Since Chris Wilson announced Path of Exile 2 on the stage at ExileCon back in 2019, it's been nearly four years. Where has the time gone? With ExileCon 2 just around the corner, here's everything you should know about Path of Exile 2.

Campaign, Engine Upgrades & MTX

Path of Exile 2 will be a massive expansion of Path of Exile one rather than being a new stand-alone game. It will introduce a new 7x story campaign that can be played alongside the original campaign to access a shared endgame, the Atlas and mapping system we know and love.

We'll also be getting some juicy graphics updates in part from engine upgrades and back-end optimizations which will make the game look more like this - 16 times the detail.

There'll be plenty of new animations and environmental effects, too. And character models will be getting some updates, as well. But fear not, all of the MTX you've invested your hard-earned cash into over the years will still work in Path of Exile 2.

New Skill Gem And Socket System

One of the biggest changes coming to the game with Path of Exile 2 is the complete overhaul of the Skill Gem and Socket System. And Path of Exile 2, instead of socketing your support gems into linked sockets in your gear, you'll instead socket them directly into the active skill gem itself, which itself is then socketed into predetermined sockets in your gear.

There'll be a flashy new skill gem interface to support this change. Orbs of Fusing will be no more as the sockets and skill gems will always be linked and you'll be able to find up to three linked skill gems from item level 1 to 19: 4 linked skill gems from item level 20 onward, 5 linked skill gems from item level 35 onward and fully six-linked skill gems starting at item level 50.

Also did you spot that multi-colored socket? That's a new addition with the predetermined gear socket system and Path of Exile 2. Gear will always drop with the same number and color of sockets based on type, like this hybrid armor evasion helmet with a hybrid red and green socket which means it can be socketed with either color of gem.

Two-handed weapons will have four sockets. One-handed weapons and off hands will have two sockets each. Body armors will have two sockets and helmets, gloves and boots will have one socket each.

You will still be able to modify the color of sockets on gear with a new in-game currency and you will also be able to use Chromatic Orbs and Jewels to modify the sockets on skill gems. If you find a skilled gym with more links than the one you are using, you'll be able to destroy your current gem to apply the level and experience to the new gym to obtain more links.

19 New Ascendancy Classes

While the new socket and gem system may be the largest change that Path of Exile 2 will introduce, the addition of 19 new ascendancy classes might be the most anticipated feature.

The new ascendancies will be tied to the new campaign. So, if you want to play a Juggernaut or a Pathfinder, you will still need to play through the original campaign to reach the endgame.

The Ranger will be getting the new Survivalist ascendancy with an interesting dynamic with the skill tree having defensive options on the left side and defensive options on the right side.

One of the offensive options, Division grants you two copies of compatible skills socketed in your bow: one supported by GMP (Greater Multiple Projectiles) and the other by Barrage, potentially two seven links.

The Survivalist will also have an ascended-like choice between Fork, Pierce and Chain and the Multiplication skill that allows you to save your projectiles to build up larger bursts.

On the defensive side, we have Spell Avoidance, which convert your evasion into Spell Evasion. The Ranger will also be getting the Beastmaster ascendancy, which heavily supports the new shape-shifting abilities that will be coming in Path of Exile 2. This ascendancy will grant you the workout skill, a high crit shape-shifting ability, which you won't be able to find anywhere else.

You will also be able to spec into wild shape to massively improve shape-shifting bonuses and keep those bonuses even when you're in human form. Ally of the Wild will give you a nice little companion that will work like a Golem and provide buffs. You can even specialize into which type of companion you need.

The Rangers third new ascendancy, the Tactician, is possibly the most ambitious of them all. The Tactician will be able to continuously leave bombard areas with reigning arrows and even gain multiple uses of this skill, which will prevent enemies from attacking at range.

Meanwhile, the Siege Warfare and Siege Breaker notables will provide massive buffs to your totems like ensnaring enemies and making them take more range to attack damage and allowing the most recently placed totem to deal a lot more damage.

But the most interesting of all is the Close Combat Specialist, which will enable the Tactician to use ax and sword melee abilities with a bow. The developers did mention that they are re-rigging animations, which have made things like bows using melee animations possible and Path of Exile 2. We don't have a whole lot of information on the other ascendancies, but we do have some names and concepts.

Here's the Defiler, a new Witch ascendancy and the Arcanist, another Witch ascendancy that will have a heavy focus on lightning damage and charging up energy. There's also the Reaver, a war leader ascendancy for the Marauder, which will grant powerful bonuses to allies around him. And this, an unnamed Marauder ascendancy with a focus on Avatars and ancestral abilities.

New Weapon Types, Meta Gems, AI & UI

New ascendancies are pretty exciting. But there's also going to be new weapon tags, too.

We know of at least two of them, the Crossbow (Victory Core Power Shot Crossbow) and the Spear (Winged Spear). These new weapons seem to hint at a new direction in terms of gameplay in regards to your choice of weapon as both of them will grant new skills.

Crossbows grant implicit attack skills, such as PowerShot, a high damage single target ability. Instead of socketing attack skills, you can socket Crossbow bull types to augment the attack abilities and change what they do. We know of at least three types of bolts. Armor Piercing Incendiary and Permafrost.

Meanwhile, the Spear will allow you to use new engage and disengage abilities to provide freedom of movement and more interesting combat.

More Information

Aside from what we've already discussed in this article, there are a few more tidbits of information we have about Path of Exile 2.

We know that there will be a new gem type called metagems, which the developers described as the opposite of an active skill gem. Instead of socketing support gems into an active skill gem, you'll socket active gems into metagems. Like this Proficiency metagem for auras, which will allow you to turn all of your auras on or off with a single hotkey.

Cast on Critical Strike Support and Spell Totem Support will also be metagems. Speaking of Spell Totem, the developers also talked about tentative plans for new AI options to allow your Spell Totems to use skills in certain orders. In this example, they showcase the Spell Totem setup that will curse any uncursed enemies in the area before moving on to use other skills.

On the discussion of AI, they also mentioned that Monster Packs will have more interesting AI and Path of Exile, too, such as patrolling areas where appropriate.

Of course, you can also expect other upgrades, such as UI elements. like this new character sheet, which will provide information that is better laid out and easier to find.

During a discussion on some of the pain points of developing Path of Exile, the developers talked about having ascendancy skills, such as the pre-existing bomb armor (Bone Barrier) on the Necromancer or the new skills (Born to be Wild & Ally of the Wild) like those granted by the Beastmaster and having them scale as you progress in Path of Exile 2 instead of granting a static value like they do currently.

They weren't sure yet if this would be tied to level progress or based on when you take each ascendancy notable. The developers also talked about how the new ascendancy notables and Path of Exile 2 are designed to have far less clutter stats and instead focus on one or two impactful stats. They mentioned that the original ascendancies will need a rebalance to bring them to the same level.

We will know more information about Path of Exile 2 at ExileCon 2023 on July 29th and 30th in Auckland New Zealand.