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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What New Endgame Mechanics Will Come To Path Of Exile 2 Patch 0.2.0 Dawn Of The Hunt Is Released?
Ever since the early access of Path of Exile 2, there have been numerous complaints about the endgame content, most notably that it lacks the depth of the original game. So on April 4, the developers will release the most significant patch since the release of POE 2, Patch 0.2.0 Dawn of the Hunt, which aims to completely overhaul the endgame, introducing changes that are both substantive and meta-defining.
The changes we’ve seen so far include the introduction of some new endgame mechanics, the integration of campaign-related changes into the endgame, and major changes to existing mechanics in order to pursue deeper and more meaningful exploration. This guide will show you what new endgame mechanics will be available in patch 0.2.0 and how they work, so that you can explore further.
It’s worth mentioning here that in order to bridge the digital divide between the original and the sequel, there will be a lot of new endgame mechanics coming to POE 2 in Dawn of the Hunt, which indirectly prompted the developers to add 10 additional Atlas passive points for players to farm and grind.
Rogue Exiles
The first new mechanic we need to introduce is Rogue Exiles, which look very similar to you will appear in maps with a lot of POE 2 Divine Orbs that you want to farm, as well as some super-powered Unique gloves.
According to the developers, there will be 12 Rogue Exiles when the patch is officially released, each with different item combinations and unique encounters. Rogue Exiles will use the same skills as you. For example, they can also do evasive rolling and can use very advanced pathing and enemy targeting mechanics. The gear used in the build is no exception, so this encounter is very challenging when they are equipped with Temporalis or Hands of Wisdom and Action.
For this kind of battle, you may want to equip as many gears as possible with higher damage or defense capabilities or buy POE 2 Currency to upgrade the rarity and roll affixes of the same gear to ensure that your combat capabilities are higher than these Rogue Exiles. After you successfully defeat them, the Uniques they are equipped with will become your loot.
Azmerian Wisps
Wildwood Wisps in POE have also been added to the sequel to a new name, now called Azmerian Wisps. These little wisps have a very huge impact. They have already appeared in Grelwood in Act 1 of the original game, and become one of the monsters that players must defeat in the endgame.
In POE 2, Azmerian Wisps appear randomly in zones and Waystones, and will infuse monsters in the current zone with additional powers, such as offensive and defensive abilities. When you get close to them, Wisps will fly faster to normal monsters and turn them into rare or unique monsters.
These possessed monsters have additional attacks, such as summoning spectral animals to finish the fight, so you need to be flexible enough in these encounters to get the increased quantity and quality of loot and experience points.
Here are the names and specific effects of the four Azmerian Wisps that have been confirmed to appear in the game. In addition, as part of the endgame content, Azmerian Wisps will also have their own Precursor Tablets and Atlas Passive nodes, which may not be fully known until the official release.
- Wisp of the Great Bear: This is part of Wild Wisp family. It increases the health and stun level of the possessed monster. When possessing a rare or unique enemy, it adds an attack that uses spectral bear to slam the enemy.
- Wisp of the Winter Owl: This is part of Primal Wisp family. It provides additional cold damage and additional energy shield to monsters, and turns enemies killed by it (such as minions) into vortices. In addition, these possessed monsters will summon a large tornado to track the player.
- Wisp of Wild Cat: This is part of Vivid Wisp category. The affected monsters have a higher chance of dealing with critical hits and have increased evasion. Those possessed by rare or unique monsters can summon a group of feline spirits to track you down.
- Sacred Wisps: Unlike the first three, this is a general term for special types of elves, including Wisp of the Cunning Fox, which can turn ordinary monsters into magic monsters, magic monsters into rare monsters, and rare monsters into bosses. This is somewhat similar to how POE 2 Currency works.
These are all the new endgame mechanics added to the current POE 2 Early Access Patch 0.2.0 Dawn of the Hunt, which is expected to be released on April 4. Of course, as mentioned earlier, this patch also makes very significant improvements to the mechanics that already exist in the game, such as Towers, Strongbox, and Essence.
These improvements and additions are all designed to get players who once gave up on this over-marketed sequel back to the game, and to give all players a better endgame experience. In general, everything GGG has done this time seems to be based on the player’s perspective and carefully listens to the player’s opinions and suggestions, so we are very much looking forward to what surprises it will bring us this spring.
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How To Get The Most Out Of Tactician Ascendancy In Path Of Exile 2 Dawn Of The Hunt? - Notable Passives Explains
Five new Ascendancy Classes have been added in this Path of Exile 2 Dawn of the Hunt update, giving players more options for their builds. Mercenary has been one of the most popular classes in the game since its Early Access release, so naturally, the addition of a brand new Ascendancy to this class has been highly anticipated once it was leaked. Here, we discuss this Ascendancy and explain what its strengths are, and what builds you might see play on this Ascendancy. Let’s jump right in!
A Solid Plan
Let’s first take a look at the first skill node in Tactician dual-choice four-point branch, A Solid Plan.
First, note that it provides an 8% increase in Spirit, which is very solid for a small passive, especially considering the 50% reduction in Reserve modifiers for Persistent Buffs. Now this one is really powerful, you will be able to retain more buffs with this node, for example Combat Frenzy will only retain 15 Spirit baseline instead of 30. But you need to have gem socket links for these skills to fit.
Now one thing to mention about this node is that there are over 100 new Support Gems coming out in patch 0.2.0, so the chances of us getting new Persistent Buff Skill Gems, like Vitality and Clarity, are pretty high.
Keep in mind though, that even though they are Support Gems, something like Vitality is still a Persistent Buff that would normally retain 20 Spirit, whereas with this node it will only retain 10.
All of Herald Skills will also be marked as Persistent Buffs, and while they will most likely be severely nerfed in this patch, consider how powerful this notable node is. Especially since it allows you to retain a bunch of high-cost buffs for a very low investment.
For example, Blink will cost you 30 Spirits to keep, and Cast on Critical will be 50 Spirits instead of 100. And yes, all of these Trigger Gems count as Persistent Buffs as well. So they apply to this node as well.
Considering there are so many options for persistent and buffs, this is just a very versatile strong node that you can get with almost any build you want.
Watch How I Do It
Now there are two different notable nodes branching off from this A Solid Plan node, each with a more specific effect on the build you want to use.
For Watch How I Do It, this causes allies in front of you to gain bonus attack damage equal to 25% of your mainhand weapon damage. Now, this may have some interesting effects on Spectres that appear in this patch. I’m sure there will be some mob types who abuse these fixed damage like crazy.
I think this node is more of a party support playstyle than any other mode, that’s because if you’re playing minions you can’t drop your Spectres, Gem Levels and Spirits, so you can’t use two-handed weapons here. You can only use one-handed weapons with Sceptres for fixed damage, which would be ideal for fixed damage, but I don’t really think that would be that great.
Also, there are Totems, but since all Totems in the game currently deal fixed damage based on Gem Level, I don’t think that would be too useful either, but from a party support perspective in group play this node is fine.
Whoever Pays Best
Then we have another branch option, Whoever Pays Best. Now this can place multiple Banners, in addition to War Banner. Banners are generally a bit weak in Path of Exile 2. So hopefully this change will get them some attention in the upcoming patches, but as of now I don’t see many people picking this up.
Suppressing Fire
Let’s move on to the next four point branch, starting with Suppressing Fire. Pin is a debuff that essentially acts as a route, since projectile damage builds up Pin, which will bind the target in place, and while the target is pinned, they can’t move. Pin has a default base duration of 4 seconds.
It’s worth noting that Pin is pretty easy to build up compared to Freeze. When the target is pinned, they are also considered immobile, so you can take advantage of this, like with Leverage Support Gem, which increases critical chance by 50%. But perhaps more notable is Siege Cascade, which is a crossbow damage ability.
So, you’ll be able to use this to actually build up the pins for Suppressing Fire, and the skill itself has 50% more built-in damage to pinned enemies, so this is a nice secondary node.
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Right Where We Want Them
For the next node in Suppressing Fire branch, this makes it even more powerful, which is Right Where We Want Them. This node makes the pinned enemy unable to do anything, they can’t move, they can’t attack or cast spells, they just stand there for the entire pinning period, like a puppet.
You know, the crazy Freeze is already very powerful in POE 2, but Freeze is much harder to get compared to Pin. So this node essentially turns your Pin into a pseudo-Freeze, and when mapping, you can immobilize everything you hit with a projectile. So it’s a great option for when your character has very limited movement speed, so you can buy POE 2 Currency and make Pin easier to build. This will go up most of the time, and it’s a very good four-point branch.
Polish That Gear
Now moving on to the next four-point branch, Polish That Gear, this gives you 100% of your Armor as additional Stun Threshold, and 100% of your Evasion Rating as additional Ailment Threshold.
So how does this node generally work? Your Stun and Ailment Threshold are first based on your max life, so if your max life is 3,200, let’s say your Stun and Ailment Threshold are both 3,200, then those numbers are used to calculate whether a hit will stun you or cause an Ailment shock to you.
For example, for every 4% of Ailment Threshold, there’s a 1% chance of a Stun Threshold being struck, but Polish That Gear gives you the potential to increase those thresholds significantly. Of these, just having 5,000 Armour alone will more than double your Stun Threshold. Considering we can’t easily avoid Stun and Ailment completely in POE 2, I think this is an excellent investment, especially if Ailment becomes more dangerous in patch 0.2.0.
Stay Light, Use Cover
Now the next node off this branch is Stay Light, Use Cover, and this is where things get a little interesting. This node gives you 200% Armor Defense, and enemies have an Accuracy Penalty against you based on distance. Additionally, your maximum Evade chance against strikes is 50%, and your maximum physical damage is reduced by 50%.
What this node does for evasion is that it essentially makes monsters less accurate, which reduces the trade-off against your evasion, making a lower total Evasion Rating more effective. But the other half of this node is more interesting, because you can defend with 200% armor, which means that any hit that interacts with your armor will use twice your total armor to calculate the damage reduction it provides.
Now, armor is at the other end of the scale compared to evasion, and we hope to see buffs to this mechanic in an upcoming patch that will provide similar benefits to the other half of Evade node.
Unleash Hell!
The next node we want to mention is Unleash Hell! From the trailer we can see the actual effect of this skill, to be honest it looks terrible, but who knew it was a very interesting skill design.
As we all know, for some off-screen minions, they are not actually with you, but with this skill, you can shoot a bunch of arrows to a location, and the minions will scale their damage based on your Dexterity and Strength. So there is a bit of attribute stacking factor, but in fact without the base damage number, we really don’t know how good this skill will be.
Cannons, Ready!
The last node is Cannons, Ready! This makes your totems’ skills 30% faster, and the totems only use skills when you fire attack projectiles.
But honestly, it’s not great, because the biggest problem for us is that the totem playstyle usually allows your totems to do all the work, but this node prevents the totems from using their skills until you specifically use skills to shoot and attack projectiles.
But for single target damage, 30% skill speed increase is a lot. And this node does not specify Ballista Totem, which means that you can use Weapon Swap to summon Shockwave Totem or Ancestral Warrior Totem, and then you can switch to another set of weapons to fire attack projectiles, making them trigger damage faster than usual. So this can lead to a lot of burst damage. As I said, it’s good for boss fights, but it’s terrible for mapping.
Now in general, Tactician Ascendancy does bring some pleasant effects, especially Pin branch and Reservation node are very good, and for those who like group games, the existence of Tactician will also provide unlimited support for you! I believe we will see some pretty good bows and crossbows built on this Ascendancy in the future.
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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!
