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With Patch 1.0 fast approaching, PoE 2 players are eagerly awaiting a series of balance adjustments, hoping the game developers will seriously review the underrated and weakened skills. After all, a healthy skill ecosystem benefits all players, and currently many skills are either completely ignored or used only in extremely niche and obscure playstyles.

This article lists five skills that most need buffs in Path of Exile 2 Patch 1.0, along with some suggested improvements. Let's take a look.

Armour Breaker

The problem with Armour Breaker begins at the skill prototype level. Hammer skills feel either too weak or completely unremarkable - for a class design centered on a burly warrior unleashing powerful strikes, their visual appeal and mechanics are often far less rewarding than bow or spear skills.

Armour Breaker is a prime example of this. Its sole purpose is to break enemy armor, but in PoE 2, there are many ways to break armor without occupying a skill slot: poison can do it, and most hammer-based builds' passive skills inherently break armor.

Furthermore, this skill's attack power is incredibly weak; a normal hammer strike is stronger. Frankly, it wastes a skill slot; it's essentially an auto-attack disguised as a skill, which is terrible.

The suggested fix is ​​to give Armour Breaker a clear purpose: enable it to break armor over a wide area by default, and add an additional effect, such as triggering an armor explosion effect when armor breaks (similar to the effect of a support gem), causing considerable area damage.

If this solution doesn't work, it would be more honest to remove it from the game than to keep a useless skill. The game developers should thoroughly review hammer skills, including their visual design.

Gas Arrow

Gas Arrow, once a beloved skill among Path of Exile 2 players, fires a poison arrow that creates a cloud of flammable gas that explodes when hit by an explosive skill or touched by an ignited enemy. However, it now faces a difficult situation.

Previously, players used Gas Arrow both as a combo tool and a primary damage-dealing skill - firing a poison arrow to melt enemies with the toxins in the gas cloud. However, the latter approach has been nerfed to the point where its damage is no longer comparable to other skills or current game content.

The good news is that Gas Arrow doesn't need a rework - aside from its numerical values, it's solid in every other aspect. What players really need is a simple damage boost, especially given that the developers have acknowledged that poison, damage over time, and status ailments are all planned for future improvements.

Similar poison skills like Poisonburst and Toxic Growth remain available, and Gas Grenade has a loyal following (especially among Dreamcore players), but Gas Arrow, as a primary skill, deserves better treatment.

If Gas Arrow does receive a damage buff in Patch 1.0, poison-centric builds could become more attractive again, giving players more reason to spend PoE 2 currency to upgrade gear and experiment with different damage combinations.

Acidic Concoction

In PoE 0.5.5, the potion system as a whole was struggling, with Acidic Concoction (formerly Poisonous Concoction) faring the worst.

In earlier versions, potions were indeed powerful: Widowhail, combined with a bow and quiver, increased skill attack speed and overall performance, and Pioneer effect was enabled by default. The current version consumes mana potions, explodes dealing physical damage (instead of the previous chaos damage), and consumes poison upon hitting a target, triggering an acid burst.

The problem is that when the poison damage reaches a certain level, it's usually enough to kill the enemy - making detonating the poison pointless. As a result, this skill is clunky and almost ignored, barely surviving thanks to some obscure mechanics.

Players want the archetype of this skill restored: either Pioneer effect, making the screen explode again, or Widow's Arrow-like item bonus mechanic. This archetype was beloved in the early days of Path of Exile 2 and in Path of Exile 1, and its disappearance would be a real shame.

Spear of Solaris

Spear of Solaris's design was undeniably stunning - summoning Azmeri goddess Solaris to unleash divine beams of skylight - a fantastical concept that was a major draw for players, but it never truly served its purpose in actual combat.

The skill required accumulating Glory through freezing, shocking, or igniting, followed by a lengthy animation: the player leaps backward, hurling the spear into the air, landing approximately three seconds later, dealing massive area damage and creating an ever-expanding burning ground and periodic skylight beams.

Spear of Solaris had a fatal flaw: the monster had to remain completely still throughout the animation; if the boss moved even slightly, all accumulated Glory would be lost. Its only practical use is when enemies are severely stunned or frozen, but most skills will kill them before they even enter that state.

Suggested improvements include making the thrown spear track enemies within a certain range, ensuring it hits regardless of their movement; or changing its effect to a turret-like mechanism, firing downward laser beams that track enemies. Glory mechanic can be retained, but the skill is only worth using if it actually hits a target.

Hexblast

Hexblast's fate has been bumpy. In earlier versions, it was decent; you could curse an enemy and then detonate the curse with a button, causing a chaotic explosion. Then, a cooldown was introduced, eventually leading to its current limitation: it can only detonate curses that have been cursed for at least half their duration.

In PoE 2 Patch 0.5.5, because an enemy must be cursed before using Hexblast, the skill became clunky and had too narrow an application, to the point that almost no one used it.

Reassuringly, DM directly raised this issue with the official lead in an interview, and the lead reportedly admitted they weren't aware Hexblast was so bad - so there might still be hope for improvement.

The simplest, and perhaps best, solution is to completely revert to the earliest version, which was neither strong nor weak - just a decent skill with a clear curse-triggered combo.

This concludes our analysis of the skills most in need of improvement in Path of Exile 2 Patch 1.0. These five skills share the common thread that while their concepts are sound, they are either too weak, have redundant mechanics, are overly restrictive, or are clunky to execute.

As things stand, Patch 1.0 presents the studio with an excellent opportunity to bring these skills to their proper level, and hopefully, they won't disappoint the players.

Whether you have been focusing on Path of Exile 2 0.5.0 or have shifted your attention to 0.5.5 since its release, you have likely reached the endgame by now. At this stage, an ideal build should be both fast and powerful.

If balancing these two aspects proves challenging, and you happen to be a PoE 2 player who prioritizes mobility, then Werewolf Deadeye is a build that will certainly satisfy your need for speed!

In this guide, we will walk you through how to craft this build and explain the scenarios where it performs at its absolute best.

Pros and cons

Werewolf Deadeye is not your typical Path of Exile 2 werewolf build designed solely for maximum damage output. Instead, it excels by combining high-speed melee attacks, critical strikes, and movement speed bonuses, ensuring you maintain peak operational efficiency throughout combat.

Specifically, by stacking Tailwind alongside various passive skill and attack speed bonuses, you can zip through packs of monsters with ease.

Furthermore, the werewolf form allows you to trigger multiple effects through rapid melee strikes. When combined with critical strike chance, critical strike multiplier, and Rage generation, this setup enhances both your sustained damage during regular encounters and your burst potential against bosses.

Of course, these strengths come with trade-offs. For instance, the Werewolf Deadeye requires a solid gear foundation to truly leverage its speed advantages.

Moreover, your survivability relies heavily on evasion, deflection, and life regeneration. This means that if these defensive layers fail simultaneously, you could be taken down instantly by a powerful hit.

Managing resources for Werewolf Deadeye can also be quite complex; insufficient mana regeneration or an inefficient skill socket setup can hinder the build's overall performance.

Consequently, this build is best suited for players who have already established their Path of Exile 2 character and have the means, perhaps by acquiring PoE2 currency, to fully flesh out and optimize their gear setup.

At the very least, you should ensure you are well-versed in the mechanics of the werewolf form before diving in.

Core skills and combat loop

For this build, the utilization of the Werewolf form follows a pattern similar to other Werewolf builds: transform into a Werewolf, initiate combat with a leap, execute Cross Strike, use Lunar Assault to freeze targets, break their defenses, and follow up with another Cross Strike.

In addition to this, Ice Shot and Gathering Winds are essential skills for PoE 2 Werewolf Deadeye build.

Using Ice Shot automatically applies a specific tag to nearby enemies. We recommend choosing the Sniper tag, which allows you to land critical hits on marked targets, granting a significant damage boost while simultaneously generating Rage.

Gathering Winds is a skill from Deadeye ascendancy tree that grants Tailwind effect.

Each stack of Tailwind provides 1% increased movement speed, 2% increased skill speed, and 10% evasion, while also reducing the damage taken from deflected attacks by 1%. This effect can stack up to 10 times.

However, be aware that all these bonuses are lost the moment you take damage. Therefore, it is crucial to stack a high amount of evasion; combined with Werewolf's exceptionally fast attack speed, this supports an all-in playstyle.

Fortunately, your basic attacks can also generate Tailwind stacks, and certain Deadeye passives provide additional stacks. Given your high evasion, you should be able to maintain the maximum number of stacks almost constantly.

Gear setup and other item requirements

While playing PoE 2 Werewolf Deadeye build, you may encounter persistent incoming damage from enemies; this can be mitigated through the use of flasks, and the character also possesses strong innate health regeneration.

The primary challenge you will need to address is a lack of mana, a common issue across many PoE 2 builds. For this specific build, you will need to reach a 100% bonus to mana regeneration.

Fortunately, Regeneration mechanic ensures that running out of mana is rarely a concern. Do note, however, that this requires the consumption of Spirit and necessitates having available sockets for your gear.

To make up for any remaining mana requirements, you should equip Unset Ring to gain an extra socket. It is also highly recommended to unlock a strong talisman to boost your damage output.

If possible, incorporating items like Garukhan's Resolve or Rakiata's Flow, or utilizing Lineage Support Gems, can significantly strengthen the build. That said, Werewolf Deadeye build remains functional even without these additions.

Before you are able to deploy all your spirits via the motoring mechanic, avoid using rare-tier gloves.

Instead, opt for Sine Aequo Grand Manchettes, which provide a 50% bonus to freeze effectiveness, a crucial feature when your damage is not yet high enough to reliably freeze targets.

Since the accumulation of freeze effects depends on your damage output, these gloves not only help you control enemies by boosting your damage but also allow you to freeze them more quickly.

Once your damage is sufficiently high, you can switch to rare gloves to further maximize your offensive potential.

By using Pounce skill in combination with Brutus' Lead Sprinkler morning stars, you can leverage your pack of wolves to gain damage bonuses. Furthermore, Pounce automatically applies Predator's Mark to your targets.

Regarding damage, you should prioritize gear with modifiers such as attack speed, attack damage, critical strike chance, critical strike multiplier, and elemental damage.

Summary

Assembling the aforementioned skills and gear setup requires a significant time investment within the current Path of Exile 2 environment.

Therefore, it is best to focus on accumulating resources first, or perhaps level up other classes while treating this Werewolf Deadeye character as a secondary project.

It is worth noting that Werewolf Deadeye build may struggle to compete in terms of raw power compared to werewolf-themed builds from other classes; its primary appeal lies in its unconventional speed. Keep this in mind when making your choice.

If you enjoy the werewolf aesthetic but prioritize raw damage output, consider crafting a build based on Shaman or Ritualist ascendancies instead.

We hope this overview provides some useful inspiration, and best of luck finding more Path of Exile 2 builds that you truly enjoy before the 1.0 launch!

The crafting system in Path of Exile 2 was supposed to be a time when players' accumulated knowledge and resources translated into tangible gear upgrades. However, patch 0.5.5 has solidified a system that often feels less like crafting and more like a gacha pull with extra steps.

When precious currency disappears, perfect base items are destroyed, and players have almost no control over the final outcome, the entire process becomes a frustrating ordeal rather than a meaningful progression system. As recent community discussions have shown, this isn't just a problem for newcomers - it's a problem faced by all players.

This article provides a detailed analysis of the current issues with the crafting system in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.5 and their potential solutions.

Current Problems

No Guidance or Instructions

The biggest obstacle to Path of Exile 2 crafting system is the complete lack of guidance provided by the game. There are no effective tutorials, no in-game glossary, and no reliable way to understand the meaning of affixes, which attributes they can appear on, or the actual function of any particular crafted item.

New players often struggle with the choice when encountering Transmutation Orbs, Augmentation Orbs, or Exalted Orbs for the first time: use, save, or trade? Experienced players frequently encounter stories like this: some players, starting from Patch 0.1, filled their warehouses with various currency orbs, thinking they should save them for later.

This thinking - perfectly reasonable in most games - has cost them dearly because in PoE 2, currency isn't a reward to hoard; it's the primary means of character progression.

This information gap isn't a minor oversight but a structural flaw. The game requires players to completely leave the client, open Path of Exile 2 database, retrieve the affix list, and cross-reference item levels and affix weights to understand what items can be crafted.

The game doesn't provide players with a reasonable and effective learning path, forcing them to rely on external guides to complete the crafting process.

Randomness Without Tools to Constrain It

The crafting system is essentially built on a series of random events, but the deeper problem isn't the existence of randomness. Randomness is crucial to the crafting system of any action role-playing game; without it, crafting perfect items would be effortless, and the game would lose its sense of progression. The problem is that PoE 2 Patch 0.5.5 offers almost no tools to constrain, manipulate, or cope with this randomness.

In Path of Exile 1, the crafting system, while complex - arguably even more complex than PoE 2 - provided control. Players could lock prefixes, isolate suffixes, use meta-crafting to protect existing affixes, and take controlled risks in a gradual manner. Even experienced craftsmen could examine an item and find ways to improve it, even if that path was costly.

In Path of Exile 2, this path is essentially gone. Orb of Couring has been deliberately removed, meaning players cannot revert items to a white base and start over. The absence of a crafting table also removes the lower bound of certainty, rendering items that were almost craftable useless.

Starting with Patch 0.5, players can only use one crafting affix on an item. This means that an item with two or three good nature affixes is often impossible to complete because adding the last affix is ​​too risky and costly.

Ritual Omens might be a solution, but they are too rare, too expensive, and too limited in used to provide substantial help to the average player. Furthermore, using a single omen doesn't solve the fundamental problem; it simply shifts randomness to another level. Unless players possess an astonishing number of PoE 2 Divine Orb, they simply cannot control the situation.

What Needs to Change?

The future direction is not to remove randomness or make crafting too deterministic. Players don't want free perfect items. What they want is a truly functional system - one where research and investment are rewarded, failure is acceptable, and the game itself provides the information needed to make informed decisions.

First, the game needs a built-in glossary or encyclopedia. Affixes or crafting terms should be underlined and supported on mouse hover. Berserking modifiers should be listed; Amanamu modifiers should have their origins explained. This isn't a step-by-step guide, but basic user interface design. This information already exists in the game data; it just needs to be presented in a more intuitive way.

Secondly, a lower bound on certainty must be restored. Whether through improved crafting tables, more flexible use of essences, or the introduction of entirely new mechanics, players need a way to craft usable items without depleting their currency reserves. Adding a fixed affix slot that doesn't consume affixes would significantly reduce the probability of failure.

Thirdly, Orb of Scouring or similar items should be reinstated. Resetting items and starting over isn't just for convenience; it's a pressure valve. Without it, every crafting failure would be a complete loss, ultimately leading players in PoE 2 to hoard currency and abandon crafting altogether.

This concludes the article on the problems and solutions regarding Path of Exile 2 0.5.5 crafting system. According to player feedback, this system is truly terrible; it requires players to invest a lot of time and currency, but the results are too random. I hope these issues can be resolved in Patch 1.0; otherwise, the cost to players will only increase.