We’re just a couple of weeks from the Path of Exile 2 early access launch, so developer Grinding Gear Games finally lifts the lid on exactly what we can expect when the doors open. With Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred now behind us, PoE 2 has a clear space to stake its claim as the ARPG of choice for the holiday season. Ahead of its new presentation, which reveals the full breadth of content on offer from day one, I sat down with game director Jonathan Rogers to discuss how the team decided what would make the cut.
The Path of Exile 2 release date arrives on Friday December 6, finally unleashing the long-awaited sequel to one of the PC’s best RPGs of all time. First announced five years ago, the initial idea was that PoE 2 would function as a secondary campaign and share its endgame with the 2013 original. Path of Exile 2 has since split off to become an entirely standalone sequel.
PoE 2 will run in parallel with the first game, with its own set of seasonal leagues, and it’s quite a different beast, with many systems handled in dramatically new ways compared to its predecessor. There’s certainly a lot to dig into here if you aren’t up to speed, such as the ways in which Path of Exile 2 combat learns from Elden Ring with systems such as active blocking and dodge rolls, or its clever new skill system that encourages combining different actions over single-ability spam.
For now, however, let’s focus on what’s actually available to try when Path of Exile 2 arrives in December. Six of its 12 classes will be playable at launch, with each boasting two of their three planned Ascendancies. You’ll be able to play the first half of the campaign on two difficulties, then dive into a pretty robust-looking evolution of the original PoE’s endgame, albeit with slightly fewer systems out the gate than that game has built up across more than a decade in service.
Class-wise, the Warrior, Monk, Mercenary, and Sorceress all make their debuts at launch, and they’re joined by the returning Witch and Ranger. That means you’ll have to wait to play both the Druid and the Huntress, along with the other four PoE 1 classes. Rogers says the absence of the shapeshifting Druid is the one that bothers him most: “There’s a huge number of people waiting for that class, and we’ll definitely get it out as soon as we can. We realized at some point that it would be easy to save some for later and pick our battles.”
As in the first game, each of these classes begins at a preset point on a shared passive skill tree – perhaps the defining element that makes Path of Exile at once so exciting and so intimidating. “Don’t be scared,” Rogers says, “There are a lot of options, but at its core it’s pretty simple.” There are actually three variants to each starting zone, he explains, one for each of the two classes that starts there, and one that’s used when you start in another part of the tree.
This change ensures that, early on, each class has some upgrades that feel useful to its particular specialities, without a selection of nodes featuring stats that don’t benefit them. Overall, however, Rogers says, “There is a lot more exciting stuff now. I think the PoE 2 tree is a significant upgrade over PoE 1 because of all the notables. There’s a lot more uniqueness going on around the tree.”
Each of the classes will also have two Ascendancies available, with the goal being for all of them to have three eventually. Much like PoE 1, these are essentially subclasses or specializations, although the way you earn points for them has changed slightly in PoE 2. Now, you’ll take on one of three different challenges at certain points through the progression – you can choose which trial you wish to attempt each time. At launch, two of these will be available: the Trial of the Sekhemas, and the Trialmaster’s Challenge.
The Trial of the Sekhemas is very reminiscent of the first game’s recent and popular Forbidden Sanctum, tasking you to progress through a series of rooms as boons and afflictions stack up, with an ‘honor’ meter that drains as you take hits and causes you to fail if you’re reckless. The Trialmaster, meanwhile, demands you to pick between three modifiers in round-based tests such as wave survival, escort missions, and boss fights. Successfully complete a trial and you’ll earn both loot and two Ascendancy points.
As for the Ascendancies available on day one, they start with the Sorceress, who can become a Stormweaver to amplify her elemental skills, or a Chronomancer, boasting time freezes, temporal rifts, and full ability cooldown refreshes. The Warrior can lean into war cries and the use of ancestral spirits as a Warbringer, or unleash devastating, rippling heavy hits as a Titan. Rangers can perfect their marksmanship as a Deadeye, or master flasks and poison effects as a Pathfinder.
Becoming an Infernalist gives Witches a hellhound and a demon transformation, while turning into a Blood Mage adds a life cost to all spells but allows them to replenish their essence by collecting orbs from slain foes. Invoker Monks can use elemental buffs or turn into an avatar of destruction, while Acolytes turn their Spirit into Darkness, earning instant mana leech or employing chaos damage against their enemies.
Finally, Mercenaries can specialize as a Witch Hunter for more elemental defense and concentration-shattering attacks, or a Gemling Legionnaire. This last option is particularly intriguing. Not only does it grant them additional skill slots, but it also allows them to net passive boosts from equipped support gems, add quality to all skill gems, or even make use of any gem type using their highest-value attribute, even if it’s not the one they normally require.
While the full Path of Exile 2 campaign will push you to roughly level 65 out of a potential 100, at launch only three of the six acts will be playable. Rogers says this decision was made late in the process, as the team decided that a strong endgame is more important to ARPG players. It’s certainly a consistent complaint for new arrivals to the genre, with both Diablo 4 and Last Epoch suffering in this regard.
As such, the early access launch for PoE 2 features the first three acts, estimated to take around 25 hours to complete on a first playthrough. You should be around level 45 by the time you’re done here, so the team is adopting a system it used during the early days of the first game and having you play through acts one to three a second time in ‘cruel’ difficulty to get you to level 65. Once the other three acts are finished, this difficulty mode will be removed, but for now it should provide a nice way to smooth the journey to endgame.
As for that endgame, there are seven distinct systems in place for the early access launch, and while it’s still centered around the Atlas, what that looks like has changed. In Path of Exile 2, the Atlas is a sprawling, randomly generated map that’s functionally endless. You’ll explore its network of pathways by placing Waystones into each area much as you would use Maps in PoE 1’s Map Device, choosing how to craft them first if you want to amplify the threats and rewards in each zone.
Four of the most popular Path of Exile league mechanics also have ‘sequels’ that will show up for now: Breach, Ritual, Delirium, and Expedition. These can show up at random, but there are also ways to make the ones you like most appear more often. Much like in PoE 1, you’ll also earn points for an Atlas passive tree that lets you choose the way you want to approach the endgame. It also features smaller trees for each of the mechanics, and you’ll earn points for these by successfully taking on their respective challenges.
As you explore the Atlas map, you’ll find special towers. Clearing these gives you a wider look at the area around you to help you decide where to explore next, but it also allows you to use tablets of the various mechanic types above to spread them across nearby maps. If you really love Delerium, for example, you can craft your maps and tablets to see it as often as possible. You’ll also come across corrupted zones, as well as boss maps – although you can choose whether you wish to specialize in boss hunting or avoid them entirely.
Alongside these mechanics, both the Trial of Sekhemas and the Trialmaster’s Challenge return in endgame forms. All six of these systems have specific rewards and unique boss drops, so while you may choose to focus on one it seems like there will be plenty of reasons to dip into them all.
Finally, you’ll also occasionally happen upon an ominous fortress in the Atlas map, home to a Pinnacle boss fight. Each faction has an Uber boss, but before you can take on these ultimate challenges you’ll need to first defeat both of their lieutenants, and then win the fight itself. Come out victorious and some of PoE 2’s finest loot awaits, but fail and the chance will be lost until you find them again.
Beat all the Uber bosses, and you can take on the fortress, and the Pinnacle boss that awaits within. Co game director Mark Roberts says the team isn’t going to spoil this one, as it wants to watch players encounter it for the first time. He does, however, promise that defeating it will unlock points in yet another skill tree. “Of course,” he remarks, “This is Path of Exile – there is always another tree.”
By the time the full launch rolls around, Rogers says he expects there to be roughly double the amount of content in the game than there is for the December 6 early access release. A lot of the absent elements, he explains, are in the “80% done” stage where they’re not quite ready to go, but have a lot of the pieces already in place such as art and animations. That said, with an estimated 400 enemy types and 50 bosses already there to get us going it looks like we’ll have plenty to keep us busy in the meantime.
For the time being, check your PC against the Path of Exile 2 system requirements and keep an eye out for Path of Exile 2 Twitch drops to get yourself some early cosmetics.
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