All Path of Exile 2 Keystone Passives (known so far)
With Path of Exile 2 Early Access only a few days away, more information about some mechanics and intricacies is slowly filtering out, and this time it's about the Keystones on the Passive Skill tree. Keystones are unique nodes on the Passive Skill tree that provide a massive benefit with an equally consequential downside.
Most builds in Path of Exile are created around taking one or more of these Keystones and working around the downside to take advantage of the positives. Although the number of Keystones in Path of Exile 2 is subject to change, it is confirmed to be greater than the prequel. This article will outline and discuss the Keystones in Path of Exile 2 revealed so far.
All known Keystones in Path of Exile 2 Early Access and beyond
Information regarding these Keystones is primarily obtained from Path of Exile content creators who were invited to an exclusive play session in Los Angeles. Players should keep in mind that these are always subject to change and can be very different in the Path of Exile 2 Early Access and the full release.
Keep in mind that these are Keystones that are normally obtained from the Passive Skill tree. There hasn't been any indication of whether different Keystones can be obtained from any item or jewel interactions, such as Timeless Jewels. With all that said, here are all the Keystones in Path of Exile 2 that we know about so far, and yes there are some blasts from the past included:
Resolute Technique
Starting off with a Path of Exile staple here, Resolute Technique is set to return in the sequel. Not much is changing for the Keystone, so it still provides a 100% hit chance against enemies regardless of a player's accuracy rating, with the downside being not dealing with any critical hits.
Glancing Blows
Another Path of Exile returnee, Glancing Blows is present in Path of Exile 2 and surprisingly in its pre-nerf format. Veteran players will remember how Glancing Blows was readjusted in Path of Exile due to its power creep in the current meta, but the sequel is bringing it back to its former glory.
The Keystone still doubles the values of a player's attack and spell block chance but only prevents 50% of the incoming damage.
Giant's Blood
This is a fun Keystone that allows people to wield Two-handed Axes, Maces, and Swords as a One-handed weapon. The downside is, however, that the weapons' attribute requirements are doubled. For example, as would be the case for Path of Exile weapon bases, a Coronal Maul or an Impact Force Propagator will take 440 Strength to wield as opposed to the standard 220.
Blood Magic
Another returning Keystone from Path of Exile, Blood Magic removes all Mana from the player and replaces all Mana cost with Life. Blood Magic is extremely useful for Path of Exile 2 classes with naturally low Mana pools or bad Mana Reservation Efficiency from the Passive Skill tree.
Whispers of Doom
Although Whispers of Doom is a major Passive Skill tree node in Path of Exile, it is becoming a Keystone in the sequel. The upside of this special Keystone is that players will be able to apply two curses naturally, instead of one. Likewise, the activation delay between the curse application and the effect of the curses will be doubled, as indicated by the text denoting the downside.
Chaos Inoculation
Another Path of Exile staple, Chaos Inoculation makes players immune against chaos damage sources but a character's life value is set to one. This cannot be modified in any fashion, thus players have to resort to utilizing high amounts of Energy Shield to survive against incoming damage. It is particularly great for builds that wish to maximize survivability in Path of Exile 2's endgame and ignore crafting items with high chaos resistance, which can be a rather expensive task.
Resonance
A new Keystone centered around obtaining the three different charges in Path of Exile, namely Endurance, Frenzy, and Power charges. Resonance makes it so players obtain Power charges instead of Frenzy, Frenzy charges instead of Endurance, and Endurance charges instead of Power.
Conduit
Keeping in with charge-related mechanics, Conduit makes it so that when a player obtains any of the charges, it is applied to their allies instead. This is particularly powerful in Group play scenarios, as any aura or cursebot can passively empower their allies with any number of charges.
This can be further utilized in Path of Exile 2, thanks to minions counted among allies. Potential minionmancer builds should look to stack charges with Conduit allocated, so their minions are empowered against enemies.
Eldritch Battery
Making its return from Path of Exile but in an altered fashion, Eldritch Battery will now apply all the Energy Shield values of a character toward their Mana pool. This is potentially massive for Mana-stacking Archmage builds, which are confirmed to exist in Path of Exile 2 as they were showcased in an official video.
The Keystone has changed a bit from Path of Exile, where Eldritch Battery replaced Mana as the primary resource for attacks and spells, therefore allowing almost completely reserving Mana to use multiple Auras.
Iron Reflexes
This keystone turns all of the Evasion rating of a character to Armor value, which can affect various builds utilizing the lower section of the Passive Skill tree. Evasion is primarily used to avoid taking damage based on an entropy system while Armor mitigates damage based on incoming hits.
Therefore, the node can make or break builds and players should be extremely careful while investing in their defensive layers.
Oasis
Oasis renders a player unable to use Charms but increases the resource recovery rating from using flasks instead. From an objective standpoint, this Keystone seems pretty dead on arrival, as Charms are replacing the utility flasks from Path of Exile.
Charms are activated under certain conditions such as taking cold damage or being shocked, and apply their beneficial effects upon meeting those conditions. Losing these buffs for an extra 30% recovery from flasks seems too harsh of a downside to justify.
Bulwark
Another Keystone with a harsh penalty but at least the benefits are significant enough to make it a viable choice. Bulwark makes it so players cannot avoid damage by dodge rolling but take 30% less damage from hits during a dodge roll.
The downside might seem harsh at first but players should note that the damage avoidance is only applied at the beginning of a dodge roll. Therefore, it is much more beneficial to have a persistent 30% incoming damage from hits during the entire roll.
Avatar of Fire
A returning Keystone from Path of Exile, with an updated interaction. Avatar of Fire will convert 75% of all outgoing damage to Fire damage, but the character will deal no Non-fire damage. Keeping in with the Keystone description, players will convert all damage sources including Chaos damage, to Fire damage, which is a shift from Avatar of Fire in Path of Exile where only Physical, Cold, and Lightning damage sources would be converted.
It should be noted, however, that conversion loses any damage source that isn't mentioned. Therefore, it is recommended that players get the remaining 25% damage conversion from either the Passive Skill tree or any item, before allocating Avatar of Fire.
Unwavering Stance
Unwavering Stance is another Path of Exile Keystone that is being changed to fit the revamped combat system of Path of Exile 2. This allows players to double their Stun Threshold for not being able to dodge roll. The Keystone hinges on players relying on standard defensive layers to simplify their combat style and lean into the Tank playstyle.
Vaal Pact
Vaal Pact is another Path of Exile classic that finds itself near its previous location on the Passive Skill tree. Vaal Pact is once again a leech-based Keystone, which in Path of Exile 2, makes it so that any damage leeched as Life will be instantly recovered. The downside is that players will be unable to use Life flasks.
Elemental Equilibrium
This is a long one because Elemental Equilibrium has given Grinding Gear Games much to think about during the heyday of Explosive Arrow builds in Path of Exile. This Keystone will now only work based on limited damage-type applications, and likewise, will only apply one type of exposure at a time.
While using this Keystone, applying Fire damage to an enemy will remove Fire Exposure and apply Lightning Exposure instead. Likewise, applying Cold damage will remove Cold Exposure and apply Fire Exposure, and finally, applying Lightning damage will remove Lightning Exposure and apply Fire Exposure.
This Keystone will be extremely powerful on quick damage applications and builds with Tri-ele stacking damage formats.
Heartstopper
Heartstopper is a unique Keystone that involves Damage-over-Time or DoTs. Heartstopper makes it so that players take 75% less damage from DoT sources that have activated in the last second. The downside makes it so that players take 50% more damage from DoT sources if they haven't taken DoT damage in the last second.
While that is a mouthful, it simply makes it so a player is tanky against the first second of the DoT application and gives them crucial time against multiple ground-based DoT sources. It is, however, rather poor against singular sources from bosses or traps, so players should carry some form of additional mitigation.
Acrobatics
Acrobatics is changing with Path of Exile 2 as Spell Suppression no longer exists. Instead, this Keystone makes it so that players can now evade all manner of incoming hits rather than just direct strikes and projectiles.
The power of the Keystone relies on effectively gambling on the Evasion Entropy system, which is bound to run out against multiple oncoming attacks but hold strong against single big hits from bosses and rares.
Eternal Youth
Eternal Youth makes it so Life Regeneration applies to the Energy Shield while Life Recovery from flasks also applies to the Energy Shield.
This is particularly strong for characters that rely on Energy Shield-based defensive layers, such as Shadow, Ranger and others.
Necromantic Talisman
This Keystone is practically the same as the Necromantic Aegis Keystone from Path of Exile where it applies the affix bonuses of a character's amulet instead of the shield, on their minions.
With well-crafted minion-oriented amulets, this Keystone can be potentially game-changing for minion builds. Another potential interaction is using Spiritual Aid to increase a character's damage but it is unclear whether this Major Notable has survived the transition process.
Ancestral Bond
Ancestral Bond allows players to summon potentially unlimited amounts of Totems but these summons each cost 100 Spirit instead, which is a resource used for the Spirit-type Gems. This has the potential to be powerful but will be taxing on an already limited resource.
Mind over Matter
A Path of Exile staple for a lot of Spell-based builds, Mind of Matter distributes incoming damage between Life and Mana pools on a ratio of 60-40. In Path of Exile 2, Mind over Matter will act the same but will have the downside of slashing the Mana Recovery Rate by 50%. The upside is equally impactful as all incoming damage will now be taken against the Mana pool first.
Zealot's Oath
Zealot's Oath also has gone through some significant changes as now only Excess Health Recovery from Health Regeneration applies to Energy Shield. This is a huge shift from Path of Exile where 100% of Health Regeneration applies to Energy Shield Regeneration.
Path of Exile 2's Zealot's Oath also stops any form of Energy Shield Recharge.
Pain Attunement
This Keystone has experienced a dramatic role and position shift on the Passive Skill tree. While the Path of Exile iteration was between Witch and Shadow's starting position, this one is on the left side of the tree, near Warrior, and potentially, Marauder and Templer.
Path of Exile's Pain Attunement Keystone grants a 30% increased Spell Damage on Low Life but has a two-fold outcome in the sequel. Instead, it offers a 30% increased Critical Damage while on Low Life. The downside is that the Keystone offers 30% reduced Critical Damage while on Full Life.