Path of Exile's next update might prevent your cursor from killing you, and it has a bunch of QoL changes that even PoE 2 doesn't have yet

Path of Exile 2 spoiled me with all the things about it that feel like a modern videogame. Even though it's extremely similar in a lot of ways, Path of Exile 1 had me fighting against all the fussy parts of it that have gathered dust over the years.

Part of the reason developer Grinding Gear Games built PoE 2 was to update PoE 1's systems for newer players and to take some of them—like character animations—back to the original game. Both games share the same language and have been trading features back and forth, like PoE 2's asynchronous trading being ported back to PoE 1 in the last expansion.

In the next expansion, Mirage, PoE 1 gets to go first with some quality-of-life changes that I fully expect to show up in the sequel eventually. One in particular is a change that sounds relatively minor, but is crucial if you regularly engage with the crafting system or enjoy trading items with other players: currency exchange favoriting.

The currency exchange is an essential tool for instantly trading crafting items (that are also used as currency) with other players without having to actually go and meet up with them. It's so convenient that you end up using it constantly while you churn through crafting items or exchange the equivalent of $1 dollar bills into stacks of $20 dollar bills.

Speed is king when you're deep into a complicated crafting session and don't have the patience to jump through a bunch of UI hoops to get what you want. In Mirage, you'll finally be able to favorite specific item exchanges so you don't have to manually type each one in every single time. And you'll be able to open your inventory at the same time as the currency exchange window—a functionality that I still cannot believe wasn't possible before. Path of Exile 2 desperately needs these too and I'm praying GGG ports them over in its next update.

Mirage will also add over 20 new "landmark rooms" to the campaign with new enemy encounters and rewards. There are also small tweaks to how quickly you can turn in divination cards to receive their loot and how you decide what unique transfigured skill gems you want when you trade normal ones in. These are the kinds of things veteran players have wanted for a long time, but they aren't applicable to PoE 2—at least not unless those specific systems get brought over in the future.

The final update in the video explaining what's coming in Mirage is something that will probably save the lives of many hardcore players. Like Diablo, PoE has shrines that give you powerful buffs, like movement speed or invincibility. To make them somewhat challenging though, GGG lets all the surrounding monsters benefit from the buff until you grab it, so it's common to walk up to one and die trying to find the shrine in the cluster of enemies. The era of embarrassing shrine deaths might be over because now they take priority over the monsters when you hover over them with your mouse.

"I am convinced every single player has died trying to click a divine shrine (invincibility) in a horde of monsters," one YouTube commenter wrote. "Most just don't want to admit it lol. So thanks, very much appreciated!"

PoE 2 has this exact same problem and I refuse to disclose how many times I've died or nearly died at a shrine. Needless to say, I'm overjoyed that you won't need to spend some time in an FPS aim trainer to gain the skills needed to actually click them, and I'm praying that the change comes to PoE 2 as soon as possible.

GGG plans to talk about these updates and more in a stream later this week on February 26.