It’s been a rough start for ‘Dawn of the Hunt,’ Path of Exile 2‘s latest seasonal league. With massive overtuning on mobs and nerfs across the board for all classes, many players call it their worst experience yet with the ARPG. Can’t relate, personally – I’m playing Warrior. No thoughts, head empty, just smash. For many, amassing currency is as big a struggle as ever before, which leads to some players resorting to less conventional ways to make bank. Grinding Gear Games, developers of Path of Exile 2, aren’t happy about those taking advantage of their oversight. Now, they’re banning players who they believe are abusing the system they created.
In ‘Path of Exile 2,’ the rich get Ritual
For the unaware, here’s how it all works. In Path of Exile 2, late-game activities involve players repeatedly clearing instanced zones called Waystones, or “maps”. Within these maps, unique mechanics are often present, offering players additional methods of obtaining loot. One of those mechanics, Ritual, serves as a temporary shop, accessible after surviving several gauntlets of enemies.
This “shop” can contain virtually anything, from mundane weapons to the most valuable items in the game. By using “Tribute,” a currency earned through Ritual, players can reroll the items on display a certain number of times. Each reroll means a small chance at striking gold.
Maps in Path of Exile 2 can be enhanced, or “juiced,” through various methods. One method is through the Atlas Tree, which works similarly to the game’s Passive Skill Tree. By obtaining Atlas skill points, players can select permanent buffs to adjust specific parameters in their maps, like reducing the amount of Tribute needed to reroll their Rituals.
Another method, via the game’s Civilization-esque Atlas screen, involves placing Tablets into sporadically placed Towers for additional modifiers. Each player’s Atlas is randomly generated, and sometimes, multiple Towers can overlap. Essentially, if you’re lucky, you can double dip on the modifiers for some of your maps.
new ways to play, new ways to pay
Dawn of the Hunt introduces several new, unique Tablets into the mix. One of them, “Freedom of Faith,” is especially useful for the Ritual mechanic. Its modifier previously reads, “Can reroll Favours at Ritual Altars in your maps any number of times.” Other, more common Ritual tablets offer modifiers that reduce the cost of rerolling at Ritual altars. By combining said Tablets with specific Ritual nodes on the Atlas tree, players can effectively reduce the cost of rerolling to zero. With enough patience, players can peruse through the Ritual shop indefinitely until landing on some of the most valuable items.
Several Path of Exile 2 content creators, like Doth on YouTube and ckaiba9 on Twitch, would shine the spotlight on this strategy. Both players, along with around 300 others, have now been banned from playing this season. In fact, Grinding Gear Games is handing out account-wide bans, prohibiting offenders from making new characters on both PoE2 and PoE1. In a recent forum post, a representative from GGG claims they are also removing the ill-gotten wealth generated by the exploit. The “Freedom of Faith” Tablet will no longer offer infinite rerolls, either.
divine intervention
Unintentional consequences due to a massive oversight by Grinding Gear Games? Definitely. When thousands of valuable items suddenly flood the market, it can quickly destroy the game’s economy. However, players using legitimate options at their disposal makes calling it an exploit questionable.
It certainly has the Path of Exile community in a divide, with one forum poster saying, “As someone that’s not even playing 0.2, I’m absolutely disgusted that you’d ban anyone for using the new Tablet literally as designed.” Another user, claiming inconsistency with GGG’s handling, writes, “This would have been fine if you had also banned for crashing instances to get infinite temporalis in 0.1 but they didn’t.”
Others argue that knowingly abusing the system is common sense. “Were you salivating that you were about to become one of the richest people this league? And you are thinking this was legit way to do it? Farewell,” another user replies.
when the gears get to grindin’, ‘Path of Exile 2’ gets better and better
Grinding Gear Games, known for quickly addressing player feedback, is working tirelessly to improve the Path of Exile 2 experience. Yesterday, game directors Jonathan Rogers and Mark Roberts spent over two hours with content creator Zizaran, speaking about much of the community’s grievances. Shortly after, GGG would release a set of patch notes that address a majority of the issues discussed.
One thing’s for certain – Grinding Gear Games has some reverting ahead of them to save Dawn of the Hunt’s economy. Rather than taking it on the chin, however, it seems they’d rather send a message to players for indulging in the mess they started themselves.
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