The servers have finally stopped wheezing, and once you jump in you can feel how much smoother things run, especially now that early players are already trading PoE 2 Currency to kick‑start their builds. Patch 0.4.0 landed right at 11 AM PST, and the moment you load in you can tell why everyone’s talking about the Druid. It isn’t that old clunky shapeshift style where you get stuck in one form. You swap Talismans on the fly, switch from Bear to Wolf mid‑fight, and it just feels good. Most folks I’ve bumped into are rerolling even if they swore they wouldn’t, and honestly, I get it.

Early Build Choices

Players always worry about their league starter, but this time the community settled on a front‑runner fast. The Bear Slam Shaman build has been everywhere, and after trying it myself for a bit, I can see why. You stack armour, build Rage with simple hits, then drop a heavy Slam that chunks bosses before they get moving. It doesn’t feel fragile, which is rare this early in a league. Some players prefer the Frost Wolf setup for quick mapping, and it’s fun, but if you want a no‑stress climb through the acts, Bear’s the one that keeps you alive when things go sideways.

Temple Runs and Early Progress

The Fate of the Vaal mechanic comes in early and doesn’t waste your time. You get those fast runs through Vaal areas like in the old days, but everything’s tighter and harder to ignore. Most players seem to rush Sacrifice rooms at first for a shot at uniques, and that’s been working pretty well for me too. Corruption rooms are tempting, but you really feel the risk early on. And if you roll Atziri, you’ll know immediately whether your resistances are ready or not, so getting cold res sorted in Acts 1 and 2 stops a lot of those annoying freezes that slow everything down.

Currency, Gear and the Early Grind

It doesn’t take long before you hit that familiar point where your gear refuses to roll the stats you need. Linking items still drains your pockets, and a couple of bad alch rolls on rings can completely stall your damage. Plenty of players are already complaining about hitting that gear wall right around mid‑campaign. If you don’t have hours to farm or you just want to get your build online, grabbing a bit of extra currency is becoming pretty common this league.

The nice part is that you can push through the acts at a good pace once your setup is stable, and whether you grind maps for hours or grab a little help from places offering gold path of exile 2, the goal’s the same: get your build rolling and enjoy this patch’s smoother combat and cleaner performance.