Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt Arrives this April

Developer and publisher Grinding Gear Games has officially revealed the next major update for Path of Exile 2, called Dawn of the Hunt. Arriving on April 4, 2025, the Dawn of the Hunt is one of the biggest updates released for Path of Exile 2, and it brings with it a brand-new Huntress class, five new ascendancies, brand-new endgame mechanics, and tons of other content, along with technical optimizations.

Grinding Gear Games held a press preview event recently during which we got to see a sneak peak of the new mechanics, and we came out of the event extremely impressed with the developer’s dedication and the amount of content stuffed into the upcoming update. Sharing the updates with us was none other than Game Director Jonathan Rogers, who gave us a detailed insight into everything coming in the Dawn of the Hunt update.

Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt Content Reveal

New Huntress Class

Starting with the very best one, Huntress is a brand-new class arriving in Path of Exile 2: Dawn of the Hunt, and she is a hybrid ranged and melee class. Using spears, the Huntress class is a warrior who can use the spear as both a ranged and a melee weapon. For ranged, she uses ranged spear throws, and for melee, she sticks to close combo attacks. Her combat style is designed in a way that she is always in motion, running around her enemies and sending powerful tornadoes at her enemies from afar and if they get close to her, she can obliterate them using her fancy combos. She can switch between the two modes instantly.

Apart from landing powerful blows, the Huntress can also Parry incoming attacks, which means that every parry will stun the enemies, and she can follow up with her several counterattacks. One such example is the use of Disengage after a Parry to quickly jump back, gaining a Frenzy charge, and then following up with a powerful spear throw. The Huntress class also features some of the longest combo chains of any class in the game, so you can unleash an array of elemental spear attacks on the enemies to dominate the battlefield.

Five New Ascendancy Classes

The update will also bring with it five brand-new Ascendancy Classes. Two of them are for the newly added Huntress class, while the remaining three are for three previously available classes, including Witch, Smith of Kitava, and Tactician.

These are detailed below:

Ritualist (Huntress) – The Ritualist sacrifices flesh and blood, unleashing corrupted lifeforce upon their foes. She delved into the forbidden depths of Azmeri traditions, wielding blood sacrifice and plague as weapons

Amazon (Huntress) – A peerless hunter who thrives on precision and elemental fury. The Amazon Ascension forges warriors into elite hunters, sworn to protect Azmeri Elders with lethal precision.
Lich (Witch) – The Lich tears their own soul apart, becoming a master of undeath and chaos. The Lich is a master of Chaos and Curses who can use her own life to enhance her Energy.

Smith of Kitava (Warrior) – The Smith of Kitava forges weapons of destruction in fire and suffering. Embrace sheer power and take Smithing skills to greater heights by resonating with the insatiable one – Kitava.
Tactician (Mercenary) – The Mercenary Tactician brings military-grade brutality to the battlefield. As a former trained Blackguard Elite, the Tactician is able to decimate the monsters of Wraeclast while earning a healthy income at the same time.

New Skill and Support Gems

The Huntress class brings with it 20 new Spear Skills, and along with them, 2 additional abilities are also coming to the game:

Raise Spectre – This skill lets you trap and summon the souls of almost any monster in the game. With hundreds of monster variants in Path of Exile 2, expect endless experimentation to find the perfect undead army.
Summon Rhoa Mount – Call forth a Rhoa to fight by your side or mount it to move at full speed while attacking. But beware, taking too much damage can knock you off, leaving you vulnerable to a brutal fate.

Coming to Support Gems, the update will add over 100 new Support Gems to the game, which will allow you to diversify your build further. These Support Gems will add a variety of different effects to your existing skills and modify them in game-changing ways. One such new Support Gem is Haemocrystals, which turns bleed effects into explosive Vaal crystals, and Caltrops allows your existing skills to rain down, slowing hazards across the entire battlefield.

New Items

Since Dawn of the Hunt is focused on endgame content(more on this later), the new items coming in the update are also focused on Mid and Endgame items that will ensure that high-level characters have more reasons to return to the grind and hunt down exclusive new items.

New Crafting Tools

The update is also bringing some changes to the crafting system of the game with new crafting tools to make your life easier. At different points in the game, you will gain access to additional crafting tools as rewards. Some important points to note include:

Over 20 new runes have been added, allowing you to craft new mods onto your gear
Runes now scale with multiple tiers, allowing for stronger mods that remain viable in the endgame.
Introduction of more specialized socketable mods, with the first wave arriving in the upcoming content update.

Azmeri Spirit

In Wraeclast, you will encounter the Azmeri Spirit, and if you get close to it, it will run away from you. If it comes in contact with any enemies or monsters, they will be infused with its power, making them even more powerful. These wisps will also actively seek Rare or Unique monsters to infect them, which will make them powerful with new attacks and abilities, and if you kill them, you will get powerful new rewards. You will find 12 unique wisps on the map, each with its own mechanics and rewards.

New Maps

If you thought that there are not enough maps in the game to cause mayhem, the Dawn of the Hunt update is adding 8 new maps that offer a fresh new challenge and rewards. During the presentation, we got to see two brand-new maps, including The Fractured Lake and The Phaaryl Megaliths. The Fractured Lake is absolutely beautiful as the level forms as you move around it. It looks surreal and beautiful at the same time. On these new maps, you will fight monsters and bosses, and in return, you will be able to earn full boss rewards and exclusive Ruins for your character.

Unique Strongboxes

Dawn of the Hunt will introduce four new strongboxes, but we only got to see two of them in action during the presentation. Each of these new strongboxes will have a unique way of opening them. Two of them showcased at the event included:

Ogham’s Legacy features a rune-carved stone and a slain creature that, when activated, revives as a powerful Rare. Each defeat triggers another resurrection with added modifiers, making the fight progressively more difficult but also more rewarding.
Ixchel’s Torment harnesses ancient Vaal thaumaturgy, unleashing Chaos-empowered guardians to protect a powerful artifact. Victors will be rewarded with a unique item featuring a specific Corrupted outcome.

The other two strongboxes are a surprise, and we will need to find them to experience them on our own when the update arrives.

Corrupted Essences and the Spread of Corruption

Essences are also getting a major update in the game with the arrival of four new Corrupted Essences. These include Hysteria, Delirium, Horror, and Insanity. Each of these new Essences offers new combat mechanics and powerful new crafting outcomes when used in the game. One example includes guaranteed double Enchantments when using a Vaal Orb on belts.

This Corruption is also spreading throughout Wraeclast, and you will find it in larger and larger zones. In each zone, you will find a Corrupted Nexus, where you will encounter three new bosses. If you manage to defeat these bosses, any remaining areas within the zone will be cleansed. These zones will now have additional monsters, a brand-new boss to tackle with new sets of Modifiers and rewards.

Rogue Exiles

You will also encounter Rogue Exiles randomly on the maps. These are others like you who have been exiled, and they are extremely hostile. If you encounter one, you will be challenged by them, and it will be a fight to the death. These Rogue Exiles fight similarly to you with different advanced moves like Dodge Roll, avoiding your abilities with smart pathfinding and plenty more tricks up their sleeves. If you manage to defeat them, you can loot their bodies for their items and gear.

Major Overhaul of the Endgame Content

One of the key aspects that Grinding Gear Games is currently working to improve is the endgame content. With the upcoming update, the endgame will be significantly balanced. One, the number of Towers has been drastically reduced but the remaining towers are now more powerful. Using tablets on these Towers will now affect twice as many areas and running higher tier Maps in Towers increases this number even more. Each Tower is now able to consume up to three Tablets at once. The Towers are also now able to spawn with all mechanics and have their own new Bosses.

Jonathan also mentioned that the patch notes for the upcoming Dawn of the Hunt update are currently being written since they are so massive, but we can expect them to drop before its official release next week on April 4, 2025. The developers also suggested that starting a new character will help players experience the full change in the new economy, but the update will fully support all current characters in the game as well. Path of Exile 2 is currently available on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, along with PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.

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Are you looking forward to jumping back into Path of Exile 2 to try out the new content arriving in the Dawn of the Hunt update? Let us know in the comments section below.