In this week's Path of Exile: The Exiled Tribune, we take a look at Grinding Gear Games' tenth anniversary, all things Breach, some cool ways to take on the new content, some additions & improvements to Map Mods, what's coming in the near future and a few more pretty cool reveals from the week that was.
This Week's Mini-Interview
MMORPG: It's been 10 years for GGG already?! Looking back, what do you guys think about how far you've come and what you wish you knew then about making a game like Path of Exile?
GGG: Yeah, time flies! We never expected Path of Exile to grow this large. Back when we calculated our initial projections, we expected to have a community of a few hundred thousand players at most. The game has certainly come a long way since the early days and its success has allowed us to invest heavily in improving it with frequent updates through the years.
In terms of what we wish we knew back then, I'm not sure we'd want to go back in time and spoil things for ourselves with advice. It has been an amazing journey and learning from mistakes can be the best way to understand why we should do things the way we do.
MMORPG: Can you give us some detail about what's inside the Stormcaller Mystery Box?
GGG: The Stormcaller Mystery Box contains 36 items that you can get by opening the box. There's some new ones including a new armour set, back attachment, totem skill effect and new character effects! This time around we've also included Stash Tabs. Check out the the full trailer to see all the juicy rewards!
MMORPG: With Breach League now live, and a few days on, how has the reception been? What's working and what needs work?
GGG: Honestly, the reception has been amazing so far. Breach is our most popular update and player numbers are at an all-time high. We knew it was a fun league, but we weren't expecting this insane turnout. We're really glad that feedback is almost universally positive about this update. The team are putting together a shortlist of small problems they can address, such as compatability issues with the experimental DirectX 11 renderer on certain hardware.
You've Come a Long Way, Baby!
It's hard to believe, and this will probably make you feel really old, but Grinding Gear Games has turned TEN BIG YEARS OLD! No one is happier than we who love Path of Exile and the incredible team behind it! In celebration of this milestone event, GGG produced a new video to show off the history and changes that Path of Exile has undergone over the years. It's a fantastic and nostalgic look back. Take walk down the Path and then tell us some of your favorite memories from the past ten years!
Once More Into the Breach!
The Breach League is in full swing and GGG is giving players a lot of useful information to help them along the way. Most notably, for those needing a bit of an extra pat on the behind, a new "Master the Breach" guide has been published to give a bit of useful information about what Breach rings are, what they do...which is pretty dang awesome!
The doubled mods from the ring then further improve the secondary effect your resistances have. Drawing power from breaches in such a way is a viable tactic, albeit an inconsistent one. Some believe that the Vaal tried to siphon power from breaches long ago and, well, look how they turned out. The location of the breaches and their contents are unpredictable, and each foray into them means you risk drawing the ire of the Breachlords. If only there was a way you could create the breaches yourself, where you want, when you want...
GGG also handed out some great information about item filters and how they can be used to sort through skill tree data and items to get everyone on the right track. "This is particularly useful for creators of build guides and item filters".
The team also let players know that it's working on Essence Tabs to store Essences. They are asking for feedback on this forthcoming feature:
We've tried out many layouts and we have found one that we feel works best. It has each type of Essence in a continuous block, has room for the item you're crafting, some Remnants and three wildcard slots (useful for Scours, Divine Orbs, etc). We're targeting a price of 40 points for this Tab (quite a bit cheaper than the regular Currency Tab). The slots would stack to 5000.
In case you missed the full patch notes, don't be shy about stopping by the Path of Exile forum to peruse Bex' post.
New Content:
- Added 55 new unique items, 35 of which are exclusive to the Breach challenge league.
- Added a new Intelligence/Dexterity Support Gem - Cast while Channelling: While casting supported channelling skills, trigger another linked spell at regular intervals, with a small damage penalty. This support gem is available from the Sharp and Cruel quest reward in Cruel difficulty for the Witch, Templar, Shadow and Scion. It is available for all classes from Petarus and Vanja after completing The Eternal Nightmare in Normal difficulty. There's a new Channelling tag on relevant skill gems.
- Added a new Neutral Skill Gem - Vaal Breach: Creates a Breach at your location, making you vulnerable to its powerful inhabitants.
- Before her rescue, Navali is now guarded by The Faun.
- Very early areas in Act One have been cosmetically improved.
- Hellions have had their art replaced with a new model.
The Breach update also brought in some additions and improvements to Map Mods including some alterations to modifiers and improvements to ones already existing. Several new ones were added as well. For instance, the Graveyard Map of Skirmishing "incentivizes ranged attack characters to "change up" their playstyles". Sounds cool, no? Find out what other alterations / improvements are in store right here.
But What's On the Way?
Good question! GGG never leaves folks waiting for too long. Here are just a few other reveals that came out this week:
- (Uniques) Tulborn upgrades to Tulfall (upgrades by using Blessings from Breachlords)
- (Uniques) The Halycon upgrades to The Pandemonius
- (Unique) Light of Lunaris
- (Unique) The Surrender
- (Unique) Malachai's Vision
- An early look at improvements to Lioneye's Watch (Act 1 Town)
- A sneak peek of the new Twilight Strand (first area of the game)
That's it for another week! Thanks for coming on over to see what's new in the world of Path of Exile!
