Return of the Ancients, patch 0.5, brought a fresh league start with Runes of Aldur — a full economy reset and, as always with a new Path of Exile 2 league, a real shake-up of which builds are actually worth starting with.
What changed for build viability
Several previously popular archetypes took real hits this patch: Poison Pathfinder, Infernal Legion builds, Energy Shield stacking, Blood Mage leech builds, and Thorns builds were all nerfed meaningfully enough to move down most tier lists. On the other side, Twister, Supporting Fire, Whirling Assault Titan and Deadeye builds came out of the patch essentially untouched, or even buffed — which is exactly why they're the builds showing up across most league-starter recommendations right now.
Current patch state
As of late August, the game sits on patch 0.5.4, with balance iterations continuing on top of the original Return of the Ancients release. This kind of post-launch tuning is standard for Path of Exile 2 leagues: the first patch sets the direction, and the following point releases correct whatever turned out to be over- or under-tuned once the community had real playtime on it.
Why a fresh league matters
Every new league resets the trade economy from zero, which is the main reason build guides get rewritten every time — a build that relied on a cheap secondhand unique last league can suddenly be much harder to afford in the opening days of a new one, before the market stabilizes.
