Path of Exile News

We wanted to give an update talking about how the launch went and what we’re immediately working on.

Over the weekend we launched Path of Exile: Secrets of the Atlas. We are so thrilled to see the number of people who joined us for launch day. Welcome back, Exiles!

Starting with the elephant in the room, unfortunately our European servers have been facing a barrage of DDOS attacks. We understand that this issue has ruined such an anticipated launch for many players. This is unacceptable service and we are deeply sorry. We want to assure you that we are taking this very seriously and it is the highest priority problem for our company to solve. Due to the nature of these attacks, we’re unable to provide a timeframe on when it will be resolved but we do want to acknowledge that we do see the issue and are doing everything we can to mitigate this.

Another thing we caught just prior to the launch was an issue with our final console builds which did not affect our internal realms so couldn’t have been caught sooner than it was. Because this required brand new builds to be created, tested and then certified, this process took quite a long time to fix, but the console realms are now fully operational and players are able to login and play. We are implementing measures to prevent this occurring in the future.

While our system administration and backend team address the issues with the European servers, our development team continues to monitor feedback. Currently the leading issue we’re looking to address with the league is that a number of Mercenary skills, especially once you get to the middle of the campaign start to deal overwhelming amounts of damage to the player, often instantly killing you, you should expect a patch in the near future that puts all these skills more in line. This will not affect the Mercenary balance when they are your ally.

Additionally we’re looking at making some improvements to the Memory Skills granted in maps influenced by The Originator, we’ll have more updates on this later this week.

We also just wanted to give a huge thank you to all our players, be it those who have returned to play Path of Exile after a year with no expansions, and all those who are new to the game.

We’re very excited to not only once again be delivering content, but playing the game alongside you all.

Thank you Exiles!

Since the Path of Exile: Secrets of the Atlas reveal last week we’ve continued to make changes to the Mercenaries league. One such change is the introduction of the Renown system. We’ve made a quick video for you to checkout but if you’d prefer to read it at your own pace we’ve included that too!

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As you defeat Mercenaries, you will gain Renown among the Trarthan arrivals to Wraeclast. Successfully defeating a Mercenary will push you up one rank of Renown, to a maximum of three, whereas either losing or backing out of a fight will cost you one rank.

Backing out means that you speak to a Mercenary, view their gear and skills, then walk away and never fight that Mercenary. Returning to them in the same area will allow you to fight them without penalty. Only leaving and never returning to fight them will cost you Renown as they will spread the word of your cowardice amongst the other Trarthans.

For each rank of Renown that you have, you have increased odds of encountering Infamous Mercenaries, who come from far and wide to test their mettle against you.

Infamous Mercenaries are tougher fights, but have better Rucksack loot, are equipped with more powerful rare items, always have at least one unique item equipped and are the only source of Infamous modifier items.

As we mentioned in our FAQ post, you will also encounter Infamous Mercenaries more often in maps with higher numbers of modifiers, to reward you for making the content more difficult.

To spot an Infamous Mercenary, keep an eye out for this fancier golden border, as well as the prefix "Infamous" before their archetype!