PoE2 Patch 0.2.0E: Monster Nerfs, Boss Fixes, Crafting Upgrades

Grinding Gear Games is back again with another chunky round of updates based on player feedback. Patch 0.2.0E goes live on April 11 at 12:00 AM GMT+2 and includes monster nerfs, boss fight changes, crafting upgrades, and quality-of-life fixes for minions and charms.

Here is a full breakdown of what is changing and what is still on the way.

Monster Speed Nerfs Across the Board

As previously mentioned, GGG has been investigating reports of players getting overwhelmed by monsters, and this patch brings a lot of adjustments to movement, behavior, and pack density.

General Monster Changes:

• Fast human enemies (like Freythorn Cultists and Faridun) will no longer cancel their attacks just to chase you; they were attacking relentlessly with no windows to respond, and that is getting fixed.
• The Haste Aura will no longer show up on already fast monsters.

Act 1:

• Werewolf Prowlers and similar mobs will now walk after attacking instead of chain-sprinting after you.
• Hungering Stalkers got 12% less life and damage.
• Reduced monster count in multiple areas, like Bloom Serpents in Red Vale and Venomous Crabs in Hunting Grounds.
• Blood Cretin death pools got reduced from 6s to 4s.
• Freythorn mobs now follow the new movement rules and have slightly slower chase behavior.

Act 2:

• Boulder Ants in Titan Valley were replaced with Risen Maraketh for smoother encounters.
• Faridun mobs now follow the same movement fix as above.

Act 3:

• Diretusk Boars and Antlion Chargers are more likely to knock you sideways than push you into a wall.
• Azak Bog and Lost City packs now have fewer ranged mobs and elites.
• Slitherspitter’s poison spray in Venom Crypts was incorrectly doing Chaos damage; that is fixed now.

GGG also confirmed that they found an issue with room-based spawn density, causing some areas to be randomly overpacked. A fix is coming in a later patch.

Boss Fight Improvements

A few bosses that were annoying or unclear to fight are being reworked slightly:

• Viper Napuatzi: Fewer and smaller Chaos Rains, and the leftover visuals disappear faster.
• Uxmal: Will teleport less often, can’t recharge Energy Shield mid-air, and uses Flame Breath less.
• Xyclucian: The arena is now clearer visually, with ground foliage removed.

Minion and Player Balance Fixes

• Minion revive timers are getting a real fix: each death still adds time, but less and less. This prevents loops where you are stuck waiting over and over if they all die at once.
• Tame Beast and Bind Spectre gems now become reusable after disenchanting.
• Tamed beasts can now fit through tight spaces just like players.
• Rally Support can now be used with any melee skill you use yourself (not just Strikes and Slams).
• Glory (used by Hammer of the Gods, Spear of Solaris) is no longer consumed if you get interrupted while casting.
• Ritualist’s Blood Boils now properly propagate even when enemies explode on death.

Crafting Changes

• Runes now work on Wands and Staves, including Desert, Storm, Mind, Vision, and others; all with proper caster-specific mods.
• Renly’s Shop in the Burning Village now has a Blank Rune that you can turn into any elemental rune if you missed them earlier.
• Artificer’s Orbs now drop in 12 fixed campaign spots, in addition to random drops and salvaging.

Performance Optimizations

• Many areas had ground foliage optimized for better performance.

Coming After the Weekend: Charms, Stash Tabs, Bookmarks

GGG already confirmed a few things coming after Patch 0.2.0E, including:

Charm System Rework

• Charm slots now come from belt implicits, based on area level.
  • 1 slot until level 32, 2 slots until 64, 3 slots at 65+.
  • Divine Orbs can reroll slot numbers.
• Unique belts can always roll up to 3 slots.
• Several charms now actually protect you on hit, and many mods are being buffed.

New Stash Tab Affinities, coming soon:

• Socketables
• Fragments (includes Tablets and Trial Keys)
• Breach
• Expedition
• Ritual

You will also be able to store Charms in the Flask tab or any Flask-affinity tab.

Atlas Bookmarks

You will soon be able to bookmark locations on the Atlas, add labels, and quickly jump to your pinned nodes.

When Is the Patch?

Patch 0.2.0E launches April 11 at 12:00 AM GMT+2, and includes all changes from the past few days, including monster nerfs, minion improvements, crafting changes, and more.

Expect another update early next week with the charm rework, stash improvements, and other internal changes GGG is still finishing. You can read GGG’s official post here.

For more news and guides, check out our Path of Exile 2 main page.