7 things that might get nerfed in Path of Exile 2's 0.3.0 League

Path of Exile 2’s patch 0.2.0 brought some of the biggest nerfs players have ever seen. The changes left everyone with a handful of options as a League starter and endgame builds, which by default became the meta in Dawn of the Hunt. In a Chinese interview, Game Director Jonathan Rogers revealed that the focus of Path of Exile 2’s next update is on improving underpowered Skill Gems and passives.

However, given the strength of some of the new items, a nerf may also come into effect. Let’s see which ones are most likely to receive it.

Note: The article is subjective and reflects the writer’s opinions.

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Possible nerfs in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.3.0

If a lot more skills become as strong as the current meta, there may not even be a need to make significant nerfs. However, we’ll need to wait for official patch notes to deduce Skill Gem and Ascendancy changes.

Regardless, here are seven skills that may see some nerfs in Path of Exile 2’s patch 0.3.0:

1) Beacon of Azis Solar Amulet

Beacon of Azis (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

Enemy elemental resistances can be tricky if you are using skills with a similar damage type. However, the unique ability of Beacon of Azis allows all critical hits to ignore those elemental resistances, making it a popular choice across crit-based builds.

It also provides a sizable chunk of Spirit to enable persistent skills. The devs may tweak the unique ability to ignore a percentage of enemy elemental resistance in patch 0.3.0 to balance this item further.

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2) Tangletongue Forked Spear

Tangletongue Forked Spear (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

Tangletongue is a weapon that can deal significant damage to an enemy if built around critical hit chance. The stats on it do not seem all that impressive, apart from its unique ability, “Forks Critical Hits.” It’s easy to read the word “Fork” and believe the spear may fork attacks to an additional enemy, but that’s not the case.

It forks critical hits from a skill for a chance to hit twice. If either of the rolls is successful, it will deal normal critical damage. However, if both rolls turn out to be a critical hit, then the critical damage hits twice, dealing three times the regular damage. With Huntress' Amazon Ascendacy, it’s easy to make sure all hits dealt are critical.

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3) Lightning Spear

Huntress using Lightning Spear (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

Lightning Spear is the most popular Skill Gem in Path of Exile 2, added in patch 0.2.0. It works as a one-click solution to chain lightning to clear a large area. We’re two weeks away from the next major update, and the skill still accounts for almost half of the builds in Dawn of the Hunt League.

Its chain effect can eliminate enemies that aren’t even on the screen, making it one of the prime contenders for a nerf next season. Dethroning Lightning Spear from the top spot is Herald of Lightning, also one of the most popular skills used with it for additional damage.

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4) Amazon Ascendancy passives

Amazon Ascendancy for Huntress in Path of Exile 2 (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

Amazon is one of the two Ascendancies for Huntress that benefits from stacking accuracy to gain critical hit chance. One of her passives, Critical Strike, allows Accuracy to exceed 100% which then provides a bump to the base critical chance of any weapon or skill she wields.

In theory, any skill can work well with this, but many of them got nerfed, leaving only a handful as a damage dealer, which included Lightning Spear. It’s hard to determine what form of nerf it will see, considering GGG will also buff a lot of Skill Gems in patch 0.3.0. A nerf to the skill may be a nerf to this passive.

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5) Chaos-based skills

Contagion Skill Gem (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

Even without a proper setup, Chaos-based skills like Contagion and Essence Drain are currently some of the strongest mobbing skills. A single cast of each of them can clear a room full of enemies, and paired with Lich Ascendancy passives, it can even take down rare monsters in the pack.

Although the only reason they seem strong is that a majority of other skills got nerfed. Contagion may see a change in the amount of damage it does after chaining to enemies, or may receive an indirect nerf through other supporting items or skills.

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6) Energy Shield

Energy Shield Notable passive in Path of Exile 2 (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

One of the biggest complaints with patch 0.2.0 was the survivability issue, which persisted since the release. However, the Witch and Sorceress have access to some powerful Energy Shield passives that improve the recharge rate and reduce the recharge delay to less than a second.

Paired with Convalescence for uninterrupted recharge and Chaos Inoculation for removing direct damage to health, it is currently the best defensive option. The passives may not see a direct nerf, but instead get rearranged across the passive tree.

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7) Lich Ascendancy passives

Lich Ascendancy for the Witch in Path of Exile 2 (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

Lich was the new Ascendancy for the Witch and a popular combination with Chaos-based skills like Essence Drain, Contaign, and Blasphemy. Her passive nodes, like Dominion Over Flesh, paired with Keystones like Whispers of Doom, allowed three curses on a single enemy.

Cursed enemies have a 33% chance of exploding on death due to Rupture the Soul, making this a powerful combination. Additionally, the Crystalline Phylactery passive provides double the benefits from a non-unique jewel, which acts as another source of damage or survivability based on the requirement.

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It’s possible that Grinding Gear Games may not nerf things to oblivion. However, a few of them, like the Lightning Spear with Tangletongue, were way more dominant in the meta and are likely to see significant changes.

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Read more Path of Exile 2 articles here:

• 5 biggest things we expect from Path of Exile 2 patch 0.3.0
• 4 best one-button builds for an easy time in Path of Exile 2
• Path of Exile 2 August League will follow new Last Epoch season yet again
• Everything we know about Path of Exile 2's leaked Martial Artist Monk Ascendancy