developers have added a new system that allows players to trade items with other players without the seller being present. They can continue to fight monsters, leave at will, or even go offline.
While this is a simple quality-of-life feature, it actually shows that the developers are truly listening to player feedback and continuously making improvements.
Regardless, the numerous updates brought by Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict are constantly addressing previous bugs and optimizing the gaming experience. Perhaps now is the time to get back into the game! What do you think?
Exiles, are you already antsy as the full patch notes inch closer? Instead of waiting, take a guess at what changes will be coming to the balance update in Patch 0.3.0!
With almost every league update, in-game balance is a key focus, as they can completely overturn our understanding of specific mechanics and builds. So, what are the developers targeting for nerfs or buffs in Path of Exile 2: The Third Edict? Let's take a look!
First, let's talk about nerfs.
Nerfs are naturally at the top of this list. How could we expect anything else? After all, this skill is ridiculously powerful.
In fact, early in Patch 0.2.0, the developers began nerfing some over-tuned skills, but Lightning Spear, already a standout at the time, received a buff. While already quite useful, this buff made it even more powerful, firmly cementing its place at the top.
Furthermore, Huntress class was new, and Amazon Ascendancy was a perfect fit for it, so a large portion of players naturally gravitated towards this Ascendancy build. This led to a significant imbalance in Ascendancy class system during Dawn of the Hunt League, with the top two classes, Amazon and Deadeye, comprising nearly 50% of all characters in the league!
Now, because of Lightning Spear's current popularity, I predict a high probability of nerfs to this skill, particularly its attack speed and damage multipliers.
Now, let's take a look at the second predicted nerf for PoE 2 Patch 0.3.0: Tangletongue. Honestly, I have absolutely no idea how this Spear made it into Dawn of the Hunt at its current power, considering its power and rarity make it arguably the most powerful unique item in the game.
Simply put, Tangletongue has incredibly high base critical chance thanks to the weapon's massive flat bonus critical chance roll, which can reach up to 20%. This means it can achieve a base critical chance of up to 25% without corruption.
That's not all, as it also has another modifier, Forking Critical Hits, which allows the weapon to roll critical chance twice for each attack and then compare the results.
If only one roll succeeds, the attack is a critical hit, dealing the normal critical damage bonus. However, if both rolls succeed, then the critical damage bonus is doubled - incredible!
Critical damage is already the most powerful damage bonus in PoE 2, and this item takes it to the extreme.
However, I think if it does get nerfed, it shouldn't lose Forking Critical Hits mechanic, which is what makes it so special. Instead, it's the flat bonus critical chance modifier that should be nerfed, which makes more sense.
Also, another possible nerf in the 0.3.0 update is Deadeye. That's right, not Amazon we mentioned earlier.
While Amazon might take some hits, its popularity has surged since the new Ascendancy class in 0.2.0, surpassing other options.
By comparison, Deadeye has been at the top of Ascendancy charts since PoE 2 Early Access release. And it has excellent skill nodes, especially when the power of the skill is locked in by a charge, allowing you to easily take down bosses in seconds!
Thus, I expect a nerf to Deadeye in this update, but compared to the nerf to Lightning Spear, it's likely to be quite mild, and it is even possible that other factors will cause Deadeye's strength to be significantly weakened.
However, once you've accumulated enough POE 2 currency in the early stages of The Third Edict League, I fully expect Deadeye to remain your go-to build.
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Next, let's talk about the buff predictions for patch 0.3.0.
First and foremost, I believe that attribute requirements are one of the biggest factors inhibiting build diversity in Path of Exile 2 right now.
There are other factors, of course, including the fact that the requirements for high-level skill gems and gear are so high, which means that the setups you can use in any given build are severely limited. This is because of a variety of issues. However, the strict attribute requirements leave your build with no room for growth.
Because the passive tree provides such low stats relative to its cost, you need to add a lot of affixes specifically designed to boost stats to your gear to meet these costs. This often prevents you from easily upgrading other stats to use auxiliary skills that are inconsistent with your primary stats.
For example, using Intelligence Curse skill on a Strength-based character is difficult enough because simply reaching the required stats at the minimum level requires all the effort, not to mention upgrading the skill gems.
Therefore, I think the easiest way to address this issue is to lower the attribute requirements by a fixed percentage, allowing players to tailor their builds to specific items or skills, providing greater freedom in building their builds.
Another potential area of improvement would be Armor.
In the 0.2.0 patch, we expected the developers to buff character armor and health, but neither of these received any changes.
Therefore, I suspect they might consider reducing Energy Shield to a reasonable level and then increasing Health by increasing Defense of Life-based builds. However, this would require significant changes to the passive tree, and if they're not willing to address the issue of excessively high monster damage, then Armor calculation formula itself would need to be adjusted.
If the first Druid or Templar Strength-Intelligence hybrid class does indeed arrive in POE 2's 0.2.0 patch, then that class build would likely utilize a mix of Armor and Energy Shield items. This would provide a great opportunity to effectively address Armor issue, especially considering so many players will probably try out this new class, if it ever becomes available.
Finally, I think there's one more potential buff for The Third Edict update: Monk class's Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy. This Ascendancy is in desperate need of help.
In Dawn of the Hunt, it was the least-used Ascendancy class, at just 0.7%. So, what's wrong with this Ascendancy?
The crux of the matter lies with Darkness branch at the very bottom of the class's skill tree. This branch accounts for three of the class's nine skills and significantly influences your build preferences.
Darkness branch often locks out your Spirit skills, replacing them with a severely underdeveloped Darkness mechanic. This mechanic works a bit like the Primal Aegis + Guard skill in PoE 1, but it's incredibly weak, and once Darkness is blocked, you have to wait 10 seconds to unblock it.
This means you're making an enormous sacrifice to gain a Darkness buff, but the resulting benefit is so weak that the reward isn't worth it. What you end up with is a mediocre mechanic replacing Spirit, which isn't a very good trade-off.
So, I expect to see significant improvements to Acolyte of Chayula Ascendancy in this update, especially its Darkness mechanic.
These are my guesses for some of the buffs and nerfs I might see in POE 2 patch 0.3.0, which could rebalance existing game mechanics and open up new build possibilities! Of course, these are just predictions; who knows! The full patch is coming soon, so stay tuned!
