Monsters in Path of Exile 2 hit hard, and they have all sorts of nefarious means to surround you. I had seen some streamers get absolutely ranched playing the demo, so at the beginning I took it very slowly, and I'm glad I did. Like in PoE's Ruthless mode, I didn't have juiced movement speed from gear, teleports, or spells that blew up the whole screen. What I did have was a dodge roll, and boy did I need it. A new feature in PoE2, all characters get an unlimited dodge roll that doesn't require a skill gem and can even animation cancel if you're stuck in a big attack and need to move immediately POE currency trade .

(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)
All four playable characters in the demo had this dynamic: multiple skills to use, none of which were good all of the time, but all of which were great some of the time.

At first I crawled. I got stuck. I died. As I got acclimated, however, things started sliding into place. The regular staff attacks on the monk didn't do a ton of damage, but they did have a small AoE and a bit of stagger, so I could use them to stave things off. Falling Thunder did unreal damage, but I needed power charges to make it work. Killing Palm could get me those charges, but was sluggish to use and put me at risk.

Before long I was cruising through Act 1 with the Monk, darting in and out of combat, slowing monsters with waves of frost before lunging back in to finish a couple off, building some power charges, and then dodge rolling out and blowing everything else up with a huge finisher. All four playable characters in the demo had this dynamic: multiple skills to use, none of which were good all of the time, but all of which were great some of the time. As much as I love PoE 1, sometimes you just flip on your Righteous Fire and go walking simulator mode while mobs die around you, no buttons pressed. Combat in PoE 2 is a lot more dynamic.

The more dynamic combat was never on better display than it was for the boss fights. "We're going more in the kind of like Elden Ring sort of direction," said game director Jonathan Rogers in an interview with IGN's Kat Bailey. "It's much more action-focused, but with a sort of hardcore bent." This philosophy was evidenced in bosses that were complicated, interesting, and a ton of fun to kill.

(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)
There are apparently over 100 new bosses in Path of Exile 2. Some of my favorites from the demo were Lachlann, a poor schmuck who loses his family and turns into a giant rage zombie. Fighting him required me to kite him around the graveyard, building power charges on minions to whittle him down with Falling Thunder. Another highlight was the Forsaken Son in Act 2, who I beat with the Huntress (on my first try, I might add!) in a wild brawl with fire everywhere and so many slams I could've been at WrestleMania POE buy currency .