The Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt Hands-Off Preview — Unleash The Huntress' Power!

Yahoo

03-04-2025

In a revelatory event, Grinding Gear Games has unveiled the next update for Path of Exile 2, it's called Dawn of the Hunt, and the new Huntress class is the headliner.
Grinding Gear Games continues to bake Path of Exile 2 in its early access period, and today, the development team, led by Game Director Jonathan Rogers, has revealed the next update coming to Wraeclast: Dawn of the Hunt. CGM was able to sit in on a presentation ahead of the news drop.
The new update introduces players everywhere to The Huntress class, a dexterous Spear and Buckler user that can adapt to either ranged or close combat on the fly. On top of the brand-new class, Grinding Gear Games also introduced a whopping five ascension classes for Wraeclast veterans to tool around with (and newcomers to discover), two new weapon types, a ridable Rhoa, and much more.
When Dawn of the Hunt arrives on April 4, players will be able to don the capable mantle of The Huntress, a master of ranged and close combat scenarios that adapt to a situation like the player behind the sticks. The Huntress has been banished from her homeland for using Skill Gems, and now, she can wield a mixture of the new spear or buckler weapon/shield types to dismantle her prey. The playstyle is designed to allow players to always feel like they're in pursuit of their target by swapping between fighting styles on the fly.
The new buckler weapon type can deploy the Parry skill, allowing The Huntress to follow a well-timed parry with a devastating counterblow that directly weaves into the 'parried' status. Using the Disengage skill after performing a successful parry will have the Huntress quickly jump backwards to avoid peril, and gain a Frenzy charge for their next spear assault.
Jonathan Rogers boasts that The Huntress can use 'some of the longest combo chains' Grinding Gear Games has crafted on any class in Path of Exile 2, or even its predecessor. The Huntress' signature starting skill, Whirling Slash, strikes in a circle around the character, creating a whirlwind that blinds enemies caught in it. The whirlwind explodes upon The Huntress' exit, but it can also interact with many other skills in Path of Exile 2's skill tree.
Blasting a Flame Wall with these whirlwinds infuses the whirlwind with fire energy, bringing that Path of Exile 2 ability combo to the forefront of gameplay once again. Whirling Slash can also infuse with Frost and Electricity. The wind doesn't discriminate. A gameplay video has been shared showing The Huntress in action, which can be seen below.
Aside from an entire brand new class, Grinding Gear Games also tore the curtain back to reveal five new ascendancy classes to get Exiles back into Wraeclast for another run. While two of the ascendancy classes are for the newly announced Huntress, three other ascendancies add utility to existing classes that are already playable. The new ascendancies are listed below.
Ritualist (Huntress) – The Ritualist uses flesh and blood sacrifices to unleash corrupted lifeforce on adversaries. Forbidden Azmeri traditions let The Huntress embrace wielding blood sacrifice and plague as weapons on top of the new Spear and Buckler weapon kit.
Amazon (Huntress) – A peerless hunter who thrives on precision and elemental fury, turning the tide of battle by utilizing enemy weaknesses against themselves. High crit rate, and elemental infusion is this Ascension's bread and butter.
Lich (Witch) – The Lich tears their soul apart (the Path of Exile 2 form of Voldemort's Horcruxes), becoming a master of undeath by instilling that soul fragment into rare gems. The Lich uses their lifeforce to boost their energy shield, but when that shield runs out, mana costs increase by a wide margin in this high-risk, high-reward ascendancy.
Smith of Kitava (Warrior) – The Smith of Kitava forges weapons of destruction in fire and suffering. The Smith of Kitava Ascendancy can whip out an anvil in the field to buff their weapons or use the power of Kitava to summon an animated copy of your weapon that fights by your side. Spending ascendancy points can increase plain armour abilities and even grant the ability to craft weapons.
Tactician (Mercenary) – Walk in the shoes of a formerly trained Blackguard Elite. The Tactician ascendancy can eviscerate the monsters of Wraeclast while earning a healthy income at the same time. Suppressing Fire (an ascendancy skill) causes all your projectiles to pin enemies and prevent them from moving, an expert ability for a keen Tactician.
Aside from The Huntress and ascendancy class announcements, Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt deployed a slew of 20 New Spear Skills designed for the Huntress, as well as two that can be utilized with any class. First, the Summon Rhoa Mount Skill allows players to call forth a Rhoa to fight with or mount it to move at full speed while attacking on Rhoa-back. Getting hit enough on Rhoa-back can dismount and stun the player which almost certainly will result in death.
The new Raise Spectre Skill lets players trap and summon the souls of almost any monster in the game. Players can summon many weak monsters or a few strong ones to turn the tide of battle against the horrors present in Path of Exile 2.
Over 100 new Support Gems have been added to Path of Exile 2 to enhance build diversity. An example of added support is the inclusion of the Caltrops support, which allows existing skills to litter the battlefield with slowing hazards.
Over 100 new unique items have been added to the game, including new Spear and Buckler uniques for players to find. The goal in Path of Exile 2 is to create a unique for every item type, adding excitement to drops. Jonathan Rogers suggests he WANTS players to break their builds with the powerful new additions.
Over 20 new runes have been added, allowing players to craft new mods onto their gear and runes now scale with multiple tiers giving mods extended viability in the endgame. Crafting options have been expanded further with the introduction of more specialized socketable mods. The first wave arrives in the upcoming update on April 4.
Dawn of the Hunt adds eight new maps for players to triumph over, extending the endgame.
Four unique Strongboxes have been added to the endgame, adding more drops to increase content importance.
Dawn of the Hunt adds Rogue Exiles as an enemy type, and they wield the same powers (with possibly more powerful uniques than the player) as the player. Rogue Exiles behave smarter than normal enemy faire, even utilizing the player action of a dodge roll to escape harm. They will challenge you to a fight to the death, and differing personalities of the Rogue will either talk trash to the player, show the player respect, or anything in between during the duel. These rogues will wield visible uniques in combat, and triumphing over them will give the player oodles of rewards.
That just about wraps all of the new content coming to Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt. Aside from the new inclusions, Grinding Gear Games has put so much into the Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt update that just the patch notes, endgame improvements and quality of life changes are neverending. Fans looking for a detailed breakdown of everything coming on April 4 can head to the official Grinding Gear Games website for precise details on all of the improvements.
Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt launches into PoE2 early access on April 4.