January 2026 always feels like a waiting room for Path of Exile. You check the subreddit, you refresh Twitter, you half-expect GGG to drop a teaser while you're making coffee. The pattern's pretty clear by now: a post-holiday lull, then a ramp-up into a late-February launch window, with the livestream landing about two weeks before the gates open. If you're already thinking about gearing plans and the first weekend's chaos, it doesn't hurt to keep an eye on poe1currency as part of your prep, because day-one prices can be brutal when everyone's trying to fix resists at once.
Release Timing And The Rumor Mill
People keep circling dates like it's a ritual. Late February makes sense, and February 27th has that "yeah, that tracks" energy, but an early March slip wouldn't surprise me either. They've been juggling PoE1 needs with PoE2 momentum, and when they polish, they really polish. The funny part is how fast the community mood flips: one vague dev comment and suddenly everyone's acting like the patch notes are already written. You'll see it happen in real time, and you'll probably get pulled into it too.
Mechanics That Could Use A Fresh Coat
What I want most isn't a brand-new system bolted on top of everything. I want older stuff to click better with the Atlas again. Harvest and Delirium come up a lot, and for good reason: they're powerful, but the flow can feel awkward, like you're stopping mid-run to do admin. A darker, void-touched theme would fit the season, sure, but I'm more interested in what it does to mapping. New chase bosses. Great. Better reasons to run specific content paths without feeling punished. Even better. And if they touch div cards or unique drop rates again, the trade scene's going to wobble hard for the first few days.
Starters People Actually Stick With
I'm not trying to be clever this time. If you've ever bricked a "spicy" league start before lunch on Saturday, you know the pain. Righteous Fire Juggernaut is still comfort food: you move, the screen melts, you keep going. Toxic Rain Pathfinder is another safe pick if you like playing at range, and the flask sustain is just nice when your gear's still embarrassing. Explosive Arrow Ballista keeps showing up because it works, especially for budget bossing. None of these are glamorous, but they get you into red maps without making you feel like you need a miracle drop.
Skipping The Roughest Part
The early grind is where a lot of players burn out. You hit maps, your resists are a mess, your damage feels fake, and every upgrade costs more than you've got. Plenty of folks don't have time to sit in trade chat for hours or spam whispers that never get answered. If you want to smooth that curve, some players grab a small currency boost so their starter can actually function, and that's where services like u4gm come up for buying game currency or items with quick delivery and straightforward ordering, letting you spend more time playing and less time scraping together basics on day one.