Get ready to embark on an all-new adventure as we take you through a comprehensive guide on what to expect from Path of Exile 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the beloved Action Role-Playing Game. Garnering immense interest since its announcement at ExileCon 2019, PoE 2 promises a host of new features, engaging gameplay mechanics, and an expanded universe that promises to reshape the landscape of the genre.
This article draws from the pool of exciting information shared at the annual ExileCon 2023, the event that stands as a beacon for Path of Exile fans worldwide. With developers and gamers gathered under one roof, ExileCon serves as the definitive platform for detailed game revelations, vibrant discussions, and sharing of community content. Our journey today is to distill this information into a comprehensive overview of what lies in wait with the upcoming release of PoE 2. The following information is presented as a list of the most notable and global changes planned to be featured in the new game.
Lastly, we are thrilled to announce that the wait won’t be long. Path of Exile 2 is set to launch on June 7th, 2024. Fasten your seatbelts as we delve into what the future holds for this monumental sequel.
POE 2: From The Original Announcement To Today
Path of Exile 2 has seen a transformative journey since its first announcement at ExileCon 2019. Four years of hard work and rigorous development have resulted in a project of an unprecedented scale, transcending the initial concept of an expansion of the original game.
The announcement in 2019 painted PoE 2 as an extension of the first installment, promising entirely new story acts while retaining a shared endgame experience. The idea was to fuse the communities of both games, providing a cohesive experience where players need not abandon the original Path of Exile.
However, the magnitude of the enhancements brought to Path of Exile 2 propelled it to stand as a separate entity rather than merely an extension. The sequel now boasts a vast array of new elements – fresh monsters, skills, mechanics, classes, and more, symbolizing a new generation of action RPGs.
Despite these changes, the creators at Grinding Gear Games are committed to preserving the original Path of Exile experience for their loyal fanbase. As such, PoE 1 and PoE 2 will coexist as distinct projects, each hosting its own separate leagues. A shared element between the two will be the microtransactions such as support packs, stash tabs, skins, visuals, and more. This strategy ensures that purchases made will be valid across both games.
The evolution of Path of Exile into its impressive sequel represents a step forward in the realm of ARPGs, offering an enriched and modern gaming experience while respecting the roots of the original game.
As Jonathan explained:
New Game, New Content
The gameplay trailer preceding the live demo demonstrated that new classes are now added to the sequel. Besides that, the trailer confirmed the following:
- The unique art style is back with even more impressive locations set in various new biomes featuring 100 distinct environments
- 600 new monsters
- 100 new bosses
- 1500 passive skills
- 36 Ascendancy classes
- 240 active skills
- 700 equipment types
- 6-person co-op mode
New Classes
In Path of Exile 1, there are 3 pure classes, one per each of the core attributes:
- Marauder – Strength
- Ranger – Dexterity
- Witch – Intelligence
And 4 hybrid classes, one per combination of attributes:
- Duelist – Strength + Dexterity
- Templar – Strength + Intelligence
- Shadow – Dexterity + Intelligence
- Scion – Strength + Dexterity + Intelligence
When designing new abilities for Path of Exile 2, the developers realized that they don’t align well with the established roster of classes, so they decided to create entirely new classes to be able to explore new mechanics and themes. As such, PoE 2 now has 2 classes associated with each attribute combination:
- Strength – Templar and Druid
- Dexterity – Ranger and Huntress
- Intellect – Shadow and Monk
On top of that, each class now has 3 Ascendancy classes which players will be able to use to put more emphasis on certain build mechanics. Regarding starting points on the Passive Skill Tree, all pairs of classes start in the same node. Quest rewards will always provide something for both classes in the pair, but players are still free to experiment and equip any items and gear without limitations. The ability to mix and match gear and weapons from different classes has always been the staple of PoE, and it’s preserved in the sequel, offering even more possible combinations.
Our next articles will be dedicated to new classes, such as Monk and Sorceress, so stay tuned for those!
Combat Changes
Everything in the sequel looks quite familiar. However, even the basic things, such as combat, have been reworked and improved. For instance, there’s now much more emphasis on mobility during fights. Almost all melee-focused skills now have some kind of mobility effects applied. As you will explore in our future articles, some classes, like Monk, are designed with movement-based playstyle in mind.
Furthermore, active skills direction can be changed mid-cast. It means that when you cast something, you’re still able to move your mouse cursor around, and the skill will hit whichever direction you choose by the time the casting of that skill (or the animation, rather) is done.
Some class skills have conditions and mechanics that resemble combos. For instance, you’ll be building up stacks or charges and then spending them on a more powerful version of the finishing move with more area of effect and greater damage.
Certain skills have a push-back effect that depends on the size of a monster, meaning you won’t be able to push a giant far away.
Dodge Roll Your Problems Away
Throughout the demo, anyone watching could notice how the monk is casually rolling around.
GGG added a dodge roll to every character that’s accessible by pressing a Spacebar. What’s more, there is no cooldown and hence no limitations to how and when players can use it! On top of that, the dodge roll can be used to cancel any skill mid-use. When using this dodge roll, you’re not invulnerable.
However, any melee attacks and projectiles coming your way will always miss. That, of course, won’t work with an AoE attack, which you’ll just need to escape.
Bosses Can Be Crowd-Controlled
In Path of Exile 2, bosses can be frozen just like other enemies, a feature that was missing on purpose in the first game. Other crowd control mechanics can also be applied to bosses who now have a hidden meter that players will need to build up to proc the desired effect.
While fighting the boss called Blackjaw, The Remnant, during the live demo, you could clearly see how useful and impactful all of these combat changes are. However, Mark Berts still died right in front of a huge audience, proving once again that PoE is retaining its hardcore nature when it comes to difficult boss fights. Thankfully, the second time the boss was defeated (Mark was visibly sweating during that fight).
There will be many optional bosses in the world of PoE 2, and they will all drop a permanent stat boost for your character.
The New Dedicated Resource
One of the more interesting and unique mechanics present in the current iteration of Path of Exile is the Mana reservation. Buffs and some other abilities can be turned on in your build at any time, but they will take away from your Mana pool and reduce the maximum amount of MP you can have and use. While it is quite a unique take on using Mana in games, it’s easy to see the pitfalls of such design decisions. This is why the sequel has introduced a brand-new resource called Spirit that handles the mana reservation. Now, all mana-reserving auras, minions, and buffs will use this dedicated resource to work. Needless to say that the announcement of Spirit Resource has been met with applause. Every class will start with 100 Spirit by default, which can be further increased through the Passive Skills Tree, mods, gear, etc.
Default Weapon Attacks
It is a bespoken rule to replace the basic weapon attack with something more useful along the way in games like PoE. This goes double for casters and their magic range weapons like Staffs, Wands, etc. But in Path of Exile 2, every casting weapon now comes with a random skill that the weapon will cast as a basic attack! It could be something as trivial as a Fireball or something with more utility. For example, during the demo, we saw a Staff with a spell called Unleash. The way this spell works is once you activate it, any spell you use next will triple-cast!
New Uncut and Meta Gems
Gems form the basis of PoE, and in the second game, the developers are taking a step further by introducing the Uncut versions of Gems. Instead of giving you pre-determined skills with uncut gems, you’re actually free to assign any skill you want to that gem via the Gemcutting interface.
Metagems is another new type of gem. This kind comes with its own slots for Gems. That’s right, you can slot Gems into Gems for some crazy skill combos!
Weapon Swapping is Now Huge!
Another commonly known yet relatively overlooked and useless mechanic is the ability to carry more than one set of weapons and being able to switch between them at any moment. In reality, this is never used in creating builds, simply because every build always focuses on a particular set of weapons, and there’s no need to switch.
Another PoE design dead end that has been explored in the sequel is that when you specialize in one type of effect (like ice or lightning), it would never react with any other type of effect. Basically, you always prioritized one particular type of CC effect.
Now, in Path of Exile 2, if you equip two weapons, then go to the Skill Gems interface, you can actually select which skills are activated using specific weapons you have equipped. Therefore, you can always make sure you use the best suitable weapon with the best bonuses to cast specific skills or spells. So, whenever you cast a particular spell, your character will automatically switch to the right weapon it is enabled.
But there’s more! You can now specialize in multiple types of effects on your Passive Skill Tree. Thanks to Weapon Set specific points, you can allocate said points to any passives you like for each of the weapon sets. When you switch your weapon set, the Passive Skill Tree will automatically reassign points into different nodes based on the active weapon set! Even when you cast a skill, your passive skills will readjust on the fly.
New Energy Shield Mechanics
The energy shield can now have skill gems inserted into it. Your entire shield pool would be separated into several chunks, and when enemies deal enough damage to bypass a certain threshold, a specific skill will be cast automatically.
Gold is Coming to PoE 2
The biggest thing that hasn’t been mentioned during the Keynote presentation or talked about to any extent during the live demo was the fact that monsters now drop gold! As you might already know, Path of Exile features an interesting trading system where the tradable currencies are the upgradable items of various rarities such as Shards, Vials, Fragments, and more. The deeper into the endgame you are, the rarer the used currency will be.
The addition of gold is merely targeted to improve the feeling of gratification after killing a monster. Because if you kill a monster and it doesn’t drop anything, it feels bad. At the same time, making a rare item to drop after each monster is impossible. In this sense, gold works perfectly. Still, the game’s economy will not be based on around it. Instead, gold will be most useful during the walkthrough of the campaign Acts and in cases where you know you need to up some of your resistance stats by buying something from vendors. Or you could use it for gambling – buy a base type of an item that holds a random rarity of the item. This would be one of the ways of getting Unique items.
Summary
Path of Exile 2 is set to make its mark with an array of fascinating changes and improvements revealed at ExileCon 2023. After four years in development, the sequel to the popular action RPG, Path of Exile has evolved from an expansion to a standalone game with completely new mechanics, classes, and monsters. It’s a significant departure from the original, no longer featuring shared endgames but retaining the microtransaction aspects. The sequel introduces new gameplay features, classes, and greatly improved skill systems while enhancing combat dynamics. Other additions include a new resource called Spirit, a unique gem system, enhanced weapon swapping, an updated energy shield mechanic, and even the introduction of gold as a reward for killing monsters. The game, teeming with innovations and improvements, is all set to release on June 7th, 2024. But for now, stay tuned for more articles covering other aspects of PoE 2, such as an in-depth look at some of the new classes, character skills, and more!
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