Action RPGs have seen a resurgence recently with the announcement of Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2. Both games look incredibly promising to anyone who likes the genre, but Path of Exile 2's announcement left many confused.
Would that skill tree get reworked? Are skills, along with skill gems, getting changed? What are the new classes? While it may seem confusing, Path of Exile 2 is more a giant update for the first game, adding a massive 7-Act campaign with some new additions. Here are 10 reasons why you should be excited about Path of Exile 2.
10 A New Story
Path of Exile 2 takes place 20 years after the events of the original. After players slay Kitava, the god of corruption, the land of Oriath is saved and players would continue their campaign in maps, procedural dungeons with modifiers.
The trailer for PoE 2 shows a much darker setting with more gruesome enemies and tilesets. It would appear that a new god or essence is rising. Path of Exile's second half of the campaign showed the consequences of the player's actions throughout the first half, so it will be really interesting to see how Grinding Gear Games shows the consequences of Acts 6-10 in the sequel.
9 New Environments
A sequel would get boring quickly if players fought in the same areas. From footage released so far, the areas of Act 1 are reminiscent of Diablo and, surprisingly, Dark Souls. The dimly lit caverns and inspired swamps help vary the rather generic cities and shores from the first game.
Along with these new environments comes with new enemies to fight. Certain enemies explode in blood, enraging those nearby. Projectiles rain from skeleton archers and undead swarm the player's position, making the beginning of the game significantly more engaging than the first game's intro.
8 New Weapon Types
While not many new weapons have been shown so far, spears have been confirmed to be in Path of Exile 2. This weapon archetype has been requested by the community for years now, showing the developers are willing to listen to fan requests and feedback.
If spears do not sound interesting, certain passives in the new Ascendancy classes allow players to use bows as melee weapons, opening up melee and ranged hybrid playstyles. Just these two additions will add dramatic build variety and replay value to the game, giving Path of Exile 2 a major leg up compared to its competition.
7 Shapeshifting
Another common fan request, there are now skills to transform into beasts. New skill gems allow players to toggle on beast forms, ranging from a werewolf to a bear. There is also a class-exclusive cat form that is focused on critical hits.
Not only does this allow for new playstyles, but it also helps support those builds struggling with certain mechanics. Need more survivability in your ballista build? Turn into a bear. Want to gain powerful melee buffs to fight alongside your undead army? Turn into a werewolf. The build possibilities will be staggering with this addition, putting RPGS like The Witcher 3 to shame.
6 Combat Improvements
Many combat improvements have been made over the years through countless updates, but Path of Exile 2 will be making even more changes to make combat more impactful.
Arrows will stick to surfaces when struck, enemies recoil when hit, and visual effects have been massively improved. Animations have also received some love, allowing for more fluid movement between the usage of skills. It also looks significantly less janky and more polished.
5 Better Graphics
Along with the improved visual effects, Path of Exile 2 also has better visuals compared to its predecessor. Comparable with Diablo 4 and more modern games, the visuals will help immerse players into the gritty world.
Improved lighting, physical-based rendering, and better visual effects all help create a much more modern look to the game. While it may not make combat more responsive or have a qualitative effect, seeing higher resolution gibs and skills will further help combat feel better.
4 New Ascendancies
New classes will be introduced in PoE 2, but they will retain the same stats and progression as the original classes did. Instead, these characters will receive new prestige classes called Ascendancies.
Each class, excluding Scion who only gets 1, receives 3 classes to pick from. Normally this happens by completing The Labyrinth, a hard single-life challenge gauntlet, but that appears to be getting removed in the sequel, hopefully meaning obtaining these Ascendancies will be easier. The best part is old Ascendancies are compatible with the new ones, meaning there will be 38 class options when Path of Exile 2 launches, significantly more than most aRPGs on the market.
3 Better Bosses
The bosses in Path of Exile have more similarities to bullet-hell bosses than typical dungeon crawler fights. Because of this, PoE's boss fights are some of the best and hardest in the business. Well, some of them.
Most of these amazing fights are in the game's later Acts and endgame map system, which most players will not even see. A sequel gives the developers a chance to add high-quality boss fights into every Act, meaning all players will get to fight some of the insane bosses this game has to offer.
2 Shared Client & Endgame
Both Path of Exile and Path of Exile 2 will share the same client and endgame. This means that players can choose to complete either game's campaigns, and then interact with the same endgame system.
While this sounds confusing at first, it means that not only players from both games can play together, it also means that the years of work that went into making Path of Exile's mapping system so fantastic won't go to waste. The hundreds of dungeon layouts, dozens of modifiers, deep modification systems, thousands of items to collect, and optional side content will be carried over to Path of Exile 2. Both games will benefit from new skills and items, meaning PoE 2 will launch as feature-rich as its multi-year brother.
1 Skill Gem Overhaul
This single change will forever change the way people play Path of Exile. The current skill system requires players to socket gems into their weapons and armor, granting them the ability to a keybind they set.
This system allows for any class to use any skill, and linked gems can support skills and modify what they do. The problem with this system is it's confusing for new players and discourages upgrading items. In Path of Exile 2, these gem sockets and links are tied to the skill themselves, which means players can spend less time crafting links and sockets on new gear and instead spend that time fighting monsters. Leveling will be significantly easier with this system, and it also grants more gems to work with, meaning you can use even more skills and abilities than what is currently possible.