Path of Exile 2 gets its first hits with the nerf bat to bring mace slams, magnetic arrows, and stinky clouds in line: 'It is better to do this early'

Path of Exile 2 is in that early phase of a new ARPG where things are a little bit like the mathematical equivalent of the wild west. All those millions of early access players are running wild, smashing together every possible combination of combat and passive skills in an environment where the laws that undergird civilization—like "ability balance" and "sensible damage scaling"—haven't yet taken hold. Over the weekend, however, Grinding Gear Games made its first attempts at establishing order, deploying a trio of hotfixes to reign in PoE 2 skills that have been overperforming in the game's early days.

First up on the nerfing block was Supercharged Slam, a strength-based skill gem usable with one-handed and two-handed maces that slams the ground to deal damage in an area, followed by a damaging aftershock. Unlike most combat skills in PoE 2, Supercharged Slam is a charge attack: As you hold the skill button, you charge the skill up through three stages, with each stage granting higher damage and area of effect.

According to a GGG tweet on December 7, Supercharged Slam had—by the studio's estimation—been "dealing far too much damage" given its "short channel window required to hit maximum damage." The skill's damage was nerfed into acceptable margins within the hour via hotfix, with GGG intending to adjust its charge time at a later date.

"As much as we are trying to avoid nerfing skills and builds," GGG said, "it is better to do this early before it feels obligatory to use the skill."

That nerf early, nerf hard philosophy continued into December 8, during which GGG marked two more skills for rebalancing. First was Magnetic Salvo, which launches a scattershot of energy missiles that seek out lingering lightning arrows left by other bow skills to explode when they make contact. "Following the same ideals as earlier, we're also going to be reducing the damage of Magnetic Salvo," GGG said in a tweet announcing the nerf, calling it an "egregious" case of unintended, excessive damage.

Rounding out the launch weekend nerfs was an explosion damage adjustment for Gas Cloud skills. The crossbow skill Gas Grenade and bow skills Gas Arrow leave lingering poison clouds that, in addition to poisoning enemies in their area of effect, can be used to trigger an explosion when they come into contact with skills that burn enemies or specific "detonator" skills.

The damage caused by the explosion wasn't as much an issue as the ease of detonation. Skills like Flame Wall, which leaves a lingering patch of fire, provided an easy target to continually lob gas-producing projectiles into to trigger back-to-back detonations. GGG's immediate solution, outlined on X, was to nerf the explosion damage for Gas Grenade and Gas Arrow, but the studio's looking to eventually calculate the damage for those explosions from the skill that detonates them. "That way we would be able to avoid balancing around the simplest and most efficient way to apply Ignites," GGG said.

While I'm sure the nerfs sting for the supercharged slammers, magnetic salvoists, and gassy arbalists out there, PoE's greatest strength has always been its absurd variety of viable character builds. Leaving skills that are far-and-away damage frontrunners for players to flock to can quickly make a game with dozens of abilities feel more like a game with four, especially this early on in its lifespan.

Luckily, GGG has a history of buffing skills just as often—if not moreso—than reducing their damage. If any gas is made less potent, it's only so other skills have more room to breathe.