Path of Exile 2 – Patch Reaction and Commentary: Big Changes, Big Wins (Mostly)
Hey folks, it’s Gaza TV, and today we’re diving deep into the latest POE2 Currency patch notes straight outta China. This isn’t your typical YouTube breakdown with transitions and memes – just a raw reaction and analysis session. If you find this helpful or entertaining, hit that like button, subscribe, and drop a comment to help the channel grow. Alright, with the YouTuber housekeeping out of the way, let’s talk about what’s new, what’s busted, and what’s looking like a W for PoE2.
Restartless Patch and Minion Buffs
Let’s kick it off with the earlier patch notes, which focused heavily on minions and some boss tuning. The developers were aiming to recalibrate the life and damage scaling on minions introduced in patch 0.2. Their intention was to address high-level minions and outliers without nerfing everything across the board — but it didn’t quite work out that way. Players quickly noticed that minions across the board, including core builds, felt underwhelming.
Thankfully, this new update adds around 15% more life to minions in the early campaign. That increase tapers off and becomes neutral by gem level 30. Now, that’s a solid step for campaign viability, but I’m still curious (and cautious) about how they’ll hold up in endgame content, especially without further defense scaling.
I had a great discussion with Kparion, who’s running a Death March Reaver setup where clerics resurrect the Reaver instead of rattling scepters. This kind of creativity is what keeps PoE theorycrafting alive, and I’m excited to see if this hybrid approach (skeletons + spectres) becomes more meta.
Damage Scaling: We’re Back in Business?
The devs also buffed skeletal reavers and archers, returning them to roughly 50-80% of their previous damage, with frost and storm mages still underperforming slightly at around 63%. That said, unused abilities have received some attention, and with the new Muster Support gem granting 7% more damage per different persistent minion summoned, there’s now a real incentive to mix and match. Maybe a lone frost mage will actually serve a purpose beyond aesthetic.
Spear Skill Tweaks and Boss Fixes
Spear-based skills received some solid quality-of-life changes, especially around attack speed and mana cost. Candle Mass was made parryable more often — a subtle yet critical fix for combat flow. Bug-wise, the Candle Mass cleave issue was addressed, and visuals for certain bosses like Blackjaw were cleaned up.
Still no fix for the infamous Spectre Wisp bug, though. So until that’s sorted, skeleton builds might actually be more stable and consistent for endgame content. If you're playing an Infernalist or similar build, mixing in some spectral elements might be the sweet spot for both power and consistency.
Player Balance and Sorcerer Buffs
Once the nerfs were out of the way, Grinding Gear turned their eyes toward underperforming builds. Sorcerers, rejoice! Arc now creates a lightning explosion on shocked enemies (although it no longer shocks itself), Eye of Winter gets bonus elemental damage when passing through other elemental orbs, and Frostbolt’s explosion rate is up by 50%. That’s spicy.
A lot of the frost and ignite archetypes saw significant buffs – longer durations, faster ignite spread (though with reduced radius — kinda a weird choice), and improved ailment synergy overall. Mana-based builds also got a boost, especially through Mana Remnants and Tempest reworks.
But hey… Wildfire Support nerf? Why lower the spread radius when you’re buffing the delay? Just feels awkward. It’s like being handed a pizza with one slice missing. Technically a full pizza experience, but something’s off.
CI and Bleeding: Energy Shield Reworks
This is a big one. Energy shield (ES) users can now be bled, while Chaos Inoculation (CI) builds are immune to it. That means you can bleed enemies with ES builds, opening up some gnarly new options. CI getting full bleed immunity is an indirect buff to Lich builds and ES tanks. It enhances survivability in ways that go beyond just raw numbers — it changes how you can approach mechanics like DoTs and degens.
To top it off, ES-based passives that increased your stun threshold now also reduce the chance of being frozen, shocked, or ignited. That’s a win for all high-end ES builds.
Huntress, Warrior, and Ranger – Class-Specific Buffs
Huntress got some love: Rapid Assault's spears now always cause bleed on detonation, AoE radius was increased, and damage saw a 67% buff. That’s huge! Spearfield also got longer duration and better scaling. Same goes for Herald Blood, which no longer deletes rare/unique corpses — a small fix, but an important one for ritual and corpse builds.
Warrior changes are headlined by Smith Kitava’s Temper Weapon, which now empowers three times per strike and is 25% faster. Armor Break no longer gives enemies a bonus 20% phys damage when monsters apply it — that was a nasty, unintended player debuff, and it’s gone now.
Rangers are also rising: Storm Collar now proliferates shocks in a radius, Lightning Rod saw a 30% damage increase, and Tornado Shot’s duration was increased. All wins here.
New Support Gem: The Inhibitor
GGG introduced The Inhibitor, a new support gem that prevents charges from being consumed and increases damage based on the number of charge types you have. Although the full implementation didn’t make it in time (the per-charge bonus was dropped temporarily), it still looks like a potentially powerful option for charge-based builds, especially with the right ascendancies and mechanics.
QoL: Delirium, Crafting, and UI Fixes
Delirium encounters now last 2.5x longer, which is huge for making them more rewarding and less frustrating.
On the crafting side, artificial orbs have been added to specific campaign locations — finally! Attribute runes are also being introduced to help smooth out early stat requirements, especially for hybrid weapon types. Devs clarified that the changes will eventually apply to wands, staves, and yes — scepters. But not yet. That said, scepter users are still looking for love here.
Another huge win? Rares now show up on the minimap during endgame maps. That was such an easy band-aid fix, and I literally mentioned this as a possible solution. It’s here now, and that’s a massive QoL improvement.
Waterways and Monster Swarms
Matlin Waterways, notorious for its lever puzzle hellscape, just got a big rework. The number of levers was reduced by six. SIX. Thank you. That’s another W.
Monster swarm complaints have also reached GGG’s ears. While they haven’t made specific changes yet, they are actively evaluating overly fast or overwhelming monster groups. Expect updates soon.
Ritual Exploit and Bans – GGG Sends a Message
Lastly, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the recent Ritual exploit involving a unique tablet and infinite rerolls. It lasted eight hours, and 31 accounts were banned. Good. Some will argue it’s just early access, but the message GGG is sending is clear: exploit the game, and you’re out. That kind of transparency and swift punishment helps protect the integrity of the game’s economy and progression systems.
That said… if that’s the stance, what about high-profile account sharing or RMT cases that haven’t been dealt with? Cough Elon Musk pilot account cough. Consistency matters when you're trying to set an example.
Final Thoughts
Overall? Solid patch. The devs are listening, and even if not every fix is perfect (cough Wildfire radius), there’s genuine progress happening across the board. Minions are back, spellcasting’s more viable, and defensive archetypes are getting real attention. If this is the kind of momentum GGG is bringing to Path of Exile 2, then we’re in for one hell of a ride when the full game drops.
What did you guys think about the changes? Drop your thoughts below. I’ll be watching the full Cisaran interview with Jonathan and POE 2 Currency Orbsfor sale Mark next, and I’ll bring you another breakdown soon. Catch you all in the next one — Gaza TV out.