I didn't expect all of THIS to be added in 0.5

2026-05-22By GhazzyTVWatch videoDuration: PT2H36M2S

Summary

New League (Ruins of Al-Dur): Introduces Remnants for custom item crafting using Rune recipes and the new Verrisium currency.
Runic Ward: A new defense mechanic that activates when the player reaches one life, regenerating independently of health.
Atlas Overhaul (Origins of Divinity): A complete reset and redesign of the end-game. Atlas passive points are now earned through “Fortress” and “Tower” maps. Completion allows for allocating the entire 300+ node tree.
Masters of the Atlas: An ascendancy-style progression for the end-game featuring three masters (Yahto, Order of the Djinn, and Hilda) with swappable bonuses.
Massive Energy Shield Nerfs: Widespread reductions to energy shield recharge rates and start delays across the passive tree and items.
Minion Meta Shift: Introduction of Minion Splash supports and Rage support for minions, while the “Infernal Legion” weapon-swap playstyle has been significantly nerfed.
Quality of Life: In-game price checking, native build guide support, and the return of the resistance-swapping “Harvest” craft via Fluxes.

The 0.5 update introduces the Ruins of Al-Dur League. In this economy, players encounter Remnants in every area.

Crafting: Use Rune recipes to choose an item to craft. The difficulty of the resulting encounter depends on the rune shapes used; additional shapes increase enemy waves and add runic modifiers.
Verrisium: Defeated Remnant monsters drop Verrisium metal. This currency is used with the new NPC, Pharaoh, for Verrisium Rune Forging.
Runic Ward: This new defense can be added to armor using Verrisium.
- For gear under level 55, there is no downside.
- For gear above level 55, regular base defenses are traded for Runic Ward.
- Runic Ward protects the player once they reach one life and regenerates separately from health.
Resistance Swapping: Three new Fluxes allow for swapping resistances between elements (Fire, Cold, Lightning), bringing back a highly requested mechanic similar to PoE 1’s Harvest crafting.
Unique Upgrades: Act 3 unlocks the ability to upgrade the base types of unique armors below level 55, making low-level uniques viable for the end-game.

The Atlas has been completely reset with a new fixed-point layout and a dedicated storyline.

Progression: The previous method of gaining Atlas points is replaced. Players must now complete maps inside the “Fortress” to earn passive points.
Atlas Tree: The tree has expanded to over 300 nodes. Upon completion of the Fortress maps, players will have enough points to allocate the entire tree, removing the need for respecialization.
Masters of the Atlas: This new system functions like a second ascendancy for the end-game. Players align with masters (Yahto, the Order of the Djinn, or Hilda) to gain asymmetric bonuses.
- There are 12 nodes per master; players can select four at a time and swap them freely between maps.
Pinnacle Bosses: All pinnacle bosses now have a deterministic quest version and a more challenging repeatable version.

Several core leagues have been revamped for PoE 2’s end-game:

Delirium: Features a new hub (The Withered Willow). A progress bar now tracks fog depth and duration. Map bosses are always 100% delirious. The Simulacrum is now a condensed 7-wave encounter.
Breach: Located in the Monastery of the Keepers. Introduces the Genesis Tree, the sole source for Catalysts. Breachstone Splinters now stack into “Womb Gifts” used for crafting high-end jewelry and belts.
Ritual: Based in Caer Tarth. All rewards are now either Uniques or Omens. Players can sacrifice unspent tribute to face the King in the Mist. Defeating him grants access to the “Rite of the Nameless,” a 5-map continuous ritual challenge.
Fate of the Vaal: Now core. Aseries Temple is found on the Atlas. Rooms can be upgraded to Tier 4. Quality requirements for Infusers have been standardized to 20%+.

Energy Shield (ES) has seen massive across-the-board nerfs to its recovery mechanics.

Recharge Rate: Small passives and major notables providing energy shield recharge rate have been cut by approximately 50% or removed entirely.
Recharge Start: Values for “Faster Start of Energy Shield Recharge” have been significantly reduced (e.g., from 15% down to 6% on small nodes).
Itemization: Suffixes for “Faster Start of Energy Shield Recharge” can no longer roll on Focis, Intelligence body armors, or Jewels.
Vaael Pact: Now grants 50% more life leeched but 67% less life leech speed; life recovery is restricted exclusively to leech.

The minion playstyle receives both new tools and significant mechanical fixes.

New Support Gems:
- Minion Splash & Minion Splash 2: Grants melee splash to minion strikes, significantly improving clear speed for melee-based summons.
- Rage Support: Now compatible with minion skills.
Infernal Legion Nerf: Level 3 Infernal Legion is no longer obtainable. The fire damage taken by minions and dealt to enemies has been reduced from 20% to 10% of max life.
Bug Fixes/Mechanical Changes:
- The “immortality” exploit involving weapon-swapping with Last Gasp or Tek’war’s Revenge has been fixed; minions will now die as intended.
- Pounce: Cooldown increased to 5.1–6 seconds.
- Shield Wall: No longer able to “shotgun” (hit the same enemy multiple times with shockwaves from a single wall).
Leech Mechanics: Leech is now limited to a single instance per resource (Life/Mana/ES) at a time. Hits exceeding 40,000 damage are capped at 40,000 for the purpose of leech calculations.

Divine Orbs: These have been made significantly more common.
Crafting Currencies: Greater Orbs of Transmutation and Augmentation are now rarer but have lower level requirements (44).
Corruptions: The outcome that randomizes numerical values now multiplies existing values rather than re-rolling them, making it a “Divine Orb sink.”
Unique Reworks:
- Atziri’s Acuity: Now provides Vaal Pact and a new skill, “Herald of the Royal Queen.”
- Soul Mantle: Removed the totem life penalty; now provides +75 Spirit.
- Blackflame: Now causes Wither to increase fire damage taken and prevents Wither from expiring on ignited enemies.

In-Game Price Check: Use Shift + Alt + Click on an item to search the trade market with pre-populated filters.
Build Guide Support: Players can load .build files directly into the client to follow passive tree and gem recommendations.
Dialogue: Players can now skip NPC dialogue by pressing Escape.
Revives: Fallen party members can be quickly revived after a boss is defeated.
Search: Increased Atlas search box limits to 250 characters and improved search functionality for advanced item descriptions.