POE 2 developers announced the very unfortunate news that Early Access will be delayed by 3 weeks, from the original November 15th to December 6th. To be honest, this is not too surprising. They really should take the time to make sure the game is ready, and the release is as smooth as possible. Meanwhile, this also provides players with more time to prepare for the upcoming Path of Exile 2.
As Early Access release date approaches, many exiles are collecting some new information about POE 2. The recent Tokyo Games Show revealed a lot of information about new Keystones and our topic today, Item Base Types. Of course, Base Types we know about now are still low-level Bases, because we have not seen any high-level endgame footage of Path of Exile 2.
However, through POE 1, we may be able to speculate what are the noteworthy Item Base Types in Path of Exile 2. Base Types often have higher level versions that are somewhat similar or even identical in design, except that the higher level versions have more base stats and require more PoE 2 Currency investment to re-roll stats. As such, these Base Types look interesting to see what we can expect in Path of Exile 2. Let’s jump right into it.
Table of Contents
Solar Amulet
Solar Amulet is the base type of Amulet that gives you 15 Spirits. If you noticed Spirits mechanic in PoE 2, you’ll notice that you’ll be able to invest heavily in Spirits through various item slots, including Amulets Implicit, as well as Amulet Explicit modifiers to give you more stats.
Spirits will be the resource that a character uses to reserve any Reservation abilities. While you’re already familiar with this character’s Auras or Herald skills, it also includes Meta Trigger Gems, so a trigger-based build may need to invest further in Spirits to be able to use these Reservation abilities as well as any Auras they want to run.
Speaking of Trigger Gems, this change to retaining Spirits is very important as it indirectly enhances Self Cast Builds.
Pearl Ring
Moving on to the new ring base type, Pearl Ring, which grants you a 9% increase in Cast Speed. Because Self Cast Builds are implicit in POE 2, you no longer have to invest as many Spirits as you did in a trigger base build, or you can invest the extra Spirits you have into more Auras or other Reserve skills, like Herald of Thunder or Arctic Armour.
This new ring base type will also make Cast Speed as a stat easier to obtain for these builds, especially in the early game when your POE Currency is so limited that crafting a magnificent ring with other stats can be very difficult.
Icicle Flail
Next up we have Icicle Flail, a new weapon type in POE 2. But more importantly, this weapon deals pure cold damage as a base damage stat. This means that this weapon not only has base physical damage but also has a different base damage type.
But now this brings up the question of how would you scale this damage with Explicit Modifiers? Currently in POE 1, a weapon’s base type only has base physical damage, which is then scaled with local explicit modifiers to give an increased flat physical damage.
In Path of Exile 1, you could roll modifiers to provide additional elemental or chaos damage, but you couldn’t roll modifiers to provide local increased elemental or chaos damage like you could for physical damage.
However, in the recent Settlers of Kalguur League, we have a weapon enchantment that provides increased elemental damage. This is a local modifier, and it directly scales any flat added elemental damage you have on the weapon.
So, can we expect these types of local increases to exist for other damage types in POE 2? If so, can they be rolled on any base, or are they specific to the base type? For example, it would make sense if this Icicle Flail could roll a local increased cold damage modifier to scale the weapon base damage. But we’ll have to wait and see exactly how it plays out.
Cultist Greathammer
Now, in the same vein, we have another new base type, Cultist Greathammer. This weapon has two different base damages: a lot of physical damage, and a little of fire damage.
This is a Two Hand Mace, and implicitly provides Melee Splash Support, which can once again deal damage to targets near the initial hit target. Still, it’s worth keeping an eye on how you scale this damage with crafting. Not only does this require you to not skimp on your POE 2 Gold, but you’ll also need a bit of luck to get better damage modifiers.
Bloodletting Dagger
Next up we have Bloodletting Dagger, a weapon base type that makes 25% of your spell mana cost go to life instead, so it’s definitely a priority dagger target for spellcasters.
But interestingly, this isn’t Rune Dagger. And we’re not sure we’ve seen any dagger base types for POE 2 so far, so they may not be back either.
This dagger, though, really embodies the concept that skill costs and resource maintenance will become more of a mechanic that normal builds will interact with in Path of Exile 2, so expect this type of implicit to be very helpful in managing your mana upkeep.
Jingling Crest Shield
Then there’s Jingling Crest Shield. Considering that in Path of Exile 2 you’ll be able to use Active Blocking ability, which allows characters to raise their shields in front of them to block incoming projectiles and blows.
So let’s speculate if this will be a skill you’ll acquire and then be supportable like the others. Or, it’ll just be a mechanic similar to Dodge Roll but only available from shields. Either way, at least from this base type, it will be a supportable skill that boosts shields.
This is a great idea, and I’m looking forward to what interesting support options GGG will come up with for this skill. It’s great to see that.
Jade Club
Let’s turn our attention to Jade Club, One Hand Mace that requires 149 Intelligence to equip.
But since Maces in Path of Exile 1 were almost all Strength-based weapons, that only required a sufficient Strength stat to equip, we can reasonably speculate that this may be a typo on POE 2 database website. However, whether the required stat is Intelligence or Strength, or this is actually Sceptre and was mistakenly labeled as One Hand Mace, this new base type will make for an interesting game experience.
In addition, Jade Club has an always hits implicit, which is basically an unavoidable modifier for some people who play POE ranged classes. And it is said that in Path of Exile 2, accuracy will come more from the range of the target mechanic, so considering this implicit is on melee weapons, it should have a considerable impact.
Hand Of Chayula
Finally, let’s briefly discuss Hand of Chayula. This base type is so cool and has some great new technology that didn’t exist in POE 1.
When you equip the weapon, you will use this skill, that is, it will still perform unarmed attacks even if it is a Quarterstaff. And the skill applies a linked curse when it hits, so even if it doesn’t do a lot of damage, it provides useful utility. If you want to try this new base type, prepare some POE 2 Gold, which is essential to unlock or upgrade it based on our experience in Path of Exile 1.
Although Early Access date has been delayed, the live reveal of POE 2 is getting closer and closer. Hopefully, all the waiting will bring the best results. Looking forward to seeing you at the live broadcast!
