Path of Exile 2: Key Changes and Gameplay Mechanics Overview

Path of Exile 2 introduces significant gameplay changes, enhancing build flexibility and requiring more mechanical skill from players.

### Exciting Updates and Changes in Path of Exile 2 from Gamescom
* 🎮  The speaker expresses enthusiasm about returning to discuss recent developments in Path of Exile 2 following Gamescom, emphasizing their belief in "**better late than never**."
* 🔍  They highlight **quality of life improvements**, **skill changes**, and the ongoing adjustments as the open beta approaches on November 15, noting their **personal time off** to delve into the game.
* 🔄  Notable mechanical changes include the introduction of **ammo swapping** and the need for **situational skill usage**, which will require players to **adapt their strategies** based on encounter types.
* 🛠️  The speaker addresses concerns about build creation without Path of Building, suggesting new mechanics like **spirit stacking** and the flexibility of **attribute allocation** will enhance build **diversity and accessibility**.
* ⚔️  Players will experience a shift in gameplay dynamics, with an emphasis on **mechanical skill and positioning**, particularly in boss encounters, making the game feel **more engaging and challenging**.
* 📈  The introduction of a recommendation system for skill gems aims to **simplify the build process for newer players**, allowing for **more fluidity in character development and attribute allocation**.
* 📊  The speaker anticipates **significant changes** to how damage statistics are displayed in-game, which will help players **optimize their builds** without relying solely on external tools like Path of Building.
* 🚀  Overall, the speaker is excited about the upcoming features and improvements in Path of Exile 2, with plans to focus on **build guides and gameplay strategies** as the release approaches.

my son, are you clear of mind and stout of heart? Welcome back, you filthy Exile. So, I'm a firm believer in it's better late than never. So, obviously, been a little busy for the last few weeks and working on other videos, but I was following along with the stuff that was coming out of Gamescom. And since we've had a couple of good interviews come out, so I uh, I went through a lot of the footage that came from other elements of Gamescom and uh, also some stuff in particular that came from Cat Master OP and Z's video as well. And uh, their links in the will be in the description. But um, let's talk about some of the stuff that came out of that and a lot of the quality of life changes, skill changes, there was totally bizarre changes, and they're still adjusting things currently even before we're moving into the open Beta coming out on the 15th of November, which I've got two weeks off uh, from work to uh, go for bloody dungeon dweller mode on anyway. Uh

let's talk about some of the stuff that came out of the interview questions that were asked and some of the mechanical changes. And also, as someone who makes builds and build guides and stuff like that, there were some pretty significant things said that sort of pinged to me as we're going to need to change our approach to the way that we tackle build creation in Path of Exile. And a really good question that came from someone in our Discord was around what are we going to do without path of building and things like that. But um, anyway, let's get into the video and let's talk about it. Okay, so I've tried to summarize some of the things that have come out of the interviews so you don't have to spend like, you know, 50 to 2 hours or whatever trying to decipher things. So basically, ammo swapping will be a thing or weapon switching will be a thing in particular with like bows and things like that. So having preloaded rounds if you've played like first-person shooters like Call of

Duty or anything like that. Generally, it's a lot faster to switch your weapon than it is to reload your weapon. Path of Exile will be working basically very similarly to that moving forwards. Also, they refer to the crossbows as rifles and assault rifles, which I found really interesting, which sort of paints a picture of the way that certain things are going to work. So, we're going to see some pretty wild builds from that. Now, in relation to skills themselves, they are approaching it from a situational use basis, right? So, you'll be required to change skill or maybe not even, and we're going to talk about that in this video as well. But there's a preference for the player to have to switch skills based on whether or not they need a high-impact sort of skill to take down a bigger boss or if you need a wider area of effect ability or skill like grenades and things like that, which is part of the ammunition and crossbow whole ethos sort of gameplay mechanic that they've

added into the game, and that's going to be required for that sort of situation, and then other circumstances where you need certain Elemental alas to take down particular enemies or to get more efficiency out of taking enemies down. Is this bad? I don't think so. I think it's not necessarily going to be jarring either. I think there'll be plenty of skills like Righteous Fire making its way back into the game as well, according to the interviews that I watched. So who knows where that's going to go, and Cloak of Flame is being added back into the game, so that's also going to be a very interesting outcome that comes from that. Now, they did allude to automation still being in the game, and the difference between the way that it works in Pee 1 and how it will work in Pee 2 is there will be a compromise of running automation potentially. So we don't really know very much about it. I suspect there will be elements of spirit stacking builds. So for anyone who doesn't know now to be able to um to

basically set auras and things like that. You no longer reserve mana; you reserve spirit, which is a new mechanic added into the game. I reckon it's going to actually breed a new build-like stacking variant called Spirit stacking builds, but we'll see, I guess, more when the game actually gets closer to release or they start to reveal more information about that. But I very much think that one-button builds will still be in the game, and that was also expressed by Jonathan. They're just not going to be as powerful as what they once were, possibly. We'll probably still find a way to make that happen. Some other noticeable things that are coming into the game, so dodge roll mechanics will be able to be modified, and there'll be a node that allows them to be switched into teleport skills moving forwards. There'll also be uniques added to the game that will allow phasing. So phasing is literally being phased out of the game. I find this a little bit of no because I rely on phasing in particular mechanics like delve. So is Will delve be

added to the game. I don't know, like, that's my preference at the end of the day, but without phasing, I could see that being either more frustrating or a lot harder. Uh, but I don't know, we have to see what comes out of that. Uh, skill chaining and combos will be a lot more significant now. That's not news, basically. I reckon this will be a way to build some of the strongest builds. Will be less about the different types of skills. I think there'll be a lot more cross-the-board balance. I think the balance breaks will be in the combinations of skills, and I feel like the way that you build builds, like if you go outside the recommended path, there could be some absolutely crazy interactions, similar to things like Ward Loop and total game-breaking mechanics that will stumble onto. So, really, like, my standpoint as someone who makes build guides will be, uh, let's just test things they tell us not to test. That's basically where I'm at mindset-wise on that. Now, another couple of

things from the footage. Hammer of the Gods looks absolutely insane. It's basically like a big meteor that burns out through the sky and hits the ground, and looks like a big slam. I'm definitely going to be playing something with that. Now, the obvious things with attributes are strength equals life, so the more strength you have, the more life you get; int equals mana, and Dex equals accuracy. There's also other things here where you are no longer locked to specific attributes in your tree, and what that means is previously in Path of Exile one, like you had the different quadrants of the tree, and you could only go like dexterity, intelligence, or strength, and you couldn't do anything else without that node. Well, that's now being changed where it's an any attribute point, so they call it a travel node or a travel point, and it's an any attribute point that you can all allocate to any of the three attributes based on the characters, which also from a Respec standpoint they mentioned that you can

just respect the whole point as far as sorry when I say that you can respect the attribute but keep the point active and then just change the attribute on the fly. And this is significant because when we talk about some of the things for in this video, these attribute changes affect the way that gems work moving forward. And so being able to switch them on the fly is really useful. Also, from a build balancing standpoint, how many people have actually played a build where you're off by like five strength or two intelligence, and you've got to try and find or squeeze points around when you know you've got a lot more strength than what you need, yada yada yada. So it's actually going to make playing builds significantly easier than how it has been, and it's going to make build balancing in the min-max a lot easier. So I don't think the game's going to be hard from a build balancing standpoint, and I think it's going to be a lot more

accessible to newer players, which you know is going to be really good. It's going to be a lot less, hopefully. There's always going to be that itemization element about Path of Exile, but I feel like the skill tree is going to be a lot less uninviting than what it has been in the past with all of these changes from what I can see so far. Okay, so uh, positioning and danger, or as they referred to it in one of the interviews, as gapping in danger. Now, I understand that there is controversy. I've been living under a proverbial rock for the last few weeks, and I hadn't really been paying much attention to it. I think it's just like saying the word Souls like is just people running with it and going, Oh no, this is looking really bad now. I obviously played the game back in Exile con and had a go at it, and yes, you will need to be more adjusted to being surrounded by enemies. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I think in Path of Exile 1

in particular, the vast number of the player base are used to being sort of in a certain level of position where you feel safe from enemies, and this is going to challenge that paradigm. Now, for any delvers out there, you're pretty much used to being surrounded by enemies, so we're not really going to have too many issues with this. It's more so going to be people playing like bow builds and things like that, that will likely, and spellcasters who will feel uneasy about that situation. And then, alluding to the comment that was made in that, I guess, interview, you know, however you want to coin that type of video, um, Walkr interview, whatnot. I think it's just a term given to basically talk about the fact that bosses will be harder, and you will need to be more mechanically adept at playing the game. And so, there's going to be a bigger balance or differential between skill-based play versus the game just natively being harder. Now, I don't think the game is going to be necessarily harder. I think the game is

just going to be more mechanically required. You're going to need more mechanical expertise required in a lot of instances. You know, you might be running like total glass Cannon builds. You just need to be able to dodge everything, and I don't think that makes the game harder. I actually think it makes it a hell of a lot easier. So, if you're a better player, then you can play more lucrative builds where you don't just slap on gear and go boom boom boom boom boom, hit things three times with high DPS. You actually have to be agile and be able to play the mechanics a bit better and understand, you know, Wombo Combos and things like that. Um, but I still think there's going to be elements of definitely for me. I'm a lot slower when I play builds. I don't play like, uh, zoomi builds or anything like that. I usually play big tanks, so I'm used to the slower play style. And so, for people who are basically turning into prehistoric rocks and getting old like me, Path of Exile 2 is probably going to

be quite a good game, uh, and so I don't think it's going to be Souls-like at all. I think it is going to be more challenging if you're a little slower on the controls, but I think you could potentially be able to compensate that out by playing very different builds. But, uh, I think that's that comment comes from. I don't think there needs to be any controversy around that or anything like that. If there is, Jesus, like, that's unnecessary, and, uh, yeah. And having played it myself for a brief period of ExileCon last year, I found the game fine, like, and once you started to get a bit of power, it, you know, it didn't feel like a Souls game at all. It just felt like Path of Exile with a little bit more difficulty. The other thing is what we've seen so far are a lot of setups without, like, you know, four skill gems or, you know, four support gems or anything like that. So we've only seen, like, campaign-leveled, not even builds yet.

We've just seen skills being thrown at enemies, so there's also that element of it as well. Um, and so they very much talk about this in the interviews, where players will need to get a lot more comfortable with being boxed in, and uh, and that's just how the game's going to work, and I don't think that's bad. Now, travel skills like Shield charge and leap slam will be added back into the game, so we can assume that there's probably going to be things like Dash and whatnot being added. Flame Dash will probably make its way back into the game, but they're not instant skills, and that's the big difference between understanding how Dodge roll works and how movement skills work, is they will have a cast time or they will have like a charge-up time, um, and so they're not necessarily going to be fantastic at getting you out of danger in the split second. That's where the Dodge roll is going to come in. Now, they did allude to the fact that you get access to these

skills at the start of Act Three, more or less end of Act Two, start of Act Three, and they were just referring to them as get-out-of-danger skills. But that's basically, I think, what the conversation or the interview alludes to. Seen a few things ticking around where it's like, Oh, this is controversy. It's not controversy. It's just like bosses are built differently. They have more mechanics to them. Think Maven encounter, just not as probably, hopefully not as frustrating as Maven. But, uh, yeah, that's all I think about that. Like, that's basically what I read from the interviews and the content that was covered from Gamescom at this stage. So, riding off the high of 3.25 with all the changes to melee, it's very apparent in the commentary that was in some of the interview content that was covered that there will be areas in the campaign and/or in unique maps, so far as what Jonathan's alluded to, that will be sort of tailored to whether or not it's

very melee-focused or uh or range-focused, but throughout General mapping, there's going to be no real discernment between the two. They're not going to discriminate between whether or not you're going to have a better time playing melee or ranged. It's just going to be a generic experience, so I don't think there's any concern to be worried about um any sort of or M's going to be less powerful or anything like that. I think they'll be equally as powerful based on what was covered off in the interviews, but there wasn't too much more information provided about that. But there was a lot of information provided about skill gems. Now moving into support gems, so the recommendation system will be added in The Path of Exile 2, which will make it a lot simpler for, in particular, newer and less experienced players. So basically how it's going to work is you'll get a screen where they have recommended skill gems that you can add into your build. Now I know there's other videos that covered off on this. Is it, is it

like high levels of, uh, brand new news. No, but it's a really interesting topic to talk about. Now, attribute points are really important in this element because attribute nodes in the skill tree now dictate the number of each colored gem that you have in your tree. So, for example, if you have more points allocated to dexterity, you'll be able to carry more support gems that are green. If you've got more strength points allocated in your tree, you'll be able to carry more skill points, uh, more gems or support gems that are for red skill gems. Now, the reason why this is significant with the changes to the way that skill attributes work now, where they're like generic attribute points, is it means that for characters that might be strength-based, if you want a counter build, so where you build like green or blue gems or intelligence or dex gems into a strength build, uh, this is way easier now. Like, previously, it was annoying to balance your build and try and make it work, and you would have to like attribute stack on your gear to try and compensate for

not having enough dexterity, which would mean you would lose other modifiers and/or other sorts of, uh, gearing elements, so you would have to make a lot of compromises in the way that you built your build. This is going to be a lot easier moving forward, so you'd be able to play a lot more skills that might not be in the, uh, the standard archetype of skills you'd play in a strength-based build. Um, you might, you play like a lot of spell casting and strength and things like that, and you'll be able to do that really easily because you can adjust the attribute points, which will give you access to more gems that you can use within your build. But it will provide a little bit of complexity between how you scale your attributes and whether or not they add things like in, in, uh, tattoos and things like that into the game. Will be another really interesting element, like how will that affect this system? Uh, will it stop you from allocating your, uh, your gem points or whatnot from your attribute?

points like will it prohibit the use of colors on your attribute points? Will it just white them, for example, turn them into a generic point? There's a lot of questions that come with this. Now, other things here is, you know, obviously all socket colors will be white moving forwards for all your skill gems, so you don't need to worry about red, green, or blue alignment of your skill gems. And to add more sockets to your skills, there'll be items that will drop later in the game that will add more sockets, similar to like, pardon me, dual orbs and whatnot. But we're soon to see how this will work, but it looks like they're adding back itemization to be able to achieve that. But what that will look like, we don't currently know just yet. Now, this was one of the most interesting ones. So, one of the biggest issues that we've all seen in Path of Exile is number one power creep, right? So, we start looking at like millions and billions of DPS, which is highly

problematic, uh, in Path of Exile. When we first started, like, 100 DPS was 100 DPS, you know, take it or leave it. That was a lot of damage, and then over time, we got tools like path building and whatnot and all that sort of jazz. Now, the first question that I have, and this didn't come from the interviews, but this will be something that'll be really interesting to see, especially, like, we're not necessarily going to have build tools straight up when the game comes out, though we might. Like, no one's announced anything as far as I've seen, but maybe there is some information ticking around out there about it. But, uh, without build tools, it'll be interesting to see if the tooltip and the character sheets actually give us the true, uh, damage stats and the true defense stats of our builds moving forwards, as opposed to having to rely on tools like path of building to tell us what our accurate DPS stats are. To be honest with you, it's a little frustrating that it doesn't tell us that. Like, when it says, you know,

100,000 DPS in our tooltip. You can basically take that number and throw it at the wall because it's totally worthless. But um, that all being said, so basically what was covered in the interview question is holding shift on the pathing tree will now give you the DPS changes to your build or your stats changes. So I don't know what that would be like, right, uh, you know, Trigger or something like that, uh, right, you know, right high trigger or whatever on your um, on your gamepad when you're playing on Console or whatnot. But what that actually means is uh, you can actually see your stats now. The other thing that they also allude to or Jonathan also alluded to is they'll be doing not only that on the skill tree points, they'll be doing that with gear. But it wasn't in the current iteration of the build when it came out at uh, Gamescom. So it'll be interesting to see if they add that in for the open Beta. I would assume they probably will.

so that means you'll be actually able to see in the game whether or not a piece of gear is going to increase your DPS without physically having to keep re-equipping gear, which is going to make it really, really, really easy to optimize your early DPS, at least in the campaign. But obviously, we haven't seen any endgame yet, so we don't know how ailments are going to work. We don't know how that's going to be calculated within the game tooltips to be able to determine whether or not it's accurate or not. But this is a huge shift up in the right direction. Like, Diablo 4 does this, Last Epoch does elements of this, like most other ARPGs do this. Path of Exile just does not. And the good point about this is it's new player-friendly, so new players are going to be able to quickly see, you know, how do I fix my DPS, how do I increase my damage. That's going to be more accessible information than having to try and get your head around Path of Building.

initially, I definitely know when I first had to learn Path of Building. It was a daunting nightmare, and every time I've had to explain it to players since, it's a daunting nightmare. I totally understand that trying to learn, like, it's like a whole program into itself. Like, you know, you see all the build creators and whatnot. We all just sort of huddle around Path of Building at the start of the league, trying to theorycraft builds and things like that. It's pretty wild. Like, it's fun, but also for newer players, it's totally intimidating. So, it's a really good change that I can see from this being added into the game, and it will make it a lot easier to just balance your build on the fly. And hopefully, this will develop into something being a lot more inbuilt into the way the game tells you how your tooltip behaves, as opposed to relying on a third-party tool to tell that information to you, as opposed to the in-game itself. Okay, so that's pretty much all I

got at this stage. Now, I did notice something on the Reddit forums just around close beta wave 2. This came out like 5 hours ago. Uh, so have a look at your inboxes. I definitely didn't get one, but uh, you know, if you did, absolutely fantastic. Enjoy. But uh, yeah, if you want to see more videos like this, don't forget to like and sub to the channel. Also, stuff suggest stuff to me. Seriously, I'll look into it and I'll find answers or I'll do the digging and whatnot when I get a spare moment. Um, definitely working on more builds in Path of Exile 1, but now we are very much in the hype train for Path of Exile 2. So, we're going to be doing a bit more Path of Exile 2 on the channel moving forwards and breaking down mechanics and things like that. As someone who has made very, very many, many, many build guides over the years, I am extremely interested as to what skills will be coming into the game and what things that we can break and if

We can make one-button builds or simplistic builds. I'm definitely going to be there to make tanks. That's probably what I'm going to be specializing in moving forwards for Path of Exile 2. So we can just face tank and cheese the game because I don't believe in dodging things. I believe in fighting them head-on. Anyway, if you like this video, don't forget to like and sub. Don't forget to follow the Twitch. Hopefully, I'll be on there a little bit later. I just got to go to the gym and try and burn off all the coffee I've been drinking. And I will see you guys later on.

These MASSIVE Changes Will Effect How We Make Builds FOREVER!

Jorgen

The creator has been busy but has followed the updates from Gamescom, including interviews and footage.

Significant changes are coming to weapon switching and skill usage, with a focus on situational use for skills.

The game is moving towards a system that requires players to switch skills based on the situation, similar to preloading rounds in first-person shooters.

The game will introduce new elemental mechanics and skills, such as Righteous Fire and Cloak of Flame, to enhance gameplay.

Automation will still be present but with a different approach, potentially leading to spirit stacking builds.

Other notable changes include modified dodge roll mechanics, the removal of phasing, and a greater emphasis on skill chaining and combos for building powerful characters.

The "Hammer of the Gods" is a powerful new ability that creates a meteor impact.

Players can now allocate attribute points flexibly across strength, intelligence, and dexterity, making build balancing easier.

The game also allows for on-the-fly attribute respecs, aiming to make the skill tree more accessible for newer players.

The game's design will challenge players' usual safe positions, particularly affecting bow builds and spellcasters.

Bosses will be harder, requiring more mechanical skill, but the game's overall difficulty may not increase.

Players will need to be agile and understand mechanics better, with the option to compensate slower playstyles through different builds.

Gameplay Mechanics and Skill Changes in Path of Exile 2

The game will introduce a new dynamic where players need to get comfortable with being boxed in, with travel skills like Shield charge and leap slam making a return.

These movement skills will have cast or charge-up times, differentiating them from the instant Dodge roll, which will be crucial for getting out of danger.

The campaign and unique maps will be tailored to either melee or ranged playstyles, but general mapping will offer a consistent experience, and a recommendation system for skill gems will be introduced to assist newer players.

Changes to the Skill Tree and Attribute Points

The new skill tree system allows attribute points to dictate the number of colored gems a character can carry, making it easier to build hybrid builds.

This change reduces the need for gear stacking to balance attributes, allowing for more flexibility in skill selection.

All socket colors for skill gems will be white moving forward, and items will be introduced later in the game to add more sockets.

Changes to Damage and Defense Stats in Path of Exile

The game is moving towards providing more accurate damage and defense stats for builds, potentially reducing the reliance on external tools like Path of Building.

Holding shift on the skill tree will now show DPS and stat changes, with a possibility of similar functionality for gear in the open beta.

These changes aim to make it easier for new players to optimize their DPS and understand how to increase their damage.

Learning Path of Building and Exciting Changes Ahead

Learning Path of Building can be daunting, especially for new players, but its in-game integration will make balancing builds easier.

The creator is shifting focus to Path of Exile 2, eager to explore new skills and mechanics.

They plan to specialize in tank builds, aiming for a head-on approach to gameplay.