Path of Exile 2 0.4 Patch: The Last of the Druids Overview

Grinding Gear Games has unveiled the full reveal for Path of Exile 2's 0.4.0 update, The Last of the Druids, during its most recent livestream. The presentation showcased a major new class, two Ascendancies, a fresh challenge league, and a sweeping list of balance and endgame changes. Players on both PC and consoles can jump into the new content starting December 12th (PST), when the 0.4.0 patch and the new Fate of the Vaal league go live. Like every league, this marks the beginning of a brand-new economy.

The Druid

The highlight of the reveal is the introduction of the Druid, a hybrid Strength/Intelligence class built around fluidly shifting between Human and three animal forms. Unlike traditional shapeshifter archetypes, PoE 2's Druid seamlessly blends spellcasting with melee transformations, enabling a highly adaptive playstyle that naturally switches between ranged, melee, and area-control abilities.

Animal Talismans

Central to the class are Animal Talismans, a brand-new weapon type. Equipping one grants the Druid the basic attack of its corresponding beast, Bear, Wolf, or Wyvern. Using that basic attack instantly transforms the player into the chosen form. Because transformations are immediate and swapping forms carries no downtime, Druids can rapidly alternate between spells in Human Form and devastating beast attacks.

Human spells tend to be longer-lasting and persistent, supporting the hybrid fantasy of casting abilities and then tearing through enemies while transformed.

Bear Form

The Bear plays like a powerhouse bruiser.

Generating and spending Rage is the cornerstone of this form.

Rampage drives you forward while pulsing destructive ground stomps.

Ferocious Roar temporarily reduces enemy armor and can even socket any Warcry gem to expand build options.

The Bear's Ultimate, Walking Calamity, consumes large amounts of Rage to unleash a fiery storm, creating both damage and additional Rage generation.

Wolf Form

The Wolf embraces high mobility, cold damage, and rapid engagement.

Its basic attack leaps toward targets, making traversal between packs natural and fast.

Lunar Assault excels at freezing enemies, while Pounce leaps onto foes and marks them.

Marked enemies, when slain, summon temporary Wolf minions, and because Pounce acts as a meta gem, players can customize it further by socketing any Mark into it.

Multiple summoned Wolves can fight alongside you, and abilities like Cross-slash consume Marks for burst damage.

With Lunar Blessing, the Wolf transforms into an empowered, faster, deadlier version.

Wyvern Form

The Wyvern combines mid-range melee with long-range breath attacks.

It can Devour corpses to generate Power Charges, which are then consumed to enhance wing attacks and other abilities.

Rolling Magma releases bouncing lava projectiles, which synergize with the Human Form's Volcano spell.

The Wyvern can spit oil to increase ignite potential, turning into a channelled barrage when consuming Power Charges.

Human Form

While unshifted, the Druid gains access to potent elemental spells:

Fire Geysers erupt periodically.

Entangling Vines hinder enemy movement.

Thunderstorm rains down lightning, wets enemies, and boosts the effectiveness of freezing or shocking effects.

Flame-breath suspends the Druid mid-air, allowing controlled movement while sweeping flames across large areas.

Druid Ascendancies

Shaman

The Shaman focuses on overwhelming elemental devastation.

Apocalypse triggers a tri-elemental rain once enough elemental damage is dealt, adding explosive burst potential.

Oracle

The Oracle leans into prediction, mimicry, and vulnerability exploitation.

Fateful Vision occasionally previews a clone performing one of your equipped skills. Mimicking that skill grants a bonus damage effect.

Converging Paths creates a temporary enemy clone when the target becomes vulnerable to Freeze, Stun, or Electrocution. The clone can be hit simultaneously with the real enemy for increased total damage.

Unseen Path introduces new passive nodes such as Self Sacrificing, which trades general Spirit Reservation Efficiency for increased efficiency specifically for Minion Skills.

Fate of the Vaal League

Patch 0.4.0 introduces the new Fate of the Vaal league, featuring a temple-crafting progression system.

Each zone contains five Remnants of ancient Vaal structures. Defeating the guardians grants access to Vaal Ruins, where players interact with a large stone tablet displaying a grid-based temple layout. The goal is to build a connected path of rooms leading to Atziri's Chambers, with each trip allowing placement of up to six new rooms.

Room types vary widely:

Boss fights

Crafting fonts

Item-modifying rooms

Temple-enhancing rooms

Upgrade rooms that elevate adjacent chambers

Upgrades matter significantly. For example:

A Tier 3 Chamber of Corruption can corrupt already-corrupted items, albeit with serious risk.

A Tier 3 Sacrificial Chamber can replace Unique item modifiers, potentially removing downsides or even improving them.

Temple effects can be itemized, stored, or traded, adding new layers to crafting and league economy.

There is also a unique limb-replacement mechanic: players can replace body parts to gain powerful stats, but dying causes all limb bonuses to be lost.

Endgame Adjustments

The patch delivers multiple improvements to the Path of Exile 2 endgame:

Abysses will no longer appear in every area, now functioning like Breach or Delirium as occasional special encounters.

New Abyss Tablets and a dedicated Abyss Atlas Tree have been added.

Waystones can no longer be Abyss-crafted or distilled; Tablets have been buffed to compensate.

Tablets can be upgraded to Rares with up to four mods after defeating the Arbiter of Ash, and they can also be corrupted with a league-specific form of POE 2 Currency.

Delirium fog visuals are clearer, improving visibility.

Monster density has been rebalanced toward fewer but stronger enemies with 40% more life and loot.

Even larger endgame updates are expected in patch 0.5.0.

Performance Enhancements

Significant CPU optimizations have been made, with improved multicore utilization. Players should generally see 25%+ better frame rates and fewer severe spikes.

MMOexp POE 2 Team