Path of Exile 2.6.0 – Necessary Knowledge for the Patch

In just a couple of weeks' time Path of Exile will be treated to one rather important update and while some things might be a tad on the miniscule side to be considered important to the average player; there is in fact a lot here for players to want to keep an eye on for improvements to their character. Obvious there is a lot I could point out to begin with, but I feel it necessary to only highlight the most important aspects of this brand new update!

Let's start off with something on the simple side; but also incredibly important: the passive tree!

-Physical attack damage to cold is now considerably more efficient for the player – meaning that the use of ice-based abilities and skills are even better than they were before. More specifically, ice focused builds when the patch drops are going to become even stronger than ever before!

-Users who focus solely on the use of claws, staffs, and swords are receiving an overall buff to increase their general power; regardless of their levels.

-Leech effects located in the Shadow area of the tree no longer leech life specifically from physical attacks – instead they leech life from all attacks and will make many builds a lot more survivable.

-The area near the Shadow and the Ranger has been made more efficient for players to build around it and as such will lead to better and more improved builds in the long run.

In terms of elemental conversion, it's best to keep an eye out on your elemental damage when the patch drops. It mainly focuses on unique items that convert one elemental damage type to another, which in some builds was incredibly useful and even overpowered to some degree; as such the stats have been lowered in this new patch.

On the upside to this, however is that converting physical damage to elemental damage, at least for some abilities is now somewhat easier in the long run and does help  make up for the loss of some elemental conversion.

Finding yourself without a real use for that one-handed weapon that's been sat in storage for so long? Well, rejoice in the fact that Grinding Gear Games have buffed a vast amount of single-handed weapons to increase their usage outside of just daggers. This change is going to bring some significant stat-boosts to one-handed weapons and might be the reason that people start making good use of swords once more.

With these new weapon changes some of the skills have needed a few moderations – with the following skills gaining these changes:

-Sunder: Now it deals more damage upon the initial direct hit, but from then on any secondary effects cause less damage on each hit.

-Ice Crash: Damage has been increased in total.

-Blade Furry: Damage in total has been reduced – in part down to how much damage it originally dealt in comparison to all other skills currently available.

Not only did the skills get some changes, but some Vaal auras acquired some changes:

-Vaal Haste: Grants a slightly lower value of attack, cast speed, and move speed.

-Vaal Discipline: No longer grants any extra energy shield – a change that definitely might weaken the use of this aura to some degree.

In terms of changes, it's not all doom and gloom; the Threshold Jewels have finally gained some much needed changes and adjustments to make them a viable option for your build:

-Heavy Strike: Now grants 20% chance for double damage; however it is limited to only 2.

-Viper Strike: Grants 10% chance to gain Unholy Might on hit per each poison stack on an enemy; currently limited to 1.

-Vigilant Strike: Grants allies Fortify for 20 seconds; also limited to 1.

There are more changes on the way, but these are the major one's that any player who enjoys their time in Path of Exile will want and need to know about for their next build!