Path Of Exile Tips and Tricks For Expedition League

Since the release of Patch 0.2.0, the frequency of major updates for Path of Exile 2 has stabilized, occurring approximately every four months, with all new content typically announced about a week in advance via livestream and announcements.

While some information is always leaked beforehand, PoE 2 has always kept many details well-hidden, which is why we recommend watching the livestream to avoid missing anything.

More importantly, the game often releases Twitch Drops, giving you the opportunity to obtain in-game items or cosmetics through the livestream, and this is also part of the livestream plan for Patch 0.4.0!

Based on this, we will introduce the details of Twitch Drops, as well as other key information related to Patch 0.4.0.

When Will Twitch Drops Be Available?

Twitch Drops will begin alongside Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 livestream, starting at 11:00 AM PST on December 4th and lasting for 24 hours.

During the event, you can earn Verdant Wilds Dodge Roll Effect by watching a livestream for 45 minutes on any available platform. It's not a random drop; you'll receive it simply by watching for the required amount of time!

How To Claim This Reward?

After obtaining the effect, it won't be directly added to your game account. You'll need to claim and redeem it from your Twitch inventory. To do this, ensure you've linked your Twitch account. If not, follow these steps:

• 1. Log in to Twitch and go to your settings page.
• 2. Click Connect button under Other Connections to complete the linking process.
• 3. You will be redirected back to your Twitch settings page. If it shows that your Path of Exile 2 account is linked to your Twitch account, you've succeeded.

Afterward, you can redeem the effect from your Twitch inventory to make it available in the game's micro-transaction list. If you missed the livestream, you can obtain the effect through the store or Quicksilver Flask effect after Patch 0.4.0 is released.

Besides claiming loot drops, you can also stream the event live, giving your viewers a chance to win extra special effects rewards: simply enable Twitch Drops feature in Twitch Creator Dashboard.

What Might The Livestream Reveal?

With approximately 12 hours remaining before the stream officially begins, more details about the new content for The Last of the Druids should be revealed.

In fact, the most anticipated new class, Druid, has already been leaked, but the developers certainly know how to keep your curiosity alive, always managing to hide the most important parts until the very last minute.

The stream is expected to be divided into two parts: the developers explaining and analyzing the features of this update, and a Q&A session with the audience, guided entirely by a professional host.

A more detailed update announcement will be released on the official website immediately after the stream. If you don't have time to watch the stream or want a more intuitive understanding of the new patch, this is a good option.

Druid May Redefine Class Gameplay

While some classes overlapped between PoE 1 and 2, the new class Huntress added after Path of Exile 2 and the new Druid are entirely new. Huntress introduced the exciting Lightning Spear gameplay; what about Druid?

In fact, Druid itself isn't novel; many ARPGs feature this class, such as Diablo 4, a major competitor to PoE series. The key lies in how it integrates with the inherent mechanics of PoE 2.

Generally, Druid's primary function is to allow you to summon animals or transform into animal forms to aid in combat.

However, based on leaked information and reasonable speculation, Druid in PoE 2 will possess multi-form transformations and a hybrid attribute growth mechanism.

This means you can experiment with more combat styles through fluid and varied form transitions, breaking away from the limitations of other older classes that rely on independent skills and can only switch between melee and ranged spell-casting.

Confirmed transformation forms include bear and wolf. The bear form is positioned as a tank, capable of influencing enemies with strong disruption and control abilities in melee mode, while ensuring survival even after taking fatal blows.

The wolf form, on the other hand, exhibits greater agility and flexibility, allowing for faster movement across the battlefield and eliminating enemies through bleeding or rapid-fire mechanics, achieving breakthroughs through momentum rather than sheer brute force.

Although not yet officially announced, based on footage and information from the trailer, some players speculate that Druid will receive a third wyvern-like form, which will likely be further explained during the livestream.

Compared to the previous two forms, the wyvern has a stronger mythological aura, making the entire game atmosphere more mysterious and captivating.

Based on other games and understanding of dragon-like creature lore, the wyvern form may allow you to control enemies in the air through sweeping attacks or fire breath, or engage in a melee-spell casting hybrid interaction.

However, regardless of how many forms Druid ultimately takes, they will never be free. You'll inevitably need to acquire and enhance them through leveling or completing quests, and may even need to consume PoE 2 currency to unlock special abilities or talents.

More New League Details

The new patch also signifies the start of a new league. Named Fate of the Vaal, this league will allow you to earn loot by playing new events and mechanics, which are often central to the league, much like Abyss mechanic in the previous Rise of the Abyssal.

Interestingly, Abyss mechanic will be retained as a core gameplay element of Path of Exile 2, while Fate of the Vaal league may be related to the classic character Atziri from the first game.

However, more league details will only be available after the livestream begins, so please be patient; all you can do now is wait!

Finally, Patch 0.4.0 will be released on all available platforms on December 12th, 2025 at 11:00 AM PST, offering 3 days of free play for everyone! Don't miss this opportunity!

The full contents of Path of Exile 2 0.4.0, The Last of the Druids, will be officially revealed at GGG Live on December 4th, but before then, are you already itching to know what major changes they've made to the new expansion? We are too!

Although there's very little information leaked so far, that doesn't stop us from making some predictions. Here, we'll discuss the possible buffs and nerfs in Patch 0.4.0 based on all the current teasers and developer announcements, which might have a significant impact on the core gameplay in the new league!

Possible Nerfs

First, let's talk about the potential nerf options in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0.

Deadeye Ascendancy

Regarding the most likely nerf, we must mention Deadeye, the most popular Ascendancy in the 0.3.0 Softcore Trade and SSF Softcore League.

In the first week after the 0.3.0 patch, Deadeye's usage rate for level 80 and above characters in Softcore Trade League reached a staggering 42%.

Even a month after the update, with adjustments to some mechanics, new support gem changes, and improved balance, Deadeye still holds a 30% share of the overall Ascendancy class usage rankings. This is an unbelievable level of dominance.

Some argue that Amazon Ascendancy had similar dominance, or even higher, approaching 50%, in the previous 0.2.0 Dawn of the Hunt. However, considering that Huntress was a new class and a key feature introduced in 0.2.0, such a high percentage is understandable.

However, no new class was introduced in 0.3.0; Deadeye's dominance was simply a result of game imbalance. This class not only possessed one of the most versatile and powerful buffs in Path of Exile 2, Tailwind, but also gained even greater versatility through additional projectiles. These combinations even surpassed melee classes in damage scaling.

All of this should have served as a wake-up call for the developers, given Deadeye Ascendancy's complete dominance in 0.3.0. Of course, this update isn't just about Deadeye Ascendancy itself; a broader adjustment to game balance is expected in 0.4.0.

Lightning-Based Builds

The second predicted nerf is, of course, the completely unbalanced lightning damage type in POE 2. Especially for buffs like Herald of Thunder, they are too powerful, with too much damage potential, and when combined with Herald of Ice, they provide extremely high damage output, leading many players to rely on them for success.

For hit-based builds, lightning damage far outweighs any other damage type. This is because lightning damage has a very large scaling range, with very low minimum damage and very high maximum damage.

The original design intended to make lightning damage more unpredictable. However, the problem now lies in the fact that players can easily alter the damage calculation with two lucky damage rolls, making it more predictable and resulting in higher average damage.

Furthermore, lightning damage inherently has the advantage of applying a Shock, which increases the damage taken by the target by 20%, and this damage can be further amplified.

Meanwhile, other damage types have far fewer usable skills in the current game balance, especially mechanics like Freeze, which are practically useless.

All these factors combined ultimately result in lightning damage builds dealing significantly more damage than other damage types. In some cases, the damage can even double. This creates an awkward situation where even if you choose a non-lightning skill, you can still inflict lightning damage using a fixed lightning damage output, which feels somewhat incongruous.

Raising The Crafting Barrier

The last nerf prediction in 0.4.0 concerns crafting. However, we believe the crafting system should be weakened not in its functionality, but in its usability.

In 0.3.0, players typically jumped directly from basic health and resistance gear to ultimate gear, skipping any intermediate gear progression stages, because the power and availability of advanced crafting made this leap easy.

Therefore, I wouldn't be surprised if they increased PoE 2 currency cost of crafting endgame gear in The Last of the Druids update, as this aligns with the current crafting and gear progression mechanics. As you face increasingly difficult content, your character will experience a smoother overall progression across map tiers.

Possible Buffs

Next, let's look at our predictions for the buffs in PoE 2 patch 0.4.0 update.

New Druid-Specific Skill Nodes

Firstly, this update introduces Druids, the game's first Strength/Intelligence hybrid class. However, the current Strength/Intelligence skill trees are largely uninspired, either outdated and weak, or simply offering negligible damage boosts.

Therefore, 0.4.0 may introduce Druid-specific nodes to replace these generic ones, especially for areas like the armor and energy shield hybrid clusters.

New Vaal Ascendancies

Our second buff prediction relates to the 0.4.0 league's theme: Fate of the Vaal. The currently released trailers haven't revealed much, only mentioning the possible return of the once-destroyed Atziri, Queen of the Vaal.

It's worth noting that during Atziri's reign, Vaal races made numerous sacrifices, meaning a vast amount of blood was spilled across the land. Therefore, the concept of designing a Vaal variant Ascendancy class for Witch's Blood Mage fits perfectly here.

However, besides sacrifice and the pursuit of immortality, Atziri are also obsessed with gems. Historically, Vaal races were described as shimmering and studded with gems, which also perfectly aligns with Gemling Legionnaire's other Vaal version of Ascendancy.

Personally, we very much hope to see more similar special Ascendancy classes in the future, providing more possibilities for our builds.

Unique Items

It's time to reveal the final enhancement prediction: unique item optimization.

Now that we know the primary goal of 0.4.0 is to address the current endgame content issues in Path of Exile 2, most changes are expected to revolve around Atlas, including map optimization, map layout improvements, and Pinnacle boss fight. However, we believe there's one very important issue to address: adding worthwhile and meaningful endgame unique items.

Frankly, one of the most disappointing aspects of Path of Exile 2 is the lack of excellent unique items. Because rare gear with significant affixes in the game is often excessively powerful, their presence significantly affects the usability of unique items lacking those affixes. This has been evident since the early access release a year ago.

If the power provided by gear is reduced, developers will have more design freedom to create interesting and unique items that players truly want to use. However, as things stand, it's highly unlikely they'll make any changes to crafted gear in the 0.4.0 update besides restricting crafting mechanics. Nevertheless, abandoning unique items focused on endgame content and adding new unique items specifically for endgame builds is a good idea.

In any case, these are our current predictions for some of the buffs and nerfs that might appear in the Path of Exile 2 0.4.0 update. We don't know how our intuition holds up. But we'll soon know the results, as the developers' livestream is coming soon. Let's wait and see!

A few days ago, PoE 2 released a 30-second trailer announcing that Patch 0.4.0 would feature Fate of the Vaal League. While the brief trailer didn't reveal any new gameplay, it still sent shockwaves through players.

The female appearing in the trailer has been almost universally confirmed by players as Queen Atziri of the Vaal, though unlike her appearance in Path of Exile 1, she remains uncorrupted. So, what new mechanics and storylines does Queen Atziri's appearance in PoE 2 foreshadow in Patch 0.4.0?

Trailer Analysis

Atziri is the core of Path of Exile 1 patch 1.1 Sacrifice of the Vaal expansion. She is a narcissistic queen obsessed with immortality, leading to the downfall of the ancient Vaal civilization. Wraeclast civilization was plunged into a dark age because of her, with millions perishing in her pursuit of eternal youth. She survived the destruction of Vaal civilization and gained immortality.

In PoE 1, players can fight the corrupted Atziri, who is entirely red and possesses four arms, clearly no longer human. The scene depicted in the trailer may be the moment at the end of Act 3 when she communes with The Beast (at which point she is still human). This commemoration led to the cataclysm, destroying Vaal civilization.

Although PoE 2's story takes place after the first game, Atziri may never have been truly defeated, remaining trapped in Alluring Abyss. The corrupted The Beast, whom players follow in the current version, may be connected to her, or she may have sensed an evil signal and is preparing to wreak havoc on Wraeclast once more.

Speculation On Game Content Connections

This trailer is related to the new league content. The official demonstration of this scene suggests that players are highly likely to directly encounter or fight Atziri in the game.

Most likely, it involves the new season's league mechanics. The new league mechanics will allow players to travel back in time to experience or intervene in events through some means, such as time travel or Pensieve. Atziri-related content may be merged with the Incursion league mechanic and introduced into Path of Exile 2.

In Path of Exile 1, players encountered Temple of Atzoatl through map travel, and needed to upgrade or modify rooms to ultimately challenge the boss at the top of the temple. Players could also directly confront Atziri within the temple.

The development team may follow the successful precedent of merging Abyss and Veil affixes, integrating Temple of Atzoatl with Atziri combat content. This would both introduce a large amount of content at once and align with the storyline, as the relevant NPC, Alva, Master Explorer, is already in the game. In addition, content from older leagues like Beyond may return.

There's a small possibility that this will involve new story content, meaning this scenario is part of Act 5 or Act 6. However, the fifth act's scenario, where players push the cart, should be set in Oriath from PoE 2 era, while Act 6 might involve time travel and The Beast.

Potential Classic Items Introduced

Defeating Atziri in PoE 1 would drop many unique items, which might be adjusted or reworked and return in patch 0.4.0.

• Atziri's Promise: Possibly changed to a trinket providing chaos resistance and damage.
• Atziri's Step: High evasion, possibly combined with a new dodge mechanic.
• Doryani's Catalyst: Widely used in elemental builds.
• Pledge of Hands: Provides a high-level Spell Echo skill, with great potential.
• Atziri's Reflection (Shield): Provides anti-curse effects and was once very popular.
• Atziri's Rule (Staff): Contains Queen's Demand skill and was a core component of some builds.
• Doryani's Invitation (Belt): A standard item for many early builds.

Furthermore, if the time travel mechanic returns, it may bring new PoE 2 currency and items like Sacrificial Heart, Vial of Fate, and String of Servitude. Given the new season's connection to Vaal, the return of Vaal Skill Gems should also be considered.

Vaal Skill Gems are skill gems that are charged by collecting monster souls, temporarily providing powerful mutation effects. Vaal Skills in PoE 2 may be powerful variants of existing skills, or they may be Vaalized through new mechanics.

Possible PoE 2 Patch 0.4.0 League Mechanics

Based on historical updates from PoE 1, Fate of the Vaal League may incorporate or modify the following classic mechanics:

Sacrifice Of The Vaal

Players discover corrupted Vaal Side Areas within chapters or maps, filled with enhanced Vaal monsters and mini-bosses. The final reward may be related to challenging Atziri.

Incursion

Players collaborate with the architect Alva to travel back in time to build and ultimately raid an ever-generating Temple of Atzoatl. The temple is filled with various themed rooms, treasures, and bosses, culminating in a challenge against the corrupted form of Atziri.

Furthermore, this league introduces Double Corruption mechanic. In Locus of Corruption, items can gain two corruption affixes, but like Vaal Orb, it also comes with risks.

Other Possibilities

The trailer title, "The Mirror Does Not Lie," might hint that Patch 0.4.0 will feature a Scourge league-like mechanism, transforming the current region into a mirrored, corrupted Vaal version. Of course, the possibility of the developers creating a completely new league system unique to Path of Exile 2 cannot be ruled out.

Path of Exile 2 Fate of the Vaal League will launch on December 12th, and the developers have recently poured more effort and detail into the league storyline. Even players who are not usually interested in Path of Exile 2 leagues are excited about the possible return of Atziri.

With Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0 fast approaching, we need to prepare for the start of a brand new league journey.

Generally, a new league starter build is crucial for every exile starting afresh, as it allows for rapid progression with minimal currency investment, lowers the learning curve for new players, and lays a solid foundation for your character before investing heavily in resources.

In summary, a good league starter build should be stable and reliable, require only a small initial investment to be effective, and be able to handle various game content, including campaign modes. Bone Cage Lich build is definitely one of the best in this regard.

This build features one-click operation, utilizing Cast on Critical to trigger Detonate Dead and Bone Cage for quick map clearing, making it extremely simple to use. Meanwhile, Lich Ascendancy provides skills like Unholy Might and Eternal Life, granting it strong survivability. Therefore, both its one-click map clearing settings and extremely high life regeneration make it a flexible and efficient build for early game progression.

Patch 0.4.0 Bone Cage Predictions

Currently, we haven't received any definitive information regarding PoE 2 Patch 0.4.0; everything will be confirmed during the developer livestream on December 4th. However, prior to the 0.4.0 update, Bone Cage's base critical strike chance was increased to 15%, and its damage per level was also improved, so this build can still perform well even in the late game.

More importantly, Bone Cage is unlikely to be nerfed in Path of Exile 2: The Last Of The Druids update because it's a meta-gem that requires significant investment and has specific limitations, making it less prone to abuse than other skills.

Unlike regular skill gems, meta-skill gems like Bone Cage can synergize with other skill gems to trigger specific effects, making them complex and powerful tools that require significant investment to use effectively.

Nerfing Bone Cage would require balancing many other synergistic abilities, which is far more complex than simply adjusting a single gem. This means it's less likely to be nerfed in future updates. Therefore, we believe the Bone Cage Lich build will maintain its current strength in 0.4.0.

Gear

Now, let's look at the gear choices for this build.

Rattling Sceptre

Our main-hand weapon is Rattling Sceptre, a basic sceptre type in the game that grants the player the Skeletal Warrior ability. Players can obtain it by opening chests, looting from enemies and bosses, and trading with vendors.

If you have more PoE 2 currency, you can also upgrade it to a unique version, Dark Defiler Rattling Sceptre. This enhances the summon-centric build, providing mana, intelligence, and chaos damage bonuses to each active summon, and increasing mana regeneration.

However, both the basic and unique versions of Rattling Sceptre can create extremely high attack and defense stats. Combined with the ring of bone spikes summoned by Bone Cage to immobilize enemies, you can easily clear out all enemies on the screen.

Sacramental Robe

For chest armor, we chose Sacramental Robe because it increases the initial recharge rate of the energy shield by 40%-50%. This is undoubtedly a powerful choice for Bone Cage build, which relies heavily on energy shields and rapid recharge for survival in the early game. Moreover, it is suitable for multiple characters and perfectly complements the high energy shield nodes on the talent tree.

Atziri's Disdain

In PoE 2, Atziri's Disdain Unique Helmet is generally considered a powerful late-game item because of its strong survivability. It's a worthwhile option for builds that effectively utilize its unique combination of attack, defense, and utility affixes.

Atziri's Disdain converts maximum health into an additional energy shield, distributes damage between health and the energy shield to increase health regeneration, provides a significant amount of mana and item rarity, and features a unique damage penetration mechanic that players can utilize to improve survivability in the early stages of the 0.4.0 league.

Breach Ring

Due to its improved quality, the well-crafted Breach ring is almost always the best ring choice for any build, even surpassing the inherent stats of a regular ring after enhancement.

While the highest quality regular rings are expensive, crafting a powerful Breach ring may be a more convenient way to obtain top-tier rings, especially after unlocking more Breach-related nodes through Atlas passive tree.

Other Items

There are no mandatory choices for other gear, but it's recommended to focus on survivability, such as energy shields and maximizing resistances. At the same time, stacking Spirit stats to increase damage and critical strike chance, and casting speed to improve damage and gameplay experience are crucial. Furthermore, Lich's unique damage derives from Spirit attributes, making Spirit stat stacking key to this build's success.

Skill Tree

In Path of Exile 2, the core gameplay of Bone Cage Lich build revolves around Bone Cage's critical strike casting mechanic. Therefore, the skill tree should focus on skills that support this mechanic, such as generating Power Charges and sufficient mana regeneration to sustain frequent spellcasting.

Additionally, in the early game, we should prioritize finding and enhancing passive skills that significantly increase Energy Shield or health to improve survivability, as the core of Lich build lies in Energy Shield.

As mentioned before, we also need to focus on mana regeneration, as this build requires the ability to continuously cast high-mana-cost spells. Therefore, having nodes that provide mana regeneration while moving is especially important, so be sure to keep moving to activate them. Simultaneously, increase casting speed, which allows you to cast spells more frequently and move more between casts, thus increasing damage and survivability.

However, be careful to avoid stacking Maximum Mana affix on equipment, as this will reduce your mana regeneration speed, especially in the early game.

Finally, after increasing critical strike chance and survivability, prioritize talent points that boost physical and spell damage. Once your critical strike chance reaches around 70%, you can shift your focus to critical strike damage.

Why Lich Ascendancy?

Ultimately, we chose Lich Ascendancy for Bone Cage build because it significantly increases damage through the chaos damage provided by Unholy Might, and maximum mana further amplifies this damage.

Furthermore, it allows for powerful skill combinations, such as Cast on Crit, quickly triggering multiple bone spikes using Bone Cage. This is often combined with Steward of Kulemak node to enhance its effect, making it highly efficient for clearing maps and killing bosses.

Lich build offers both strong damage output and good defensive capabilities, making it a flexible and efficient choice for various game content.

In short, compared to other Lich builds, Bone Cage Lich build is relatively inexpensive, making it a good choice in the early stages of a league where gear is scarce. Not to mention, this build allows you to easily switch between farming and boss-fighting setups, enabling you to quickly adapt to the new mechanics with simple settings after entering POE 2 0.4.0.