Path of Exile 2’s first major update since it hit early access last year, known as Dawn of the Hunt, has not gone down well with fans. When the update dropped last Friday, players were shocked by how the game’s difficulty had skyrocketed. Taking down simple monsters at the beginning of the campaign became a tedious chore, while the newly introduced Huntress class lacked any real punch. Reddit was soon abuzz with threads titled things like “This game feels like a massive waste of time” and “Game feels miserable,” and even some well-known streamers couldn’t hide their frustration and quit playing.
Trying to address the concerns, the developers at Grinding Gear Games rolled out several quick patches to make the game more manageable. They made tweaks like decreasing the health of monsters and giving a boost to some lackluster skills, such as the skeletal minions. Despite these adjustments, a significant number of players remain dissatisfied, feeling the game still doesn’t deliver enough reward for their efforts.
Grinding Gear Games also published a post detailing the wider issues with the update and laying out potential changes in the weeks to come. The most noticeable area they plan to tackle is the slow pace of the campaign—a mode players are obliged to replay with every new season. While a few changes have been implemented, many gamers are finding it hard to muster the enthusiasm needed to push through to the endgame dungeons.
In a conversation with streamer Zizaran, Game Director Jonathan Rogers candidly explained, “I can absolutely tell you that our goal here was to nerf the things that were trivializing the endgame before you’ve even managed to get your items and stuff like that.”
His colleague, Game Director Mark Roberts, didn’t mince words either, admitting there were “blatant mistakes,” especially those with the underpowered skills that needed urgent hotfixes. “We’re firing from the hip a lot here,” Roberts pointed out, emphasizing a trial-and-error approach, “and if it’s bad we’ll just undo it.”
Rogers highlighted that in working on PoE 2, the margin for error is narrower than in its predecessor, PoE 1. “If we want the combat to be more engaging, then that means there’s a smaller target; it puts more pressure on the balance to be right,” he noted.
Rogers further elaborated on how PoE 1 tends to favor players who have dedicated countless hours to becoming experts at its intricate systems. PoE 2 was meant to sidestep this issue but finding the sweet spot has proven tricky. At its core, the game aims to deliver intentional, dodge-roll-centric combat reminiscent of Soulslike titles, where difficulty is part of the attraction.
Both developers emphasized that while they’re exploring ways to address current issues, they’re cautious about swinging the pendulum too far the other way. They don’t want dungeons to become so easy that players breeze through them in no time.
“If we get to the point where a good player never has to face a single challenge ever, then I don’t think that’s going to be a game that will be ultimately fun in the long term,” Rogers concluded.
