During the sneak peek press preview ahead of ExileCon 2023, Game Director Jonathan Rogers highlighted many different things. So. Many. Things. But in this recap, we want to focus on the revealed skills that were shown off during the Path of Exile 2 gameplay demo. Remember, although these specific skills were demonstrated on specific classes, that doesn’t mean the skill is locked in to that class. Whether you want to play the two highlighted classes of Monk and Sorceress or not, you can still appreciate the various skills and start to contemplate how you might use them in your own builds.
Rogers emphasized that Grinding Gear Games has done a serious work trying to make using the skills feel satisfying to players. For instance, he noted that if players accidentally target slightly off the monster, some skills will automatically lock on to the cullable target, and it will even enable a small amount of pathfinding around obstacles. “We really want to make sure that when an opportunity to use the skill presents itself, nothing is going to get in your way,” Rogers said.
Both the Monk and the Sorceress are new in Path of Exile 2. The Monk is based on Dexterity and Intelligence like the Shadow is. The Sorceress, however, is based on only Intelligence; she is the other class with the Witch. A way to differentiate the two is that the Witch focuses more on occult magic and summoning, while the Sorceress is themed around pure elemental destruction. And we don’t mean just one element, either! (Check out weapon swapping in our previous article!)
Read on and see if any of these skill entice you toward playing either of these classes when that POE2 closed beta starts up next year!
Monk skill highlights
Killing Palm: This is a strike that marks an enemy to be culled. When that enemy dies, players gain a power charge. Since many of the Monk’s skills interact with power charges, this is a great prep skill. It also has a built-in dash forward to target the skill right where players need it.
Falling Thunder: Without a power charge, this skill creates a relatively small lightning AOE in front of you. However, with some power charges added in, it turns it into larger AOE with a large number of extra projectiles capable of clearing out a pack.
Whirling Assault: This skill doesn’t do much damage per hit, but it covers a lot of ground and allows players to turn as they execute it. If players make a turn at the right time, they can even get a couple of extra hits in on the monsters.
Wind Blast: This skill also doesn’t do too much damage but is handy for crowd control. The blast literally blasts enemies away, pushing them back. The closer they are to the caster, the farther they are pushed back. Rogers noted that this is not as effective on larger mobs, however.
Glacial Cascade: A cast of this creates a wave of slowly moving ice in front of the player. Note that the most damage occurs right at the end of the wave, not the whole thing. The best bet is to stop the monster in its tracks then place the wave just right to end right at the mob. Note: Hitting frozen mobs does more damage.
Ice Strike: While this skill also doesn’t do too much damage, three sequential attacks can get off a combo that has a much higher chance to freeze the target in place. It’s a very good companion to use with Glacial Cascade.
Wave of Frost: A new attack with a retreat built right in; players move backward and toss out a cold attack with a significant chance to freeze the mob. Now that players have some distance from the mob, it can be paired well with Glacial Cascade for whole bunch of damage.
Shattering Palm: This palm strike puts an ice bomb on the target; once the target is dead or has enough damage dealt to it, the bomb explodes. The explosion does both damage and has a significant chance of freezing the mob — or even boss.
Flicker Strike: It’s another Monk skill that consumes power charges. Rogers says that those who have played POE1 will find it familiar. As this skill teleports the player to a nearby monster and temporarily increases movement duration, Rogers calls it a great finisher for a tough boss if players built up some power charges beforehand.
Sorceress skill highlights
Spark: A lightning attack that bounces around, this skill is a good fit for tight passageways. Rogers notes that using a Pierce support gem ups the voltage so the effect can hit an entire room of targets, while using Arc support makes it a powerful hit for a single target.
Ice Nova: This skill hits all enemies around the players and slows them down with chill. It’s a good way to get your squishier class away from melee range. (Don’t forget dodge rolls to help with that as well!)
Arctic Armour: A buff that builds up as the Sorceress stands still, this helps increase her weak melee defense. Monsters that hit the buff take cold damage and build up to a freeze.
Frost Bomb: This places a bomb on the ground that reduces enemies’ cold resistance while it’s ticking down. It’s a great opportunity to use some cold skills before it explodes.
Comet: This new skill is a hard hitter. Although it costs a lot of mana and has a really long cast time, Rogers claims it is worth the wait because it does a devastating amount of damage, especially on enemies that stand still or move very slowly. While casting, the player will move back slightly, possibly moving out of the range of danger.
Just to name a few
While these are the only skills demonstrated and discussed in the keynote, we know it’s only a few – and only for two of the upcoming classes. We’ll keep reporting on more as the information is released. Perhaps even more will be revealed as ExileCon 2023 continues over the weekend. Stay tuned!
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