Path of Exile

Path of Exile Version 1.3.0
Notes:

Due to substantial balance changes, every existing character has been granted an optional full passive reset. To use this, click the "Reset all Passives" button on the passive skill screen. Note that you must use this before allocating or refunding any other points otherwise the option will go away.


New Challenge Leagues:

- Challenge leagues are a great opportunity for a fresh start in a new economy. All your old characters and items are still present in the Standard and Hardcore leagues, but you're encouraged to join the new leagues, complete challenges and climb the ladder!
- Torment: In the Torment league, your adventures are haunted by the spirits of tormented criminals that yield their ill-gotten gains when slain. Eager to protect their trove, these spirits flee when encountered and imbue nearby monsters with dangerous powers, which improves their item drops. It's also possible for spirits to possess rare and unique enemies, greatly increasing their threat (and value!) to treasure-seeking exiles.
- Bloodlines: Bloodlines is a Hardcore league (characters who die are converted to Standard characters). Each pack of magic monsters has a shared Bloodlines mod that greatly influences combat - sometimes while the pack is still alive, and sometimes after it has been killed. Where Nemesis involved individual rare monsters gaining an additional power, Bloodlines revolves around groups of monsters with synergistic powers. Various strategies are needed for approaching the different Bloodlines, as there are a wide variety of effects, such as constructing an Animated Guardian piece-by-piece or monsters becoming immortal while near their slain brethren.
- The new challenge leagues include a set of eight new challenges. In a patch soon, we'll be adding a Totem Pole decoration that is awarded to you as you complete challenges. It can be displayed in your hideout and permanently displays how many of the Torment/Bloodlines challenges you completed during these leagues.
- The first 50 players to complete all eight challenges will receive an exclusive Torment/Bloodlines challenge shirt.
Out of the 26 total Unique items added in this update, there are three new Unique items that can only drop in in the Torment challenge league, and three that can only drop in the Bloodlines challenge league.


New Forsaken Master: Leo Redmane, Master of the Arena:
Leo Redmane, disgraced duelist; famous for slicing the defeated around the neck, adorning them with a 'mane of blood'.

Leo's not one to let exile get in the way of opportunity. It is with great pride that he dubs himself 'Master of the Arena' and now organises exile-on-exile duels on the very dirt that the Eternal greats once fought over.

- Leo's daily missions involve achieving specific PvP objectives within that league. They're the same for everyone that day. You're able to complete them with PvP-only characters.
- PvP kills award you with 80 reputation and favour with Leo.
- Leo can be invited to your hideout but doesn't take up a slot like other Forsaken Masters. You can host him in addition to your other Masters.
- Leo's hideout tileset is the Gardens. He offers a small variety of hideout decorations in exchange for Favour.
- Like other Forsaken Masters, Leo acts as a vendor for items. His items have a PvP focus and his signature mod is a global damage increase.
- Leo's crafting bench, the Gladiator's Workbench, allows you to craft useful PvP mods onto your items.
- Leo's master level 8 crafting metamod is "Cannot roll mods with required level above 28".


New Player vs Player Features:

- You're now able to make PvP-only characters in a league once you've talked to Leo Redmane. You can choose a blank character or one that has a preconstructed build with items that can't be removed from that character. You can upgrade these PvP-only characters with your own items, but can only ever enter PvP areas with them.
- We've overhauled non-tournament PvP. We now track PvP ratings on a per-character basis and use matchmaking to find opponents who have similar ratings. There are two sets of queues - America and Europe. Your characters have a different PvP rating for each match type.
- We've introduced formal PvP tournaments and are starting our first tournament season on December 20. It runs on both America and Europe simultaneously and awards Alternate Art Unique Items and awesome prizes from our sponsors!
- Free-for-all tournaments take place in the Sarn Arena. They're a massive brawl where you get a point per player kill. If you die, you're sent to a new arena to continue the massacre.
- Blitz tournaments are a series of rapid-fire one-on-one duels, where you're quickly matched against a new opponent as soon as your last round finishes. Your goal is to get as many victories as possible within the time limit.
- Swiss tournaments are highly competitive tournaments that match players with similar records against each other. They're run in a regimented series of matches, each one a best-of-seven. Swiss tournaments provide the most competitive structure of the three tournaments on offer.
- Different game modes such as Capture the Flag can be run in either Swiss or Blitz tournament formats.
- You can read more about the structure of PvP Tournament Season One here.


Major Content/Features:

- We've added 26 new Unique Items, 11 of which have been designed by supporters.
- Added a new Intelligence Skill - Kinetic Blast: Fires a projectile from a Wand that causes a series of small explosions surrounding its point of impact, each damaging enemies caught in the area. (Available from the Lost in Love quest for the Witch and Shadow.)
- Added a new Dexterity Skill - Blink Arrow: Fires an arrow at the target destination. When the arrow lands, you are teleported to it and a clone is summoned at your old location. The clone is a minion that uses your bow and quiver. (Available from the Lost in Love quest for the Duelist, Ranger, Shadow and Scion.)
- Added a new Dexterity Skill - Mirror Arrow: Fires an arrow at the target destination. When the arrow lands, a clone is summoned. The clone is a minion that uses your bow and quiver. (Available from the Enemy at the Gate quest in Cruel for the Duelist, Ranger and Shadow. It can also be created with the vendor recipe: Blink Arrow gem + Orb of Alteration. This recipe works in reverse also.)
- Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill - Static Strike: Strike your enemies, building up static energy on you. This energy damages enemies around you when it expires. (Available from the Enemy at the Gate quest for the Templar and Marauder, and from the Mercy Mission quest for the Duelist and Witch.)
- Added a new Strength Skill - Reckoning: Perform a swift counter-attack against enemies in a cone shape when you block with your shield. (Available from the Intruders in Black quest for the Templar, Marauder, Duelist, Ranger and Scion.)
- Added a new Strength Skill - Vengeance: Chance to perform a swift counter-attack against all enemies around you when you are hit. Weapon range increases the area of this attack. (Available from the Lost in Love quest for the Templar, Marauder and Duelist.)
- Added a new Dexterity Skill - Riposte: Perform a deadly counter-attack when you block. Uses both weapons while you're dual wielding. (Available from the Lost in Love quest for the Duelist, Ranger, Shadow and Scion).
- Added a new Intelligence/Strength support gem - Physical to Lightning. (Available from the Sharp and Cruel quest for the Templar, Shadow and Scion).
- Introduced an events panel that shows upcoming events (PvP tournaments and races). It allows you to join races/events from anywhere in the game. You can also join general Ranked PvP queues. To access this panel, press B.
- Added support for Stash Item Highlighting. If you enter text in the "Highlight Items" box, it'll highlight any items in the currently viewed tab that contain that text.
- Added two new microtransactions: Vapour Flicker Strike Effect and Serpent Egg Wand Skin.


Minor Content/Features:

- Added a Notifications Settings screen that allows you to enable or disable various toast notifications such as friends coming online or events starting.
- The Ghostflame Summon Raging Spirit alternate skill effect now has a surge effect that matches that of the skill.
- Minor performance improvements related to the user interface.
- Guildmates can now be spectated in PvP.
- Spectator mode has received several improvements, such as allowing you to see the life values for combatants.
- More lore to discover has been added in Act Two.
- Introduced 3d art for the following unique items: Goldrim, Alternate Art Fencoil, Cherrubim's Maleficence, Alternate Art The Bringer of Rain and Asphyxia's Wrath.
- Continued to incrementally improve the sound, art, effects and environments.


Content from the Rampage/Beyond Challenge Leagues:

- After the last two challenge leagues ended, we've folded their content into the core Path of Exile experience in the following ways:
- Rampage is not being introduced into the core game as an always-on feature. Rampage-specific unique items now grant Rampage while equipped.
- Rampage is still available as a Zana Map Device option, but its level and price have been reduced.
- Beyond portals and demons are not being introduced into the core game as an always-on feature. They are available in the random map mod pool and as a Zana Map Device option. Its price and level have been reduced.
- None of the Rampage/Beyond-specific Unique items have been introduced into the regular drop pool. Zana's Map Device offers some ways to obtain them.


General Balance:

- Block recovery is now correctly additive with stun recovery.
- All items that had a mod that included the phrase "Gems in this item" (e.g. "Gems in this item supported by Level 5 Blind") now instead say "Socketed Gems" (e.g. "Socketed Gems supported by Level 5 Blind"). Their function has not changed.


Monster Balance:

- Fire Fury now uses additional skills in Cruel and Merciless difficulties.
- The duration of Silence has been reduced to three seconds.
- Animated Weapons and Guardians created by monsters now have a variable damage range.


Master and Mission Balance:
We are very pleased with how engaged players were with the Forsaken Masters. After the completion of the Rampage and Beyond challenge leagues, we felt that the Master reputation grind was a little too long. We have increased the rewards of higher level missions and have moved some features to lower Master levels.

- Masters now grant more reputation for higher level missions.
- The master ability to remove a crafted mod is now available at level 7 rather than 8.
- Daily missions at master level 6 now take place in Merciless difficulty.
- Zana's earlier daily missions are now at lower levels.
- Zana's Map Device league mods have had their levels and costs adjusted. Rampage and Beyond have been heavily reduced in price and moved to lower levels. Torment and Bloodlines are now available at Zana level 8.
- Hybrid weapon mods have been removed from Vagan and Tora's crafting options. Crafted items that already have these mods will not be affected. Their economic impact was severe.
- The global energy shield, evasion and armour crafted mods at Elreon's Blessed Font are now prefixes. Existing mods are unaffected.


Active Skill Balance:

- Auras and aura-like effects can now affect totems.
- Summoned totems are only affected by auras that affect defensive properties.
- Summoned totems still use their summoner's skills. In order for an offensive aura to have an effect, it must affect the summoner, not the totem.
- The mana costs of Elemental Hit, Glacial Hammer, Infernal Blow and Lightning Strike have been reduced. These have generally been lowered by one mana point, with Glacial Hammer reduced to the same as Lightning Strike.
- Arctic Armour has had its physical and fire damage taken when hit reduced at high levels. By gem level 20 they are reduced from -189 to -161.
- Cyclone now attacks slightly slower and has an equivalent increase to damage. It now deals damage immediately when it is used, in addition to periodic damage. Cyclone no longer targets enemies, only locations.
- Dual Strike's damage penalty has been increased from 10% to 15%.
- Herald of Ice and Herald of Thunder have been changed from Spell to Cast active skill types to indicate that they deal secondary damage and not spell damage.
- Puncture now bleeds for 10% of hit damage at all levels. It also gains more increased physical damage per level.
- Raging Spirits have had their damage reduced at higher levels.
- Shield Charge now works with no primary weapon equipped.
- Doubles created by Vaal Double Strike will now correctly copy any microtransaction effects that add to an item's visual effects, not only those that replace an item's skin. They will also copy the visual effects of any auras, buffs, debuffs, flask effects or charges on your character.
- Vaal Haste has had its attack speed and cast speed reduced by a flat 5% at all levels.


Support Gem Balance:

- The Block Chance Reduction support gem now does not increase the mana cost of supported skills. In addition to reducing block, it now also reduces dodge.
- Cast on Critical Strike's cooldown has been increased from 0.01 seconds to 0.05 seconds.
- Cold to Fire now has a mana cost multiplier of 110%, up from 100%.
- Curse on Hit now starts with -50% curse duration instead of -10% curse effect. It gains 2% curse duration per gem level, up to 12% reduced curse duration at gem level 20. Its quality remains the same.
- Increased Critical Strikes now starts at 90% critical strike chance, increasing to 147% at gem level 20. It now provides 1% critical strike chance per 1% of quality.
- Increased Critical Damage now provides 50% critical strike multiplier, up to 69% at gem level 20. It now provides 0.5% critical strike multiplier per 1% of quality.


Passive Skill Tree Balance:

- The Templar, Marauder, and Duelist starting areas have been reworked significantly.
- Large elemental, staff, mace, axe, sword, two-handed weapon, weapon and shield, and dual wielding wheels of passive skills have been placed on the exterior of the tree, out from the Templar, Marauder and Duelist. Special bonuses have been added to some notable passives in those areas.
- Cast speed in the Witch and Shadow starting areas has been reduced.
- The mana and mana regeneration path in the Witch starting area has been modified so that all passives provide mana and mana regeneration.
- The mana regeneration on the Energy Shield and Mana Regeneration Witch starting node has been reduced.
- The elemental penetration on Heart of Flame, Heart of Thunder and Heart of Ice has been reduced.
- Many critical multiplier bonuses and some critical chance bonuses have been reduced.
- Block chance has been reduced, replaced, or removed throughout the tree. Spell block in the Witch area has also been reduced slightly.
- The Wall of Thorns cluster has been removed.
- Removed two passives from the Ranger sword wheel.
- Added another life passive to the Thick Skin cluster, but reduced life bonuses by 1%, taking the total life on the cluster from 20% up to 22%.
- Added a new Bloodletting cluster, increasing physical damage over time, granting melee chance to bleed, and increased attack damage to bleeding enemies.
- Added a new armour cluster with a notable passive called Soul of Steel that also provides physical damage reduction and elemental resistances
- Added a new armour cluster with a notable passive called Unyielding that also provides critical damage reduction (this was previously in the Marauder starting area).
- Acrobatics now grants 30% less block and spell block.
- The Mortal Conviction notable passive has been reduced to 50% less mana reserved.


PVP-Specific Balance:

- PvP Arenas have been improved so that they're more symmetrical and fair for different builds.
- Multi-fight matches are now best-of-seven. The arena changes layout (without a loading screen) every three matches for fairness.
- Some shrines such as the Acceleration Shrine have been removed from CTF arenas.
- PvP damage scaling has been adjusted to ((damage / time) / 125)^0.61 * 125 * time for physical/chaos damage and ((damage / time) / 290)^0.58 * 290 * time for elemental damage.
- PvP durations for shock, freeze, chill, bleed and Viper Strike have been cut in half.
- Ball Lightning's PvP damage has been increased by 15%.
- Fireball's PvP damage has been increased by 5%.
- Freezing Pulse's PvP damage has been reduced by 20%.
- Glacial Hammer's PvP damage has been increased from -30% to -20%.
- Tornado Shot's PvP damage has been reduced by 20%.
- Whirling Blades' PvP damage has been reduced by 30%.
- Molten Shell's effective PvP duration used for damage scaling has been reduced from from 1.4 to 1.2 seconds.
- Tempest Shield's effective PvP duration used for damage scaling has been reduced from 0.8 to 0.7 seconds.
- The Trap support gem's effective PvP duration used for damage scaling has been increased from 1.4 to 1.1 seconds.
- Temporal Chains now has 40% reduced effectiveness against other players.


Item Balance:
Shields have had their base block chances rebalanced. Most of the higher base block chances on Shields have been reduced. Other reductions were also performed on Uniques items and the Passive Skill Tree. This change was made because reaching the maximum block chance of 75% had become much easier than we intended. It was far too efficient a defence at higher levels. Players will still be able to reach high block chance values, but this will now require much greater investment.

- All shields have had their block chance reduced.
- The evasion values of dexterity shields have been reduced.
- Unique rings, amulets, belts and quivers no longer lose their minimum level when corrupted.
- Beyond is now available as a map mod which can stack with the Zana map device option.
- The level requirement of the Unset Ring has been reduced.
- Added a new supporter-created crafting mod to the Armourer's Workbench.
- Weapons that cause bleeding now cause the same bleeding value as level 1 Puncture.
- Etched Shield has been renamed to Etched Kite Shield.


Unique Item Balance:

- Rampage-specific Unique items now cause Rampage while equipped.
- Atziri's Acuity: The modifier that makes leech apply instantly on critical strikes now has it apply instantly at 60% effectiveness. Existing versions of this item are affected by this change.
- Cloak of Defiance: The 10% additional mana absorption has been removed.
- Crest of Perandus: Chance to block has been reduced from 10% to 5%.
- Essentia Sanguis: Chance to block has been reduced from 10% to 8%. Lightning damage has been increased from 1-50 to 1-80. Increased physical damage has been increased from 80-120% to 140-180%.
- Hyaon's Fury: Damage taken per frenzy charge has been reduced from 6% to 3%.
- Immortal Flesh: The maximum resistances penalty has been reduced from -10% to -5% and the -40% elemental resistances penalty has been removed.
- Lightbane Raiment: Chance to create Desecrated Ground on block has been increased from 50% to 100%.
- Lightning Coil: Damage conversion has been reduced from 40% to 30%.
- Marylene's Fallacy: Critical strike chance penalty has been reduced from 60% to 50%.
- Oro's Sacrifice: The increase to both fire and physical damage taken has been reduced from 20% to 10%.
- Rumi's Concoction: Chance to block during flask effect has been reduced from 30-40% to 20-30%. Chance to block spells during flask effect has been reduced from 15-20% to 10-15%.
- The Anvil: Chance to block has been reduced from 10% to 8%. Life gained on block has been increased from 30-40 to 34-48. Mana gained on block has been increased from 10-20 to 10-24. Damage reflected to attackers on block has been increased from 200-250 to 240-300.
- The Bringer of Rain: Chance to block has been reduced from 15% to 6%. The chance to gain an endurance charge when you block has been increased from 10% to 20%.
- Ungil's Gauche: Chance to block has been reduced from 20% to 12%.
- Wings of Entropy: Chance to block has been reduced from 15% to 8%.
- Zahndethus' Cassock: Chance to create Consecrated Ground on block has been increased from 50% to 100%.


Race Balance:

- Descent bosses have been rebalanced and have had their experience rewards increased.
- Static Strike has been added to the Endless Ledge and both Descent race types.
- Lightning Tendrils has been added as a Descent: Champions skill gem for the Shadow, Witch and Templar.
- Raise Zombie has been replaced with Lightning Tendrils in Descent for the Witch.
- The Descent: Champions Unique item Blood of Summer has been rebalanced to have less movement speed per frenzy charge, no area damage increase, but higher added physical damage.


Bug Fixes:

- When Blood Magic is active, your mana orb no longer shows as fully reserved.
- Fixing a bug where Headhunter could grant mods multiple times.
- Fixed a bug involving Headhunter and proximity shields.
- Fixed a bug where Whirling Blades counted base attack duration only from main hand weapon, regardless of whether that weapon worked with the skill. Now this skill uses the average of however many of the equipped weapons support it.
- Fixed a bug where Righteous Fire couldn't be dispelled by a flask if you didn't have the skill equipped.
- Fixed a bug where the /remaining count would be wrong after you shatter (or Pyre) Catarina minions in some mission variations.
- Fixed a bug with The Three Dragons where dealing both fire and lightning damage in the same hit would contribute both values towards shock chance.
- Fixed bugs related to leaving Vagan's area after dying while fighting him.
- Fixed a bug where Conversion Trap could stop a monster performing its current action.
- Fixed a bug where life and mana gain on hit only worked if the hit dealt damage.
- Fixed a bug that prevented Path of Exile working properly when run with the settings file redirected over a network.
- Fixed a bug where the Eye of Tzteosh could curse your pet. This resulted in very strange behaviour with cursed chickens.