Plenty of us have been sitting around wondering if Path of Exile 2 is ever going to land, and the latest update from Grinding Gear Games does not exactly calm the nerves, even if it gives us a clearer picture of what is coming, especially for people already planning out their builds and hunting down specific PoE 2 Items . Director Jonathan Rogers has now said they are aiming for a 2026 launch for version 1.0, but even with that long runway, the team is struggling to get every single class ready in time, so the first “full” release is very likely to ship with a smaller roster than many of us expected.
Classes And Release Expectations
You can kind of see why they are doing it. Rogers made it clear that the focus has to be the campaign, the feel of the core gameplay loop, and getting the balance to a point where new players do not bounce off in the first hour. To hit that, some character classes might just not make the day‑one cut. He did joke that he cannot picture shipping the game without swords, which is a nice hint that melee fans dreaming about a duelist or knight‑style setup should still have something sharp to swing. It is still a bit of a gut punch if you were hoping to theorycraft every single class from the first week, but it is better than shipping a bunch of half‑baked archetypes.
Parrying Push In 0.4.0
While we wait for that distant 1.0 release, version 0.4.0 is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and you can really tell GGG wants players to actually use parrying instead of just ignoring it. A successful parry now hits every enemy in a frontal cone instead of only one, and the main target still takes a hit even if it has moved slightly out of range. On top of that, the new parry‑related passives push the mechanic harder into build territory, so you can lean into it if you want. Whether it feels good in actual mapping is another story; you will probably know within a couple of runs if parrying clicks for you or if you go right back to more familiar defensive layers.
Sprinting, Stuns And Nerfs
The sprint changes are maybe not as flashy but will probably matter more day to day. Running now keeps the “strong stun” effect from fading, which basically means you should get locked down far less when you panic‑sprint out of a bad pull. It is one of those tweaks you barely think about until you notice you are not stuck in place every time you try to escape a nasty rare pack. On the other side of the patch, there are the usual casualties. The infamous Lich crossbow setup built around “The Last Lament” has been taken apart so hard that most players are calling it dead, and Ambrosia got hit with a heavy nerf, so it will not carry mediocre gear the way it used to. Crafting fans are also feeling the loss of two Omens that have been removed, which makes high‑end item chasing a bit more awkward, even though quarterstaff enjoyers finally get some love while bow users eat a few hits.
Living With An Incomplete 1.0
So we are heading toward a 1.0 that might not have every class we hoped for, and a beta cycle that keeps nudging us into new mechanics, whether that is parrying or fresh takes on sprinting and crowd control, while quietly burying popular builds like the Lich crossbow combo. If you stick with it, you will probably get used to the idea that the “finished” game is going to grow in waves, and that some of the strongest toys will keep disappearing as new ones arrive, which is very Path of Exile at this point and not really a surprise. For players planning long term, it is hard not to keep one eye on balance updates and the other on where to grab reliable PoE 2 Items for sale so your next build does not fall over the moment the patch notes drop.