PoE2 minion patch notes: what’s changing for summoners

The PoE2 minion patch notes just dropped, and GhazzyTV delivered a detailed breakdown ahead of the Return of the Ancients league, with a full focus on summoner builds. The overall picture from these PoE2 minion patch notes is mixed: some archetypes take significant nerfs, others rise unexpectedly, and several bug fixes genuinely change how minion builds play in the next season.

This overview of the PoE2 minion patch notes covers Energy Shield, Ghost Dance adjustments, the fate of the Infernal Legion + Tamed Beast combo, new support compatibility, passive tree changes, and minion itemization. Here is what actually matters before you start your summoner build in season 5.

Energy Shield gutted: minion defense needs a full rethink

The patch hits Energy Shield hard, and it holds nothing back. Every source of increased Energy Shield Recharge Rate and accelerated recharge start has been drastically cut. A few points of max Energy Shield were added elsewhere, but that does not offset the depth of the recharge nerfs. GhazzyTV himself admits he did not see a revision this radical coming, calling the current state « completely destroyed » compared to what it was before.

The direct consequence: the « stack Energy Shield and become unkillable » gameplan is over. Surviving now means building real defensive layers and investing in them properly. Recharge Rate stays viable if you actually invest in it, and GhazzyTV points to Disciple of a Rasha as a solid starting point. It reduces the delay before recharge begins by roughly one second, which can make a real difference in tight situations. The Olroth’s Legacy rune is also worth considering if you want to stabilize your defensive coverage.

This change pushes heavily toward other defense types, especially life and evasion. GhazzyTV says he is actually fine with this direction despite the surprise. Energy Shield is not dead, but it now requires genuine build thinking rather than an automatic solution. If your minion build relied on an easy ES layer, it is time to rethink your defensive priorities.

Ghost Dance reworked: from instant heal to slow regen

Ghost Dance gets a significant mechanical overhaul. The duration-based system is gone: charge generation now works through cooldown recovery rate, which directly controls how often you gain charges. Another key change is that taking a hit now costs you a charge rather than building them up. The instant Energy Shield heal disappears, replaced by a regen over 4 seconds at 2% of your Evasion rating per second.

On paper, this is a noticeable nerf. The instant heal was especially valuable against bursty damage, where every fraction of a second matters. With slow regen, a concentrated damage spike can kill you before half the recovery is done. That is not trivial for builds that relied on this mechanic as a reactive shield.

That said, GhazzyTV is not sounding the alarm. Evasion received notable buffs in this same patch, and the Energy Shield + Evasion combination remains a particularly strong defense. Ghost Dance is still the glue holding these builds together, even in a less aggressive form. Affected archetypes will need to adjust how they handle damage spikes, but the foundation stays solid.

Infernal Legion + Tamed Beast: still on top despite the nerf

Infernal Legion takes a hard hit: level 3 is removed outright, capping the support at levels I and II. A bug fix also goes through, patching the interaction that let the skill crit. On paper, this is a meaningful nerf. GhazzyTV says so plainly.

The nuance matters. On standard non-Tame Beast minions, Infernal Legion becomes genuinely bad. GhazzyTV is straightforward about it, and if some builds used it on other minions to help with clear in the Trials of Sekma, that option clearly loses its appeal. Time to move on from that use case. If you want a reference from last season, the Lich Witch Infernal Legion build shows just how far this support could go.

The Tamed Beast + Infernal Legion combo, though, is a completely different story. Tamed Beast has a « more damage » modifier that scales with the support’s gem level, and that scaling continues beyond level 20 as shown in the patch notes. In practice, the paper damage reduction is largely offset by that post-20 scaling. On an Elephant Tamed Beast, the build puts out roughly the same numbers as before, especially with the extra boost from the Attain Beast skill gem. The Elephant + Tamed Beast + Infernal Legion setup should remain a top performer this league.

Another reassuring point for fans of the build: weapon swaps that teleport minions to you are untouched. That mechanic stays intact, preserving one of the Tamed Beast Elephant’s key strengths in repositioning minions quickly. Minion level scaling also went unaffected, unlike other archetypes that cannot say the same.

Rage & Melee Splash on minions: AoE without Infernal Legion

The Rage support and Melee Splash are now compatible with minion skills, a combination that opens concrete options for melee minion builds. The most impactful change is Melee Splash. It finally lets you play attack-based minions capable of clearing packs without depending on Infernal Legion. Melee minions that previously struggled for lack of efficient clearing become viable, with the option to gem swap into a single-target setup for bosses. This flexibility could generate real build diversity around physical minions.

Meanwhile, the Commanding Rage notable takes a visible nerf to minion attack speed. Where it granted 1% attack speed per point of Rage, it now gives only 2% per 5 points of Rage, which is five times less efficient. The bonus is still there but significantly reduced. Builds that counted on this node to speed up their minions will need to factor that into their planning.

Living Lightning bug fix, Minion Instability & the end of the Last Gasp/Techron’s Revenge loop

A quiet but welcome fix for Living Lightning II: the support simply was not scaling its level from the gems it supported. No matter what you built around it, the spell stayed locked at base stats and dealt negligible damage. That bug is now fixed, which is technically an indirect buff. The Living Lightning support should finally deal viable damage in practice. Whether that is enough to make real builds emerge around Living Lightning is something to confirm in-game, but the mechanic is at least playable now.

A major change hits Minion Instability: the loop that powered certain builds has been shut down. The combo worked like this: weapon swap to teleport minions to you, activate Infernal Legion so they ignite and die, trigger the Minion Instability explosion, then resurrect the minions instantly through Last Gasp or Techron’s Revenge preventing their actual death. A second weapon swap reset the cycle, and it repeated infinitely. That loop no longer works.

In practice, Minion Instability now only makes sense around temporary summons. Permanent minions are a very poor base for this support since their resurrection timer breaks the explosion cadence. Raced Zombies are a much better fit and will likely pull in part of the community around the « popcorn playstyle » that wants to exploit this kind of mechanic.

Acolyte of Chayula (Chonk): the only real competitor to the Elephant build

If you have not heard the nickname « Chonk, » it simply refers to the Acolyte of Chayula, the Monk’s obscure ascendancy. According to GhazzyTV, it is currently the only archetype that can genuinely compete with the Infernal Legion + Tamed Beast combination. Not just hold up on paper, actual competition in practice. For everything this patch brings to ascendancies in general, the ascendancy changes deserve a full read on their own.

The main appeal comes from Chayula’s purple flames, which can be sustained permanently. Combined with Katal’s rejuvenation, you reach up to 180% of damage dealt converted to additional chaos damage, plus 40% cooldown recovery that opens up interesting configurations like cultist archers. That gives you ranged coverage and clear speed that pure Infernal Legion does not offer as naturally.

On the defensive side, the archetype is flexible: full Energy Shield, Energy Shield + Evasion, or Evasion with life deflection. The choice is entirely open depending on where you want to take the build. Without an alternative of this caliber, the league would likely become yet another Infernal Legion League with no real diversity at the top of the summoner meta.

Idols, minion itemization & Trusted Kinship mega-buffed: passive tree changes

Starting with idols. A long list of changes for Legion League, including the ability to socket them into a sceptre. The list is genuinely too extensive to break down here; GhazzyTV himself admits it would make the video run way too long. The official patch notes remain the reference for the full details.

On the +Level of Skills front, it is a global nerf: both spells and minion spells see this scaling trimmed. In practice, minion builds do not feel this much. It was already their main scaling lever, and it stays that way. The real difference is that other builds take a much harder hit, their skill level progression curve being dramatically reduced. Minion builds keep doing what they were doing with almost nothing changing, while the rest of the spectrum has to rethink its approach. A quiet relative advantage, but a real one.

On the passive tree, there is a lot happening: 19 new Companion nodes appear on the Dexterity branch (green side). Their exact content is not yet known, making it hard to evaluate damage scaling precisely for companion builds. The real headline is the complete rework of Trusted Kinship. In its old form, the keystone imposed 30% less defense, two extra companion slots, and a defense bonus. In the new version: 30% more reservation efficiency for companion skills, a penalty on non-companion skills, and most importantly, the less defense modifier is gone entirely. GhazzyTV calls this a « mega-buff »: a keystone that becomes far more accessible and far more effective for anything built around companions.

One structural problem remains: reaching the right minion nodes in the tree often requires unorthodox detours to get to Lord of the Wilds, which means committing a non-trivial number of passive points. GhazzyTV acknowledges he is in the same position as Creparion on this. The Trusted Kinship rework plays a central role in his thinking, especially in connection with the new unique Silven Effigy, which opens the door to a « beastmaster / zookeeper / summoner army » approach through the Spirit Walker branch of the Druid ascendancy.

Despite all this, GhazzyTV stays cautious. He does not believe Spirit Walker will rival Infernal Legion paired with the Elephant through Tame Beast, or the Acolyte of Chayula in its Chonk build. His mind is made up regardless: his main character will go summoner army zookeeper, and his second will most likely be a Chonk, which he describes as potentially « absolutely insane » to play.

Quick notes: Command skills, Evasion & Deflection buffed

A quick note on Command skills: the movement speed penalty applied when activating them has been slightly reduced. Nothing groundbreaking, but a welcome quality-of-life improvement for anyone chaining commands mid-combat.

More notable: both Evasion and Deflection received significant buffs. These two mechanics now offer genuinely strong defensive options, especially if you are starting as Spirit Walker or playing the Chonk build (Acolyte of Chayula on Monk). The right side of the passive tree now provides consistent, reliable defensive scaling around both of these stats.