EndGame Mapping
– Endgame Maps got more monsters and loot / strongboxes / essences
– More Tower Layouts / Redone lost towers map
– More maps with bosses + Tablet that adds bosses
– Strongboxes spawn monsters faster, less fog, just faster
– Visibility Improved
– Elemental explosions are better now AND ODE improvements!
– Zoom-out is here!
– Load times improved
– Biome shown too!

Leagues
– Delirium – Fixed spawning bug and simulacrum drop rate
– Ritual – Omens appear 60% more often
– Expedition – Improvement of rarity in the shops

Pinnacle Content
– Citadels spawn closer to the center of the atlas and have a highlight in FOW
– Arbiter of Ash up to 6 respawn attempts BUT leaving the map still forfeits the attempt!!!
– Higher difficulties lower the number of respawns
– Adding respawns to other pinnacles over time
– Copper Citadel boss nerfed

Item Changes
– Uniques general buff!
– Mods on rares changed so that bad mods are less common!
– RUNES ARE NOW REPLACEABLE!

Monster/Boss Balance
– Large amount of balance changes coming in patch notes!
– Monke deals less rolling damage
– DD from plaguebearers cannot be off-screened anymore
– Forsaken Miners’ grenades are more visible, deal less dmg
– Lost Men Zealots cannot meteor from off-screen

Item Filters On Consoles are coming in patch 0.1.1!

Other changes
– Buffing Armour and Scavenged Plating
– Showing the number of uses on charms / Effect when triggered
– Una plays music now!

There are different versions of gems. Skill gems give you a skill to use, support gems support the said skill gems, meta skill gems are skills that can have other skills put in them in order to activate them, they can also have a trigger cast too and Spirit gems which are our auras that give beneficial damage or defense buffs.

Skill Gems

Uncut skill gems are used to select ANY skill gem from the Gemcutting – Skill Gems.

These gems are gems from Quarterstaff. On the left, you can see all the available weapons and “All Gems” tab which has all skill gems inside.

In the gallery below, you can see gems for Maces and Bows.

Meta Skill gems are gems that can have additional skill gems socketed in them and they will activate them as a trigger. Cast on ignite has a buff in top left corner that fills in to 100% and once it does, it pop the triggered skills. Ancestral Warrior Totem uses the skills slotted in it once you summon the totem.

Spirit Gems

Uncut spirit gem gives an Aura gem (persistent buff skill gem)!

These are just an example of Spirit Gems in PoE 2

Here we can see the Support Gem Capacity at the top part of the Skills screen. We can only have 1 of each support gems, therefore choose wisely where you put them! You can always swap them out, but only 1 of each can be used at the time.
Second image shows a sample of Support Gems

These are examples of currencies that we’re going to see in PoE 2. Most of these you will recognize from PoE 1 and some are newly added ones!

The hooded one vendor offers passive refund respec for gold, while Zarka offers discenchanting for items (like an old selling vendor from POE 1), which in turn gives Shards that can be combined to an orb. There is also a gamble option to gamble your gold for random items!
Salvage bench is used to salvage unused items in order to get an Arificer’s orb which adds a socket to an item.
Currency Exchange can be accessed through a vendor (Alva) too. It is used to exchange currency from other players.

Item sockets are now slots for powerful Runes, that give our items permanent buffs. They cannot be removed from an item once placed, however, they can be replaced by a different rune (it destroys the previous one in the process). We can also add more item sockets by using an Artificer’s orb!
Unique items are rare items that have permanent stats and abilities on them, plus they now have unique art, so you can have a full gear of unique items that looks like the last image.

Warrior is your classic Bulk boy, with either a two handed weapon or a one-handed weapon and a shield. Warrior uses Maces and Flails.
Warrior uses slam skills that explode the terrain and can be chained from one another.
Warcries empower your next skill.
Warrior has a “Raise Shield” Mechanic which is a form of “active block” and some abilities give you a frontal block (Like Shield Charge). However it gives you a “stance bar” at the top of the flasks and if it breaks, you will become vulnerable.
If enemies have a red flash on their next ability, that ability cannot be blocked!
Totems are making a comeback too! Ancestral warrior totem is a meta skill that can use the other socketed skills in it to launch devastating attacks from the place where it was placed!

Warrior has 2 Ascendancies – Warbringer and Titan

WARBRINGER

Warbringer is your classic Warcry, Totem Defensive style character. Example of some of the ascendancy passives in the images! Warbringer is more catered towards a single handed weapon!

TITAN

Titan is your classic ME HULK, ME SMASH type of guy. Dealing heavy damage with Slams, applying Crushing blows and dealing much more damage against Heavily Stunned Enemies. He is more of a Two-Handed weapon specialist!

Mercenary is your crossbow-wielding guy with different bolt ammo. He uses a reload mechanic and with WASD movement, it feels like an arcade shooter as a playstyle. He can also lob grenades and shoot elemental shots.
Reloading mechanic reloads the amount of ammo in the crossbow, shown on the skill itself and in the image below.
Mercenary can also use ballistae!

Mercenary has two ascendancies so far, which are Witch Hunter and Gemling Legionnaire.

WITCH HUNTER

Witch Hunter is specialized “Boss Hunter” ascendancy. With a skill called “Decimating Strike”, a witch hunter can deal up to 30% of Boss’s health bar with the first hit.
He uses elemental defense shield, has more boss damage and more explode damage against undead and demons.

GEMLING LEGIONNAIRE

Gemling Legionnaire has fused gems into his own skin, which allows him to use more skill slots and gains bonuses with Support Gems that are socketed. He also enhances the quality of all skill gems!

Sorceress is your classic elemental type mage. She wields a staff (or two!) and she utilizes fire, cold and lightning elements to unleash fury upon her foes! Sorceress, like the rest of the classes, can use the weapon swap to quickly swap between two trees (bonus points) to enhance her specific elemental abilities! In the image below, it shows the weapon swap.

There are 2 ascendancies in EA for Witch: Stormweaver and Chronomancer

STORMWEAVER

Stormweaver further enhances the elements to unleash even more devastating abilities!

CHRONOMANCER

Chronomancer deals with time. She can freeze time, reset her cooldowns and unleash devastating Time abilities!

Witch is a summoner in PoE 2. She summons a variety of minions (some which are permanent, some which are not!) in order to lay waste to all of her foes. She can also curse enemies and further enhance her minions’ damage.
She uses sceptres, which can grant different minion skills and additional spirit, which is a resource that she uses to summon her permanent minions.
In the images below, you can see an example of spirit cost per minion summoned of the type.

Witch has two ascendancies in PoE 2 Early access, those are INFERNALIST and BLOOD MAGE.

INFERNALIST

Infernalist changes the mana bar into “Infernal Flame”, which works like a “generator” bar for abilities. When you use a skill, the bar fills and there are different benefits (and negatives!) with using this system. It is more of a management system than anything.
It has a special ability, “Demonic Form”, in which Infernalist changes to a Demon and enhances her abilities further!

BLOOD MAGE

Blood Mage uses life as an additional resource to cast abilities. She drains life from enemies (and makes life orbs once they perish) and boosts her own abilities in the process!

Monk is a melee class that uses a quarterstaff to deal different elemental damage to his enemies. He uses the elements of wind, lightning and cold in combination to further enhance his abilities.
He can use an ability called “Killing palm”, which can execute enemies in range that have a blue mark on them. If he succeeds, he gains a power charge, which can be used to further enhance other abilities!
Monk has 2 ascendancies in PoE2EA: INVOKER and ACOLYTE OF CHAYULA.

INVOKER

Invoker is “one with the elements” and he uses them to apply different elemental ailments on the enemies, but once he collects enough “Unbound Fury”, he can unleash the skill “Unbound Avatar”, which further grants elemental buffs! Meditate is an ability that when used, doubles the energy shield an Invoker has.

ACOLYTE OF CHAYULA

Acolyte of Chayula removes all spirit as a resource and changes it with “Darkness” which then functions as a secondary resource. Whenever the Acolyte gets damaged, he reserves Darkness instead, but with each 20 of Darkness that is NOT reserved, he gets 1% of damage as extra Chaos Damage.
He can also “Commune” with Chayula’s domain, bringing in various buffs for him to collect as well while playing.

Ranger is your standard bow user. She fires arrows from afar and she has various elements under her control, with an addition of poison. She has very high mobility, but it is technically a glass-cannon.
Ranger has 2 ascendancies in POE2EA at start, they are: DEADEYE and PATHFINDER.

DEADEYE

Deadeye is a Ranger with enhanced archery. She gains an additional projectile, Tailwind, which is a movement speed steroid and she basically gains maximum accuracy as well.

PATHFINDER

Pathfinder is more akin to a hunter, that brews different Concoctions in order to kill enemies from a distance. She also gains enhanced poisons and less movement penalty boost when using skills while moving.

First, we need to obtain Balbala’s Barya, a coin from a trapped Djinn, which we then put into the relic altar found just before the trial.

Once inside, you will find a trial map, which can be used to lead you through the rooms, towards the boss of the floor. There are different Boons (buffs) and Afflictions (de-buffs) that you will get when you visit the room, as well as different mechanics in the rooms themselves (Like blood chalice).
There is an additional system, called “Honour”, which works as a secondary life bar, if you lose it all, you get kicked out of the trial. If you die, same thing happens. This is similar to POE1’s mechanic “Sanctum”.

Merchant is an NPC that you’ll encounter somewhere in the Trial that will offer various boons (buffs) that you can use for the run itself. You will need a special resource that can be obtained from killing monsters throughout the Trial.

At the end of the Trial run, you will encounter a boss. After defeating the boss, you will enter the last room, where an Altar of Ascendancy is going to be, with some chests for which you have found keys for throughout the Trial. Use the keys, Ascend and carry on. Multiple runs of the Trial mechanic will reward more Ascendancy points, however, you do not need to do only one trial to get all the Ascendancy points.

Jewels can also be found in the Trial of Sekhema and they can be slotted in Passive Skill Tree.

Relics can also be found throughout the Trial, and Unique relics change the Trial itself (but they only drop from last floor bosses!).

In this Trial, we are encountering the Trialmaster, who is going to give us an entry-token, that we can use to begin the Trial of Chaos. The trial itself is a series of rounds in which the Trialmaster offers a reward, but you have to take “A punishment” as well. These will quickly stack up, so be careful what kind of punishments you’re choosing!
At the end of the rounds, you will encounter a boss and after defeating a boss, you will be able to Ascend via the Altar of Ascenscion. Multiple repeated runs will grant more Ascendancy points, but you’re not restricted by doing Trial of Chaos only to reach maximum ascendancy points.

Trialmaster can also give Inscribed Ultimatums, which we then place in Temple Offering slot to embark on even stronger Challenges.

Vaal Orbs are a specialized currency that can be a reward from an Ultimatum as well. These change items in various ways and should be used at the end of crafting (if you dare!).

Soul Cores are also a reward from Trialmaster and his challenges and they serve as upgraded Runes.

At the End of Trial of Chaos, there is a special item that drops in order to unlock the Trialmaster’s Tower, which is a special end-boss of Trial of Chaos.

Breach is an End-Game system that will be encountered in maps, with a simple “Hand” icon above the Waypoint. It may also drop Tablets that can be modified by currency and put in the Lost Towers in order to gain the benefits too.
Catalysts can also drop and they are currency that enhance the quality of an item in a certain way. As an example, when a breach ring drops, it has a modifier that says “Maximum quality is 50%”. If you quality it up to 50% with life modifiers, that changes a 100 life points to 150.
There is also a system of breach splinters, that transform to Breachstones, which can be put in the Realm Gate in Order to fight Xesht, the pinnacle Breach boss. Defeating it, grants points towards Breach part of the Atlas. More points require more Xesht defeats!

Ritual is a mechanic in which we need to defeat monsters around the Ritual Altar, that then become revived once we click on it. There are multiple of these Altars inside of a map and they give us Tribute. Once you clear an altar, you may collect its Favours by clicking on it (or the button at the bottom of the screen). Multiple Altar clears in the zone allow you to see more items to purchase with Tribute.
Omens are also another form of currency that allow us to “Meta-Craft” an item by using it before a currency on an item itself…
Venturin deeper into the mists of Ritual… We can find the Pinnacle Boss encounter…

Delirium is a mechanic which causes us to Become Delirious, once we walk through the Mirror of Delirium. Delirum drops different currency “Distilled” that we can use to anoint (enchant) a necklace with a passive point of our choosing (we use different Distilled currencies) and it can also apply Layers of Delirium on a waystone as well.
While completing Delirium, we find Simulacrum Splinters, which when we combine enough, we enter the Simulacrum where a Strangely Familiar Entity awaits, with different waves of monsters to slay. Delirium also has a boss (or two!) tied to it and a passive tree as well!

Expedition is a mechanic in which we Excavate the remains of other Civilizations with… Explosives! We then collect their currencies and spend them via Expedition Vendors (Gwennen in picture 3 is a “gamble your currency away” vendor). There are also tablets that drop, that we can modify with different currencies and put in the Lost Towers to add Expedition to maps around the Tower itself.
Expedition also has a unique currency to it called “Logbooks”, which we can use with Dannig in order to enter a special Expedition map which contains a lot more excavation area.
At the end, there is also a Pinnacle Boss which when defeated, gives Atlas passive points for Expedition itself!