Path of Exile 2 Closed Beta Date!
UPDATE! We now have an early access / beta date for Path of Exile 2, November 15, 2024. You can read more with our early access post.
Four years ago at ExileCon in 2019, Grinding Gear Games originally announced Path of Exile 2, and we've been waiting on the edge of our seats for more news ever since! We now have a Closed Beta date for Path of Exile 2!
Separate Game
Path of Exile 2 is a complete unique experience separate from Path of Exile 1! Many of the mechanics you know, and the world you love is the same, but the game is new and will be maintained along side Path of Exile! With its own unique story, epic bosses and much, much more! At ExileCon GGG teased gameplay from Act 3 set in the jungle where the Vaal Empire used to span. They also teased more information like all characters having an active dodge roll! This does not have i-frames, but Melee Attacks and Projectiles automatically miss when you dodge. The Dodge roll further animation-cancels your skills increasing the fluidity of combat.
That's right, on June 7th 2024 you'll be able to Play the Path of Exile 2 Closed Beta!
Many Maxroll members are re-streaming the event and sharing our reactions live. It's been a blast so far and the weekend's barely getting started. Say hello to your favorite creator or jump around and see what we're all most excited for!
Or, you can watch GGG's official livestream here.
Completely New Campaign
Most of Path of Exile's current 10 act campaign is quite linear. Act 2 is one of the few points where you get to make a choice. Do you go left and deal with Kraityn? Or right and deal with Alira? There's very little deviation for the most part, so many veteran players play through it on autopilot.
On the other hand, Path of Exile 2 offers a completely new Campaign featuring 6 acts while promising a less linear leveling experience. Will this change things up and make leveling more interesting? For some people absolutely, especially new players! Though doing anything enough times makes it feel routine.
Path of Exile 2's campaign is set 20 years after the fall of Kitava, which is long enough for a lot to change. Will we see Zana's return?
In Path of Exile 2, NPCs will take a more active role. Call them in while exploring to complete puzzles within the zone. The sequel's boss fights appear to be cleanly telegraphed, methodical, and look like monstrosities straight out of Dark Souls or Elden Ring. Many of the fights shown off in the campaign look to be of the same quality and depth as The Shaper. While these fights may take longer, they'll definitely be quite satisfying. You can hear the roar of flames, the satisfying thuds and crunches of shattering rock. We got to see a brand new boss in Blackjaw, The Remnant, and battling him is an epic fight for your survival! Play well and triumph, or play poorly and you'll find yourself back at the beginning of the fight. No boss cheesing here!
Spirit
One of the rewards for progression in Path of Exile 2 is permanent stat boosts for your character, including Spirit... which begs the question, what does Spirit do? Spirit is used for ongoing effects like Heralds, Meta Skills, Auras, and Minions! You begin with 100 Spirit and can obtain more through items and the passive tree. With this, Path of Exile 2 characters won't be running around without mana!
Uncut Gems
Skill gems don't drop in Path of Exile 2. Instead, players receive Uncut Gems which can be right clicked to obtain a skill gem of their choice. These gems are pre-leveled to the area which dropped it making it far easier to swap skills on the fly. The new Barrier Invocation Meta (trigger) Gem builds up charges as you lose Energy Shield, expend these charges to unleash a flurry of spells decimating your foes.
Cast on Shock
A new Meta Gem called Cast on Shock was teased. This Gem reserves Spirit and takes time to charge based on the cast time of the Skill, meaning you get more triggers with skills that have a lower cast time. In the Gameplay they demonstrated this Meta Gem triggering the powerful Comet Skill by using Lightning Skills to Shock foes.
New Ascendancies
In Path of Exile you can play as the Ranger, Shadow, Witch, Templar, Marauder, Duelist or the Scion. In PoE 2 every attribute combination has 2 classes, including new classes such as the Monk, Warrior, Druid, and Huntress which share space with the existing classes! So look forward to new voice lines, new interactions and playstyles. Path of Exile 2's classes get entirely new ascendancies which promise powerful new build archetypes including shapeshifting! With so many new archetypes being added in Path of Exile 2, there's going to be at least 1 thing which breaks the game!
Skill-Specific Weapons
Path of Exile 2 will allow you to configure each skill to use a specific weapon, this makes it much easier to mix-and-match multiple elements. Passive Points granted from skill books are assigned on a per-weapon basis, allowing you to maintain 2 slightly different skill trees. One per weapon set. They showcased using this system to play a Sorceress who blends both Lightning and Cold spells, another use of this system could be maintaining a second weapon focused on Traps to add single-target damage to a build with great clear.
Melee Combat
In Path of Exile 1, Glacial Cascade is a spell, but in Path of Exile 2 it looks to be a Melee Attack Skill which was showcased on the new Monk class. The final spike deals massive Cold damage and has a special interaction with Frozen enemies to hit even harder. So why not Freeze your foes with Ice Strike, a Skill which lets you get into melee range with ease, and provides a high chance to Freeze. Another cold themed Skill is Shattering Palm, which turns your foes into an icy bomb. Finally GGG showed off Path of Exile 2's Flicker Strike, a skill which consumes Power Charges. It's the Flicker Strike you know, the Flicker Strike you love, and the Flicker Strike that's going to teleport you into the fire.
Spellcasters
Octavian took some time to show off Path of Exile 2's Sorceress class, an intelligence class focused on Elemental destruction. You'll recognize many of the skills like Spark, Arc, and Ice Nova. Path of Exile 2's Arctic Armour requires you to stand still in exchange for a defensive effect. The devastating Comet Spell was teased, its long cast time causes your character to take a small hop back, and it deals massive damage. In Path of Exile 1, caster weapons have a default melee hit and a bunch of useless stats. In Path of Exile 2, caster weapons come with a spell. For example, your starting weapon grants a no-mana level 10 Fireball.
A freshly reworked Unleash Support was teased, triggering your Spell multiple times before putting it on a cooldown. The new Mana Tempest Gem grants a powerful buff which drains your Mana in exchange for granting you utility effects like Fork and Chain.
Two Paths of Exile
Path of Exile 2 is a totally separate game that will be maintained along side Path of Exile, featuring a complete dev team and its own separate updates. You can play classic PoE or jump into the new game and keep all your MTX! This is Path of Exile as a next generation experience and looks like a huge step forward.
Grinding Gear Games has more information about Path of Exile 2 including several trailers on their website!
Coming Up Next
Looking for more news? Keep your eyes peeled for our continuing ExileCon coverage! In the lead up to the Closed Beta for Path of Exile 2, the Maxroll team will be hard at work learning everything there is to know, and creating new guides. If you haven't already, head over to our Discord and select the Path of Exile role in #roles to stay up to date with our content development. Stay sane, Exile!
Written by: Tenkiei
Reviewed by: Xtra37, Dredscythe
