Path of Exile 2 - Weekly Wednesday Live Stream - May 7, 2025

This was my second official weekly live stream since returning from the Netherlands. I’ll be honest, I’ve been struggling with motivation lately when it comes to playing Path of Exile 2 and streaming it. It just hasn’t felt the same since the 0.2 Dawn of the Hunt patch. I really enjoyed playing my Infernalist before that update, but lately, the fun’s been harder to find.

There are a few things that I think are making the game less enjoyable right now. The biggest one is the noticeable drop in damage output since the 0.2 patch. I think most players, including Grinding Gear Games, would agree on that. The goal was clearly to make the game more challenging and prevent players from one-shotting bosses. While I understand and even respect that design direction, it feels like they may have pushed it a bit too far. In the process, a lot of what made the game fun seems to have been stripped away.

My Infernalist Skeletal Sniper build is definitely not optimized, and I know there’s room for improvement. But right now, it feels like I’m driving a car with the gas pedal pressed all the way down and still not going any faster. That’s a frustrating feeling, and I doubt it's the kind of experience Grinding Gear Games wants players to have.

There is also an Infernalist-specific issue or possibly a bug that has been driving me crazy. In certain maps, especially ones with narrow corridors and lots of doors, my minions get stuck and are unable to follow me properly. I have had this happen multiple times, including during boss fights, where I suddenly find myself alone or with only two or three of my nineteen minions facing a group of enemies or a boss.

This is not a new issue. It has been happening since launch and clearly has not been addressed yet. The current system, where minions eventually respawn near you if you keep moving, is not a real solution. When they are stuck within visible range but cannot reach you, they are often too close to actually trigger the respawn mechanic.

Here you can see an example of this in action.

The last issue I want to mention is related to mapping. Since mapping is a major part of the endgame, it needs to be smooth and function reliably. Right now, I believe there’s a fundamental problem with how the network of map nodes and their connections is generated.

Take a look at the image above. This is a real example of something I encountered during my stream. After completing the node marked by the yellow arrow, I expected the two nodes marked by the red arrows to unlock. They did not. Instead, I had to go all the way around, which ended up requiring six additional maps just to reach the Corrupted Nexus.

If the intention is to make the Corrupted Nexus more difficult to reach, then the visuals should clearly reflect that. Right now, the layout looks like a tangled mess of connections, and it is very unclear which nodes are actually connected and which are not.

Looking forward to seeing you all on stream, in the comments on YouTube, or over on the Alphagamer forum!