Path of Exile 2 patch 0.1.1 preview: All major changes coming this week

In its first major patch since the release of Path of Exile 2 Early Access, GGG is focusing on addressing community concerns rather than nerfs. All class balance changes and the meta-shifting nerf bingo have now been delayed indefinitely; those will arrive at a later point when a new League introduces a fresh economy, letting players start afresh.

Instead, the upcoming megapatch this week (arriving by January 19, 2025) will iron out some of the much-scorned problems of Path of Exile 2, with a particular focus on the endgame-mapping experience. While we'll have to wait for the complete patch notes to scope out the full extent of the changes, this article will review the broader strokes of the upcoming patch 0.1.1.

Everything new in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.1.1: Mapping, buffed Uniques, less on-death effects, and more

The broadest changes in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.1.1, as mentioned earlier, will be focused on making the endgame mapping experience more rewarding overall. To this end, all maps will receive a balance pass to the number of monsters, chests, magic and rare monsters, Essences, Strongboxes, as well as Precursor Artifacts.

Here are some of the changes arriving with the upcoming update:

Lost Towers will have four more map variants: Alpine Ridge, Sinking Spire, Bluff, and Mesa. The existing Lost Tower tileset will also get a few more rooms to make them less boring to explore.
Roughly one in every four maps will spawn Map bosses. This was the original intended ratio, but in reality, the rate was much lower due to some maps being unable to spawn bosses.
The developers are also adding a new type of Tablet that allows you to add bosses to your maps with its own mod pool.
Strongboxes will spawn monsters faster, have a less annoying fog effect, and also receive changes to the timings and effects of the mods on them.
The developers have buffed the rate of Simulacrums dropping by 20% so it's more in line with the rate of finding the Expedition and Ritual bosses.
Omens now appear in the Ritual tribute window 60% more often.
Expedition shops will now have a better rarity of items, but improvement to this will have to wait till a later set of substantial changes.

On-death explosion effects begone

Other than addressing the economic boost that maps need, the developers are also getting rid of some visual and technical clutter:

GGG will reduce the level of clutter on some maps and change some effects to ensure that they're always visible.
Elemental explosion effects will have their visibility improved, stick around for longer before they explode, and disappear without exploding if a rare monster dies.
Volatile Plants will also be way easier to see before they explode.
The developers have done a pass on various terrain collision issues on many maps.
They have also improved the load times of opening the World Map and Atlas panel, and the game will show the biome of a map on the hover for it.

Pinnacle content accessibility

Pinnacle content and Citadels were so rare that they spawned community conspiracy theories. To address this, Path of Exile 2 patch 0.1.1 will make them easier to spawn as well as spot:

Citadel will spawn closer to the center of the Atlas. A new laser-beam effect will make them easy to spot in the fog of war from further away. This will make them much easier to find.
The Faradun Citadel boss (Jamanra variant) has been made easier to bring it in line with other Citadel bosses.

Beating the Arbiter of Ash will now be a fair ask for the Crisis Fragment grind, as the base difficulty will give you six respawn attempts:

Unlocking Arbiter of Ash you will now get up to six respawn attempts.
Respawns can only be triggered by the person who put in the keys and everyone in your party will be respawned at the same time.
Leaving the map still forfeits your attempt, so you'll still need to fight the boss with the build you walked into the map with.
Higher difficulties of the boss will lower the number of respawn attempts you get.

Buffs to leveling Uniques

The patch 0.1.1 will also buff a lot of Uniques in Path of Exile 2. As the developers point out:

"These changes should make finding Uniques at lower levels a lot more fun and make subsequent character playthroughs more fun too when you have some great uniques to use."

While the Uniques changes will be targeted toward a more fun campaign experience, Rare items will be buffed to get fewer "bad rolls" at the higher levels:

Changes will be made to mod weightings to ensure there are fewer bad mods.
Another fix will make sure that high-tier items no longer cull the highest-tier modifier of a given mod type. This bug caused bows and crossbows to not spawn with attack speed at tier five rarity and rings to not spawn with life at tier five rarity.

Sockets and Runes useability

The developers are finally making the much-coveted Socket accessibility change in Path of Exile 2. Socketables such as Runes (as well as Soul Cores) can be overwritten with another socketable once the update is released.

Filter system accessibility for consoles

While PC users just got the full brunt of Filterblade for Path of Exile 2, console users have been lagging behind the curve. With patch 0.1.1, PoE 2 will finally make the web-based item-filter subscription of the first game work similarly for the sequel.

"For 0.1.1, we'll be enabling the same system that Path of Exile 1 has, which allows you to subscribe to item filters on the website. For now, this will be done on the Path of Exile 1 website to allow us to get this feature out as fast as possible; later on, we'll improve the user experience of this and put it on the Path of Exile 2 website."

Additional monster and enemy balance passes

The total number of balance changes to monsters in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.1.1 will be massive, and here are some of the changes the developers have highlighted in this regard:

The Silverfist Commander roll now does a lot less damage.
Plaguebearers' Detonate Dead can no longer be used off-screen and has better telegraphing.
Forsaken Miners throw fewer grenades, have improved visuals, and deal less damage.
Lost Men Zealots can no longer meteor you from off-screen either.

That's all the big things that GGG name-dropped for patch 0.1.1 in Path of Exile 2. There's no release date for the update that was mentioned, but it's coming this week, meaning we'll certainly get it before January 19, 2025.

Stay tuned for more Path of Exile 2 news and updates on Sportskeeda.

Edited by Sambit Pal