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• Path Of Exile 2 Keystones Leaked Could Be A Game Changer

  During the recent Tokyo Games Show, a number of players discovered that some of the Keystones in POE 2 may have been leaked through press interviews with developers. Some of these Keystones are returning from POE 1, but have been changed considerably, while many are brand new Keystones. Here, we will talk about these potential new and returning Keystones based on this interesting information. Let’s get straight into it!

  Acrobatics

  Currently, Acrobatics in Path of Exile 1 are Keystones that convert your Spell Suppression into Spell Dodge. But Spell Suppression will be completely gone in POE 2 because they no longer distinguish between the types of damage dealt by monsters, which means that this Keystone will either disappear completely or become something else. However, it looks like the developers will keep it and turn it into something completely different.

  A recent leak indicates that Acrobatics in Path of Exile 2 can evade all hits, and the evasion rating is reduced by 50%. But we’re not sure if the translation here is accurate, is it 50% reduced evasion rating or 50% less, which is a very important distinction.

  Currently in Path of Exile 1, being able to offset 50% reduced is pretty trivial, because it’s added to any increase you have. But if it’s 50% less evasion rating, then it will be very bad as a disadvantage, and much harder to overcome.

  So what does it mean when it was mentioned earlier that all hits can be evaded? Since in POE 2, the distinction between monster spells and monster attacks will be completely removed from the game, and there will only be monster hits, any monster hit that is considered a projectile or a blow can be evaded or blocked. So this will make it easier for players to visually see what they can or can’t block or evade when they are actually playing the game. This means you can react in advance and avoid unnecessary waste of POE 2 Currency.

  If it’s a huge AOE falling on top of your character or rising from the ground below you, you may not dodge or block the ability, but this Keystone will do the trick. This will allow you to dodge all hits, including those AOE skills that you couldn’t dodge before. This is actually a pretty powerful keystone, but as mentioned before, it depends on whether the translation is correct.

  Of course, we don’t know at this time how easy it will actually be to increase evasion rating in POE 2. In the case of Path of Exile 1, if the evasion rating is reduced like the translation says, then it’s a lot easier to calculate this disadvantage, and if it’s less, then it’s a completely different story. But it’s still an interesting keystone, and being able to dodge all hits is a cool idea.

  Mind Over Matter

  Next up we have Mind Over Matter. The current Mind Over Matter in POE 1 will make 40% of damage affected by mana before life. In POE 2, it looks like it will make 100% of damage affected by mana before life, and it will also reduce the Mana Regeneration rate by 50%.

  Now, everyone is excited about this changed keystone in POE 2. This is because right now in Path of Exile 1, it’s basically impossible to 100% take all damage from mana before life without legacy items, while there are ways to scale different types of damage to 100%. For example, you can make lightning damage taken 100% from mana before life, but no matter what you do with non-legacy items in the current game, you can’t make all types of damage 100% from mana before life.

  A lot of players are excited about this new Keystone in Path of Exile 2 in conjunction with Chaos Inoculation. Chaos Inoculation makes you immune to chaos damage and you have only one life. If you use up all your energy shield, you will only have one life. Of course, all damage is redirected to mana, so you can use these two Keystones together.

  If this combination of mechanics existed in POE 1, it would be very powerful because you could do a lot of ridiculous scaling. For example, you could get a lot of extra energy shield from stacking mana, which is very powerful.

  But we haven’t seen Chaos Inoculation in POE 2 yet, so they may have changed this keystone a little or a lot. So it remains to be seen whether Chaos Inoculation will make it to POE 2 in its previous state.

  Also, let’s focus again on the downside, which is a 50% reduction in Mana Regeneration rate. This is actually a pretty significant downside. What’s more, in POE 2, standard non-flask-based recovery resources will have slightly lower recovery. And we don’t know yet how mana flasks will work, what kind of modifications you can make to them, and how easy they will be to obtain and maintain. So the downside of reducing the Mana Regeneration rate by 50% will actually be quite significant.

  Vaal Pact

  Next we have the Vaal Pact. This keystone in Path of Exile 2 will provide 100% Life Leech. This is instant, and can’t be used with life flasks, so again, back to the discussion about flasks.

  Flasks are going to be very important in POE 2, no doubt, but they were very different in POE 1. Since a lot of builds, even ones that don’t stack mana, will be using flasks to restore life or mana very regularly, this keystone banning life flasks is a big deal. But at the same time it grants 100% of Life Leech to be instant, which is going to be an extremely rare start, very powerful.

  Avatar Of Fire

  Finally, let’s talk about Avatar of Fire, which converts 75% of non-fire damage to fire damage, and does not deal non-fire damage.

  Damage Conversion in POE 2 is going to be a little different, they’re kind of going back to the original Path of Exile concept of damage conversion, where you can convert damage from one type to another, but the damage you deal only scales based on the damage type.

  For example, if you convert physical damage to fire damage in POE 1, you can scale that damage with any modifiers for physical damage or fire damage. But in POE 2, that damage will only scale with modifiers for fire damage, and since it’s no longer physical damage, the damage will no longer remember its source type.

  So this Keystone becomes really interesting, because it will allow you to convert any damage type you want to fire. Of course, you’ll have to be able to find the rest of the conversions somewhere else. But the idea of ​​being able to convert chaos damage to fire is really cool, since we can’t do that in POE 1 right now.

  Finally, we have to emphasize that this is just a quick reminder that everything is subject to change before POE 2 is officially released. Maybe now they may not be completely correct in terms of numbers, but it’s interesting to see the concept of these Keystones. What do you think of these leaked POE 2 Keystones? Looking forward to seeing you in the game!

• New Class In Path Of Exile 2 Makes This Game More Like A Shooter! - Mercenary Overview

  Although Path of Exile 2, which has received a lot of attention in the past two days, has to postpone the release of the early access version because of some force majeure, this cannot prevent us from exploring some new content in the existing POE 2 trailer, especially the exploration of the new class.

  Among the 6 new classes, there is one that is very abrupt in this MMO game, that is Mercenary. It has a new weapon type Crossbow in this game, and has a unique mobile attack combat mechanism, which makes POE 2 a game very much like a shooting game.

  So in this three-week wait, it is better to learn more about the new Mercenary Class and how to maximize its effectiveness. In this way, when you enter the early access version, you can quickly choose the best build for Mercenary according to this kind of build idea.

  Mercenary Overview

  As I just said, the main weapon of Mercenary is Crossbow. Unlike Ranger’s Bow, Crossbow can be fired immediately without having to pull back, so it will attack faster and with greater power than Bow. So you can equip several Crossbows designed to be very much like traditional guns in your Mercenary build, such as Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, and Assault Rifles.

  Or you can switch back and forth between two Crossbows, so you can carry different types of ammunition and attachments to win the battle in the fastest and most comfortable way and pick up the final POE 2 Currency reward.

  And because Crossbow is a weapon type that focuses on causing huge damage and armor-piercing shooting damage, in many of the gameplay trailers of Mercenary, it looks like a player holding a gun and exploring the game world, which is why I said earlier that it is very much like a shooting game.

  About Crossbow

  Mercenary focuses on high-damage shooting, but has many crowd control skills and is equipped with two crossbows to set up and execute combos, which is an additional benefit. Each crossbow reacts depending on the ammunition you use, including armor-piercing, incendiary, and permafrost.

  Besides focusing on high-damage shooting, Mercenary also has a lot of crowd control skills. These skills, coupled with the shooting combination set by the two Crossbows, can make it easy for you to face some difficult groups of enemies, and most importantly, it will save you a lot of time exploring a place because your time to clear everything will become very short.

  What we know so far is that there will be 3 types of Crossbows in POE 2, and the effect of each Crossbow depends on the ammunition you choose for it, including Armor Piercing Ammo, Incendiary Ammo, and Permafrost Ammo. Here is how each ammunition performs in different types of Crossbows.

  Burst Shot Crossbow

  • Armor Piercing: It fires a barrage of armor-piercing rounds that penetrate multiple enemies.
  • Incendiary Ammo: It fires a projectile that ignites more powerfully when it hits a target.
  • Permafrost Ammo: It has a chance of freezing enemies with cold air.

  Rapid Shot Crossbow

  • Armor Piercing: It fires quickly to destroy armor quickly, best combined with the burst shot crossbow.
  • Incendiary Ammo: When charged and fired, the crossbow will deal more and more damage as it heats up, and the grenade will add extra firepower.
  • Permafrost Ammo: Shoot the ground to create ice crystals, then step back to attract monsters onto the crystals, which will explode and freeze enemies.

  Power Shot Crossbow

  • Armor Piercing: If an enemy’s armor is destroyed, it deals high damage to a single target weak spot and has a chance to stun the enemy.
  • Incendiary Ammo: A rocket launcher that can explode grenades on the ground.
  • Permafrost Ammo: Creates an ice wall that is effective for crowd control. When the wall is destroyed by a monster, the monster explodes, dealing a small amount of damage.

  About Attachments

  In Path of Exile 2, Attachments are new skill gems that are exclusive to Crossbow. These gems can be inserted into the off-hand slot, just like a bow character in other games can equip a quiver.

  While these Attachments don’t provide additional properties like a quiver does, they actually allow you to have an additional skill slot over the other classes. This is very useful for Mercenaries who want to fill out their arsenal with a variety of shooting skills and ammunition skills.

  Like the skill gems that other classes have, these Attachments can also be improved by supporting gems, allowing you to further enhance your shooting skills in Mercenary. Here are the types of Attachments we know about so far and their effects.

  • Explosive Grenade Launcher: Fires an explosive grenade.
  • Flash Grenade: It doesn’t do much damage, but it does cause a large stun.
  • Oil Grenade Launcher: It covers the ground with oil, slowing down enemy movement.

  Build Ideas

  Given that Mercenary can use two different Crossbows, you don’t have to worry too much about the choice of weapon, anyone will do. It is recommended that you choose Rapid Shot Crossbow and Power Shot Crossbow. The former has a large magazine capacity, and the latter has great damage potential.

  Then you can adjust the ammunition and attachments required in Crossbow to achieve some combinations that can cause a lot of damage. For example, use Armor Piercing to deal with frozen enemies, or use the super ability of Incendiary Ammo to clear some low-level enemies quickly in the early and mid-term, and then Permafrost Ammo can be used for retreat and crowd control.

  Then you can choose the appropriate attachments according to your current combat status and play style. Here I need to remind you that the proper use of skill combinations can make your Mercenary play the best effect.

  The above is an overview of the new Mercenary Class in Path of Exile 2 and some build ideas. I hope this guide can help you understand this brand new game better and look forward to the release of the early access version in December. Please believe that you will definitely have a perfect game by then. I wish you a happy game!

• How To Get And Use Gold In The New Path Of Exile 2? - Currency Description

  Unfortunately, the early access version of Path of Exile 2, which players have been looking forward to, has been postponed to December 6, so players have to wait for it for nearly 3 weeks. This is annoying, isn't it? But don't worry, slow work makes fine work, maybe we will finally welcome a very perfect POE 2.

  So during this waiting process, we can first learn about some new content in this game, such as the new Class and the new currency Gold. In this new game, Gold has become the main POE 2 Currency type. You will find it throughout the game and it has a lot of uses.

  So this guide will introduce you to this new currency, its uses and how to get it. In fact, it is not new, because it has appeared in the town of Kingsmarch in POE 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur League. It is worth noting here that this guide is written based on existing information and is for reference only. Everything is based on the final release version.

  Uses

  Trading Items At Vendors

  This is actually the same as in the original game. You can trade some Path Of Exile 2 Items with Vendors in the town with Gold, such as some flasks that can enhance your survivability, jewelry that enhances key attributes, or some powerful weapons.

  Like the loot you pick up after fighting some bosses, the items traded here also have levels. For example, if you can only get Normal Rarity (White) items at a low level, you can use some POE 2 Currency Orbs to upgrade them to Magic items (Blue), which will make you very powerful in the early stages of the expedition.

  If you are very lucky to get a Rare item (Yellow), it will be very helpful for you to complete the first six acts of Path of Exile 2, and even allow you to enter the subsequent expeditions very easily. It should be reminded that the items provided by Vendors will change as your character levels up, so you can come to Vendors to check out the new items after each level up.

  Respeccing

  In POE, respeccing skill points is a very complicated operation, requiring you to use a very rare Orb Of Regret. But in POE 2, you only need to spend some Gold at The Hooded One in town to respec passive skills on the skill tree.

  And your POE 2 Gold cost will increase with your level and the number of passive points you want to respec, so overall, the cost of respeccing in this game is not too high. But this does not mean that you can overturn the entire skill tree and start over. You can only respec some passive skills at the end of the point chain, so as not to destroy the overall path of your skill tree.

  So you still need to be very cautious when respeccing. During the campaign, this method of quickly changing passive skill points will be very helpful in maximizing your character adjustment in a limited space without starting over. This also reduces a lot of your time spent on exploring the skill tree and some trial-and-error resource costs.

  It's worth reminding you that the two methods used in the original game, using Orb of Regret and completing quests or reassigning points to skills, have been retained in POE 2, so you will have multiple ways to adjust and enhance your build in this game.

  Gambling

  In every town in Path Of Exile 2, there will be a specific NPC who will allow you to gamble with Gold to get some new items. This sounds similar to the trading method of Vendors, but it should be noted that the rewards you get in this gambling are random-if you are lucky, you can even get Magic, Rare, or even Unique items, which require you to spend a lot of Gold at Vendors.

  Don't think that this gambling is the same as Gacha mechanism in some games. Although this method will make you spend a lot of Gold, there are items in the prize pool that can be used by all classes. In short, if you get a Magic item in gambling, but it doesn't apply to your character, you can trade it with other players. The return may completely make up for your expenses, or even more.

  Moreover, during the exploration of some low-level characters, because of the lack of gold, they cannot obtain some good items from Vendors. Then these players can obtain some well-crafted items through the gambling mechanism, which will greatly speed up their exploration progress and provide a very good gaming experience.

  Get Gold

  At this stage, there is actually no practical description of how to get Gold. We can only infer how to get Gold in POE 2 based on the way to get currency in the original game. The first one must be to defeat the monsters that hinder your exploration, and as you explore the game, the stronger the enemy, the more Gold you can reward.

  It should be noted here that if you are too far away from the monster's body after the battle, you may need to run to it to pick up POE 2 Gold and loot it dropped. If you stand within the range, you don't even need to do anything, and Gold will automatically enter your inventory.

  The second is to resell some duplicate or unused Path Of Exile 2 Items to Vendors. Of course, the amount of Gold you can get will depend on the rarity of the item, the item level, the modifier, and whether it can be recognized.

  Or if you have enough POE 2 Gold, you can also decompose some items from some Vendors to get POE 2 Currency fragments. Once you collect enough currency fragments, it will automatically convert into the completed currency. The specific value may need to wait until the official release to know.

  That's all we know about Gold in Path of Exile 2 for now, and hopefully this guide can help you relax a little during this anxious wait. Of course, this guide will also be followed up immediately after the official release, so let's look forward to it together. Have fun playing!

• A Series Of Possible Changes To Skill Usage In Path Of Exile 2

  As we all know, Path of Exile 2 Early Access will be released on November 15th, and as the time approaches, all exiles are gearing up to have an excellent performance in this new sequel.

  In this guide, we will talk about the various changes we know so far to skill usage and animation rigs in Path of Exile 2, and how they differ from the same mechanics in POE 1, to help old and new players prepare before entering the game. If you are interested, don’t miss this guide and let’s jump right in!

  Melee Rework

  One of the biggest reasons GGG took on the task of making a sequel to Path of Exile was that they wanted to make a new action role-playing game that solved many of the problems that the original Path of Exile had been plaguing players, and the most important of them was visceral action combat, especially melee combat.

  Path of Exile 2 will put more emphasis on the feeling of moment to moment combat, using the new rig system to assist animations so that character movement can seamlessly transition from one skill use to another.

  Retargeting Skills

  In POE 2, you can re-target skills during animations, allowing your character to turn around during the casting or attack time before using skills with longer animations, which will give your character more room to adjust. This means that you can still track more moving targets in combat and strike with skills with longer play times.

  Skill Cancellation

  Of course, you can also manually cancel the use of abilities. For example, if you need to avoid the immediate danger or you no longer need to use the skill, you can force a skill to cancel through Dodge Roll.

  Compared with Path of Exile 1, canceling skills may be more important in POE 2. Because the casting time of skills is usually longer than we are used to in POE 1. For example, Arc spell has a casting time of 0.9 seconds in POE 2, while the casting time in POE 1 is 0.7 seconds.

  Additionally, there are several more powerful skills that have very significant cast time changes. For example, Comet has a base cast time of 1 second, with an additional 1 second total cast time as a modifier from the gem itself, which may scale with the gem level.

  Therefore, being able to cancel skills with such long cast times is crucial to maintaining the freedom and fluidity of moment to moment combat.

  Mana Cost Changes

  However, what happens to the mana cost in Path of Exile 1 if you cancel a skill animation before it starts or are forced to cancel a skill animation, such as by being stunned? In fact, you will lose the resource cost of the skill because it is pre-consumed.

  But the resource cost of using skills has also changed significantly from POE 1 to POE 2. The cost of using a skill will no longer be pre-consumed when the skill is first activated, but will be consumed over the entire duration of the skill animation.

  This means that manually canceling a skill before it starts or forcing it to be canceled by being stunned is much less expensive, which can save you a lot of POE 2 Currency. And the option to re-target and cancel a skill without losing resources should go a long way toward providing the foundation for more fluid combat for players.

  Movement

  But these aren’t the only aspects of ability usage changes that Path of Exile 2 brings to the series. Many skills now either have built-in movement capabilities by default or can be used while moving, and skills that can be used while moving often impose a movement penalty on the character for the duration of the spell, slowing down movement speed.

  But at the same time, for those skills that require you to stand still, they may also have built-in movement capabilities. This goes back to Comet spell from before. This skill had a movement component that would only activate if the spell was aimed close to the character. It would lift the character up and re-target slightly backwards without turning around, providing some defensive utility to help keep distance while casting.

  There are also some skills that act similarly to movement skills in POE 1, such as the new Hand of Chayula skill, which will dash to the target if the target is now far away from you.

  Animation Rigs

  Finally, for the changes in general ability usage, there are some cosmetic changes more related to the new Rigging System in POE 2.

  Some of you who played POE 1 may be familiar with the casting or attacking animations for specific classes and specific weapon types, and how these animations tend to start looking a little ridiculous when you start stacking a lot of attack and casting speeds or a lot of action speeds.

  This is because each animation doesn’t change, it just speeds up to such an extent. You can imagine that an animation that looks good when it plays in one second will start to look weird once it plays 10 times in a second. But in POE 2, skill use animations are planned to be different based on the animation speed. When certain speed thresholds are met, some parts of the animation will change to faster or slower animation variants, allowing players to enjoy a better visual experience.

  These are some differences and new changes that we have learned so far about how players in Path of Exile 2 use skills compared to previous games. Overall, the developers want to bring players a feast for gameplay and visuals. So, let’s wait and see!

• These Features Will Definitely Be Your Reasons To Play Path Of Exile 2 Next Month! - 5 New Features

  As the release date of the early access version of the new game Path of Exile 2, which has been polished for a long time, is getting closer, players are increasingly looking forward to this game that differs completely from the original. However, some players have been in a wait-and-see state, because the information leaked so far about this new game is too little and the release time has been delayed, which has made them lose a lot of confidence.

  This is completely understandable, but this guide has now combined most of the current game information trailers and some players’ actual play reviews to list some new features of Path of Exile 2 that are worth playing. If you are one player who is waiting, you might as well read some reasons provided by this guide before making a conclusion.

  Note that this guide is speculated based on the currently known game information and is for reference only. Everything is subject to the official release version.

  1. The Game As A Whole Takes Place In A New Story

  The first thing to introduce is also a question that many players are concerned about, whether the story line in Path of Exile 2 is related to the original? According to the trailer released so far, we can learn that the storyline of POE 2 takes place 20 years after the events of the original game. So the game world you enter has the god of corruption Kitava defeated and the land of Oriath saved.

  Then you will continue your exploration in these procedural dungeons with modifiers. You will feel a darker scene here, and the enemies and Tilesets will become more terrifying, as if a new god or essence is rising.

  Of course, this is the first half of the game story, and the second half will depend on your behavior in the first half, so you may see a very different Acts 6-10, and even each player may have a unique ending.

  2. The Environment Of The Game World Has Also Changed

  Of course, as a brand new game, the environment in which you can fight in Path of Exile 2 has also changed, otherwise this sequel is likely to become boring. At this stage, the scene of Act 1 leaked is very similar to the scene in Diablo series of games, and most importantly, there is Dark Souls, which may surprise players who play these two games at the same time.

  Not only that, the caves and unique swamps shrouded in dim light make the cities and coasts that are very ordinary in the original game more appealing to explore, and will also make players more immersed in the battle. Most importantly, it's easier to find those shiny POE 2 Currency at the end of your battle.

  3. New Weapon Types Added

  Although the weapons that can be used by each class have not been fully announced at this stage, it is certain that Spears have been added to POE 2 as a new weapon type, which has been requested by players in the player community for many years after the original game was first released.

  In addition, Crossbows will also be added to this new game, which allows players to have a new game style that mixes melee and ranged combat. These two new weapon types are enough to add a lot of dramatic builds and playable value to this game, which will also make Path of Exile 2 stand out from the new games that will be released next month.

  Not only that, Traps and Flails will also provide you with a lot of unique skill experiences and more build possibilities.

  4. The Combat Screen Has Been Greatly Improved

  In the process of continuous improvement, POE 2 has achieved a lot of combat improvements. For example, the arrows that players have been complaining about will stick to the surface after hitting the enemy, and the first-level enemies will recoil after being hit. These have been improved.

  In addition, with the change of the combat environment, the visual effects in combat have also been greatly improved - the picture has become more beautiful and allows smoother movement while using skills. These improved visual effects will help immerse players in the cruel world.

  5. New Classes Are Introduced

  In addition to the original 6 classes in POE, 6 new classes will be introduced in the new game - Monk, Druid, Huntress, Mercenary, Sorceress, and Warrior. Except for Scion, the original classes will retain the same Stats and progress as the original, and will all get Ascendancies.

  Each Class has 3 Ascendancies to choose from, which will give your Class more damage skills or survival skills in the game, which will greatly increase the diversity of your exploration in the game. You can even consider changing your game style to pure offense or pure defense, which is all achievable.

  These are the five reasons why Path of Exile 2 should be your first choice next month. Although this game has made many players wait with enthusiasm at the beginning, and then experienced multiple delays, and finally let players gradually lose interest. But believe me, the early version next month will definitely make you shine and feel that the previous wait is worth it. I wish you a happy game!

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

  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.

  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.

  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!