Path of Exile 2 0.4.0 Preview: Everything You Need to Know About the Druid and the Fate of the Vaal

Path of Exile 2’s 0.4.0 update is shaping up to be one of the most ambitious content drops yet. Grinding Gear Games used today’s livestream to showcase a mix of new mechanics, a brand new league, and, most excitingly, the long-awaited Druid class, a class that promises build flexibility unlike anything we’ve seen before. The broadcast also gave a detailed look at the Fate of the Vaal league, complete with an interesting modular temple system, new crafting mechanics, and high-risk, high-reward items.

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For those who wanted a sneak peek at the systems and the logic behind them, the livestream offered enough to get a sense of how these new features integrate into the game. But thanks to a pre-show Q&A with Jonathan Rogers, ComicBook has additional insights that were not included in the broadcast that you may find interesting. We will cover those at the end of this preview recap.

The Druid: Shapeshifter, Hybrid, and Everything in Between

The highlight of the stream was undeniably the reveal of the Druid, a shapeshifting elemental spellcaster. Following the destruction of his fellow druids by the King in the Mists, the Druid spent years in the forests of Ogham as a beast. Now he has returned to reclaim what he lost, but it is his mechanical versatility through gameplay that really steals the show.

The Druid is the first Strength and Intelligence hybrid class in POE 2, meaning you must manage both melee attacks and spells to fully utilize the class. In human form, he wields magical staves to manipulate earth and elemental energy. One of the first skills players will encounter is Volcano, which spits magma balls that linger on the battlefield. This allows a seamless transition to one of his animal forms, giving players multiple layers of combat strategy.

Path of Exile 2 - Druid Wolf Form — Courtesy of Grinding Gear Games

Animal Talismans are a new weapon in POE 2, and they are central to the Druid’s gameplay. Equipping one grants the Druid the ability to transform into its different forms. When equipped, you’re given the option to select a form to receive its most basic attack. According to GGG, the goal is to have you shifting in and out of forms seamlessly, without even needing to think about it in combat. For example, the Bear form gives access to Maul, while the Wolf form offers mobility and cold-based abilities. The Wyvern focuses on long-range attacks with breath and melee rend abilities, which interact with other mechanics like corpses and elemental charges. In combat, Rage and Charges fuel many of these abilities, creating a dynamic feedback loop where forms complement each other. They, however, are not required to be played together.

GGG also showed off new Meta Gem interactions that further enhance flexibility. Warcries, Mark skills, and Spell Totems can all be used across animal forms, allowing for hybrid combinations that can radically alter standard class archetypes. For example, a Bear using Ferocious Roar can leverage a Warrior’s Warcry gem, while Wolves can integrate Monk Mark skills for cold-based AOE chains.

Path of Exile 2 - Druid Wyvern Form — Courtesy of Grinding Gear Games

The team, again, highlighted the seamless swapping between forms. You can transform instantly into your chosen animal form or return to human form without delay, and many human-form skills persist long enough to support animal form combat. This design ensures that hybrid builds are not only viable but satisfying to execute in real-time battle.

Druid Ascendancies

GGG additionally showcased the two Ascendacy classes for the Druid: the Oracle and the Shaman.

Oracle

The Oracle is an Ascendacy for the Druid that focuses on the potential futures of any given moment. This means foreseeing options that translate into direct gameplay. Oracles will actively see images of potential futures while moving around the world. This could mean something as simple as casting a fireball at a certain moment. Acting on this future would give said Fireball a massive damage bonus. This is the class’s core mechanic, and it is quite interesting, to say the least.

Path of Exile 2 - Oracle Ascendancy — Courtesy of Grinding Gear Games

Additionally, the Oracle gains access to over a hundred additional nodes in the passive tree that no other class gains access to if you take The Unseen Path in its tree. No doubt this will open up massive build potential that only Oracle can take advantage of.

Shaman

The second Ascendancy for the Druid is the Shaman, and it focuses on utilizing both Rage and Spells in tandem, granting you significant spell damage bonuses the more Rage you have, should you take the powerful Druidic Champion node. Due to this core mechanic, the Shaman does not have an Inherent loss of Rage, meaning it’s a resource you’ll want to consistently keep up with as you play it.

Path of Exile 2 - Shaman Ascendancy — Courtesy of Grinding Gear Games

One other unique mechanic about the Shaman is how it interacts with both Runes and Idols. Shamans who take the Wisdom of the Magi node will gain additional Bonded modifiers on their Runes and Idols, making them, exclusively, much more powerful when used by Shamans.

Fate of the Vaal League and Temple Mechanics

Path of Exile 2 - Vaal League — Courtesy of Grinding Gear Games

The other major reveal was the Fate of the Vaal league, which introduces a customizable modular dungeon in the form of Temples, alongside new bosses and advanced crafting systems. You will discover Vaal remnants scattered throughout Wraeclast, which can be powered by sacrificing nearby monsters. Fully activating these devices opens portals to the lost Vaal temple, where players can explore procedurally connected rooms filled with loot and danger.

Each temple run requires careful placement of rooms and paths, affecting enemy strength, room leveling, and rewards. For example, positioning a Commander near a Garrison increases enemy power but also the potential loot from the encounter. Rooms like the Smithy, Thaumaturge, and Sacrificial Chamber interact, generating bonuses for crafting and corruption. At level three, the Corruption Chamber allows players to double-corrupt items, trading critical risk for powerful rewards. The Flesh Surgeon adds another layer of experimentation, letting players modify their own characters’ limbs for random stat boosts, though death resets these modifications.

Path of Exile 2 - Temple UI — Courtesy of Grinding Gear Games

Endgame scaling has also been addressed. Instead of continuously increasing monster counts, GGG has opted to increase reward and difficulty scaling proportionally, making deeper runs more rewarding without overwhelming players with enemies. Delirium fog and visual clutter have been toned down, improving both performance and clarity.

Fate of the Vaal also ties into time travel mechanics, where players can explore past iterations of the temple for unique rewards and room types. Completing the Architect encounter unlocks access to Atziri’s personal chambers, including rewards like Atziri’s Rule, a staff that modifies corrupted gem behavior in a big way, while creating dynamic mirrors on the battlefield. Atziri herself looks to be the pinnacle boss for this league, so you can expect a difficult encounter if you can reach her.

Alongside the league, previous content like Rise of the Abyssal has been integrated into the core game with reworked mechanics and tablets to simplify abyss crafting. It has been stated that because of this core integration, Abyssal mechanics will not show up on every map anymore. Instead, it will appear at random, and you can specialize your endgame around it, thanks to a new Atlas tree dedicated to it.

Path of Exile 2 0.4.0 Additional Details: Early Insights

Path of Exile 2 0.40 - Infographic — Courtesy of Grinding Gear Games

Our pre-show Q&A with Jonathan Rogers offered some additional insight not covered in the 0.4.0 livestream:

Passive Tree Impact on Druids: Players can take specific nodes that modify the Druid’s spells and abilities. For instance, the Shadowflame Conduit node converts the Wyvern form’s Firebreath ability into Chaos damage, opening radically different elemental playstyles.
Animal Talismans Flexibility: Talismans are not restricted to the Druid. Any class can equip them, meaning a surprising number of hybrid or unconventional builds may be possible and even stronger than expected. This aligns with GGG’s philosophy of player experimentation and emergent gameplay.
Future Animal Forms: Currently, the Druid has three base forms at launch, but Rogers hinted that more could be added later through unique items or special mechanics, similar to the unique item that turns the Bear form into a fire demon. No timeframe for this was given.