Path of Exile 2 Rise of the Abyssal Patch Review covers the early access content update commonly referred to as The Third Edict, which includes the Rise of the Abyssal league and major gameplay changes. This patch matters now because it adds Act Four, reworks core systems like support gems and essences, introduces new endgame structures, and launches a fresh league economy with new mechanics. Grinding Gear Games has announced a synchronized release across supported platforms with a free weekend window at launch. This review summarizes only verified information from official patch notes, developer FAQs, and launch posts. It avoids speculation and uses the exact terms presented by the developers. Note that GGG also uses the plural form Rise of the Abyssals in some materials; where naming differs, we keep the official phrasing used in each source.
Quick Summary Of Rise Of The Abyssal
- New campaign chapter: Act Four, set across a non linear island chain in the Ngamakanui archipelago.
- Interludes replace the old Cruel difficulty, taking characters to around level 65 before endgame.
- New challenge league: Rise of the Abyssal, with fissure events, Abyssal Depths, and league specific bosses and rewards.
- Support Gem System Overhaul, including removal of the one per type limit and new multi tier supports.
- Major character balance changes across core mechanics, ailments, defenses, and class tools.
- New skill gems, persistent buff gems, keystones, and a set of endgame only Lineage Supports.
- Essence Rework with four tiers and updated behavior for how essences add guaranteed modifiers.
- Endgame structure updates, including splinter based access to pinnacle content and a new Uber Arbiter encounter.
- Waystone modifier rework with paired upsides and downsides, and new Corrupted Nexus access path.
- Economy and trade updates, including Asynchronous Trade support via Merchant’s Tabs.
- Quality of life and UI improvements, including mail, waypoint access, item icons, and NVIDIA Reflex re enablement.
- Platform details and launch day predownload guidance confirmed for PC and consoles.
Path Of Exile 2 Rise Of The Abyssal Patch Review: How To Start And Access The Content
To play in the new Rise of the Abyssal league economy, create a new character and select the Rise of the Abyssal banner on the character creation screen. Existing Path of Exile 2 early access characters remain available in their standard league, but the new league starts fresh. GGG confirmed a free weekend at launch and a synchronized go live time across PC, Steam, Epic, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5.
If you plan to use the new Asynchronous Trade system, you can convert eligible Premium Stash Tabs to Merchant’s Tabs on the website once patch 0.3.0 is deployed. Merchant’s Tabs are also available as a new tab purchase after the patch. The studio noted how to predownload on PC with a torrent for the standalone client and that consoles can predownload directly before launch.
Account holders can create private Rise of the Abyssal leagues. When the servers go live, you can join the new league, or remain in standard and continue progress there. If you continue with an existing character, balance changes may require passive refunds or skill updates as per the patch notes.
Path Of Exile 2 Rise Of The Abyssal Patch Review: Core Patch Theme And New Mechanics
The patch theme revolves around ancient Abyssal forces emerging through fissures across the world. In zones, you encounter fissures that drain monsters, which in turn causes Abyssal foes to surface with extra necromantic powers. You defeat waves, close the abyss, and open troves that can include league rewards. The league escalates through the story and grows in strength and scope as you level.
During the campaign, you discover the Well of Souls, beginning in Act Two. This system lets you reveal and transform a Desecrated modifier into one of three options to shape your gear. While leveling, it helps you add regular modifiers more easily to items. In endgame, it unlocks modifiers not previously craftable, expanding item outcomes. The Well of Souls can also affect your Waystones, adding new modifiers that raise challenge and reward.
Ancient bones found while closing Abysses can imbue items with hidden Abyssal modifiers. This links campaign progress with item crafting. The league also includes Abyssal Depths areas and an Ancient Spire encounter where you face commanders tied to league progression. Standard, Hardcore, and Solo Self Found versions are available, with private league support using the same mechanics.
Campaign And Acts
Act Four adds eight islands across the Ngamakanui archipelago. You reach Kingsmach, hire a ship, and set sail to track down a weapon related to the Third Edict storyline. Each island has its own layout and threat profile, with bosses anchoring the major combat beats. The act is non linear. You can visit the islands in any order.
Cruel difficulty has been removed. Instead, the game now features temporary interludes that carry your character to level 65, which is where endgame starts under this patch. If you are a returning player with a standard early access character, you can continue in endgame or go back to Act Three town and speak to the NPC that routes you into Act Four if you want to see the new campaign content.
Skills Gems And Combat
This update overhauls support gems. The previous rule limiting one support gem of each type per character is removed. You can now use multiple copies of the same support across your build. Support gems now have tiers that you acquire through progression. Upper tiers can offer stronger values, extra stats, or changes in how they work compared to tier one.
The patch adds 11 new support gems. It also introduces 40 endgame only Lineage Supports. GGG renamed some supports whose older names did not clearly convey what they do. Certain legacy gems are no longer engravable in the Gemcutting menu and will be removed on login, based on the support list in the patch notes. Wording changes clarify supports that add cooldowns, the behavior of Last Gasp for minions, and handling of supports that affect skills you use yourself. In those cases, supports do not extend to totem or trigger use, unless explicitly stated.
If you do not meet attribute requirements for some socketed supports, only those supports are disabled now, rather than the entire skill. Infusion supports were renamed to Attunement for elemental versions to match current terms.
New skill gems
Include warcries, bow or spear setups, cross class persistent buffs, and spells. Examples include Fortifying Cry, Forge Hammer, Ancestral Cry, Toxic Domain, Ice Tipped Arrows, and Frost Darts. New persistent buff gems include Iron Ward, Mortar Cannon, Mirage Archer, Ravenous Swarm, and Siphon Elements. There is also a rework of Grim Feast, which now consumes remains of reviving minions and revives based on their maximum life. These additions enlarge the active kit across strength, dexterity, and intelligence themes.
Combat rules are updated. Player evasion now applies to all hits except boss skills marked by a red flash. The evasion formula has been tuned. Blocking is no longer restricted to strikes and projectiles by default. Unless a hit is specifically flagged unblockable with a red flash, it can be blocked. Raise Shield and Parry now require facing the source of the hit. Base maximum block chance for players, minions, and monsters now uses a new cap from the patch notes.
Ignite no longer comes inherently from fire damage as a base chance. Fire hits now apply a new debuff called Flammability that lasts a stated duration on monsters and players. Flammability grants fire damage hits a chance to ignite equal to its magnitude. Frequent or strong fire hits can keep Flammability at an ignitable threshold for consistent ignites. Effects that ignite as if they hit, like ground effects, also apply Flammability but cannot ignite until the target reaches the required threshold. Removing or becoming immune to ignite applies the same to Flammability. Once an ignite is applied, the calculations for ignite remain the same. These rules also cover other damage types that convert to ignite.
Shock and Chill durations on non player targets have been increased, with player durations unchanged. The threshold for discarding very small chills on any target is now higher. Overflow of life, mana, and energy shield is reduced from the prior cap. Elemental Exposure has less effect on higher rarity monsters. Unarmed attacks now have a base critical chance per the notes. Glory decays sooner than before. Oil ground refreshes when it burns. Guard stacking behavior has been adjusted to prevent weaker guard applications from deleting stronger ones, instead extending duration in proportion to the amount of guard that would be gained. There is a new Elemental Infusion system that many elemental spells interact with through remnants on the ground and consumption by skills.
Passive Tree And Ascendancies
The patch adds several new keystones. Hollow Palm Technique allows quarterstaff attacks while unarmed and grants benefits when used unarmed. Ritual Cadence changes invocations to trigger on a cadence with reduced energy cost. Blackflame Covenant converts fire spell damage to chaos, where it still contributes toward ignite chance and uses chaos based ignite damage. Walker of the Wilds switches mana leech scaling to use elemental damage types rather than physical.
Ascendancies receive a broad set of changes. Warbringer gains totem capacity and warcry changes, with improvements to summoned Ancestral Spirits behavior and their action patterns. Smith of Kitava adjusts body armor interactions with elemental damage and life regeneration. Gemling Legionnaire’s notable that used to alter support gem allowances now grants a dynamic buff tied to gem attribute requirements. The Tactician receives totem count changes, projectile mechanics adjustments, and a new Strategic Embankments notable that grants embankment auras from different totem types. Witchhunter sees updates to weapon set points and Sorcery Ward recharge. Ritualist consolidates and reassigns notable skills, with changes to wildwood themed recovery. Amazon renames its elemental infusion notable and updates surge counts. Pathfinder reworks several concoction skills to match revised ailment and exposure rules.
Across ascendancies, many numeric values are updated. The patch notes provide the exact descriptions of what was removed, replaced, or added. The intent stated is to increase build diversity and to align class notables with new core mechanics.
Items Uniques And Crafting
Essences receive a full rework into four tiers: Lesser, Normal, Greater, and Perfect. Rather than adding a tag based modifier, essences now add a specific modifier that depends on the essence tier and the item type. Lesser through Greater tiers upgrade magic items to rare and add a guaranteed mod. Perfect essences and corrupted variants now remove a random modifier and then augment a rare item with a new guaranteed modifier. Several new essence types are added. One prior essence has a new name to better describe its role.
New currency items enter the drop pool late in the campaign and in maps, including Greater and Perfect versions of transmutation, augmentation, regal, exalted, and chaos orbs. These have their own minimum modifier levels when adding mods. Hinekora’s Lock is a new item that allows you to foresee the outcome of your next currency use on an item. That foresight is lost if you change the item.
Over ten new unique items, over fifty new base item types, and more than twenty new endgame maps are added in this patch. There are also fifteen new omens. Item quality on random drops can reach up to thirty percent in very high level areas for items that have random quality, but quality currency still applies up to twenty percent as before. Items with a one socket cap can very rarely generate with two sockets in high tier maps. Items capped at two sockets can very rarely generate with three sockets under the same conditions. The Abyss map has been renamed to Marrow to align with the updated content.
Endgame Systems And Bosses in Path Of Exile 2 Rise Of The Abyssal
Access to most pinnacle content no longer uses a single combined key item across all difficulties. Those encounters now drop splinters. You take splinters to the Realmgate, where an interface lets you pick a difficulty tier with a matching entry cost. The intention is to make lower difficulty versions worth running without feeling like you should sell a high value single key to others. As part of this change, the connected atlas passive trees for these bosses no longer affect the difficulty and are focused on impacts within maps.
Existing combined key items for systems like Simulacrums, Breachstones, and Audience for the Kings can be right clicked to convert them to a set number of the matching splinters. The Arbiter of Ash is the exception to the splinter access change. That fight is now a static difficulty encounter with infinite portals, and its rewards align with the previous top difficulty. The Arbiter’s atlas passive tree was removed, and some bonuses are now inherent to its drops. A new Uber version of the Arbiter exists, gated by Calamity Fragments that come from Citadel bosses once you have allocated the full set of points in the Boss Atlas Passive Tree. This ensures you are facing those bosses at their maximum difficulty.
Waystones now roll modifiers that each include a downside, an upside, and a boost to drop chance for more waystones. Downsides are weaker than before to account for the potential to stack more of them. Unidentified corrupted waystones can open a Corrupted Nexus. Corruption caps on waystones are stricter to control the maximum number of modifiers.
Boss atlas passive points now come from defeating bosses in maps with a minimum of six modifiers and set area levels, and from completing the quest that reaches the pinnacle of a specific endgame path. Olroth no longer spawns in logbooks. Mysterious anomalies can appear on the atlas.
League Or Seasonal Features
Rise of the Abyssal has fissure events in zones, Abyssal troves, underground areas, and league bosses. As you close fissures, you loot ancient bones that enable Abyssal imbuing of gear. The Well of Souls appears early in the campaign and carries into endgame with expanded effects. The league exists in standard, hardcore, and solo self found versions with private league support. GGG confirmed that the league has exclusive mechanics, rewards, and bosses not available in the core game during the league. After the league ends, the studio will decide which parts move into the core game.
Path Of Exile 2 Rise Of The Abyssal Patch Review: Quality Of Life And UI
The user interface gains clearer icons for unique strongboxes and their related events. A minimap marker highlights a certain unique strongbox beetle in those interactions. Some NPC appearances in the campaign are streamlined to reduce clutter after the first encounter. Spirits in hunting areas start in later zones to space out early game systems.
Vendors now buy skill, support, and reservation gems based on level and quality. The Hooded One cannot be placed in a hideout now, and Doryani becomes the hideout identify source after campaign completion. Certain bosses now remove the party member teleport option when a fight starts, so late players need to walk in. You can hold a control input to log directly into town or hideout during character selection. Checkpoints can be used to warp to the waypoint in an area. Omens stack up to a listed maximum. Uncut gems can be traded via the currency exchange, and NVIDIA Reflex is re enabled.
Performance And Technical Updates
GGG restored NVIDIA Reflex support in this patch. The studio continues to improve sound, art, effects, and environments. Movement system adjustments include sprint behavior when holding the dodge roll control, intended to speed up traversal out of combat. The studio notes a fallback effect if you get hit while sprinting, and that sprint is available to all classes. Reloading and switching crossbow ammunition no longer slows movement, improving controller and keyboard play.
These adjustments are framed as part of an ongoing update process. The patch notes describe the scope. There are no promises or figures beyond what GGG states.
Economy And Trade Notes
A new Asynchronous Trade system is supported by Merchant’s Tabs. Existing Premium Stash Tabs purchased before the patch can be converted on the website after deployment. Merchant’s Tabs are available for purchase starting with the patch release. The FAQ explains that stash tabs exist in the new league economy as fresh tabs. Items from old leagues and standard stay separate and may be available as remove only in their original league type.
There is a free weekend at launch, but the content update itself is not a paid expansion for current Path of Exile 2 early access players. You download the update to access it. The developers outline when and how to predownload depending on platform.
Balance Summary in Path Of Exile 2 Rise Of The Abyssal
The patch sets out to increase build diversity and bring many archetypes up to endgame viability. This includes systemic changes to evasion, blocking, ailments, skill socket behavior, and attribute requirements. Attribute requirements on equipment and skill gems are reduced, especially at endgame. Many ailment durations and thresholds are standardized between player and monster targets, with special rules for players where stated.
Melee gains new warcries and interaction loops. Spellcasters gain elemental infusion interactions. Minion builds see changes to spectre handling and support interactions, including the rework to Grim Feast. Traps, mines, and damage over time builds benefit from new supports and keystones where listed. Defenses are refocused through new block rules, evasion coverage, reduced attribute gates, and revised guard interactions.
Bosses Encounters And Difficulty
New and updated bosses appear in Act Four. The act features eight islands with their own bosses. Endgame boss access now uses splinters and a difficulty selection interface at the Realmgate for most pinnacle systems. The Arbiter of Ash uses a static difficulty baseline with infinite portals and has a new Uber version that requires Calamity Fragments. Difficulty expectations are framed by the entry cost per difficulty tier and the reworked atlas passive interaction, which now affects mapping content rather than boss difficulty scaling.
Controller And Console Experience
Reload and ammunition swapping no longer slow movement, which improves controller feel during ranged play. Sprint after dodge roll applies to all platforms and control schemes. Console predownload is available prior to launch. The studio states simultaneous launch plans across platforms, and that the free weekend window covers all supported platforms.
Challenges Achievements And Rewards
The Rise of the Abyssal league does not include challenges or challenge rewards. League rewards come from troves, Abyssal Depths content, and the Well of Souls progression that feeds into item crafting. New omens and unique items are part of the reward pool. Endgame bosses and splinter systems set the structure for high end rewards, and atlas passives change how those rewards appear in maps rather than raising boss difficulty directly.
Returning Player Guide For This Patch
Start a new character in the Rise of the Abyssal league if you want the fresh economy and the league mechanics. Progress through the updated campaign, including Act Four and the interludes to around level 65, then enter endgame maps. Unlock the Well of Souls early and use it to shape your campaign gear, then revisit it in endgame to access its advanced crafting effects. Explore fissures as you level to build your league resources.
Learn the support gem tier system. Upgrade to higher tier supports as they drop, and adjust your sockets to take advantage of new interactions. If you have an old early access character, you can continue in standard. Be aware that ascendency nodes, passives, and mechanics may have changed, and you may need to reallocate passives where nodes were removed or moved.
What Is Not Final Yet
Any content flagged as in development or subject to tuning by GGG remains not final. Where the developer uses terms like experimental or work in progress during reveal or livestreams, expect follow up changes in hotfixes or minor updates. After the Rise of the Abyssal league ends, GGG will decide which features enter the core game, so that selection is not final during the league.
Changes Since Announcement
- League naming appears in both singular and plural forms in official communications, with in game banners and FAQs using Rise of the Abyssal and patch notes using Rise of the Abyssals.
- Trade systems include a new Merchant’s Tab conversion flow confirmed to activate with patch deployment.
- Endgame access shifts from combined keys to splinters, with an interface that picks difficulty and cost.
- The Arbiter of Ash fight changes to a static baseline difficulty with infinite portals and a separate Uber version.
- Support gem rules updated from the earlier design, removing the single type per character restriction and adding tiers and endgame Lineage Supports.
- Essence behavior changes from tag based mods to guaranteed modifier outcomes tied to tier and item type.
Path Of Exile 2 Rise Of The Abyssal Patch Review: Features At A Glance
| Category | Update | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign | Act Four islands and bosses | Confirmed |
| Difficulty | Cruel removed, interludes added | Confirmed |
| League | Rise of the Abyssal mechanics | Confirmed |
| Supports | Tiered supports and Lineage Supports | Confirmed |
| Passives | New keystones added | Confirmed |
| Crafting | Essence tiers and new currencies | Confirmed |
| Endgame | Splinter based access and Uber Arbiter | Confirmed |
| QoL | UI, waypoint, and inventory tweaks | Confirmed |
Path Of Exile 2 Rise Of The Abyssal Patch Review: Systems Change Highlights
| System | What Changed | GGG Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Support Gems | Removed per type limit, added tiers | Encourage combos and build variety |
| Essences | Four tiers, guaranteed mods | Clearer outcomes and upgrade paths |
| Endgame Keys | Splinters per encounter | Difficulty selection at portal |
| Waystones | Paired upsides and downsides | More control over risk and reward |
| Ailments | Flammability drives ignites | Standardized durations on non players |
Conclusion
Path of Exile 2 Rise of the Abyssal Patch Review outlines a content update that pushes forward the campaign, reshapes balance, reworks supports and essences, and reframes endgame access and rewards. It confirms how to start the league, how new systems like the Well of Souls fit into progression, and how the new trade support works. As with any live service update, details can evolve with hotfixes and follow up notes. Review the in game notes and official news feed after you patch to catch late changes. For players looking to jump in now, choosing the Rise of the Abyssal banner and following the new act and interludes into the revised endgame is the straightforward path.
