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In 2019, on the stage at ExileCon, the founders of Grinding Gear Games revealed the biggest surprise in Path of Exile’s history to the 1700 fans in attendance live at the Aotea Centre in Auckland and the tens of thousands watching from home.
Path of Exile 4.0, now known as Path of Exile 2, is a giant expansion of Path of Exile that would only build and improve on the years and years of work that had already gone into the project rather than a sequel that would ultimately replace it.
The reception in the Aotea Centre was incredible. But of all the teasers and reveals that were shown off at ExileCon in 2019, one of the biggest reactions from the live crowd was for one feature - Shapeshifting.
Shapeshifting was coming to Path of Exile. It is a massive feature that had been requested for years and years by fans prior to this announcement and in Path of Exile 2, it’s finally going to be a thing.
But how exactly is shape-shifting going to work in Path of Exile? We know that Shapeshifting will be a reservation skill that will allow you to freely switch between human form and the beastial form, the type of which is specific to the Shapeshifting skill gem that you’re using.
Think of stance swapping in Blood and Sand Stance. The reservation was a flat amount similar to vitality and precision when it was shown in the live demo on the stage at ExileCon in 2019. And it’s unclear if there will be ways to augment the shapeshifting skills through the use of support gems other than their reservation costs with things like Enlighten and Arrogance.
But, it’s very possible that Path of Exile 2 introduces new support gems for this type of skill with stats like shapeshifting buff effect, similar to the aura effects that we have in the current game. So, you’d better prepare enough POE Currency for emergencies.
Also Read: Here's Everything We Know About Path Of Exile 2!
But there are going to be ways to augment shapeshifting through the new ascendancy classes. There are 19 brand new ascendancy classes coming to the game with the release of Path of Exile 2. One for the Scion and three for each of the other classes.
And one of those new ascendancy classes is the Beastmaster, a ranger ascendancy with a heavy focus on animal companions and shapeshifting. This class will have unique access to the Werecat Form Skill, a shapeshifting ability that morphs the ranger into a formidable Werecat. This skill will be acquired from the Born to Be Wild ascendancy notable, which also grants 10% more damage while shapeshifted.
While you’re in the Werecat Form, you’ll gain increased Critical Strike chance and some crit multi, too. But the unique interactions with shapeshifting on the Beastmaster don’t stop there. Because the Beastmaster will also be able to spec into Wildshape, a powerful ascendancy notable that grants a 100% increased buff effect to all shapeshifting abilities and perhaps more importantly allows you to retain the shapeshifting buff even when you morph back into human form.
The even crazier part of this notable though is that the developers confirmed that you could retain the buff of a previous shapeshift form while you use a different shapeshift form, essentially allowing you to run two different shape shifts at once and have double buff effects from both of those abilities while you’re actively playing in one of these shapeshift forms.
Imagine keeping the Critical Strike buffs from the Werecat Form whilst actively playing in the tanky Bear Form.
Speaking of the Bear Form, what do we know about the types of shapeshifting abilities that will be available in Path of Exile 2?
We know of the Werecat Form, as mentioned earlier. That one will be exclusive to the Beastmaster. But we also know of the Wolf Form. The developers didn’t talk too much about this one. But they did mention that it will have a focus on increasing damage and mobility.
There’s also the cat form, which will have a movement speed bonus and interactions with phasing and being stealthy. The developers likened it to Aspect of the Cat. And the last form that we know about is the Bear Form.
Now, it was clear from the keynote ExileCon in 2019, they probably weren’t supposed to mention the Bear Form by name. But it did slip out and we only know of a single word used to describe the Bear Form, and that’s tanky.
So, expect some reduced damage taken modifiers and maybe some endurance charge generation or recovery mechanics.
What about the gameplay mechanics of shapeshifting skills? How are they going to factor into how you actually play your character?
Chris Wilson, one of the co-founders of Grinding Gear Games, was very clear that they wanted shapeshifting to feel free and not be clunky to use. So, you’ll be able to change forms at any time, even during the animation of another skill.
He said that “one of the things that we thought was really important to shape-shifting is that you could just change back and forth at any time, walking around in the middle of a skill, whenever, just hit the button and go”. And you can just imagine how amazing this is going to feel to play with. It really goes far in the fluidity of combat and keeping that freedom of movement, similar to the new weapon type that’s also coming in Path of Exile 2, the Spear, which will have new combat movement abilities tied to the weapon itself.
Speaking of weapons, Chris went on to say that “each shapeshifting form can use any regular Path of Exile 2 attack, that makes sense”. But things start to get really crazy here. Because the character that they were showcasing shapeshifting on in the live demo was using a bow and that character was using normal ranged bow attacks and dropping Ballista Totems until they morphed into the Wolf Form and started using Leap Slam and Cleave.
They were using Leap Slam and Cleave with a bow. Now, this technology is actually going to exist on another Ranger ascendancy, the Tactician. This new ascendancy will have a very special notable called Close Combat Specialist, which will allow you to use ax and sword melee abilities with your bow.
And this means that with Chris’s statement, it’s likely that the same sort of technology exists on all shapeshifting abilities as a baseline so that you’re able to use those melee abilities while you’re morphed into the beastial form regardless of which type of weapons you have equipped. That does, of course, pose some potentially ridiculous balance issues. The balance aside is a really fun and interesting prospect.
We just have to talk about that tooltip that was very briefly shown in the demo. This is a level one skill gem, which is why the flat reservation is so low.
But just look at that 50% reduced damage taken stat, I feel that there’s no way this is going to make it into the live release of the game. But even the description hints that the form has some kind of tankiness - “Assume the form of a Mighty Wolf - harder, better, faster, and stronger than that of a Human”.
It’s very possible that all shapeshifting forms will have a baseline defensive layer that may not even be tied to the shapeshifting buff effect itself. And I haven’t even mentioned the 20% increased movement speed and the impact that will have on both the racing community and the general feel of leveling.
Interestingly, while we didn’t wait for Path of Exile 2 to launch, we did wait for Diablo 4, which is also getting a lot of attention. In a few days, Diablo 4 will be officially released. If you want to reduce the tedious leveling process, it would be a good choice to directly buy Diablo 4 Gold. Now, APRG fans, let's do it!
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Since the early access release of Path of Exile 2, players have been discussing its complexity and high difficulty, because it is not easy to understand how the game’s level system interacts with each other, even those who have been exploring the original game for a long time cannot fully understand it.
After POE 2 launched the latest Dawn of the Hunt league a few weeks ago, the addition of many new mechanisms and new content has made players more confused about the game, especially the interaction effects of the three types of charges (Power Charges, Frenzy Charges, and Endurance Charges) and other game resources in Path of Exile 2.
Since the source and casting of Endurance Charges in POE 2 are all related to Warrior build, and with Dawn of the Hunt League bringing the new Smith of Kitava Ascendancy to this class with strong survivability and damage capabilities, this guide will provide an introduction to Endurance Charges for players who focus on this play style.
In fact, you can think of Endurance Charges as a kind of buff effect in POE 2, which will give some auxiliary attacks some buffs. The specific way it works is that you need to obtain some Endurance Charges through the skill gems, support gems, gear and activated passive skill nodes you place in your build, and then use the skills, support gems or gear that can consume this charge to achieve the effect of gaining buffs.
It should be noted here that only gear that clearly indicates that it can interact with Endurance Charges in the item description can participate in this operation. In addition, the three types of charges cannot be interchanged because the interaction effects they have are completely different.
Not only that, the effectiveness of the bonus Endurance Charges is related to the skill that consumes it and the rarity and level of the gear, so here it is recommended that you buy POE 2 Currency to upgrade the important items in your build as much as possible.
As mentioned above, the main way to obtain Endurance Charges in Path of Exile 2 is from the skills of Warrior class, but that is not all. The following are all the specific sources of Endurance Charges and their specific effects.
Once you’ve earned some Endurance Charges, you need to choose the right skills or gear to use them, either for devastating damage or solid defense. Here are the main ways you spend Endurance Charges in POE 2.
Before you start to build the best build for your character, the default maximum number of Endurance Charges you have at a time is 3. However, in actual exploration, this number cannot provide effective benefits for skills or gear that consume high Endurance Charges, so you can try the following methods to increase your maximum Endurance Charges.
The above is an overview of Endurance Charges in the current POE 2 Dawn of the Hunt League and how to use them. I hope you can use this charge that can greatly upgrade your survivability and damage ability to gain a better exploration experience in this new league and rank among the top. I wish you a happy game!
Path Of Exile 2 Dawn of the Hunt League released earlier this month saw a rework of the endgame content that players have been complaining about, such as the introduction of some new map types and rewards. With this major improvement, the best way for players to progress in the endgame and the best maps to use for farming have also changed.
In order to make your farming experience more comfortable and faster after entering the challenging endgame stage, this guide will introduce you to some of the most profitable endgame maps in POE 2 and their farming strategies.
However, it should be noted that the specific farming efficiency and loot quality you have in each map will largely depend on whether you place gear that can improve the quantity or quality of loot in your build, and whether you buy POE 2 Currency to upgrade their rarity and affixes.
First of all, Expedition is the most popular one, as it rewards you with Artifacts and Exotic Coinage that can be traded with Expedition crews who can provide you with rare gear.
You can also use some Recombinators on Expedition NPCs to expand their effectiveness if you want to obtain some POE 2 Items that are more beneficial to your endgame exploration.
Expedition also rewards you with Expedition Logbooks, which can allow you to enter larger and more challenging endgame maps, where there will be some unique boss encounters. After these battles are completed, you will gain some Atlas passive skill points related to Expedition.
Before POE 2 Dawn of the Hunt League made major changes to the endgame, the endgame with Breach mechanic was the most profitable in the game. Although the difficulty and rewards of each endgame activity will be more balanced after the changes, making Breach not so prominent, the rewards it provides are still irreplaceable.
You can find Breach Rings, which are exclusive to Breach mechanic, and double the modifiers you can use when you re-enter Breach endgame map. In addition, Breach Catalysts dropped in this map are an important part of crafting rings and amulets that provide you with high buffs in this extremely difficult game content.
On top of that, you can also collect a lot of Breach Splinters in Breach. Once you have collected 300 fragments, you can place them on Realmgate to enter the encounter with Xesht, We That Are One, a boss who will give you two Breach Atlas Passive Points.
Delirium mirrors, which you often encounter in the main campaign of POE 2 Early Access, contain a lot of monsters that can provide you with a lot of loot. So the maps with Delirium mirrors in the endgame content will be some of the most challenging for you, especially if you invest in some Keystones that can modify the quality or quantity of loot.
Of all the rewards you get from maps that contain Delirium mechanic, Distilled Emotions are arguably the most worth farming, as they can imbue amulets with some powerful passive abilities and buff Keystones with Delirium modifiers, both of which can make your exploration of endgame content much smoother.
Also, like Breach, you can get a ton of Simulacrum Splinters on Delirium map. Once you’ve collected 300 Simulacrum Splinters, you can use them to enter an encounter with Kosis, Revelation boss, or Omniphobia, the Fear Manifest boss. Also, defeating them will earn you two Delirium Atlas Passive Points.
Rituals endgame map contains some Ritual Altars, which are very similar to the altars you encountered in Freythorn during the main campaign of POE 2.
After you complete Ritual Altars, you’ll earn Tributes, which grant you important currency at those completed altars, such as Favors and Omens, which are used to obtain higher-quality loot.
These currencies are all rewards for running Rituals endgame map, and after completing this clearing mission, you’ll receive an Audience with the King, which is required to fight The King in the Mists boss in Crux of Nothingness.
However, it should be noted that this important key is not guaranteed to appear in the loot that appears after your first completion of Rituals endgame map, so you may need to farm it multiple times.
In addition, during your fight with The King in the Mists, since it is a two-stage boss, you may want to spend some POE 2 Currency in advance to make your build more defensive. After you successfully defeat it, you will receive two Rituals Atlas Passive Points in addition to the unique loot it provides you.
The above are the most worthwhile endgame maps to try in the current POE 2 Early Access Dawn of the Hunt League. As long as you have a strong enough build, you can get a lot of benefits from it, such as experience points, loot, and currency rewards, so as to get a better exploration experience. I wish you a happy game!
There are many boss encounters waiting for you in Path of Exile 2 Early Access, some of which you can defeat with just one try, without any special build modifications. But with others, you may need to pay special attention to the encounters you have to experience, such as Mektul, The Forgemaster.
In fact, Mektul, The Forgemaster is not a difficult enemy in the game, but the scenes you face in this arena require you to pay great attention, because you will be subjected to many restrictions. In view of this, many POE 2 builds that have powerful abilities in other exploration scenes need to be specially adjusted for this battle, such as changing support gems or re-selecting some passive and active skills.
However, such adjustments usually come with a lot of time, effort, and POE 2 Currency, so this guide will lighten your load by introducing the location of Mektul, some of the preparations and strategies you should make for him, and hopefully you’ll find the key to truly cracking this encounter.
Mektul, The Forgemaster is located in Molten Vault, which is located in Drowned City, and you need to enter it through Treasures of Utzaal quest in Act 3. Molten Vault is located on the outer edge of the map you are exploring, and you can find it along the edge.
However, it should be noted that due to the unique map refresh mechanism in POE 2, the location of Molten Vault may change every day you explore Drowned City, for example, it may be in the northeast corner today, in the southwest corner tomorrow, etc. So please be patient in your search.
Once you have found the arena where you will fight Mektul, do not enter it yet, but instead interact with the nearest checkpoint. This will allow you to respawn as close to the arena as possible if you lose, and will also allow you to buy POE 2 Currency to increase your build’s defenses, as this encounter will be difficult.
While all of Mektul’s own attacks are not very damaging and are easy to dodge, the key to this encounter is that you need to keep an eye on the lava he releases from his molten furnace, which deals a lot of fire damage and shrinks the area in which you can stand in the arena.
This also means that your fight with Mektul has a time limit, and if you don’t defeat him before the lava consumes you, you will be burned alive by the very powerful lava. Here are a few different attacks that Mektul will currently use on you and some strategies to deal with them.
Mektul will swing one of his hands backwards and slam a small hammer into the ground. Since this move has a backward swing, you can easily tell when the damage will occur and dodge to the side in time to avoid it.
This boss will swipe an axe across your body, but before swinging it, you will see it pull the axe back and hold it tightly in its hand. Again, you can use this prompt to dodge backwards or forwards behind Mektul to avoid this low-damage move. However, be aware that the boss will use this move multiple times in a short period.
If you are in a ranged class and are far away from Mektul, he will jump towards you and slam the ground at the same time. All you need to do is jump in any direction to avoid his attack on you and look for opportunities to attack him from behind.
Also in long-range combat, Mektul will charge one arm back and slam it into the ground. You can think of it as a slower Hammer Slam. However, the damage here is not just stun, but a line of physical damage is formed in front of it, so you need to dodge to the side.
Very similar to Magma Slam, but this move will use Mektul’s axe to slash at you. Although its attack damage is not a high threat to you, the lava it brings will force you to dodge to the side.
When you get tired of fighting Mektul at a distance and gradually walk forward, you will see a lot of scattered stalagmites on the ground. They are usually just used to hinder your movement, but when Mektul roars and flashes orange light, they will be detonated, causing serious damage to you.
If there are multiple stalagmites near you, they are likely to cause super damage to your health. So when Mektul starts roaring and glowing, gets away from the boss and the stalagmites as soon as possible.
When the boss’s health is reduced to about half by you, it will occasionally place its hammer on the ground and you will see a glowing orange circle near it, which will explode after a second, causing moderate damage to you. So avoiding this, stay away from the edge of the circle closest to you.
After being hit by you many times, Mektul may step back a few steps into the lava. Then, after a few seconds, it will slowly walk towards you and let the lava roll along the ground towards you. You can avoid this lava while avoiding the stalagmites that block your way, but at this time, some of its resistances will be strengthened, making it more difficult to defeat.
You may have been told to be patient when fighting bosses in POE 2 Early Access, but your encounter with Mektul, The Forgemaster is the exact opposite. You need to deal as much damage as possible to knock him down as soon as possible, and you also need to have enough dodge or block to ensure your survival.
In addition, no matter which area of the arena you choose to fight in, Mektul will stand in the lava to fight you. So you should retreat as much as possible during the fight to guide the boss away from the lava that is constantly eating you, which will allow you to complete your skill rotation more frequently and deal more damage.
Although your focus in this kind of fight should be to avoid all the attacks that Mektul casts, this will take up time for you to attack him, because each attack is uncertain and most of them are far away from the boss, which means you have to spend time approaching him again.
So the best way is to just avoid Mektul, so that you can deal more damage to him a second or two earlier. The principle of this strategy is mainly because most of the attacks used by Mektul are melee attacks. Avoiding where Mektul is standing is to avoid his attacks.
The above is the current POE 2 Early Access Dawn of the Hunt League’s countermeasures and some strategies for Mektul, The Forgemaster. I hope you can find the key you are missing in this encounter in this guide and complete this battle as quickly as possible to obtain high-quality loot and a lot of currency. I wish you a happy game!
Even the most experienced gamer or critic will not easily claim that he has figured out how to play POE series of games. Whether it is the first or the second part, POE series of games has always been known for its high difficulty and high complexity. To understand each mechanism, you need to invest a lot of time and effort.
Not long ago, Path of Exile 2 early access brought the game’s first league Dawn of the Hunt through the release of patch 0.2.0. This league brought a series of new content, making the already complex game even more difficult to master. But don’t worry, just follow your game rhythm to understand every content you encounter, and you will do your POE 2 work well.
For example, in POE 2, you will gradually encounter and unlock some special buffs, which can provide you with exclusive benefits and help you win battles more smoothly to earn POE 2 Currency, but you may not know how to unlock and use them at the beginning. Based on this, this time we will introduce you to the relevant information of the two buffs, Tailwind and Unholy Might.
Tailwind is a stackable buff that increases your character’s dodge rating, movement speed, and skill speed. Each stack increases movement speed by 1%, skill speed by 3%, and dodge rating by 15%, all of which last for 10 seconds, up to a maximum of 10 stacks.
If your character is a Ranger and Ascendancy class is Deadeye, Tailwind can be triggered by any skill you use, and you can activate Tailwind by using the skill without having to hit the enemy. When activated, Tailwind will visually appear as a strong wind around you.
Before combat begins, you can stack all 10 Tailwind buffs by using skills in succession, provided that you have used them no more than 10 seconds apart. It is worth noting that even weapon attacks that do not consume mana are considered skills in this context, and using them will also activate Tailwind.
In general, skills with low mana consumption and no cooldowns are the best choices for activating Tailwind, as they can be used in succession, such as Lightning Arrow. This type of skill not only outputs high damage, but can also be used infinitely with good mana regeneration and sufficient mana.
In Path of Exile 2, in addition to playing as Deadeye as mentioned above, Tailwind can also be obtained through Black Insignia Corsair Helmet. As long as you are a Ranger and successfully pass the first Trial of the Sekhemas or Trial of chaos, you have a chance to be a Deadeye to unlock Tailwind.
As for Black Insignia, as long as you kill monsters of level 46 and above in the game, you have a chance to get the item drop. However, Tailwind obtained in this way will not be triggered when using skills, but only when you successfully cause a critical hit.
Unholy Might, which is also a buff effect, converts 30% of all damage into additional chaos damage. While this number may seem high, it actually works differently than you think. For example, if you deal 100 lightning damage, 30% of that will be converted to chaos damage, which means you will deal 100 lightning damage and 30 chaos damage - the base damage value will not be converted directly to chaos damage.
This means that if you have an item that increases Lightning Damage by 50% and Unholy Might at the same time, the former will not increase the additional chaos damage from Unholy Might - you will still only deal 150 lightning damage and 30 chaos damage, because even though the lightning damage output is 150, the chaos damage is still calculated based on the base value of 100.
Of course, if you buy POE 2 Currency to add affixes that can increase chaos damage to your weapons or other item, the additional chaos damage will also be increased. So if your chaos damage is increased by 50% through affixes, then your final damage output will be 100 lightning damage + 30 chaos damage + 15 chaos damage.
However, if your base damage type is chaos damage, the scaling value will apply to both the base value and the additional chaos damage from Unholy Might. Given that the base damage type and the additional damage type scale differently, Unholy Might only really work when dealing with a single chaos damage.
Presence in POE 2 refers to the range of effect that Unholy Might takes effect in. Normally this range is 4 meters, but can be increased using range modifiers. These modifiers can be unlocked through Sceptres, Time-Lost Jewels, and certain skills in the passive skill tree, such as Enveloping Essence, Long Distance Relationship, and Profane Commander.
There are two ways to get Unholy Might. The first is to choose Lich as your Ascendancy class while playing as a Witch class. After that, Necromantic Conduit will allow you to gain Unholy Might for you and your teammates within Presence range by losing 5% of your maximum mana per second when you have enough mana.
The second way is to obtain Vis Mortis Plated Raiment Unique Body Armor dropped in battle. This armor will increase your energy shield and maximum mana by 70-100%, and allow your minions to gain Unholy Might - note, it is the minions, you cannot directly gain Unholy Might through this method.
I believe that through the introduction of these two buffs, you should be able to deduce how to obtain and use most other similar buffs, to use them to better complete your Path of Exile 2 missions and campaigns. Have fun!
