Where Does POE 2 Differ From The POE 1 Campaign?
Jun 12, 2023 Source: POECURRENCY
One of the tremendous chunks of content Path of Exile 2 will usher in is a cutting edge 7-act campaign stated to be slightly shorter than and a massive improvement over the current POE 1 campaign.
This additional path to teach and hook new players in POE while leading all Exiles to its fast endgame will enable players to access the set of 19 new ascendancy classes, a host of new gems and start their tale of dark dicey redemption on a remote azomite island off the shores of Wraeclast.
POE 2’s campaign is being built from the ground up as an infinitely repeatable experience for veterans and newbies alike. But how?
We learned most of this information during the initial reveal of POE 2 in November 2019 at ExcileCon and a nice slice more during the POE 2 Act 2 showcase in April 2021. Since then, nothing, though more will come at ExileCon 2023 at the end of July.
We’re building up to it if you are new to Path of Exile or would like a quick recap of the Path of Exile 1 campaign versus what we know about the upcoming Path of Exile 2 campaign. This is the place for you.
The POE 1 Campaign Isn’t Disappearing
The Path of Exile 1 campaign is not going anywhere. It’s not disappearing. It’s not being locked away.
Instead, both Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2’s campaigns will be available concurrently and should lead to the same endgame. Presently, this endgame would involve fragments of the Shaper and Elder, buzzed encounters with the Conquerors of the Atlas and Sirus, the Maven’s playful mind, memory and gambit Games, the Siege of the Atlas by the Eater of Worlds and Searing Exarch and everything else accessible by the current Atlas passive skill tree and map system like Synthesis, Betrayal, Bestiary and Incursion.
When POE 2 releases, the next endgame edition or revamp will probably be mere months around the corner. Surely, the atlas shall experience some form of catastrophe then caused by the cleansing fire, the Tangle, Chaos itself, or let’s hope not more gods. Whatever that disaster will be, it’s not too long off.
The Path Of POE 2’s Campaign Length
POE 2 campaign will be shorter than POE 1’s 10-act campaign. Confirmed by GGG at ExcileCon 2019, they know the current campaign is a bit too long and are actively addressing it with Path of Exile 2.
The goal with this is to quicken the road to POE’s endgame while also improving the pace of the campaign for players new and old. It will still be linear in the sense of progressing from Act 1 to 2 to 3 and so on.
But with its tightening, Grinding Gear Game seeks to spell bind new players in the POE experience and recapture past and present players with a highly variable high quality new campaign. Plus, any qualms you might have with other titles aren’t part of POE. Cinematics are near non-existent. All conversations can be skipped and there’s no backtracking. You’re always moving to the next battle and story step.
Of course, this means folks who desire the optimal trail to endgame will probably always run the POE 2 campaign even though this is GGG’s overall goal. Those who arrive post Path of Exile 2 or are interested in a severe dose of nostalgia can always swap back to the POE 1 campaign, wash up near Lioneye’s Watch, overcome the trials of Dominus and final act boss Kitava in Oriath.
You’ll Need To Play POE 2’s Campaign For New Ascendancies
The 19 new ascendancy classes introduced in Path of Exile 2 will only be available by running through the new 7-act campaign at least initially.
The Lord’s Labyrinth will not be how characters ascend. Instead, a brand new system like the Lab or the Forbidden Sanctum will arrive. As it currently stands, once an account completes the new campaign at least once, all future characters can ascend to POE 2 ascendancies even if they choose to play through the first campaign.
This is also true for the POE 1 ascendancies. Once an account completes the POE 1 campaign at least once as many existing accounts will have already done by the time POE 2 releases, that account will be able to ascend into any POE 1 ascendancy even if they play the second campaign to reach endgame.
How this will work with the Trials of Ascendancy and Offerings to the Goddess in the Atlas and Maps is currently unknown.
Why This POE Campaign Is So Replayable?
Campaign promises extreme replayability and randomization in every aspect, from map and monster design to quest and item drops. No two playthroughs should be too similar.
GGG will achieve this through two facets: consistent forward movement and unpredictable but memorable area randomization. Unlike campaigns and other unnamed ARPG titles, you are always moving forward in Path of Exiles campaigns. Yes, you may get a quest and reward, such as POE Currency, from an NPC in town. But you need not return get a new quest, then run back to an area, then return, then get a new quest, then run back and add infant item. It’s shockingly simple but absent from Diablo 4 that recently released.
Plus, both areas and the world itself will always be different in the campaign, whether it’s the placement of the area itself, something new in POE 2’s campaign. And the actual layout of a map to the contents in the area from league mechanics, monster packs, and exciting random loot and campaign in Path of Exile will remain bizarre and randomly generated, but understandable and predictable to Veterans of the game. Many players may disagree.
But with a campaign like this or even in Path of Exile 1, there’s no need for an Adventure Mode. In a game like Diablo 4, it’s 100% needed.
Way Better Bosses In POE 2
From Path of Exile 1 to Path of Exile 2, Grinding Gear Games has learned a ton about boss design. In POE 2’s campaign, every area will have at least a mini boss fight with every battle boasting, meaningful combat, and aesthetically pleasing effects.
Additionally, it’s likely many of these awesome bosses will become fights in POE’s endgame once POE 2 hits, as many area bosses and mini bosses are presently map bosses. If not, the majority of these map bosses are not compelling fights, it is a good chunk. If changed or updated to POE 2 bosses, this will immediately change.
The Grittier Story In POE 2
Finally, we know the story of Path of Exile 2’s campaign will be wildly different from the tale of Exile in the first campaign.
In POE 1, our Exiles Adventure begins as we wash up on the shores of Wraeclast and Exile of Oriath, we trudge across the land and eventually defeat our oppressor Dominus before downing the original master Thaumaturge and slaying Gods like Tukohama, Solaris, Lunaris and Kitava. It’s quite the soaring of power level narratively.
Opposite POE 1 and POE 2, we start the campaign as criminals sentenced to hang at the neck until dead. Luckily, the rope breaks, our character escapes and leaps into a whitewater river and washes up on its shoreline.
The story from there shall remain shrouded in mystery. But Grinding Gear Games would like to lower the narrative power level and keep the story relatively grounded. There will be more hack and slash and low fantasy for the campaign and less God slaying.
The Fight Against Adventure Mode In POE
Numerous Exiles seek an adventure mode of some sort to level past the campaign without needing to do the campaign essentially.
This would be a system that allowed characters to path from level 1 to around level 65 without touching a single campaign quest along the way. There have been a myriad of suggestions for this:
Allow characters to endlessly Delve, let them go to the Rogue Harbor and Heist to endgame, rid of the barrier between the tutorial and endgame entirely and give characters a way to do maps beginning at level 1. Bring back an endless ledge and let us annihilate hordes of goat men for hours until we hit a reasonable endgame level.
I disagree on all fronts, and I am on the side of the developers with this one. Adventure Mode is unnecessary with a campaign like Path of Exile’s. Adventure mode or something like it is obsolete and there’s no way it’s coming with POE 2 or beyond. Adventure Mode is necessary if the campaign is a tremendous slog bogged down with unskippable dialogue, constant back and forth between NPCs with arduous fetch and protect quests when it lacks overall constant action and improvement and it boasts no real choosable rewards.
Additionally, muddying the content at endgame versus the content necessary when a character first starts lessens the sense of progression players feel. Moving from Act 1 to 2 and so on and so forth all the way to Maps, especially at the start of a league, is a great feeling that won’t be captured with something like Endless Delve or mapping from first level.
Path of Exile even with its first campaign and from what we’ve seen with its second campaign achieves highly in each of these spheres, Diablo 3 and now Diablo 4 do not and therefore need something akin to an Adventure Mode.
Recently, a game Diablo 4, which is also an ARPG, is very popular among players. Most players are racing against time to level up to experience more challenging content. If you want to level up quickly, it will be a good choice to prepare a large amount of Diablo 4 Gold in advance. Hope you can have a better experience!
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Path Of Exile 2 Dawn Of The Hunt Will Bring New Life To The Controversial Endgame Content!
Path of Exile 2, which was released at the end of last year, has been in early access for about 4 months, which has led to a very monotonous exploration experience and stale exploration content for players with super-strong levels and who entered the endgame stage early.
Not only that, some loyal players from the original game have been criticizing it since they entered the endgame stage of this sequel in early 2025, such as lack of depth and cruel death mechanism. But on the upcoming April 4, these may all face a very big change, because POE 2 will bring a major patch and a new season Dawn of the Hunt.
In it, you will get a lot of new game content, such as new classes, Ascendancies and more than 100 Support Gems, but the most important thing is the improvement of the endgame content. This guide will outline some of the endgame changes we’ve seen so far from POE 2 trailer and recent livestreams, so you can explore the new season once it’s officially released.
New Maps And Ways To Explore
First of all, in response to previous criticisms that the endgame content in Path of Exile 2’s Early Access lacked depth, Dawn of the Hunt will introduce an expanded Atlas tree with 10 additional points. This will allow players to customize the way they explore the endgame Waystones more freely, making exploration more fun.
In addition, the developers announced that they would add 7 new unique maps to the new season of POE 2, each with its own unique mechanics and encounters, but only 3 new maps were shown in the livestreams that took place the past two days.
In Ezomyte Megaliths, you’ll enter a forest with some rune-carved stones. After you walk around these stones and activate them, an energy storm will break out in a centralized location, spawning 10 waves of bosses that you need to defeat.
From what game director Jonathan Rogers has said about this map, Ezomyte Megaliths are probably the most challenging of the new maps added, as waves of enemies have never appeared in previous game content. So if you want to run it smoothly in one go, you can buy POE 2 Currency to upgrade and improve the defensive gear in the build.
Another map called Fractured Lake looks very similar to the exploration area provided by the original Lake of Kalandra League from the existing trailers. It will send players to a broken lake full of mirror enemies. During the run, the terrain you can explore will gradually rise from the water as you approach and eventually lead you to Fragmented Mirror.
Like POE Lake of Kalandra League, this Mirror will give you the opportunity to craft customized gear such as rings and amulets, and the number of affixes they carry is very large, and may even give your build the ability to break the rules.
The last map announced is Silent Cave, which will have a group of monsters trapped by Essence and a boss. You can choose to release Essences around you to gain experience and loot from these low-level monsters before challenging the boss, but the boss will be stronger at this time.
Or you can choose to challenge the boss directly to complete the map, and then release the four Essences that can provide you with Hysteria, Delirium, Horror, and Insanity, which can add some unique modifiers to your gear.
New Opponents
Have you ever thought that the character you use becomes an NPC in the game and needs you to kill? POE 2 Dawn of the Hunt turns this seemingly ridiculous idea into reality: the game will introduce 12 different Rogue Exiles, which will bring their unique skills and personalities to your opposite side and will fight you to the death.
These Rogue Exiles fight in the same way and with the same moves as the character you use, with the same ability to dodge and roll, avoid skills through smart pathing, and even smart aiming, which will make players who challenge them feel like they are in PVP. On top of that, these very lifelike opponents will even carry and gain some buffs from the gear you pick up during your exploration.
And when your build outperform these enemies and you defeat them successfully, you’ll be able to earn all the powerful Uniques they carry. Given this mechanic, many players are excited to farm a lot of high-quality gear from these Rogue Exiles and use it to enhance their own builds.
New Mechanics
In the current POE 2 exploration, you only need to complete all the main campaigns to enter the endgame stage directly, and there is no inquiry system. Next, NPC in your hideout will give you a Complete 15 Maps task common to all players and ask you to explore on your own.
Although this process is very simple and easy to understand, it is very stale and cannot bring players the excitement of entering more challenging endgame content, which is one of the important reasons why many players are controversial about it.
Fortunately, Dawn of the Hunt will make some changes to this, which brings a new perspective on mapping: you need to clean up all Corrupted Nexus that appear in Atlas and defeat enemies and unique bosses in them. After you successfully complete this operation, you will get crystalized power, which can provide you with additional Atlas points.
New Towers
Previously, the towers you explored were scattered around your Atlas, but you couldn’t avoid them. This meant that you had to go through a tower before you could unlock a map with unique modifiers or mechanics, which could result in a lot of wasted in-game resources or lost builds.
To address player complaints about this, the developers have significantly reduced the number of towers in Dawn of the Hunt and greatly increased their impact, with bosses having more combat mechanics and loot.
In addition, running some higher-level maps with towers increases the number of mechanics contained in tablets and the number of surrounding maps affected by them, all in an effort to make towers feel like a worthwhile part of POE 2, rather than something you’d rather skip.
The above are some changes and additions to the endgame content in Patch 0.2.0 and Dawn of the Hunt, which will be released on April 4th. I hope you can have a better experience in this game content that has been changed based on player suggestions, and get an excellent ranking in the season rankings as soon as possible. I wish you a happy game!
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The Addition Of Huntress In Path Of Exile 2 Dawn Of The Hunt May Bring Back Old Exiles Who Gave Up Before!
More than three months have passed since the release of Path of Exile 2’s early access, and players’ enthusiasm for it has gradually begun to decrease, and even the number of active players is not as good as the original. In order to improve this situation, the developer Grinding Gear Games announced that it will release the first major patch of POE 2 and the first season Dawn of the Hunt on April 4, which means that there will be a lot of new content in this game which is not full of vitality.
Among the many updates and additions, the appearance of the new class Huntress may make more POE 2 players excited about it, and even make those old exiles who once gave up this sequel return. This is definitely not an exaggeration. After the end of GGG’s livestream on the new patch and the new season, many players expressed their great expectations for this new class and how many new game styles and build possibilities it can add to POE 2 on the player community and social platforms.
So in order to let you know more about her, this guide will introduce you to Huntress’s specific profile and skills, etc., to facilitate your subsequent exploration.
About Huntress
From the previously released new season trailer, it can be seen that Huntress is a very handsome female character, but in the livestream, game director Jonathan Rogers introduced us that she is also an outstanding woman with a very tragic background and strives to protect herself and her family.
In terms of role play, Huntress can be regarded as the first class in POE 2 that is good at both long-range combat and melee combat. It can quickly and freely enter and exit the combat area, and the spear it uses can be used as a melee weapon to deal super damage to the enemy, and can also be used as a throwing weapon to attack some enemies within the range.
The appearance of this highly agile Huntress fills the gap in the current POE 2 without a highly flexible character and brings more possibilities for gameplay to the game. I think this is also an important measure taken by the developers to retain the current active players and expand new player groups.
Huntress’ Skills
Although the specific skills used by Huntress have not been fully announced, GGG mentioned several very important skill names and specific effects in Livestream, for example, an initial skill Whirlwind Slash, gives her a huge advantage in the early stages of the game, allowing her to create a whirlwind around himself.
Once the enemy enters it, they will lose their direction and be more vulnerable to damage, and it will explode after you leave the whirlwind. And after you cast this skill multiple times, its damage effect and range will be further expanded.
In addition, casting Whirling Slash skill on the elemental DoT area left by skills that can enhance the elemental damage in the spear will absorb DoT and inject the element into the whirlwind, making it have super high elemental damage at the same time. So if you combine it with some crowd control skills, your efficiency in clearing and farming experience and POE 2 Currency in early exploration will be very high.
Another Huntress skill that has been revealed is Twister, which fires a tornado that bounces off walls and hits enemies multiple times, similar to the existing Spark skill. If you combine it with Whirling Slash, it’s even more powerful and creates an additional cyclone.
And when you use this skill in combination, Twister will also inherit the elemental properties of Whirling Slash, so if you inject it with fire, you will cast a fire tornado, and the same goes for cold and lightning elements. If you want Huntress to focus on one elemental damage, then Lightning Spear is the skill for you.
It allows Huntress to throw a lightning-infused spear at your enemy target, and then continuously fire lightning from the hit enemy to other nearby enemies for group damage. On top of that, this skill also leaves a thundering elemental area damage on the ground, which only works on enemies, so you don’t have to worry about hurting yourself.
But it should be noted that it will consume your Frenzy Charges very much, so in the build based on this Lightning Spear skill, you should buy POE 2 Currency as much as possible to keep this important charge within a safe range. By the way, the lightning area damage caused by Lightning Spear can also be combined with the whirlwind generated by Whirling Slash, and you can rely on them to cast more threatening elemental damage.
Other skills that also use spears to cause tremendous damage are Explosive Spear and Storm Lance. The former allows you to throw your spear anywhere and cause it to explode after four seconds, which will cause huge damage and ignite all enemies in its radius. The latter will allow you to stick your spear into the ground and continuously cause lightning damage to nearby enemies.
These two can work well with Thunderous Leap, because after casting this skill, you will jump into the air to grab any spears stuck in the ground or the target area, which means that the cooldown time of your spear throwing skills will be greatly reduced, and the frequency of your dealing more damage will also increase accordingly.
All the above skills focus on ranged attacks. As a class that takes into account both play styles, Huntress can also use Wreck, which will cause you to rush straight to the target enemy and swing your spear to cause blood loss. If you continue to use Blood Hunt, it will cause the blood of all enemies in the current range to explode, and the stronger the blood loss effect, the greater the explosion damage.
Complementing these skills that can cause super high damage is Parry that Huntress can use on the off-hand, which allows you to defend with a small round shield anytime and anywhere. Unlike the usual shield raised in battle, this small round shield has a natural blocking effect.
So when you cast Parry, it will automatically interrupt and block all attacks from the enemy, and those enemies will receive more damage from your subsequent attacks. But like the current blocking system, using it too frequently will cause you to be dizzy or even die.
There are also some new skill gems added specifically for Huntress in POE 2 Dawn of the Hunt, such as Bind Spectre, which allows you to summon small minions to fight alongside you in combat by absorbing the souls of the enemies you defeat.
There is also Summon Rhoa, which will allow you to summon a very friendly mount Rhoa, which you can use to speed up your progress through the large exploration area, and can also be used in combat to gain a movement speed buff.
Ascendancy Classes Of Huntress
Like the 6 classes that were first released in the early access of POE 2, Huntress also has 2 Ascendancy Classes, namely Ritualist and Amazon. Ritualist will allow Huntress to enhance her strength through animal sacrifice and corruption, while Amazon will make herself a strong person by increasing physical and elemental damage.
You can choose the corresponding Ascendancy Classes according to your play style in the new season Dawn of the Hunt. The above is the overall situation of the new class Huntress in POE 2 and the specific effectiveness of the skills that can be used, which are summarized from the trailer and leaks from various channels.
In fact, from GGG’s release of this major update and the new season, it can be seen that POE 2, this excellent sequel, is valued. I think there may be more active players in the game after April 4, including some exiles who once gave up on it. But whether this grand occasion can continue, the developers may still need to think about it.
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Which Skill Gems Should You Choose For Fireball Blood Mage Build During The Leveling Process In Path Of Exile 2?
In the current popular Path of Exile 2, the diversity of builds is one of the most important reasons why players love it crazily. Here, you can raise the combat ability of your character build to a super level by collecting gear, upgrading your spells, and unlocking more passive skills in the game.
At this stage, POE 2 has many classes with different game styles for you to choose. If you prefer to use spells and minions to cause super high damage, Blood Mage will be your best choice. Most importantly, this Class plus the magic skill Fireball will help you have extremely fast clearing capabilities in the early exploration, and you still have unlimited possibilities in the endgame stage.
But it should be reminded that you cannot directly obtain Fireball Blood Mage build with the ultimate powerful ability. You can only upgrade it accordingly in the three acts of the game content that can be explored currently. This guide will introduce you to what skill gems you should use for this pre-powerful build at different stages of the game.
Act 1
First of all, I need to remind you that Blood Mage you use is one of Ascendancy Classes of Witch in the available basic class, so if you want to use the subsequent build with super damage capabilities, you need to choose Witch as your initial Class in Act 1.
In Act 1, your skill gems and mana are very scarce, so the operation here is relatively limited. But you can still use Flame Wall to cause huge damage to enemies that can provide you with a lot of experience points and POE 2 Currency.
After you accumulate more Uncut skill gems, you can convert them into Spark, which will help you deal with early enemies and bosses more effectively. Then, after you have the ability to obtain auxiliary gems such as Fortress and Arcane Tempo, you can use them to support Flame Wall and make it work effectively with Spark.
Finally, to help you get through the final boss encounter of each act, you need to insert Frost Bomb into your skill gem slot and insert Magnified Effect into its auxiliary gem slot, which will increase the effective range of your area damage by 40%.
Act 2
In this stage of the game content, you need to focus on increasing the damage ability of your build and significantly improving the farming efficiency. To achieve this goal, you need to add Hypothermia to your build, which will help you increase the cold spell damage ability, and Persistence and Heightened Curse will make it more effective.
Since cold spell damage is very helpful for clearing maps and farming experience points, buy POE 2 Currency as much as possible after you put it in your build so that it can be upgraded to the highest level as soon as possible. Then, after your character reaches level 31, you can use the level 9 Uncut Skill Gem and cut it into Fireball and Frost Wall.
These two skill gems will be the most important part of your Fireball Blood Mage build, so slot them in once you get their high-powered support gems, such as Scattershot and Unleash (for Fireball) and Spell Cascade and Concentrated Effect (for Frost Wall) and upgrade them accordingly.
Act 3 And Beyond
After reaching Act 3, your Fireball Blood Mage build is more mature and your focus should shift to build sustainability. First, you need to unlock Comet and combine it with Cast on Freeze, which will greatly increase your speed in clearing maps.
Then place Spell Echo, Impetus, Concentrated Effect, and Inspiration in the support gem slots of this skill gem combination, they all provide high power to this skill combination to make your Fireball Blood Mage build more powerful.
In addition, you can replace Frost Bomb with Eye of Winter at this stage of the game content to ensure that your cold damage ability can easily defeat the higher-level enemies in this scene. It is worth noting that you need to unlock Grim Feast in time to ensure that the energy shield value you generate can support you through this stage.
Don’t forget to use a lot of POE 2 Currency to unlock more auxiliary gem slots in Fireball, Cast on Freeze, and Frost Wall, and place gems with corresponding benefits in them. For example, you need Fortress and Fire Mastery in Fireball, and Spell Cascade, Glaciation, Considered Casting, and Ingenuity in Frost Wall.
For Spark, you can give it up here because your fire damage is already strong enough and there is no corresponding skill gem that can work effectively with it.
The above are some of the main skill gems and auxiliary gems that can be selected for Fireball Blood Mage build in the three-act game content provided to you by POE 2 Early Access. However, it is necessary to remind you that because of the unique skill mechanism in this sequel, each player may find the corresponding gems at different times. So you can modify it by yourself as long as you can get a better gaming experience in it. I wish you a happy game!
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What Do You Need To Go Through Before You Get An Ascendancy Class In Path Of Exile 2?
After you have explored the easier gameplay of Act 1 in Path of Exile 2, you will enter the second half of the exploration phase where you can freely choose Ascendancy to further specialize your previous Class, probably starting from Act 2.
In the current Early Access, all 6 classes have 2 Ascendancy Classes to choose from. In Patch 0.2.0, which is expected to be released on April 4, the third Ascendancy Class for Mercenary will be launched, and the developers have also publicly stated that each Class will have three Ascendancy Classes in the official version of POE 2.
In Path of Exile 2 Act 2, you will gain points to unlock these Ascendancy Classes through some trials, and once unlocked, they will not be changed, but you can respec the nodes on the passive skill tree of your Ascendancy Class by talking to The Hooded one or Doryani and spend some POE 2 Gold in the in-game town.
Although this additional feature of character customization in the game may be a little difficult to understand, given that it is a necessary part of continuing to advance your character build to become powerful, this guide will give you an introduction to how Ascendancies in POE 2 work and how to unlock them, so that you can explore them.
How Do Ascendancies Work?
In fact, you can think of Ascendancy in POE 2 as a subclass of each Class: they have their own unique skills and perks, and you need to earn some Ascendancy Points by completing in-game trials to enjoy the benefits of these skills and perks for your build.
Although Ascendancy Points work very similarly to the nodes on the huge passive skill tree, they are a completely independent in-game resource that can only be used to obtain some of the most powerful skills offered to Class you are using.
Just introduced, in the current pre-experience, each Class has two of its own Ascendancy Classes, and the following list is their specific classification. Although the name is very fancy, you can treat it like a regular Role-Playing Game class and it will be easier to understand.
- Sorceress - Stormweaver & Chronomancer
- Warrior - Titan & Warbringer
- Ranger - Deadeye & Pathfinder
- Witch - Blood Mage & Infenalist
- Mercenary - Witchhunter & Gemling Legionnaire
- Monk - Invoker & Acolyte of Chayula
How To Get Ascendancy Class?
When you explore Act 2 of POE 2, you will encounter a dungeon called Trial of Sekhemas, which you need to successfully run in order to unlock your Ascendancy Classes and Ascendancy Tree. If you are too immersed in exploring it and miss it, it doesn’t matter. You can also unlock this important mechanism through Trial of Chaos in Act 3.
But it should be reminded that before you can proceed with these two trials, you need to find the keys to unlock them: Djinn Barya and Inscribed Ultimatum. The former requires you to defeat Balbala, the Traitor in the optional dungeon Traitor’s Passage located in Ardura Caravan, and the latter also requires you to defeat Xyclucian, the Chimera in Chimeral Wetlands.
Although these two bosses are optional enemies in the game, you may want to pay special attention to these two encounters because they have an important impact on your character build. For example, if Balbala has super high mobility and damage ability, you need to buy POE 2 Currency to enhance the dodge level and defense ability of your current build.
Generally speaking, the difficulty of Trial of Sekhemas is much lower than that of Trial of Chaos, so it is recommended that you try to complete the trial in Act 2 first so that you can run it to completion more easily and unlock Ascendancy mechanism.
How To Get More Ascendancy Points?
After you unlock the Ascendancy Class, you’ll need to look for more Ascendancy Points to make your Ascendancy skill tree stronger. There are a total of 8 Ascendancy Points for you to collect in the current POE 2 Early Access, and here are their specific locations and conditions for obtaining them.
First Ascendancy Point
Your first batch of Ascendancy Points is earned by unlocking two important trials: you will find the first two points from the encounter between you and Balbala, the Traitor in Act 2’s Traitor’s Passage, and from your encounter with Xyclucian, the Chimera in Act 3’s Chimeral Wetlands.
Please note that this reward is guaranteed to appear in your available loot, but the key items used to unlock Trial of Sekhemas and Trial of Chaos are randomly found in the loot of a place, so you may need to farm these two optional bosses multiple times.
Second Ascendancy Point
The second batch of Ascendancy Points is earned from both trials, just by defeating certain monsters at a certain level. In Trial of Sekhemas you’ll find it in the trial unlocked by using 2 Djinn Baryas with Area Level 45 and above, while in Trial of Chaos you’ll need to use 7 Inscribed Ultimatums with Area Level 60 and above to unlock Trial Room that gives Ascendancy Points.
Third Ascendancy Point
The second way to get Ascendancy Points is actually the same as the third, only the level of Trial Room you unlock is different. For Trial of Sekhemas, you’ll find it in rooms with Area Level 60 and above that have been run 3 times, and for Trial of Chaos, you’ll find it in 10 Trials with Area Level 75 and above. But be aware that both of these ways of getting it are very random, and you may be farming them multiple times.
Fourth Ascendancy Point
The last batch of Ascendancy Points will be provided by the final bosses of both trials, so in order to get all the points to unlock more Ascendancy passive skills, you must be fully prepared for it, such as maximizing your damage and defense capabilities to successfully complete these difficult encounters.
The above is all the specific information about Ascendancy Class in the current POE 2 Early Access. I hope that you can unlock this important mechanism faster and more smoothly with the help of this guide, and most importantly, it can make your subsequent exploration smoother and more comfortable. I wish you a happy game!
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What Options Does Gas Grenade Deadeye Build In Path Of Exile 2 Need For Different Stages? - Skills & Gear
Of the all classes currently available in Path of Exile 2 Early Access, Deadeye is the character with the fastest movement speed, so you can create a highly flexible character build around it.
You might choose a bow as a more practical weapon for this build, but it is worth mentioning that this class with extraordinary mobility can interact very interestingly with crossbows. Under this combination, Gas Grenade Deadeye build comes into being, which uses Explosive Shot to detonate groups of enemies while you throw Gas Grenades.
If you choose the right options for this Gas Grenade Deadeye build, you will have a very good tool for running maps and farming loot, and even completing some challenges in the endgame stage. But choosing the right and effective skills or gear for a build in POE 2 can be a very troublesome thing, but don’t worry, this guide will show you one by one.
About Gas Grenade Deadeye Build
While Witchhunter, which also uses a crossbow, has its own detonation effect, Deadeye’s additional skill speed, movement speed, and additional projectiles make it the best choice for quickly clearing maps.
When you first make this build, you may want to focus on Lightning Arrow, and then fully transition to Gas Grenade when you reach level 22. Although you need to press multiple buttons when you fight with this component, you may feel that it is very smooth and not hectic due to the powerful abilities of Deadeye itself.
Skill Gems
As mentioned above, you can use Lightning Arrow and Lightning Rod together at the beginning, so your basic skill rotation is to throw Lightning Rod near the enemy and then cast Lightning Arrow to deal heavy damage to the enemy.
You can use this skill combination until you unlock Orb of Storms. After this skill is available, you can cast it before Lightning Rod to lay a good foundation for all subsequent heavy damage.
If you have a Level 4 Uncut Spirit Gem, remember to cut it into Herald of Thunder, which can help you get a super buff to your clearing speed. During this skill rotation, you may encounter some mana problems. You can use Thief’s Torment to help you alleviate the impact of this problem on you.
However, its farming cost and trading cost are very high, and it is difficult to obtain for low-level characters. So the best way here is to buy POE 2 Currency to upgrade your current mana bottles or upgrade gear that can provide you with enough spirit to maximize the utilization of Herald of Thunder.
At around level 22, you can start using Gas Grenade, remember to change your weapon to Crossbow. Then focus on obtaining those nodes related to grenades and those unspecified grant Pierce, Chain, etc.
At this time, your skill rotation can become throwing Gas Grenade into the previously cast Flame Wall and firing some Gas Grenades at it. If you have a free skill gem slot, you can also add Flash Grenade to your build to easily stun bosses.
In addition, Oil Grenade can help you slow down the enemy’s advance and attack speed, which is also a very useful skill gem. If you want to deal more damage to the enemy, you can apply Fire Exposure to it, and remember to use Encumbrance and Strip Away to increase the effect of these two debuffs.
It is worth mentioning that after you unlock Explosive Shot, you can move the lower-level skill gem Flame Wall out of your build to deal with more challenging battles. If you find the multi-button play style troublesome, you can always use Radiant Grief or Birth of Fury to automate your Ignites, making it essentially a one-button build.
Best Passive Skills
When choosing passive skills, consider Blur, Eagle Eye, Clean Shot, Heavy Ammunition, and Careful Aim before you reach level 22, which will give your Lightning Arrow a higher Projectile Damage node to quickly farm POE 2 currency and experience points.
Once you reach level 22, you can focus on the effect of Gas Grenade. But before switching, you need to get Cluster Bombs, Volatile Catalyst, and Volatile Grenades to maximize the benefits of this important skill.
In addition, you can also invest in some defensive passive nodes in Gas Grenade Deadeye build, such as Leather Bound Gauntlets and Feel No Pain. Since Evasion is an important operation for you to defend in battle, Afterimage and Backup Plan, which are beneficial to it, are also your focus.
What’s more, passive nodes that increase Attack Speed, Accuracy Rating, Area of Effect, Cooldown Recovery, and Damage to Two-Handed Weapons are also the key points you can unlock.
For some players who like to use super high damage capabilities to defeat enemies or bosses in one fell swoop, the three passive skill points of Jack of all Trades, Repeating Explosives, and Sand in the Eyes may give them the best gaming experience.
About Gear
Since DPS of Gas Grenade Deadeye build scales directly with the level of Crossbow, spend some POE 2 Divine Orbs to upgrade it after every 10-15 levels of your character, and regularly look for crossbows with higher physical damage and faster attack speed, such as Bombard Crossbow.
For the other gear slots, the attribute gains you focus on are similar to other builds, such as Max Life, Elemental Resistances, Attributes, and Mana Regen. You may also focus on Life Regen when facing bosses or enemies with high damage capabilities.
These are some of the skills and gear options that can be selected for Gas Grenade Deadeye build in the current POE 2 Early Access. I hope that with the help of this guide, you can quickly unleash the power of this build and use it for more fun exploration. I wish you a happy game!
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Why Is Patch 0.2.0 Dawn Of The Hunt The Key To Change Path Of Exile 2 State?
The first major patch during Path of Exile 2 Early Access is finally coming, and the new season mechanism brought by this update will also be fully unveiled. We will be able to see the results of GGG’s busy work in the past 4 months, and see whether the new season mechanism can make POE 2 completely break through the limitations of the original and create a new myth.
There is no doubt that this patch 0.2.0 will bring a lot of new content, new classes, Ascendancy system expansion, new Skill and Support Gems, new weapon base types, new Passive Skill Tree and Keystones, as well as new maps and stories waiting to be explored. Many players who quit the game before because of the limited content in the early access can come back, and this update provides a lot of fresh content to play.
However, although the content of this update is exciting, I must say that these are not the most important part of this patch, because this will be the first time GGG really has the opportunity to solve the problem of the state of the game.
Original Update Plan Disrupted
The original plan was that GGG would release updates to Path of Exile 2 Early Access when they needed to address issues such as interaction bugs or over- and under-mechanics, and they did exactly that in the beginning.
They released several updates that fixed major bugs and toned down over-performance builds. However, the latter was not particularly well received, after all, many players follow creator builds. Therefore, when creators walk a fine line between expected interactions and bug abuse, it is bound to end badly, and a group of players are left with an empty shell of a build with no good way to rework them.
The solution here could be to temporarily reduce the cost of respec skill points. Although players may still be disappointed that their builds are crushed, these changes can save the character without having to launch a brand new one. After all, players should understand that it is only Early Access at the moment, and anything can change at any time.
But as time went on, these changes seemed to become less and less popular, so much so that GGG made a major decision. Instead of patching the game regularly during Early Access, they decided to go against their original plan and release larger league-style updates that bundled all the changes and new additions together. They are now starting to treat POE 2 Early Access as a complete product, just like they did with POE 1.
But this change in plan was not directly communicated to players, and the ridiculously unbalanced mechanics and economic systems were not controlled. Anyway, at the moment, we are on the verge of the next big update, so for us, the question is what exactly will Path of Exile 2 be after patch 0.2.0 is released on April 4th?
Endgame And Campaign Are Too Different
Now, the game basically feels like it has been divided into two parts. If you haven’t played Path of Exile before, you can even think that the campaign and endgame are two completely different games.
The campaign from Act 1 to Act 3 feels like the game they have been presenting for many years, with a slower and more methodical gameplay and a focus on engaging boss battles. However, once you start Cruel Difficulty, the pace of the game gets out of control.
Honestly, this isn’t actually a big problem, though, as replacing Cruel Acts with Act 4-6 in the future may solve this problem.
The focus of this problem is in the endgame. You get the exact opposite in the endgame, and the pace is completely lost. At this point, the characters are much faster, and the monster power is ridiculous, with white monsters doing more damage than even elite enemies. Hordes of monsters rampage through the endgame, and the balance is completely off.
We don’t know if this is really the intention of the endgame. Because if you want to survive in the endgame, your only way out seems to be to buy POE 2 Currency and achieve a rapid leap in character power. Is pay-to-win the ultimate destination of every game?
POE 2’s Subsequent Development Speculation
However, as of now, we simply don’t know whether Path of Exile 2 is intended to be just an upgraded version of the first game, with system updates such as a new gem and slot system, a more refined entry experience, and a fresh start to deal with the inevitable growth in power.
Or, as we speculate, POE 2 endgame should be more like what we have seen in all the previews and demos over the past 5 years or so, gradually shifting to slower gameplay, emphasizing skill combinations, and more meaningful combat.
Endgame Gameplay
At ExileCon 2023, developer Rory Rackham answered a question discussing character recovery in the endgame and how players should deal with dangerous moments when being hit by monsters.
Looking at POE 1, constant regeneration or other means of recovery means that enemies need to deal tremendous damage to kill you, and any changes to leech or recovery in POE 2 are designed to counter it. This is definitely a good thing, making your character pay a higher price to get high regeneration.
Additionally, they rebalanced around boss fights again, bringing all of this stuff to a window where the character is in great danger after getting hit hard. The presence of a danger window that allows players to react to getting hit is a good idea compared to POE 1, but it’s not what we have right now in POE 2’s endgame. So to be honest, we don’t really know if POE 2 will be as fast as the original in the endgame, or if it will be the slower, more methodical game we expect.
But even if they don’t immediately state their intentions in the reveal, the patch notes tell the story for us. It can be seen that at the moment, we are at a crossroads for POE 2, and patch 0.2.0 is about to take it in a direction. What can you expect to see in this Dawn of the Hunt update? Everything is waiting to be revealed in the live broadcast on March 27th. Stay tuned!
