Huntress
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Monk
Ranger
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Warrior
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Grinding Gear Games has pushed a new wave of updates to the 0.4.0 The Last of the Druids patch notes, and the list is much bigger than most players expected. Many core mechanics, weapon bases, supports, and Uniques were adjusted just now, with only a few days left before the update goes live.
Below, we will cover a quick overview of everything that changed.
Gameplay Updates for Parry and Sprinting
A few core combat actions received late tuning.
Parry
- Parrying now hits every enemy in front of you, not just the one that triggered it.
- The Parried enemy is always hit, even if you moved away.
Sprinting
- No longer stops heavy stun decay.
Small changes, but these should help combat flow feel a bit smoother in long fights.
Passive Tree Adjustments
The passive tree got extra polish, mostly around Parry, ailments, and accuracy scaling.
- New Parry-related nodes and improvements to existing ones.
- Falcon Dive now gives attack speed based on accuracy, up to 20%.
- Two new ailment chance clusters added near Ranger and Monk.
Support Gem Updates
This patch includes a surprising number of support reworks.
- Greatwood II disabled.
- Greatwood I renamed to Cirel’s Cultivation and moved to Lineage.
- Ambrosia support restructured.
Tier I now consumes fewer flask charges and gives different scaling. - A new Tier III Ambrosia support added.
- Magnified Area II no longer lowers damage.
This is a pretty big change for flask-based scaling builds.
Big Batch of Unique Item Changes
Many Uniques received stat bumps, new modifiers, or complete reworks. Here are the highlights:
Spell and Elemental Staves
- Dusk Vigil, Taryn’s Shiver, and Earthbound now grant higher spell damage.
- Taryn’s Shiver now doubles the damage bonus against Frozen enemies.
- Searing Touch gets a fire-spread effect for Ignites.
Defensive and Utility Uniques
- Carnage Heart now gives up to 200% increased life leech.
- The Anvil amulet gets higher max block.
- Ghostmarch and Powertread receive movement speed buffs.
- Bringer of Rain and Greymake now drop with four Augment sockets.
- Hyrri’s Ire has much higher evasion.
Mana and Spell Interaction Items
- Rathpith Globe tuned around non-channeling spell scaling.
- Indigon’s mana-based damage bonuses were reduced.
- The Vertex now generates with one of two complete attribute-removal options.
Mechanical Fixes
- Last Lament crossbow now only preserves the final bolt if life was actually sacrificed.
Weapon Base and Item Updates
Many weapon bases got changes to damage, attack speed, block chance, and implicit effects.
Overall, more than twenty weapon bases were adjusted:
Quarterstaves
- Higher block chance on Guardian, Aegis, and Barrier bases.
- Hefty Quarterstaff gains a daze implicit.
- A new endgame staff with the same implicit added.
Bows
- Chaos and physical damage rebalanced on several bow bases.
- Dualstring, Twin, and Gemini bows now give Surpassing chance to fire extra arrows.
Spears
- Many spear types had their speed and damage reshuffled.
- Some now include new implicit effects like strike range or faster bleeding damage.
- Crossblade Spear gains a defensive implicit that interacts with deflected hits.
Microtransaction, QoL, and Bug Fix Notes
There were also a few smaller but practical changes, such as:
- Abyss items now have a stash tab affinity.
- Several mount interaction bugs fixed.
- Ambrosia and Concoct now only consume flask charges if the full amount can be paid.
Extra Updates Added Later
Grinding Gear Games added more last-minute changes, including:
- A new Mountain Splitter Ascendancy passive that adds Aftershocks to certain Slam skills.
- A full rework of Queen of the Forest movement scaling, including a new 25% base movement bonus and a capped scaling limit.
- Additional tuning for many spear bases.
Mixed Reactions to Some Nerfs
If you want to see how players feel about the changes, Reddit is a good place to look. A new thread about the updated patch notes picked up a lot of replies, with reactions ranging from excitement to frustration.
Last Lament Nerf
It seems that many players were rather disappointed to see Last Lament’s signature interaction removed. The general feeling is that the build was creative and not game-breaking, so the timing of this nerf landed a bit poorly.
Common comments:
- “Fun detected, nerf incoming.”
- “Build of the Week is just a list of builds that get nerfed next.”
Parry Buffs
The Parry improvements are mostly appreciated, but players still see the mechanic as awkward during mapping. There is interest in trying new Parry builds, but it feels like the mechanic still lacks clarity or impact.
Bow and Crossbow Concerns
Another sentiment shared by the community is that it feels as though non-meta bow builds were hit harder than expected, while Lightning Arrow and Rhoa builds remain strong.
There is a recurring concern about creative or off-meta ideas receiving nerfs while top-tier builds stay on top.
Support Gem Opinions
Magnified Area II getting its damage penalty removed, was one of the changes the community liked.
Ambrosia’s new scaling and charge costs had mixed feedback, with some calling it too harsh.
Indigon and Rathpith Adjustments
Players agree the builds remain playable but now have less top-end scaling.
Moreover, some worry that Blood Mage setups have seen too many nerfs over multiple patches.
Overall Mood Before Launch
If going through social media and the official forums is any indication, the general reaction to all these updates is currently a blend of optimism and concern.
Players are happy to see so much tuning, but many are worried about:
- Build diversity feeling tighter
- Creative setups being nerfed too often
- Meta builds staying safe
- Last-minute changes hitting fan-favorite interactions
At the same time, a lot of players appreciate the polish and are ready to jump in when 0.4.0 goes live.
If you want the full technical details, you can read the official updated patch notes here.
For more Path of Exile 2 coverage, you can head back to our PoE2 news hub.
