If you watched the Still Sane Podcast with Jonathan Rogers and TalkativeTri, you probably felt the mood shift around Path of Exile 2’s 0.4 update, and it is not just marketing talk this time; you can hear a studio that actually plays its own game and reacts to feedback, and if you are already planning routes or builds for launch, sorting out your PoE 2 Currency early suddenly feels like part of the prep rather than some side chore.

Druid First Impressions

The big headline is the Druid, and it is not the lazy “press a button and drown the screen in pets” thing a lot of people were worried about. You can tell they are leaning into that Strength plus Intelligence hybrid angle. Werewolf form and the wolf packs got serious internal testing buffs, which matters, because those skills looked cool but felt a bit undercooked before. Now they sound like something you could actually league start with instead of meme around on day three. The real wildcard, though, is Wyvern form. The way Jonathan described the flame breath, stacking ignites on every hit, you can already picture bosses just evaporating if the numbers stay even half as strong as they sound. It has “day one busted” written all over it.

Totems, Charges And Caster Balance

Another thing that stood out was the take on spell totems. They are not gone, and they are not some forgotten relic either. You get full support, but charges cap how many you can throw out at once. That hits a sweet spot for people who love totem play but are sick of watching the whole screen turn into a static forest. It also reins in the usual “drop eight totems and go make coffee” playstyle. You now need to think about when you place them, how long they last, and how they line up with boss phases and movement. It does not kill casters, it just stops them from crowding out every other archetype.

Endgame Fixes And Map Feel

On the endgame side, the Arbiter of Ash changes sound like a relief more than anything else. Before, unlocking those questlines felt like rolling dice in the dark; sometimes you hit the chain you wanted, sometimes you just did not. Cleaning that up while still keeping the “big hit” feeling in rare tablets seems like the right call. The pack size drama is kind of funny in hindsight. People saw “less monsters” and lost it, but it turns out it was more of an implementation screw‑up than some stealth nerf. Fixing density so you are not drowning in random AoE spam while keeping the rewards in line with what you were getting before is not really a loss. It is just less clutter on the screen and better performance.

Melee, Pace And What Comes Next

The melee decision is going to keep splitting opinions. They are not backing down on “no attacking while moving,” because they clearly want the combat to feel heavy and deliberate instead of like an action MMO where everyone skates around. You may hate it, you may love it, but at least you know where they stand. If you are eyeing a Druid start or planning to juice maps hard in the first week, it is the kind of update where getting your gear and poe2 currency lined up early can actually change how fast you climb. The 0.4 patch feels less like a quick league and more like laying down the rules for how PoE 2 is meant to play, with 0.5 and the older league buffs looking like the point where everything really starts to click together.