Path of Exile II Early Access Starts Tomorrow

Grinding Gear Games invited us to learn more about what Path of Exile II has to offer in their upcoming early-access launch. Curious to see what all might be available when Early Access starts tomorrow, December 6th, 2024? We’re going to post some of the transcript from this video:

Hi, I’m Jonathan Rogers, Game Director on Path of Exile 2.

Now, Path of Exile 2 is going into early access on December 6th. But even though it’s early access, this isn’t just some small taste, the game is huge.. In this livestream we are going to be introducing everything you can expect. So without further ado, let’s roll the gameplay trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VZsq_vJjGk

As you just saw, even in Early Access, Path of Exile 2 is a big game. It’s actually been 5 years since we announced PoE2 and over that time we’ve revealed a lot, but it’s been in bits and pieces. It’s pretty hard to keep track of it all, so today we are going to do a full rundown of all the content that will be available at the start of Early Access. Classes, character progression systems, and for the first time, a full overview of the the end game. This is going to be a big one, so get comfortable.

Story

For 20 years Wraeclast has been free from any sources of Corruption, but the Count of Ogham, tempted by promises of power, intends to harness it once more. The dead are rising, monsters are mutating, and madness is spreading.

Under the dark influence of corruption the count doles out sentences of death to any who would question him. And this is where you find yourself at the start of PoE2.

It falls to you to track down the Seed of Corruption, the source of all this devastation. On the way you’ll face fearsome monsters, meet strange characters, forge unlikely bonds, and uncover lost civilisations.

But first, you’ll need to pick a class.

Classes

Now Early Access will initially have 6 classes available. Let’s have a look at them.

Monk

The monk is a fast and furious melee fighter. He dashes in and out of combat, and has mechanics that involve building up and keeping momentum. Like all classes in PoE2, you will want to use a wide variety of skills to mix and match different combos. To get new Skills you will first need to find Skill Gems. Using a skill gem will open the gemcutting menu which shows all the active skills available in PoE2. You can choose an existing skill to level up, or choose to engrave a new one. For this example we used a level 7 Skill Gem, even if you pick a new skill it will immediately be level 7, so there is no harm to trying out something new.

The monk primarily uses the Quarterstaff. There are three schools of martial arts: Lightning, Ice, and Wind, but don’t think you have to just stick to just one. The best combos are going to involve mixing elements of all three. Let’s try Killing Palm. Like many Monk skills, this can be used to quickly take advantage of a specific situation. If there is an enemy on low life, we can use Killing Palm to dash to them and kill them instantly. This will provide a power charge. Then we can use a different skill to consume that power charge for a much more devastating attack.

The Monk also has powerful combo skills. Tempest Bell, for example, is a skill that places a giant resonating bell. Hitting the bell causes it to ring, dealing damage to all enemies around it. You can also do things like freeze or shock the bell which will add elemental damage to the strikes. The monk also has a variety of abilities to empower his staff. If an enemy is close to being stunned, you can use Staggering Palm to punch them down. After that, any attack you do will shoot out wind projectiles.

There are 21 active skills for quarterstaves, so this just scratches the surface of the options that you have. By endgame you will be dashing from pack to pack, spewing projectiles and obliterating screens of enemies with huge combo attacks.

Warrior

If you like a style of melee that is a little slower, but hits much harder, then the Warrior is for you. He pounds the ground with big, chunky attacks and can shrug off the hits of smaller enemies with large amounts of armour. Even though mace slams are slow, you never lose control. Longer attacks can be retargeted as you go, and if you do find yourself committed to a long attack, you can dodge roll out of it at any time.

Among the skill options for maces, you will find a variety of slams, fire attacks, warcries and shield skills. Here I’m going to slam the ground, rending it apart with lines of fire. Any slam skill will then cause these fissures to erupt with lava. I can even run through them with a skill like Stampede to do a huge amount of damage. The warrior can also use Warcries, which can empower your next skill. Seismic cry for example will double any slams from your next attack. The Stampede counts as a slam so I can double that for even more craziness.

If you want to go a little faster and be a little more defensive, equip a shield. In PoE2 you can raise your shield at any time to block all damage from the front, even spells. While holding up your shield your stun meter will build up as you take damage. But be careful, if it reaches 100%, your stance will break and you will be vulnerable. Some enemies also have unblockable attacks which are indicated by this red flash. If you see one of these coming, make sure you dodge out of the way.

Using a shield also gives you access to shield skills like shield charge which allows you to Charge towards enemies and stun them. While charging you are also blocking the whole time, so you have full damage immunity from the front. The Warrior also has access to totems. Some totems have built in abilities like Shockwave totem which can be placed to stun nearby enemies and trigger aftershocks like those from earthquake.

But you can also get Ancestral Warrior totems which allow you to use any other slam skill in your repertoire. This is a meta skill, which means it’s a skill that you can put other skills into. I can take a Slam like Sunder and socket it into my Ancestral Warrior totem. Now when I summon him, he will sit there and slam the monsters from a distance.

There are 20 active skills for Maces so there is a lot more to try out. By endgame you will be dropping hammers from the sky, leaping fearlessly into combat, and separating the very earth you stand on.

Ranger

Time for some ranged attacks! The Ranger is primarily about the bow, but we wanted to make sure that she feels agile as well.

In PoE2 you can shoot while moving. Combined with all the skills the Ranger has that allow you to jump around, you will have a lot of mobility in combat. Bow skills have a variety of Lightning, Poison, Ice, and Physical attacks. Lightning attacks bounce around between targets. You can also stick lightning arrows in the ground which explode when hit by the bounces or electrocute enemies to take them out of combat. Ice attacks can slow and freeze enemies to keep them away from you. Using poison, not only can you slowly damage your enemies from afar, but also grow some…. Interesting plants.

With 21 bow skills and all the mobility and combo tools the Ranger has, you can take advantage of every situation. By endgame you will be creating hundreds of arrows be they falling from the sky, bouncing around between enemies or spraying out from tornados.

Mercenary

The Mercenary wields a crossbow that can be loaded with different ammo types, offering versatility, power, and mobility. All classes in Path of Exile 2 can be controlled with WASD controls, which makes this class play exactly like a shooter.

For the crossbow you will find skills that work like Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, Assault Rifles and even Grenade Launchers. But not only that, there are a variety of more interesting elemental ammos too. It’s very fast to switch between ammo types so long as you already have them loaded which makes the Mercenary able to combo abilities together to devastating effect. Use Glacial Bolt to create walls of ice to separate enemies, then switch to fragmentation rounds to explode the ice dealing massive aoe damage. If I come across an armoured enemy, I could use Armour Piercing rounds to break their armour, and then High Velocity rounds to take them down. Or perhaps I could fire a gas grenade to poison enemies, before detonating the cloud with an Explosive Shot for massive damage.

If you want to call in some suppressing fire you can summon artillery ballistas. These have a minimum range so you will want to prepare your position carefully before moving in. There are 22 active skills for crossbows. By endgame you will be calling destruction down from the sky as you litter the battlefield with grenades and pepper your enemies with your automatic shotgun.

Witch

If you looking to take a back seat and let your minions do the work, then the Witch should be your choice. She can call forth hordes of undead minions to fight for her while casting powerful chaos spells that debilitate her enemies. Occult skills are some of the most varied in the game, with skeletons, noxious spells, specialty minions, curses, and sacrificial magic.

Before we talk about minions we will have to talk about a new resource in Path of Exile 2 called spirit. This is a Spirit Gem which allows you to pick from a range of persistent skills. All classes have a variety of these skills which can add some very interesting effects, like arctic armour which does cold damage to enemies that hit you, or Raging Spirits which summons fiery skulls each time you cast a fire spell.

For the witch though, we will want to be using our spirit to create permanent minions. These minions will be revived automatically when they die, so you don’t have to worry about resummoning all the time. Here I’m using the skill screen to allocate which minions I want in my horde. You can see the Spirit cost of each one. Skeletal Warriors are cheap but weak, useful for tanking damage and distracting enemies. But I want more heavy hitters in my army, so I’m going to unsummon some warriors and instead add Skeletal Arsonists.

Permanent minions come with special active abilities called command skills. You can order these guys to detonate your own minions for even more damage and area of effect. If you want a bigger army, you’ll need a sceptre. This new weapon type is imbued with even more Spirit, allowing you to summon even more friends. And if you want an even bigger army you can take advantage of corpses to summon true hordes of minions. You can even create a minion out of the corpse of any monster that you encounter, turning them to your side. There are some really interesting abilities from monsters that you can take advantage of here, so the possibilities are endless.

But what can a Witch do while her army is hard at work? You can use chaos skills to spread disease among your enemies, or bone skills to impale them. Or curse them to make them weaker so your horde can take them down. Here are 25 active Occult skills. By the endgame you will be the leader of a fearsome army of the dead, consuming everything in its path.

Sorceress

The Sorceress bends the elements to her will, using them to unleash devastation on her foes. This classic spellcaster weaves a flurry of elemental magic from afar.

The Elemental Skills have everything you might expect, and more. Fireballs, icy explosions, lightning storms, you get the idea. Each spell is unique and has many different ways to build and combo with others even between different elements. For example, Flame Wall conjures a burning line that not only damages enemies, but also empowers all projectiles that pass through it. If you place a wall and fire lightning sparks through it, they will gain extra fire damage.

It’s a good idea to take advantage of the ability to automatically swap weapons when you use certain skills. Having a special staff with bonuses to fire skills and another with bonuses to lightning skills can really power up a combo like this. The Sorceress can also take advantage of powerful trigger-gems. For example, you could grab the Cast on Ignite gem and use it with Firestorm. As you ignite enemies, a counter goes up in the top left corner. When it’s full a firestorm will automatically be cast at the enemy that was ignited.

There are 25 active Elemental Skills. By endgame you will be firing off projectiles left and right as you rain down elemental storms on your foes.

Now, those are the characters that will be available at the start of early access, but we will be adding 6 more character classes, with just as many skills and options as these ones. There is a lot more to come!