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Discover everything you need to know about the Dawn of the Hunt Update in Path of Exile 2 and all the new changes coming.
Path of Exile 2 just completely overhauled the endgame and added new crafting systems, 100 new uniques, a bunch of different skills, new ascendancies, and a new class. Here are some of the biggest changes coming in the 0.2.0 patch. This is the big new season we’ve all been waiting for. Grinding Gear Games revealed the Dawn of the Hunt details for Path of Exile 2 in a recent Twitch livestream and blog post of POE 2. In this upcoming path, you can get the Raise Spectre skill, more than 100 new Support Gems, more than 100 new unique items, new encounters with the Azmerian Wisps, Rogue Exiles, and a new strongbox encounter with new Corrupted Essences mechanics. It offers new Corrupted Essence mechanics, new Cleansed Maps, and new areas within seven Endgame maps.
Everything About Dawn of the Hunt Update in POE 2
Dawn of the Hunt is the first update that GGG is releasing for all the players out there. This update will arrive on April 4, 2025, at 12:00 pm PDT. This expansion will be available across Epic Games Store, PlayStation, PC, Steam, and Xbox. They suggested that we should create a new character due to the number of changes being brought to the game. This allows you to experience an immersive playthrough with new unique changes like maps, runes, crafting items, classes, and ascendancies. However, this is optional for all the players but not necessary.
Below are all the new changes coming to the Path of Exile 2 in the Dawn of the Hunt update.
- New Huntress Class
- 20 New Huntress Skills
- New Ascendancy Classes
- New Skills
- 100+ New Support Gems
- 100+ New Unique Items
- New Encounters
- Azmerian Wisps
- Rogue Exiles
- 7 Endgame Maps
- New The Ogham’s Legacy Strongbox Encounter
- New Endgame Mechanics and Improvement
The Huntress (Class)
The newest class, the Huntress, provides a lot of different playstyles. Not only do they have a parry when using a buckler, but you’ve also got these spinning whirlwind slashes and tornadoes similar to a barbarian from Diablo. It also has some very interesting mechanics with different monsters akin to summoning. When killing a rare beast, you can capture their soul and summon it in as a pet.
They will keep the modifiers, meaning you can reload areas fighting some of these bosses to get a good modifier for you to use. There are also ways you can double down on this with the further ascendancies. Now, this is a very mobile class, but there are some really cool ranged abilities as well. Overall, it looks a lot of fun to play but the ascendancies are really going to change up that gameplay. The spear attack can make some valuable combo chains, allowing you to deal massive damage. Spears are basically new base item types that she uses as either a thrown weapon or in melee range.
Mercenary (Class)
The new mercenary cannot only pin enemies with all projectile damage, but they also won’t be able to do anything back. They can’t perform any actions when they’re pinned. There are also some very interesting support abilities, allowing you to place flags and multiple flags. This even gives some of your weapon damage to players that you’re playing with. So, if you’re in a group, this could be cool.
Witch (Class)
The new witch is a lich, which is going to be doubling down on all of your undead companions. This allows you to do some very interesting things, like empower some of your jewels and take them to another tier, as long as you can deal with some of the downsides. They’ve also added an ability similar to Archmage but for chaos damage. This gives you and your allies unholy might which will cost mana but do extra chaos damage.
They’ve also helped you double down on some of the cursed things that are available in your kit. They’ve allowed it so you can have the double curse and affect Hexrproof enemies. This is very focused on cursing summoning, and they talked about the specters. This allows you to empower and make super powerful. Specters all have different costs, so you can have an army of minions or just a couple of really big hulking mini-boss guys.
Ritualist (The Huntress)
The ritualist has some unique abilities from blood boil, which would cause explosions that will give corrupted blood to nearby enemies. However, the big one that I see here is that you can get an extra ring slot. If somehow this pairs with Ingenuity, then this is absolutely busted. You’re also able to perform rituals on rare monsters, steal some of their mods, or even sacrifice your own HP to get a random mod that a monster could get.
Amazon (The Huntress)
The Amazon is just doubling down on the Huntress, making your spears more valuable using things like power charges and frenzy charges. This is only to get different elemental bonuses, increasing your abilities against rare and unique enemies with opened weaknesses. It allows you to deal 50% more damage and do some interesting things with your life and mana flasks. It also allows you to leech life with both elemental and physical damage. The next one here, the Forgemaster, is very interesting. You can forge your weapon and increase its viability in the middle of battle.
This adds explosions to your weapon with a tempered weapon. You can also craft your own chest piece using the ascendancy. Your body armor will essentially be a blank slate where you can add different stats on top of it using your ascendancy. This is a unique thing, and it allows for some interesting customization. This is where you normally wouldn’t be able to get some of these mods or be able to just perfectly change your build on a whim if you get an upgrade somewhere else.
Lich (Witch)
The Lich is a master of Chaos and Curses to enhance her Life. Witch players can join their legion by becoming undead themselves, a master of chaos and curses.
Smith of Kitava (Warrior)
The forges weapons of destruction in fire and suffering. They take Smithing skills to greater heights. Take your smithing skills to new heights by embracing power from the insatiable one himself, Kitava.
Tactician (Mercenary)
Free from the duties of a Blackguard, …, use his training to decimate the monsters of Wraeclast. The Tactician is able to decimate the monsters of Wraeclast while earning a healthy income at the same time as a former trained Blackguard Elite.
Uniques
They also added a hundred different uniques that also have more value in the middle and endgame. GGG noticed that a lot of people they’re not using unique because they’re all trash. Well, the hope is that is going to change shortly. You might also notice these are some very interesting-looking exiles. You’re going to be able to fight different rogue exiles on the map. We are excited about this change because we feel like unique items are essentially useless. There was almost none of them that had any value other than very specific ones. There are like five in the game, and that shouldn’t be a thing. Also, there are so many skills that could be impacted by a cool unique, and for the most part, a lot of the ones that are used are just generally good.
Endgame and New League Mechanics
There will be spirit wisps on the maps. Each one will have a different impact. You will follow this spirit, and it’s going to empower enemies along its path till it finds its target. Once it gets to the end of the path, it will empower a rare enemy and it’ll make them even stronger and give them a special ability. The loot that you get from this is going to be unique ruins that you can slot into your gear that have special effects. Each spirit has a different set that is available. There’s also a unique map that has multiple wisps on it, which will be pretty darn cool. However, they also revealed that when you do unique maps it will help give you more map points.
This is good because they have expanded the Atlas quite a bit. As for the Atlas, there are multiple new maps with new bosses and it looks fantastic. We’re talking unique mechanics with multiple waves of bosses and new items. This is a complete overhaul of the endgame as we know it. It will be a similar system where you can go to the different towers and explore. However, they have changed things in a way that I think everyone is going to like. GGG wants maps to feel more interesting and have more league mechanics in them. So, naturally, they should have more at base.
Changes in Towers
They’ve also reworked the tower system completely, making this one of the best changes they could have made. Not only have they added more unique maps and unique loot, but they’ve also changed the tower system. This is like these pieces that can have additional suffixes or additional prefixes depending on how this thing rolls. Eight new maps come with unique mechanics and challenges. The number of Towers is reduced, but each one is extremely powerful.
Use the Tablets to affect twice the area as each Tower consumes three Tablets at once. These changes simply make your progression very smooth and more satisfying. Use the new uniques to craft new builds. The 100 new Support Gems and 20 Runes can customize your skills and gear to modify your play style. The Ascendancy class in Path of Exile 2 becomes available in the 2nd Act, helping you to create some powerful and unique builds.
Tower & Tablet Improvements
Here are some changes that provide us with a streamlined Endgame Atlas experience.
- Towers have all map content that includes Bosses
- Tablets are powerful and influence more maps
- Towers consume more Tablets
- We get unique Tablets
- The number of towers is reduced
Portal System
There are 6 Portals in the maps now. This means that if your character dies, you will not lose progression easily. The amount of portals decreases, but the map gets modifiers.
Unique changes in Dawn of the Hunt
Here are some considerable changes that can highly affect your gameplay.
- Pinnacle XP- You will not gain XP from the Pinnacle Bosses.
- Atlas Passive Tree- The developers have revamped the Atlas Passive Tree. Now, you can explore more new nodes along with unique options. You also get 10 points on the tree.
- Fracturing Orbs- Cleansed enemies can drop Fracturing Orbs. It’s worth mentioning that the Fractured Modifier cannot be changed by any means.
- Enzomyte Rune- Runes are regular and Powerful versions.
- Rogue Exiles- You gain equipment by defeating the exiles. You also gain the opportunity to earn unique items.
- Unique Strongboxes- You will also get unique Strongboxes with unique rewards, along with new challenges.
- Corrupt Essences- You gain the opportunity to Corrupt Trapped Essences in maps. Keep in mind that there are 4 Corrupted Essences in the game.
- Crafting System- You can use Artifacts to recombine items, allowing you to gain better affixes of both into one item.
- Reliquary Keys- The game now has Reliquary Keys from the Early Access Supporter Packs.
Corrupted Areas
You can jump into a lot of these different maps just like you normally would. However, there are corrupted areas that you’re going to need to cleanse. These corrupted areas have more and different enemies than we’ve seen in the past. You’re going to go in and fight them. Once you’ve cleared this and you’ve made your way to the corrupted nexus, you need to clear that map and end up fighting one of the corrupted bosses. These are the bosses that you may have encountered while you were mapping.
They were essentially a random spawn during these corrupted levels. Now, there’s actually going to be kind of this endgame thing where we go, clear the nexus, and fight the boss. This is how we can unlock our Atlas points instead of just randomly clearing tier five and tier 7 maps. Not only will this clear the corruption, but it will then convert it into a cleansed area with even more enemies, new bosses, and unique crafting items. The developers have completely overhauled it, and it looks so good.
FAQs About Dawn of the Hunt in Path of Exile 2
What is Dawn of the Hunt in Path of Exile 2?
The Dawn of the Hunt is the first major update that introduces a new class, five new Ascendancy classes, and huge expansions on character systems.
Which are the five new Ascendancies in Path of Exile 2?
Ritualist (Huntress), Amazon (Huntress), Lich (Witch), Smith of Kitava (Warrior), and Tactician (Mercenary) are the five new ascendancies in Path of Exile 2.
What are the endgame improvements in Dawn of the Hunt in Path of Exile 2?
7 New Endgame Maps, Tower & Tablet Improvements, Unique tablets, 6 Portal systems reintroduced, Atlas Passive Tree Revamp, and Cleanse the Corruption are the endgame improvements introduced in Dawn of the Hunt in Path of Exile 2.
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