Content Update 0.5.0 — Path of Exile 2: Return of the Ancients

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Telly_Krawallas#0493 wrote:

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lookinerator#4705 wrote:

So, not only essence crafting is now severely limited.

But also Omen of Putrefaction is completely removed, as we can have only one desecrated mod.
And it was a fun way to make a mid-tier items too.

That's sad.

Good point on the Omen of Putrefaction — worth spelling out explicitly: the Omen replaces all existing modifiers on an item with up to 6 unrevealed Desecrated modifiers. Under a hard cap of 1 Desecrated modifier per item, that mechanic becomes physically impossible to execute as intended. It's not nerfed — it ceases to function entirely. Gone by structural incompatibility rather than deliberate removal.

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On the "people beat endgame in 5 hours" comments: I'd gently suggest that those posts reveal more about the poster than about the criticism being made. Pointing to the fastest 0.1% of players to dismiss concerns about system design is a form of argument that only works if you assume the game is designed exclusively for them — which, to GGG's credit, it is not. It also conflates two entirely separate questions: whether the game can be beaten quickly, and whether its crafting systems are coherent and rewarding to engage with. These are not the same question. Someone can clear endgame in 5 hours and someone else can raise a structurally valid concern about crafting design — both things can be true simultaneously, and neither cancels the other.

If someone finds the game too easy, that is a legitimate experience. But using it as a rhetorical bludgeon against people asking design questions doesn't strengthen the argument — it just signals that the person doesn't have one.

Communities and games improve through people who engage seriously with the systems. That kind of engagement is not complaining. It is exactly what GGG has repeatedly said they want.

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On the substance: there are clearly valid reasons to cap deterministic modifiers. Perfect gear in 5 hours of playtime is not a design target anyone should be defending. That point is not in dispute.

But the specific problem isn't that the cap prevents overpowered outcomes — it's that it severs the relationship between investment and control that makes crafting meaningful in the first place. PoE2's design philosophy is that deeper engagement with league mechanics should translate into greater influence over your gear. That relationship is what makes running Abyss, mastering Essence stacking, or learning Alloy modifier pools feel rewarding — not just the output, but the sense that knowledge and effort are compounding into something.

A hard cap of 1 deterministic modifier breaks that structurally. It's like having 30 different ways to upgrade a sandwich and being told that regardless of how many techniques you've mastered, you may only apply one. The individual options remain. But the reason you invested in learning 30 techniques was the expectation that mastery compounds. When it doesn't, the systems don't feel balanced — they feel pointless to learn in depth.

The cap may be the right answer to the wrong problem. The issue is that power ceilings were too accessible too quickly — not that compounding itself should be eliminated. A cap is a blunt instrument where a slope might serve the design better.

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The Gravebind Unique Gloves now have 15-20% Increased Rarity of Items Found, and Your other Modifiers to Rarity of Items found do not apply.

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rastaqki#6957 wrote:

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Telly_Krawallas#0493 wrote:

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lookinerator#4705 wrote:

So, not only essence crafting is now severely limited.

But also Omen of Putrefaction is completely removed, as we can have only one desecrated mod.
And it was a fun way to make a mid-tier items too.

That's sad.

Good point on the Omen of Putrefaction — worth spelling out explicitly: the Omen replaces all existing modifiers on an item with up to 6 unrevealed Desecrated modifiers. Under a hard cap of 1 Desecrated modifier per item, that mechanic becomes physically impossible to execute as intended. It's not nerfed — it ceases to function entirely. Gone by structural incompatibility rather than deliberate removal.

---

On the "people beat endgame in 5 hours" comments: I'd gently suggest that those posts reveal more about the poster than about the criticism being made. Pointing to the fastest 0.1% of players to dismiss concerns about system design is a form of argument that only works if you assume the game is designed exclusively for them — which, to GGG's credit, it is not. It also conflates two entirely separate questions: whether the game can be beaten quickly, and whether its crafting systems are coherent and rewarding to engage with. These are not the same question. Someone can clear endgame in 5 hours and someone else can raise a structurally valid concern about crafting design — both things can be true simultaneously, and neither cancels the other.

If someone finds the game too easy, that is a legitimate experience. But using it as a rhetorical bludgeon against people asking design questions doesn't strengthen the argument — it just signals that the person doesn't have one.

Communities and games improve through people who engage seriously with the systems. That kind of engagement is not complaining. It is exactly what GGG has repeatedly said they want.

---

On the substance: there are clearly valid reasons to cap deterministic modifiers. Perfect gear in 5 hours of playtime is not a design target anyone should be defending. That point is not in dispute.

But the specific problem isn't that the cap prevents overpowered outcomes — it's that it severs the relationship between investment and control that makes crafting meaningful in the first place. PoE2's design philosophy is that deeper engagement with league mechanics should translate into greater influence over your gear. That relationship is what makes running Abyss, mastering Essence stacking, or learning Alloy modifier pools feel rewarding — not just the output, but the sense that knowledge and effort are compounding into something.

A hard cap of 1 deterministic modifier breaks that structurally. It's like having 30 different ways to upgrade a sandwich and being told that regardless of how many techniques you've mastered, you may only apply one. The individual options remain. But the reason you invested in learning 30 techniques was the expectation that mastery compounds. When it doesn't, the systems don't feel balanced — they feel pointless to learn in depth.

The cap may be the right answer to the wrong problem. The issue is that power ceilings were too accessible too quickly — not that compounding itself should be eliminated. A cap is a blunt instrument where a slope might serve the design better.

That is a lot of words for a guy who doesn't understand fundamental things.

Omen of Putrefaction is not gone. The limit of 1 desecrated mod on an item has been there since the release of the Abyss. That's why you can't desecrate an item twice. Omen of Putrefaction has always bypassed that limit, so there is no reason it shouldn't work after the patch.

The limit for crafted mods was necessary. Currently, you can craft almost a perfect weapon deterministically, from a magic base with one affix. Using 4 different essences on a single item is not an interesting crafting system.

You also don't know what other systems and runes will be there. I am guessing that there will be a multimod rune that will allow you to have more than 1 crafted mod. Or runes that make rolling/slamming an affix easier by limiting the pool.

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Insanity_Pilgrim#5447 wrote:

Jewellery orb changes are nice but ascendancy skills getting shafted by not getting included... sad manifest noises.