The league start might be a week away, but today’s arrival of the Path of Exile 2 0.5 patch notes is arguably when it all begins. There was some measure of consternation among the PoE 2 community in recent weeks when a handful of people started posting their build guides for Return of the Ancients in the wake of its announcement. How could you know what will be good, many rightfully argued in response, when we haven’t seen the full list of buffs, nerfs, and adjustments from developer Grinding Gear Games? Now, we have that rundown, and as expected, it’s a big one.
You can read my Return of the Ancients preview for a comprehensive look at what’s changing in the new Path of Exile 2 update, but the short answer is ‘just about everything.’ At the center of it all is GGG’s grand endgame rework, designed to make the action RPG a lot more rounded and fulfilling after beating the campaign. It’s not just about expanding for the hardcore blasters, however. A new mission structure offering tangible goals, combined with more methodically designed crafting systems, should ensure that less-experienced players will have an easier time transitioning into using the Atlas map than before.
With that in mind, the first question for any new ARPG season is what build you want to play. We’ve now got the full rundown of adjustments, which means you can check to see what’s looking stronger or weaker than before, and alter your plans accordingly. PoE 2 is a massive game and this patch is similarly huge, however, so you’d be forgiven for looking through the full list of changes and feeling a little tired. The good news is that thanks to the new in-game build guide integration, you can just turn up at the league start and borrow a set of detailed notes from someone who’s spent the past week figuring it all out for you.
For those who do like to take matters into their own hands, let’s look at the biggest news. Both Energy Shield recovery and Leech have been heavily nerfed. Many sources of the former have been reduced to 50% (or less) of their previous value, and ways to start recovering instantly have been taken away. Ghost Dance has also been nerfed, with the ES restoration down from 5% of your Evasion to just 2%.
For the latter, you can now only have one source of Leech active at a time per resource (Life, Mana, and Energy Shield), with the strongest one taking priority. GGG has also placed a cap of 40,000 on the maximum amount of damage a single hit can count towards Leech. Among the most common passive nodes, Vaal Pact now provides ‘overleech’ rather than the instantaneous effect of old, while Fast Metabolism gains a damage buff while leeching life, but loses its previous overleech effect.
All of the basic Runes have been buffed, in many cases fairly dramatically, with the exception of those providing Energy Shield recovery. The higher-tier ‘greater’ and ‘perfect’ currencies will now drop less frequently than before; “significantly” so in the case of Transmutation and Augmentation Orbs. Divine Orbs are more common, however. Omen of Corruption has been removed, and both Sanctifying and (Vaal Orb) corrupting an item now take the initial roll into account. This means better starting stats will result in stronger final outcomes, so the gear’s initial form will matter more.
As for build-specific nerfs, it’s bad news for poison Pathfinders, with several pieces of their puzzle reduced in potency and effectiveness. The Wyvern transformation also suffers, with Rend, Oil Barrage, and Flame Breath all on the chopping block. Gathering Storm has been buffed to now work the way it should, exploding Tempest Bells for huge shockwaves, but the specific popular build that was using it with a Quarterstaff will suffer from the changes. Warrior’s Shield Wall gets punished, too; it doesn’t sound like much on paper, but by the time all the numbers have been crunched it could be a significant damage down.
Path of Exile 2 patch 0.5, Return of the Ancients, launches on Friday May 29 alongside the new Runes of Aldur league. It’s planned to be the final major update before the game’s 1.0 launch, which Game Director Jonathan Rogers has suggested will arrive at the end of 2026, some time after the Exilecon festival being held on November 7 to 8.
