Grinding Gear Games continues to tinker away on Path of Exile 2, fixing some of the "key pain points" of the otherwise superb early access ARPG. Full patch notes for the latest set of upcoming changes are on their way, but in the meantime the developer has revealed some of the major improvements heading to Wraeclast—not least of which is a change to passive skill respecs.
Build overhauls are a quintessential part of many ARPGs, and in an early access game like Path of Exile 2 you're going to be tweaking your character even more frequently as GGG doles out buffs and nerfs. But the cost of respeccing your passive skills is currently quite prohibitive, especially as you level up, where it gets increasingly expensive.
Last week, after GGG made some significant nerfs, players found themselves needing to create new builds, but couldn't always afford to do so, inspiring them to call for a change to how respecs work, or at least a reduction in price.
World of Warcraft is a great example of how I think this should be handled. When Blizzard makes substantial changes to talents, for instance, it resets your talent tree so that you won't end up playing with a bricked build. Even better, there's no respec cost when you just decide to do this on your own. Given that experimentation is such a crucial part of Path of Exile 2, I'd love for GGG to ape this model, but in the meantime the changes it's making are at least a step in the right direction.
Basically: respecs are going to be cheaper at higher levels. "It had a relatively aggressive curve getting more expensive with character level, we have flattened that curve so it doesn’t exponentially grow as much," says GGG. "This should generally result in approximately 40-50% less gold cost for respeccing between the start and middle of endgame progression."
As much as I don't see the benefit of making us spend our gold on respecs at all, this will at least make higher-level respecs less of a pain in the arse.
Extra conveniences are also being thrown into the mix with this upcoming patch, specifically in regards to checkpoints. You'll be able to fast travel between checkpoints within an area, and GGG is adding additional checkpoints at entrances and exits to make exploration a bit brisker.
On top of this, GGG is tweaking Trial of the Sekhemas so that it's less frustrating for close-range characters, specifically by reworking how honour damage scales at close range. Endgame maps are also getting a balance pass, with monsters now dealing less damage. "These changes should generally result in an endgame that is much more survivable than before and we will continue to address problematic cases as they arise," says the developer.
There are a bunch of character and item balance changes coming, too, some of which will be welcomed. Others? Maybe not so much. Charm modifiers on belts will be more common and appear more frequently at lower levels, and the Hunter Talisman Notable will grant an extra charm slot. Monks and Rangers will also benefit from a new lightning damage and electrocute cluster in the passive tree, which sits between both classes.
Potentially less welcome are the changes to chain freeze and electrocute. You won't be able to chain-freeze enemies as easily, because the freeze buildup that occurs after freeze has already been applied is being reduced. Electrocute, meanwhile, will be 25% harder to build up.
Finally, GGG is buffing a bunch of skill and support gems to make up for some of the recent nerfs. It also explains why those nerfs were necessary: "Basically it's a situation in which a certain skill is so powerful that players feel no other method of playing the game is viable. Generally speaking we are trying to do this in a way that doesn't make a build bad (but we can make mistakes!). Ideally any truly meta shifting changes will only happen at the same time as a content patch with a new league to play in."
Anyway, onto the buffs!
- Improvements to Rolling Slam and all Shield Skills in the mace section
- Improvements to various bow skills, especially the skills used to generate frenzy charges
- Improvements to bone spells and chaos damage over time spells in the occult section
- Improvements to various crossbow skills, especially those at higher tiers
- Improvements to some of the underachieving quarterstaff abilities
- Added the Tremors Support Gem, which can be used to give up to multiple more aftershocks to skills, with a damage penalty
- Added the Bidding Support Gem, which can be used to give more damage to the command skills of supported minions.
- The Fire Exposure, Lightning Exposure and Cold Exposure Support Gems no longer penalise damage of supported skills and now have a mana cost multiplier of 120%
Unfortunately, more nerfs are also coming:
- Skeletal Arsonists Spirit costs now match the other two Skeleton Mages, this should result in a slight decrease in the number of Arsonists at a higher level
- A nerf to the damage over time component on very high levels of Tornado and Vine Arrow. These were never intended to be dealing damage themselves, but more so act as a way for other skills to propagate damage
- Magnetic Salvo can now only use your stuck Lightning Arrows as opposed to those created by your party members
Good thing respecs are getting cheaper, because I suspect a lot of you are going to be making some changes to your build soon.
