Path of Exile 2 got another update this week, one that was largely focused on bugfixes and other changes to improve the state of the game which has had a relatively smooth launch all things considered. While most parts of the patch notes were pretty tame, Path of Exile 2 players quickly picked up on one nerf in particular: Cast on Freeze. The buff skill in Path of Exile 2 was used by many players as an easy way to trigger other spells repeatedly, but a sweeping nerf to how trigger gems and ailments work in the game have made it so that many players are saying goodbye to Cast on Freeze altogether.
The full patch notes for the Path of Exile 2 update that dropped on Wednesday night can be found below, but all you really need to pay attention to if you’re a Cast on Freeze user is the section under “Trigger Gems and Energy Gain.” While specific numbers weren’t provided, Grinding Gear Games said it changed these effects to make it so that energy gain is now governed by monster power. So stronger monsters grant more energy gains, but weaker ones won’t grant as much now.
“This means that it’s far easier to trigger skills from Unique Monsters than it is from normal monsters, but you also hit many more normal monsters when fighting,” the patch notes explained.
Players are running the numbers themselves now, and it’s not looking good for Cast on Freeze users. One players showed the before and after setup with that skill on Reddit to show how much it was nerfed. The change has got players lamenting the fact that they’re now stuck with sub-optimal builds that can be respecced, sure, but only if players have a lot of extra in-game money lying around that they weren’t going to use otherwise.
“Add me to that list. My build is basically bricked. Cast on Freeze is useless now,” one player complained.
Path of Exile 2 players were previously pretty happy with the list of changes that Grinding Gear Games said it had in the works, but that’s obviously changed now that this update has dropped. If you didn’t use Cast on Freeze, nothing’s changed for you, but if you did, you may want to look for alternatives now. The full list of Path of Exile 2 patch notes can be found below.
General Improvements and Changes
- Passive Block chance now applies to blockable hits from all directions, as opposed to just hits from in front.
- Player size is now set to Zero units while dodge rolling instead of One unit.
- Some smaller monsters can now be pushed while dodge rolling. This includes monsters such as the Adorned Beetles in Keth.
- Inscribed Ultimatums and Djinn Baryas now display whether you will obtain Ascendancy Skill Points upon completing the Trial of Chaos or Trial of the Sekhemas respectively.
- Removed World Map Pins for encounters that were not from specific locations in Areas. ie. From Monster drops.
- Improved attack in place behaviour.
- Rain of Arrows and Firestorm now have a hit-rate limit to prevent cases of them absolutely obliterating very large bosses. This will have little to no impact outside of boss fights with very large hitboxes.
- Leech has been buffed.
- Boneshatter now more reliably hits your target.
- The duration of Armour Break has been increased to 12 seconds (previously 6).
- To improve performance, Incinerate now creates circular areas of ignited ground instead of segments.
- Added CTRL+Click shortcut to open the Currency Exchange at the appropriate NPCs.
- Added a button to travel to the Trial of Chaos on the world map.
- Added art for Close Combat Support.
- Added 2D art for the Defiance of Destiny Unique Amulet.
- Added “Ascendancy Skill Points” as a keyword, which details how sets of Ascendancy Points are obtained.
- Added search functionality for Gemcutting and vendor inventories when using a controller. Keybinds for searching Stash on a controller have also been updated.
- Added Gemcutting restrictions option for Gamepad.
- Added suggested Supports for Time of Need.
- Updated the suggested Supports for Bonestorm.
- Added an option for opening the Trade website to the main menu for consoles.
- Runes now sell to vendors for more Gold.
- Updated art for Reserved Life and Mana.
- Updated the description on Runes to clarify that once socketed they cannot be replaced.
- Auras and Curses that affect ally or enemy resistances now display values in the Skill popout panel.
- Tweaked the audio of the Kiwi Pets, Chimera Pet, and Baby Crowbell Pet to reduce their impact in town areas.
- Updated the wording on the Invoker’s “…and Protect me from Harm” Ascendancy Passive Skill to clarify its functionality.
- Updated the description on Hexblast to clarify that it only detonates a single Curse per Enemy in its radius.
- Updated the description on Fiery Death Support to clarify that the Supported Skill does not need to kill the ignited enemy itself.
- Reduced the defenses provided to monsters by the Magma Barrier modifier.
- Walking Goliaths no longer use their suicide attack if they are Rare.
Trigger Gems and Energy Gain
- Trigger gem energy gain was not in the right place and it was far too easy to use ailments to trigger spells. One problem with the previous system is that if we balanced it to make triggering happen in boss fights then the triggering would happen far too often during clearing. In order to address this we are now making “Monster Power” part of the calculation for energy gain. This means that it’s far easier to trigger skills from Unique Monsters than it is from normal monsters, but you also hit many more normal monsters when fighting. Another issue was using low level skills with unconditional ailment applications such as Flame Wall to ignite enemies for triggering. In order to make the source of the ignite matter we are making the energy gain be dependent on the strength of the ignite. We have also rebalanced all energy gain across the board.
Ultimatum Changes
- Generally improved balance across the board with Ultimatum monsters, bosses and modifiers. Mostly targeting outliers that were too difficult and bringing them in line.
- The monster density of Ultimatum encounters has been made more consistent.
- Stormcaller Runes, Blood Globules, Heart Tethers and Impending Doom rings no longer spawn while a player is on a lift or near the altars in the Vaal Soul Core room.
- Fixed a bug where Player Minions could get stuck at the top of the lift in the Trials of Chaos.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug which caused enemies to be Primed for Stun or Electrocute earlier than intended while in a party.
- Fixed a bug where Gemling Legionnaires with the Integrated Efficiency Ascendancy Passive Skill allocated could lose their 3 additional Skill Slots if they were empty when entering a new area.
- Fixed a bug with party member reviving when using WASD input where you could revive party members from too far away.
- Fixed a bug where “Waystones found have a chance to be a tier higher” on the Atlas Passive Tree wasn’t working.
- Fixed a bug where the Audio Mix setting was not being remembered when restarting the game.
- Fixed a bug where one of the small Passive Skills in the Fleshcrafter cluster was not connected to the Notable Passive Skill. It is possible for your Passive Skill Tree to be reset if you had this cluster allocated, apologies!
- Fixed a bug where you could not open a portal in The Riverbank in Cruel difficulty.
- Fixed a bug where some of Zalmarath, the Colossus’ skills could persist after their death.
- Fixed a bug where opening a full-screen panel while disenchanting could prevent you from performing any actions until you relogged.
- Fixed a bug where some fire spells, such as Volatile Dead and Incinerate, were not functioning correctly with Raging Spirits.
- Fixed a bug where “Buffs on you expire Slower” from the Prolonged Assault Notable Passive Skill and other Chronomancer Ascendancy Passive Skills was applying to Debuffs and other effects as well as Buffs.
- Fixed a bug where non-reviving Minions were spawning a Remnant from the Grim Feast Buff when dying in your presence.
- Fixed a bug Infernalists with the Pyromantic Pact Ascendancy Passive Skill allocated were considered to be on Low Infernal Flame if they were at 50% of Maximum Infernal Flame or lower, instead of 35%.
- Fixed a bug where the world map icon for Candlemass in Cruel was not updating correctly.
- Fixed a bug where you could be unable to upgrade Gems despite satisfying the Attribute Requirement by having the Adaptive Capability Gemling Legionnaire Ascendancy Passive Skill allocated.
- Fixed a bug where Fiery Death Support was not dealing damage correctly.
- Fixed Infusion Support Gems on Herald skills applying the gain damage as extra elemental damage to all attacks instead of just the damage from the Herald skill
- Fixed a bug where Expedition encounters could fail to generate in the Decay Map.
- Fixed a bug where Quality on the Sacrifice Skill was causing Minions to Revive 0-5% more slowly, instead of more quickly.
- Fixed a bug where the exit portal for the final boss in Trial of the Sekhemas did not visually display upon killing the boss.
- Fixed a bug where socketed Skills you didn’t meet the requirements for were missing their name in the Skills menu when using a controller.
- Fixed a bug where the Elemental Storm skill granted by the Stormweaver’s Tempest Caller Ascendancy Passive Skill could sometimes place the storm underneath you.
- Fixed a snapshotting bug with the “Loads an Additional Bolt” Crossbow modifier.
- Fixed a bug where the Contagion Skill was not spreading Poison.
- Fixed a bug where Tempest Bell could become invisible.
- Fixed a bug where NPCs were missing their name labels in Hideouts when using a controller.
- Fixed a bug where signing into a guest account on PlayStation 5 could delete your friends list in-game.
- Fixed a bug where you could sometimes be unable to enter your hideout on PlayStation 5.
- Fixed eight instance crashes.
- Fixed six client crashes.
- Fixed a client crash that could occur on Xbox.
- Fixed three client crashes that could occur on PlayStation 5.
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