Path of Exile 2 is going 1.0, but I’m still wondering where the rest of the game is
Grinding Gear Games has announced that Path of Exile 2 will leave Early Access on December 11, nearly two years after its December 2024 launch. Even though it is technically a 1.0 release, it definitely does not feel like one. The game entered Early Access in 2024 with six playable classes, each with two Ascendancy classes. Grinding Gear Games had previously outlined a target of 12 base classes with three Ascendancies each, for a total of 36. The Dawn of the Hunt update introduced the Huntress with its Amazon and Ritualist Ascendancies, while later updates brought the Druid with Oracle and Shaman.
Despite this progress, the current state of the game still falls short of the original vision. The Gamescom 2026 footage confirms that the Duelist and swords are next, with at least two Duelist Ascendancies to follow. If they add both by December, several expected classes, such as the Marauder, Templar, and Shadow, would still be absent, as would the weapons traditionally associated with them: flails, axes, and daggers. Furthermore, the Huntress and Druid still lack their third Ascendancy.
What, exactly, constitutes a 1.0 release?
The term 1.0 implies a game is complete with all its promised content. Thus, Path of Exile 2 does not yet meet that standard. The missing classes and weapon types were presented as core components of the game long before Early Access began. Hence, it would be reasonable to assume the full game will to launch with 12 classes and three Ascendancies per class, not eight or nine with the rest arriving later.
Also, a new weapon type comes with a plethora of associated skills. Spears arrived alongside the Huntress while Talismans formed a core part of the Druid update. Swords, axes, daggers and flails thus represent a sizeable collection of skills, interactions, supports, passives and build possibilities that simply do not exist until those weapons are brought to the game. Unconventional builds, such as Twister Abyssal Lich and Walking Calamity Smith of Kitava, would not exist without the addition of spears and talismans. Thus, the lack of new weapons also walls off numerous builds for classes that otherwise wouldn’t use them.
The Path of Exile 1.0 release in October 2013 had the entire character roster with six existing classes joined by the Scion, making seven in total—exactly the number Grinding Gear Games had intended from the start. The Ascendancy system and Labyrinth were systems introduced later. Even though 2013-era Grinding Gear Games was far smaller than it is now, it still delivered promised content at a reasonable pace. This contrasts with the current situation with Path of Exile 2.
What does Grinding Gear Games think makes a game 1.0 worthy?
The 1.0 announcement raises a more interesting question than whether Grinding Gear Games can technically remove the Early Access label. What exactly is the studio defining as Path of Exile 2 1.0? If the release includes the remaining campaign, the Duelist, swords, a pile of Ascendancies and enough additional systems to make the game feel structurally complete, there is a reasonable argument that the missing classes can simply become post-launch content.
Patch 0.5 already addressed many pain points with the endgame, so that can be left alone for a while. But the placeholder weapon nodes on the passive tree serve as a constant reminder of what could have been. And they ruin the rolls on many a Megalomaniac. Then there’s the lingering issue with “the vision” of what Path of Exile 2 is versus what it was meant to be, but that’s an entirely different topic. Essentially, “full release” starts to look less like a development milestone and more like a marketing designation.
Path of Exile 2 game director Jonathan Rogers did admit that Grinding Gear Games could not reasonably deliver all classes at launch, and we can take solace in the fact that at least some major pieces are finally falling into place. If nothing, we get a finished campaign — great for lore nerds. Plus, not having to interact with the interludes is a bonus.
However, there is one major caveat. Path of Exile 2 reaching 1.0 is also expected to mark its transition to a free-to-play model. While that gives Grinding Gear Games a practical reason to mothball the Early Access tag even if every originally planned class and weapon type is not ready, it is only a matter of time before a new player cuts a skill gem and asks, “Wait, there are supposed to be more classes? Where are they? Do I have to pay for them? Isn’t this free to play?”
Does this make Path of Exile 2 any less Path of Exile 2?
This does not necessarily make Path of Exile 2 a bad game. It is undoubtedly one of the best ARPGs on the market and light-years ahead of its peers. While it isn't the most casual-friendly game around, it is far more accessible to newer players than first iteration, which, at this point, is bloated to a point of no return with a decade of content. Grinding Gear Games did a stellar job of making Path of Exile 2 newbie-friendly by adding the ability to follow build guides and price-check items from within the game UI and async trade.
That said, the lack of core content makes the 1.0 label hard to take seriously. Spiritually, it feels more like 0.6. In an ideal world, Path of Exile 2 could simply have remained in Early Access for longer. That hardly would have seemed unreasonable, considering we are only on patch 0.5 today. If GGG continued advancing through 0.6, 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9 at anything resembling its current major-update cadence, an organically reached 1.0 could easily slip into 2028. Great for existing players, perhaps less attractive from a commercial perspective.
The alternative, however, is trying to cram three classes, several Ascendancies, along with multiple weapons into one gigantic December update, which sounds like an excellent way to manufacture a tsunami of bugs and broken interactions. Some (read: bugs discovered by Fubgun) could be patched instantly, but others could remain in the game for years, especially ones found on non-meta builds.
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