Path of Exile 2

I am playing as a duo with my spouse and we just reached the endgame. I am playing a Fireball Stormweaver and my spouse is playing Explosive Granade Witchhunter.

We have been blasting anything in our way until now. My build don't have any defensive layers other than life and a few resistances so as soon as it makes maps too difficult I will start going the "blockbot" way.

How is it going for all of you?

0.1.0d Hotfix 1

• We missed one! Cast on Critical Strike now also cares about the Damage of the hit when determining how much energy to gain to prevent the use of high-crit low level skills, this should mean using lower hit frequency skills that hit harder are also now much stronger for this.

0.1.0d Hotfix 2

• Fixed a bug which prevented the elevator at end of The Trial of Chaos from working to access the Trialmaster Boss.
• Fixed a bug which could prevent the Portal from appearing on Floor 4 of Trial of the Sekhamas.

This patch has been deployed without restarting the servers. You will need to restart your client to receive the client changes in this patch.

I finally wormed my way to the second type of ascendency trial last night, and after a good rest I'm ready to properly vent about both of them.

The first trial is a rogue like dungeon crawl in which getting hit too many times regardless of life totals ends your run. Across the various times I've run it, the stages themselves are not bad. You get to choose your path and hope everything works out with the positives and negatives of the new rooms you come across. The various challenges are also interesting.

However, the final boss is absolutely abysmal to fight against. In a mode where the term honor is used, this thing has several area of effect attacks that aren't visually telegraphed at all. Even it's normal slam attack has a decently sized area of effect.

Whats worse are the various and random effects it also has that spew projectiles all over the place. If you're not fast enough in killing the thing, the battlefield basically becomes a bullet hell. My first clear I spent more time looking at my character to see where safety was than the boss. It feels not great for the first encounter of this system to include what amounts to rng damage pings from out of no where.

The second trial (and currently only other) trial you're introduced to is based on the ultimatum league from path 1. You choose a modifier, go into a space, and do the challenge. Finish that and you go to the next, stack a new modifier, and do the next challenge. It's fairly straight forward and some of the modifiers are terrifying but manageable... Until you get to the boss.

The boss doesn't so much fight you as it does flop around the area farting annoying elemental effects everywhere. I'm glad I'm playing a ranged character so I can just not be near the damned thing.. But this is where those modifiers come in big. If you chose any of the mods that cause the ground to get more area of effect effects on it, good luck. The boss bounces around so much you will have to chase it down while also keeping an eye on any poison, ice, fire, or electricity on the ground.. And whatever other effects might be problematic. I probably died a good 4 times on the boss alone, and twice to the challenges before due to not minding my modifiers. (do NOT dodge roll through death bubbles.. They body block you.)

I don't really feel cheated by either of them even after all of this is said and done.. But I do feel that they are incredibly poorly chosen for their respective trials and would really benefit from being moved to either later bosses, or elsewhere in the game.

0.1.0d Hotfix 5

• Fixed a bug where The Trail of Corruption quest in Act 2 could fail to progress when clearing the Sandstorm if you disconnected during it's animation. Those who were progression blocked by this should be able to use the marker to trigger this event again.

0.1.0d Hotfix 4

• Fixed a bug where the Arbiter Atlas Tree notable stats weren't correctly applying to the area.

0.1.0d Hotfix 3

• Fixed two instance crashes.
• Fixed a bug where Summon Raging Spirits failed to cleanup on death when they were killed on the same frame they were created.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/27837700

Developers apologise for delayed replies to support requests

0.1.0d Patch Notes

General Improvements and Changes

• Passive Block chance now applies to blockable hits from all directions, as opposed to just hits from in front.
• Player size is now set to Zero units while dodge rolling instead of One unit.
• Some smaller monsters can now be pushed while dodge rolling. This includes monsters such as the Adorned Beetles in Keth.
• Inscribed Ultimatums and Djinn Baryas now display whether you will obtain Ascendancy Skill Points upon completing the Trial of Chaos or Trial of the Sekhemas respectively.
• Removed World Map Pins for encounters that were not from specific locations in Areas. ie. From Monster drops.
• Improved attack in place behaviour.
• Rain of Arrows and Firestorm now have a hit-rate limit to prevent cases of them absolutely obliterating very large bosses. This will have little to no impact outside of boss fights with very large hitboxes.
• Leech has been buffed.
• Boneshatter now more reliably hits your target.
• The duration of Armour Break has been increased to 12 seconds (previously 6).
• To improve performance, Incinerate now creates circular areas of ignited ground instead of segments.
• Added CTRL+Click shortcut to open the Currency Exchange at the appropriate NPCs.
• Added a button to travel to the Trial of Chaos on the world map.
• Added art for Close Combat Support.
• Added 2D art for the Defiance of Destiny Unique Amulet.
• Added "Ascendancy Skill Points" as a keyword, which details how sets of Ascendancy Points are obtained.
• Added search functionality for Gemcutting and vendor inventories when using a controller. Keybinds for searching Stash on a controller have also been updated.
• Added Gemcutting restrictions option for Gamepad.
• Added suggested Supports for Time of Need.
• Updated the suggested Supports for Bonestorm.
• Added an option for opening the Trade website to the main menu for consoles.
• Runes now sell to vendors for more Gold.
• Updated art for Reserved Life and Mana.
• Updated the description on Runes to clarify that once socketed they cannot be replaced.
• Auras and Curses that affect ally or enemy resistances now display values in the Skill popout panel.
• Tweaked the audio of the Kiwi Pets, Chimera Pet, and Baby Crowbell Pet to reduce their impact in town areas.
• Updated the wording on the Invoker's "...and Protect me from Harm" Ascendancy Passive Skill to clarify its functionality.
• Updated the description on Hexblast to clarify that it only detonates a single Curse per Enemy in its radius.
• Updated the description on Fiery Death Support to clarify that the Supported Skill does not need to kill the ignited enemy itself.
• Reduced the defenses provided to monsters by the Magma Barrier modifier.
• Walking Goliaths no longer use their suicide attack if they are Rare.

Trigger Gems and Energy Gain

• Trigger gem energy gain was not in the right place and it was far too easy to use ailments to trigger spells. One problem with the previous system is that if we balanced it to make triggering happen in boss fights then the triggering would happen far too often during clearing. In order to address this we are now making "Monster Power" part of the calculation for energy gain. This means that it's far easier to trigger skills from Unique Monsters than it is from normal monsters, but you also hit many more normal monsters when fighting. Another issue was using low level skills with unconditional ailment applications such as Flame Wall to ignite enemies for triggering. In order to make the source of the ignite matter we are making the energy gain be dependent on the strength of the ignite. We have also rebalanced all energy gain across the board.

Ultimatum Changes

• Generally improved balance across the board with Ultimatum monsters, bosses and modifiers. Mostly targeting outliers that were too difficult and bringing them in line.
• The monster density of Ultimatum encounters has been made more consistent. Stormcaller Runes, Blood Globules, Heart Tethers and Impending Doom rings no longer spawn while a player is on a lift or near the altars in the Vaal Soul Core room.
• Fixed a bug where Player Minions could get stuck at the top of the lift in the Trials of Chaos.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug which caused enemies to be Primed for Stun or Electrocute earlier than intended while in a party.
• Fixed a bug where Gemling Legionnaires with the Integrated Efficiency Ascendancy Passive Skill allocated could lose their 3 additional Skill Slots if they were empty when entering a new area.
• Fixed a bug with party member reviving when using WASD input where you could revive party members from too far away.
• Fixed a bug where "Waystones found have a chance to be a tier higher" on the Atlas Passive Tree wasn't working.
• Fixed a bug where the Audio Mix setting was not being remembered when restarting the game.
• Fixed a bug where one of the small Passive Skills in the Fleshcrafter cluster was not connected to the Notable Passive Skill. It is possible for your Passive Skill Tree to be reset if you had this cluster allocated, apologies!
• Fixed a bug where you could not open a portal in The Riverbank in Cruel difficulty.
• Fixed a bug where some of Zalmarath, the Colossus' skills could persist after their death.
• Fixed a bug where opening a full-screen panel while disenchanting could prevent you from performing any actions until you relogged.
• Fixed a bug where some fire spells, such as Volatile Dead and Incinerate, were not functioning correctly with Raging Spirits.
• Fixed a bug where "Buffs on you expire Slower" from the Prolonged Assault Notable Passive Skill and other Chronomancer Ascendancy Passive Skills was applying to Debuffs and other effects as well as Buffs.
• Fixed a bug where non-reviving Minions were spawning a Remnant from the Grim Feast Buff when dying in your presence.
• Fixed a bug Infernalists with the Pyromantic Pact Ascendancy Passive Skill allocated were considered to be on Low Infernal Flame if they were at 50% of Maximum Infernal Flame or lower, instead of 35%.
• Fixed a bug where the world map icon for Candlemass in Cruel was not updating correctly.
• Fixed a bug where you could be unable to upgrade Gems despite satisfying the Attribute Requirement by having the Adaptive Capability Gemling Legionnaire Ascendancy Passive Skill allocated.
• Fixed a bug where Fiery Death Support was not dealing damage correctly.
• Fixed Infusion Support Gems on Herald skills applying the gain damage as extra elemental damage to all attacks instead of just the damage from the Herald skill
• Fixed a bug where Expedition encounters could fail to generate in the Decay Map.
• Fixed a bug where Quality on the Sacrifice Skill was causing Minions to Revive 0-5% more slowly, instead of more quickly.
• Fixed a bug where the exit portal for the final boss in Trial of the Sekhemas did not visually display upon killing the boss.
• Fixed a bug where socketed Skills you didn't meet the requirements for were missing their name in the Skills menu when using a controller.
• Fixed a bug where the Elemental Storm skill granted by the Stormweaver's Tempest Caller Ascendancy Passive Skill could sometimes place the storm underneath you.
• Fixed a snapshotting bug with the "Loads an Additional Bolt" Crossbow modifier.
• Fixed a bug where the Contagion Skill was not spreading Poison.
• Fixed a bug where Tempest Bell could become invisible.
• Fixed a bug where NPCs were missing their name labels in Hideouts when using a controller.
• Fixed a bug where signing into a guest account on PlayStation 5 could delete your friends list in-game.
• Fixed a bug where you could sometimes be unable to enter your hideout on PlayStation 5.
• Fixed eight instance crashes.
• Fixed six client crashes.
• Fixed a client crash that could occur on Xbox.
• Fixed three client crashes that could occur on PlayStation 5.

0.1.0c Hotfix 2

• Demon form now has a minimum of 1 life lost per second, per stack.

0.1.0c Hotfix 1

• Summon Raging Spirits now only summons 5 Raging Spirits per cast at all levels. The tooltip display will be updated in a future restart patch.
• Summon Raging Spirits can no longer be spawned from triggered Fire Skills.

0.1.0c Patch Notes

• Campaign bosses killed after the first kill will now drop less currency items, replacing them with other items.
• Increased the drop rate of Regal Orbs.
• Significantly increased the drop rate of Gemcutter's Prisms.
• A single Gemcutter's Prism also improves the Quality of a Skill Gem by +5% (previously +1%).
• Lowered the drop rate of Chaos Orbs and distributed it amongst the other more valued Currency Items (Like Regal Orbs, Exalted Orbs).
• Lowered the drop rate of Artificer's Orbs and distributed it to Lesser Jeweller's Orbs.
• Disenchanting Rare Items with 6 Modifiers now provides 2 Regal Shards (previously 1). The value displayed will still show as 1 until a later patch.
• Increased the values of all Prefix Modifiers that can roll on Waystones. We've also adjusted the chances of getting the more commonly powerful Modifiers such as increases to Rarity and Pack Size.
• Monster Modifiers now grant higher amounts of Item Rarity and Item Quantity. This is most common on Magic and Rare enemies, but also affects Unique Enemies if applied through various Endgame Mechanics like the Deadly Evolution Keystone.
• Increased the chance for Rare Monsters in Maps to have 3 or 4 modifiers.
• Rare Monsters in Map areas are now revealed on the minimap when there are 200 Monsters remaining (previously 50).
• Fixed a bug where some Persistent Buff Skills, such as Raging Spirits and Mana Remnants, were not working for the Infernalist when in Demon Form.
• Fixed a bug where you could sometimes be unable to interact with the Map Device in The Ziggurat Refuge.
• Fixed a bug where Monsters Shattered in a Blood Circle Ultimatum Encounter were not contributing blood.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the instance to permanently stop time (freeze) when trying to revive a Chronomancer.
• Fixed a bug where Rare Monsters could not be found within the Chimeral Wetlands.
• Fixed a bug where "Move only" was name-locking.
• Fixed three instance crashes.
• Fixed a client crash.

This patch has been deployed without restarting the servers. You will need to restart your client to receive the client changes in this patch.

0.1.0b Patch Notes

• Gas Grenade's explosion base damage has been reduced to 150%-468% at gem level 1-20 (previously 240%-749%).
• Gas Arrow's explosion base damage has been reduced to 100%-312% at gem levels 1-20 (previously 250%-780%).
• Temporarily disabled the Bloodsoaked Character Effect microtransaction.
• Fixed an issue where some players could get stuck on a loading screen indefinitely.
• Fixed a bug where you could not refund Atlas Passive Skills when using a controller.
• Fixed a bug with automatic gateway selection when playing on console.
• Fixed a client crash that could occur when toggling the "Hide Login Email" option.
• Fixed four other client crashes.
• Fixed two instance crashes.

This patch has been deployed without restarting the servers, you will need to restart your client to get the client changes. Console players should have an update available with the client changes after this patch has passed their respective certification processes.

0.1.0 Hotifx 9

• Fixed a bug that caused some characters to be unable to login.
• Fixed a bug related to monster life scaling in parties.
• Fixed an instance crash.

Figured I'd ask how everyone is carrying on in a new game.

Personally nearly all my deaths are boss related, a majority being purely based on a one shot kill, or a mechanic I failed to manage/know how to stop.

Outside of bosses, it's just been getting body blocked by the hordes a few times.

Out of all of it, I only felt two of my deaths felt unfair/completely unexpected.

I've died about a dozen times so far and just made it to act 3.

0.1.0 Hotfix 8

• Fixed a client crash that could occur when using the DirectX12 renderer.
• Reduced the damage of Magnetic Salvos explosions by approximately by 40%.

This patch has been deployed without restarting the servers. You will need to restart your client to receive the client changes in this patch.

0.1.0 Hotfix 7

• Temporarily disabled the "Shielding Monsters" modifier in Temple of the Chaos Gods.
• Reduced the amount of energy shield monsters gain from the Rare Modifier "Extra Energy Shield"

0.1.0 Hotfix 6

• Reduced the Damage of Supercharged Slam by approximately 60% overall (at maximum stages). This skill was unfortunately dealing far too much damage than intended given the short channel window required to hit maximum stages. The damage display text of this skill will be incorrect until we later do a client patch.
• Reduced the damage of the Lightning Cascade in the Bahlak, the Sky Seer Ultimatum boss fight.
• Reduced the damage of Ball Lightning Explosions in the Uxmal, the Beastlord Ultimatum boss fight.
• Reduced the number of Lightning Runes created from the Stormcaller Runes Ultimatum Modifier, and fixed a bug where they could trigger without players standing on them.
• Fixed a bug with Invoker's "...and Protect me from Harm" Ascendancy Passive Skill, where Evasion Rating also granting Physical Damage Reduction was applying to all Damage Types.

0.1.0 Hotfix 5

• Fixed multiple instance crashes.
• Fixed two client crashes.
• Fixed a pack purchasing problem that could occur on steam.

0.1.0 Hotfix 4

• Fixed an instance crash with Shield Wall.
• Fixed an instance crash with Skeletal Aronsists.

0.1.0 Hotfix 3

• Fixed a bug where trying to progress to Act 2 by talking to The Hooded One in your Hideout instead of the Clearfell Encampment could prevent you from progressing to Act 2.
• Fixed a bug where the Gambler's stock was not correct.