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Grinding Gear Games released a massive update for Path of Exile 2 on August 20, 2025, titled Content Update 0.3.0 — The Third Edict. This update brings sweeping changes across multiple aspects of the game, including items, skills, ascendancies, monsters, quests, user interface, microtransactions, and bug fixes. Whether you are a beginner exploring Wraeclast for the first time or a veteran planning high-tier endgame strategies, this update reshapes gameplay in meaningful ways. Below is a detailed breakdown of the changes.
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Unique Item Changes in Path of Exile 2
Unique items in PoE 2 often define specialized builds, and this update introduces significant reworks and adjustments:
- Beira’s Anguish now creates Ignited Ground for 4 seconds on use, dealing fire damage equal to 500% of your maximum life. It no longer automatically ignites enemies around you.
- Blackbraid’s elemental damage scaling is increased to 100-150% of armour (previously fixed at 100%). Divine Orbs can adjust existing items’ stats.
- Movement-focused uniques like Bones of Ullr now grant increased reservation efficiency for undead skills instead of reducing reservation, alongside bonus movement speed.
- Defensive uniques like Briskwrap and Quatl’s Molt now convert evasion into deflection rating, enhancing survivability.
- Critical-focused items such as Death’s Harp and Effigy of Cruelty had their crit multipliers reduced or adjusted for balance.
- Several new uniques are added, like Hyrri’s Ire and Icetomb, which introduce new defensive mechanics tied to evasion and mana.
- Some uniques, such as Infernoclasp and Thunderstep, will temporarily no longer drop, while others can now be updated using Divine Orbs to improve or worsen their properties.
- Block-focused shields like Redblade Banner, Lycosidae, and Doomgate have had their increased block chance values adjusted for better consistency.
These changes collectively enhance the strategic depth of unique items, making build optimization more engaging while providing avenues for both casual and advanced players to experiment with item mechanics.
Item Changes in Path of Exile 2
Item mechanics have been refined to improve balance and reward high-level play:
- Distilled Emotions has been renamed to Liquid Emotions, with tiered distinctions between Diluted and Concentrated versions, each receiving updated artwork.
- Orbs of Chance now have higher success rates on amulets, rings, belts, and charms.
- Martial weapons have seen their critical damage bonuses adjusted, with corruption and implicit modifiers now balancing physical and critical output.
- New suffixes have been added to armour, granting elemental damage scaling, deflection from evasion, and faster energy shield recharge, allowing players to customize defensive stats more effectively.
- Several runes (Iron, Desert, Glacial, Storm, Mind, Stone) now have adjusted bonuses to damage, resistances, and stun thresholds, ensuring consistency across equipment types.
- Soul Cores now grant targeted bonuses to life, mana, elemental resistance, elemental ailment thresholds, and charm charges, emphasizing strategic layering of defensive and offensive benefits.
- Jewels, sceptres, and wands have been updated to improve elemental scaling and critical chance modifiers.
Overall, these item updates reinforce the game’s complexity while improving accessibility and clarity for players at all experience levels.
Skill and Ascendancy Changes
The update overhauls many core gameplay systems:
- Base skill adjustments: Spell damage scaling has been improved in the late game, mana costs rebalanced, and minions now deal up to 50% more damage against non-unique enemies at higher levels.
- Skill gem reworks: Several gems have been combined or modified, introducing mechanics like Elemental Infusion and Elemental Weakness. New skills, such as Blood Hunt, Falling Thunder, and Hand of Chayula, expand build diversity.
- Ascendancy passives: Classes like Warbringer, Smith of Kitava, Gemling Legionnaire, Tactician, Pathfinder, Deadeye, Acolyte of Chayula, Blood Mage, Infernalist, Lich, Chronomancer, and Stormweaver received significant reworks and new interactions, reshaping how players plan their passive skill trees.
- Player mechanics: Features like sprinting after dodge rolls, adjusted evasion formulas, stun mechanics, and elemental exposure scaling offer more fluid and strategic combat options.
These changes make the game more dynamic, requiring players to rethink not just their gear but also skill combinations and playstyle.
Monster Changes
Monsters have been refined to enhance challenge and fairness:
- Monster evasion scaling is reduced, making combat more predictable.
- Bosses like Act 3 enemies have slightly lower life pools, while Rogue Exiles scale up significantly after level 65.
- Unique maps, such as the Viridian Wildwood, now feature adjusted aggro ranges, improving encounter clarity.
- Spectre summoning, elemental effects, and map-specific encounters have been fine-tuned for better consistency and balance.
Quest and User Interface Improvements
Quests and UI received quality-of-life updates:
- Hunt Begins must now be completed in a single instance for consistency.
- NPC interactions, such as with Zarka, now properly offer quest rewards if skipped previously.
- New Aiming Mode for skills allows cursor-targeting or ground-targeting preferences.
- Features like Keep Sprinting, dual-weapon set management, controller improvements, and enhanced minimap/ritual UI increase usability for both new and experienced players.
Microtransaction Additions
The update enables numerous cosmetic options:
- Armour sets, hoods, wings, and footprints previously exclusive to Path of Exile now function in PoE 2.
- Pets like Goblin Troupe and Sandfish, as well as rare finisher effects and race reward variants, have been enabled.
- Certain previously unavailable microtransactions, like Legion Commander and Scourge Commander armour sets, are re-enabled.
Bug Fixes
A substantial number of bugs have been addressed:
- Skill mechanics such as Strike Twice, Heavy Snows, Siphoning Strike, Profusion, and Vaulting Impact now function correctly.
- Visual and animation fixes for Twister, Glacial Cascade, Storm Wave, and others improve clarity in combat.
- Controller and Couch Co-Op issues, including party revival, trade requests, and UI navigation, have been resolved.
- Map, trial, and boss-specific bugs, including Rogue Exile drops, Xyclucian boss scaling, and Seepage Map fungus behavior, are corrected.
- Minor fixes to spelling, reservation display, and cosmetics ensure a polished player experience.
These fixes improve both game stability and combat reliability, ensuring that mechanics now behave consistently as intended.
Conclusion
The Third Edict Update represents one of the largest and most comprehensive updates in Path of Exile 2’s early history. By overhauling items, skills, monsters, quests, UI, and microtransactions, the update delivers a more balanced, strategic, and immersive experience. Both newcomers and veterans will find meaningful changes, whether in optimizing builds, experimenting with new ascendancy options, or navigating newly balanced encounters. With enhanced clarity, improved mechanics, and bug fixes, this update solidifies Path of Exile 2 as a complex yet approachable action RPG.
For players looking to explore Wraeclast, now is the perfect time to dive in, experiment with new item interactions, and master the updated combat systems.
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