Path of Exile 2: Upcoming Patch Notes, Balance Predictions, and Major Bug Fixes

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Development Team’s Post-Holiday Focus
2. Key Fixes from Recent Updates
   • Chaos Inoculation Adjustment and Its Impact
   • Notable Skill and Gameplay Fixes
3. What to Expect in Upcoming Patches
   • Known Issues Highlighted by Developers
   • Community-Driven Concerns
4. Potential Balance Changes
   • Chain Lightning and Trigger Interaction Tuning
   • Archmage and Mana-Scaling Builds
   • Energy Shield Adjustments
5. Conclusion: Community Engagement and Future Updates

Introduction: Development Team’s Post-Holiday Focus

Following the holiday break, the Path of Exile 2 development team is back in full force, with their immediate priority set on addressing major bugs and improving gameplay stability. While many players were anticipating post-holiday balance changes, the team has clarified that the initial focus will be on hotfixes and technical improvements rather than sweeping balance updates.

One notable clarification involves the term "restart patch", which refers to server-restart-required updates—not a complete league reset, as some players speculated. This type of patch allows for more comprehensive updates than client-side or instance-based fixes.

Key Fixes from Recent Updates

Chaos Inoculation Adjustment and Its Impact

The recent fix to the Chaos Inoculation (CI) keystone has sparked significant discussions within the community. Previously, enabling CI set a character’s life to 1, which was mistakenly flagged by the game as being in a "low life" state. This allowed CI-based builds to take advantage of passives and items that grant bonuses while on low life, such as multiplicative damage increases or crit damage modifiers.

What’s Changed:

• Having 1 life is no longer considered "low life."

• CI builds can no longer exploit low-life bonuses, restoring the intended balance for the keystone.

This adjustment is a critical change, ensuring that CI builds remain defensive-focused without unintentionally enabling powerful damage synergies.

Notable Skill and Gameplay Fixes

Several key fixes have improved the gameplay experience for many players:

1. Rolling Slam Fix:
   • Issue: Rolling Slam’s aftershock effect was dealing no damage, rendering it ineffective for many mace-based builds.
   • Fix: This bug has been resolved, making Rolling Slam viable again as a core skill for certain builds.

1. Ritual Content Issue:
   • Issue: In some instances, clearing a Ritual Circle wouldn’t allow players to activate its rewards.
   • Fix: This issue has been addressed, ensuring smoother reward acquisition during Ritual encounters.

1. Delirium Optimization:
   • Issue: Certain Delirium interactions caused inconsistent reward outcomes.
   • Fix: These have been resolved, improving overall efficiency for farming Delirium maps.

What to Expect in Upcoming Patches

Known Issues Highlighted by Developers

The official "Known Issues" post from the devs outlines several priorities for upcoming fixes:

1. Map Device Display Bug: In hideouts, the radius for Lost Towers is not displaying correctly, making it harder to plan efficient farming routes.

1. Dodge Roll Lockout: Using Dodge Roll in specific scenarios can cause players to become temporarily unable to attack or cast spells. This bug seems tied to Dodge Roll’s animation and interactions.

Community-Driven Concerns

Outside the official list, community feedback has highlighted other areas needing attention:

• Combat Fluidity: Some skills experience delays or responsiveness issues, particularly in high-density combat scenarios.
• Performance Optimization: Players with high-end PCs report occasional loading delays or performance hitches in certain maps or encounters.

Potential Balance Changes

Chain Lightning and Trigger Interaction Tuning

The interaction between Choir of the Storm (amulet) and Temporalis (helmet) has become a hot topic. The synergy currently allows triggered lightning bolts to chain infinitely under specific conditions, bypassing cooldown limits and causing exponentially high damage.

Potential Adjustments:

• Prevent lightning bolts from self-triggering additional bolts upon crits.
• Retain cooldown reduction but enforce stricter limits to maintain balance.

Archmage and Mana-Scaling Builds

Archmage builds, which scale lightning damage based on maximum mana, are dominating the meta due to their ability to stack mana for absurdly high damage output. This makes it easy for players to achieve massive scaling with minimal investment.

Potential Adjustments:

• Reduce the damage scaling per mana point.
• Increase the cost or difficulty of stacking maximum mana, limiting Archmage’s ease of use.

Energy Shield Adjustments

As endgame builds increasingly rely on Energy Shield (ES) as their primary defense, the Grim Feast persistent buff has come under scrutiny. This skill allows players to generate overflow ES from slain enemies, effectively doubling their maximum ES during high-density encounters.

Potential Adjustments:

• Lower ES gain at lower skill levels while maintaining effectiveness at higher investment.
• Introduce more stringent scaling based on Intelligence to gatekeep excessive ES stacking.

Conclusion: Community Engagement and Future Updates

The immediate priority for the Path of Exile 2 development team is addressing high-impact bugs and refining gameplay stability. However, balance changes targeting powerful builds and interactions are expected in the near future. For players, staying updated on these developments is crucial for planning builds and resource allocation.

The community eagerly awaits the upcoming major patch, which is expected to shake up the current meta and introduce new mechanics. For a detailed breakdown of this patch, watch this video analysis or read the official patch notes.

Stay updated for more changes and don’t forget to update your client to enjoy the latest fixes!

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