New Path of Exile 2 patch notes have arrived courtesy of Grinding Gear Games, and there are some big changes including the rollout for some previously discussed features. The new ARPG has proven fantastically popular so far, selling more than a million copies in early access and consistently standing tall among Steam’s most-played games, proving itself a serious challenger to Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred. However, its early access nature means that there are still plenty of adjustments to be made, and GGG isn’t wasting any time.
The Path of Exile 2 0.1.0d patch includes plenty of major adjustments, as GGG looks to resolve some of the most unbalanced parts of its new RPG. My Path of Exile 2 early access review has plenty of good things to say about the launch, but there have certainly been some balancing inconsistencies that have come to light as more people get their hands on the game. The biggest change in the new PoE 2 patch notes is to trigger gems, a subset of the game’s powerful ‘meta gems.’
These trigger gems can have another skill placed into them and will activate that ability when certain conditions are met. Currently, they include options to do so when applying a certain status effect enough times, such as freeze, ignite, or shock. However, GGG comments that “it was far too easy to use ailments to trigger spells.” The studio explains that balancing the system for both boss fights with a single opponent and regular combat against large groups of enemies has been difficult so far.
To rectify this, trigger gems will now consider both the strength of the effect applied and the power of the monster affected. The first part makes “low level skills with unconditional ailment applications such as Flame Wall” less effective at gaining energy for the trigger gem. The second change means that it will be far easier to activate trigger skills when hitting a unique, powerful monster compared to a normal critter – but, because you typically hit far more of the little guys at once, this should balance out overall.
The previously discussed dodge roll change that reduces your player size to zero units rather than one when rolling has also arrived, allowing you to sneak through even the tiniest gap between enemies, and you can now push smaller monsters out of the way as you dodge. This should dramatically reduce the frequency where you get completely surrounded by a flash mob and are trapped – and yes, those nightmarish beetles in Keth are among those that can now be shoved away.
The Trial of Chaos (referred to in the patch notes by its old PoE 1 name, Ultimatum) has had big balance improvements, with GGG “mostly targeting outliers that were too difficult.” Monster density has been made more consistent, player minions should no longer get stuck at the top of the entrance lift, and dangerous AoE effects should no longer spawn while you’re on a lift or near the altars in the Vaal Soul Core room, which could lead to some nasty, inescapable surprises. That should make getting your second pair of Path of Exile 2 ascendancy points much easier.
There are plenty more smaller tweaks in the remainder of the update, so I’ll pick out the key ones. Passive block chance now correctly applies to hits from all directions (previously it only applied to hits coming from in front, much like the active ‘hold up a shield’ block). Armor Break, meanwhile, now lasts twice as long, making it a much more worthwhile way to open up powerful foes for big damage. The Boneshatter skill now lands more reliably.
Leech has been buffed, meaning you’ll be able to drain more life or mana as appropriate. Both Rain of Arrows and Firestorm now have a limit to how often they can hit, which will prevent them from melting any Path of Exile 2 bosses with very large hitboxes, but should “have little to no impact” on their potency in other cases. Infusion support gems on Herald skills will no longer apply their bonus damage to all attacks, which was causing some particularly potent interactions – they’ll now just affect the Herald skill in question.
Certain issues where players could get stuck in a zone have been resolved, such as the inability to open portals in the Cruel version of The Riverbank. In the endgame, the Atlas passive tree nodes boosting the chance to find higher-tier Waystones wasn’t working in some cases. This is now fixed, which should make your overall map sustain much more consistent and ensure you don’t have to keep dropping back down the tiers.
Path of Exile 2 patch 0.1.0d is out now. You can read through the full notes courtesy of Grinding Gear Games for additional details and further bug fixes. Note that in some cases you may have had certain skills or passive points reset, such as if you were using the Fleshcrafter section of the Path of Exile 2 passive skill tree.
Whether you’re working your way through the campaign’s long list of PoE 2 quests or pushing into the endgame, we’ve got the best Path of Exile 2 builds for the job. And if you’re regretting some of your choices, here’s how Path of Exile 2 respec works.
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