Path of Exile News

Yesterday we announced the events that will be running throughout March. These events are quite different from anything we've done before, so there have naturally been many questions from the community. We'll be answering some of the most frequently asked questions in today's news post.


Are there special items to buy from the vendors in Ruthless with Gold?
In addition to regular items, an NPC in each town now offers items you can gamble for, using gold (similar to Gwennen).


Is the Ruthless event voided?
Yes.


Can I play the Group SSF events solo?
While it's possible to create a private league for yourself in these events, the Friendly Fire and Polarity Group SSF events will require at least three and two party members respectively in order to deal damage to monsters. The Krangled Passive Tree event doesn't have these restrictions, so it can be played solo.


In the group events, can accounts be added and removed from the Private Leagues freely (so more than the maximum number of allowed accounts can have participated in the Private League over its duration)?
The number of accounts in a Private League is limited to the number of players the event allows. Accounts can't be removed.


Will these Private League templates be added to the list of general Private League modifiers?
We're keen to continue to augment the list of Private League modifiers, and some of these may make their way there in the future.


How are masteries going to work in the Krangled Passive Skill Tree Event?
Mastery locations are Krangled, but their options are not.


For the Polarity event, if you're in a party of 2 players, can both players roll the same polarity?
No, polarities are assigned when players enter a zone. The first player to join an instance will be assigned to one polarity and the next will be assigned the other.


Why is there only one set Krangled Passive Tree for all players instead of having a new randomised tree seed for each character?
It's intentional that everyone gets the same tree so that everyone is trying to solve the same metagame. If it's popular, we'd like to run other variations in the future.


Why are these events so niche?
We wanted to try some new things. Historically our events have been focused on having the most broad appeal while also being achievable alongside our development schedule. Getting to experiment with new options means trying a few things that aren't necessarily for everyone but will give us good information for designing events in the future. At the very least, we're hoping that these events will be fun to watch even if some players feel it's not conducive to their personal playstyle.


Why are there no Endless-style events this time?
We have run the two existing endless events (Heist and Delve) a few times already and they'd need a bit of sprucing up to be exciting to do again. Endless Sanctum is potentially a cool idea for the future but not something we want to run alongside the actual Sanctum league.


Can there be more participation prizes for the Group SSF Events? It feels like the Top 10 slots will get taken over by racing groups/streamers and will leave nothing for others.
Because these are niche and experimental, we're wanting to see how they do based purely on the attraction of playing them. At the moment, we're not planning to add any additional prizes.


Does this confirm that the next league will start on the 7th of April (PDT)?
Yes.

As we announced recently, we expect to launch Path of Exile's next expansion in early April. This extension has left a gap in March that we are filling with some types of events that we haven't run before. Today's news post goes into more detail about what to expect!

Our approach with the new event types is to try things we haven't done before and to create interesting variations of Path of Exile that put your game knowledge and skill to the test.

There are a few things that are going to be happening simultaneously in March:

[h2]Sanctum League[/h2]
Firstly, we are extending the Sanctum league until April 4. Sanctum has been a really popular league, and we're happy to run it for a bit longer so that you can keep perfecting your builds and finish your challenges.

[h2]Weeks 1-4: Ruthless with Gold[/h2]
Back in 2007, when we were initially designing Path of Exile, we decided to eschew a gold coin system in favour of Currency Items that are used for crafting. We wrote about this in the 2011 Dev Diary entry "Rethinking Gold as a Currency".

With a decade and a half of hindsight, our currency item system turned out to be a great decision, but we have often wondered… what would Path of Exile have been like if we had just gone with gold coins?

The Ruthless with Gold event is a way to try this out. Think of it as an alternate reality version of the early days of Path of Exile, finally made possible by the Ruthless mode we released earlier this year.

In Ruthless with Gold,

• Monsters and chests drop Gold Coins, which can be used to buy items from vendors.
  
• All vendor prices throughout the game have been replaced by prices in Gold Coins.
  
• When you sell items to vendors, you receive Gold Coins rather than currency shards. Other Ruthless vendor recipes are unmodified.
  
• There may also be a few other uses for gold that we'll describe closer to the event's launch.
  
• Due to how many Gold Coins you find, they auto-pickup as you approach them.
  
• Gold Coins are itemised like Perandus Coins, and stack up to 5000 per inventory/stash space (50k in Currency Stash Wildcard Spaces).
  
• In a party, Gold Coins you pick up are shared between nearby party members.
  
• You can still find currency items, at regular Ruthless drop rates (i.e. not often). Gold Coins are dropped in addition to regular currency, meaning that in Ruthless with Gold, there is somewhat less item scarcity than full Ruthless.
  
• Sanctum is not enabled.
  
• Otherwise, base Ruthless rules apply
  

Ruthless with Gold is a four-week, trade-enabled, non-hardcore event that is both an opportunity to experience what Path of Exile would have been like with gold, while also letting you try out a slightly easier version of Ruthless. Players who have been keen to give Ruthless a shot but haven't wanted to do that at a major league start can use this event as a chance to try it out.

Start date: 1pm March 8th PST End date: 3pm April 4th PDT

This event is available on PC and Console.

[h3]Prizes[/h3]
You’ll be able to earn one guaranteed Sanctum Mystery Box per account for reaching Level 45 in Ruthless with Gold. Please note that having multiple characters in this event will not grant you more Mystery Boxes.

The event also has a pool of microtransaction prizes that are randomly drawn for characters that reach certain level thresholds. The pool of available prizes is shared between PC and Console players. Having multiple characters will increase your chances of winning a randomly drawn prize. More details on all the prizes can be found below.



[h2]Weeks 2-4: Asynchronous Group SSF Events[/h2]
Alongside the extended Sanctum league and Ruthless with Gold, we're trying out another new concept: Asynchronous Group SSF Events!

So this one's a little complex to explain, but makes a lot of sense once you understand.

Basically, each week we have a special type of event running, which we have described below. During that week, you can create a Private League of that event type for free, and then play it with your friends to try to get the best time. The time is counted from when you make the league, not from when the week starts, essentially making each one a competitive Group SSF race to try to reach a goal with exotic rules applied. The events are asynchronous because your group can have as many shots as you want that week, and don't have to be playing at exactly the same time as the people you're competing against. At the end of the week, whichever group has the best time is the winner.

These events are not run as hardcore events, but do have a one minute delay before you can resurrect if you die (so that deaths are discouraged).

The prizes for these events are exclusive trophy statues that can be displayed in your hideouts.

• Legend's Hideout Statue for Group Rank #1
  
• Champion's Hideout Statue for Group Rank #2
  
• Victor's Hideout Statue for Group Rank #3
  
• Challenger's Hideout Statue for Group Ranks #4-10
  

[h3]Week 2: Friendly Fire Group SSF Event[/h3]

• League Completion Criteria: Kill Act Ten Kitava
  
• Based on: Standard (Sanctum/Ruthless/Hardcore all disabled)
  
• Accounts Allowed in League: 5
  
• Start date: 2pm March 14th PDT
• End date: 2pm March 21st PDT
• Platforms: PC only
  

Friendly Fire is enabled. Players can only deal damage when near two other players.

This event requires you to team up with two-four other players and try to complete the campaign without killing each other too much. Note that with full friendly fire on, even your minions will attack your teammates. Be careful what skills you pick!

The league account limit is set to 5 so that you can't have two teams of three progressing in parallel in the league to help each other out indirectly.

[h3]Week 3: Krangled Passives Group SSF Event[/h3]

• League Completion Criteria: Kill both Searing Exarch and Eater of Worlds
  
• Based on: Standard (Sanctum/Ruthless/Hardcore all disabled)
  
• Accounts Allowed in League: 6
  
• Voided - characters and items do not migrate back into Standard afterwards
  
• Start date: 2pm March 21st PDT
• End date: 2pm March 28th PDT
• Platforms: PC and Console
  

The Passive Skill Tree and all Ascendancy Trees are jumbled. Minor passive skills, notables, keystones, minor ascendancy skills and major ascendancy skills have been internally scrambled within those categories (so a notable passive is still a notable passive, just a random one). All players have the same trees.

You can only see properties of passive or Ascendancy skills that are adjacent to ones you have allocated.

This event prompts some interesting strategies. Can your party work out what builds or Ascendancy choices are the best in this new crazy meta? Will you share that information with other players? Will you send some members ahead and then restart characters once there's a good build plan?

On Console realms, which don't yet support Group SSF, this event will be run as a regular solo SSF event.

[h3]Week 4: "Polarity" Group SSF Event[/h3]

• League Completion Criteria: Have three level 90 players in the same instance
  
• Based on: Standard (Sanctum/Ruthless/Hardcore all disabled)
  
• Accounts Allowed in League: 6
  
• Start date: 2pm March 28th PDT
• End date: 3pm April 4th PDT
• Platforms: PC only
  

In this event, both monsters and players have "polarity", which is randomly allocated between two values. You can only harm monsters that are the same polarity as you. Rare and Unique monsters swap their polarity when they reach low life. It will require players to cooperate in groups of at least two in order to be able to clear areas and bosses.

Good luck everyone! We're looking forward to seeing the events unfold. If you're not able to participate, be sure to check the action out live on Twitch!

Last month marked 10 years since Path of Exile's Open Beta, so to take a trip down memory lane, we've collected trailers for some of our expansions. Also, if you're keen for an informative dive into Path of Exile's past, make sure you give this, this and this post a read where we reflect on some of our older content!

Starting from where we left off in our last post above, check out some of our trailers from Betrayal onwards below!

[h3]Betrayal League (3.5.0)[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Synthesis League (3.6.0)[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Legion League (3.7.0)[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Blight League (3.8.0)[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Conquerors of the Atlas and Metamorph (3.9.0)[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Last week, we shared concept art of our Forge series of The Forbidden Sanctum Supporter Packs. Today's post features concept art from its counterpart, the Gemling series! Check it out below.

[h2]Beehive Weapon[/h2]


[h2]Stampede Quicksilver Flask[/h2]


[h2]Gemling Armour Set[/h2]

This weekend we're running a massive sale on Character, Portal, and Footprint Effects. There are over two hundred effects available at reduced prices, and you can view the full selection of discounted items by pressing M to open the store in-game. This sale will run from the time of this post until 4pm on Monday 27 February.

Not sure what to get? Add some heat to your cosmetic collection with the Dragon Hunter Portal, Character Effect[ and Apparition Effect. Match them up with the Dragon Hunter Armour Set and Longsword to complete the look!



Too hot for ya? Cool it down with the Arctic Crystal Portal and Apparition Effects! Round out the setup with the Arctic Crystal Armour Set, Cloak and Bow.



If you need points for the sale, don't forget about our Sanctum and Core Supporter Packs!

Thanks for your Support!