I jumped into Path of Exile 2: The Last of the Druids expecting my usual "one more map" spiral, and it sort of delivers—just not in the way I hoped. If you're logging in mainly to test the new class and tinker with gear, there's plenty to chew on, and even browsing PoE 2 Items makes more sense when you see how many setups the patch enables. But if you wanted the endgame to feel brand-new, you'll notice the shine fading once you've done the first wave of experiments.
Why the Druid Actually Works
The Druid class is the headline for a reason. The new Talismans don't just give you a button to press—they change how you think about a whole build. Bear form is straight-up comfort food: big hits, big presence, and you don't feel made of paper. Wolf is the opposite, all pace and positioning, the kind of form where you're constantly checking angles and dashing out on instinct. Then there's Wyvern, which is a little weirder and honestly more interesting—you're watching corpses, grabbing charges, and planning your casts instead of just mashing. The fact that other classes can use Talismans is the sneaky best part, because it turns "new class" into "new toolbox" for everyone.
Ascendancies and the Usual Build Brain Melt
I've been bouncing between the new Ascendancies, Shaman and Oracle, and they both hit different cravings. Shaman is for the nights you wanna load in, bonk something, and watch the screen react. Oracle is more of a slow-burn choice—it pushes you into odd corners of the passive tree, and you keep spotting little routes you didn't mean to take. It's that classic PoE feeling: character building is "simple" until you realise you've got twelve tabs open and you're arguing with yourself about a three-point pathing decision.
Vaal Ruins: Great Idea, Rough Patch
The Vaal Ruins mechanic has a genuinely cool loop at first. You hunt down six beacons in campaign maps, then drop into a temple you basically assemble yourself with the controller—rooms, branches, the whole pick-your-poison layout. It even nudges you to stop speed-running and actually look around, which I didn't expect to enjoy. The prosthetic limb swapping is the kind of grim, silly flavour PoE does well. The problem is the recent change that punishes leaving: step out to stash loot and the instance dies. That turns "I found something neat" into "do I risk losing everything," and in endgame it feels more irritating than tense.
Endgame Mood and Where I'm At
Outside of that, the endgame still feels like the same treadmill with a slightly different belt: smaller packs, tougher enemies, and at least the maps aren't smothered in that gloomy fog anymore. The campaign's pacing hasn't magically fixed itself either—Act 1 flows, Act 4 feels cleaner, and Act 3 still drags like you're walking through wet cement. I'll probably finish the story on Druid because the moment-to-moment play is fun, then see what else is out there for a bit, maybe even Diablo IV season stuff, unless the next tweaks give the loop a reason to stick around—and if I do end up re-rolling and chasing upgrades again, I can see why people choose to buy PoE 2 Items to cut through the slow parts of gearing up.