The Path of Exile team spent last week keeping tabs on the recently released Content Update 2.5.0 and the The Breach Challenge League and also spent time with players in interviews and writing up a few choice articles. It's been another busy week but we also managed to squeeze in a few questions too.
This Week's Q&A - The Grab Bag
MMORPG: How did the launch of The Breach go? What has the response been like?
The response has been overwhelmingly good. While Breach is a big league, it didn't come with a full expansion accompanying it, but yet we set player number records. Right now there are more people playing Path of Exile than ever before, including its viral open beta launch! We're so pleased with the results.
MMORPG: How go the discovery of those Unique Items? How many were included and what % would you estimate have been found?
We posted 51 out of the 55 new unique items that have been discovered. The players have also discovered The Anima Stone which is created by combining three other new uniques jewels at the vendor. They've also discovered Xoph's Blood, a unique amulet that is obtained by using a Blessing of Xoph on Xoph's Heart. Skin of the Lords has also been discovered. That leaves one more mysterious unique remaining!
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MMORPG: How did you celebrate the tenth anniversary in-house? Tell us about one of the best memories of this decade's existence.
Chris Wilson: We threw a huge party! It was a great evening. One of my personal best memories is being in San Francisco after our very first press tour in September 2010, counting down the seconds until the game would be first announced. Seeing the initial comments and praise come in was an amazing moment that I will never forget.
MMORPG: What are the game plans between now and the first of the year? What are the team's plans? Parties? :D
Many team members are using the holiday period to take some hard-earned rest, while others are pushing ahead on new content for next year!
Update 2.5.0 & The Breach League Wrap Report
With the launch of v2.5.0, the team and the community took to the airwaves with several new videos that give the skinny on a number of topics including how melee targeting and balance has improved, some pretty awesome (and effective!) builds for those looking to take on the Breach League and some super secret stuff that was squirreled away in the content update that just may have been discovered by lucky community members, most notably the Eye of Chayula amulet and the awesome power of Explosive Arrow.
On the community side of things:
Dayvi posted a brief guide on how to differentiate between various Breach Hands meanwhile JustJank created a colour code for those looking to complete the Corrupted Jewels challenge.
Another great piece of information for intrepid Breachers is GGG's summary of the new Stash Tabs, a new way for players to keep that inventory ship shape. There is a tab for Essence, Divination, and for the Hoarder in you, the Premium Quad tab that brings four times the collecting room for anyone who simply cannot throw anything away. All tabs give players functionality and organizational tools to keep track of everything and to make it easy to locate. With the ability to index tabs, no one can say they can't find something.
Tab space is a great new addition, particularly for those new uniques. Prior to the release of 2.5.0, GGG had shown off 51 of the 55 added and players have been hard at work trying to track down the Final Four. A handy reference of the 51 known uniques has been posted at the link above that gives a visual and the in-game description of each one. You can also get up close and personal with some of the concept art for these special items.
GGG's Chris Wilson sat down with ZiggyD during a recent studio visit and fielded a ton of questions from the streaming community that became a whopping three part YouTube extravaganza. You can see Part One and Part Two and Part Three and find out what he had to say on just about any topic you can imagine.
On the FYI Front: What Builds Are the GGG Folks Playing?
Glad you asked that and a ton of the team revealed what they are playing these days now that 2.5.0 has launched. It's a fun read with not just a little insight into what makes them tick. Check it out here.
Phew! It was a big week for Grinding Gear and for players!
