Path of Exile 2 fans will soon be treated to a huge new update for PC (via Steam), PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Since its release earlier this month, developer Grinding Gear Games has been collecting feedback on the early access game.

The developer has used some of this feedback to put together a major new update that will be available to fans soon.

As you can see in the patch notes further down the page, the update adds new gameplay features, makes balance changes to monsters and characters, and improves the endgame.

According to Grinding Gear Games, the changes to the endgame are intended to result in an experience that is “much more survivable than before.”

With some overpowered abilities already nerfed, the next task is to upgrade some weaker abilities.

These include improvements to Rolling Slam and all shield skills in the mace section, as well as improvements to various bow skills, particularly the skills used to generate frenzy charges.

The developer has also added two new supports and removed or reduced penalties for many others.

If you want to try Path of Exile 2 for yourself, you can pay for early access on PlayStation, Xbox and Steam.

The Path of Exile 2 Early Access Supporter Pack is available for £23.99 on consoles and £23.93 on Steam.

In addition to early access, the Supporter Pack also includes 300 points that can be used to purchase in-game cosmetic items.

Fans can also purchase the Lord of Ogham Founder’s Pack for £44.99 or the King of the Faridun Pack for £79.99.

Path of Exile 2 December patch notes…

Gameplay features

• Fast travel between checkpoints within an area

– Also more checkpoints at all entrances and exits to the areas

• Passive point respecting cheaper, especially at higher levels.

– This should generally result in about 40-50% lower gold cost to rebuild between early and mid-endgame

Trial of the Sekhemas

• Reworked the scaling of close-range honor damage in Trial of the Sekhemas

• Honor damage is now reduced based on distance to enemies

– You take 35% less honor damage at close range and decreases the further away you are from monsters.

• Fixed a bug that caused Honor Damage Over Time to deal three times as much damage as intended

• Skitter Golems no longer use normal attacks and instead simply explode.

• The Snake Clan’s Cave and Ambush Attack now has improved visual telegraphy and cannot be used from longer distances.

• Volcanoes created by Rattlecage’s Fissure Slam now last half as long.

Endgame and monster balance

• Cards of levels 6 and 11 or higher no longer inherently apply additional elemental resistance penalties.

– It is now consistent throughout the endgame.

• Chaos damage now also scales less aggressively over the endgame.

• Critical hits from monsters now deal 40% less bonus damage.

• The base monster density of Breach encounters has been reduced, primarily by reducing the frequency at which “elite” monsters appear.

• The Volatile Crystals modifier has been disabled. We will revisit this in the future until improvements in telegraphing are made.

• Purple explosives created by the Volatile Plant modifier on rare monsters now deal significantly less damage.

• The Drain Flask Charges modifier on monsters now drains ten times fewer vial charges per second.

Character and item balance

• We’ve made talisman modifiers on belts much more common and now appear at much lower levels.

– The Symbolism modifier now appears at level 23 and the Inscription modifier now appears at level 64

• Electric Shock is now 25% harder to build. (But the damage penalty has been removed from the support gem).

• A new lightning damage and electrocution cluster has been added to the passive tree between the Ranger and Monk sections.

• It is now more difficult to freeze enemies in chains by reducing the amount of freeze buildup applied after freezing.

• Hunter’s Major Talisman now grants +1 amulet slot.

– The small passive skills that lead to this now grant the value they previously gave.

– Updated the Charm Helper text to indicate that no more than three charm slots can be unlocked, so we may add more sources for this in the future.

Skill and support gem balance

• Improvements to Rolling Slam and all shield abilities in the Mace section.

• Improvements to various bow skills, particularly the skills used to generate frenzy charges.

• Improvements to bone spells and chaos damage over time spells in the occult realm.

• Improvements to various crossbow abilities, especially those at higher levels.

• Improvements to some of the underperforming Quarterstaff abilities.

• The Tremors support gem has been added. This can be used to grant skills up to multiple aftershocks, with a damage penalty.

• The Bid Support gem has been added. This can be used to add more damage to supported minions’ command abilities.

• The Fire Impact, Lightning Impact, and Cold Impact support gems no longer penalize the damage of supported skills.

– You now have a mana cost multiplier of 120%.

• Skeleton Arsonist’s spirit cost is now the same as the other two Skeleton Mages. This should result in a slight reduction in the number of arsonists at a higher level.

• A nerf to the damage over time component at very high levels of Tornado and Vine Arrow.

– These were never intended to deal damage themselves, but rather to serve as a way for other skills to spread damage.

• Magnetic Volley can now only use your stuck lightning arrows, as opposed to those created by your party members.