News Tag: POE 2 Patch 0 5 0

Among the two new Ascendancy classes in Path of Exile 2, Spirit Walker offers one of the most varied - and arguably the most entertaining - playstyles. It allows you to capture beasts from the story campaign and have them fight by your side, much like taming creatures in a certain monster-collecting franchise.

These beasts are not limited to rare monsters; you can even use this skill to capture some troublesome bosses. Turning a difficult enemy into an ally is a remarkably cool idea, and players interested in this build will naturally want to know which beasts can become their most powerful companions.

Natural Order

Spirit Walker Ascendancy class's most impactful skill is called Natural Order. This ability permits players to tame Unique Beasts - that is, boss-level monsters. Moreover, tamed beasts receive a movement speed bonus and are possessed by random Azmeri Spirits, granting them additional area-of-effect abilities.

During an interview, the official development team behind Path of Exile 2 stated that tamed beasts would receive a triple damage bonus - they want players to truly rely on these bosses for dealing damage. However, they have not revealed which bosses can be tamed. Therefore, the evaluations below are speculative, based on players' combat experiences with these bosses, not on official data. For different bosses serving as followers, factors such as skill frequency, AI behavior, and survivability will all affect their actual performance.

Act 1

The Devourer (Tier C)

• Location: Mud Burrow

The Devourer frequently burrows underground to avoid damage, during which it does not attack. This passive behavior is a major flaw in a follower - players need an aggressively offensive ally. Lacking effective area damage, its overall performance is likely poor.

The Crowbell (Tier B)

• Location: Hunting Grounds

The Crowbell moves swiftly and has clean, crisp attack animations. It strikes a giant bell to deal respectable melee area damage. Since enemies won't deliberately dodge, its clear speed should be promising. However, a pure melee style may lead to survivability issues, and its health pool is lower than that of other bosses, so it might die frequently.

Count Geonor (Tier S)

• Location: The Iron Manor

In his wolf form, Count Geonor possesses terrifying area damage and a powerful guided ice spear ability. However, since he transforms from a humanoid leader, he likely cannot be classified as a beast. If capturable, he would undoubtedly be S-tier.

Act 2

Rathbreaker (Tier C)

• Location: Vastiri Outskirts

Rathbreaker has acceptable attack speed, with most attacks being narrow cones or small circles. But it lacks large-area AoE, and its signature arrow volley may come from off-screen minions rather than its own skill. If that ability does not belong to it, its value drops significantly.

Ekbab, Ancient Steed (Tier C)

• Location: The Bone Pits

Ekbab, Ancient Steed moves slowly. Its large size provides decent base area coverage, but it is also pure melee. It gains an enrage skill after another summoner boss dies, but that may not carry over as a follower. However, if its health pool is extremely high, it could work well with builds that scale off life.

Constrictor Queen Kabala (Tier B)

• Location: The Lost City of Keth

Constrictor Queen Kabala is a ranged-attack boss with solid area skills. If the snakes it summons during combat count as its own abilities, that could bring extra summoning synergies. It also has a projectile basic attack. If it uses that attack frequently and creates overlapping ground explosions, its potential increases further.

Act 3

Silverback Blackfist (Tier A)

• Location: Jungle Ruins

Silverback Blackfist has an excellent design. It delivers large-area AoE and high damage. The only drawback is that some of its slam animations have a wind-up, which may reduce damage output efficiency.

Xyclucian, the Chimera (Tier A)

• Location: Chimeral Wetlands

This creature has many different skills, each dealing different damage types. Its animations are fast and clean. The downside is that its skill set is too scattered to receive effective bonuses from a single damage type or curse. It is a cool follower but difficult to build around.

Act 4

Great White One (Tier A)

• Location: Whakapanu Island

Great White One's tail swipe is a wide-area sweep. The key is its summoned tornado skill - if the tornado is the boss's own ability rather than a terrain mechanic, it would greatly improve clear speed.

Blind Beast (Tier D)

• Location: Isle of Kin

Blind Beast, compared to other bosses in Path of Exile 2, feels more like an ordinary rare monster than a unique boss. Its model is small, its movements are slow, its attacks are weak, and it has no distinctive features.

Yama the White (Tier B)

• Location: Halls of the Dead

Yama the White is fast and has decent AoE, but its combat mechanics are numerous, and it is uncertain which will carry over. Some of its flashy animations may also slow down the pace of battle.

Scourge of the Skies (Tier S)

• Location: Shrike Island

Scourge of the Skies barely moves, but all its skills have enormous range and extremely high damage. It can summon small birds, and has abilities like tornadoes, blood rain, and a channeled vomit attack. It deals primarily physical damage - a single damage type - meaning you can further enhance its output through support gems. Overall, it holds great potential.

Diamora, Song of Death (Tier D)

• Location: Singing Caverns

Diamora, Song of Death has a human form and a beast form that differ greatly. Its core abilities - water spouts and shrieks - have small areas, and many of its mechanics are likely exclusive to its arena. As a follower, its performance may be completely different from its boss version.

Interlude

The Abominable Yeti (Tier A)

• Location: Howling Caves

The Abominable Yeti shares similar moves with Silverback Blackfist - AoE, damage, and speed - making it equally powerful. However, Silverback Blackfist appears as early as Act 3, giving it a relative advantage.

Rakkar, the Frozen Talon (Tier A)

• Location: Glacial Tarn

Rakkar, the Frozen Talon has respectable AoE and solid damage, but some of its skills have a casting time of up to three seconds, which would slow down the pace during fast clear mapping.

Trial of Chaos

Uxmal, the Beastlord (Tier A)

• Location: Temple of Chaos

Uxmal is essentially the same as Xyclucian, the Chimera - three-headed, winged, with a wide variety of moves, large-area AoE, and multiple damage types. Its strengths and issues are identical.

Chetza, the Feathered Plague (Tier S)

• Location: Temple of Chaos

Chetza can be considered an upgraded version of Scourge of the Skies. Its tornado skill is exceptionally powerful, and many players have fallen to it on their first encounter. Its damage is beyond question. As long as its AI favors frequent tornado use, you will have unparalleled clear speed.

Bahlak, the Sky Seer (Tier A)

• Location: Temple of Chaos

Bahlak, the Sky Seer also possesses highly promising tornado-based clear skills. However, it has a variety of other moves as well, so it may not prioritize using its best clearing ability.

The above is a list of all currently discovered tamable leaders. Please note that all ratings involve uncertainty; actual performance can only be verified after the version goes live. Hopefully, this guide helps you plan which targets you want to tame in advance.

Spirit Walker Ascendancy class will be a popular choice in Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.0, which will also increase the value of related gear. But don't worry, you can buy cheap and fast PoE 2 currency at IGGM, allowing you to easily trade for the gear and weapons you want even during the early stages of the game!

Players, by now you all understand the importance of Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.5.0; its scale likely surpasses many major PoE 1 updates. The official announcement previously revealed that Patch 0.5.0 would be an endgame update, and the development team has been working on it for a long time. So, what changes are needed in the new Patch to make the endgame content truly outstanding?

Infinite Atlas

The current problem with Atlas is that the system is both simplistic and confusing, lacking meaning. Players simply mechanically move from one map to another, completely devoid of strategy. It's a huge difference compared to PoE 1 Atlas and feels mediocre compared to other ARPGs.

Currently, the maps only have occasional corrupted areas, offering little variation or surprise. It feels like a piecemeal, cobbled-together system.

If Patch 0.5.0 is to address this, it should ideally significantly improve the depth and playability of Atlas. While a patch can't completely rewrite the game, we hope to at least see noticeable progress. The goal is to give players a sense of purpose in every step of their exploration, rather than blindly pushing through maps.

Atlas Skill Tree

The development team has actually stated that they are not entirely satisfied with the current Atlas Skill Tree.

Atlas Skill Tree is too weak overall. Most of the minor talents increase the number of rare monsters, monster density, or item quantity, without truly changing the gameplay.

Currently, players either choose Shrine or focus on Essence or Wildwood Wisp, offering very limited options.

Ideally, Atlas Skill Tree should be at least three times larger than it is now. The new Patch needs to provide more diverse map buffs, affix adjustments, and gameplay customization options, making each skill point feel significant. Patch 0.5.0 will probably completely rework this part.

Tiered Rare Gear

Frankly, the current Tier 5 to Tier 1 rare gear is generally mediocre. In most cases, a white base with simple crafting can create gear that is better than Tier 5 drops.

After 20-30 hours of exploration, players completely ignore all tiered rare gear, focusing solely on white base items for crafting. In contrast, crafting with PoE 2 currency is the mainstream method for obtaining powerful equipment, which renders tiered equipment dropped on the ground almost worthless.

I really hope Patch 0.5.0 will significantly buff Tier 5 gear, perhaps by giving Tier 5 base items naturally top-tier affix combinations. This would make ground drops exciting again, instead of forcing players to rely solely on crafting tables. After all, the fun of ARPGs lies in obtaining thrilling loot.

Map Layout Issues

Currently, unlike PoE 1, players can't freely choose which specific map to farm. Furthermore, in Infinite Atlas, you're often forced into poorly designed layouts to progress.

Molten Vault is a prime example of this; its complex terrain, long routes, and scattered mobs make it incredibly frustrating.

When you're forced to traverse these poorly designed maps to reach the next tower or corruption zone, it creates intense fatigue and an urge to quit.

If players aren't allowed to freely choose maps, then every map's layout must be at least good or acceptable; extremely poor layouts are unacceptable. Each map can have its own unique characteristics, players shouldn't feel like they've already played that map.

Additionally, it's recommended to directly display the layout name or its initials on the map icon to avoid requiring players to hover and wait for a delay to identify the map. This small operational burden will inevitably exacerbate player fatigue over time. Good games always excel in the details.

More Endgame Content

It must be acknowledged that players can now experience all of the game's current endgame content after 20 hours of character progression. Furthermore, the endgame bosses had their health significantly reduced in Patch 0.3.0 and 0.4.0, making their mechanics completely invisible.

It's very likely that after playing Patch 0.3.0 and 0.4.0, players won't even know what skills those bosses have, because they've already been instantly killed. The endgame content consistently lacks challenge and playability.

We still hope that Patch 0.5.0 can introduce a boss similar to Uber Boss in PoE 1, and a Tier 16.5 super map, as a truly top-tier challenge.

The new Patch needs to increase the health and mechanism complexity of existing endgame bosses, ensuring players experience at least one full round of skill interactions. It also needs to add more valuable endgame pursuit objectives, giving the game a clear direction for improvement even after 20 hours.

Addressing Energy Shield Balance Issue

ES have been extremely powerful since the release of PoE 2, with builds boasting over 20,000 shields in every league. This is what we mean by a loss of game balance.

Therefore, Patch 0.5.0 should either significantly reduce the maximum value or recovery mechanism of ES, or significantly strengthen bosses to an equal degree.

If the balance isn't addressed, all the previous discussions about difficulty, bosses, and tiers are meaningless. As long as players can still one-shot everything with 20,000 ES, even the most difficult boss won't survive 10 seconds.

Patch 0.5.0 should truly bring meaningful balance adjustments, making boss battles no longer just a 10-second close-quarters fight, but requiring positioning, mechanic awareness, and character development.

So, these are my predictions for the endgame content of PoE 2 Patch 0.5.0, which also reflect some of the players' sentiments. Hopefully, players will see a different endgame experience in the near future!

The official release date for PoE 3.28 (March 6th) was announced not long ago, and we expect to see official teasers around February 26th. However, we're discussing something further ahead: news about PoE 2 Patch 0.4.0.

With Chinese New Year approaching, Path of Exile 2 released a celebratory video on Chinese video website Bilibili. Besides sending New Year's greetings to Chinese players, game director Jonathan Rogers also hinted at the timeline for the next major update.

This isn't all the information about Patch 0.5.0. Players have also uncovered significant clues about the new class Ascendancy through data mining. Let's take a look at all the information about Patch 0.5.0 so far.

Path of Exile 2 New Year's Greeting Announcement

In New Year's greeting video released to Chinese players, Jonathan clearly stated that in late April, they will be showcasing a brand new large-scale expansion for Endgame. This includes not only the core Atlas talent tree, but also simultaneous updates to the exclusive talent trees for endgame modes such as Abyss, Breach, Ritual, and Expedition.

Patch 0.5.0 Release Date

Although Jonathan didn't directly give a precise release date for version 0.5 in the video, we can glean a key piece of information from his words: the event is scheduled for late April.

Therefore, there are two possibilities for the actual release date of Patch 0.5.0. Either the update will be released simultaneously with the event, directly at the end of April, or it will be delayed by several weeks after the event, most likely in the first or second week of May.

This release date is generally later than the community's initial predictions. Based on the release of Patch 0.4.0, The Last of the Druids, on December 12th, and Patch 0.2.0, Dawn of the Hunt, on April 4th, 2025, many players speculated that it would be released in early or mid-April.

Game Quality

From a game quality perspective, a longer development time means developers have more time to polish and refine the game. Patch 0.4.0 showed many signs of being rushed, clearly due to insufficient time management.

PoE 3.28

On the other hand, delaying the release is also beneficial for PoE 3.28. If Patch 0.5.0 is released in May, players will have two months to play PoE 3.28, thus bringing both PoE 1 and 2 back to a healthy development cycle.

Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred

Interestingly, Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred is released on April 28th, which is late April. Considering that Patch 0.4.0's release date almost overlaps with Diablo 4 Season 11, if Patch 0.5.0 is also released at the end of April, the two games might face off again.

Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred will bring a lot of content, including a new endgame system and a new class, Warlock. If Patch 0.5.0 only relies on new endgame content, it will likely be difficult to compete with Lord of Hatred.

New Ascendancy Revealed Through Data Mining

Besides the official holiday hype, player data mining has also yielded valuable information. Two brand-new class specialization icons and descriptions have surfaced.

It's important to note that while this content has been incorporated into the game, it doesn't guarantee its immediate release in version 0.5. Just as Druid's release was delayed from 0.3 to 0.4 due to development delays, this at least demonstrates that these two Ascendancy instances are nearing completion.

Arcane Archer (Ranger Ascendancy)

The core logic of this Ascendancy is relatively straightforward, and it's expected to use magic infusion as its primary mechanism. It combines traditional physical or projectile attacks with magical energy.

Given PoE series' emphasis on versatility in class design, Arcane Archer is unlikely to be limited to bow-only weapons. It's more likely a general-purpose attack infusion system, allowing players to integrate spell damage or spell effects into their attack skills regardless of weapon type, thus creating unique hybrid magic/physical builds.

Wildspeaker (Huntress Ascendancy)

Wildspeaker is currently the Ascendancy most worthy of in-depth discussion. Based on the leaked icons (stag, bear, owl), it appears to be based on Wisp.

The community widely speculates that this Ascendancy, and its main gameplay revolves around summoning. While the current talent tree contains a few nodes that enhance companions, it largely focuses on buffing oneself through summoned creatures, lacking the damage-building aspects of a true Minion playstyle.

Wildspeaker's talents may employ a dual-track system. One side focuses on enhancing Wisp summons, making them independent combat units; the other side emphasizes Wisp possession, directly integrating Wisp power into Huntress to provide overpowered buffs or transformation abilities.

It's worth noting that the leaked images do not include wisps such as snakes, foxes, or Primates. Perhaps these higher-tier Wisps will require additional unlocking methods.

Will Vaal Temple Be Retained?

Vaal Temple Patch 0.4.0 provided a large amount of PoE 2 currency, even causing inflation at one point. Therefore, some players are wondering if Vaal Temple playstyle will be retained in the PoE 2 patch. Patch 0.5.0 is unlikely to be removed.

While the current version's item drops and affix strength are indeed high, this is a numerical issue, not a mechanics problem. The developers obviously wouldn't cut a complete endgame system at a time when the game content is already scarce.

A reasonable guess is that the acquisition method for Vaal Runes will be moved to Act 3 or the endgame mapping stage. Temple nodes will randomly generate in the endgame map, which players can challenge directly. The rewards will be reduced, but the overall gameplay framework will remain.

In short, Patch 0.4.0 is still about 3 months away. If you're impatient, you can play PoE 3.28 or Diablo 4 Season 12 in the meantime.