The early entry launch of Path of Exile 2 late final 12 months has been extremely profitable. Not solely did it arrive with a sizeable endgame for followers of the unique PoE to sink their tooth into as soon as they’re performed with (what exists of) the marketing campaign, it additionally served as a recent begin for brand spanking new gamers and anybody who’d been interested in Path of Exile however by no means managed to get into it for all these years.
I favored a lot of what I performed of it, however you would inform that the sequel is designed to supply an expertise altogether totally different from its predecessor, one thing most of the older followers weren’t pleased with.
Developer Grinding Gear Video games has been extremely attentive to suggestions from all sections of Path of Exile 2 gamers from the day the early entry construct went stay. Even earlier than we mentioned goodbye to 2024, the group managed to place out a few massive patches. Now, it’s time for the primary a type of within the new 12 months.
As soon as once more, Grinding Gear isn’t trying to make the sport interesting for everybody, however the developer has clearly spent the previous few weeks tweaking what’s already there to handle a number of the commonest complaints. Patch 0.1.1, which arrives someday this week, is one other step in the direction of that objective.
GG is tackling the endgame mapping expertise in a number of methods. Mapping is what longtime PoE gamers name the act of working a number of dungeons/zones back-to-back to farm gadgets and develop their character. To start with, endgame maps have had their monster density, variety of magical monsters, essences, artefacts, accessible chests and extra rebalanced. The developer expects maps to be extra rewarding, particularly as every one is designed to supply sure rewards.
Extra maps could have bosses now, too, at a fee of about one boss per 4 maps. In truth, gamers who actually need to problem bosses shall be completely happy to know there’s a brand new kind of Pill that permits you to add bosses to your maps with their very own modifiers. As for Towers, the brand new patch provides 4 new Tower maps, in addition to a redone Misplaced Towers map.
Now onto the stuff I’m actually enthusiastic about as somebody who’s nonetheless going by means of the marketing campaign. The patch is making a number of fixes to collision throughout the board, which ought to hopefully end in your character getting caught far much less usually. That is a part of an effort to scale back environmental litter, which can itself assist increase visibility.
It’s additionally, lastly, doing one thing about visible results. Ability results, although superb to have a look at, usually obscure enemy assaults, and, contemplating how difficult the gameplay is, can/will get you killed since you merely couldn’t see an assault you wanted to dodge. This additionally goes for elemental explosions, which have an extended fuse time now, too. The large one, although, is that they received’t explode if a uncommon monster dies, which instantly makes preventing the tanky buggers a lot much less of a ache.
Elsewhere within the patch, you possibly can count on quicker load occasions when mentioning the Atlas map. The map’s zoom degree has been elevated as properly. The biomes for every one shall be listed for those who hover over them, which goes to make it simpler to rapidly see what you’re about to leap into.
It’s necessary to take into account that all of those adjustments might be performed throughout the present League, and with out altering the in-game financial system an excessive amount of. For some, they received’t be sufficient, but it surely’s clear Grinding Gear is engaged on bigger adjustments that might find yourself arriving with a brand new League. For now, there’s loads right here to get enthusiastic about.
The complete changelog has not but been revealed, however you possibly can watch the video embedded on this story for an summary of all the things else coming with 0.1.1.
