PoE 2 0.5.3: what changed, and what it means for you

01 Do you need to re-roll? No.

This is the question everyone asks after a patch, so here it is plainly: 0.5.3 made zero balance changes to player skill gems, support gems, ascendancy passives, class passives, or the passive tree. Twisters, Snipe, Spark, the Lich, all of it: untouched. Your character is exactly as strong as it was yesterday.

The only player-side power changes are small and build-agnostic: the Staunch Deflection notable now also grants Deflection Rating equal to 8% of Evasion (helps any evasion build), Runeforging armour loses less defence (helps everyone, more below), and a few niche staff and unique items got buffs. Minion players running The Unborn Lich staff got a real lift: its His Grave Command skill lost its Spirit cost and its quality now gives more minion life. New staff mods (extra chaos damage, more block, more Puppetmaster stacks) help staff casters and minion builds.

One thing to watch, not act on: GGG capped a Sorcery Ward exploit and said they will review Sorcery Ward in a future patch. If you run an energy-shield or ward-stacking caster, nothing changes today, but a real nerf may come later. The Geonor boss also had its damage cut, which only makes that fight easier.

02 The money loop got better (Grand Expedition + Runeforging)

This is the part that matters most if you trade more than you grind. The Runes of Aldur endgame got faster and pays more.

• Grand Expeditions are quicker. You now place 15 explosives instead of 20 to shorten the encounter, and Remnants can be exploded within a blast radius to chain the encounter and stack modifiers down the line.
• More Remnants at higher tiers. The maximum number of Remnants in a Grand Expedition now scales with Waystone Tier, peaking at Tier 15 and above.
• Better chests. The basic weapon and armour chests were removed. They are replaced by chests that drop currency, unique items and Waystones, plus new mystery and trinket chests.
• Runic rewards roughly doubled. The Runic Modifiers that Runic Inscriptions put on monsters now improve their rewards far more, doubled in most cases and more in some.
• Runeforging armour is safer. High level non-unique armour now loses about 20% less defence for the same Runic Ward, and existing items were auto-updated. Socketed jewels are now preserved when Runeforging, and Transcendent Alloy works on Foci and Wands again (at lower values than on Staves).

Net effect: the hoard-and-sell-at-peak loop we always run is stronger this patch. Rank your Remnant rewards before you pick with the reward picker, and value the proceeds against the live market.

03 Stop re-running the same maps

The one genuine "gotcha" this patch: a previously attempted Map now also gives 50% reduced experience, on top of the reward penalty that already existed. Backtracking to refarm a good layout is now a real XP loss. Plan your Atlas path so you are moving into fresh maps. Also new: the maze in the Crux of Nothingness now has King in the Mists followers actively hunting you on the way out.

04 Delirium is friendlier early, Simulacrums are bigger

Delirium got a real rework. Fog scaling was halved so running into Delirium early in the endgame is far less punishing (stacking three Delirium Tablets restores the old, harder scaling if you want the rewards). Normal and Magic monsters in Delirium are no longer spongier than Rares. Simulacrums now run 100% to 200% Deliriousness (the old 0% to 100% never actually worked), so they are harder and richer, and they now spawn when you reach 100% fog rather than instantly. A bug that ate 30-plus monster packs above 150% depth was also fixed. If you bounced off Delirium before, it is worth another look. See our Liquid Emotions guide for what the distillates are worth.

05 Breach, Abyss, and Temple

Breach Strongholds are now much bigger (about the size of the Ziggurat one), the old Ailith magic-monster skill now adds two packs per wave, and there are new Ailith modifiers. Abyss is more rewarding for crafters: the Close to the Surface passive now adds +25% chance for Abyssal modifiers, +25% for Lichborn modifiers and +4% pack size, and Desecrated Currency is now guaranteed from Tasgul, Vandroth and the final Abyssal Trove. Temple had its Offerings to the Queen and Atziri room passives reworked. All tuning, nothing that changes which build you play.

06 Economy watch

No items were renamed, added, or removed, so trade keeps working exactly as before. What did change is supply: Expedition Logbooks (now a guaranteed drop from Styrn, though some players report it not yet working), Desecrated Currency, and the Ancient Jawbone, Rib and Collarbone now have new or guaranteed sources. More supply usually means softer prices, so do not trust pre-patch numbers on those. Our prices are live and already reflect the new reality. Check the economy report for what is actually holding value now.

07 The hotfixes

Three hotfixes followed 0.5.3, all of them crash and bug fixes, no balance changes: a Trade Market crash, a Simulacrum monster spawn bug, an Atlas City biome bug that was spawning maps with too few areas, a price-check crash, a Market stat-filter bug, and a build-planner file loading issue. If you patched on day one and saw crashes, you are on the fixed version now.

08 Where this came from

Every claim here is from the official Grinding Gear Games patch notes: the 0.5.3 notes plus Hotfix 1, Hotfix 2 and Hotfix 3. We summarize for limited-time players and never invent numbers. The 0.5 league itself launched with Return of the Ancients (0.5.0). We update this page each patch.