Welcome back to the The Exiled Tribune for Path of Exile. In each week's article, we take a look at what's going on on the development side of the game and what's cooking (sometimes literally!) in the community.
What's Up with the Devs?
First off the bat, it's always nice to know what the devs have been up to for the past week. Look no further then than an interesting behind-the-scenes interview with Sound Engineer Andrew. The interview focuses on Andrew's background as a sound engineer, how he ended up working for Grinding Gear, what sound effects he's been instrumental --- get it?! --- in creating, inspirations and challenges he's faced in his five years with the company. Here's a small excerpt:
Are there any in game sound effects that you're most proud of? Off the top of my head… I quite like the way the Lunaris Temple ambient turned out, some of the Dominus and Shaper skill effects. Oh! Also the Acton's Nightmare music, I really enjoyed making that.
It's a fantastic read, so head here to check out the full interview.
The team also took some time out this week to create a very brief, but informative, video to spotlight one of the channeled skills that will be coming to Path of Exile later this fall with the v2.4.2 update. The video shows the ability being used to clear out a dungeon in a fiery and quite effective way.
And in the PoE Community?
The Path of Exile community, ever busy as it always is, has several neat things to show off this week. Let's start right out the gate with Mathil's Level 92 Pathfinder Ranger that was chosen to be The Build of the Week. Using Evasion to ramp up Chaos Damage and using Spectral Throw, this is a build that will clear a room or a battlefield in short order. You can check out the video of the DreamFeather Spectral Throw BotW or see the specific details on Mathil's overview page.
DreamFeather is a 1h sword which gives 1% attack damage per 450 evasion. Wearing 2 of these doubles the effect. When going the Pathfinder route and several evasion stacking techniques we hit around 60k evasion with flasks up yielding around 240-250% extra attack damage. All of that attack damage and scaling of projectile damage from the tree serves to give your added chaos damage gem (main source of damage) much larger initial hits to scale poison off of. Swapping Greater Multiple Projectiles for Slower Projectiles gives you much larger single target damage by helping multiply poison scaling.
The community is also narrowing the field for the winning Item Concept Art Design Contest with the number now reduced to four. Fans and players can vote for their favorite belt design after previously having chosen the base type, design goal, special bonus, item name and flavor text. Down to the final vote, this week, check out the four designs on this specially created page.
)
Lastly, the community has created another amazing array of fan art projects that never cease to astonish. Highlights include several pieces of digital art and a great comic called "Path of Starve".
)
Lastly from the music front, the site is featuring an aTension Main Menu Remix that will blow your socks off.
Check it all out on this week's fanart page.
Surprise Atlas System Q&A
MMORPG: What has been the biggest feedback you've received since the launch of Atlas of Worlds? Good and bad?
The overwhelming positive feedback is that players love the new Atlas system and have been enjoying the process of unlocking all the maps and completing their objectives. In terms of negative feedback, players didn't like our initial pool of mods available for Cartographer's Sextants. We've completely reworked these and will be launching them in the 2.4.1 Content Update within a week!
MMORPG: When can we expect more info on the channel skills and how it all works?
We're expecting to release new skills that use the new channelling system in Content Update 2.4.2. Last week we posted a teaser video of one of these skills. We'll have more in-depth information about the channelling system and other new skills in the coming weeks leading up to their launch in the 2.4.2
MMORPG: What have proven to be the most popular maps in AoW? Least popular?
The most popular map from each tier:
- Jungle Valley
- Oasis
- Arid Lake
- Acid Lakes
- Mesa
- Strand
- Ashen Woods
- Tropical Island
- Coves
- Underground River
- Bazaar
- Plateau
- Gorge
- Volcano
- Abyss
- Maze of the Minotaur
There were 5.5. millions maps run last week (not including ones created through Zana).
