Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.2 – Dawn of the Hunt Overview

Path of Exile 2’s Patch 0.2, Dawn of the Hunt, arrives on Friday, April 4, 2025. This major update introduces a brand-new class, new ascendancies, innovative crafting systems, unique maps, and significant changes to the endgame experience. Below is a detailed overview of what to expect.

What’s Included in Dawn of the Hunt?
This patch marks the first major update for Path of Exile 2, featuring:

• The Huntress, a new class with two Ascendancies

• Introduction of Spears and Bucklers as weapon types

• New ascendancies for Mercenary, Warrior, and Witch

• 25 new Skill Gems

• Over 100 new Support Gems

• More than 100 new Unique Items

• Reworked Endgame Towers

• Changes to the Corruption mechanic

• Eight new unique maps

• Azmerian Wisps appearing across Wraeclast

• Intense encounters with Rogue Exiles

• Tiered Runes and socketable Talismans

• Four new Unique Strongboxes

• Expanded crafting options

The Huntress – New Class and Weapons
The Huntress is a dexterity-focused Azmeri warrior wielding a spear and buckler. She excels in agile combat, weaving melee and ranged attacks while darting in and out of danger. This class introduces two new weapon categories:

• Spears: A new weapon type with distinct skills

• Bucklers: A lightweight shield connected to the new Parry ability

Parry allows players to block attacks by holding the skill. Successfully parrying debuffs enemies, making them vulnerable to follow-ups—this is core to the Huntress’s playstyle.

She comes with two Ascendancies:

• Amazon: A skilled duelist and protector of Azmeri elders

• Ritualist: A darker path, drawing power from ritual sacrifices

New Ascendancies for Core Classes
Dawn of the Hunt also adds three new ascendancies for existing classes:

• The Tactician (Mercenary): A battlefield commander with support and crowd control capabilities, effective in melee combat

• The Smith of Kitava (Warrior): A powerful blacksmith crafting weapons mid-fight, empowered by Kitava’s wrath

• The Lich (Witch): Sacrifices part of her soul via a Phylactery gem, mastering Chaos and Curses

(Note: Some ascendancy details were corrected after early previews.)

New Skills, Minions, and Companions
Beyond spears and parry, this update adds long-awaited skills:

• Raise Spectre: Trap souls of monsters to summon spirits that consume Spirit and revive automatically

• Summon Rhoa: Calls a Rhoa companion usable as a mount, allowing ranged spear attacks while riding

• Tame Beast: Converts defeated rare enemies into summons retaining their modifiers

Summon Rhoa and Tame Beast belong to a new Companion minion category. Only one companion can be active unless a keystone allows two, but never duplicates.

Over 100 New Support Gems and Unique Items
This update adds over 100 new Support Gems, providing players with extensive build customization options. Additionally, more than 100 new Unique Items are introduced, many designed to enhance power spikes in mid to late-game. A fresh category of Unique Charms and socketable Talismans will drop from infused monsters, adding new layers of strategy and itemization.

Major Endgame Reworks
Dawn of the Hunt brings significant adjustments to the endgame:

• More Map Portals Early On: Early map progression grants extra revives per map instead of the usual one-death limit. The number of portals decreases with content difficulty, returning to normal over time.

• Azmerian Wisps: These ethereal spirits wander areas and flee when approached. Upon contacting monsters, they possess and empower them with enhanced abilities and loot. Some Wisps target Rare or Unique enemies. There are 12 Wisp types, each linked to distinct mechanics and rewards, including new Talismans that can be socketed into gear.

• Rogue Exiles: NPC Exiles controlled by player-like AI challenge players with skillful dodging, repositioning, and attacks. They drop excellent loot but will flee if they defeat you first.

Towers and Corruption Zones

• Towers: Tower density is reduced but each tower is more impactful. Towers now scale with Waystone tiers, influence more maps, and allow running up to three tablets simultaneously. Several new Unique Tablets are introduced for added effects.

• Corruption Zones and Cleansed Maps: Corruption has spread further, introducing Corrupted Nexuses with three powerful bosses. Defeating them cleanses nearby maps, unlocking new monsters, modifiers, bosses, and rewards, including the new Fracturing Orb.

Essences Overhaul
Essence encounters can now be corrupted with Vaal Orbs, producing varied effects. This may duplicate essences, upgrade them, or transform them into one of four new Corrupted Essences: Hysteria, Delirium, Horror, and Insanity. Each corrupted essence offers unique crafting possibilities, allowing for deeper item customization.

New Unique Maps
Eight new endgame maps are added, featuring exciting challenges:

• The Fractured Lake: Battle mirrored rare monsters in pairs. Completing the map rewards crafted amulets or rings with enhanced modifiers.

• Ezomyte Megaliths: Activate rune stones to trigger up to 10 waves of boss fights. Rewards grow with each wave, including chances to earn Greater Runes.

• The Silent Cave: Free and defeat rare monsters trapped in Essence crystals. Each release powers up the boss, letting players decide their level of risk.

Unique Strongboxes
Four new strongbox encounters are introduced:

• Ogham’s Legacy: Revives a rare monster repeatedly, with each resurrection adding modifiers and increasing reward potential.

• Ixchel’s Torment: A Vaal Technology-themed strongbox dropping unique items with corrupted effects.

• The remaining two strongboxes remain unannounced, encouraging exploration across the Atlas.

New Crafting Options
Dawn of the Hunt debuts Recombination Crafting. At a Recombination bench unlocked after your first Expedition, you can combine two items and select modifiers to transfer. The chance of success decreases with the number of selected modifiers, and failure destroys both items.

Fracturing Orbs are also introduced, along with the new Corrupted Essences, allowing advanced gear customization for dedicated players.