3 BUFFS and NERFS for Patch 0.4 Path of Exile 2

Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4 “Last of the Druids” — 3 Likely Nerfs and 3 Buffs

As Onlyfarms, we’ve been closely following Path of Exile 2’s balance trends through patches 0.2 and 0.3. With The Last of the Druids (patch 0.4) just around the corner, this article walks you through three predicted nerfs and three predicted buffs, based entirely on current data, in-game trends, and what the previous updates have already revealed.

Think of this as a coaching session: we’re not telling you what to panic about — we’re helping you understand why certain things are likely to change so you can plan smarter builds, investments, and characters heading into 0.4.

Whenever you see something that might delete your current build or open a new lane of power, start thinking in terms of options: backup builds, flexible gear, and enough currency to pivot. If you already know you’ll want to adjust your setup quickly once patch notes hit, you can always secure some safety nets like PoE leveling gear for fast restarts or book a build improvement review to reality-check your next project before you commit.

The Nerf 1: What’s Likely Getting Hit in 0.4

Nerf Prediction #1 – Deadeye Ascendancy (Ranger)

The first and most obvious target on the chopping block is the Deadeye ascendancy for the Ranger. The numbers from patch 0.3 tell a very clear story:

• In week 1 of patch 0.3, around 42% of level 80+ characters in softcore trade league were Deadeyes.
• Even after the meta “settled” about a month in, Deadeye still held a massive 30% ascendancy share.
• In hardcore, Deadeye remained among the most popular ascendancies, right behind Lich in trade and SSF.

This isn’t just “strong and popular.” It’s meta-warping dominance, especially in a patch that didn’t even introduce a new class. Previously, Amazon reached almost 50% play rate during 0.2 (Dawn of the Hunt), but that was at least somewhat justified: it was brand-new and the headline of the update. Deadeye’s dominance was purely a balance issue.

Why Deadeye Is So Far Ahead

The heart of the problem is that Deadeye gets extremely powerful, generic bonuses that plug directly into the current state of PoE 2:

• Tailwind: one of the most generically powerful buffs in the game, granting movement and action speed in an environment where
• Damage scaling is rarely the bottleneck
• Speed is king — for mapping, looting, boss rushing, and general efficiency.
• Additional projectiles: another generic damage and clear multiplier, especially abusive on bow and crossbow setups that are already ahead of melee in scaling.
• Strong mount synergy: Deadeye benefits heavily from the powerful mount (row mount) setups that further amplify speed and map tempo.

The community saw this coming even before 0.3 launched. Deadeye’s proposed changes were already being called overtuned during previews, and even after some pre-launch tuning, the core problems weren’t addressed.

What We Expect in 0.4

From a coaching perspective, this is where you should be realistic:

• Tailwind’s current power level, combined with Deadeye’s projectile scaling and the overall speed meta, is simply too much.
• It’s very likely we’ll see nerfs to Deadeye’s Tailwind nodes and possibly some trimming of its more generic power, rather than a complete redesign.

How to prepare:
If you’re planning to league-start Deadeye again, have a “Plan B” ready — maybe another Ranger archetype or an entirely different class. You don’t have to abandon the idea, but you should assume Deadeye won’t remain this dominant.

If you want a broader overview of Ranger options to pivot into, you can cross-reference this prediction with our Path of Exile 2 Ranger guides hub on Onlyfarms to see which archetypes are likely to survive even if Tailwind gets toned down.

The Nerf 2: What’s Likely Getting Hit in 0.4

Nerf Prediction #2 – Herald of Thunder and Lightning Damage

The second nerf prediction is Herald of Thunder, but it’s tied to a much bigger issue:

• Lightning damage is completely out of line for hit-based builds right now.

According to the analysis in the transcript, lightning sits head and shoulders above other damage types like physical or fire when it comes to hits. Let’s unpack why — this is crucial if you’re planning future builds.

Why Lightning Damage Is So Strong

Several interacting mechanics that push lightning far beyond its peers:

Wide Roll Range + Easy Access to Lucky Damage

• Lightning has a very low minimum and very high maximum damage roll.
• The idea is “unpredictable damage” — sometimes low, sometimes high.
• But once you add lucky damage, which is widely available on the right side of the passive tree…
• Your damage is rolled twice, and the higher result is chosen.
• On average, that gives about 30–33% more damage per hit when combined with large lightning roll ranges.

Shock as a Built-In Multiplier

• Lightning automatically brings Shock, an ailment that makes enemies take ~20% increased damage and can be scaled even higher.
• There are passives that boost maximum lightning damage and synergize with lucky hits and Shock for even more scaling.

Other Elements Don’t Compete Right Now

• Fire has Ignite, which could be good if proliferation was strong and accessible — but it isn’t in the current state.
• Cold has Chill and Freeze, but damage is so high that bosses often die in seconds. If enemies evaporate instantly, freeze-utility matters less.
• All damage types can already stun, which further devalues Freeze as a unique selling point.

Put simply, lightning builds deal much more damage than other elements, sometimes almost double in comparable setups.

Where Herald of Thunder Fits In

Even if you’re not using a pure lightning skill, you can:

• Stack flat lightning damage onto your chosen skill.
• Then layer Herald of Thunder on top, which:
• Adds extra damage.
• Provides better clear as it chains through shocked enemies.

Herald of Thunder was the most used skill in 0.3, showing up on about 54% of level 80+ characters one week into the patch.

That usage rate alone screams “incoming nerf.”

What We Expect in 0.4

• We don’t necessarily expect the entire lightning ecosystem to be fixed in one patch.
• But a skill used by more than half of high-level characters is a prime target for numeric nerfs or functionality tweaks.
• Expect Herald of Thunder to get toned down either directly (less damage/uptime) or indirectly via changes to how it scales.

How to prepare:
If your build heavily relies on Herald of Thunder, assume you might lose some clear or single-target power. This is a good time to gather the currency you’ll need to pivot if necessary — whether into non-lightning damage or a different archetype entirely.

If you want flexibility when patch notes land, it’s smart to think ahead in terms of currency buffers. Having access to Divine Orbs, Exalted Orbs, or even a premium Mirror of Kalandra source makes it much easier to re-craft, experiment, and salvage your favorite characters instead of starting from scratch.

The Nerf 3: What’s Likely Getting Hit in 0.4

Nerf Prediction #3 – Crafting Availability and High-End Gear

The third nerf prediction is crafting, but not in the “everything gets worse” sense. It’s more about how easy it is to access top-end crafting tools.

The expectation from the transcript is that patch 0.4 will raise the bar to entry for high-end item creation.

Abyss, Bones, and Desecrated Crafting

Currently, Abyss appears on every map, which means:

• Steady access to bones for Desecrated crafting.
• A reliable pipeline for high-tier item crafting in trade and SSF.

In 0.4:

• Abyss will no longer spawn in every map.
• You’ll be able to target farm Abyss by using Abyss Tablets to add it to your maps instead.

For SSF, that’s still manageable — you can choose where to invest your effort.
For trade league, fewer natural Abyss spawns means:

• Fewer bones overall.
• Desecrated crafting becomes more expensive, as scarcity drives prices up.

Omens, Essences, and the Cost of “Perfect” Items

Other powerful crafting tools will get similar treatment:

• Omen of Homogenizing Exultation
• Perfect Essence of Battle

If these become harder to obtain, the cost of jumping straight to endgame gear increases significantly.

Why GGG Would Do This

In 0.3, many players were effectively skipping mid-tier gear completely:

• Early mapping in basic life/res gear.
• Straight into fully cracked endgame equipment via strong and accessible high-tier crafting.
• Mid-tier upgrades in the middle were often irrelevant.

By making the top-end path more expensive, GGG encourages a healthier gear curve:

• Use perfect transmutes, augmentations, and greater essences to build strong mid-tier items.
• Progress more gradually through map tiers and difficulty, instead of jumping from scuffed campaign gear into near-mirror-tier items overnight.

How to prepare:
Start thinking in terms of stepping-stone items:

• Don’t assume you’ll be able to instantly re-create your 0.3 level of gear for the same investment.
• Practise building good “Phase 1 / Phase 2 / Phase 3” gear upgrades instead of only chasing perfect items.

If you want a structured breakdown of how crafting currently works so you can better understand what might be getting gated, check out our PoE 2 crafting guide and coaching breakdowns on Onlyfarms. These will help you plan crafting strategies that still feel good, even if top-end resources become rarer.

The Buff 1: What’s Likely Getting Better in 0.4

With the nerfs out of the way, let’s flip the script. Patch 0.4 isn’t just about cutting power — it’s also about opening up new archetypes and strengthening weak areas.

Buff Prediction #1 – Left Side of the Passive Tree & the Druid

Patch 0.4 introduces the Druid, the first Strength/Intelligence hybrid class in Path of Exile 2. And that has a very direct implication: the Str/Int side of the passive tree has to stop being a meme.

That area as:

• “Pretty much a joke.”
• Filled with outdated, weak, or placeholder nodes.
• Examples include claw-shaped wheels that only give “increased attack damage” on every node — clearly placeholders for Druid-themed mechanics.

Expected Reworks Around the Druid

Because Druid needs real build support, we can reasonably expect:

• An overhaul of Str/Int clusters, especially:

• Armor + Energy Shield hybrid clusters.
• Defensive archetypes that haven’t seen love in a year of early access.
• The aim is to make a hybrid armor/ES defensive archetype actually functional, not just for Druid but for any class that pathes there.

On top of that, we can expect nature-themed magic nodes tailored around:

• Spellcasting Druid playstyles.
• Potential cross-synergies for top-of-tree classes like Stormweaver or Blood Mage to experiment with new routes and hybrid defenses.

How to prepare:
If you enjoy theorycrafting, this is your time. Start sketching:

• How your current characters might benefit from a stronger Str/Int region.
• How a Druid build could combine hybrid defenses with spellcasting or shapeshifting.

For a broader class-level perspective, you can cross-study with our PoE 2 Druid and Sorceress guides to better visualize how these hybrid mechanics might interact once 0.4 goes live.

The Buff 2: What’s Likely Getting Better in 0.4

Buff Prediction #2 – Alternate Ascendancies: Blood Mage & Gemling Legionnaire

Patch 0.3 introduced something very special: the Abyssal Lich alternate ascendancy, unlocked by throwing your ascended Lich into the Well of Souls.

That mechanic likely isn’t going away — and we predict we’ll see more of this design in 0.4.

The “Fate of the Vaal” League Theme

The 0.4 league mechanic is called “The Fate of the V”, and the teaser is a short clip of Atziri, the final queen of the Vaal before their downfall.

Lore notes:

• Heavy sacrifice among the Vaal people.
• Huge amounts of blood spilled.
• Bodies adorned with gems, described as glittering, with gems embedded all over them.

This thematically points toward two specific ascendancies getting alternate “Vaal” versions:

Blood Mage (Witch ascendancy)

• Fits the sacrifice / blood magic themes of Atziri and the Vaal.

Gemling Legionnaire

• Thematically perfect for the “gems in the flesh” angle — virtue gems implanted into the skin for power.

We’re clearly a big fan of the Abyssal Lich concept and fully expects more alternate ascendancies to appear in 0.4, following this pattern.

How to prepare:
If you’re already leaning toward:

• Blood Mage spellcasting, or
• Gemling Legionnaire gem-stack builds,

this patch could open completely new, high-ceiling variants of those archetypes.

This is where having a solid baseline build helps: once alternate ascendancies are revealed, you’ll be able to adjust your existing character rather than rebuild from zero. If you’d like a second pair of eyes on that baseline, that’s exactly where a build coaching/upgrade session shines — you get a strong “core” build that will still work even if the ascendancy tree shifts.

The Buff 3: What’s Likely Getting Better in 0.4

Buff Prediction #3 – Endgame Uniques Worth Chasing

Finally, the third buff prediction centers on endgame unique items.

From developer commentary at the start of 0.3, we already know that 0.4 is meant to be an endgame-focused patch. Expects this to cover:

• Atlas changes.
• Juicing strategies.
• Map layouts.
• Pinnacle boss encounters.

But there’s another piece of the endgame puzzle that desperately needs love:

Path of Exile 2 lacks truly exciting endgame uniques right now.

Why Endgame Uniques Feel Underwhelming

The core issue, as laid out:

• Crafted rares are too strong, especially once you factor in:
• Additional gem levels on weapons.
• High-tier crafted modifiers.
• Uniques that don’t offer these crucial stats feel like huge tradeoffs.

The situation became even worse when Perfect Essence of Battle was introduced, letting you slap strong gem level modifiers on semi-crafted weapons with relative ease.

The only way for a unique to compete right now is to be:

• Extremely niche, and
• Almost broken inside that niche.

An example is Last Lament, a crossbow for Lich that’s insanely powerful in very specific builds but doesn’t help broader itemization problems.

Broader design issue: too much power comes from gear, and not enough from other systems like the passive tree. That makes it very hard for GGG to design unique items that feel exciting without becoming overpowered.

What We Expect in 0.4

The prediction is not that crafted gear gets globally nerfed into the ground (apart from access changes via crafting systems). Instead, the expectation is:

• GGG will make a pass on endgame-focused uniques.
• They’ll likely add new chase uniques, either:
• Extremely rare core drop items, or
• Pinnacle boss-locked uniques you can target farm.

These would be designed specifically with endgame builds in mind, so you actually care about farming them instead of instantly defaulting to “I’ll just craft something better.”

How to prepare:
If you love farming bosses or pushing juiced maps, patch 0.4 could finally reward that playstyle with more than just crafting bases.

This is a great time to:

• Tighten up your mapping strategy.
• Plan which bosses you’ll want to rush once new uniques are confirmed.
• Make sure your character can handle harder content without collapsing.

If you want a structured way to approach that, you might combine these predictions with our PoE 2 Endgame & Atlas coaching articles on Onlyfarms, which walk you through atlas progression, corruption scaling, and juicing in a step-by-step fashion.

Final Coaching Notes – Using These Predictions to Your Advantage

To recap our 3 nerfs and 3 buffs predictions for Path of Exile 2: The Last of the Druids:

• Likely Nerfs

• Deadeye Ascendancy – Tailwind and generic power trimmed down from its current meta-warping dominance.
• Herald of Thunder & Lightning Damage – Some form of direct or indirect nerf to the most-used skill and the strongest hit damage type.
• Crafting Availability – High-end tools like Desecrated crafting, Omens, and Essences becoming rarer, restoring mid-tier gear progression.

• Likely Buffs

• Str/Int Passive Tree & Druid – A real rework to the left side of the tree and hybrid defenses to support the first Str/Int hybrid class.
• Alternate Ascendancies – Vaal-themed versions for Blood Mage or Gemling Legionnaire, continuing the alternate ascendancy design introduced with Abyssal Lich.
• Endgame Uniques – New, meaningful uniques to chase and farm in maps and pinnacle encounters.

From an Onlyfarms coaching standpoint, your goal isn’t to guess every patch note line — it’s to stay adaptable:

• Don’t over-invest in mechanics sitting at the absolute top of the current meta (Deadeye + Herald of Thunder lightning builds, ultra-cheap high-end crafting).
• Start thinking in tiers of power: early gear → mid-tier stepping stones → endgame, instead of “scuffed to perfect in one jump.”
• Have at least one backup build concept that doesn’t rely on the same ascendancy or damage type.

And remember: you don’t have to navigate all of this alone. If you want to:

• Rebuild quickly after nerfs hit,
• Stabilize your early progression, or
• Get a second opinion on a complex character,

you can always lean on our Path of Exile 2 services — from tailored leveling gear packages to deep-dive build improvement coaching and premium currency options like Divine Orbs, Exalted Orbs, and Mirror of Kalandra to fuel your post-patch experiments.

Use these predictions as a roadmap, stay flexible, and you’ll be ready to turn patch 0.4’s winners and losers into an opportunity — not a setback.