Grinding Gear Games' just-finished reveal stream for Path of Exile's new league, Affliction, also contained a segment previewing a new class in Path of Exile 2, the Mercenary! This crossbow-wielding hardboiled adventurer brings a wholly unique gameplay to the franchise, as well as introducing several new mechanics that build upon each other to combos only dreamt of in the past.

In addition to the focus on the Mercenary, they also gave us some broad-stroke descriptions of the classes they've already delved into:

  • Monk - A class that focuses on combos and momentum, being effective the longer it remains in battle.
  • Warrior - Described as a "slow but unstoppable freight train", focusing on long stuns and large attacks when surrounded.
  • Huntress - A melee & ranged hybrid whose full damage potential is unlocked when both ability types are used in tandem.
  • Sorceress - A ranged, powerful spellcaster that is consistently squishy enough to have lots of escape options.
  • Druid - A spellcaster whose spells directly support its melee abilities, namely all the fancy animal transformations it has.

But enough about those! Let's check out the Mercenary.

The Mercenary - Basics

There's a few cool things to talk about here:

  • The Mercenary's main weapon type is the crossbow.
  • Crossbows fire instant shots, compared to bows which require drawing.
  • You can "socket" ammo types into crossbows, which act like support gems.
  • The Mercenary can shoot at the ground, meaning that if you have a skill that leaves a ground effect, you can just keep dropping it around while also using it to deal direct damage.
  • The Mercenary can shoot while moving! To further aid this...
  • Path of Exile 2 will support WASD movement!

Let's unpack this for a moment. In their ExileCon reveal, they showed that Path of Exile 2 has greatly enhanced support for weapon swapping, meaning actually using both of your weapons interchangeably, not just keeping one for leveling gems. With PoE 2's gameplay feeling a lot more slowed down and tactical, this gives the Mercenary a lot of options to combine different crossbows and ammo for an easy job at rounding out a build. Let's take a better look at this in the next section.

Shooting at the ground can unlock plenty new strategies to destroy your foes.

1000 Permutations - Crossbows, Ammo, Grenades

Buckle up, this is where things start to get wacky! First up, let's talk about the different crossbow base types in the game, which have been compared to real life weapons because of how they function: A sniper rifle, a shotgun, and an assault rifle. Naturally, this means a slow, long-range deadly attack, a short-range AOE explosion, and a constant rate-of-fire bullet hell, respectively.

This is an assault rifle.

Now, let's look at attachments, ammo and grenade launchers. The video (which you should definitely check out!) takes us through quite a few examples, which we've summed up below:

  • There's a wide variety of Ammo that can be used with crossbows.
    • Incendiary Ammo applies ignite to targets. The more projectiles hit, the stronger the ignite.
    • Permafrost Burst Shot Ammo freezes enemies. Combining this with the 'assault rifle' can have you shooting patches of freezing ice on the ground for enemies to step on!
    • Armor Piercing Burst Shot Ammo - a cool combo with this is shooting frozen enemies, making them explode and deal AOE damage around them. Moments like these is where having two weapons and knowing when to change them becomes relevant.

What about Grenade Launchers? There's quite a few, and their mechanics also fit seamlessly into the whole weapon swapping shenanigan:

  • Grenade Launchers lob a grenade at a target location that explodes after a set amount of time. Timing is key here if you want to achieve some powerful combos
    • The Flash Grenade Launcher does barely any damage, but confers a huge stun to enemies in the area.
    • The Oil Grenade Launcher coats the ground and nearby enemies in oil, slowing them down. The oil can be set on fire, causing extra burning damage (perhaps with Incendiary Ammo, eh?)

That's quite the unique gameplay! Do note that crossbows and everything related are, in true Path of Exile spirit, not exclusive to the Mercenary class. Most all the other classes can probably pick them up and do well, but it's Mercenaries who will have the most support for these mechanics.

Overall, it's quite a breath of fresh air to see this brand of game design, where several complex systems are brought together and seem to work very well with each other. What are your thoughts on the Mercenary? Let us know in the comments below!