Last week, Path of Exile 2 Early Access, which has been at the forefront of the storm since its release, released a major update Patch 0.2.0 Dawn of the Hunt, which added a lot of new game content, such as the new Huntress class, new Ascendancies and a large amount of new endgame content, and most importantly, brought a new league to players.

While adding these new additions to the game, Grinding Gear Games also weakened some of the original classes, skills and gains in order to ensure fairness and justice in the game. The purpose is to bring the thrilling movie-like campaigns of POE 2 to a wider audience and promote the release of its own 1.0 full version.

In this case, some builds that are frequently used by players in the three months after the release will also be affected by the weakening. This guide will show you which builds will no longer be strong in the new leagues after this POE 2 Patch 0.2.0, and which previously unremarkable builds will become more prominent, so that you can make it easier in the future.

General Nerfs

We will start with the general adjustments. Now you are more vulnerable to freeze and shock ailments in combat, but it takes longer to accumulate and stack when you inflict this damage type on the enemy. In addition, when you are hit by an enemy attack that causes heavy stuns, the duration you suffer will be tripled and cannot be blocked or dodged.

So, in most cases, you will definitely die if you are hit by such an attack. The only way to get out of this situation is to buy POE 2 Currency to enhance your mobility and defense before the battle to ensure that you can successfully pass this painful stage.

Not only that, the base duration of Endurance, Frenzy, and Power Charges has been reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds, which means that you will have a harder time stacking them during combat and casting higher damage capabilities.

Skills that provide buffs to allies around you also have a significant reduction in radius of presence, which you can see visually change by hovering over the relevant skills.

A look at some of the changes made to POE 2’s massive passive skill tree: the twelve Jewel sockets that could provide you with some big buffs in the endgame have all been removed, making the more difficult game content more challenging.

Note that you can use the command /reclaimjewels in the chat interface with other players to retrieve all the gems you have equipped. Meanwhile, the previously popular Eldritch Battery Keystone, which converts energy shields into mana, will greatly increase your mana consumption during combat, making its usable value much lower.

The nerfs to the passive skill nodes of Falcon Technique, Master Fletching and Spaghettification will also have a big impact on the current player’s build, more or less reducing their own offensive and defensive capabilities.

Advanced Nerfs

In addition to the usual minor tweaks above, there are some changes that have a direct impact, such as Archmage being severely nerfed and the number of projectiles produced by Spark being greatly reduced, so builds that used to be efficient at clearing endgame maps with these two skill gems in previous game content may have a problem surviving in the new Dawn of the Hunt league.

Flame Wall, one of the players’ favorite auxiliary skill gems before, has now received a significant nerf in the additional damage caused by the projectiles fired when traversing high-level maps. Therefore, many players reasonably suspect that it may be more suitable for leveling builds after Patch 0.2.0, rather than endgame builds.

Decompose skill, which you can get from Corpsewade unique boots, now deals much less poison damage than before, and the range of damage is also reduced.

Additionally, the skills that summon Minions have been significantly impacted: they now deal more damage and have more health when facing higher-level enemies, which means they may not be viable enough to support you through endgame content.

Changes to skills like Cast on Minion Death will significantly hurt the combat power players get when using a Summon Raging Spirits build, as it generates less Spirit each time it is cast, and our skill casting speed and frequency will also be negatively affected.

What’s more, Scepters can now only increase all Levels of all Minion Skills by 4 levels, which is a lot less than the previous maximum. On top of that, the quality of these skills will no longer be multiplied by the amount of Spirit they can provide, which will make builds using minions much less capable of endgame expansion.

The above are some of the nerfs made to the existing game content in the current POE 2 Early Access Patch 0.2.0 Dawn of the Hunt released some time ago. At the same time, we will keep tracking some skills, gems or builds worth trying after the patch is released.

Although the original intention of this change is to promote the fair and just game that players feel in it, judging from the comments on some player communities and social platforms, players want the adjustment to be as a smooth curve, which will give every player enough opportunities to explore Atlas in depth, rather than this cliff-like change. I wish you a happy game!

The biggest news in the gaming world recently is that the much-anticipated Path of Exile 2 Early Access has launched its first major update, Dawn of the Hunt, which brings a lot of new game content to players, such as the new class Huntress and a whole set of new skill gems built for it.

This latest addition, Huntress is based on agility and excels at using a spear and a small shield as its weapons. Its position on the passive skill tree of POE 2 is the same as the recently redesigned Ranger, but Huntress will play more of a role in initiating attacks and retreating at the end of the battle, as it can switch between melee and ranged attacks at will.

For players who want to build a spear-based Huntress, there are many new skills to consider. Huntress has multiple build specification options, even sticking with spear skills, elemental options such as Lightning Spear, melee bleed skills such as Slash, and many heavy stun-related skills that work with Huntress’s blocking mechanism. For those who don’t know what to choose first, these are the best spear skills added to Path of Exile 2’s Dawn of the Hunt.

If you’re trying to make a Huntress build based on the newly added spear skills, you might be overwhelmed by the variety of skills. To help you find the most powerful spear skills in the current patch faster, this guide will introduce you to the best spear skills in POE 2 at the moment, and you can choose to accord with your play style.

1. Spear Of Solaris

• Mana Cost: 47
• Basic Attack Damage: 523%

First up is the highest-damaging skill you can cast with a spear in POE 2, but it’s obtained by Level 13 Uncut Skill Gem, and you may have to put a lot of effort into farming skill gems at this level.

But when you equip it in your build and cast it, you’ll see the glory value below the enemy’s health constantly increase when you hit the enemy hard. But you will also see your mana decreasing, so remember to buy POE 2 Currency to upgrade the gear that can provide you with continuous mana before equipping it.

Since the Huntress is equipped with a block that can easily apply heavy attacks, this skill will give you a powerful nuclear bomb in the second half of the battle to end the boss you are facing.

2. Thunderous Leap

• Mana Cost: 26
• Basic Attack Damage: 212%

Compared to Spear of Solaris, Thunderous Leap is easier to obtain because it only requires a Level 9 Uncut Skill Gem. But the pole-vaulting movement skill it gives you will save you a lot of time exploring the map.

Not only that, for players who want to focus their Huntress build on elemental damage, the high attack value and lightning damage conversion brought by Thunderous Leap are already very prominent, plus the exploration practicality it provides, it must be one of the most important skills in your early game content.

3. Bloodhunt

• Mana Cost: 10
• Basic Attack Damage: 85%

Bleeding is the ultimate damage ability for players, both in the original game and in the sequel that is currently in the limelight. And for Huntress builds, Bloodhunt at Level 7 will let you focus on this.

This attack is essentially a powerful thrust, but when it hits an enemy that is bleeding, it will cause a blood explosion, causing additional damage and increasing the enemy’s bleeding damage.

Of course, the damage caused by this skill will be more effective when facing groups of enemies, so you can use it as an important helper to farm POE 2 Currency and other loot on low-level maps in the subsequent game process.

4. Barrage

• Mana Cost: 16
• Basic Attack Damage: None

In the current POE 2, Barrage is a skill that is applicable to both spears and bows. Although its item description is very confusing, just think of it as a ranged skill enhancer.

The effect is that after casting Barrage, you can cast any ranged skill again to fire multiple projectiles, twice by default. If you have frenzy charges, you can repeat this multiple times.

Although the damage of these repeated projectiles from Level 5 Barrage is 50% less than the original attack, it is easier to accept if you think of it as free extra damage from these ranged attacks.

5. Storm Lance

• Mana Cost: 11
• Basic Attack Damage: 85%

In addition to Thunderous Leap, players who want to focus on elemental damage with Huntress have another skill option - Storm Lance, which can stab charged spears into the ground. They periodically attack nearby enemies and explode after the duration expires, causing shock damage to the ground.

Similar to the previous skill gem, Storm Lance as a Level 5 skill gem will also make your early exploration of POE 2 easier, because it can continuously deal super-strong attack damage to the entire area and specific targeted enemies.

The above are the top five spear skills and their specific effectiveness in the current POE 2 Patch 0.2.0 Dawn of the Hunt that can provide powerful combat or exploration capabilities for Huntress builds. I hope that with the help of these skills, you can more easily explore POE 2, which has undergone a major update, and stay ahead in the new league. I wish you a happy game!

It has been confirmed that Path of Exile 2 Early Access will release the latest Patch 0.2.0 Dawn of the Hunt on April 4, which will bring a lot of new game content to players, and the most exciting one may be the addition of an Ascendancy class to the existing 3 classes.

It is worth introducing you to the new Warrior Ascendancy class, Smith of Kitava, which brings some truly fascinating abilities and functions to this character with super survivability and damage capabilities, such as you can create a custom powerful armor for yourself based on the position you choose this class, but the premise is that you already have a Normal body armor with a white description in your build.

This is very beneficial for players who want to use super survivability to challenge and succeed in a onetime challenge in a more difficult encounter. If you are one of these players, you will be very interested in this guide to the passive skills in Smith of Kitava Ascendancy, as this will determine what kind of play style you will explore in POE 2.

Smith Of Kitava Ascendancy Overview

Compared to Warrior’s two existing Ascendancy classes, Warbringer and Titan, Smith of Kitava is overall more powerful because of his passive skills that can provide you with additional resistances based on the resistances you stack for him in your build.

For example, Coal Stoke can modify your build’s fire resistance on the one hand, and on the other hand provide you with 50% of its value of cold or lightning resistance. With Forged in Flame activated, your maximum resistance will also have the same buff.

So without worrying about defensive capabilities, you can buy POE 2 Currency as much as you want to upgrade gear that can provide you with super high damage capabilities, so as to create a build with excellent offensive and defensive capabilities.

In addition, Smith of Kitava Ascendancy also has the ability to summon weapons, cause huge fire damage explosions, and increase the damage of minions, which can only be seen with Raging Spirits Gem in the previous Warrior build.

Passive Skills

From the current trailer of the passive skill tree of Smith of Kitava Ascendancy, its shape is unique and seems to be only biased to one side. As its name suggests, all of its passive skills can enhance weapons with its own craftsmanship and make an armor that increases all resistances, making it an excellent character for single-player exploration missions.

Currently, POE 2 has only released unlockable passive skill points on 4 branches. Here are their names and specific effects. You can activate them according to your play style. We will also continue to pay attention to any information released by the developers and update them in time.

Branch 1

• Fire Damage - Increases fire damage by 20%.
• Heat of the Forge - Grants the skill called Fire Spell on Hit.

Branch 2

• Fire Resistance - Increases fire resistance by 15%.
• Coal Stoker - A modifier to Fire Resistance also grants Cold Resistance and Lightning Resistance at 50% of its value.
• Forged in Flame - A modifier to maximum fire resistance also grants maximum cold and lightning resistance.

Branch 3

• Melee Damage - Increases melee damage by 20%.
• Against the Anvil - Grants the skill called Temper Weapon.

Branch 4

• Minion Damage - Minions deal 20% increased damage.
• Living Weapon - Grants the skill called Manifest Weapon.

Among the above passive skills, you may pay attention to the three additional skills granted by Fire Spell on Hit, Temper Weapon, and Manifest Weapon, which are also passive skills that you can activate when using Smith of Kitava.

Unfortunately, the specific effect of Fire Spell on Hit has not been announced yet. We can only know from its name that it should be a skill that can cast fire damage. As for Temper Weapon, it can make your attacks explode on impact, causing devastating AOE impact. Manifest Weapon can make an animated copy of your weapon to fight alongside you.

It is worth mentioning that after you choose this Ascendancy Class you will get a new skill for free, Smith’s Masterwork, which you can insert into your build at will. This skill will allow you to spend Ascendancy points on additional body armor passive skills, but it should be noted that you can only use Normal Body Armor when using this skill.

Below are some of the passive skill options you can equip Smith’s Masterwork with and some benefits it can provide to your armor. These skill nodes are not related to each other, so they cannot be considered a branch. You can choose the corresponding skill node based on your defense requirements.

• Flowing Metal - Body Armor increases 5% maximum fire resistance.
• Molten Symbol - Body Armor grants 25% of physical damage from attacks received as fire damage.
• Internal Layer - Body Armor grants a 50% reduced critical damage bonus to hits against you.
• Leather Bindings - Body Armor restores 5% life per second.
• Lead Lining - Body Armor increases 75% Lightning Resistance.
• Support Straps - Body Armor increases Strength by 20%.
• Kitavan Engraving - Body Armor increases maximum life by 15%.
• Tantalum Alloy - Body Armor increases 75% Fire Resistance.
• Heatproofing - Body Armor grants Immune to Ignite effect.
• Heavy Bracing - Body Armor increases stun threshold by 100%.
• Padded Plates - Body Armor increases 75% cold resistance.
• Dedication to Kitava - Body Armor grants armor that also applies to Chaos damage taken from hits.

The above is all the information we know about Smith of Kitava Ascendancy added in Patch 0.2.0 Dawn of the Hunt, which was released on April 4th. There are still many specific character skills and functions in POE 2 that have not been announced. We can look forward to what new gaming experience GGG will bring to players in this major patch!

In a livestream hosted by GGG late last month about Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.2.0 Dawn of the Hunt update, the developers announced that five Ascendancies will be added on April 4th to allow players to create more builds and play styles. The most exciting for players who are used to hitting enemies with spells and dealing tremendous damage is the addition of a Lich Ascendancy Class with increased spell damage for Witch.

If you are very curious about this new playable character, this guide will introduce you to all the passive skills used by Lich from all the current trailers and developer statements, so that you can master the use of this class as soon as possible after the patch is released.

About Lich Ascendancy

In POE 2, Lich Ascendancy will turn your character into a powerful undead with a lot of magical passive skills, such as Crystalline Phylactery, Eternal Life, and Rupture the Soul. And it will provide you with higher spell damage capabilities based on your mana.

Similar to Witch, Lich is also a class based on non-channeled spells, so when making and building it, you need to buy POE 2 Currency as much as possible and invest on gear that can provide more Energy Shield, so that you can use Curses to create higher damage capabilities.

According to some informed players, Lich will also have the ability to gain an additional Energy Shield in battle to apply an explosion to the enemy. If this can be achieved, it will have a significant advantage in dealing with group enemies, because it can both increase its own defense and successfully kill those groups of enemies.

Passive Skills

From GGG’s livestream, Lich Ascendancy’s passive skill tree looks very much like a spider web, spreading from the top to the left and right. So here we will not list all the passive skill points you can unlock in a branching path, but divide them into left and right branches so that you can distinguish them better.

Here we need to remind you that Unholy Might is a buff effect that Lich can obtain, which can cast 30% of all the damage you can cast as additional chaos damage, which makes up for the lack of direct chaos damage in the current POE 2. The following are all the passive skill points that Lich has.

Branch 1 - Left

• Necromantic Conduit: While you are not low on mana, you and your nearby allies have Unholy Might, losing 5% of your mana every second.
• Mana: Increases maximum mana by 3%.
• Dominion Over Flesh: You can cast additional curses, which can affect enemies with Hexproof resistance.

Branch 1 - Right

• Soulless Form: 10% of damage taken bypasses energy shields. No inherent mana regeneration, and regenerate mana equal to 6% of your maximum life every second.
• Life: Increases maximum life by 3%.
• Eternal Life: While you have the energy shield, your life remains unchanged.

Branch 2 - Left

• Rupture the Soul: Cursed enemies killed by you or your nearby allies have a 33% chance to explode, dealing chaos damage equal to 1/4 of their maximum life.
• Curse Area: Curse area of ​​effect is increased by 25%.
• Blackened Heart: Every 100 max mana grants an increased 4% Unholy Might strength buff.

Branch 2 - Right

• Energy Shield if Consumed Power Charge: If you have recently expended a power charge, your energy shield is increased by 30%.
• Price of Power: Non-channeled spells consume a power charge to deal 25% extra damage.

Branch 3

• Energy Shield: Maximum Energy Shield increased by 20%.
• Eldritch Empowerment: Non-channeled spells consume an additional 3% of your maximum Energy Shield. Non-channeled spells deal 30% more damage. Note that consuming Energy Shield does not interrupt its recharge.

Branch 4

• Energy Shield: Maximum Energy Shield increased by 20%.
• Crystalline Phylactery: You can socket one non-unique basic gem. The effect of the socketed gem is increased by 100%. If you don’t have energy shields, the mana cost is increased by 50%.

From the above passive skills, it can be concluded that before you choose Lich as your Ascendancy Class, you need to think about whether your mana and energy shield value can support you to complete all the campaigns and successfully challenge all the content in the endgame, because when your energy shield is insufficient, your mana will continue to deplete and it will be difficult to restore to a healthy level.

The above are some of the passive skill nodes of Lich Ascendancy that will be added to the current POE 2 Early Access Patch 0.2.0 Dawn of the Hunt on April 4. At this stage, the beginning of this very strange passive skill tree has not revealed a bit, and we will continue to pay attention to it. Again, you need to really consider which passives are most important to their play style, and which passives will do the most damage to them so that you can have more fun with them.