What is Path of Exile 2?

Path of Exile 2 is a new title from Grinding Gear Games. It features a sprawling 6 Act campaign, 12 playable classes, and deep character customization that continues to evolve as you progress toward the endgame. Combat has been designed to incorporate movement and focus on the minute-to-minute gameplay. Once you complete the Acts you can explore Path of Exile 2's endgame. This includes more character customization, crafting, and different league mechanics to farm.

PoE 2 is not just the same game built in a newer shinier engine, it's a true sequel intended to advance the genre. This time, the game takes more cues from singleplayer experiences like The Witcher 3 and Dark Souls. There's a greater emphasis on narrative storytelling both during and after the campaign. Combat is both weightier and more interactive, in the hopes that players build around multiple skills. To encourage this, PoE 2 supports dual specialization where some of your passives are altered when you swap weapons. There are also numerous new Ascendancies to support different gameplay styles like shapeshifting and martial arts.

6 Act Campaign

The Path of Exile 2 campaign takes place 20 years after Kitava's defeat and the major story events from the original Path of Exile. You follow one of the 6 original Exiles or one of 6 new Exiles across the deadly islands of Wraeclast. The gods of old are dead, but countless horrors remain lurking in the darkness, waiting for their opportunity to strike. Luckily you have help from notable figures including The Hooded One, Alva, Tujen, and many more both new and familiar.

There's a lot more variance built into the Path of Exile 2 campaign, most Acts progress in a non-linear manner and procedural generation provides more zone diversity. You don't lose experience on death during the campaign but the monsters reset on player death. This more closely follows the experience presented by some of the singleplayer titles that inspired Path of Exile 1 such as Witcher 3 and Dark Souls. As you progress through the campaign and defeat bosses you gain several small bonuses including Attributes and Spirit.

The 6 Act campaign includes a wide variety of areas to explore each with its own unique theme. Currently, we know the setting for 4 out of the 6 Acts.

• Act 1 - Explore the isle of Ogham and work with the Hooded One to track down the Seed of Corruption.
• Act 2 - Travel the Vastiri Desert with a Maraketh caravan.
• Act 3 - Explore thick jungles and uncover the remnants of the ancient Vaal civilization.
• Act 4 - Set out from the Settlement of Kingsmarch and sail between the local islands.
• These adventures and more await in Path of Exile 2's campaign.

Boss Battles

There are over 100 new bosses to challenge as part of the Path of Exile 2 campaign. The boss battles are far more mechanically intense than what you experience during the Path of Exile 1 campaign. If you die, there is usually a checkpoint nearby but the boss does fully heal.

12 Playable Classes

Path of Exile 2 features 12 playable classes (2 per Attribute combination) each of which have 3 Ascendancies. There is no Scion or Ascendant in PoE 2 but this still results in 36 unique Ascendancies. This means twice the choice of the original Path of Exile! These are no mere nameless, faceless avatars for you to customize. Each character is unique with their own backstory, lore, and personality. Each class is built to support specific archetypes or class fantasies but this is still Path of Exile so you can equip any weapon, or use any skill on all of the classes. Think of it this way, everyone can do everything, but some are better at doing each specific thing than others.

Warrior

New Classes

• The Warrior is a new melee combat specialist who is a counterpart to the Marauder.
• Play a Sorceress to wield the elements, blending Fire, Cold, and Lightning.
• As a Huntress you weave between foes, striking from a distance before moving in to finish your foe.
• The Monk is a martial artist who specializes in mobility striking with a Quarterstaff or his bare palms.
• If you want to play as a Bear or a variety of other animals then Druid is the class for you.
• Inspired by first person shooters, the Mercenary rains lead upon his enemies with a variety of Crossbows.

Returning Classes

• The Ranger once again stalks the forests of Wraeclasts changing the world, one arrow at a time.
• Steeped in the profane, wielding instruments of bone, and surrounded by an army of undead, the Witch makes her return.
• The Shadow, Templar, Marauder, and Duelist are returning for Path of Exile 2, but GGG has not revealed any details for these classes yet.

Dual Specialization

Path of Exile 2 supports dual specialization, where some of your passive points are tied to your active weapon. For example in the picture below you see a series of Cold nodes active, with Lightning nodes tied to the inactive weapon. To take advantage of this, assign your Skill to use a specific weapon. Then, you set your Passive Tree up to maximize for specific skills, or allow one skill to set up status effects for another to capitalize on. This way you can build around multiple elements or different skills and then fluidly swap between them in the heat of battle.

The number of nodes available for Dual Specialization is limited, so you need to think carefully about what's going to be the most impactful. You obtain these special skill points from Quest Books as you progress through the campaign. Even with the limitations, Dual Specialization is going to enable a lot of builds that weren't possible in the original Path of Exile.

Passives work a bit differently in Path of Exile 2, for one thing, there's no life on the tree. There are also no masteries, a popular feature from Path of Exile 1 intended to fix inherent weaknesses in that game's passive tree. Instead, the idea with PoE 2's passive tree is to provide a wider range of usable nodes. Because there are multiple Classes per Attribute combination in Path of Exile 2, the passive tree changes slightly based on your class. So for example, if you play as a Witch you find different nodes in your starting area than you would as a Sorceress.

Skills & Combat Revamp

There are a lot of changes to skills and the flow of combat. First up, your Sockets and Links are incorporated into the skill gems, rather than on your items. Skills have also been reworked to specialize and excel at one thing, to encourage players to combine multiple active skills to create their build.

Attacks in particular have seen significant improvements, they now have weapon-specific animations, and movement is incorporated into most skills to enhance the feel of combat. Additionally, Path of Exile 2 features an active dodge roll. You can dodge through enemies to prevent yourself from being body blocked or use it to avoid damage from direct attacks. It does not, however, protect you from area of effect attacks such as boss slams!

You can use Uncut Skill Gems and Uncut Support Gems to obtain a Gem of your choice. These drop as you kill monsters and are scaled to the level of the area where you obtained them. This offers you more freedom to choose the skills you want while completing the campaign. There are also significant changes to reservation effects. These no longer require Life or Mana, but instead use a new resource called "Spirit." This affects Auras, permanent Minions (like Summon Zombies) and Meta Gems (such as Cast on Shock).

Skill Combos

Skill combos are a big focus in Path of Exile 2! This manifests in a few different ways, for example, Armor Piercing Burst Shot shatters Frozen enemies dealing AoE damage to all other nearby enemies. You can also use a Skill to create a void zone on the ground such as an oil slick or a poison cloud and then ignite the ground effect with Fire damage to create a huge explosion!

Path of Exile 2's support skills further enhance skill combinations. For example, Lightning Rod is a bow attack which creates static conductors which react when struck by electricity. Lightning Arrow fires electrified arrows, causing electricity to arc through the rods. If you add Multiple Projectile Support to Lightning Rod, it's easier to create a field of rods. That way when you fire Lightning Arrow, the electricity has more targets to arc through.

Support Skills

You can only equip one copy of each Support Gem across all your skills. Furthermore, each Support has an Attribute requirement, (Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence). Increasing your Attributes increases your Support Capacity for that Attribute. So if you have high Dexterity, you can use more Dexterity supports.

Crafting and Itemization

Path of Exile 2 has currency driven crafting systems. Different Orbs modify items in unique ways, typically by adding or removing affixes. But not all orbs from the original Path of Exile exist in PoE 2. The most notable change is that Orbs of Scouring do not exist in Path of Exile 2! This means you cannot "scour away" an undesirable affix, which increases the value of white (uncrafted) items because there's no way to revert a Rare or Magic item to a White uncrafted state.

Crafting in PoE 2 begins with a base. The affixes you can roll vary based on the item level and attribute requirement for the base. For example, Dexterity gear has modifiers related to Evasion, whereas Intelligence gear provides Energy Shield. Hybrid bases, roll modifiers from both pools, so a Jacket can roll modifiers from both the Dexterity and Intelligence pools. Normal items have no affixes, Magic items have up to 1 Prefix and 1 Suffix, whereas Rare items have up to 3 Prefixes and 3 Suffixes. During the crafting process, you apply currency orbs to add, remove, or modify the affixes on an item.

Itemization as a whole has also been reworked. Each attribute combination now has an identity to make it both visually distinct and mechanically unique. This includes some new defensive mechanics like how Evasion now applies to enemy Spells in addition to their Attacks. Of course, Path of Exile 1's most iconic unique items like Shavronne's Wrappings and Headhunter are returning for PoE 2 but there are going to be a lot of new items too.

Gold and Exchange

Gold is a currency that was created for Path of Exile 2, it drops from monsters as you complete the campaign and during endgame activities. Early on the main use of gold is for purchasing upgrades, similar to the vendors available during Path of Exile 1's campaign. You can also use Gold in place of Orbs of Regret to respecialize your passive tree.

In an interview with Zizaran, Jonathan Rogers announced that gold is going to be used as part of an asynchronous trading system. This system is likely to be very similar to the Currency Exchange currently being tested in Path of Exile 1. You place orders for an item you want then wait for someone to fill the listing.

GGG plans to support listings for non-currency items on the Path of Exile 2 exchange. However, the instant buyout for items is going to cost significantly more Gold than it does for currency. This is to discourage players from abusing the markets as they need to kill more monsters to obtain the Gold required to buy large numbers of items.

PoE 2 Frequently Asked Questions

The following is NOT an official FAQ from GGG, instead, it's questions about the differences between Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2 which have been discussed during interviews, presentations at ExileCon and elsewhere. Therefore, the following is subject to change and we may update this post as we find out more.

Can I use my current items and characters in Path of Exile 2?

No, Path of Exile 2 is a separate game your characters do not transfer.

How much does PoE 2 cost?

Free, just like the original Path of Exile. But you can buy Stash tabs to store all the items you've picked up, or cosmetic MTX to support the game's ongoing development.

What about my Stash Tabs and MTX?

GGG has confirmed that your stash tabs along with most MTX do transfer between games. The exception being effects for a skill or item class that exists in one game, but not the other. For example, if you purchase Crossbow MTX in PoE 2, you cannot bring it to PoE 1.

Is PoE 2 a singleplayer game, or an online game?

Just like the original PoE, Path of Exile 2 is an online game with full cooperative play. However, when you are playing solo you can pause the game.

Is the dodge roll faster than walking?

No, it's the same speed.

Do I need to worry about Spells vs Attacks when building my Defenses?

No, in Path of Exile 2 monster Spells and Attacks are treated identically. Therefore, your Evasion applies to enemy Spells. We don't yet know how this changes defenses like Spells Suppression and Deflection.

Combat looks slow, can we go fast?

Mark and Jonathan have both said you can go fast in the endgame, but the Acts and early gameplay are slower paced than Path of Exile 1.

Crafting in Path of Exile is too confusing, does PoE 2 fix this?

One of GGG's goals with the crafting rework is to simplify the entire process. While there are going to be multiple crafting systems, they are more limited. Each system may only apply to 1 item slot or only serve one purpose.

What are the new weapon types coming to Path of Exile 2?

• Spears, a melee weapon can strike from point blank range or a medium distance.
• Crossbows, a ranged weapon with different ammunition and attachment types.
• Traps are now their own weapon class.
• Flails which are joining Sceptres as a Strength/Intelligence weapon.
• Quarterstaves are a new class of melee weapons replacing the Warstaff subtype from Path of Exile 1.
• Sceptres are now support weapons providing Spirit and Aura bonuses.

Are we going to meet Zana in PoE 2?

I have no idea, but I certainly hope so!

Does PoE 2 have any of the leagues from PoE 1?

Yes, but we don't have a full list of the leagues returning or what's changing about them.

Are Flasks changing?

Yes, they're more reactive now with limited duration. This means fewer flask charges and new effects akin to guard skills from the original Path of Exile.

Does PoE 2 have more quality of life features?

Absolutely, in fact, there's too many to list them all, so here are a few:

• After dying you don't need to reactivate your reservations.
• No experience loss when dying in the campaign.
• If you disconnect the world "freezes" around you, so a random DC no longer means guaranteed death.
• Portal scrolls are no longer required.
• The Hooded One can identify your items in town.
• PoE 2 supports WASD movement.
• Most skills have better tracking while mid animation, helping to keep your strikes on target.
• Projectiles are affected by gravity, so enemies cannot snipe you from off the edge of your screen.
• Monster indicators, you can tell when you miss an enemy, or when they're poisoned with a clear visual indicator.

Is the Console experience going to be better for PoE 2?

Until we get hands on with the game, no one can know for sure. But GGG is putting more of an emphasis on Consoles for Path of Exile 2. This includes crossplay, cross progression, and local couch co-op!

Can I portal out on a Boss Fight?

No, Jonathan recently confirmed you cannot portal out to cheese bosses in Path of Exile 2! You get one portal to attempt the boss and if you die the boss heals to full.

What is the endgame in PoE 2?

GGG hasn't shared details on the endgame for Path of Exile 2 yet. But there's going to be some sort of mapping experience, enhanced by league mechanics and most likely some out of map mechanics similar to Delve, Heist or Logbooks.

Does Path of Exile 2 have a generator spender system?

Probably not. Your weapons do have implicit skills, and these have no mana cost so you can spam them to your heart's content. However, most skills in Path of Exile 2 don't have a cooldown, so as long as you correctly build around your Mana consumption you can use them instead. Without hands on experience it's hard to give a definitive answer here, but it's very likely that you can use your skills of choice without having to fall back on your auto attack.

Are defenses active or passive?

There are both active and passive defenses in Path of Exile 2. Passive defenses like Armor, Evasion, and Energy Shield provide continual defensive bonuses based on the items you equip. On the other hand, Flasks and Block are active defenses, you need to time them correctly to protect yourself!

Summary

Path of Exile 2 is a full sequel to the hit ARPG from Grinding Gear Games.

• It features a narratively rich 6 Act campaign.
• You can play as one of 12 classes, each of which has 3 ascendancies for 36 uniquely supported archetypes.
• The PoE 2 passive tree supports dual specialization allowing you to automatically change some passive nodes when you weapon swap.
• Skills and combat have been fully reworked. The focus is on deeper gameplay and combining multiple skills together, rather than crafting your build around one button to rule them all.
• Crafting is now simpler and different bases are available to give each attribute combination a distinct feel.
• Path of Exile 2 has an asynchronous trading system known as the Exchange.
  • This requires Gold which you can farm by killing monsters.

Written by: Tenkiei

Reviewed by: Havoc616, Palsteron