Path of Exile 2’s Dawn of the Hunt patch is massive, and if this is your first major patch playing a Grinding Gear Games, you’ll expect to see the same with every content update or season.
The patch notes could be as long as a thesis paper, so we’ll keep it brief and focus on all the significant changes for the Dawn of the Hunt patch.
Build Nerfs Everywhere
Chaos Inoculation is nerfed because setting your life to a specific value now occurs before the conversion of the mechanic is applied to the stat. Infernalist Demon Form is a bit nerfed. Spark has fewer projectiles, no more projectile speed, and is mainly nerfed.
Archmage-type builds, which have damage scaling on maximum mana, get a massive nerf to damage. Detonate Dead is harder to scale up in damage on its high-end investment builds, but generally, it will be much harder to play the build compared to its previous levels.
Lightning Rod Arrow gets a slight nerf with functionality such as Chaining and others. Minions get a big nerf in damage from Pain Offering’s Aura and Soul Offering since the wording is now “increased damage” instead of “more damage.” Minion builds also lose more spirit from the Spectre, which is another massive nerf.
Lightning Conduit falls down from the heavens with the biggest nerf out of all the skills. However, it makes sense, as it does absurd amounts of damage.
Apart from these skills, even staple unique items like Ingenuity Belts and Everlasting Gaze Amulets are nerfed. Good Astramentis rolls are also harder to get since they roll +50 – 100 instead of +80 – 100 attributes.
New Class, Ascendancies, and Skills
They added the new Huntress class with the Amazon and Ritualist ascendancies. Warrior gets a Smith of Kitava ascendancy that looks extremely durable. Mercenary gets a Tactician ascendancy, along with some slight buffs to the class. Witch gets a new Lich ascendancy.
There are over 100 new support gems and 25 new primary skills (mostly for the Huntress class or spears). With several major changes to skills, it looks like every popular skill since early access has been nerfed, and the new primary skills are mainly for the Huntress. It looks like they are either setting a really low baseline for overall player strength, or they are keeping something hidden from us.
Endgame Balance Changes
You can now respawn and return to the map when you die. However, if you add more modifiers to a Waystone, the respawns get lower and lower. You can go in and out of your map as long as you haven’t died. Portals represent revives instead of a one-way transport system.
There are many more quality-of-life changes, such as dying to a boss and respawning near the boss checkpoint.
The first five different unique maps you complete grant 2 Atlas Passive Skill points each, giving you 10 more points. That is a massive buff to overall endgame loot, especially if you want to run more content in your Waystones.
Azmerian Spirits have been added as a mechanic and will now be available on tablets, including Rogue Exiles rolls.
Tablets modifiers, towers, and maps have major reworks, the majority of which are buffs. Most content is streamlined even more as there are fewer towers, giving you more time to finish other Waystones instead of trying to buff every node possible by finishing all towers first.
Recombination Crafting System
The feature unlocks after you complete your first Expedition, so it won’t be available immediately. Recombination works as if you combine two items into one, hoping to get the perfect stats from the two items.
Apart from Recombinations, they added a new currency, the Fracturing Orb, which gives players another “type” of crafting. However, it might be a bit harder to craft affixes deterministically through it because you need to hit a perfect fracture and then Chaos Orb spam until you get a good item. It is a great way to get people to dump some Chaos Orbs to help the economy.
Other Unknowns
While there are more changes, some are still mysterious until you play the patch. Skill gem information is hidden for now, which makes it hard for content creators to theorycraft builds.
Some players might look into playing old builds, but that’ll be difficult since most of the builds are nerfed. Most players will look into playing the new Huntress class with new primary skills from the spear and shield weapon type.
Drop rates for certain items and currency are also hidden, so we won’t know if there are any changes there.
Dawn of the Hunt will feel like a new and fresh game, but that doesn’t mean that it’ll be better. Path of Exile 2’s quality has been quite low compared to Path of Exile 1’s gameplay standards, even if they are trying to slow things down. The lack of endgame content is still apparent, but these endgame changes are still important steps in the right direction.
Published: Apr 3, 2025 02:37 pm