Path of Exile 2 Hands-Off Preview - Introducing the Ranger Class and Path of Exile 3.24

Grinding Gear Games is kicking off the spring season with a wealth of updates centered around the upcoming Path of Exile 2, among other announcements to their slate of games. We had a chance to preview the latest news on Path of Exile 2 specifically, as well as a separate deep dive into new content reveals for the original Path of Exile.

As it’s been a few months since the team spoke about the Mercenary, a lot has changed during that time. When the Mercenary was announced, they showed off a lot of the new capabilities the game engine has for animation and character control. Being able to move and shoot is a big deal with this class, but there’s also a lot of other things going on that add to the experience.

For the purpose of the event, we took a look at the Ranger, which is a class that was developed with high agility – think Legolas from The Lord of the Rings as an example.

As with any archer-like class, the starting point begins with shooting a bow, and any basic arrow skill can be fired while moving with a movement penalty. This immediately allows for more freedom on the field, such as using a Poisonburst Arrow, then switching to a Lighting Arrow to take on larger packs of enemies.

There’s also a number of skills that involve vaulting around the battlefield. For example, Frost Escape will jump the player backwards and shoot a freezing arrow at the ground. You can take advantage of this extra time by using Snipe, which is a skill shot that charges up and has to be released at exactly the right time. Should you land the timing, Snipe is a guaranteed critical strike, along with a small area of effect.

Rangers can move while shooting arrow rain skills as well. The Lightning Rod skill can shoot an arrow that sticks into the ground and causes a small AoE. Once there, they attract arcs of lightning that are nearby and make them explode again. These can be stacked for even more damage.

To take on bigger enemies in Path of Exile 2, there is the Stormcaller Arrow skill. This one sticks an arrow into an enemy and after a short time, a lightning bolt strikes the enemy from the sky with a chance to shock and deal 30% more damage from all sources.

This combo can be enhanced by using the support gem system. Skills in Path of Exile are granted by Skill Gems – each of which has colored sockets and modify your skills and offer a variety of personal customization.

For example, taking the Multiple Projectiles support gem, you can add it to your Lightning Arrow and it can fire multiple arrows at multiple targets. Should you add it to your Lightning Rod skill instead, then you can get a group of Lightning Rods and not have to spend as much time setting up before executing the combo.

Next, we were given a look at the Ranger’s poison and plant skill set, such as the Vine Arrow. This skill can fire an arrow and create a small plant where it lands that then sends out tendrils that can poison enemies in proximity. Not only can it slow them down and poison them, but the more the plant gets poisoned, the more it transfers said poison to monsters it’s attached to.

Usually you can only get one stack of poison on a monster at a time, but this plant will allow you to use as much as you want.

Another useful skill that uses poison is the Poison Bloom Arrow, and this skill can create plant pustules on the ground that will eventually explode. Shoot the Poisonburst Arrow at enemies nearby and plants will become more powerful.
For a little extra oomph, the Pierce Support can be added to create multiple poison bursts as it goes through each enemy.

The Gas Cloud Arrow is a skill that creates a cloud of gas that continuously poisons things inside of it. The Ranger can also make use of a skill called Plague Bearer, which is a reservation skill that uses Spirit. When it’s enabled, it gets a counter that goes up every time poison is applied to an enemy in order to cause a ton of damage.

For something a little more typical, Path of Exile 2 gives the Ranger the Rain of Arrows skill, which shoots a bunch of arrows that rain down after a short time in order to create a AoE for long range damage. While this skill doesn’t last very long, it can be altered with Frenzy charges.

Frenzy charges are used for a number of skills with Rangers, but in this particular case they can be used to extend the duration of Rain of Arrows as well as add many more arrows to the ability.

In order to activate this, you’ll need to use a skill called Sniper’s Mark, which is put on an enemy and will grant a frenzy charge for landing a critical hit. The Snipe skill specifically can guarantee said critical hit as an example.

Firstly, you’ll need to use Sniper’s Mark on an enemy, then Snipe them, and then use Rain of Arrows for a longer lasting version of that skill. Be careful, however, as Rain of Arrows can hit a lot of enemies at once but doesn’t offer a lot of damage by itself.

Rain of Arrows can deal more damage using the Corrode Armor support gem, and it can be applied to the Gas Cloud Arrow. Carrow Armor causes poison to erode armor on targets until it’s completely gone, and this can really increase the damage for the Rain of Arrows skill against armored targets.

Gas clouds can be detonated with explosions using the Explosive Arrow, and using the Exploit Weakness support, an extra bonus damage is applied to targets who have their armor broken. These are just some of the skills that will be available for the Ranger class in Path of Exile 2.

If you want to read more about Path of Exile 2, we got our hands on it at PAX East and enjoyed our time with it.

Alongside this new look at Path of Exile 2, the team shared some new announcements related to the original Path of Exile. The 3.24 expansion is on the way, titled Path of Exile: Necropolis.

First Look at Path of Exile: Necropolis

In this expansion, you’ll encounter the Undertaker Arimor – a man who collects the spirits of the Eternal Empire for a mysterious purpose. The Undertaker will provide you with the Lantern of Arimor, a powerful family heirloom which can illuminate wrathful spirits haunting monsters throughout Wraeclast. The Undertaker hopes to employ you to rid Wraeclast of this menace and further his own mysterious cause.

The lantern can be used upon entering any new area – peering through it will allow you to examine Spirits haunting that specific area. Using the lantern also allows you to manipulate them, and configure which monsters are affected by which mods.

The lantern also offers up extra details on packs of monsters in a given area. For example, Rhoas are considered Common, whilst Water Elementals are rarer. The lantern can also detail the types of abilities monsters use, or the types of damage they deal, which works out great for anyone who might not be familiar with them.

With spirits constantly moving through Wraeclast, you can use the lantern again to see if anything has changed should an area prove too difficult. That said, powerful spirits offer up powerful rewards, and not all of them are malicious anyway. These Devoted spirits can grant rewards such as increased experience or spawning the Nameless Seer, a NPC that grants a single unique item once you defeat all of the packs affected by that spirit.

Crafting comes into play in Necropolis in a big way. The crafting effect on corpses, for example, can be used to exorcise to create an item. For example, if you were to try to create boots, you can bury corpses that increase the chance of getting Move Speed modifiers, or other crafting projects that can go on in the cemetery.

There are new items unique to the Necropolis league using this system – you might find the corpses of famous Eternal Empire families, and when you bury an entire one together and exorcise them, they grant you something unique to their lineage such as the Nevalius Inheritance belt.

In terms of how this League will work with Endgame Maps, each one will allow you to manipulate it using the lantern on the map device UI. Instead of randomly cycling every few minutes, it’s fixed to that map. During the Necropolis League there will also be support for the league on the Atlas Passive Tree. Multiple clusters will be there which lets you enhance gameplay and customize it in meaningful ways. These clusters, however, will not be available in Standard League.

Further endgame improvements in Path of Exile 3.24 include new bosses, adding another tier of maps, and streamlining the Atlas. There will be a lot more flexibility in what content you want to run in the Endgame, such as multiple copies of the Atlas Tree, which can be swapped at will. You can unlock up to two extra trees (three total) by progressing through the core endgame content.

Another set of Transfigured gems will be added including Ice Shot, Artillery Ballista, Incinerate, Kinetic Blast, Elemental Hit, Tornado, Summon Holy Relic, Static Strike, Poisonous Concoction, and Fireball. There will also be balances made to existing Transfigured Gems, along with other quality of life updates. Path of Exile: Necropolis will be available across all platforms on March 29.

TechRaptor was invited to preview Path of Exile 2 at a digital event by the publisher.