Fire up Path of Exile 2 again and you will pretty quickly see why people are talking about the 0.4.0 patch, “The Last of the Druids”. The update hits on 12 December across PC and consoles, and it is not just some minor balance pass; it feels more like a fresh season wrapped around a new class. You get a proper Str/Int hybrid Druid that fights up close, swaps forms mid‑scrap, and plays nicely with your stash of u4gm poe currency if you are already planning builds and gear upgrades before league start.
Shapeshifting Druid Gameplay
The Druid does not sit at the back spamming one spell. You are right in the middle of the pack, shifting on the fly with Animal Talismans. You might soak a slam as a Bear, switch to Wolf to streak through a group with bleeds, then jump into Wyvern form to drop elemental hits from above. Because Path of Exile 2 uses WASD, movement and positioning really matter here, and you can feel why the devs said this class was tough to design. There are 20‑plus Primal skills to mix in, and a couple of standout Ascendancies already look wild. The Oracle, for example, leans into stacking extra passives and bending fate around your gear, while the Shaman feels more like a classic spell‑heavy caster with strong totem and channel setups.
Fate Of The Vaal League
Outside the class, the new “Fate of the Vaal” league is where a lot of players are going to live. It has that Loop Hero vibe, only now you are building out Vaal temples, room by room, with cards. Each room tweaks the run, adds risk, or dials up rewards. You plan a route, decide how greedy you want to be, then head toward Atziri at the end. Double‑corrupt chambers are the big gamble: hit the right roll and you walk out with something close to mirror‑tier, whiff it and your favourite item turns into vendor trash. It is the kind of system that rewards planning, but still lets you blame “bad luck” when you ignore common sense and go all in.
Performance, Tree Changes And Combat Feel
On the tech side, the game should run smoother for most people. The devs are talking about around a quarter less CPU load, which matters if your PC usually sounds like it is about to lift off during juiced content. Visual clutter is toned down too; Delirium fog is not quite as blinding, so you actually see the ground effects that one‑shot you. The passive tree picks up over 250 new nodes, filling in gaps for weird hybrid builds and giving more ways to scale damage or defences without copying the same old path. Endgame fights also shift a bit: fewer monsters overall, but each one hits harder and lives longer, so it is less about instantly deleting the screen and more about positioning, dodging, and picking targets properly.
Why It Is A Good Time To Jump In
From 12 to 15 December there is a free weekend, so you can just hop in, test a Druid, and see if the new league loop grabs you without spending anything. Trade players will probably rush to map out the new meta, flip early drops, and work out which uniques or bases spike fastest, while more casual exiles can just enjoy smashing through acts as a huge Bear or darting around as a Wolf. With the performance tweaks, the temple‑building league, and a class that is built around constant shapeshifting, this patch feels like a clean point to either start fresh or come back after a break, especially if you like planning routes, juggling forms, and figuring out how to get the most value from your poe 2 currency buy plans before the market settles.