A Path of Exile 2 update today rolls out sweeping changes in response to player , but that’s just the start. Developer Grinding Gear Games has already announced a new set of adjustments that are due to arrive midway through next week. As it attempts to recover from a reception that saw recent Steam reviews briefly dip into ‘mostly negative,’ the studio’s new Path of Exile 2 patch notes include further changes to crafting, totems and endgame maps. GGG even relents on one of its early decisions as it offers players a way to respec ascendancy.
Things won’t stop there, however; while it awaits on this first round of fixes, GGG details a new list of changes it’s aiming to deploy in a server-restart patch that is expected to land midway through next week (likely around Wednesday April 16). The most significant of these is the ability to respec your Path of Exile 2 ascendancy. A much-requested feature that the developer was initially resistant to, it’s now been made possible, although “it does require some level of effort.”
Once the new patch arrives, you’ll be able to respec by completing an ascendancy trial, but only if it would grant you the number of points you already have. Once you have removed your allocated points, you can respec at Balbala or the Trialmaster next to the ascension device. Additionally, seven-chamber Ultimatum trials can now be tackled at level 55 (down from 60) and ten-chamber Ultimatums can be taken on at level 65 (down from 75).
Alongside this comes a very welcome change to tower and hideout maps in the endgame. Both will now spawn extra rare monsters, and will grant you an extra waystone from defeating the final rare in accordance with other map types. You won’t need to do this to complete the zone, but it will ensure that you can more easily sustain your map progress.
Totem builds are getting a welcome change, with totems gaining elemental resistances from gem level 15 and increa to 75% at level 20. This should help them survive into the endgame, and you can gain additional maximum elemental res from the Ironwood gem. For crossbow s, the Shard Scavenger buff will now also restore one cooldown use for all your grenades and prevent your crossbow attacks from consuming bolts for two seconds.
A few more quality-of-life changes round out the patch. Following the introduction of rune tiers in Dawn of the Hunt, lower-tier runes will now be removed from the drop pool as better ones become available. You’ll also be able to add sockets to Scepters, with some Talismans gaining minion-related mods to use on them. Finally, a new skill tab on the gemcutting window will show all of your currently equipped gems, making it easier to find off-class skills when you want to level them.
GGG notes that “these are not the only changes we are investigating,” so expect additional tweaks to appear by the time the patch arrives next week. For now, however, there’s plenty to experiment with in the current update, which has at the time of writing pulled the ARPG back from the ‘mostly negative’ brink with recent Steam reviews recovering slightly to ‘mixed.’
If you’ve yet to give it a try, you can enter our Path of Exile 2 builds before deciding what you want to play as.
You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with of the team and fellow readers.