Warbands League
In Warbands League, the new temporary standard league, warring clans are spread throughout Wraeclast. As you explore the world, you'll occasionally encounter one of these three Warbands, a tough group of enemies who will work together to try and take you down.
Each of these three Warbands were designed by a different designer at Grinding Gear Games, giving them each a distinct personality.
These Warbands are made up of distinct warriors, who use a combination of skills with the aim of bringing you down. From regular warriors who will attack you directly to support members who will buff their allies and powerful leaders who can drop very rare unique rings. It has also been rumoured that warbands can sometimes drop magic items with a new mod exclusive to that particular warband.
The location of these Warbands will change as players encounter and defeat them, providing a good reason for players to continue to explore areas of Wraeclast that they might not normally return to.
Tempest League
The new temporary hardcore league is the Tempest League. Wraeclast has become affected by magical Tempests which cause a wide variety of effects that have an influence both on monsters and players. These effects range from altering drop rates, changing player or monster sizes or even automatically animating any weapons that drop.
Areas affected by a Tempest will occasionally spawn markers on the ground, indicating that the Tempest is about to strike that area. When the Tempest strikes, anything caught in the area will be affected, including any monsters or players. With both positive and negative buffs, it's possible to kite enemies to negative Tempest markers to make them easier to kill, or position yourself to benefit from a powerful mod.
One example, the Shining Tempest affect causes you to find better items and affected monsters to drop better items. Positioning yourself and monsters in a marker will ensure that these effects work together to give you even better drops.
Much like other systems in Path of Exile, these Tempests have both prefixes and suffixes, with the prefix dictating the effect of the Tempest strikes and the suffix causing the entire area affected by a Tempest to exhibit a new behaviour. For example, an area affected by a Tempest of Living Weapons causes all of the weapons dropped by monsters to animate and fight you, you will need to fight them off if you wish to claim them for yourself.
Tempests affecting zones will change every hour and will be visible on the world map, not only that, but maps will also be subject to Tempest effects. Players will have to work with one another to know which maps to run at any given time to benefit from the best Tempest affects.
