Transformative new Path of Exile 2 endgame update ticks all the right boxes

New Path of Exile 2 patch notes have just dramatically overhauled the endgame, and it's substantial enough to feel almost like a fresh season. Grinding Gear Games scored a big win with its Third Edict update, which I'd rank as a major step in the right direction to evolving PoE 2 into one of the best RPGs alongside its predecessor. It hasn't stopped there, however; game director Jonathan Rogers says the team decided that a lot of the mechanical changes it was planning for its next league were already good to go, and so PoE 2 patch 0.3.1 folds them into the current game.

This new Path of Exile 2 update is almost entirely focused on endgame and the Atlas map, and targets a lot of the most common complaints. Right up top, towers have been changed and are no longer needed to spread modifiers to your maps via precursor tablets. Instead, your tablets now have a fixed number of uses, and you can spend these when inserting a fresh waystone to apply up to three to your chosen level.

Once you lock it in, the zone will then generate an extra one to three pieces of random content from the selection of other mechanics. This will take into account those that you've already applied, so you won't see more of a given system such as Expedition that can only exist a limited number of times per map. While these changes mean slightly fewer affixes overall, the values each can climb to have been raised to ensure you're able to squeeze plenty of juice out of every waystone.

You can still run towers to get extra visibility across your Atlas, and you'll earn a guaranteed tablet drop for completing one. Citadels, meanwhile, have been made 66% more likely to spawn, so you'll see them much more often. Alongside this, every map now has a boss, and that's the singular condition to finish them, meaning no more wandering around in search of a lingering rare pack. The previous 'boss maps' will still exist, but they'll boast a more powerful, challenging foe that will require you to be more geared for such a showdown.

To make the transition into endgame feel smoother, the number of monster packs in lower-tier maps has been decreased by around a third, but this will scale back up to its previous level by the time you reach rank 15. Enemies will now be spread across more frequent but smaller groups, and open-ended zones have slightly lower spawn density, reducing the frequency of getting mobbed and overwhelmed unless you're really blasting through (at which point you probably know what you're getting into).

One of the most frustrating map modifier types has been nerfed: the affixes that cover the ground in chill, shock, or ignite now affect 75% less of the map in early tiers, scaling slightly to 62% less at higher ranks. GGG has also picked out the largest 15 map types and contracted them all to minimize runbacks and downtime. Overall, it feels like a good balance of addressing common complaints without turning the dial too closely towards how PoE 1's endgame feels, which is important if both games are continuing to run alongside each other.

There are some other balance and quality-of-life changes packed in here, too. Orbs of Alchemy can now be used on magic items, which will ignore their existing modifiers and reroll as if used on something of basic rarity. This makes them much more useful in PoE 2's brave new world of crafting, especially for getting your waystones up and running. The stash and merchant menus will remember your last search terms, many skill and item descriptions have been improved, and town crier Jacob has come to Kingsmarch to keep the locals updated on your exploits through act four of the campaign.

Path of Exile 2 patch 0.3.1 is live now. You can read through the full patch notes courtesy of Grinding Gear Games for details on bug fixes and other tweaks, including performance improvements in Kingsmarch and when dealing with Abyss mechanics.

Starting a new character? Here's our updated ranking of the best Path of Exile 2 classes in The Third Edict, along with an estimate for when we might see the final Path of Exile 2 release date.

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