Discussion Of The Defensive Layers Of Molten Strike Pathfinder In POE 3.22 - Transcendence Explained
Today, we are going to talk about Transcendence Keystone, inspired by Molten Strike Pathfinder from HC Trade League at Trial of the Ancestors.
You might think this is just another near-immortal Pathfinder build. This is true to an extent. Pathfinder is extremely powerful right now, which has spawned some of the most powerful builds in the game.
But what’s interesting about this build is that the maximum elemental resistance using Transcendence and Eternal Damnation is 55%. This is a huge drawback and is usually the first thing players address when using these mechanics.
The disadvantage is the maximum resistance to scaling through the gears, which most people will completely offset with Loreweave. This drawback but this build completely ignores it, even using Eternal Damnation. This further applies a minus 5% to the maximum resistance.
Here we’ll break down the layers of defense that make up this extremely tanky build and discuss why low maximum elemental resistance is actually beneficial for the type of content it designed the build for.
Defensive Layers Explained
This build is still pretty bulky, so what the heck is going on here. Let’s take a look at its layers of defense. Because this build doesn’t use Loreweave to free up body armor slots, this makes it easier for elements to reach 100% physical damage.
So here this build uses Lightning Coil to deal with 50% of the physical damage from hits as lightning damage, and Dawnbreaker to deal with 18% of fire damage. Then Veiled modifier on the helmet adds another 8%. Finally, improved Taste of Hate Flask to increase it by 24%, bringing the total to 100%.
This build also has 100% Spell Suppression, and a single Tattoo also provides an additional 3% Spell Damage Suppression. Also, by using Ancestral Vision, it has a 50% chance of avoiding Elemental Ailment. The remaining 50% is made up of Thick Skin life wheel and Eldritch Implicit Modifiers on the boots.
Next up is Transcendence Keystone, which applies the armor’s damage reduction to elemental damage instead of physical damage. As we’ve already discussed, this build takes no physical damage from hits, all of which are converted to elemental damage. And Transcendence also imposes a very large maximum elemental resistance penalty on the character.
This build adds almost no armor to the skill tree. Therefore, all armors from Iron Reflexes are combined with Determination and Grace. We also invested POE Currency in these Auras to increase Aura effect by about 50%.
There is also an added modifier on Ruby Flask, which is affected by Flask effect and ends up getting about a 100% armor increase. This brings the total armor value to around 100,000.
Next up is Eternal Damnation. This unique amulet applies a further minus 5% to all max resistances, but reduces elemental damage based on half your total Chaos Resistance. Here, it also provides an additional 35% of elemental damage reduction, which also applies to elemental damage over time.
Since it’s Pathfinder, we’ve set up Flask to provide further mitigation and a range of recoveries. Ruby Flask and Topaz Flask reduce fire and lightning damage by 38% respectively. Taste of Hate and Sapphire Flask have the same cold damage modifier, which reduces cold damage by 33%.
Progenesis Amethyst Flask prevents 25% health loss from damage on hit and disappears over the next 4 seconds. We also improved this Flask with Flask Effect, which increases this percentage to 41%.
In addition, Master Surgeon can provide long-lasting results for Life Flask. This means that Divine Life Flask can regenerate approximately 2,000 health points per second, which is of course the main defensive layer content of any tanking Pathfinder build.
Example
So let’s put all of this into an example. Suppose this character encounters a large and terrifying monster and uses a spell to attack Pathfinder, causing 30,000 points of physical damage. 15,000 of this damage is lightning damage, 7,800 is fire damage, and the remaining 7,200 is cold damage.
First, we can apply resistance, reducing damage by 55%. The armor then provides elemental damage reduction due to Transcendence. Importantly, armor is applied to each elemental damage type individually, making the reduction it provides more effective.
Because the armor is stronger against smaller attacks before armor reduction is applied. It therefore added the additional elemental damage reduction from Eternal Damnation to this reduction to provide a total percentage of elemental damage reduction, capped at a hard cap of 90%.
Then the damage reduction modifiers on Ruby Flask, Topaz Flask, and Sapphire Flask come into play, reducing lightning and fire damage by 38%, and cold damage by 33%. And since the hit is a spell, Spell Suppression is also applied, further reducing the damage by 53%.
Finally, if Molten Shell is inactive, it will remove damage taken from health. So Progenesis prevents 41% of the damage, which disappears within the next 4 seconds.
The character loses 237 health immediately and 164 health over 4 seconds. The 30,000 damage here comes out to 401 damage. You can see how unwieldy this build is, even with 55% max elemental resistance.
Elemental Penetration
But to understand the true strength of this setup, we need to look at Elemental Penetration. This build is intended to be one of the common and very dangerous modifiers found on Delve mines and nodes. As Elemental Penetration goes deeper and deeper, the lower the resistance of the target, the less effective the penetration will be.
For example, if a character has 90% fire resistance and they take 10,000 fire damage. They take 90% less damage and take 1,000 fire damage.
But if the monster still has 10% Fire Penetration, it will reduce the damage by 80%, and the character will suffer 2000 points of fire damage. This means that 10% Fire Penetration causes the character to actually take 100% more damage than he would otherwise have taken.
If a character has 50% Fire Penetration, they take 5,000 fire damage and counter the same attack with 10% Fire Penetration. They take 6,000 points of fire damage, effectively taking 20% more damage.
Not only does it have a much lower maximum drag than other very tanky setups. And there are multiple layers of mitigation to offset any added damage caused by infiltration.
Scaling Armor vs Max Resistance
Now, it’s interesting to see when you should scale armor and when you should scale maximum elemental resistance. Especially considering that armor is easier to get than max resistance.
Of course, elemental damage can naturally be very dangerous over time. If you can’t offset the heavy resistance penalty on Pathfinder build, you can also do that with the elemental damage reduction provided by Eternal Damnation and Flask build, which deals less damage. And of course Life Flask’s life regeneration.
If you’re able to invest in sources of damage mitigation over time, it may be more advantageous for you to scale your armor when using Transcendence. Because it’s usually easier to scale armor by a meaningful amount than max resistance. So modifiers that increase armor are still very effective.
Hopefully, this guide helps you understand this underutilized approach to Transcendence. If you use Transcendence in your build, this will be even more welcome in the next league when the relatively easy way to get the most resistance from tattoos disappears!
Recommended Article
View More
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.
Path of Exile 2 0.4.0 The Last of the Druids has been confirmed for release on December 12th. This is a highly anticipated major update, introducing the much-anticipated Druids class, which had previously been delayed.
Judging from the trailers, this update focuses on endgame content and may adjust the season mechanics to improve the overall game experience, but specific details have not yet been released. However, before the full patch is released, we want to discuss several features and mechanics that urgently need to be added in the 0.4.0 update so far, hoping the developers will heed the long-standing demands of the players.
Trials of Ascendancy
First and foremost, we must mention Trials of Ascendancy in Path of Exile 2. Many players believe its design is poor, the penalties are too harsh, and it is inconsistent.
First, the Honor mechanic in Trial of the Sekhemas has been heavily criticized for its excessive penalties on builds that cannot avoid damage, leading to frustrating deaths for reasons unrelated to player skill. Dying in a Trial not only results in the loss of all PoE 2 currency and loot, but also forces players to restart the entire challenge from the beginning, a long-standing complaint of overly harsh punishment.
Furthermore, The Trial of Chaos introduced mechanics not found in other parts of PoE 2 in previous updates, such as Petrification Statue, movement skill lock, and weakening curses, making it a distinctly different and often unfair challenge.
More importantly, the difficulty of Trials often feels determined by random factors rather than player skill and character builds. This means that Trial mechanics can heavily favor certain character builds, such as high-evasion characters, while directly penalizing other builds, creating significant disparities in difficulty.
Therefore, many players believe these lengthy, tedious, and meaningless Trials do nothing to enhance the gameplay experience and urgently require a rework and adjustment.
Atlas System Overhaul
Furthermore, Atlas system in PoE 2 desperately needs a complete overhaul, as the current system suffers from numerous problems, including a restrictive and uninteresting Atlas tree, a lack of player autonomy, and an unsatisfactory reward system.
The limited 40 Atlas points force players to choose a single optimal path from powerful but often repetitive strategies, rendering other nodes useless and diminishing player satisfaction and freedom of choice. Players have little control over what they want to experience, often feeling trapped in repetitive mapping loops.
The 0.4.0 update urgently needs a major overhaul to address these issues, although some fixes were introduced in the previous 0.3.1 patch.
We hope to increase the number of choices in the Atlas tree and add more unique passive skills, making it more rewarding and strategic. The goal is to give players more control over their map experience, providing more choices rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Delve
Delve system in Path of Exile 2 also needs improvement because, compared to its counterpart in the original game, it currently lacks meaningful endgame progression and strategic decision-making. Players, aside from finding a few nodes, cannot meaningfully advance the game, making their choices seem random and meaningless.
It's worth noting that in Path of Exile 1, Delve provided a strategic element, requiring players to choose their exploration direction using limited resources. However, in Path of Exile 2, players feel this strategic depth is lacking because there's no clear distinction between spiral expansion and linear progression.
Furthermore, Delve is disconnected from the new Atlas system, which aims to link endgame mechanics to plot progression. Therefore, some players feel that Delve exploration progress is unrelated to their overall Atlas tree.
Therefore, Patch 0.4.0 needs to adjust Delve to establish a more direct connection with the Atlas system, allowing players to synchronize Delve character growth with Atlas progress.
Performance Optimization
Finally, performance optimization for Path of Exile 2 0.4.0 is urgently needed. Imagine constantly experiencing frame rate drops, stuttering, and crashes during tense moments like encountering large groups of enemies or participating in major events, severely impacting your gaming experience-wouldn't you want to smash your keyboard?
These issues directly affect the player's gaming experience, hindering quick and effective reactions in combat, which is at the heart of Path of Exile 2's action role-playing game.
Therefore, stable and smooth performance is crucial as Path of Exile 2 prepares for a major update and final release, ensuring positive feedback from players who have already encountered some issues.
While the 0.4.0 update has made significant progress, development is still ongoing. Developers need to continue working on further optimizations and bug fixes for future updates, especially for console versions that still suffer from stuttering issues.
In any case, nothing is certain until Path of Exile 2 0.4.0 is released. The above are just some adjustments we hope the developers can make to the game, which are also the necessary steps for POE 2 to extend its lifespan.
