The ramp up to the next big content drop is underway and Grinding Gear will be pulling out all the stops to provide Path of Exile players with all the information they need when it hits. Lots of information should be coming in the next week or two, but that doesn't mean that there hasn't been a ton of great stuff to see and learn over the course of the past week. Read on, Exiles, to see what's new in PoE!
1. How We Made Path of Exile: Royale
Grinding Gear really pulled a fast one on players on April Fool's Day by putting out a playable battle royale version of the game. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, it was a big hit with players. So much so, in fact, that GGG is considering either making PoE: Royale part of the game as a recurring event or creating a standalone version. That's pretty cool!
This week, GGG put up a fun article for fans of PoE: Royale that is basically summed up as "How We Did It". The article details the plan of attack and how it was implemented into the game.
We launched the mode on time and it was a huge success on two levels. Most users loved the joke at face value, but also discovered that it was actually a real game mode they could play, and one that is a lot of fun. We also renamed the game on Steam to "PATH OF EXILE: ROYALE". Over the 31 hours that it was running, 27,989 matches of Royale were played. We had a great time running the event and watching the community's reaction to it. Many laughs were had.
What did you think of PoE: Royale?
2. Visual Updates
One of the coolest things that GGG does for its players is to provide them with metric tons of ways to customize their characters. Many of these come in the form of microtransactions and, while that's become a dirty word in some circles, it isn't in Path of Exile. Most are easily affordable and all are totally optional. Sounds like a win-win.
This week, a pair of cool new microtransactions arrived in the form of Phantasmal Whirling Blades that replaces the Whirling Blades effect and a new visual overlay for the Arcane Portal. The former provides the more emo crowd with a dark and gloomy pair of blades spinning through the air, while the latter offers a new stylish take on portals. See both in action in the videos below.
3. Build of the Week & a Bonus Build
One of the greatest things that GGG does is to tap into its theorycrafting community. One way they've consistently done this is through the Build of the Week program that allows content creators to provide interesting and unusual builds to the community.
This weeks build comes from Tarpan and is called the Dancing Due Juggernaut. "[W]e're showcasing tarpan's build for a Juggernaut that doesn't do much killing itself, but instead takes a more supportive role for the two minions it manifests. It does this by using the fated version of the Dancing Dervish unique sword, the Dancing Duo."
We also missed one from a couple of weeks ago that is decidedly worth mentioning. This time, Some_Day offers a take on a build called "Righteous Scorching by Ray Hierophant". "[W]e're showcasing Some_Day's Hierophant that makes use of self-cast Righteous Fire and Scorching Ray totems. This build combines high single-target burning damage through multiple Scorching Ray totems with wide area-of-effect burning damage from Righteous Fire."
4. Skill Usage Statistics
A lot of people really love to see how others are working through leagues. GGG has always provided that information to players to give a peek at what builds and character archetypes players are using as well as the most widely used skills and abilities are coming into play. In this article, players are treated to a list of "every skill gem, in order of most to least used" as well as a ton of other information ranked along statistics determined via a variety of filters and parameters.
Looking strictly at this list, it seems clear that fire is a popular damage type to build around. It's also clear that, at least while levelling, the ability to traverse small gaps via Flame Dash and Leap Slam is highly valued. The most popular Vaal skills are both auras, with the great majority of Vaal skills being hardly used. Many of these skills have received nerfs since their release (four years ago!), while very few have received buffs. This is something we're keenly aware of and hope to have more news about in the coming weeks.
To that end, GGG has also posted the 3.2.2c patch notes that are specifically targeting improvements in the Bestiary league. This patch will be deployed later this week. "We're continuing to make improvements to the Bestiary league. Later this week we're planning to deploy the 3.2.2c Patch that will prevent destruction of special Beasts' corpses, so you'll be able to use Necromancy Nets to capture those Beasts. Alongside this change, the patch includes many bug fixes."
5. T-Shirt Design Competition Highlights
GGG is totally down with its art community and often provides them with ways to showcase their talents. The most recent example of that is the T-Shirt Design Competition. The title is pretty self-explanatory and this week GGG gives us a look at some of the awesome submissions they have received. Let's just say that these are some amazing pieces of art!
Be sure to swing by and take a look!
)
)
