Juicy Path Of Exile 2 News! - New Skill Gem System, Weapons & More
ExileCon 2023 is here and with it lots of news about Path of Exile 2. And it’s not at all what I expected. Path of Exile 2 has been in development for around four years since its first announcement at ExileCon 2019. In that announcement, we heard the tagline: one game, two campaigns.
Path Of Exile 1 VS Path Of Exile 2
This is no longer a true path. Path of Exile 2 is going to be its own title. It appears to be set many years after the first game. And as usual, there are some big bad ones that end the world.
For those of you worried about what might happen to your favorite game, Path of Exile 1 after the sequel is released, you probably don’t have to worry too much. Because GGG at least initially will be releasing leagues for both the Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2. These will be staggered. So, you can play some of Path of Exile 2 and when you get bored with it, you can then jump over to battle Path of Exile 1. That means when life is even more ruined than it was before.
Many people suspected that Path of Exile was going to be announced as releasing later this year into closed beta. I thought this was a little ambitious at least. Through ExileCon 2023, we know that the specific beta time of POE 2 is June 7, 2024.
And POE 2 is currently scheduled to release just under a year from now. The sheer scope of the new game is way beyond anything I could have imagined. It features over 100 distinct environments, 600 monsters, 100 bosses, 1500 passive skill points on the tree and 36 Ascendancy classes. There are 240 active skills, 700 equipment types, and six Person Co-op.
Now, the game does look to be a lot slower with a lot fewer monsters than in Path of Exile 1. It looks to be returning to the roots of what the developers originally had envisaged for the original game. The game also looks brutally hard with even the developers who practice 10 times dying in the demo. If you die while fighting a boss, no longer do you respawn outside the room where you’ve got to start the whole area again. Each battle, even the mobs, are a lot more challenging. You’re gonna have to really think and use your skills to beat them.
The game has solved a lot of the problems from Path of Exile 1. One of them was they had to make bosses immune to free freeze just so you couldn’t perma-free them and kill them. Instead, things like freeze and stun have a hidden meter that builds up as you hit the enemy. Once it reached a certain level, you will freeze bosses. And from the gameplay, we saw the freezes did seem to be pretty meaningful, stopping the boss for a couple of seconds and soon seem to interrupt them pretty regularly.
Gold Will Be In Path Of Exile 2
One thing that didn’t look very POE was the fact that we now dropped gold. This wasn’t explained very well at the time either. In fact, they just skated over it. Later, we found out that gold will be used for vendors. It helped solve the challenge of the drops where we dropped hundreds of rares in Path of Exile 1. We’ll drop gold instead with only the most notable rares dropping instead.
All the existing POE Currency were there with a lot of new ones. It also appears that gear no longer has any links at all. It’s just gear.
New Skill Gem System
Instead, each cat’s class of which there are 12, 2 per stack combination will have nine skill gem slots.
The skill gems themselves will have up to five links to allow you to support them directly. That means potentially you can have 9 six-links, which sounds truly insane.
In the gameplay demos we saw, the characters only had lit one support in each gem. With up to five, you can imagine the gameplay will be much faster and much easier. They’ve also made it much harder for you to break your character in the early game.
Grammaticals will now only change the color of a single socket, and it will be deterministic. No more running a chromatic just to find that now you can’t use any of your supports.
One thing that originally concerned me in the demo is that you saw that skill gems were tied to a character class. Active Skill Gems now appear to drop uncut. Right clicking on them will allow you to select the gem you actually want.
Later in the character skills talk, my mind was put a little at ease as they did say that any character would be able to play any skill gems. So, all the diversity we have in the original game will be in the new one. What is unclear at this point is whether we’ll have to play each character to get those gems or not? If we do, it’s not a major hardship for me. Because I tend to play each character in each league, anyway.
Furthermore, when these uncut skill gems drop, they’ll drop with the level of the area you’re in. So, as long as you’re maintaining your character to the level of the area, they should be a lot easier to switch over as they drop.
Weapon Swap
Another thing that I wasn’t expecting is that they’re going to start pushing weapon swappers as a viable option.
Now a proportion of your skill points on your tree will be able to be changed, depending on which weapon swap you’re in. Different skills can be tied to different weapon swaps.
So, when you use them, you will swap your weapon automatically. And this, of course, will pick the alternative skill points on the tree. This gives so much diversity.
It isn’t, however, completely free as you swap your weapon and animation plays, which will slow down the casting of the next skill.
Animation System
Another problem of the original game is the animation system itself.
Once a character attack animation has started, it wasn’t possible to change targets. It also wasn’t possible to get out of some animations, which meant you get one slam by a boss. They did kind of change movement skills to interrupt the animation system.
But this had its own problems and that you would lose Mana. Because the spell would have been cast but never actually hit the target because you interrupted it.
In Path of Exile 2, every character class will have its own dodge roll. This will interrupt an animation immediately. To get around losing all that Mana, Mana will now be spent from when the skill starts over time up until it hits. This means the early you dodged an interrupture animation, the less man he’ll actually spend.
Weapons
For the weapons themselves, these used to have a built-in attack that no one ever used. Instead, weapons are now going to grant a free skill. These skills won’t be supportable, so they’ll be pretty weak.
But they will be Mana cost free, which means when you run at a Mana, you still have something you can attack it with.
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There are no balance changes in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.5, so if your Minion build performed consistently well in Patch 0.5.0, you can continue using it.
Of course, you can also switch to stronger Minion builds. However, since they use different types of Minions, the overall gameplay experience can vary significantly, so you can choose one based on the playstyle you prefer.
Tier S
Spirit Walker Zookeeper
Spirit Walker has a clear advantage during the early leveling experience. During the campaign, you can use Twister as a transition skill until you obtain Bear.
After completing your second Ascendancy, you can unlock the ability to tame beasts and switch to Mighty Silverfist. It has a 25% base critical hit chance, along with 100% increased critical damage, giving it extremely high damage that can help you clear the campaign with ease.
However, finding and taming Mighty Silverfist is a long and troublesome process. Once you have tamed it, your build is basically complete. From that point onward, your main job is positioning, while most of the damage is dealt by your monkey.
Spirit Walker Zookeeper is less efficient at clearing maps during the mid-game than Gemling Legionnaire Unearth, but if you can invest more PoE 2 currency into it, its ceiling is higher.
Since Mighty Silverfist has very high base stats, you can save a large number of gear affixes for improving survivability. You can also invest more resources into equipping it with aura support gems, further improving Mighty Silverfist's map-clearing efficiency.
With an extreme budget, Spirit Walker Zookeeper can already match the map-clearing efficiency of Gemling Legionnaire Unearth while offering slightly better single-target damage and maintaining extremely high survivability.
Gemling Legionnaire Unearth
The core idea of this build is to sacrifice your Skeletal Clerics to create corpses, then use Unearth to summon large numbers of fast and powerful Bone Constructs from those corpses, forming an army of skeleton-like constructs.
Gemling Legionnaire typically uses Crossbow Grenade setup while leveling. This playstyle may not appeal to every player, but its efficiency is genuinely high. Although the overall leveling experience is less smooth than Spirit Walker, it makes up for that with consistency.
Immediately after completing the campaign, Gemling Legionnaire Unearth has significantly faster map-clearing speed than Spirit Walker's Mighty Silverfist,
Its single-target damage is comparable to the monkey setup, while its damage scaling requires relatively fewer resources. More importantly, you do not need to tame your Minions. Once you obtain the skill, you can start using it immediately.
At the high budget stage, Gemling Legionnaire's Defensive Layers can match or even surpass those of Spirit Walker.
Although Spirit Walker has advantages in the number of beasts it can tame through Ascendancy passives such as Loyalty and Path of Brilliance, Gemling Legionnaire is by no means inferior when it comes to survivability.
Once investment reaches the super high budget stage, the damage gains of Gemling Legionnaire Unearth begin to plateau, leaving it somewhat behind Spirit Walker Zookeeper.
Tier A
Acolyte of Chayula Minion
The main Minions used by this build are usually Skeletal Reavers. They deal high damage, are highly aggressive, and can make excellent use of Chaos damage increases you provide.
Your core Ascendancy passive, Into the Breach, periodically causes Flames of Chayula to spawn around you.
You need to actively walk over and pick up these remnants. Combined with Ascendancy passive Choice of Power, the remnants you collect will grant you and nearby Minions stacks of Chaos Remnants.
Each stack of Remnants grants additional Chaos damage to your Minions. At level 90, the maximum effect of 10 stacks can provide more than 180% of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage.
Acolyte of Chayula build has almost no significant weak period throughout its progression. Once you enter Early Mapping, its efficiency does not drop at all, and it can still tear through almost every type of content.
However, it is not as effortless to play as Spirit Walker Zookeeper, and its endgame ceiling may also be somewhat lower.
Infernal Legion Builds
The core idea of this playstyle is to use Infernal Legion Support Gem to make your Minions continuously burn themselves, dealing Fire damage to nearby enemies.
This playstyle was nerfed in PoE 2 Patch 0.5.0. Not only was the highest-damage Infernal Legion III Support Gem removed, but the base Burning damage was also reduced from 20% to 10% of Minion's maximum Life.
To make up for the lost damage, the current version of this build looks for a Tame Beast with extremely high base Life. Through gear and passive skills, the goal is to maximize the pet's Life and skill level.
There are two mainstream variants of this build:
- Using Elephant as the core.
- Using Chimera as the primary damage dealer.
Both variants perform very well, with solid single-target damage that can be raised to a respectable level with further investment. Although they still fall short of S-Tier builds, they are more than capable of handling most content.
The map-clearing efficiency of this build relies on a somewhat cumbersome playstyle. You need to repeatedly press the weapon swap key while progressing through maps to increase your damage.
Tier B
Specters Builds
With Bind Spectre skill, you can resurrect elite monsters killed in specific maps or areas as permanent Minions. These Spectres retain their original forms and skills, and they can benefit from all Minion bonuses provided by your passive tree and gear.
You can copy a Spectres build template across multiple classes, and it can work well on all of them. Based on the mainstream builds in PoE Patch 0.5, several Spectres stand out:
- Gargantuan Wasp
- Vaal Guard
- Starlit Harvester
- Powered Zealot
You can choose different Spectres based on different situations. The main advantage is its flexibility, although its ceiling is not particularly high.
If you simply want to progress through the early game quickly, Acolyte of Chayula is the most recommended choice in PoE 2 Patch 0.5.5. If you prefer traditional Minions, Spirit Walker offers a smoother leveling experience. Overall, there are no balance changes to Minion builds in the current version, so just choose the build you enjoy.
Although Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.5, launching on September 4, is not a full standalone update, Forbidden Rites event league it introduces will trigger an economic reset, meaning progression within the league starts from scratch.
Therefore, to quickly complete the new challenges and encounters in Forbidden Rites and unlock further progress and rewards, utilizing proven league-starter builds is essential.
While the league-specific content isn't fully detailed yet, we can infer which builds will excel in Patch 0.5.5 based on known information regarding Trial of Chaos and endgame optimizations. These include:
- Bone Cage Oracle Build
- Bleed Bow Blood Mage Build
- Smith of Kitava Ancestral Warrior Totems Build
- Martial Artist Melee Build
- Shield Wall Titan Build
Bone Cage Oracle Build
This build relies on the cast on critical strike mechanic. Its core gameplay loop involves casting a vine-based skill to trigger a critical hit, which in turn activates Bone Cage skill, dealing massive damage to enemies.
The build offers straightforward damage output and has modest gear requirements, making it ideal for the league-start phase.
Even if you plan to take it into the endgame, you don't necessarily need to acquire new items; simply investing PoE 2 currency to upgrade your existing gear will suffice.
In combat, the build delivers fast map-clearing speeds while maintaining a reliable source of Energy Shield to ensure your survivability.
In other words, whether you are a newcomer trying Path of Exile 2 for the first time with Patch 0.5.5 or someone planning to dive in at the 1.0 launch, Bone Cage Oracle Build is a viable choice.
Of course, the build isn't without flaws; its main issue is high mana consumption, which may require you to reroll specific item modifiers or carry sufficient consumables to manage your resources.
Bleed Bow Blood Mage Build
This build is expected to function primarily based on Essence Drain and Contagion during the early league-start phase of Patch 0.5.5, before transitioning into a Bleed Bow playstyle in the later stages.
The essence of Bleed Bow build lies in accumulating massive physical damage to trigger bleeding; this bleed effect deals additional damage over time based on a percentage of the initial physical hit.
Building on this foundation, you can leverage Blood Mage Ascendancy class to boost elemental damage and gain converted bleed damage, resulting in explosive power capable of instantly eliminating enemies.
As you upgrade your gear, your character's survivability (tankiness) will also increase, as this playstyle offers ample opportunity to stack maximum health.
Smith of Kitava Ancestral Warrior Totems Build
This build is based on a variant of PoE 2 Smite skill, utilizing Ancestral Warrior Totems combined with Sunder to deal massive area-of-effect damage, allowing for rapid currency and XP farming during the early game.
Generally, you can use Shield Charge as a transitional skill before fully committing to the totem setup once the totem skills are unlocked.
By choosing Smith of Kitava Ascendancy, you can allocate specific passive points to grant your body armor a 30% Spirit bonus.
Furthermore, unlocking Ancestral Bond keystone passive allows you to sacrifice your own direct damage output in exchange for superior totem capabilities and deployment options. Of course, opting for this playstyle depends on your personal preferences.
Martial Artist Melee Build
This build relies on various wind-based skills, centered around Whirling Assault, to achieve excellent screen-clearing efficiency.
Specifically, equipping Decree of Flight leggings and a Duality Warding Quarterstaff allows you to maintain a permanent guard state, ensuring reliable survivability. Additionally, allocating Deflection passive node increases your effective hit pool.
To map more quickly with this build, incorporate Tempest Flurry skill and either swap Duality staff for one with the highest possible attack speed or reroll Duality staff's attack speed modifier.
Shield Wall Titan Build
The advantages of this PoE 2 build are clear: Shield Wall skill provides substantial armor, ensuring robust defense throughout the campaign and making the leveling process much smoother.
You will also need to continuously upgrade your shield and ensure that any attack speed modifiers on your main-hand weapon apply globally. Additionally, pay attention to the balance between survivability and damage output when selecting your gear.
Regarding specific gear choices, prioritize finding and equipping a shield with high armor values and gloves that provide damage bonuses. For other gear slots, focus on attributes such as life regeneration and armor.
As for skill gem setups, this build initially utilizes Rolling Slam and Boneshatter. The former requires support gems like Fist of War and Fire Attunement, while the latter needs Impact Shockwave.
Another crucial skill is Infernal Cry, as it ultimately enables you to deal higher slam damage.
Once you unlock Shield Wall, you can replace the initial dual-skill setup with it, fully transitioning into a dedicated shield-based build. Furthermore, incorporating Leap Slam will enhance your ability to handle groups of monsters.
The builds mentioned above are recommendations based on known changes in Patch 0.5.5 and past Path of Exile 2 league-start experiences; their actual performance in Forbidden Rites event will depend on the specific mechanics of the event itself.
Additionally, once Patch 0.5.5 goes live, you can adapt other PoE 2 builds you enjoy to suit the new league's progression!
Path of Exile 2 1.0 will officially launch on December 11th, bringing with it a new class - Duelist.
Duelist is the game's second hybrid Strength/Dexterity class. Its passive skill tree starts at the bottom center, in the same area as Mercenary. This advantageous starting position allows Duelists to easily specialize in various talent nodes such as armor, evasion, melee, and projectiles, providing players with a high degree of build freedom.
Weapons and Combat Style
Duelist's signature weapon is the sword, which can be chosen as follows:
- One-handed sword: Dual-wielding/Single-wielding (with shield or staff)
- Two-handed sword: For higher damage output
The core of swords in Path of Exile 2 lies in stance switching and a smooth combat experience. Players can seamlessly switch between different skills, weaving together various stances to create chained, coordinated combos.
Notably, swords possess a unique Parry mechanic - the ability to parry when dual-wielding swords. This mechanic provides Duelists with a crucial defensive tool, allowing them to unleash powerful attacks in melee combat while also deflecting fatal blows at critical moments.
Unlike other melee classes in PoE 2, Duelists have a complete stance system. Combat isn't simply about pressing skills and waiting for cooldowns; it revolves around switching between ready stance and blood/sand stance.
Many sword skills have different effects in ready stance, and the performance of subsequent skills changes upon entering blood/sand stance. This stance-driven design gives Duelists a higher skill ceiling and greater combo depth.
It's clear that Duelists' high build freedom is reflected not only in the skill tree but also in weapon combinations. For players who want to explore diverse combat styles using different swords, Path of Exile 2 currency reserves are equally important. After all, a complete build requires not only a suitable weapon but also proper equipment and continuous enhancement to truly unleash its full potential.
Core Skills Explained
Bloodied Blade
Bloodied Blade is the key skill for entering Blood Stance. Using this skill after parrying an enemy will apply bleeding to the target. If Frenzy Charge is consumed, each hit will apply bleeding to all targets hit. The character will automatically enter Blood Stance after the attack ends.
Sand Scour
Sand Scour is one of the primary means for Duelists to enter Sand Stance. Using this skill causes the character to step back slightly and inflict a heavy stun on armored enemies. A successful hit will enter Sand Stance.
If Frenzy Charge is consumed, Sand Scour gains additional effects. In combos, this skill is often used in conjunction with Engage (mentioned later) to create a rhythmic cycle of stepping back and then dashing forward.
Cyclone
Cyclone is one of the most iconic skills in PoE. In Duelist's two stances, Cyclone is presented in two distinct versions:
- Blood Stance: Presented with a red effect, focusing on damage output and granting additional attack bonuses.
- Sand Stance: Presented with a yellow effect, it fires sand discs while rotating, increasing area-of-effect damage.
This stance-switching design gives the classic Cyclone different tactical values in different scenarios - switch to Blood Stance for maximum damage against bosses, and switch to Sand Stance for efficient clearing of mobs.
Perforate
Perforate is a classic skill from PoE 1, but it has been redesigned. Unlike the original version which stabs the ground to summon spikes, the new version stabs enemies, penetrating the target and striking all enemies behind it. The skill performs three rapid, consecutive stabs, with the final strike always inflicting bleeding.
In Blood Stance, multiple spikes erupt from the ground, hitting enemies multiple times; in Sand Stance, the spikes spread outwards. However, using this skill in a ready stance allows you to skip the first two thrusts and directly deliver a higher-damage, guaranteed-bleeding finishing blow.
Earth Rend
Earth Rend can be understood as a sword-based version of Earth Shatter from PoE 1. Upon use, it creates a fissure in front of you, ending with a blade. If used in a ready stance, blades will be generated along the entire path of the fissure.
While the skill itself doesn't deal high damage, its true value lies in its synergy with other skills - the generated blade can be detonated, enhanced, or converted by subsequent skills, making it a cornerstone of the entire sword combo system.
Blade Conduit
Blade Conduit infuses the blade generated by Earth Rend with lightning damage. When used, the character uses their sword as a lightning conduit, summoning a surging nova around themselves and leaving shocked ground. This skill converts 100% of physical damage into lightning damage.
Blades enhanced by Blade Conduit gain additional lightning damage. Furthermore, Shocked Ground works exceptionally well with Cyclone - causing a shock with every spin.
Blade Plunge
Blade Plunge is the ultimate combo skill with the highest damage potential in the entire sword skill tree. Similar to Earth Rend, it plunges the sword into the ground, creating three fissures around the character, each ending in a blade. You can channel to detonate all blades - not only those generated by Blade Plunge itself, but also those generated by Earth Rend.
Extending the channel time grants supercharge to the blades, further increasing their damage and area of effect. Crucially, this skill utilizes stance synergy:
- Blood Stance: Creates a Blood Pool at each blade location, dealing continuous damage.
- Sand Stance: Creates a Sand Disc at each blade location, dealing continuous damage.
Since the area-of-effect damage from multiple blades stacks, this combo's single-target burst damage is already terrifying.
Summary
As a major addition to Path of Exile 2 version 1.0, Duelist offers players who enjoy melee swordplay a new option that combines depth of gameplay with flexible build options. Its unique stance switching mechanism and rich sword skill set allow for high versatility in clearing maps, single-target burst damage, and survivability.
For players who love melee combat and pursue the ultimate in skillful gameplay, Duelist will undoubtedly be one of the first features to experience upon the official launch of Path of Exile 2. As more game content is revealed, we look forward to seeing this class shine even brighter on the continent of Wraeclast.
Path of Exile 2 Forbidden Rites, is about to be released. The new economic environment, new challenges, and a batch of gameplay adjustments should have made this update another noteworthy addition before 1.0. However, for some long-time Runes of Aldur players, the focus has shifted elsewhere.
They aren't necessarily against GGG creating a new economic environment, nor do they simply want all players to stay in the old league.
The real controversy stems from the fact that, as the duration and league positioning of Forbidden Rites have become clearer, some players have found that their judgments about the future of Runes of Aldur over the past few months may not align with GGG's final plans.
As a result, the debate is no longer simply about whether GGG should launch another league. It's increasingly about how the developers communicated the change.
Changing Expectations
This round of controversy initially arises from players' differing understandings of the positioning of 0.5.5.
Some players previously understood it as a short-term Fresh Economy Event running parallel to Runes of Aldur.
Under this expectation, Runes of Aldur would remain the main League for a longer period before PoE 2 update 1.0. Continuing to farm resources, improve their characters, and invest large amounts of Currency into crafting and trading high-end gear still made sense.
This assessment began to change after the announcement of Forbidden Rites event.
Besides Fresh Economy, 0.5.5 would also bring Ritual adjustments, Sacred Plume, Forbidden Wildwood, Trial of Chaos, and Expedition-related changes, as well as independent Challenges and Rewards. More importantly, Forbidden Rites wouldn't end quickly but would continue until around 1.0.
However, the premise that 0.5.5 was originally only supposed to last a month is not definitively confirmed. Therefore, this controversy is difficult to directly attribute to the developers breaking their promises. Some players did indeed continue playing Runes of Aldur based on the expectation of a short-term event, but the current arrangements differ from what they initially anticipated.
Trading Pressure
Forbidden Rites and Runes of Aldur will exist as two independent Leagues running in parallel. Players who switch to Forbidden Rites Event will need to start over in Fresh Economy, and the gear, Currency, and trading resources accumulated in Runes of Aldur cannot be transferred.
If this shift is short-lived, the impact may be limited. However, Forbidden Rites will continue until around Patch 1.0. Once players shift their primary time to the new League, they may have little incentive to return to Runes of Aldur.
This is particularly sensitive for trading Leagues. The high-end market in Runes of Aldur is already not very active; some expensive Rares may struggle to sell even after price reductions. If a portion of players who regularly farm and craft gear, and are willing to invest hundreds or even thousands of PoE 2 Divine Orbs, shift to the new economy, high-end trading may shrink further.
Once the cycle of farming, trading, and leveling slows down, the incentive to remain in the old League will also decrease.
Promoting a New Economy
From the developers' perspective, this arrangement isn't hard to understand.
PoE series has always relied on new Leagues and economic resets to bring players back. Everyone starts from scratch, giving players who have already left a reason to return and temporarily narrowing the gear and wealth gap established in the old Leagues.
If Runes of Aldur was only going to remain the main League for such a short time, some players may question why they invested so heavily in it in the first place.
However, when this new League might continue until Patch 1.0, and there are independent Challenges and Rewards, the incentive to return is obviously much stronger, and it also makes it easier for developers to obtain more testing and feedback before the official release.
As a result, more players will shift their time and resources to Forbidden Rites, and the active player count and trading demand in Runes of Aldur may decrease accordingly.
Information Flow
League-based games inherently have cycles. Gear depreciates, markets reset, and Leagues eventually end. When players choose to enter PoE 2, they have already accepted these changes.
However, if a new economic environment lasts for several months and significantly alters the player base and trading activity of the old League, players should be informed much earlier about its duration, the future positioning of the old League, and how the two will coexist before Patch 1.0. This information shouldn't be pieced together from scattered replies and player accounts.
More problematic is that this experience could influence long-term players' future choices.
A player who leaves after a month or two may barely be affected. But the experience is very different for someone who has spent months farming currency, upgrading gear, and pushing a character toward completion.
If they eventually find that the assumptions behind that investment have changed, they may approach the next league very differently. Once they reach the mid-to-late game, they may stop investing much earlier, settle for a character that is good enough, and wait for the next reset.
If more and more long-term players begin making this choice, the impact won't just be on Runes of Aldur, but on the activity levels of every subsequent League in the mid-to-late game.
With Patch 1.0 still under development, changes to League plan are not surprising. However, when such changes are significant enough to influence whether PoE 2 players continue farming, crafting gear, and staying in their current League, the later this information is communicated, the more likely players are to find that their earlier investment decisions were based on assumptions that no longer hold.
Whether this controversy will ultimately cripple Runes of Aldur remains to be seen, but when changes to League plans can affect players' investment decisions, changes should clearly be communicated much earlier.
During Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.5 reveal livestream, the official details of this update were confirmed. While the highly anticipated swords will not be implemented in Patch 0.5.5, the livestream still revealed a significant amount of key information about sword skills.
POE 2 Patch 0.5.5 is an Economy Reset, where players will create brand-new characters on a separate event server. Runes of Aldor League will remain available, so players can continue their journey without losing access to unfinished challenges. This update also introduces several major improvements, which will be explained below.
Balance Changes
The balance patch originally planned for Patch 0.5.5 is not yet complete and will instead be delayed until the full 1.0 release. As a result, this patch contains No Balance Changes.
This means that previously powerful builds will remain strong, allowing players to continue using the builds you are already familiar with.
For players who have not yet completed their endgame progression or challenges, Runes of Aldor League will remain open, with no forced migration to the new event.
Forbidden Rites
A new Forbidden Rites event will be added to the campaign. This content belongs to Ritual system, where after defeating a Boss, that Boss carries over into the next Boss encounter, creating a continuously stacking challenge.
As the battle progresses, the difficulty gradually increases, but the rewards become more generous as well. This provides a more efficient way to acquire gear during the early progression stage, helping players strengthen their characters more quickly.
Forbidden Rites will run alongside Runes of Aldor. If you are satisfied with your existing character and progression, you can simply ignore this event and continue playing without any disruption. If you want a Fresh Economy and a brand-new progression experience, you can join the event instead.
The event will also introduce a separate Challenges list, with exclusive cosmetic or visual effect rewards available for completion. The challenges are not particularly difficult, so regular players will also have a good chance of completing them.
Trial of Chaos Rework
Trial of Chaos was previously considered relatively thin on content. After the update, players will be able to progress through 30 Trial floors consecutively and challenge all Bosses within the same run before ultimately facing Trialmaster.
Furthermore, the developers have improved the quality of life by adding a Leave and Return feature. Players can leave the trial area and then return to continue, a fantastic feature for those who enjoy helping others complete Ascension Trials.
The development team has removed many of the largely useless Corrupted Items from Trial and replaced them with direct currency drops. An additional Chest has also been added to provide extra bonuses.
The impact of Trial of Chaos's Debilitating Affixes on early progression has been significantly reduced. The difficulty now increases in a smoother and more gradual manner, while the later stages retain their original level of challenge.
The previously frustrating Escort Missions and mechanics such as picking up Cores have been replaced with Kill Challenges. Elevator movement speed has also been increased, making the overall pace much faster and more satisfying.
Trial of Chaos rework is not exclusive to the 0.5.5 event. Instead, it will become a permanent core improvement introduced with the patch. This significantly increases its replayability and usefulness, and it could even become one of the preferred ways to obtain PoE 2 currency.
Endgame Improvements
Fortress Nodes
Previously, players had to defeat Arbiter of Divinity and complete all five areas inside Fortress one by one to unlock Atlas Passive Skill Tree points.
Now, defeating any Arbiter will immediately unlock all the map nodes inside Fortress, granting all of its Atlas Passive Skill Tree points at once. This change significantly reduces the time required for endgame progression.
Abyssal Ravines
Abyssal content will introduce new Ravines, which can be seen on Atlas Maps as a long green path.
These areas add several new nodes that can increase monster density and difficulty, while a Boss awaits at the end.
Expedition
Although the event will not include Runes of Aldor content in every area, Expedition, Farrow, Dannig, and other related mechanics will remain available. They will also continue to function normally in the standard league.
Expedition can now be encountered starting from Act 4, and new Expedition Tablets will also be introduced. These Tablets can roll various modifiers, such as causing two complete Expeditions to appear in the same area or creating two separate Remnant encounters.
The modifiers on Expedition Tablets will include enhancement effects provided by Aldurs Saga. This means players can roll Aldurs Saga-like bonuses on their Tablets and obtain more generous rewards from Grand Expeditions.
Sacred Bloom and Wildwood
In the endgame Atlas system, Patch 0.5.5 introduces a brand-new consumable item called Sacred Bloom. After using a Sacred Bloom, you can attach a Wildwood area to an Atlas Map of your choice.
Once you enter Wildwood, you will need to collect three different types of Wisps: Primal, Vivid, and Wild. Wisps you collect will empower all monsters in the map, making them more difficult to defeat while also increasing their drop rewards.
Although PoE 2 Patch 0.5.5 does not include balance adjustments, it still provides an excellent opportunity for players who enjoy starting fresh. The patch also delivers substantial Quality of Life improvements, making it worth revisiting the game while waiting for the arrival of 1.0 in December.
Path of Exile 2 boasts a wide variety of legendary gear. Some of these are considered mainstream gear, used by almost all players due to their immense power. However, many legendary items are rarely used and end up being sold to merchants.
GGG will be releasing even more legendary gear in future Patch 0.5.5 and Patch 1.0. But before then, I want to highlight some legendary items in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.0 that are underestimated but actually very powerful, and don't require a huge investment.
The Bringer of Rain Decorated Helm
The Bringer of Rain Decorated Helm is a legendary item with a significant cost. The obvious downside is that you lose an armor slot, which is undoubtedly a huge loss, but as the saying goes, the greater the investment, the greater the reward.
Its advantage is that it allows you to equip two-handed weapons with one hand, and The Bringer of Rain Decorated Helm gives you Giant's Blood Keystone passive without having to meet those maddening three-attribute requirements.
Therefore, this legendary item grants you immense freedom in character building. It allows two-handed melee builds to be geared in entirely new ways. Of course, you have to make some sacrifices, such as giving up the chest armor, but the build ideas this item offers are definitely worth exploring, and that's the essence of legendary items.
Frankly, I think The Bringer of Rain Decorated Helm will become even more interesting with the addition of more content in Path of Exile 2, such as two-handed swords. So, if you didn't notice this unique item in Return of the Ancients, be sure to check it out.
Twisted Empyrean Aberrant Sledge
This is a new legendary two-handed hammer added in PoE 2 Patch 0.5.0. Although its usage rate is low, I think it provides a completely new way of building around hammer weapon skills.
Twisted Empyrean Aberrant Sledge doesn't follow the traditional path of stacking health; instead, it encourages players to stack mana and convert that mana into additional frost damage. This is what attracts me most about this item; it means skills like Volcanic Fissure can truly crush enemies and deliver a satisfying screen-clearing experience.
In addition, it boasts an extremely high critical hit rate, making it ideal for classes like Monk. However, it's not a weapon that can be freely paired with any build to instantly overwhelm opponents. Building a character around it requires some planning, and that's precisely the charm of this unique weapon.
I believe it's one of the few unique weapons that can truly rival rare weapons in its class because its critical hit rate and skill level bonuses are simply too powerful.
Sacred Flame Shrine Sceptre
This item was released quite early, but to be honest, it never really became part of the mainstream gameplay, things only changed with the arrival of Return of the Ancients.
In Patch 0.5.0, if you obtain the affix that increases physical damage, you can craft a very powerful sceptre and further enhance its attributes through rune forges without incurring a huge PoE 2 Currency cost.
However, I think the truly interesting aspect of Sacred Flame Shrine Sceptre lies in its synergy with Blistering Bond Ruby Ring. The ring allows fire damage to be counted as bleed damage, and since Sacred Flame Shrine Sceptre' damage is inherently fire damage, this weapon can have a double bonus from the ignite effect.
This combination is niche, but it can be incredibly powerful. Furthermore, it can be developed in some very interesting defensive directions. For example, you can equip Chernobog's Pillar Blacksteel Tower Shield to maintain damage output while stacking a large amount of block chance.
Splinter of Lorrata Hardwood Spear
Next, let's look at Splinter of Lorrata Hardwood Spear. This unique weapon might be a bit controversial, so let me analyze it for you.
This weapon allows you to stack an almost unlimited number of poisons on enemies, and each attack applies poison. The main problem is that this weapon's physical damage is shockingly low, making it difficult to deal effective damage.
Now, PoE 2 Patch 0.5.0 gives it a chance: you can use Runeforging system to upgrade unique weapons, improving their base stats and revitalizing previously unusable weapons.
While the numbers aren't huge, this significantly increases the weapon's usability. You can then pair Splinter of Lorrata Hardwood Spear with Original Sin Amethyst Ring to convert elemental damage into chaos damage, not only compensating for Original Sin's shortcomings but also further boosting poison damage.
However, the obvious drawback is that you need to sacrifice a ring slot for this, which is where Ritualist becomes a very interesting option. The extra ring slot allows you to use Original Sin Amethyst Ring without completely sacrificing other rings, meaning you can still get the fixed damage and other stats you need.
Splinter of Lorrata Hardwood Spear isn't the kind of weapon that automatically becomes stronger just by equipping it. You need to build your build around it, find ways to compensate for its weaknesses, and fully utilize its uniqueness. When you do that, it becomes a very powerful weapon.
This concludes our analysis of four underrated items in Path of Exile 2 0.5.0. If you haven't tried them yet, go ahead and give them a shot to prepare for Patch 0.5.5 and Patch 1.0.
