Path of Exile 2 News

What exciting news! As a long-time fan of Path of Exile 2, the next season update you’ve been waiting for is coming.

Grinding Gear Games has officially announced the name of the season update, Dawn of the Hunt, as well as the official release date for Path of Exile 2 patch 0.2.0. The official release date is April 4, but it will be revealed live on March 27.

New Content

Why is 0.2.0 different from many other patches released before it? Since the release of Path of Exile 2 in Early Access, there have been many patches released. But they are so small, mainly balance fixes and small updates.

But 0.2.0 will bring a lot of new content, including new end-game content, new weapons, new Ascendancy classes, and many new items. And if nothing unexpected happens, you will lose a lot of Path Of Exile 2 Currency to get all this new stuff. It’s a necessary sacrifice.

In addition, if you have been paying attention to its series of trailers in the past month, you may have seen previews of some new unique items, such as Bringer of Rain Helmet and Hammer of Faith two handed weapons. The appearance of these new weapons is bound to create more possibilities for your build, and I guess you can't wait to get them.

However, like before, the drop rate of these unique items may still be very small, and sometimes you may need to kill the most difficult Uber bosses to find them. So if you want to find them as soon as possible after the update, you must be prepared to optimize your equipment, especially by consuming POE 2 Exalted Orbs to re-roll the cooldown recovery on the equipment and modifiers such as mana cost are crucial.

In addition, previews of new auxiliary gems and changes to Passive Skill Tree system have also been released. We also saw the artwork of one of the new Ascendancies, although we don’t know its name at present. What’s more worth mentioning is that a more convenient function has appeared. POE 2 revealed a function that can save different weapon sets to switch between them more easily.

Developer Live

There’s also good news. Grinding Gear Games will be broadcasting live at 3 pm EST on March 27, revealing all the contents of the major update POE 2 0.2.0.

If you don’t have time to watch the live broadcast, it’s possible to watch the replay on Path of Exile Twitch channel. And it will be released on PC and consoles at 3 pm EST on April 4.

Keeping Mystery

You may not know much from the trailer of Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt, because it retains some mystery and doesn’t reveal much information, but you can extract an important clue from the trailer.

The trailer shows someone sneaking in the woods, probably hunting. And the name of this update is called Dawn of the Hunt, from which we can boldly speculate that the new Ascendancy class may be Druid and Huntress.

Just the trailer can show how important this update is. I dare not imagine how exciting the content of the official release will be. Looking forward to the arrival of the next update.

The most interesting news about POE 2 frontline experience at the moment is probably the 0.2.0 patch that will be released on April 4. The other patches of Path of Exile 2 before this have been aimed at maintaining the stability and balance of the game. As one of the most important patches before the official version is launched, 0.2.0 Dawn of the Hunt is expected to bring many important new content.

But in fact, in addition to these new content, you should also pay attention to the fact that when Dawn of the Hunt is launched, your original POE 2 characters may no longer be used, and you must create new characters from scratch to enter Acts 4 to 6 - you can think of this as an economic reset.

Dawn Of The Hunt Overview

Since its launch on December 6, 2024, Path of Exile 2 early access has only had the “standard” league, rather than a more formal league like the first part. Therefore, the first thing patch 0.2.0 does is to develop a new season or name the existing season (perhaps Dawn of the Hunt). In this way, the sequel will operate closer to POE 1, making the two games more closely connected.

In addition, the new content in this update includes:

• New Ascendancy classes
• New weapons and unique items
• Support gems and skill tree changes
• Weapon set swapping
• Endgame enhancements

The Significance Of Economic Reset

Although the release of patch 0.2.0 will cause you to go through the campaign and character upgrade process again, you have already played again, and in the absence of any existing POE 2 Currency, the plot of the fourth act and more acts is brand new after all, and you can get freshness by exploring it.

In this way, most players, including you, will be more motivated to continue working hard in Dawn of the Hunt, thereby ensuring that the economic development of the updated POE 2 will be better, and can also avoid problems caused by changes in atlas passives and passive skills.

In short, although the economic reset of patch 0.2.0 will increase your workload, it is a necessary step before the official version of Path of Exile 2 is launched, because it can help test whether the new act and other new content are stable. Let us look forward to Dawn of the Hunt on April 4!

When the developer announced that the update of POE 3.26 would be continuously delayed due to the patch update of POE 2, it caused dissatisfaction and complaints by a large number of players. In their opinion, as old players of POE 1, they were not taken seriously by the developer. However, the updates of various patches of POE 2 attracted many new players, who said that this game really meets their various requirements.

Since the developer has launched POE 1 and POE 2, why can't it continue to consolidate the original fan base, but attract more new players? This is a question worth thinking about. Moreover, various discussions and competitions between old and new players have also caused the game to be in a controversial state. Is it that the old players of POE 1 are unwilling to try new games, or that the number of new players of POE 2 is high?

The Uniqueness And Shortcomings Of Path Of Exile 1

Many old players said that it was not that they were unwilling to try new games, but that POE 2 really could not allow them to invest a lot of time, which was simply a torture for them. Because when I played POE 1 before, I was attracted by the diversity and creativity of the game's builds, but I lost a lot in POE 2. And although there are also multiple builds in POE 2, they are basically heros, stackers, or builds that combine the styles of the two, which greatly reduces the players' choices and is the main reason why they still stick to POE 1.

And compared with POE 2, the biggest difference of POE 1 is the difficulty. Players have always believed that the endgame of POE 1 is very fair, even balanced. In addition to having a more balanced endgame, players don't need to meta build at all, because it supports players to fine-tune the difficulty of the endgame. This not only increases the player's chance of winning to a certain extent, but also allows many players to dare to challenge. After all, if some players hear that the endgame is difficult, they will lose confidence at the beginning and cannot perform better in battle.

Although POE 1 has received support and praise from many players, there are still many problems in the game. For example, although players prefer the janky combat in this game, it is a relatively poor presentation for the developer. In addition, many players said that even though the addition of wasd changed the rules of the game, it aggravated their hand pain, which forced them to find a break between games.

Features And Shortcomings Of Path Of Exile 2

In fact, compared with the original work, POE 2 seems to be far superior to it at one point, the developer’s attention. Even though POE 2 has not been officially launched, the developer released POE 2 Early Access in order to harvest the fan base in advance, and used this to promote POE 2. Moreover, in the face of various problems that occurred after the release, it also actively repaired and updated. At this point, the original work really lost miserably. Even with the support of fans, it was still indifferent to the developer.

In order to improve the feelings and experience of new players, the developer is about to launch new Ascendancy Classes and items to increase the players’ options and to a certain extent increase the players’ chances of defeating the bosses. In addition, the developer has also held many official activities, which not only allow players to easily get additional POE 2 Divine Orbs and various rewards, but also continue to expand the influence of the game. It is shown that Path Of Exile 2 has made developers achieve huge economic success, which makes many peer developers envious.

However, can POE 2 be considered successful in this way? It is too superficial. Even if it is highly valued by the developers, it has lost the most important cornerstone-old players. Many new players said that they were forced to choose POE 2 because other games were too boring or they did not like the game mechanism. Therefore, if a game mode they like more appears in the future, they will decisively give up the sequel.

Moreover, many players said that they have invested a long time in the game, but still cannot see any progress. All the battles are too repetitive and do not give players a refreshing feeling. They feel like a robot, mechanically repeating the game, and even think that playing this game is a waste of time.

We don’t know which side will win in this silent battle. But whether it is new or old players, they definitely hope that their voices can be heard and that the games they like can get better. I believe that as long as developers can take the voices of various players seriously and make appropriate adjustments to the game, it will definitely be loved by more players.

In Path of Exile 2, your talent tree offers a variety of options that you can use to enhance everything about your build. Most of these are generic affixes that increase damage types, but a few may provide unique bonuses to their final core talents. Others offer huge powers, such as the keystone talent nodes you find at the edge of the talent tree. As you level up, complete side quests, and advance the story, you will earn more talent skill points.

The exact passive skills available at the beginning of the tree vary depending on your starting class. Once you start from your starting position, you can traverse the entire talent tree, and it’s the same tree for all classes! This allows for a lot of customization possibilities in your build, allowing you to change the behavior of skills or create some crazy melee Sorceress builds! Allocating talent points is not a permanent choice! If you regret any of your decisions, or just want to change your build, you can spend gold to reset your talent tree.

Talent Tree

Talent tree nodes are divided into four major categories:

• Attribute nodes: Give you the option to increase Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence.
• Minor nodes: Provide small bonuses, such as increased fire damage.
• Major nodes: These passives appear at the end of a series of minor talents and provide more substantial bonuses, such as a high increase in lightning damage and a chance to reduce enemy lightning resistance.

Keystone nodes: Are unique passives that have powerful effects and are often the core mechanics of a build. For example, a keystone talent might fix health at 1, forcing you to build around energy shields instead of health.

Talent trees also generally follow the theme of attributes. Intelligence is related to lightning and spells, Dexterity is related to frost and projectiles, Strength is related to fire and melee, and these associations are not isolated, and the types of talent groups mix together as you move closer to or away from each quadrant of the talent tree.

Keystone nodes have a much greater impact on build creation than POE 1. Keystone nodes have stronger benefits than before, and more severe negative effects than before.

Weapon Specialisation

You can further customise your build using Path of Exile 2’s weapon specialisation system. Weapon specialisation is easy to use for new players, easy to use for veterans, or for anyone who wants a themed build, like a Witch Hunter with a crossbow and a melee weapon! If you don’t want to use 2 weapon sets right away, just use weapon specialisation points as extra talents!

Weapon specialisation is a way to switch talent points based on your primary weapon dynamically. You earn these talent points by levelling up and completing quests during the campaign.

Book of Specialisation is your key to unlocking weapon specialisation, which you’ll need to earn by defeating some optional bosses and completing side quests.

Resetting Talent

Resetting your talent tree is easier than ever! Resetting talents doesn’t require a currency like POE 2 Exalted, you only need gold. It drops everywhere in the game and also acts as a ‘tax’ for using currency. If you make a mistake with a talent, or want to try a new skill or talent combination, just find the mysterious Hooded One in Act 1.

Here you can spend gold to reset your talent points. The reset price is dynamic, and the cost changes with level and how many points you have allocated in the talent tree. This means you can reset your talents earlier and easier than in POE 1. You also get a 50% discount when resetting attribute nodes, so don’t be afraid to choose a new route on the attribute nodes to explore!