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What Changes Will The Curse Mechanic Bring In Path Of Exile 2?

Oct 25, 2024

With Path of Exile 2 Early Access set to launch on November 15, many exiles are beginning to look at how this new sequel will differ from POE 1 and how they will affect the gameplay.

Here, we will talk about the changes to Curses mechanic in POE 2 to help you prepare before entering the game. Whether you are a new player interested in the upcoming POE 2, or an old player who has been familiar with every league since POE 1, this guide will make you gain something. Let’s get started!

How Does Curses Mechanic Work?

Curses are the ability to apply debuffs. These debuffs are usually composed of basic modifiers, such as Chaos-type Curse effects, which reduce the target’s Chaos Resistance, making it more vulnerable to that type of damage, or increase the damage taken under certain conditions or against a specific type of attack.

By default, a character is limited to a maximum of one curse, which means that they can only apply one Curse to each target. If you attempt to apply another Curse to an already Cursed target, the system will automatically remove the oldest Curse to make way for the new one. However, if you want to apply multiple Curse effects at once, you are not helpless, as Curse limit can be increased through Passive Skill Tree or modifiers on equipment.

What Changes Will The Curse Mechanic Bring In Path Of Exile 2?

Curse Skill Changes

Now, in Path of Exile 2, there are two very big functional changes to Curse skills besides the changes to Curse skills themselves.

Marks Will No Longer Be A Curse Skill

Let’s start with Marks. Mark skills are a type of Curse skill in Path of Exile 1, and they can essentially be thought of as single-target Curses with powerful effects.

But Mark skills also have their own unique mechanics in POE 1. For example, Mark skills are limited to one application per target, and you cannot have multiple Marks on the same target at the same time, even if Curse limit is increased to more than its default limit of 1. If you try to move that Mark to another target, Mark on the previous target will be automatically removed.

On top of that, Mark skills also have no duration, or rather, infinite duration, compared to standard Curse, which has a fixed duration by default.

However, the first major functional change is that Mark will no longer be a Curse skill in POE 2. This now means that using a Mark skill will no longer count towards a character’s Curse limit. So you won’t even have to invest any POE 2 Currency to increase your Curse limit, and your character will be able to use both Curse skills and Mark skills at the same time.

But it seems that Mark skills themselves are also being changed for Path of Exile 2. In terms of their unique mechanics, they will now have a duration, and judging by Sniper’s Mark skill leaked so far, they may have more temporary effects that can cause a Mark to end early and provide a reward.

In this case, the next critical hit may have a higher critical damage bonus and provide Frenzy Charges to the character before Mark effect expires.

Curse Skills Have Activation Delays

Now, the second major functional change to Curse mechanic in POE 2 comes in the specific way that Curse skills activate on targets in the game. Curse abilities have an activation delay for a short time after casting before they actually take effect.

Some of you may remember Doomsday Keystone that existed for a while in Path of Exile 1. Doomsday was a Keystone Passive ability that modified Hex spells. When a Hex spell is cast, instead of applying a curse that increases Doom over time, the spell creates a Hexed Area that lasts for 1 second. Enemies in Hexed Area are cursed, and after 1 second Hexed Area disappears, applying maximum Doom to enemies standing in it.

Path Of Exile Doomsday Keystone

Although Doom mechanic has gone with this Keystone, we don’t know if the activation delay will still be 1 second in POE 2. But it’s essentially a very similar concept, with the main difference being that in POE 2, outside of Curse ability description, the target is not cursed until the activation delay is over.

One of the only other things that mentions an activation delay is Whispers of Doom, which will be a Keystone for Path of Exile 2. This keystone increases the character’s maximum curse limit by 1, but doubles the activation delay for curses, so curses you cast on yourself take longer to actually take effect.

How To Improve The Activation Delay?

But how to avoid the drawbacks of this keystone by bypassing the activation delay?

Blasphemy Support is another returning mechanic. In PoE 2, it will be a persistent buff, and each Socketed Curse will retain Spirit to apply these curses as Aura around your character, which has great synergy with Whispers of Doom.

Another skill that has amazing synergy with Whispers of Doom is a Hand of Chayula, a utility attack skill that applies a Socketed Curse and Marks it upon hitting a target, with increased effect.

Curse Debuff Changes

Now in terms of the effects that Curses actually apply in PoE 2, so far we only know of a few that have changed, and Despair and Temporal Chains seem to have the same effects as in PoE 1, although we haven’t seen specific numbers yet.

Meanwhile, for Vulnerability, it is still a way to increase physical damage, but it will now be more target-specific, as it will do so by reducing armor rather than causing the target to take more physical damage.

In short, the above is what we currently know about the changes in Curse mechanism in POE 2 and how we can deal with it. Of course, nothing is certain until the game is released. So let us look forward to the arrival of Path of Exile 2!

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