Grinding Gear Games is definitely in crunch mode when it comes to Path of Exile. But that doesn't mean that there isn't a lot going on. In this week's The Exiled Tribune, we'll take a look at the Beta Week 5 wrap up, the newly revealed Storm Burst skill, some boss concept art and the ongoing Turmoil Events.
WHAT'S NEW AFTER 5 WEEKS OF BETA?
After five weeks of The Fall of Oriath beta testing, Grinding Gear is sending players off to the sixth week, pleased with the amount of positive feedback received and how much progress players have made getting to Act 8. In addition, a lot of balance tweaks have been applied and used to test level progression.
So what's new?
- The latest patch was deployed on Friday, July 14th an included a number of changes to address performance. The goal of the patch is to reduce spikes to keep the game running smoothly even when the player's system is being "taxed" by the use of a number of skills. Both CPU and GPU improvements were included in the update as well as tweaks to game play, particularly in Acts 5-8.
- Game Balance also was part of Friday's update, including the removal of Chance to Piece from the game entirely. In addition, a new version of Arcane Surge is being tested and developers are looking forward to hearing what players think overall.
- The tutorial system is still a work in progress, though the team has received a terrific amount of feedback from players, though they can always use more. A "secondary teaching feature" is also going to be added once the tutorial is complete that will further assist players in their earliest phases of the game.
- The Labyrith, excluding its most difficult phase, is in the beta with a simple change. GGG is keen to hear players' impressions of what they see in the two earliest difficulties.
- Fated Uniques are slated to go under the microscope to assess the current difficulty in obtaining one. These will be updated in Beta Wave 4.
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The Wave 4 Beta Patch is in preparation and will be deployed in 10-14 days from July 14th. The main focus of the next beta update will be balance and builds as well as other more minor inclusions. Once Wave 4 is out, crunch time begins to bring The Fall of Oriath to live status!
SKILL REVEAL: STORM BURST
It probably comes as no surprise that the newest Path of Exile skill, Storm Burst, is a lightning damage dealer's delight! It's a channeled lightning skill that, during channeling, emits low-damage bolts. Once channeling stops, these bolts explode for a ton of AoE damage.
Additional projectiles will be added sequentially, letting you fire a much denser stream of projectiles when using Greater Multiple Projectiles. Increasing the skill's area increases the size of the explosions, which will then overlap for even more damage. Slowing the projectile speed also results in more overlapping damage, while reducing the speed that the skill reaches further targets.
To show off Storm Burst in action, a short video was prepared:
Now that's just fun! Would you use Storm Burst?
MORE ORIATH CONCEPT ART
For the artsy types, the Fall of Oriath art team has supplied another collection of concept work for the main boss in Oriath, the god Kitava and his followers. It's a bit spoilery, so consider yourself warned!
The pieces show off the process to create Kitava and it's a fantastic look at the creative process.
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That pretty much wraps things up for this past week, but we have a feeling that those who are really looking forward to the Fall of Oriath's release will be getting some good news in the next week or two. Judging by everything GGG is saying lately, the progress to release is moving along swimmingly!
