I believe most of the exiles have heard the sad news that Path of Exile 2 Early Access has been delayed until December 6th. But don’t be discouraged. After all, this is the first sequel after the popular POE 1, and GGG must ensure that players get a better gaming experience. Meanwhile, this delay also gives us more time to prepare for POE 2.
In this regard, we will talk about the changes that may happen to the attributes mechanism in POE 2. After all, this is about the character potential and build effects of all players in the new game. Knowing these upcoming changes can definitely help you prepare in advance and avoid more losses because of their subtle differences from the same mechanism in POE 1. Here, we cover the main changes to stats in POE 2, namely Dexterity, Intelligence, and Strength.
What Do Attributes Do?
Attributes in Path of Exile are stats required to use certain equipment or abilities. For example, a character needs to have at least 293 Strength to equip this Royal Plate Body Armor. But attributes are more than just a requirement to equip weapons and skills, as they can also provide different stats to players in PoE 1. For example, every 10 Strength can increase 5 maximum life and 2% melee physical damage, every 10 Dexterity can increase 20 accuracy rating and 2% evasion rating, and every 10 Intelligence can increase 5 maximum mana and 2% maximum energy shield.
If you want to get higher stats, besides relying on the base attributes of the weapon and skill themselves, you can also re-roll these stats by investing additional PoE 2 Currency. Of course, this is a bit risky, but its huge potential power makes many players want to make a move.
Attribute & Passive Skill Trees
In Path of Exile 1, attributes and the stats they provide are consistent with the passive skill trees and classes starting from these positions.
For example, Intelligence is mostly found at the top of the passive skill tree, where there are many nodes that scale mana and energy shield. Meanwhile, Strength is mostly found in the lower left third of the passive skill tree, where you’ll also encounter many life, melee, and physical nodes. And for Dexterity, it’s mostly found in the lower right third of the passive skill tree, where many nodes provide boosts for evasion.
For the most part, these attribute alignments will continue to be in the same positions on the passive skill tree in POE 2. So by being aware of these changes, planning your character build strategy ahead of time, and remember to buy POE 2 Gold in advance. It can always put you one step ahead when you enter a new game!
Factors That Affect The Attributes Of Class Build
Of course, different classes also have different basic starting attributes, also based on their passive tree starting positions. Although we don’t know yet whether these will be the same in POE 2 as in POE 1, in POE 2, attributes and their related stats will play a much larger role in defining the build archetype. This is mainly due to two key changes.
Support Gems
First, not only will attributes now be required to equip weapons and skills, but you will have to meet new attribute requirements based on the number of Support Gems you want to equip.
Support Gems in Path of Exile 2 will no longer have fixed attribute requirements like gear or skill gems, but will instead add a fixed number of attributes to your existing requirements. For example, this Increased Area of Effect Support will require an additional 5 Intelligence to equip.
The type of attribute depends on the color of the gem: blue gems will add Intelligence requirements, green gems will add Dexterity requirements, and red gems will add Strength requirements. So be clear on the requirements when upgrading your character’s attributes to avoid wasting your hard-earned POE 2 Currency.
Each Support Gem will add 5 points to its respective attribute requirement, meaning that a last character may need 150+ combined additional attributes to meet this new Support Gem requirement.
The Stats Gained From Attributes Will Change
However, this isn’t the only change that makes attributes a bigger factor in defining your build. Because Jonathan has previously stated that they are considering increasing the life players get from Strength because Warrior class feels a bit weak. Although we lack specific numbers for this right now, in POE 2, you will most likely get more stats from the attribute than in POE 1.
This change may also mean that other attributes will also provide more stats. For example, considering that ranged characters (such as Crossbow or Bow) will apply fewer accuracy modifiers based on their distance from the target, getting more accuracy rating from Dexterity will make a lot of sense.
In the meantime, considering that every character has a full mana pool by default, it would also make sense to get more mana from Intelligence. This will help differentiate between Intelligence-based characters, that is, characters with higher mana pools compared to other attribute alignments.
But please note that both of these are speculations, and the only confirmed one is that we will get more life from Strength. This is interesting because we know that in POE 2, passive skill trees will not have any increased life modifiers. This means that a Strength-based character, such as a Mace wielding Warrior who uses two-handed slams, will have a high Strength requirement because they will be using Natural skills and Support Gem allocations, which in turn will provide naturally high life. Therefore, these specific build archetypes are unlikely to choose any other POE 2 items and gear setup other than a life-based setup.
Travel Nodes Will Become Optional
Besides these attribute requirements, especially during leveling, GGG is making important changes to the passive skill tree in Path of Exile 2. The most important change is that Travel nodes that provide stats will now be optional.
These nodes will provide five selected properties and can be re-specified as needed to meet any new requirements you take on when you insert new Support Gems. In exchange, you spend a certain amount of POE currency, which is also essential. Here, you can always choose to use a new Support Gem picked up at the next level, because you are always one point away from the required starting node.
In short, understanding these potential attribute changes in POE 2 will help you adapt faster in the new game and create a build that meets your requirements to survive in the dangerous Wraeclast!