They NERFED Stuff... But It's OK :) | Path of Exile: Return of the Ancients 0.5
Summary
- League Mechanic: Introduction of the Runes of Aldur, featuring 21 new Kalguuran skills and a variety of ancient runes for meta-crafting.
- Endgame Overhaul: 30 new map boss areas, the Origins of Divinity expansion, and the integration of Fata of the Vaal into the core game.
- Balance Philosophy: A massive shift toward increasing player defensibility (buffing Armor and Evasion) while tuning down “one-shot” offensive outliers to address endgame balancing issues.
- Defensive Changes: Significant nerfs to Energy Shield (ES) regeneration and scaling, balanced by a 15–33% increase in baseline Armor across high-level items.
- Skill Adjustments: Major nerfs to over-performing builds like Cast on Crit Comet, Lightning Arrow, and Oil Barrage, while totems and companion builds received structural buffs.
- Economy: Divine Orbs are now more abundant, while drop rates for “greater currencies” have been reduced to increase their rarity.
Mechanics & Endgame Updates
The primary league mechanic is Runes of Aldur, introducing ancient and mythical runes, fluxes, and meta-crafting tools. While these function similarly to a crafting bench, they are integrated directly into the league rewards.
- Kalguuran Skills: 21 new skills added, including Animus Exchange, Detonate Living, Frostflame, Skyfall, and Voltaic Barrier.
- New Supports: Includes Fist of Kalguur (unarmed melee buff), Healing Runes, and Runeforge Blades.
- Ocean Exploration: Logbooks have been replaced with an island-based exploration mechanic. Defeating faction leaders like Olroth grants keys to access new pinnacle content.
- The Atlas: Now features fixed points of interest and 30 new endgame boss areas. The Origins of Divinity adds two new citadels and the Arbiter of Divinity pinnacle boss.
- Masters of the Atlas: Each master now has a 12-node tree, with four selectable nodes providing specific buffs.
- Delirium: Simulacrum is now a seven-wave encounter with a new pinnacle boss.
- Breach: Addition of the Genesis Tree and 12 new Catalysts for jewels. Grasping Mail and new Breach-specific ring bases are expected to be high-value targets.
- Ritual: New boss, The Queen in the Mists, can drop three new Corrupted Idols.
- Vaal Temple Nerf: The “snake strategy” has been removed. Rooms that must be deleted will now turn into simple path rooms to prevent unintended currency generation.
- Abyss: Completing cracks now always leads to an Abyssal Depths boss fight.
Campaign Changes
The campaign has been streamlined for better replayability without allowing a full skip.
- Shortened Areas: Removed the second Dreadnought area in Act 2; players now proceed directly to Jamanra.
- Act 3 Flow: Reordered areas for smoother progression.
- Quality of Life: Waterway levers have been replaced with pressure pads.
- Monster Density: Reduced in the second half of the campaign and the Interludes to speed up progression.
Player Mechanics
- Bleed: Moving no longer increases bleed damage taken by players; it now ticks at a nominal rate.
- Leech: Multi-source leech is removed. The game now prioritizes the highest single source of leech, nerfing perpetual generation builds like Bloodmage Cast on Crit.
- Deflection & Parry: Deflection has been buffed, while Parry and Shield Block no longer delay heavy stun build-up decay.
- Melee Splash: Splash damage can now only apply once per damage area to prevent skills like Whirling Assault from instantly deleting bosses.
- Trinity: Renamed to Affinity to avoid confusion with the Resonance Keystone.
New Content
- Lineage Gems: New supports such as Arbiter’s Reach, Tul’s Avalanche, and Prototype 17.
- Uniques: Over 30 new uniques added, including Mageblood, Loreweave, Nightfall, Facebreakers, and Joffrey’s Sanctuary (Energy Shield based on Strength).
- Righteous Raven: The Ravens’ Flock unique can be broken down to runecraft the Righteous Raven (RF-style) effect onto other items.
- Social/UI: Quick revive for fallen party members after boss fights and the ability to skip NPC dialogue with the Escape key.
Ascendancy & Passive Tree Changes
- Ancestral Bond: Totems now have no placement cost and do not consume charges, but they reserve 75 Spirit each and double the totem limit.
- Vaal Pact: Reworked to match the Path of Exile 1 version. It grants 50% more life leeched but 67% less leech speed and prevents all non-leech recovery.
- Energy Shield Nerfs: Widespread nerfs to ES regeneration and recharge rates. Bastion of the Forest and Covered Ward have had their ES generation stats reduced or removed.
- Armor Buffs: New nodes like Fortified Aegis grant 100% increased Armor/Evasion from equipped shields.
- Companion Skills: Trusted Kinship now grants 30% more reservation efficiency for companion skills, incentivizing specialized minion builds.
Skill Changes
- Comet: Base scaling and infusion buffs reduced by approximately 20%. Sustaining Cast on Crit versions will be significantly harder due to leech changes.
- Shield Wall: The Fortifying Cry shockwave can no longer hit the same enemy multiple times from a single wall. However, this is partially offset by baseline increases to shield armor.
- Oil Barrage: “Drake” builds have been nerfed. Ignite compounding on oil ground is removed, and empowered channeling now consumes charges faster and deals 10% less damage.
- Rolling Slam: Significant damage reduction (shaving off nearly 200% high-point scaling) in exchange for a slightly faster attack time.
- Toxic Growth: Pustule limit and fire rate reduced by over 60%.
- Buffs: Earthquake increased to 666% scaling; Rolling Magma now chains more frequently; Wing Blast shockwave damage increased by 25%.
Item & Currency Changes
- Armor Scaling: High-level items now grant significantly more armor. At level 65, items have ~33% more armor, tapering to 15% more at level 80+.
- Energy Shield Scaling: ES items provide 8% more at level 65, but scaling is much harder in the late endgame.
- Weapon Modifiers: The “+ level of melee skills” modifier on two-handed weapons has been nerfed from +7 to +5 at Tier 1.
- Currency: Divine Orbs are more common. Omens of Recombination have been removed and deleted from existing inventories, as they are replaced by the new combination bench.