Grinding Gear Games showed two new skills and a round of ascendancy reworks for Path of Exile 2 at ExileCon 2026, presented by game director Jonathan Rogers. Molten Forge drops an anvil from the sky; striking it charges your mace with fire, so later slams leave fire behind. Soul Extraction is a channelled chaos spell that consumes Decay on enemies for a large damage bonus.
The Mercenary’s crossbow ammo now reloads in the background while you use other ammo. The Infernalist gets Demon Magus, a demon companion that casts the spells you socket into it. Infernal Hounds now come in threes and can be commanded to charge and explode. New Covenant skills strike deals with demon lords: Covenant of Ghorr drains your Life to spawn withering Bloatflies.
The Blood Mage gains Blood Reservoir, which stores leeched life and expels it around you, Dominate, a curse that raises slain enemies as minions, and Exsanguinate. Corrupted Blood now makes an enemy take double damage from all sources before it is consumed.
The Acolyte of Chayula’s hits now add Decay, and kills explode based on it. Its old Darkness mechanic moves to a passive tree keystone, Embrace Darkness. In its place, Keeper of the Flame summons a clone that uses your quarterstaff skills, and Dreamer’s Path lets you explode your body and continue in the clone’s.
Full patch notes are not out yet. “You’ll need to wait until a week before the 1.0 release,” Rogers said.
Still unanswered
- Full patch notes arrive a week before the 1.0 launch, so other class changes are unknown.
