Path of Exile 2 just rolled out a surprise thursday patch with 0.5.4b. As apparent from the numbering, this one is just a batch of fixes and QoL passes on various problems with the Endgame. Specifically, those who are stuck with Doryani’s Science quest after failing to one-up Immured Fury, will now have a guaranteed attempt every three Corrupted Nexus maps.

Another huge set of QoL improvements have hit the Expedition. After receiving its own Atlas Tree in this patch, it still remained the most bug-prone of all League mechanics. Expedition will still unforunately reserve the most lethally annoying monsters in Path of Exile 2 after patch 0.5.4b, but now at least you won’t have to scrub the deck to find hidden small mobs that prevent the completion of a Verisium node.

Another massive change that will make Expedition more lurcrative is that boss-encounter Logbooks will actively avoid overwriting Grand Expedition maps. While the entire 0.5.4b subpatch is dedicated towards improvements like this, one new piece of gear might slip your notice if you skim through the patch notes. The Master’s Reach Kulemak-exclusive Unique gloves added in the patch last week now has its Martial Artist version!

Without further ado, though, here are the full official patch notes for Path of Exile 2 0.5.4b.

All changes and fixes in Path of Exile 2 0.5.4 (full patch notes)

Boss Improvements

• Removed a majority of the stun and freeze immunity windows from all versions of the Tor Gul, the Defiler boss fight.
• Improved the Minion Phase in the Tasgul, Swallower of Light boss fight.
• Fixed a bug where It That Was Esh could sometimes fail to advance phases properly.
• Fixed a bug where the Arbiter of Divinity could rarely drop loot in an unreachable location.
• Defeating the Arbiter of Divinity now re-enables the exit elevator.
• Extended the time the player has to get into the first Flame Seed during the combo skill that begins with the Large Laser in the Arbiter of Ash boss fight.
• The voiceline used by the Arbiter of Ash when doing his skill which creates lanes of fiery death now plays at the start of the skill, instead of after he rises up to the air.
• Made the following improvements to the Vessel of Kulemak boss fight:
• Fixed an issue where it could get stuck after its Teleport Slam skill during the final phase of the fight.
• Disabled the skill used during the final phase of the fight that summoned minions.
• The Volatiles spawned during the final phase of the fight now spawn in bursts, with a significantly longer time between each burst. This is to allow for more time to fight and damage the boss.
• Improved the visual feedback of the portals during the final phase. Further improvements to these will be coming at a later time.
• Adjusted the blocking of the abyss in the middle of the arena during the final phase to more closely reflect the actual shape.
• Fixed a bug where after killing the Vessel of Kulemak for the first time in a given instance, reviving at checkpoint would not put players in a new instance.
• Made the following improvements to the Arbiter of Divinity boss fight:
• The voicelines used by the boss are now guaranteed for his notable skills, as opposed to having a low chance to play.
• The voicelines used by the boss now have less variance, so you can better correlate specific lines to specific skills.
• The Divinity Clones created during the second phase of the fight now have a significantly larger hitbox allowing them to more easily be hit and killed while you have the Divinity buff.
• Increased the windows of time between certain attacks and many of the combo skills to make dodge rolling these skills more consistent. This is also accompanied by a number of visual telegraphing improvements and reduction in aggression on target tracking speed.
• Made the following improvements to the Phya, Sentinel of the Cradle boss fight in The Matriarch Halls:
• Improved telegraphing and visuals of the Dashing Sunders skill.
• The Dashing Sunders skill now correctly deals Physical damage, instead of Cold Damage.
• Reduced the frequency and count of projectiles fired by the Generator.
• Removed the chilling ground from the projectiles fired by the Generator.
• The Generator will now stop firing projectiles during the Gravity Well and the Turret Sunder phases.
• The Gravity Well phase will now correctly hit you if you fail to make it to the safe zones anywhere in the arena. Previously you could avoid this by hiding behind the spheres in the four corners.
• Gravity Wells can no longer be created outside of the arena.
• If you fail the Gravity Well phase while Shapeshifted you are now transformed back into a human and thrown into the air. Previously nothing would happen to your character and you’d just take damage without knowing why.
• Improved the visuals of the ‘dash’ skills to look more like a teleport as intended.

Expedition Improvements in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.5.4b

• Logbooks that add a Boss Expedition now prioritise replacing regular Maps over Grand Expeditions.
• Modifiers in Grand Expedition now appear in the map stats list when inside the area.
• Added an additional option to the Expedition Atlas Tree “Double or Nothing” Notable, allowing players to select no change if desired.
• Fixed a bug where some monsters in Expeditions could become invisible and invincible.
• Fixed an issue where Medved, Vorana, Uhtred and Olroth were not considered Powerful Map Bosses. This means they also now have notably more Life.
• Fixed a bug where Verisium Sentry minimap icons would not disappear upon activating them.
• Fixed a bug where the Barren Atoll Map did not have a Grand Expedition Atlas Marker.
• Fixed a bug where Underground Areas in Expeditions and Grand Expeditions could sometimes spawn with all their monsters dead. This would occur if the underground area was opened with an explosive that also activated a Remnant encounter and that Remnant encounter had the Life Rune. The monsters in the underground area would then have their life shared with the Remnant monsters and would thus be killed when the Remnant monsters were defeated. This was also why Styrn, Fallen Knight of Aldur would sometimes be dead when entering his cave.
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from rerolling Remnants when using a controller.
• Fixed a bug where the loot from Underground Areas in Expeditions and Grand Expeditions could be redirected to a Verisium Remnant. This would cause the monsters in the underground areas to appear to drop no items.
• Fixed an issue where underground areas in Grand Expedition could sometimes be accessed without detonating the entrance.
• Fixed a bug where Oath Rune could spawn monsters in blocked or inaccessible areas.
• Fixed a bug with Verisium Remnants in Grand Expeditions where monsters (without Oath Rune necessarily) could spawn out-of-bounds and prevent completion.
• Fixed a bug where the following Grand Expedition areas could be attempted infinitely: Craggy Peninsula, Lush Isle, Frigid Bluffs, Barren Atoll, and Exhumed Ruins.

Endgame Improvements in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.5.4b

• The Queen in the Mists can now only have 1 active Whirling Slash at a time.
• Monsters Corrupted by the Offerings to the Queen Atlas Passive now have 100% increased Rarity of Items Dropped (from 50%).
• The Distant Origins Atlas Passive Skill now notifies the player when it reveals The Ezomyte Megaliths on their Atlas.
• Fixed a bug where Doryani’s Head of the Snake and Jado’s Untold Histories Atlas Master options were applying their bonuses to non-Pinnacle Endgame bosses.
• Fixed a bug where Jado’s Untold Histories Atlas Master option was not applying to Expedition Bosses, except for Styrn, Fallen Knight of Aldur who was incorrectly receiving the 50% bonus instead of the 35% bonus.
• Fixed a bug where Hilda’s Gutting and Skinning Atlas Master options were not working on the Vessel of Kulemak, The Raven Trickster, and Atziri, the Red Queen.
• Fixed a bug where the Lord of the Runes Atlas Passive Skill was not applying the toughness from Monster Effectiveness.
• Fixed a bug where the Whispers of the Waving Grains Atlas Passive Skill was not applying.
• Fixed a bug where the Trapped Subordinate Essence Atlas Passive Skill was not adding additional rare chance as expected.
• Fixed an issue with the spawning condition of the Immured Fury. It is now able to spawn any time after you have completed 3 Corruption Nexuses, so you can complete additional Corruption Nexuses to find the boss if you failed to kill them the first time.
• Fixed a bug where the From Distances Untold Cleansed Atlas Passive Skill was applying to non-Cleansed areas.
• Fixed a bug where the Sole Purpose: Destruction Breach Atlas Passive Skill was not increasing damage of Skills granted by Ailith.
• Fixed a bug where the Expanding Territory: Remnants and Warring Survivors Atlas Passive Skills, as well as Hilda’s Mighty Prey and Patient Battue Atlas Master options were not applying their random chance to apply correctly.
• Fixed a bug where the Training and Preparation Atlas Passive Skill did not apply when opening the Temple of Atziri from the Vaal Ruins in Act 3.
• Fixed some cases where certain standalone bosses, such as those spawned by Summoning Circles could disable area transitions. This could cause areas such as the Sun Temple Map to be uncompletable.
• Fixed a bug where maps with an extra completion objective would not complete if a player had completed the required objective but later died to the map boss and respawned.
• Fixed a bug where Atziri’s Temple was sometimes created at the wrong monster level.
• Fixed an issue where some players were unable to get a replacement Origin Cradle from Doryani in the Tower of Origin, preventing the use of the Precursor Reactor.
• Fixed an issue where Delirium Fog Banks spawned on Atlas nodes it shouldn’t have.
• Fixed an issue where Grand Delirium Mirrors in the Deforestation Map could not be interacted with.
• Fixed a bug where areas could preview the incorrect amount of Deliriousness when being selected from the Atlas Map.
• Simulacrum areas no longer preview any amount of Deliriousness when being selected from the Atlas Map. This is purely a visual change.
• Simulacrum icons on the Atlas Map are now described as “Contains a manifestation of Delirium”. This is purely a descriptive change.
• Fixed a bug where some Azmerian Wisps could cause Breach encounters to be uncompletable.
• Fixed a bug where players could get stuck in the Ancient Lexicon room in The Burning Monolith.

General Improvements and Bug Fixes in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.5.4b

• You can now copy a placed hideout decoration by right-clicking it, then left-clicking to place it. This allows you to quickly replicate Hideout Decorations if you need to place many of the same one.
• Added support for upgrading runes using a Masterwork Rune in the Martial Artist’s Runic Meridians inventory.
• Advanced Runeshape recipes now indicate when a Skill reward level has reached its maximum.
• Updated the Map Pin art for the Great White One to convey the fact that it now gives a quest reward that grants permanent character bonuses.
• Added support for the Martial Artist’s Way of the Stonefist Ascendancy Passive for the Master’s Reach Unique Gloves.
• Temporarily disabled the damage from the burning ground created by Birth of Fury Unique boots when equipped by a Rogue Exile.
• The Orb of Sacrifice currency items have been added to the Currency Exchange.
• The Dominus’ Providence Passive Skill no longer provides Unaffected by Elemental Weakness, which was not correctly applying. It now provides 30% reduced effect of Curses on you.
• Azmerian Wisps can now only be released from a monster once, the first time a monster is killed.
• An inherent Skill that has had a Perfect Jeweller’s Orb applied to it now correctly transfers all the sockets when transformed to Fists of Stone.
• Passive Skills allocated from using the From Nothing Unique Jewel are now properly reset when fully respeccing.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the buff granted by the Rain of Blades Skill to be removed early when gaining a different buff.
• Fixed a bug where monsters in Abyssal Depths were not benefiting from increased chance for Abyssal monsters to have Abyssal or Lichborn Modifiers. In addition to the guaranteed Abyssal Modifier all Rare monsters in Abyssal Depths have, they will now have a chance of an additional modifier, and a chance of Lichborn modifiers.
• Fixed a bug where the Meteoric Demise Abyss monster modifier dealt no Damage.
• Fixed a bug where the Untether Skill (granted by The Master’s Reach Unique Gloves) gained a second Quality stat from the Gemling Legionnaire’s Advanced Thaumaturgy Passive Skill.
• Fixed a bug where Runic Reprieve’s Quality when you have the Gemling Legionnaire’s Advanced Thaumaturgy Passive Skill allocated was instead increasing the amount of damage you take from Blocked Hits rather than decreasing it.
• Fixed a bug where you could create a Portal to Town while being hit. The animation is correctly interrupted again in this case.
• Fixed a bug where Torvian’s Leap Slam would sometimes not move him at all, and sometimes he’d go backwards.
• Fixed a bug where the Recover X% of maximum Life when you use a Warcry modifier was recovering life on all Skill uses instead of just Warcries.
• Fixed a bug where items that are consumed by interacting with certain objects, such as the Pinnacle Boss Key used to access the Vessel of Kulemak boss fight, would be consumed from both the main inventory and the Titan’s expanded inventory needlessly.
• Fixed a bug where Essence of Horror encounters could spawn permanent invulnerable minions.
• Fixed a bug where Quality did not apply to some Jewel modifiers.
• Fixed a bug where Lightning Arrow could not chain to Lightning Rods created by Shockchain Arrow.
• Fixed a bug where Cursecarver was unable to generate with Vulnerability as its chosen curse (those cases instead picked Elemental Weakness, leading to higher rates of that option). This does not change existing items.
• Fixed a bug where the Ironbound Unique Bow was not granting Armour.
• Added a verisium Runeforge upgrade for the Ironbound Unique Bow.
• Fixed a bug where Monstrous Treasure was used for the name of 2 different Ancient Modifiers, the version that grants Map Bosses a Unique Item is now named Behemoth’s Bounty. This is purely a descriptive change.
• Fixed a bug where Rite of the Nameless progress was not migrated across leagues, such as when migrating out of SSF.
• Fixed a bug that could cause Explosive Transmutation supported by Spell Cascade to deal damage in the wrong location.
• Fixed an issue where the quest markers on Map Pins in Act 4 weren’t visible when you were choosing an area to sail to.
• Fixed a bug where the Thaumaturge’s Crossbow Skill microtransactions were not updating their visuals properly without reloading ammo.
• Fixed an issue where the view patch notes button on the login screen led to an incorrect webpage.
• Fixed 5 client crashes.
• Fixed 4 instance crashes.

That’s all the patch notes for Path of Exile 2 0.5.4b. We (and by we, I mean I) have narrowly escaped getting a certain ice-breaking tech nerfed, or even a new perma-companion tech in this subpatch. The next big one is likely to come much later, as GGG are possibly focusing on PoE1 before 0.5.5 rolls around.

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