Path of Exile explains its rebalancing philosophy for patch 2.6

When The Fall of Oriath goes live, Path of Exile will undergo quite a bit of balance adjustment. But why wait until then? The upcoming patch 2.6 also features plenty of balance changes aimed at making less-attractive character builds more viable while also addressing certain imbalances found with existing builds. It should be easier for certain builds to covert physical damage to elemental damage, for example, while wholesale conversion of elemental damage to a different element will be made harder for other builds where the elemental properties of skills were almost entirely overwritten.

Unique items have also been rebalanced, along with one-handed weapons across the board; some leeching weapons have changed to life-on-hit for lower levels (where leech was almost useless) and one-handed weapons have generally been boosted in damage and utility. Area-of-effect increases have also been tuned down somewhat to avoid builds feeling as if they needed to have every possible point of area increase in order to be worthwhile. Check out the full list of changes; if you’ve been playing the game with any regularity, they’ll probably have a big impact on what you do while smashing monsters.