Path of Exile outlines extensive balance changes and the philosophy behind them for Siege of the Atlas

You can perhaps fault the Path of Exile designers for laying out walls of text that require advanced knowledge of most of the game to be comprehensible, but you cannot fault them for not being thorough. You also can’t fault them for failing to communicate their intentions. The Siege of the Atlas expansion is going to include some significant game balance changes, and the first section of the balance change manifesto is all about the philosophy behind changing how hit-based spell builds function. It’s a lot to read, but by gum, when you’ve read it all you will understand how those builds are changing and how much that damage is going to improve.

Other major changes include balance shifts to make hit-based archery builds more viable, reductions in sources of additional damage to rein in other bow-based builds, and some significant changes to how Fortification works. The result will probably still be a game with insane builds that allow explosive damage results for certain options, but at least they will not be the same insane builds with explosive damage results. That’s the goal, and the manifesto in question explains how it’s all going to work.