It’s Early Access, so things are moving fast, and after a lot of complaints about some unfair aspects of the Path of Exile 2 endgame (yes, including from me), GGG has stepped in with a major patch that has made a lot of things feel better.
I’ve un-quit and gone back in to test out these changes, and yes, things do feel better in specific ways, though issues certainly remain. I’ll pull out some of the biggest patch notes that I’ve noticed the most while playing:
- Maps no longer have additional elemental resistance penalties inherently applied at Tier 6 and Tier 11 or higher Maps. It is now consistent across all of the Endgame at the same value as it was previously at Tier 1. – Additional penalties to the already hyper-necessary resistance stat felt like overkill when you already have to stack them to cap most of the time. This alleviates at least some of that pressure.
- Critical Strikes from Monsters now deal 40% less bonus Damage. – I believe this has solved part of the issue where certain monsters in even just white mobs could crit and one-shot you at even relatively normal map levels. I’ve certainly seen less of that since this change.
- The ‘Siphons Flask Charges Modifier’ on Monsters now drains ten-times less Flask Charges per second. (This was unintentional). – This was an absolutely insane modifier that would instantly nuke your mana refill or heals. It’s now 10% of what it was and this was so bad it was actually bugged. I’m not wild about mana drain modifiers in general, though, especially on hyper-fast monsters that are always on top of you.
- Less floor coverage of Burning Ground at higher levels, Volatile Crystals disabled, Trailer of Fire, Lightning and Ice affixes nerfed, Volatile Plants explosions do less damage – Grouping all of these together as they are all in the same category, the overabundance of floor effects as a way to kill your character. And do that often extremely quickly with many of them hard to see and/or with the capability to one shot. My vote is that “on death” effects are next…
There are other patch notes, including many for the rest of the game outside the endgame, that you can read here, but in terms of what I’ve personally felt, I think those four are the most significant.
Probably the thing I keep seeing brought up the most is the idea of one portal maps being the standard for the entire endgame. While it’s not impossible to deal with, and it is a “challenge” to a certain extent, a single death tanking an entire run, losing a Waystone (and any loot on the ground still) does not feel great. Nothing wrong with tough maps and enemies. But one wrong move killing the entire level is still hard to wrap my head around, and I’m told this is not even how it worked in PoE 1, which is why some veterans are not fans either. We’ll see if GGG eventually agrees. But yes, this patch has felt good enough to keep me playing.
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