POE 2's Cemetery boss-spouses fight each other, the outcome is poetic

Leading up to Path of Exile 2's next big update release on April 4, GGG are doing daily community posts to keep the hype train going. Not all of them are teasers from the upcoming patch 0.2.0 — some of the posts are there purely for entertainment value. One fan-favourite genre that GGG has devised out of this patch-delivery rigmarole is simulated boss fights, where Path of Exile 2's story bosses take up arms against each other.

The second one was aired this week, and it will be hard to top. The stage, on this occasion, is the Cemetery of the Eternals, where Draven the Eternal Praetor and Asinia the Praetor's Consort go toe-to-toe.

The Asinia vs Draven fight made us revisit the artistry of Path of Exile 2 campaign bosses

Asinia vs Draven was not in our Path of Exile 2 bingo this month, but il's arguably the most entertaining thing to emerge from this whole Totally Accurate Battle Simulator gimmick.

A lot of things make it the most interesting match-up: the fact that they're spouses (a central part of the Cemetery story arc) and use thematically matching cameos to appear in each other's boss fights during the Act 1 campaign.

GGG thought it wise to exclude these call-to-aid abilities from the simulated battle, as they would not make logical sense and the arena would probably be a little too chaotic if they coincided.

With those out of the equation, it would seem an easy win for Asinia, as she is a caster with some hard-to-evade special attack, especially if you have a colossal hitbox like Draven.

For the first half of the fight, this seemed to be the inevitable outcome, as Draven facetanked the rapid spirit-bombs and perfidious entrapment attacks.

At this point, I was reminded of exactly how well-designed the Act 1 bosses are in Path of Exile 2. Draven has a powered-up moveset with bigger combos and much higher attack speed.

The actual difference with this is not felt by most players during the fight, as the Exile is naturally good at kiting with a spammable dodge-roll. Asinia, on the other hand, is the stand-and-deliver type, which is a highly risky approach to take in this game. Draven made an insane recovery in the final third of the fight, but at the cost of continuing to facetank the salvo of spells, bringing the fight to a nail-biting finale where both dropped to the final sliver of their HP.

The finale in question is, of course, an outcome most would not have bet on: a draw, as both fell simultaneously.

For narrative effect, it makes complete sense. In a practical sense, this seems like an embellishment — GGG likely ran numerous simulations, and they stuck with this one for its theatrical quality. Regardless, their gambit has worked; this is much more hype than I could have imagined.

I'll be looking forward to their next boss-vs-boss post, and I hope they continue to post them after Path of Exile 2: Dawn of The Hunt (patch 0.2.0) releases.

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