We’ve updated with our recap of the stream below after the cut!
Change is really in the air this year! Grinding Gear Games is doing the big reveal Path of Exile’s next big expansion a little differently this time. OK, a lot differently! Instead of a media blast of text and video, the studio is streaming the 3.13.0 expansion and league reveal live on Twitch. And we’re here to watch it with you! Not only that, but we’ll be sharing all the information with you here as it is announced.
For the liveblog format, the updates will be in the comments as they happen. Then afterward, we’ll wrap all the information up in a permanent summary. So let’s dive in and check out what changes are coming up to Path of Exile and what its next league will entail.
I may check this out because I haven’t played PoE in forever, but I doubt the core things I dislike about the game have changed. Namely
1. The talent tree is overly complex and only offers faux flexibility because in fact in all those hundreds of nodes there are only a handful of viable builds. Experimentation is heavily discouraged due to how expensive it is to respec. Therefore most people just run cookie cutter builds they found off the forums.
2. The “classes” are largely meaningless. They’re just a starting point on the talent tree. You have to find or buy your abilities and level them separately from your class. PoE fans love this I’m sure, but I’d rather just be honest and during character creation you pick your name, appearance and starting point on the talent tree. Call your class whatever you want. It’s functionally the same thing only dispenses with the confusion.
3. All the design decisions revolving around not-so-gently shoving you to the cash shop. The only reason this game has 100 types of currency instead of just using gold like every other RPG out there is to sell you currency tabs for your inventory. Same deal with the crafting. Wish this game would have been buy to play like Grim Dawn. It would have been much more enjoyable if they had their money up front and didn’t have to strong arm you into the cash shop so they can pay bills. I have no problem with them making money, just FTP always ends up affecting game play design because they need to get money somehow.
The only thing I want to know is if I can Face Tank in this game yet like I can with my Crusader in Diablo 3, and my Death Knight in Grimdawn?
I’m sad that we still have to deal with zana mods paid in chaos on the map device, but the rest looks cool. The risk/reward scaling of the league activity sounds pretty cool and the reward structure is refreshing.
I didn’t expect this much balance work. Very happy with that
Oh good, more complicated things that ill never probably get to
Im still struggling to fully understand how the base atlas works, having never been able to get more than a Tier 6 map on my own.
Then you will never need to worry about any of this (the atlas part of the update).
You will probably be able to interact with bits of it, but it won’t matter to your gameplay
Q&A:
Chris Wilson says there IS an overarching plan (over next 10 years) for the Path of Exile franchise. As such, devs like to drop hints as it goes along.
The Maven is only one of the Eldritch entities that have noticed that Elder is dead. So plenty of room for more entities in the future.
Watchstone and incursion items allow you to specialize using items, but not do that old league content.
Wilson says there is a standing policy: If you ask to be an alpha tester, you will never be invited to be an alpha tester. It an invite only, and there is a specific process they use to keep things fair.
Maven cannot witness unique bosses.
Supporter packs shown.
Integrating Heist
Tradable contracts.
Split copies do not have any reveals this time; have to re-reveal them each time.
Integrating Harvest
Takes out seed management and garden planning.
Will randomly encounter Ashabi.
New skill gems: Hydrosphere and Trinity
Hydrosphere can be supported by spell,
Trinity supports elements, and using it increases counters of other elements when you use one.
Changes to all Ascendencies, but more in-delpth changes to 3: Elementalist, Deadeye, and Inquisitor.
Elementalist can now choose which element they focus on, not use all.