As the release date of Path of Exile 2 Early Access, which players have been looking forward to for nearly a decade, is getting closer, the developers are leaking more and more information about this brand new game. Some time ago, some mechanics and specific gameplay of some Classes in POE 2 were announced, and now we will focus on the new items on Passive Skill tree – Keystone.
It is a unique node on Passive Skill tree of POE 2 that can provide tremendous benefits to your build, but there are also some problems. Most builds in the original game are built around one or more Keystones that can provide positive factors. In this case, you can effectively bypass some shortcomings of your build, but in POE 2, this will be difficult to happen because there are more Keystones.
But no matter how it changes, it is always a good idea to know in advance what passive effects these Keystones that this guide will introduce to you can provide you, because this will help you complete your build faster and easier in Early Access, and even allow you to make corresponding combat strategies faster than other players in battle.
Here we need to remind you that these contents are summarized based on information from various parties and are not the final version. Everything is subject to the final release version.
Resolute Technique
If you are an old player of POE, you will be very familiar with it because it is one keystone retained from the original game. And its ability has not changed much – no matter what your accuracy rating is, you can get 100% hit chance. Likewise, the disadvantage of Resolute Technique that it cannot handle any kind of critical hit is also retained, but you can use some Path Of Exile 2 Items in your build to make it more well-rounded.
Glancing Blows
Another keystone retained from the original game is Glancing Blows. But it is very surprising that its current properties are the properties it had before being weakened – doubling your attack and spell block chance.
This is splendid news for some old players of Path of Exile, because in the previous league, this keystone was too powerful, so it had to be readjusted and eventually faded out of the players’ sight. But fortunately, it will see the light of day again in the sequel.
It’s important to note that while Glancing Blows gives you both defense a boost, it only blocks up to 50% of incoming damage from enemies that can deal with it. So you may want to spend a bit more POE 2 Currency in your build to make up for this shortcoming and make your build more invulnerable.
Giant’s Blood
Unlike the first two, Giant’s Blood is a very interesting Keystone that allows you to use your two-handed weapons such as Two-handed Axes, Maces or Swords with one hand. This is very important for some classes or builds that need these weapons to deal with devastating damage, because it will double the amount of damage that can be dealt.
However, the attribute values required for these weapons have also doubled. For example, in the original game, using Coronal Maul or Impact Force Propagator only requires 220 Strength, but in POE 2, it requires 440 Strength to use this powerful weapon.
Blood Magic
Blood Magic is also a Keystone retained from the original game. It can eliminate all your mana and replace all your mana consumption with very important health. This Keystone is very useful in POE 2 for some classes or builds with low mana or poor mana conversion rate in the Passive Skill Tree, because it can greatly increase the survivability of the class or build while ensuring that it has continuous damage output.
Whispers Of Doom
In the original game, Whispers of Doom was the main node in Passive Skill tree, but in POE 2 it has become a Keystone with special abilities. This means that it has been improved from the original game, from players being able to apply only one curse to being able to use two naturally.
But it should be noted that the delay between the application of the curse and the activation of the curse effect will be doubled, which may not be a good choice for some less flexible builds.
Chaos Inoculation
As the most distinctive Keystone in POE 2, Chaos Inoculation is very popular in many player communities. It can make your character immune to the chaos damage cast by enemies or bosses on you, which is not in the original game. This is also called the most useful existence in POE 2 by many players.
However, it is not perfect. When you equip this special node, your character’s health will be set to 1 and cannot be modified in any way. So when you choose Chaos Inoculation, you should spend as much POE Currency as possible to get a lot of energy shields, so that you can resist some damage from other elements.
If you want to improve the survivability of your build in POE 2’s endgame, but don’t want to make items with high chaos resistance, you can rely on Chaos Inoculation. But it’s worth reminding you that this may cost you more.
The above are some of the known functions and shortcomings of Keystones in the upcoming Path of Exile 2 Early Access. Once again, the introduction in this guide is for reference only, and everything is subject to the ultimate release. I hope that with the help of this guide, you can formulate some build ideas for a certain class in advance, and explore more effectively in the early access version. I wish you a happy game!
