Path of Exile 2 patch notes 0.1.0e: Checkpoint improvements, Sanctum updated, skills rebalanced, endgame revamped, and more

The much-awaited 0.1.0e patch for Path of Exile 2 has finally arrived, bringing several changes to many of the game's systems, such as improvements to the Checkpoint system, updates to the Trial of the Sekhemas, reworked endgame systems, and much more.

This is likely to be the last major patch of the year, as Grinding Gear Games will be taking a well-deserved holiday break after an extremely successful launch.

After the deployment of Path of Exile 2 patch 0.1.0d, Grinding Gear Games shifted its attention to even more pressing concerns regarding endgame balancing and improvements to Trials. To that end, the developer said:

"Players were finding Trial of the Sekhemas particularly frustrating in close range so we’ve reworked how Honour Damage scales when in close range, as well as fixing an important bug that was causing players to take far too much Honour Damage from Damage over Time."

The company also addressed the changes to the endgame:

"Generally the balance in Endgame Maps was more punishing than intended, so we’ve toned down the damage in a number of ways and disabled a certain on-death effect where the telegraphing was not as clear as it should have been."

Key features of Path of Exile 2 patch 0.1.0e

Minion builds have been slightly in this patch (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

Path of Exile 2 patch 0.1.0e has a mix of quality-of-life features and rebalances of gameplay systems across the board. First and foremost, the checkpoint system has been upgraded with intra-zone teleportation. From now on, any discovered checkpoints will be traversable, and more will be added to zones.

The Trial of the Sekhemas is now more forgiving to melee players. Many of the bugs in the trial are also being fixed. Rattlecage, the final boss of the first floor, is also balanced accordingly to be less punishing in melee.

Charms are being worked on heavily, with item modifiers added early to give extra charm slots on belts. The Electrocution ailment, in particular, is now more viable from the jump, with new Passive Skill tree clusters and Support Gems added to the game.

Also Read: Path of Exile 2: Skill Gems and Gemcutting guide

The resistance penalties in the endgame, Waystones, have now been removed. Many of the endgame mobs have been rebalanced to make life easier. Rare mob affixes, such as Volatile Plant, Volatile Crystals, and Siphoner, have been rebalanced to be less punishing for Waystones.

Complete patch notes for Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.1.0e

General improvements and changes

Added the capacity to fast-travel between Checkpoints within an area. You can now select checkpoints which will bring up your Map Overlay allowing you to select other Checkpoints you have discovered in the area to travel to them immediately. Many more checkpoints have been added to areas generally at all the entrances and exits to areas, meaning if you find those first, you are able to instantly travel to them if you choose to go back and explore an area.
Passive Point Respeccing has been made cheaper especially at higher levels, it had a relatively aggressive curve getting more expensive with character level, we have flattened that curve so it doesn't exponentially grow as much. For Example, this should generally result in an approximately 40-50% less Gold Cost for respeccing between the start and middle of Endgame progression.
Added a shortcut to open a skills advanced information display by right-clicking the skill on your Skill Bar.
You can now compare equipped Flasks when using a Gamepad.
Added Chance Shards to the Currency Exchange.
Added a button to travel to your Guild Hideout when interacting with the Waypoint.

Endgame and monster balance

Maps no longer have additional elemental resistance penalties inherently applied at Tier 6 and Tier 11 or higher Maps. It is now consistent across all of the Endgame at the same value as it was previously at Tier 1.
Critical Strikes from Monsters now deal 40% less bonus Damage.
Chaos Damage now scales less aggressively over the Endgame.
The Ground Laser and Ground Lightning abilities used by the Runed Knight in Expedition Encounters now deal substantially less Damage.
The Waystone Modifier that adds Burning Ground to your Maps no longer increases in coverage or area with higher Tier Waystones.
The 'Siphons Flask Charges Modifier' on Monsters now drains ten-times less Flask Charges per second. (This was unintentional).
Disabled the Volatile Crystals Modifier, to be revised in the future pending telegraphing improvements.
The Trail of Fire monster Modifier now deals 30% less Damage and lasts for 3 seconds (from 5 seconds).
The Trail of Lightning monster Modifier now lasts for 4 seconds (from 8 seconds).
The Trail of Ice monster Modifier now lasts for 4 seconds (from 8 seconds).
The Purple Explosives created by the Volatile Plants Modifier on Rare Monsters now deal significantly less Damage.
Packs of Prowling Chimeral's in Maps now contain less of the Prowling Chimerals and spawn alongside some Zombies.
Lowered the baseline monster density of Breach Encounters, primarily by reducing the frequency of the "Elite" monsters appearing.
Fixed an inconsistency in the different types of packs that could spawn during Breach Encounters, you should now see more different types of Monsters appearing on an area to area basis.
The volatiles spawned by the Volatile Fiends Trial of Chaos Modifier now accelerate over time.
The Stormcaller Runes Trial of Chaos Modifier are now smaller, take longer to charge up when standing inside and give more time to escape once triggered. The Runes now also get larger as the Modifier is upgraded.
Improved the hitboxes on a number of abilities used by Blackjaw, the Remnant.
The Crossbow variants of the Decrepit Mercenary monsters that dealt Fire damage now deal less damage.

Trial of the Sekhamas improvements

Honour Damage now scales down based on distance to enemies, you now take up to 35% less Honour Damage when in close range, tapering as you are further away from Monsters.
Fixed a bug where Damage over Time was dealing three-times as much damage to Honour as intended in the Trial of the Sekhemas, and fixed a bug where Honour Resistance was only applying to two-thirds of that damage taken. (This got confusing for us too).
Skitter Golems no longer use basic attacks and instead now just explode as their attacks were largely unavoidable when in Melee Range.
Serpent Clan burrow and ambush attacks now have improved visual telegraphing and cannot be used from as far away.
Volcanoes created by Rattlecage's Fissure Slam now last half the duration.
Added keyword hover for the Honour mechanic in the Trial of the Sekhamas.

Skill balance

Rolling Slam's Second Slam now deals 50% more Damage to Heavy Stunned Enemies
Ice Shot Shards (Secondary) now gains additional Projectiles as it Levels up
Ice Shot Shards now targets within 90 Degree Cone
Ice Shot Shards now travel further base (200ms, from 100ms), to be tested & iterated.
Ice Shot Arrow & Projectiles are now smaller and are the same size as other arrows.
Electrocuting Arrow Base Duration to 25 seconds (from 12), Doubling Quality Bonus also.
Barrage now has 25% Less damage on Barraged Attacks [From 60% Less] at Level 1, same Scaling Per Level.
Barrage now has +2 Repeats base, from +1.
Shockchain Arrow's Shockwaves now deal 100% more Damage.
Sniper's Mark cooldown reduced from 6 seconds to 2 seconds at all Levels.
Combat Frenzy now can now gain a Frenzy Charge no more than every 3 seconds (from 7 seconds) at Level 1, to approximately 1.5 seconds at Level 20.
Stormcaller Arrow's Bolt now gains additional Impact Radius as it Levels.
Vine Arrow's Damage over Time has been adjusted, it is now slightly higher at Lower Levels, and substantially lower at Higher Levels. The intention of this ability was that you poison it to spread poisons, as opposed to the vine itself dealing immense amounts of Damage.
Tornado Shot's Damage over Time has been adjusted, it is now slightly higher at Lower Levels, and substantially lower at Higher Levels. The intention of this ability was to propagate your other Bow skills, as opposed to doing an immense amount of damage itself.
Magnetic Salvo can now only use your stuck Lightning Arrows as opposed to those created by your Party Members.
Increased the damage growth per level on Unearth (non-Minion component), Bonestorm, Bone Cage, Bone Blast (Wand Skill) and Power Siphon (Wand Skill). Results in approximately 50% more damage at Gem Level 25.
Increased the damage growth per level on Essence Drain, Contagion, Profane Ritual and Chaos Bolt (Wand Skill). Results in approximately 33% more damage at Gem Level 25.
Bone Cage base Critical Strike Chance has been increased to 15% (from 13%).
Skeleton Arsonists' Spirit Costs now match Frost and Ice Mages from Level 5 onwards, making them more expensive while keeping their costs early-game the same.
Bone Offering Explosions now have 15% Critical Strike Chance (from 13%).
Resonating Shield, Shield Charge and Shield Wall now have 6-8 added Physical Damage per 15 Armour on your Shield at all Levels.
Resonating Shield radius increased to 2.3 metres (from 1.8 metres).
Shield Wall explosions increased to 4 metres (from 2 metres).
Shield Wall now can create a maximum of 2 walls (from 1 wall).
Siege Cascade now has an Attack Time of 75% (from 55%).
Siege Cascade now searches for targets in a 3.5 metre radius (from 2.5 metres)
Siege Cascade now has 50% more Damage against Immobilized Enemies (from 200%)
Siege Cascade's Explosion now deals 167% more Damage (accounting for the decrease in damage against Immobilized Enemies).
Siege Cascade now has 30% less Reload Speed (from 50% less).
Siege Cascade's Quality is now 2% Damage against Immobilized Enemy per Quality (from 4%).
Stormblast Bolts now has a maximum of 30 active Bolts (from 9).
Stormblast Bolts now has 5 Bolts in the Clip (from 3).
Stormblast Bolts now has 30% less Reload Speed (from 50% less).
Plasma Blast now has 47% more Damage with its Initial Hit and 25% less Damage with its Explosion, causing it to rely less on colliding with walls to deal enough damage.
Artillery Ballista's explosion radius increased to 1.8 metres (from 1.4 metres).
Artillery Ballista's Damage increased by approximately 21%.
Gathering Storm's Perfect Dash now deals 53% more Damage.
Wave of Frost now has 275% more Freeze Buildup at all Levels (from 150% scaling up over levels).
Staggering Palm's duration now scales with levels. It has 6 second duration at Level 1, scaling up by 0.2 seconds per Level (from 6 seconds at all Levels).
Staggering Palm's Projectiles now deal 20% more Damage at all Levels.
Concoction skills from the Pathfinder Ascendancy Class now consume 3 charges from Mana Flasks (from 5). Their damage has been increased and deal approximately 66% more Damage when the skill is Level 20. In addition the base added damage has been increased by at least 50% for all Concoction skills, with Poisonous and Bleeding Concoction receiving greater damage buffs. Fulminating Concoction now has a Critical Strike Chance of 8% (from 6%), Shattering Concoction now has a Critical Strike Chance of 11% (from 7%), Explosive Concoction now has 100% more chance to Ignite Enemies and 100% more magnitude of Ignites inflicted, Fulminating Concoction now has 100% more chance to inflict Shock and Shattering Concoction now has 100% more Freeze Buildup.
The Hunter's Talisman passive skill Notable now grants +1 Charm Slot. The small passive skills leading up to it now grant the stat it formerly gave. The Charm helper text has been updated to indicate that you cannot have more than three Charm Slots unlocked, so that we can add more sources of it in the future.
Added a new Lightning Damage and Electrocute Cluster to the passive tree in between the Ranger and Monk sections.
The Heavy Frost Notable Passive Skill now causes Hits to only ignore Enemy Resistances of Frozen Enemies if their resistance values were positive.
Supercharged Slam now builds up stages slower but gains 40% more Damage per Stage now (from 20%). This may display as 20% still incorrectly until a later patch.
Electrocute is now 25% harder to Buildup. (But the Damage Penalty has been removed from the Support Gem)
It is now more difficult to chain-freeze enemies, by reducing the amount of Freeze Buildup applied after a Freeze has been applied.
Added a marker effect to Ember Fusillade's preferred target.

Support balance

Added the Tremors Support Gem. Which can be used to give up to multiple more Aftershocks to Skills, with a damage penalty.
Added the Bidding Support Gem. Which can be used to give more damage to the Command Skills of Supported Minions.
The Fire Exposure, Lightning Exposure and Cold Exposure Support Gems no longer penalize Damage of Supported Skills. They now have a Mana Cost Multiplier of 120%.
The Electrocute Support no longer penalizes Damage. Instead it now prevents the Supported Skill from being able to Shock.
The Lacerate Support now grants 50% chance to Bleed (from 30%).
The Envenom Support now grants 50% chance to Poison (from 60%).
The Impact Shockwave Support now has an aftershock radius of 2 metres (from 1.4 metres).
The Bidding Support now grants 30% more Damage to Minion Command Skills (from 20%).
The Considered Casting Support now only supports Spells you cast yourself. It also now grants 40% more Spell Damage (from 25%) and 15% less Cast Speed (from 10%).
The Aftershock Support now has 25% chance to cause an Aftershock (from 20%).
The Mobility Support no longer has a Damage Penalty, but applies 30% less Movement Speed Penalty (from 40%).
The Execrate Support now has 100% chance to inflict Ailments (from 50%).
The Ricochet Support now has 40% chance to Chain from Terrain (from 20%).
The Withering Touch Support now has 25% less Damage (from 50%).
The Ferocity Support now has 40% more Skill Speed when consuming a Frenzy Charge (from 30%).
Changed the Wildshards Support Gem to fire projectiles in a Circle instead of a Spiral pattern.
The Decaying Hex Support now deals 60% of Intelligence as Chaos Damage per Second (from 30%).
The Stomping Ground Support's Shockwave now deals 80% to 120% of your Strength as Physical Damage (from 20 to 30%).

Item Balance

The Charm Modifiers on Belts have been made substantially more common and now appear at much lower levels. The 'of Symbolism' Modifier now appears from level 23 onwards, and the 'of Inscription' Modifier now appears from level 64 onwards.
The unique item The Adorned now applies to Time-Lost Jewels.
The Time-Lost Jewel Modifier 'of Regeneration' now applies 3-7% increased Life Regeneration Rate to Notables in Radius, from 1-2%. Existing versions of this item will not be updated unless a Divine Orb is used.

Bug fixes

Fixed a bug where the Unique Item Maligaro's Virtuosity was granting the wrong amount of Critical Damage.
Fixed a bug where the Crumbling Walls Atlas Passive Notable was applying to Maps that didn't contain Breaches.
Fixed a bug where the stat granted by the Organized Forces Atlas Passive Notable was causing less Waystones to drop due to trying to upgrade them to a Tier that didn't exist.
Fixed a bug where interactables would remove the player from Demon Form.
Fixed a bug where certain rare monsters would respawn at checkpoints after consuming their corpse.
Fixed a bug where leveling a skill gem incorrectly displayed the level change when it was supported by gems which granted additional skill levels. This was purely a visual issue.
Fixed a bug where Unearth didn't work with the Sacrifice Spirit Gem.
Fixed a bug where the Elemental Expression skill from the Invoker Ascendancy Class had an incorrect hitbox.
Fixed a bug where the Monk Ascendancy node 'Embrace the Darkness' would desync when losing Life and Energy Shield.
Fixed a bug which prevented party members from entering the Xesht fight once it had begun.
Fixed a bug where the Cosmetics Equipment UI was missing the tier selector for some slots.
Fixed a bug where the Trialmaster encounter dialogue failed to play.
Fixed a bug with the Rising Tempest Support where it was giving More Damage per Elemental Skill used rather than More Damage per Elemental Type that was used.
Fixed a bug where pathfinding could cause jittering of the character in some cases.
Fixed a bug where destroying items in hideouts wasn't possible.
Fixed a bug where Frost Wall segments could leave phantom walls, causing invisible blocking.
Fixed a bug where implicit abilities on non-weapon unique items required a low level to use.
Fixed a bug where the Chronomancers 'Debuff Expiry Rate' nodes were applying to Quicksand Hourglass, extending its cooldown.
Fixed a bug where Ember Fusillade could fail to target enemies.
Fixed a bug where the Sacrifice Spirit Gem couldn't target minions with Profane Ritual.
Fixed a bug where the Explosion from the Armour Explosion Support could explode inanimate objects.
Fixed a bug where some Spirit Gems displayed an incorrect error message.
Fixed a bug where the Arbiter of Ash area level wasn't being increased with difficulty.
Fixed a bug where Emergency Reload wasn't put on cooldown if you were using two Emergency Reload Skill Gems.
Fixed a bug where the Energizing Bolt Flask effect didn't work.
Fixed a crash on Gamepad where Concoction skills from the Pathfinder Ascendancy Class would cause a crash when changing areas.
Fixed a bug where some players would disconnect when trying to enter maps in the Ziggurat Refuge, or guild hideouts while in a party.
Fixed a bug where the Explosion from the Armour Explosion Support could trigger itself recursively.
Fixed a bug where Ice Shot was unable to cause Freeze buildup.
Fixed a bug where some volatiles in the Trial of Chaos would follow the player up elevators.
Fixed a bug where Inscribed Ultimatums and Djinn Baryas dropped in Cruel would incorrectly tell you that you could get Ascendancy Points by completing them, even if you wouldn't.
Fixed a bug where Ballista skills didn't work with Tornadoes created by Tornado Shot.
Fixed a bug when using a Gamepad where the Hide Sockets option did not work.
Fixed a bug when using a Gamepad where you couldn't see Distilled Emotion recipes on the passive tree.
Fixed a bug when using a Gamepad where you couldn't access the Portal Access settings while viewing the hideout stash.
Fixed a bug where creating Solo Self-Found characters wasn't possible when using a Gamepad while Migrations are disabled.
Fixed a bug when using a Gamepad where you couldn't use the shortcut bind to open chat.
Fixed a bug when using a Gamepad that caused it to take multiple attempts to change the tier selector of Microtransactions.
Fixed a bug when using a Gamepad where you couldn't set an individual price on an item in premium stash tabs.
Fixed a bug when using a Gamepad where you couldn't socket jewels into specific unique items.
Fixed 12 Client Crashes.
Fixed 3 Instance Crashes.