Given such a major change incoming with Path of Exile’s Settlers of Kalguur league, you’d be forgiven for wondering whether the rest of the expansion is any less robust – but you’d still be wrong! During Grinding Gear Games’ big livestream reveal, Game Director Jonathan Rogers highlighted the sweeping changes coming to the base game next week when the expansion launches on all platforms July 26th. Those changes include a massive melee overhaul, changes to two ascendency classes, and gobs more.
Forget not having room in the first Wandering Wraeclast for all the Settlers of Kalguur changes; there isn’t even enough room here! That’s just how sweeping these changes are. Rogers even said that “this is one of the biggest balance patches [the studio has] ever done.” So instead of delving into the nitty gritty of everything, I’ll touch on main points. For the rest of the hefty details on all of these changes, check out the patch notes on the official site.
So, why is GGG implementing such sweeping changes? According to Rogers, the release is meant to bring powerful melee mechanics to the forefront instead of hiding them behind certain items. During the preview, he said, “Hopefully melee and more of the game moves towards less build guide driven game play in order to succeed.”
“On top of Ascendancy classes we have revisited a number of core mechanics, this time taking pains to ensure easy access through the Passive Tree, skill gems, and simple items. We don’t want all the powerful mechanics to be hidden behind layers of complexity.”
Not the melee you used to know
If you played much melee, these changes are going to really stand out. And if you didn’t play it, maybe with these changes you will.
Totems have been removed. Forget about “set and forget” gameplay; those skill gems are tossed right out the window. Instead, GGG has buffed the damage on almost every melee skill to compensate. Damage growth will come from leveling the skill gems, and mana costs will rise with levels (but remain far under the cost of spells). One example: Heavy strike has changed from dealing 313% damage at gem level 20 up to a whopping 552% damage. However, note that heavy strike no longer knocks enemies back. At the same gem level 20, sweep bumps up from 281% to 664% damage.
Since melee will be all up close and personal now (shouldn’t it always be?), defensive options have also been added or reworked. This includes items with higher defensive values dropping throughout the endgame, magic and rare equipment getting buffed life modifiers, and full-quality weapons and armor getting 20% more physical damage or local defense, respectively. Additionally, the popular Kaom’s Heart has also finally been restored to +1000 to maximum life. There are also changes to endurance charges, life leach, buffs, resistances, and more.
Melee obviously means attacking as well, so expect plenty of changes there too, from wands, daggers, scepters, claws and staves having higher critical strike chance values, wands getting higher attack speeds, and warcry buffs becoming more significant and extending to allies. Banners, rage, and bleed have also been reworked. Amidst these changes, berserk has been nerfed, just so you’re aware. And all that is really just the tip of the iceburg!
Reworked and removed Ascendancies
Rather than drown in all the details of the ascendency changes, just know that you have one rebalance (the Gladiator) and one removal (the Raider). The Gladiator has new skills, like a passive that allows players to combine different weapon types when dual-wielding to get a variety of powerful bonuses. New retaliation skills like Eviscerate and Swordstorm have been added; they are active skills that have a condition to use (using a shield for the former and dual wielding for the latter).
The Raider, who wasn’t unique enough in skills, was sent packing. Say hello to the new Warden. This class is largely inspired by its predecessor from the Affliction league, except now it now focuses on Elemental Attacks, changing the behavior of Shock, enhancing Freeze, and replacing Ignite with Scorch. This class also gets barkskin and specializes in tinctures. Tinctures are an alternative to Flasks from the Affliction league. Wardens can have one tincture active at a time, and there is a cooldown between using them.
If you can’t live without the Raider’s frenzy ability, it has been added as a passive Skill to the Deadeye, replacing rupture. Rupture, on the other hand, has been turned into a Support Gem.
QOL and consoles
Yes, there is still more. Regarding quality-of-life enhancements, some highlights include adding static life bars to some bosses, increasing the loot pickup range for keyboard and mouse users, and auto-unlocking waypoints when getting close. You can also start Harvest encounters with just a single action. And for those who hate wasting time rebuffing after death, players can resurrect without having to re-activate all their reservation effects like auras and heralds.
As for consoles, players will discover that loading times have been reduced even further, pop-in has been reduced, and textures won’t start unloading in heavy scenes. The overall visual fidelity has been improved, and GGG has installed a new upscaling algorithm that improves the crispness of dynamic resolution, with an additional anti-aliasing pass on top of that. And players can now choose which aspect of visual fidelity they want to focus on in the options menu: resolution, image quality, or target frame rate.
Ending with endgame
Since endgame is at the end, why not finish off with endgame changes? To start, much of the various league content has been added or updated in the Atlas maps. This includes updating Blight and Ritual league content adding Wildwood from the Affliction league to tier 16 and 17 maps, placing random Sentinels from the Sentinel league at the start of maps, and adding the rare chance to encounter reflective Mist from the Kalandra league.
But wait, there’s more! Here’s just a glance at what else is coming with the 3.25 expansion. Remember, more details can be seen in the reveal livestream, and even more can be found in the patch notes!
A new tier of maps- An additional unlockable map slot to make six total
- New scarabs and changes to many existing ones
- Special encounters in maps, like Nameless Seer in tier 16 and 17 maps
- New uniques (of course!)
- Corpses as items you can use to raise as specters
- Removed the first 15 waves of the Simulacrum and improved the chances of finding unique jewels
- Added more chisels, which can increase rarity, pack size, currency items, divination cards, or scarabs; only one type can be on each map
- Chisels and Vaal Orbs can now be used on tier 17 maps; now the only restriction is explicit modifiers cannot be removed from these maps.
- Adjusted the drop rate of Valdo’s puzzle boxes
- Adding some of the beasts from Einhar’s Memory of Harvest Beasts to the core pool, including the Black Morrigan
- Added new encounters and secrets to the campaign.
That’s quite a mouthful, isn’t it? We bet some of you even just skimmed down to the end. That’s OK too. If you don’t want to read up on all the details, you can just experience them for yourself next week when Settlers of Kalguur launches on all platforms July 26th, at 4 p.m. EDT.
What if your world changed every three months? What would you do differently? Path of Exile does, and MOP’s MJ Guthrie explores and experiences each new incarnation in Wandering Wraeclast. Join us biweekly for a look into each new challenge league and world expansion — and see whether MJ can finally reach the end of one world before it ends!
