The balancing of Path of Exile 2 0.5.0 is extremely complex, involving comprehensive adjustments across skills, equipment, the passive skill tree, and more.
You probably don’t have the patience to read every single line of the patch notes, so let IGGM analyze for you which values or mechanics on the passive tree in PoE 2 Patch 0.5.0 Return of the Ancients have changed, and how these changes affect game balance.
Energy Shield Recharge
The most notable changes in this patch focus on nerfs to Energy Shield recharge mechanics. Several key passive nodes near Witch and Sorceress starting areas have had their values significantly reduced.
Nerfed Passives
- Rapid Recharge: Energy Shield recharge rate bonus has been lowered from 25% to 12%.
- Essence Infusion: The “faster start of Energy Shield recharge” value has been reduced from 40% to 12%, while the Intelligence bonus has been increased from 10 to 12 points.
- Refocus: The effect that provided 30% increased Energy Shield recharge rate and 20% increased Mana recovery rate has been completely removed. This node now only retains Mana recovery rate attribute.
- Patient Barrier: Energy Shield value has been reduced from 60% to 50%.
- Energising Archon: Instead of a 40% increase to Energy Shield recharge rate, this node now provides a 30% increase to buff duration.
- Convolescence: Originally this node granted “15% reduced Energy Shield recharge rate but 40% faster start of recharge” – the nerf has halved those values.
- Dependable Ward: The original effect was 25% increased recharge rate and 25% faster start of recharge. It has been changed to 8% Chaos Resistance and 12% faster start of recharge.
- Energising Deflection: Changed from 30% increased recharge rate to 12% faster start of recharge.
Removed and Reworked Passives
Calibration previously provided 30% increased maximum Energy Shield, 4% increased Mana, along with small passive nodes on the way that gave 10% increased maximum Energy Shield and Mana. This node has now been replaced by Conall Haunted, which grants “50% of Armour applies to Elemental Damage” and “5% faster start of Energy Shield recharge.” This is a significant loss for builds that relied on stacking high Energy Shield capacity.
Quick Response notable passive has been removed from the passive tree. This node previously offered multiple powerful stats: gain deflection rating equal to 10% of Evasion rating, 8% faster start of Energy Shield recharge, and 50% increased Mana cost efficiency. Its removal is a heavy blow to Lich archetypes and stands as one of the biggest nerfs in this patch.
These nerfs primarily target the recovery speed of Energy Shield and how quickly its recharge begins, rather than the maximum amount of Energy Shield. In PoE 2 Patch 0.5.0, you can still achieve a similar total amount of Energy Shield as before, but there is no doubt that your gear requirements will be higher, demanding more currency.
If you simply cannot let go of Energy Shield builds, then you can buy cheap and safe POE 2 Currency at IGGM. Whether you are in the early or mid stages of the league, you can use this currency to trade for base items and craft the gear you need.
New Passives
Recoup
Recoup ability from Chronomancer ascendancy class has been moved to the general passive tree. Players can now find a brand new Recoup cluster on the tree. Its effect is to continuously recover life after taking hits.
Armour Applied to Elemental Damage
Near Druid and Templar starting areas, several new passive nodes have been added that apply a portion of Armour to Elemental Damage:
- Voll’s Protection: 50% of Armour applies to Elemental Damage, 10% faster start of Energy Shield recharge, increased block chance, and gain 10 Energy Shield and 10 Life on block.
- Cirel of Tarth’s Light: 10% of Armour applies to Elemental Damage, 10% faster start of Energy Shield recharge, and increased light radius, accuracy, and area of effect.
- Dominus’s Providence: 8% of Armour applies to Elemental Damage, 12% faster start of Energy Shield recharge, and reduced Armour break taken.
- Bhatair’s Storm: 12% of Armour applies to Elemental Damage, 8% faster start of Energy Shield recharge, 10% faster Archon recovery rate, and 10% increased Archon buff effect.
The introduction of these nodes means that hybrid defensive builds focusing on both Armour and Energy Shield no longer need to rely on suffixes on their gear for such modifiers. This gives those builds more flexibility in their equipment choices, allowing them to save PoE2 currency that would otherwise be spent on Armour and invest it into their weapons instead.
New Companion System Passives
Version 0.5 has added multiple Companion-related clusters to the passive tree, primarily designed for the upcoming Huntress ascendancy class, Spirit Walker.
- Bond of the Viper: 16% increased skill effect duration, and Companion hits have a 40% chance to Poison.
- Bond of the Cats: Companions gain 20% increased movement speed, and the movement speed penalty when using skills is reduced by 5%.
- Bond of the Ape: 12% increased area of effect, and Companions gain 30% increased area of effect. Small passives grant attack damage, and Companions gain 4% additional Chaos damage.
- Bond of the Wolf: 6% increased attack speed, and Companion kills have a 50% chance to grant Onslaught.
- Bond of the Owl: Gain 6% additional Cold damage, and Companions gain 12% additional Cold damage.
Trusted Kinship notable has been completely reworked. It now allows the character to have two Companions, grants 30% increased Companion skill reservation efficiency, and reduces non-Companion skill reservation efficiency by 20%.
This change removes the previous survival penalty and makes it much easier to build around Companions. At the end of each Companion cluster, there is also a Companion Mastery node that provides an additional 12% bonus. Companion strength in Path of Exile 2 Runes of Aldur League is very much worth looking forward to.
Puppet Master
The patch has also added several passive nodes related to stacking Puppet Master effects. When you use a command skill, you have a 15% to 35% chance to gain one stack of Puppet Master. These nodes can also improve the effect, duration, maximum stack count, and command skill reservation efficiency of Puppet Master.
Puppet Master is a completely new system whose specific effects have not yet been announced. It may allow players to activate command skills for all their minions at once after gaining enough stacks, greatly simplifying operations.
There are many other changes not detailed here, but you can see that the changes mainly focus on balancing Energy Shield mechanism and enhancing Companion gameplay. IGGM believes that you can use this information to plan the build you want to play in 0.5.0 Runes of Aldur League.