Unsatisfied with Path of Exile 2's hugely successful new endgame, GGG raises the risk and reward even further

Path of Exile 2 patch 0.5.3 has just arrived, and it’s clear that developer Grinding Gear Games is pushing to take full advantage of the momentum it’s already built with the Return of the Ancients league. The action RPG’s newest season is a rousing success, with almost universal praise for its redesigned endgame. Instead of resting on its laurels, however, Game Director Jonathan Rogers acknowledges that there’s still plenty of room for improvement, with this latest PoE 2 update helping to ensure you feel rewarded whatever you do.

I’ve talked plenty about how much the new-look Path of Exile 2 endgame has improved its long-term potential, with a range of unique questlines designed to guide you through each of its various mechanics and make sure you know what to expect. Rogers says GGG has been happy with these, but feels that “some leagues needed a bit more attention after the questline.” He explains, “Our goal with this patch is that no matter which type of content you’re a fan of, it’s worth investing into.”

The biggest winner here is Delirium. Not only were the elites spawned by purple mirror shards unable to appear as magic or rare monsters, but using multiple didn’t actually cause more of them to appear. “At the highest juicing levels, the league actually got worse,” Rogers reveals. With the fixes that have been implemented, he notes that the league actually needs another difficulty nerf – this time in the early phases of endgame. It’ll therefore start with half the scaling, but this will gradually ramp up, breaking even once you’re using three Tablets.

Simulacrums in Delirium were also not scaling as intended, so they’ll now start at 100% Delirious and scale up to 200%. Wave modifiers have been removed; “these didn’t actually make anything more rewarding, just made things more difficult,” Rogers says. Now, after each boss room in a Simulacrum, you have a choice between three possible mirror shards. ‘Escalating Threats’ adds another modifier, ‘Apex Predators’ an extra boss fight, and ‘Pure Emotions’ more monster packs.

Grand Expeditions have been deemed too slow, with players often deciding the promised rewards weren’t worth their time. To fix this, the explosive count has been cut by 25% to speed things along, while basic weapon and armor chests have been stripped out in favor of higher-rarity ones, alongside those awarding currency, uniques, and Waystones. You’ll also find a greater number of Runes of Aldur Remnants, and the monster modifiers on them have a bigger effect on rarity and rewards: “These have in most cases been doubled, in some cases significantly more.”

GGG might have lost some of its love for the Temple, but it’d still like you to engage with it. The passive that previously granted Temple rewards in other areas has therefore been removed, and in its place is one that feels more intrinsically ‘Vaal’ in nature. Activating a Vaal Beacon will corrupt a rare or unique monster nearby, changing their nature unpredictably. “The result is a mechanic that creates memorable moments, while leaning much more heavily into the themes of corruption and risk that define the Vaal,” Rogers remarks.

Breach strongholds have been made larger across the wider Atlas, and should now be roughly similar in size to the first one you encounter near the Ziggurat. Alongside this comes additional modifiers to make the mechanic feel more generally rewarding, and Rogers promises further improvements in patch 0.5.4. Over in Abyss, there are new and upgraded rewards from its main boss fights, including pinnacle encounter Vessel of Kulemak. Again, expect even more work here in the coming weeks.

Across the rest of the patch, GGG has addressed concerns that Runeforging your armor becomes too unappealing in the late game, with the amount of Runic Ward on offer not enough to compensate for the other stats you’re losing in the trade. With 0.5.3, you’ll now find that this conversion leaves you with more of the original Armor, Energy Shield, and Evasion than it previously did.

Path of Exile 2 patch 0.5.3 is live now. It includes plenty more additional bug fixes and solutions to some of the more common client crash issues. Files for the build planner are now also able to include a link that will create a button to reach the associated guide; GGG notes that “currently only a subset of domains are whitelisted to appear in the client.”