Following player criticism, Path of Exile 2 is taking urgent action and launching a campaign to regain the trust of action RPG fans. The Dawn of the Hunt season premiere wasn’t as spectacular as its creators had hoped.

The latest season of Path of Exile 2 has fallen short of expectations. Despite offering a flood of new features and improvements with the Dawn of the Hunt update, many action RPG fans have responded with negative feedback and harsh reviews on Steam. Criticisms have targeted class balance, particularly the performance of the new Huntress class and summoners. In response, Grinding Gear Games has already released an initial patch with some adjustments. However, many players are calling for even more changes and have encouraged the developers to study their competitors for inspiration.

“Grinding Gear Games. Teach us how to play Path of Exile 2. That’s all it takes. Just have someone from the company play a stream explaining their vision. Then we’ll finally know exactly what you all want and what we can expect,” one Reddit user wrote. Other fans pointed to content from one of the leading developers behind Last Epoch, who regularly shares updates and tips about that game’s progress and strategies.

Interestingly, Last Epoch became indirectly involved in the PoE 2 controversy when its developers delayed their own content season to avoid overlapping with the launch of Dawn of the Hunt. Among the strongest complaints from the PoE community is the substantial nerfing of summoners. “I can’t find the right words to describe how disappointed I am with minions and especially the Wraith Gem,” another player wrote. “I always support GGG, but I swear to God I’d bet money that no one has tried these new gems before.”

Path of Exile 2’s Attack Plan

The poor reception of Dawn of the Hunt prompted Grinding Gear Games to acknowledge the game’s pressing issues and commit to addressing them swiftly—some fixes have already been implemented. One of the first areas targeted was map design: players were reportedly spending too much time in Act 3 of the campaign due to oversized zones or bugs that reset progress, forcing them to replay entire sections.

On their official website, GGG shared a detailed breakdown of the changes made to Act 3’s structure. This includes removing a dead end in The Drowned City that was meant to lead to a future location, which hasn’t yet been implemented. Other areas were scaled down, and the readability of the maps was improved to make exits easier to find.

Major changes have also been made to how summoners function. GGG’s original goal was to better balance endgame content, but reducing the health and damage of summoned minions so drastically made the summoner class nearly unplayable during the main campaign. To resolve this, minion stats will be raised closer to their previous levels, and adjustments will be made to how debuffs affect them. At the same time, monster health across the board had been significantly increased, which only made the problem worse.

With these new changes, players will find that enemy health has now been reduced by 25%. This adjustment also affects minions accompanying elite monsters, which were sometimes stronger than the actual bosses. Their health has reportedly been lowered by approximately 60%.

Grinding Gear Games has also acknowledged an issue with the new Huntress class, particularly her parry mechanic, which most players are avoiding entirely. Her strength is tied to reacting to enemy attacks and gaining Frenzy charges through well-timed parries, which unlock powerful abilities. Although there is an alternative method to earn Frenzy, it is unlocked very late in the game, leaving the character weak in the early acts.

To fix this, GGG is introducing a new passive ability called Cull the Weak, which lets players charge at enemies and earn Frenzy when they’re defeated. This addition is expected to roll out within days. With these changes, the studio is trying to show that it takes criticism seriously and is committed to making the necessary improvements. Now it’s up to the players to decide if it’s enough.

Source: 3djuegos