PoE2: Future Updates to Shift Focus from New Classes

Path of Exile 2 enthusiasts, take note: the game's director, Jonathan Rogers, has revealed that new classes won't be the highlight of future updates. Dive in to uncover the reasoning behind this strategic shift and gain insights into the current state of the game.

Path of Exile 2 New Characters Might Not Be Introduced Every Patch

You Can Expect More Ascendancies Instead

In a recent Q&A session, Jonathan Rogers, the Game Director for Path of Exile 2, clarified that fans shouldn't anticipate a new class with every patch. He explained the unpredictability and challenges tied to class development, stating, I would like it if every release would have a class, but I would say that we actually learned something during the production of this cycle, which is that it was a mistake to have a class as a wedge for the development of your expansion.

Rogers elaborated on the development challenges, highlighting the trade-offs between fixed release dates and the amount of content. He pointed out that focusing on including the Huntress in the next patch caused significant delays. We have to have the Huntress in the next patch, so therefore, the date had to float, and that meant that this expansion ended up taking a lot longer than what we had hoped.

He further noted that while he's eager to introduce new classes, promising them could compromise the ability to set a fixed release date. While I’m very keen to have a class in the next expansion, I’m not going to promise that because that would mean we can’t fix the date anymore.

Rogers emphasized the community's desire for regular updates, saying, Players really do want to see forward progress, and they don’t want to be waiting six to nine months before they see a big update. So I think it’s important that we’re constantly giving them stuff in a reasonably timely manner, so for that reason, the classes are less predictable.

However, fans of Path of Exile 2 can look forward to more Ascendancies in every patch. Rogers is also enthusiastic about adding more classes post-Early Access. As I said, Ascendancies, we can definitely do; maybe even after release, we continue to add even more classes as I’m certainly keen to add more.

Path of Exile 2 Dawn of the Hunt Brings More Changes to Endgame

Promising the End to Be A Lot Harder

The upcoming patch, alongside introducing the Huntress, will bring over 100 new skills, support gems, and unique gear tailored for midgame and endgame. Grinding Gear Games (GGG) is committed to making bosses significantly tougher. Rogers explained the need to extend the time before a character's power level trivializes the endgame, while reassuring players that reaching that level of power is still achievable.

There are certainly some things that are going to have to be nerfed because they’re completely trivializing certain mechanics. People are getting [to] the point of complete outrageousness a little bit too early, Rogers stated. He stressed the importance of reaching a high power level, but not too quickly. I think that you need to be able to get to the point of outrageousness at some point, but you don’t want it to be that you get to that point before you even finish your initial climb.

Rogers expressed disappointment over how quickly players defeated Pinnacle Bosses, envisioning a much more challenging fight. The first time you fight a Pinnacle Boss, it’s going to be a hard fight and crazy. But as you fight the boss more times and you get more items and you get to optimize your build and stuff, you can get to the point where you kill the boss in fourteen seconds. It’s just that it’s not your first experience.

He acknowledged that the game's power progression had become unbalanced, stating, Things have kind of gotten a little bit off the rails, in terms of the ability to get power too easily there, and that’s kind of the main thing. Rogers concluded that the focus of balance changes is to slow down the climb to ultimate power, saying, You should always be able to feel powerful and certainly should have that fantasy there, just not right off the bat. So that’s where a lot of our balance changes are focused.

Path of Exile 2 Game Director is Happy With Its Ruthless Difficulty

Things Aren’t Easier, You Just Got Better

The difficulty of Path of Exile 2's campaign has sparked diverse opinions among players. Some felt it was too easy, while others found it overly challenging. Rogers expressed satisfaction with the campaign's difficulty and believes player perceptions will evolve. He noted that many complaints stemmed from players comparing their experiences between the previous and current games.

Rogers is optimistic about fewer difficulty-related complaints in the future, stating, I don’t think we’re gonna get nearly as many complaints about it this time, and that’s because once you know how to play, you’re going to find the experience a lot easier. He added that if this doesn't hold true, they would have more data to refine the game, but he's confident in the current balance.

Rogers concluded by addressing the misconception that the game's difficulty changes over time, saying, People are often surprised. A lot of the times what happens is that the second time people play through the game, they will talk about how they (GGG) must have changed the balance, but the actual reality is that they just got better at the game.