Grinding Gear Games has released a new patch for Path of Exile 2, currently in early access for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. It offers numerous gameplay improvements and changes, including reducing the player’s size to zero while dodge rolling to get between enemies more easily. Certain smaller monsters can also be pushed while dodging, making it easier for players to escape from corners.
Passive block chance will also work against hits from every direction instead of only the front, while Rain of Arrows and Firestorm have a hit-rate limit. The latter is to prevent them from destroying bosses with large hitboxes and shouldn’t affect clear against regular foes. If you found the Magma Barrier modifier on enemies irritating, it now provides less defense.
Ultimatum has been a sore spot since its launch due to its difficulty, which made earning Ascendancy Points much more frustrating. GGG has improved balance with enemies and bosses while reining in the tougher modifiers. Check out some of the patch notes below and full details here.
Head here for more details on Path of Exile 2’s early access. You can also read our review.
0.1.0d Patch Notes
General Improvements and Changes
- Passive Block chance now applies to blockable hits from all directions, as opposed to just hits from in front.
- Player size is now set to Zero units while dodge rolling instead of One unit.
- Some smaller monsters can now be pushed while dodge rolling. This includes monsters such as the Adorned Beetles in Keth.
- Inscribed Ultimatums and Djinn Baryas now display whether you will obtain Ascendancy Skill Points upon completing the Trial of Chaos or Trial of the Sekhemas respectively.
- Removed World Map Pins for encounters that were not from specific locations in Areas. ie. From Monster drops.
- Improved attack in place behaviour.
- Rain of Arrows and Firestorm now have a hit-rate limit to prevent cases of them absolutely obliterating very large bosses. This will have little to no impact outside of boss fights with very large hitboxes.
- Leech has been buffed.
- Boneshatter now more reliably hits your target.
- The duration of Armour Break has been increased to 12 seconds (previously 6).
- To improve performance, Incinerate now creates circular areas of ignited ground instead of segments.
- Added CTRL+Click shortcut to open the Currency Exchange at the appropriate NPCs.
- Added a button to travel to the Trial of Chaos on the world map.
- Added art for Close Combat Support.
- Added 2D art for the Defiance of Destiny Unique Amulet.
- Added “Ascendancy Skill Points” as a keyword, which details how sets of Ascendancy Points are obtained.
- Added search functionality for Gemcutting and vendor inventories when using a controller. Keybinds for searching Stash on a controller have also been updated.
- Added Gemcutting restrictions option for Gamepad.
- Added suggested Supports for Time of Need.
- Updated the suggested Supports for Bonestorm.
- Added an option for opening the Trade website to the main menu for consoles.
- Runes now sell to vendors for more Gold.
- Updated art for Reserved Life and Mana.
- Updated the description on Runes to clarify that once socketed they cannot be replaced.
- Auras and Curses that affect ally or enemy resistances now display values in the Skill popout panel.
- Tweaked the audio of the Kiwi Pets, Chimera Pet, and Baby Crowbell Pet to reduce their impact in town areas.
- Updated the wording on the Invoker’s “…and Protect me from Harm” Ascendancy Passive Skill to clarify its functionality.
- Updated the description on Hexblast to clarify that it only detonates a single Curse per Enemy in its radius.
- Updated the description on Fiery Death Support to clarify that the Supported Skill does not need to kill the ignited enemy itself.
- Reduced the defenses provided to monsters by the Magma Barrier modifier.
- Walking Goliaths no longer use their suicide attack if they are Rare.
Trigger Gems and Energy Gain
Trigger gem energy gain was not in the right place and it was far too easy to use ailments to trigger spells. One problem with the previous system is that if we balanced it to make triggering happen in boss fights then the triggering would happen far too often during clearing. In order to address this we are now making “Monster Power” part of the calculation for energy gain.
This means that it’s far easier to trigger skills from Unique Monsters than it is from normal monsters, but you also hit many more normal monsters when fighting. Another issue was using low level skills with unconditional ailment applications such as Flame Wall to ignite enemies for triggering. In order to make the source of the ignite matter we are making the energy gain be dependent on the strength of the ignite. We have also rebalanced all energy gain across the board.
Ultimatum Changes
- Online Betting
- Generally improved balance across the board with Ultimatum monsters, bosses and modifiers. Mostly targeting outliers that were too difficult and bringing them in line.
- The monster density of Ultimatum encounters has been made more consistent.
- Stormcaller Runes, Blood Globules, Heart Tethers and Impending Doom rings no longer spawn while a player is on a lift or near the altars in the Vaal Soul Core room.
- Fixed a bug where Player Minions could get stuck at the top of the lift in the Trials of Chaos.
