Path of Exile 2 Updates All Ascendancies Ahead of Druid

Path of Exile 2 is rebalancing every Ascendancy ahead of next week's update, introducing new passives, major changes, and quality-of-life changes across all classes.

Jaym0

Updated: 8hr agoPosted: 8hr ago

With the Druid class and the Last of the Druids and Vaal update arriving next week, Grinding Gear Games has revealed in the latest patch notes all the Ascendancy changes across the entire game. These adjustments are not just about the new class. Nearly every existing Ascendancy is seeing some sort of change, removals, or even new mechanics.

Ascendancy Skills Are Now Auto-Active

As a global quality-of-life change, all skills granted by Ascendancies now activate automatically when unlocked. Some previously required manual activation, and that often confused newer players. Now as soon as you unlock it, the skill will be activated, so no more confusion or running around with unactivated Ascendancy skills.

Druid Gets Two Ascendancies

The incoming Druid launches with two Ascendancies at release, with a third planned for later. For now, you will be able to pick between the following Ascendancies:

Shaman – He can channel rage into devastating elemental storms.
Oracle – The Druid with foresight. A more mysterious ascendancy centered around predictions and manipulating the future.

GGG confirmed the broader Ascendancy rebalance was done specifically to keep pacing and power consistent across all classes.

Major Ascendancy Changes

Rather than tiny number modifications, many Ascendancies received mechanical changes that can impact builds directly.

Deadeye & Pathfinder

Deadeye loses Wind Ward, but gains Mirage Deadeye, a new meta skill that creates temporary mirages when firing projectiles.
Pathfinder removes multiple passives but gains Path Seeker, letting players allocate passives from Warrior or Sorceress starting areas, plus extra skill points.

Amazon & Ritualist

Amazon‘s Elemental Surge and Surging Avatar are fully reworked around charge consumption and elemental surges.
Ritualist sees massive buffs to stolen modifiers and bonus damage against Blood Boil-affected enemies.

Warbringer, Titan & Smith of Kitava

Warbringer gets minion buffs with the Ancestral Warhorn minion now more consistently hitting close-up enemies with the second part of its slam attack.
Titan gains new slam-focused Aftershock mechanics, while old passives are removed or consolidated.
Smith of Kitava gets one of the largest reworks, shifting heavily toward Body Armour synergy, stronger triggered skills, and major defensive buffs (including full ailment immunity via armour).

Casters, Tactician & Other Classes

Stormweaver, Chronomancer, and Blood Mage all receive meaningful buffs to scaling, curse interaction, and elemental uptime.
Infernalist is reworked to emphasize Elemental Archon instead of raw fire conversion.
Tactician gets major improvements to Supporting Fire, artillery pacing, and spell totems.
Invoker and Acolyte of Chayula receive cooldown reductions, leech buffs, stronger remnants, and much higher skill uptime.

This update is not about nerfing power, but more about adjusting the older Ascendancies to fit Path of Exile 2’s new Druid Ascendancies, and making sure everything is as balanced as possible. With new synergies, passive access, and smoother mechanics, many older builds may feel much better now.

Content Update 0.4.0 Patch Notes

If you want to read over the detailed changes, here are the complete patch notes centered around the Ascendancy changes for each class:

Deadeye

Wind Ward has been Removed.
Bullseye now requires Called Shots. Bullseye now applies 10 Critical Weakness (previously 5).
Added a new Mirage Deadeye Ascendancy Passive Skill which grants the Mirage Deadeye Meta Skill. Mirage Deadeye: While active, firing a Ranged Attack Projectile will create a Mirage that uses socketed Ranged Attacks for a short duration, then vanishes. You cannot create another Mirage for a short time after initially creating one.

Pathfinder

Contagious Contamination has been Removed.
Practical Remedies has been Removed.
Running Assault now also grants Cannot be Heavy Stunned while Sprinting.
Added a new Path Seeker multi-choice Ascendancy Passive Skill with the following choices: Path of the Warrior – Can Allocate Passives from the Warrior’s starting point, Path of the Sorceress – Can Allocate Passives from the Sorceress’s starting point. Each choice also Grants 4 Passive Skill Points.
Traveller’s Wisdom now requires Path Seeker. Traveller’s Wisdom now instead grants Attribute Passive Skills offer additional Options:
5% increased Damage
5% increased Global Defences
5% increased Cost Efficiency

Amazon

Elemental Surge reworked:
Grants Skill: Elemental Surge
Now provides When you consume a Charge Trigger Elemental Surge to gain 3 Lightning Surges.
Surging Avatar reworked:
Now provides When you consume a Charge, Trigger Elemental Surge to instead gain 2 Cold, Lightning and Fire Surges.

Ritualist

Ritual Sacrifice Stolen Modifier duration is 82-120 seconds from Gem level 1-20 (previously 15-19.75). Quality is now +20 seconds to Stolen Modifier duration (previously +2).
Corrupted Lifeforce now also has You deal 15% more Damage to Enemies Affected by Blood Boil.

Warbringer

Imploding Impacts now also grants Fully Broken Armour you inflict increases all Damage Taken from Hits instead.
The Ancestral Warhorn minion summoned by Warbringer’s Answered Call notable now more consistently hits close-up enemies with the second part of its slam attack.

Titan

Surprising Strength has been removed.
Crushing Impacts now also Grants 25% more Damage against Heavy Stunned Enemies.
Added a new Mountain Splitter Ascendancy Passive Skill which grants Every Third Slam Skill that doesn’t create Fissures which you use yourself causes 1 additional Aftershock ahead and to each side of the initial area. Requires Crushing Impacts.

Smith of Kitava

Each Notable connected to the Smith’s Masterwork Notable now grants +200 to Armour in addition to its other bonuses.
Padded Plates has been removed.
Lead Lining has been removed.
Heavy Bracing has been removed.
Added Kitavan Imprint in place of Padded Plates, which causes your Body Armour to grant 60% increased Glory Generation.
Added Spiked Plates in place of Lead Lining, which causes your Body Armour to grant 100% increased Thorns Damage.
Added Tribute to Utula in place of Heavy Bracing, which causes your Body Armour to grant 30% increased Spirit.
Internal Layer now reduces Critical Damage taken by 100% (previously 50%).
Heatproofing now causes your Body Armour to grant the bonus of being Unaffected by all Damaging Ailments (previously just ignite).
The Fire Spell on Melee Hit Skill granted by Heat of the Forge on Smith of Kitava now costs no mana when triggering Socketed Spells. It also now gains 10% increased Damage per Level, up to 200% increased Damage at gem level 20.
The Temper Weapon Skill granted by Against the Anvil on Smith of Kitava now costs no mana. The Combust triggered by it’s Empowered Attacks now deal 25% more Damage at all Levels and has a base radius of 3 Metres (previously 2.5 metres).
The Manifest Weapon Skill granted by Living Weapon on Smith of Kitava now changes target less frequently, and thus spends more time actively attacking. Additionally:
As a Mace, now has a cooldown of 6 seconds (from 10 seconds) for its Slam Skill.
As a Quarterstaff, now has a cooldown of 6 seconds (from 10 seconds) on its Sweep Skill.
As a Spear, fixed a bug where the damage dealt while it was Dashing towards enemies didn’t cover the full distance of the Dash.

Infernalist

Seething Body no longer grants While on High Infernal Flame, you and Allies in your Presence Gain 50% of Damage as Fire Damage. Seething Body now grants Gain Elemental Archon when you cast a Spell while on High Infernal Flame. Elemental Archon does not expire while on High Infernal Flame. Lose Elemental Archon on reaching maximum Infernal Flame.

Blood Mage

Whispers of the Flesh now also grants Targets Cursed by you have 100% reduced Life Regeneration Rate.

Stormweaver

Refracted Infusion now grants: When collecting an Elemental Infusion, gain another different Elemental Infusion (previously 50% chance).
Storms Recollection now also grants Remnants can be collected from 50% further away.
Multiplying Squalls now grants +2 to Limit of Elemental Skills (previously 1).

Chronomancer

Inevitable Agony granted by Inevitability has been updated:
Now ignores the Curse Limit.
Now causes Cursed Targets to take 50% of Hit Damage dealt to them while Cursed again when Curse expires (previously 20% at Gem level 1, scaling to 33% by Gem level 20).

Gemling Legionnaire

Thaumaturgical Infusion now grants: +1% to Maximum Cold Resistance per 3 Blue Support Gems Socketed (previously 4). +1% to Maximum Fire Resistance per 3 Red Support Gems Socketed (previously 4). +1% to Maximum Lightning Resistance per 3 Green Support Gems Socketed (previously 4).
Thaumaturgical Dynamism granted by Advanced Thaumaturgy Notable Passive Skill now generates a Charge once every five seconds (previously once every eight seconds).

Tactician

The Supporting Fire Skill granted by Unleash Hell! Notable Passive Skill has been updated: Command: Death From Above Cooldown is now 20 seconds (previously 40). Now fires a Volley every 0.75 seconds (previously every 2 seconds). Now fires 6 total Volleys (previously 4). Now has 14 metre width (previously 7.5 metre width). Attack Damage is now 763% (previously 1140%).
Strategic Embankments Notable Passive Skill has been updated:
Artillery Ballista no longer grants 40% increased Immobilisation Buildup, now grants 20% increased Skill Speed.
Siege Ballista no longer grants 50% increased Damage against Immobilised Enemies, now grants 25% more Damage against Immobilised Enemies.
Mortar Cannon now grants 25% of Damage Gained as extra Fire, from 15%.
Added Spell Totem to Embankment Auras.
Spell Totem grants 50% increased Critical Hit Chance.

Witchhunter

Witchbane now has Enemies have Maximum Concentration equal to 30% of their Maximum Life (previously 40%). This is a buff.
Ceremonial Ablution now instead grants Sorcery Ward also protects against Physical and Chaos Damage.

Invoker

…and Protect me from harm: Now grants 35% less Evasion Rating (previously 50% less).
The Soul Springs Eternal now additionally grants Meta Skills have 50% increased Spirit Reservation Efficiency.
Unbound Avatar Skill granted by …and I Shall Rage has been updated:
Now has a cooldown of 12 seconds.
Gain Unbound Fury when you inflict an Elemental Ailment with a Hit on an Enemy, no longer has ‘No more than once every 0.2 seconds for each type of Ailment’.
Shocking and Igniting now grant 1 Unbound Fury (previously 2).

Acolyte of Chayula

Embrace the Darkness now gives +10 to maximum Darkness per Level (previously +8).
The Into the Breach Skill granted by Waking Dream’ Red Flames now Leech 15% Life (previously 7%).
The Into the Breach Skill granted by Waking Dream’ Blue Flames now Leech 15% Mana (previously 7%).
The Into the Breach Skill granted by Waking Dream’ Purple Flames now last 8 seconds (previously 5 seconds).
The Into the Breach Skill granted by Waking Dream’ Flames are now created closer to the Player.
Choice of Power, Choice of Life and Choice of Mana now all also grant 50% increased effect of Remnants, and 50% increased Remnant Pickup Range.
The Void Illusion Skill granted by Grasp of the Void now has a Cooldown of 4 seconds at all gem levels (previously 6-4).
The Void Illusion Skill granted by Grasp of the Void now deals 350-1268% Attack Damage at Gem levels 1-20 (previously 185-670%).
The Void Illusion Skill granted by Grasp of the Void now has 3 Cooldown Charges (previously 1).

For more information and guides about the upcoming patch, check out our dedicated hub!