Dawn of The Hunt diminishes Path of Exile 2's strongest suit

Path of Exile 2 released its first big economy reset patch this week. Putting aside all the new League mechanics and content, GGG also used this patch as their first pivot of overall game balance. This understandably involves sweeping all the pieces off the board to rearrange them, but instead of the expected delicate tuning, this was a blanket nerf on everything, and a couple of spot buffs.

In the process, the day-one patch 0.2.0 experience puts blemishes on what was arguably Path of Exile 2's most universally acclaimed aspect: the campaign.

Path of Exile 2's first campaign act now feels more tedious than challenging

Rogue Exiles are you, but cooler (Image via GGG)

The Breach League mechanic got nerfed big-time in patch 0.2.0, and now spawns less monsters. This is the juicing-nexus with the highest monster density in the whole game, and the nerf means the top percentile of grinders will not farm as much currency as they could earlier.

While addressing it in a Q&A, the developers explained that the rationale is that it's supposed to feel more of a struggle against unrelenting hordes than a loot-factory bonanza. The issue, they mentioned, was not so much the League itself, but the high power ceiling players could easily reach.

In other words, the problem was that the Exile could get to a level of power that GGG never imagined, and the path to this power was also accesible granular tech like self-propagating Herald Skills.

To stem this, however, GGG didn't just prune the top percentile of meta synergies in patch 0.2.0. They flattened the entire power curve, even for the average off-meta build, which includes how well you fare before you hit Endgame.

After a gruelling 40-hour run through the campaign acts, I certainly think they overcorrected the problem.

The idea of nerfing meta builds in an ARPG is to restore a parity that encourages players to try their homebrew build. In practice, the changes made in Path of Exile 2 Dawn of The Hunt curbed the baseline power of so many Skills that not sticking to the best Skills of any given setup feels punitive.

It's not a hyperbole to say specifically that the first bit of the campaign is a slog. Some conditions apply here, of course. For instance, if you get a few windfall moments in the opening hour along with some build-pertinent drops, the campaign feels as good as it was in the last patch.

In my attempts, after scrapping my first character, I got a lucky 60% Physical Damage crossbow on the second one, so I Grenade-spammed my way through Acts 1 and 2.

However, the first botched run was miserable. Lowered baseline power in the majority of Skills is not too bad by itself — the pain point is how asymmetrical it feels against the run-of-the-mill white monsters.

I don't mind that the bosses feel like threatening damage sponges. However, it doesn't feel right that I have to deplete my entire Mana pool to slowly chip away at a regular monster pack charging at me with frightening resolve.

There are numerous remnants of a questionable state of balance I saw throughout my time with Path of Exile 2 patch 0.2.0. One telling example is how the bodyguards of minion-spawning Rares are actually tankier than the Rare itself.

Path of Exile 2's Act 1 is quite possibly the most well-crafted slice of ARPG campaign in the whole genre. With its stellar monster design, iconic bosses, and engaging atmosphere, the letdown of problematic monster balance feels all the more tragic.

In fumbling on this crucial aspect, Path of Exile 2 has created a big deterrent to everything good in it. The wider community seems to feel similarly as well — the game's recent reviews on Steam have dropped to "Mixed".

However, I don't want to close this on an alarmist note. To GGG's credit, there are indeed some things they have improved about the player's journey in Path of Exile 2.

The Azmerian Wisp mechanic is quite fun, and the crafting currency drop rate is better than ever. Had the balance been better-tuned, players could have had the scope to juggle between different Skills.

With a recent hotfix (0.2.0b), Path of Exile 2 did address the problem somewhat by a flat 25% reduction of health on all monsters between levels 15 and 46, tapering back to pre-patch health in lower and higher levels. It's hard to say whether it will do the trick, but this means the developers are at least considering the widespread negative consensus on the current state of balance.

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About the author

Sambit Pal is an esports Journalist on Gaming and MMO at Sportskeeda. He has Master's degree in English Literature. In his spare time, he is an amateur sleuth trying to trace the Riven Mafia in Warframe, and a recovering Bethesda modding addict. He also secretly enjoys action Roguelites, a severe lack of gitting gud notwithstanding.

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Edited by Arundhoti Palit