I came back to Path of Exile 2 on a whim, and yeah, it did that thing PoE always does: "one more run" turns into a whole evening. If you've been out since Fate of the Vaal landed, you'll feel it straight away, especially once you've got a bit of PoE 2 Currency to actually test setups instead of scraping by. Patch 0.4.0's the core of it, and the follow-up hotfix cleaned up a bunch of the fiddly stuff that used to yank you out of the mood mid-map.
Building the Temple, Not Just Running It
The league hook isn't "go here, clear this" on repeat. You're assembling your own Temple of Atziri like it's a bad idea you can't stop improving. You hit Vaal Beacons in normal zones, you feed them packs, and the Console starts offering room choices based on how hard you leaned into the sacrifice. It's a small decision, then another, then suddenly you've planned yourself into a corner with traps you can't dodge and rewards you can't ignore. People always say they want agency in leagues. This is what it looks like.
Risk, Loot, and the Part Where You Regret Everything
Once you actually push into the Temple you made, the pacing changes. Tiering rooms up feels like turning the volume knob. Tier 1 is "nice," Tier 2 is "okay, this can kill me," and Tier 3 is that familiar PoE bargain: pain now, profit later. The corruption options are the real heartbreaker. You'll swear you're only going to gamble junk, then you'll stare at your best piece and think, why not. Sometimes you brick it. Sometimes you hit something perfect and you're walking around like you invented crafting.
Druid Talk, Because Everyone's Talking Druid
It's hard to ignore how much the Druid reshaped the vibe. Shapeshifting isn't just a cosmetic swap; it changes how you approach rooms. Wyvern form, in particular, lets you treat certain trap layouts like they're optional, and that alone makes temple routing feel different than on other classes. You'll see folks experimenting with "bomber" clears, hit-and-run boss patterns, and all those little tech choices players love arguing about. Bear for standing your ground, Wolf for moving fast, Wyvern for turning chaos into a plan. It's messy, it's fun, it works.
Keeping Up With the League Without Living Online
SSF players are eating well because the Temple structure makes target farming feel less like wishful thinking. Trade players, though, know the other side of it: you miss a few sessions and the market sprints ahead. If you're short on time and mostly want your build online so you can actually enjoy the league mechanics, grabbing poe2 materials can be the difference between "stuck in budget gear" and "finally running the rooms you built."
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