Path of Exile 2's new endgame is a massive upgrade, but GGG is already planning to make it juicier

I've been having a blast with Path of Exile 2's new update Return of the Ancients, and the general consensus I've seen has been largely the same. Developer Grinding Gear Games hasn't finished cooking, however. Having tackled "almost all" of the main progression blockers and severe bugs in PoE 2 0.5, the team is continuing to work on common crashes and other fixes. It's also got some bigger plans in the works to continue expanding the endgame offering, to nerf a few frustrating mechanics, and to stamp out a handful of unintentional exploits.

The new-look Path of Exile 2 endgame is a massive upgrade, ensuring even a completely new player has the guidance to get from level one to clearing all the league biomes and defeating the ultimate pinnacle boss. The campaign has been smoothed, too, with some of the most notorious areas like the never-ending Dreadnought tidied up. Toss in an absolute boatload of ways to deterministically craft the stats and affixes that your build is missing, and the new in-game build guide integration, and it's the most accessible PoE has ever been.

"Almost all the progression blockers we know about have now been fixed, but sometimes it's not incredibly clear in the hotfix notes," GGG remarks in a fresh developer update. It suggests that anyone who got stuck somewhere should try again, but notes that you may need to rerun a small amount of the quest depending on your situation. Beyond that, however, it's looking to further streamline parts of the campaign, add more things to do, and solve the action RPG's most "underwhelming" encounters.

The biggest addition will be "a large number of new Atlas tree nodes which add more content to specific biomes." The points to unlock these will be added to existing maps, so don't worry if you're already a long way through, as you'll be given them automatically. The map will also now remember where you were looking if you close and then re-open it while in the same area. GGG is also investigating an issue where some events can cause it to pop up as a black screen, and a bug stopping parties from using it from two separate hideouts at once.

"While we did go a long way to making the campaign smoother, we have some other things that we plan to do over the next week," GGG continues. The most welcome is that newcomer Farrow will now mark the location of the Runestones he's looking for when you speak to him at the entrance to a zone, so you don't have to wander aimlessly. In Jiquani's Machinarium, checkpointing back to the start will fast-track the power supply so you don't have to wait for it to slowly restore the whole way through the building.

Elsewhere, the trio of permanent character boosts on offer in Halls of the Dead will be marked more obviously. The siren's voice in the Singing Caverns will be more directional to help you find her, Journey's End will grant you a portal from the boss back to the NPC to continue the quest, the fire ritual in Azak Bog will direct you to the final fight once complete, and the Shark Fin quest will be made easier to turn in. I had to look up that last one, which is currently locked behind a piece of optional dialogue, and I had been talking to just about everyone as I went along, so that's a helpful change.

The Heavy Stun state will now be saved when you log out, meaning you can't abuse a quick quit to avoid being vulnerable on the ground. That annoying knockback from Tidal Waves (in Runeshaping) or Blood Waves (in Ritual) is being stripped out. For character balance, GG is adding new elemental damage clusters to the passive tree in close proximity to jewel slots, "to make elemental conversion jewels more useful." There will be a new rare Lineage Support from Atziri that will let you reserve Life instead of Spirit, and some missing or incorrect descriptions for the Gemling Legionnaire Mercenary are being fixed.

Click to Move has been causing "some strange behavior" with character stuttering if you have 'always attack without moving' enabled. GGG is also looking into "other reported targeting issues on keyboard and mouse where skills are not going where you intend them to." From what I've been hearing, crossbows have been the most affected here, but if you've run into it at all it should be addressed soon. The studio is also investigating issues of missing pinnacle boss drops after respawning, and the microtransaction shop not always displaying when you already own particular stash tabs.

Ritual is the league mechanic with the most changes. You'll no longer be able to keep changing your mind about which maps you've picked while doing Rite of the Nameless: "This allows you to potentially see more mods than if you didn't do that," GGG explains. While it's not a huge game-breaker, it is an advantage. A 90% cap has also been applied to Ritual reroll cost reduction so you can't make it completely free, and the 'Mysterious Rites' node will be buffed to give more rewards.

The only change for Delirium is a fix to instances where you could fail it by moving ahead too quickly. In Breach, GGG is working on monster pathing, as when they get stuck it results in "very underwhelming fights." Vruun will spawn after the wave of rares (rather than in their place), so as to "not compromise your investment into rare monsters." The 'Tear Open the Rift' node is being made multi-choice, "as it's not always good for all players."

For controller users, GGG is improving trade, and adding preferences for targeting weight based on enemy rarity. Finally, it notes that Pinnacle boss nodes crafted from Ore through the current league mechanic are currently not using the right item level, meaning their skills "are lower level than was intended." This will be fixed. The developer adds that "these are not the only changes we are planning, just a set of the initial ones that we believe we should be able to get out in the next week." I'm certainly locked in for now, so you can catch me working my way up to the pinnacles.