How to Choose Your Favourite Build at League Start in POE 3.20: Theory and Recommendations
Should I go corrupting fever gladiator? or maybe it's time to try out Explosive Arrow Ballista Elementalist? What about Lightning Strike? I don't know about you, but I'm sure lots of people having a really hard time choosing what build a league start this time. Of course this is nothing new at this point, it's practically tradition to try between different builds before the new league actually starts. I can't be the only one that make the build guides, you're probably flooded with guides of the absolute best league starters builds for POE 3.20, so let's just dissect what makes a good League starter for you.
First off, what qualifies as a good League starter is incredibly subjective, we've each had our own experiences with different builds, and we will naturally compare other builds. Some people even only play one build for many years and won't settle for anything less than being an Uber boss killer on day one of the league. On the other hand, some one just started playing the game last league, and it is really hoping you can make it to maps clearing this time around a good build with less POE Currency costing.
Three Main Build Genre
But if you're playing in hardcore or ruthless or solo self, then it goes without saying that you'll absolutely need to factor builds aspect into your choice of League starter. So I like to separate builds into three main categories. First up, Fast Mappers, these are builds designed with running through maps fast and efficiently, think about auto bombers cast on crit builds. So on the goal for these guys is to blast through as many screens of the monsters per second as possible, while still doing enough damage to kill map bosses without too much trouble.
Secondly we've got Bossers, Bossers are builds meant for killing end game bosses with ease oftentimes, these are either totems traps, or mines, or minion builds, since they have a big uptime advantage on their DPS compared to other types of builds, allowing them to just run around dodging everything coming at them. While these builds can still complete Maps, they would rather be spending their time in actual end game Boss Fights once they have all.
The last big category is All Rounders, these are builds that don't specialize in either fast mapping or easy bossing, but are competent enough in both, they're in the middle and are generally safe builds to play if your goal is to just get through maps and do some endgame bossing, like spark and toxic rain builds.
Keep in mind that builds in this category could usually be pushed in either direction if you really wanted to with enough Currency Orbs investment, so those are the three main types of bills that I think of.
Other Build Genre
However these categories only really encompass good or meta builds, what about your funky Glacial Hammer builds or Firestorm? These types of builds I would put under the For Fun category, just as important as any of the other types of builds, Fou Fun builds are oftentimes interesting and not necessarily good builds, don't get me wrong, they could come up to a totally crazy build as well, and I wouldn't be all that surprised. But generally when playing one of these builds, the expectation is that you'll eventually hit a wall in progression where you either need to farm up a bunch of currency for better gear to push past it, or just decide to play something else. If you're okay with that, and just want to explore new builds that look fun to you, this is the way to go finally.
The last category that comes to my mind I've simply dubbed Other, these are good builds that are hyper focused on accomplishing a specific thing that isn't mapping or Bossing, like specific builds for currency farming or something else. Reddit and Poe ninja are all helpful places to find build ideas, just find something that looks fun to you.
So here are two good Mapper I would like to recommend that can be used widely in POE 3.20 Expansion.
Build Recommendation
Mapper One:
Corrupting Fever Champion is a top League start Mapper created with a focus on speed, explosions and survivability. For the skills, we can use Corrupting Fever, Kinetic Blast,Utility and Auras, Reap, Vulnerability. As the main skill, Sacrifice the blood in your veins to activate Corrupting Fever, causing hits against enemies to apply a stacking Corrupting Blood debuff causing Physical Damage over Time.
Meanwhile Utility and Auras is our primary movement ability providing quick progress through maps. To escape in the blink of an eye, use Frostblink to instantly teleport away evading large telegraphed attacks or quick reactive abilities. Unleash your anger and become frenzied with Blood Rage giving you Frenzy Charges on kill and additional attack speed. Thus Champion is the best choice as it offers the best defences in the game and gives you very powerful damage through Adrenaline and Aura effect.
Playstyle
When playing as the Corrupting Fever Champion you aim and click your Kinetic Blast into large monster packs applying the Corrupted Blood debuff and applying a separate bleed which triggers your Haemophilia on kill explosions. Every 20 seconds reactivate Corrupting Fever to take your Life down below 50%, triggering First to Strike, Last to Fall giving Adrenaline.
Mapping
When mapping as the Corrupting Fever Champion apply your Corrupted Blood to enemies with Kinetic Blast and then quickly Shield Charge to the next pack of monsters. For stronger enemies use Reap to quickly dispatch them.
Skill Gems
Gems are a fundamental part of your build, and getting the correct link setups and levels before entering Maps is your main goal. This is how your Gems look throughout the endgame stage of progression.
*Corrupting Fever - Awakend Brutality Support - Awakend Swift Affliction Support - Efficacy Support - Empower Support - Reap
*Anomalous Kinetic Blast - Maim Support - Greater Multiple Projectiles Support - Lifetap Support
*Flam Dash - Lifetap Support - Storm Brand - Culling Strike Support
*Handed Ranged: Malevolence, Tempest Shiled, Enduring cry
*Shiled: Shiled charge - Faster Attacks Supports - War Banner
*Cast When Damage Taken Support - Molten Shell, Pride - Vitality
At this point in the build your gearing should be starting to finalize. Purchase from another Player or grind from Syndicate missions a T4 Vorichi in the research branch to switch a random number of sockets into White. This allows you to easily swap your Kinetic Blast setup to a Frenzy and Maim Support setup which allows you to obtain Frenzy Charges on bosses while also causing them to take 10% increased Physical Damage from being Maimed.
The next big upgrade is to purchase an Empower Support at Level 4 to put in your 6-Link and a Anomalous Kinetic Blast giving you an additional 2 Pierce. Your Auras change to include a Vitality and Tempest Shield at the cost of your Herald of Purity. This is because you obtain such a valuable amount of Life recovery and Spell Block, and your gear is good enough to give a bit of damage up for that.
Skill Tree
Mapper Two:
Poison Blade Vortex Occultist offers one of the smoothest mapping experiences of any league starter build thanks to Profane Bloom explosion chains and Plague Bearer. Combining these skills allows fast map clearing with a low investment, however it can be min maxed to be fantastic for late endgame as well.
The Occultist is the best choice for Poison Blade Vortex as it provides explosions for great clear, and an additional curse. It also gives an easy way to cap your Chaos Resistance whilst reducing enemies resistances and additional free applications of Wither stacks for even more damage.
*Profane Bloom causes your curses to have a chance to consume the corpse of your enemies, triggering an explosions dealing a quarter of their Maximum Life to nearby enemies.
*Void Beacon gives nearby enemies -20% to Chaos Resistance and prevents them from regenerating Life.
*Withering Presence applies a Wither stack to nearby enemies for every second you are near them, gives you +60% to Chaos Resistance, and makes you deal 15% more Chaos Damage.
*Malediction allows you to inflict an additional Curse on enemies.
Mapping
Activate your Blade Vortex and repeat casting until you've reached 10 blades. Charge through packs until you're at Maximum Plague Value. Activate your Plague Bearer and Shield Charge through packs of monsters, letting your Profane Bloom explode packs whilst maintaining 10 Blade Vortex stacks.
Bossing
Save your Plague Bearer to use on the Map Boss if you know you are nearing it. Apply your Curses and activate Plague Bearer to inflict additional damage. If you have the Vaal version of Blade Vortex; Vaal Blade Vortex this is the best time to use it to best make use of the additional poisons it can inflict.
Skill Gems
Gems are an fundamental part of your build, getting the correct link setups before entering Maps and leveling those Gems as you progress through the Atlas is one of your main goals.
*Armour: VAAL BLADE VORTEX - AWAKENED UNBOUND AILMENTS SUPPORT - AWAKENED UNLEASH SUPPORT - AWAKENED DEADLY AILMENTS SUPPORT - EFFICACY SUPPORT - AWAKENED VOID MANIPULATION SUPPORT
*DIVINE BLESSING SUPPORT - MALEVOLENCE - INCREASED DURATION SUPPORT
*Shield: AWAKENED BLASPHEMY SUPPORT - TEMPORAL CHAINS - PUNISHMENT
*Helmet: RACE - DETERMINATION - DIVERGENT HERALD OF AGONY - ENLIGHTEN SUPPORT
*CAST WHEN DAMAGE TAKEN SUPPORT - MOLTEN SHELL, SHIELD CHARGE - FASTER ATTACKs SUPPORT
*PLAGUE BEARER - AWAKENED INCREASED AREA OF EFFECT SUPPORT - EMPOWER SUPPORT - EMPOWER SUPPORT
*Ring: DESPAIR
Skill Tree:
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Since the release of Path of Exile 2: The Last of the Druids, Shaman seems to be used more frequently among the two Ascendancy classes of the new Druid class. This is perhaps because it is easier to learn and its benefits are quickly felt.
However, this doesn't mean the other one, Oracle, is not worth experiencing. In fact, if you craft the right build, Oracle can help you build temples and earn loot faster in the optimized Fate of the Vaal mechanic.
Based on this, we will provide you with a strategy for crafting such an Oracle build. If you are interested, please read on!
Oracle introduction
Choosing this Ascendancy class will grant you the power of foresight, allowing you to gain combat advantages by predicting enemy actions and unlocking additional passive skills.
If you find the above explanation difficult to understand, the following exclusive skill effects should give you a more intuitive understanding of how to play Oracle:
- Entwined Realities: You can allocate key passive skills without connecting them to an existing passive tree.
- The Unseen Path: Unlocks additional passive nodes accessible only to Oracle players.
Oracle Build for Atziri's Temple
One of the key elements to improving room building and overall exploration efficiency within this league mechanic is minimizing your skill cooldowns. Therefore, many related builds require Temporalis Silk Robe, which provides this effect.
Fortunately, Oracle build we're introducing here provides a similar effect without this gear and can easily defeat most bosses with extremely high DPS, making it very useful for clearing maps!
Skills and gems
After unlocking Oracle as your Ascendancy class, the key is to stack your critical strike chance to over 100%, as Mana Flare triggers on critical hits, giving you an auto-explosion effect.
Another crucial point is to reduce Lightning Bolt's cooldown to below 0.2 seconds - this is a critical point; any cooldown below 0.2 seconds is considered good. Additionally, you'll need 115% to 150% cooldown reduction to increase damage.
To achieve all the above, you need to unlock Spark to trigger Lightning Mode and add Pierce to increase projectile speed, faster casting efficiency, and duration.
For Spirit skills, you need to add Trinity to boost elemental damage, especially lightning damage.
Next, you need to add Blink and Mobility skills to gain a 100% reduction in Blink cooldown and increased Blink regeneration speed. Combine this with support gems Clarity I and Rapid Casting II, and you can eventually Blink in less than 1 second.
Best gear
First, you need Headhunter Heavy Belt. If you don't have it yet, start farming it now, or get PoE 2 currency for sale and exchange for one; this will be faster.
This gear provides increases to maximum health, Strength, and Dexterity, and rewards you with an extra 20 seconds of modifier when you kill rare monsters.
Next is The Vertex Tribal Mask Helmet, which is easier to obtain and, when equipped, increases four skill levels, significantly boosting damage and critical strike chance.
For weapons, we recommend Sacred Flame Shrine Sceptre, which grants you additional Purity of Fire skill, providing a fire damage buff for you and your allies, as well as a life recovery buff for allies.
When choosing gloves, prioritize those with energy shield resistance, and boots with chaos resistance, movement speed, and increased health.
Jewels and passive tree unlocking
Some nodes in Oracle passive tree provide significant cooldown reduction increases; these should be unlocked first.
Additionally, you need to unlock the additional Multitasking node for a 12% cooldown reduction increase or a 15% increase in ability duration. To do this, you need to defeat the boss Kosis, the Revelation, to obtain Megalomaniac Diamond.
Alternatively, you can consume Exalted Orbs to craft one From Nothing Diamond, distributing passive nodes within a specific keystone radius, even if these nodes are not connected to the main tree.
This greatly increases the flexibility of build crafting and saves many passive points. You can freely invest them in other nodes according to your needs.
If possible, we recommend socketing a Time-Lost Emerald, preferably with attribute bonuses and cooldown reduction speed. Heart of the Well Diamond is also a good option, as it similarly provides cooldown reduction speed and a small damage bonus.
In short, the core of this build's reliability lies in maximizing cooldown reduction speed to keep your Lightning Bolt cooldown below 0.2 seconds, ensuring automatic casting of Lightning Bolt.
While you might find this build a bit clunky in practice, it's one of the best ways to complete temples faster without adding Temporalis Silk Robe.
Other excellent Oracle builds
Oracle build we've introduced focuses on accelerating your temple challenge progress, but in terms of overall strength and experience, there are actually many better options.
Currently, the most well-known Oracle build is probably Lunar Assault Werewolf. As a top meta Oracle build in PoE 2, it centers on high-speed melee attacks and cold damage bonuses, utilizing transformation to freeze and crush enemies.
Besides these, Cast on Critical Comet, Plant/Vine Oracle, and Mass Summoner are all good choices. They'll suit you better if you're not focused on the temple progression.
Atziri's Temple is expected to become better experienced after Patch 0.4.0d is released. If you're interested, you can use our recommended Oracle build to test if the patch's changes are effective! It'll definitely be fun!
The recent Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 has been undergoing constant changes, with numerous patches and hotfixes optimizing the game based on Fate of the Vaal League mechanics, aiming to improve the overall experience.
Ten days after the release of Patch 0.4.0c hotfix 14, PoE 2 announced that Patch 0.4.0d will be released this week. Based on the announced content, this patch primarily focuses on bug fixes, with some aspects worth highlighting and discussing.
Below, we will provide a preview of this patch and analyze its main features and potential impact.
Patch 0.4.0d overview
The entire patch can be broadly divided into three parts: further optimization and fixes to Fate of the Vaal League mechanics, overall modifications, and comprehensive bug fixes. Undoubtedly, the most noteworthy aspect remains the first part.
Interestingly, even before the patch has been officially released, Fracturing Orbs have already depreciated in value simply by being announced. This means you can more easily acquire them through PoE 2 Divine Orbs to stabilize your gear affixes.
This is likely due to changes in the league system, making this part of the patch analysis a key focus of our guide.
Atziri's Temple boss fight reform
Let's temporarily ignore the usual temple fixes and focus on a new respawn change: if you die while fighting the boss Architect or Atziri in Atziri's Temple, you can respawn in the new temple instance.
However, this opportunity is very limited, as almost the entire temple is destroyed during the boss fight - somewhat like how endgame maps work in the game.
Therefore, when this mechanism is finally implemented, it's expected that not all players will be satisfied with it, but it's necessary because it can curb the possibility of some players seeking cheating due to the inability to respawn.
In short, if you die in these boss fights again later, you should be able to start re-challenging them faster, instead of having to unlock the rooms from scratch.
This means that even if you unfortunately fail on your first attempt, you'll have an extra chance to familiarize yourself with the boss mechanics. In fact, these bosses aren't difficult to defeat; their mechanics are just rather intricate.
Holten exploit fixes
As you know, collecting Energized Crystals by defeating monsters around Vaal Beacons is a crucial part of experiencing Atziri's Temple gameplay, as only with enough crystals can the temple progress.
However, in the game prior to Patch 0.4.0d, there was an issue where Vaal Beacons frequently spawned in an easily accessible location within Holten campaign area.
This allowed players to exploit this by repeatedly resetting dungeons to farm Energized Crystals faster, causing an imbalance in the entire Atziri's Temple system and an abnormal inflation of the value of some rare currencies.
Frankly, the issue of economic inflation was repeatedly mentioned in the player community shortly after Atziri's Temple's release, but for some reason, concrete measures to improve it have only now been introduced. However, better late than never.
Atziri's Chambers fix
As the spawn location of the final boss Atziri, the connection between this chamber and other rooms was previously a mess; sometimes you simply didn't know how to place and connect rooms.
Fortunately, Patch 0.4.0d finally fixed this, allowing Atziri's Chambers to correctly connect to any adjacent room, ensuring the entire mechanism functions more clearly and consistently.
Temple QoL fix
This fix requires you to place at least one room before each run. If you already have a highly optimized temple, you might not want to place any rooms at all, and therefore might mistakenly think this is a weakening change.
However, the purpose of this measure is actually to ensure that you don't accidentally open the temple before placing rooms, and to better guide new players through their first temple.
Of course, considering the needs of different players, the game also allows you to bypass this option. If you're a PC player, hold down Ctrl key and click Run Temple button. If you're a controller player, simply select "Deny" when prompted.
More Atziri's Temple fixes
Besides the highlights above, Patch 0.4.0d focuses on optimizing Atziri's Temple mechanics and includes other details, such as clearer instructions for Atziri's Chambers and more explanations of different mechanics.
The complexity and depth of gameplay have always been major obstacles for new players joining Path of Exile series. Sometimes, new leagues and their new mechanics can even confuse longtime fans.
Therefore, this patch shows that providing clear explanations is more effective in winning over players than creating mystery and raising the barrier to entry through seemingly complex mechanics.
Fracturing Orbs fix
In the first half of this article, we mentioned the devaluation of Fracturing Orbs, primarily due to a bug fixed in Patch 0.4.0d involving Immured Fury - the endgame boss and primary source of Fracturing Orbs drops.
Theoretically, this boss shouldn't spawn in cleansed areas, but previously, clearing excessive corruption would imprint a hidden marker indicating the presence of Immured Fury in certain areas.
This meant players could more easily earn Fracturing Orbs by defeating this boss, leading to an abnormally inflated value and disrupting PoE 2 economy and trade balance.
Fortunately, Patch 0.4.0d fixed this by making Immured Fury spawn completely unpredictably, restoring the rarity of Fracturing Orbs to a more normal level through a more randomized spawn method.
The above content covers what needs to be explained in detail in Patch 0.4.0d. However, there are also some interesting changes and fixes that you can discover and experience one by one through the game after the patch is finally released. Thank you for reading.
As you know, Patch 0.4.0, while adding new classes and other content, also brought many changes to the game's inherent mechanics. Although these changes may not be drastic on their own, they still affect the overall system.
For example, in The Last of the Druids, the left side of the skill tree, focusing on melee, defense, and life/block mechanics, was adjusted, leading to changes in the popular defense configurations used by each class.
This article will introduce the entire defense system and analyze the latest popular defense mechanics and styles during Fate of the Vaal league.
Path of Exile 2 defense mechanism overview
The game's defense system can be roughly divided into four layers: core and secondary defense layers, evasion, and recovery mechanisms. Each layer has multiple different functions that can be used in combat.
The core defense layer refers to the main attributes on the gear, which can be adjusted through the talent tree, such as armor or energy shields, which can directly block damage.
The second layer of defense indirectly transfers or reduces the damage you receive, including blocking, resistance, and more.
Avoidance mainly refers to default or temporary defensive buffs, while recovery restores health after being attacked, such as with flask or leech.
Changes in Patch 0.4.0
This patch primarily focuses on the left side of the skill tree, where the lower half emphasizes strength, while the middle and upper halves emphasize intelligence.
The left-side skill tree focuses entirely on defensive mechanics, containing numerous nodes that increase your health, armor, and block chance. It's key for melee builds that excel in high tanking or health.
The focus on these changes might be because the new Druid class is itself a defensive melee class, so most of the new passive nodes also share these characteristics.
The addition of new nodes and clusters necessitates adjustments to many existing skills. If your previous builds were based on these skills, you'll have to reset them, significantly altering the defensive styles popular during the new league.
The popularity of shield wall styles
The shield mechanic remains highly popular after Patch 0.4.0, primarily due to the surge in shield wall builds. As the most popular starting skill for Warrior class, shield usage has actually increased season by season.
This is perhaps because Patches 0.3.0 and 0.4.0 focused on hardcore single-player modes, where shield wall builds provide effective benefits, especially if you further unlock Titan as an Ascendancy class.
The popularity of Disciple of Varashta
As a newly added Sorceress Ascendancy class, Disciple of Varashta has caused quite a stir in the current league. Based on its powerful defensive capabilities, it performs exceptionally well in modes of varying difficulty.
For example, the passive skill The Fourth Teaching grants a 40% increase in shield recharge rate when your shield is below or equal to 35% of its maximum value.
In other words, the larger your energy shield hit pool, the better this talent node is, because you can maintain a considerable effective hit rate during the initial phase when the higher energy shield regeneration rate takes effect.
This talent node, combined with powerful support skills such as Nascent Hope or Convalescence, can significantly increase the natural regeneration rate of the energy shield, making its charging mechanism more reliable.
Even if you take a lot of damage and your health drops to a low level, you can still benefit from the higher regeneration rate by forcibly charging, ensuring your energy shield is fully charged again.
This Ascendancy class also has a powerful defensive skill called Sacred Rituals, which converts 60% of your current energy shield into armor, thus reducing the physical damage you take.
It's worth mentioning that both of these nodes can be combined with Chaos Inoculation to form one of the most powerful defensive configurations in PoE 2 - Chaos Inoculation is also another key defensive skill in the current league.
Despite a major balance update in patch 0.4.0, energy shields remain significantly stronger than pure health builds, and the addition of Discrete of Varashta has provided an ideal platform for the growth of these builds.
Talisman defense mechanism
This new Druid-friendly gear type cannot be used with shields, leading many Druid players to favor a hybrid health approach to defense.
The updated talent tree features a considerable number of energy shield and armor hybrid talents, so the vast majority of Druid builds focus on investing in energy shields as an extension of health.
Furthermore, many players using Talisman builds utilize the new keystone passive Lord of the Wilds, allowing them to simultaneously use a non-unique scepter and talisman to gain a pure resistance aura.
This not only alleviates gear pressure regarding resistance affixes but also allows for the use of numerous support gems without prior reservation. While this may be a bug, it has been present in the game for some time.
Self-chill and increased speed
In Patch 0.4.0, speed is also one of the most powerful defensive measures. As long as you can move, attack, or cast spells at extremely high speeds, no enemy can hit you or catch you - the best offense is also the best defense.
To achieve this, you can combine Asphyxia's Wrath Broadhead Quiver with Sierran Inheritance Marabout Garb. This quiver reduces the damage you take based on cooldowns, providing you with amazing damage reduction.
Therefore, you are not only unmatched in speed, but even if you do take damage, the damage reduction significantly reduces the actual damage dealt by enemies.
That concludes this introduction. Hopefully, this analytical guide will be helpful in your future crafting of defensive builds in PoE 2!
Path of Exile 3.27 has been running for almost two months, halfway through the League season. As usual, the official announcement for the upcoming livestream indicates that news about the next league will begin in the coming weeks, and that Path of Exile 3.28 will be released as planned in early March 2026.
While it's good that the official update is on schedule, given the large amount of content in each Path of Exile update, such a short timeframe has raised concerns among players about whether the content has been reduced.
Official Update Plan
In June 2025, Path of Exile's lead representative, Jonathan Rogers, clarified the future update plan in an interview, stating that Path of Exile 1 and 2 would both have a four-month update cycle, with the two games alternating in updates. This means that on average, players will see new content for one of the games every two months.
On January 12, 2026, the official forums announced that the Path of Exile 3.28 expansion would be released on schedule in early March, continuing the tradition of a four-month development cycle. This timeline is approximately three months after the release of Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4 in December.
For developers, a fixed update schedule alleviates development pressure. Rogers has admitted that delivering content every two months is quite difficult, but a fixed-date, variable-content model is more conducive to development management.
Update Schedule
Although the official timeline seems balanced, the official update dates are not entirely fixed; they may be released at the beginning of the month or at the end. Based on the principle of alternating updates between the two games and important schedules, this cycle may harbor some risks of imbalance.
Let's look at the update timelines for the two games:
- December 12, 2025: Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 The Last of the Druids released normally.
- Early March 2026: PoE 3.28 released, approximately three months after PoE 2 Patch 0.4.0.
- April 2026: A possible PoE 2 Patch 0.5 update is expected in about a month.
The official statement indicates they will strive to conclude early testing of PoE 2 by 2026. Therefore, they may adjust the update schedule for Path of Exile 1 to maintain a consistent update pace for PoE 2. Even if they cannot release Patch 1.0 by the end of the year, they will still release a major update to attract more players.
This raises a problem: for an early-stage game like Path of Exile 2, content consumption is faster. While version 0.4 adds the Druid class and Vaal Temple mechanics, the overall content volume still cannot compare to the mature PoE 1.
Potential Issues
Many core players worry that this cycle of one month for Path of Exile 1 and three months for Path of Exile 2 will create a double problem.
Because the mature Path of Exile 1 has more endgame content and three years of accumulated League mechanics, giving players ample choices to farm PoE currency, this is enough to support months of deep gameplay. However, players only have about a month to experience each new league before being drawn to the PoE 2 League.
Path of Exile 2 is currently still in early access. According to the game director, the originally planned six-month Early Access has been extended to approximately one year. Player concerns currently focus on whether its existing content is sufficient to support nearly three months of gameplay.
Furthermore, recent League updates have revealed a high player churn rate for PoE 2. Even with the addition of the new Druid class in patch 0.4.0, significant player attrition has occurred.
This is because the new endgame mechanic, Vaal Temple, initially didn't yield good returns. Subsequent adjustments by the developers, coupled with player discoveries of loopholes, allowed the mechanic to generate a large amount of currency. Several subsequent poor adjustments resulted in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0 experiencing inflation, leading to increased unfairness in trading for ordinary players.
This is actually due to the current lack of endgame content in PoE 2, making players more likely to focus on game issues.
Possible Solutions
Faced with a potentially entrenched imbalance in the update schedule, some constructive alternatives have been discussed within the community. These proposals aim to break the potential vicious cycle and seek a more sustainable update model for both players and developers.
Perhaps a multi-stage update could replace a single full Path of Exile 2 League update. This would give the development team extra buffer time to adjust the timeline while maintaining player activity.
Another direction is to adjust the length of each update cycle. However, this would conflict with the crucial year-end revenue window, and considering that holiday season releases can generate three times the revenue of other months, this solution is less likely to be implemented.
Director Rogers stated that he will maintain communication with the community and promised to experience the game from the player's perspective and understand the reasons behind their feedback. This indicates that the official team may flexibly adjust the plan based on player acceptance of the actual update schedule.
With the release of Path of Exile 3.28 and Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0, you can observe whether this cycle will continue. If this cycle is broken, it may not be through drastic adjustments to update dates, but rather because the official team has found a way to populate Path of Exile 2 with enough new content within a three-month cycle.
