People are losing it over the Druid in PoE2 Patch 0.4.0, and yeah, turning into a bear rules. But once you get past the reveal trailer energy, the bigger shift hits you in maps: the endgame isn't being "tuned," it's being re-taught. The patch feels like GGG wants you awake at the keyboard again, not just stacking passive stats and cruising. If you're planning your league start and want breathing room to test builds without living in low-tier grind, a lot of folks are already talking about U4GM as a way to keep your options open while the market goes feral.
Rhythm Over One-Button
The Titan changes are the easiest example. Losing Surprising Strength hurts on paper, but Mountain Splitter pushes you into a rhythm—slam, position, slam again—because the aftershock timing actually matters. You can't just face-roll and hope the numbers do the work. When you line it up on a Heavy Stunned target and Crushing Impacts kicks in, you feel the payoff. It's not "more damage," it's "you played that moment right." And that's the vibe across a lot of the melee tweaks: fewer free wins, more earned ones.
Merc Pressure, Not Downtime
The Tactician/Mercenary kit also feels less like waiting for permission to play. Dropping Death From Above's cooldown from 40 to 20 seconds is huge in practice. It smooths out that awkward gap where you're poking at packs and watching your best button sit dark. Now you can keep pressure up, keep moving, keep forcing decisions. You'll notice it fast in longer fights too—more chances to create openings instead of praying your burst window lines up with the boss doing something convenient.
Casters And Minions Take The Spotlight
For spell builds, the gem scaling bump at level 30 is the kind of fix people have been begging for. High-tier maps have been rough on pure casters for a while, and this finally gives them a real bridge into deep endgame. The Stormweaver QoL is even better: Refracted Infusion losing that coin-flip feel means your rotation doesn't randomly fall apart. Meanwhile summoners are looking terrifying. Scaling that ramps up to 50% more damage by skill level 8 plus Spectre buffs is the sort of combo that turns "fun" into "meta." It also means prices will spike, crafting bases will get fought over, and crit gear for glass-cannon setups will vanish quick, so if you want to experiment early, keeping some U4GM poe2 currency ready can save you from spending your first week playing catch-up instead of actually building something strong.
