Path of Exile News

Later this week, we plan on deploying Patch 3.14.1c which includes a variety of general fixes and improvements. To give you an idea of what to expect, we have prepared a preview of the patch notes for you, which you can check out below.

Please note that the patch notes may be changed prior to their deployment.

General Fixes and Improvements

• Clarified that the Harvest craft which changes a unique item into a random unique weapon can also change the item into a random unique quiver. This is purely a description change.
  
• Fixed a bug with the Elementalist's Bastion of Elements notable ascendancy passive skill where Primal Aegis wouldn't be reapplied if you died in an area.
  
• Fixed a bug with the Mahuxotl's Machination unique shield where Everlasting Sacrifice could sometimes fail to trigger when reaching full energy shield.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Icestorm skill granted by The Whispering Ice unique staff couldn't be supported by Arcanist Brand.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Gluttony of Elements skill granted by the Blood of Corruption unique amulet wasn't healing you and nearby allies when taking elemental damage.
  
• Fixed a bug where Herald of Agony being supported by Arrogance could cause the summoned Agony Crawler to fail to attack.
  
• Fixed a bug where the "Defeat The Trialmaster while affected by Trialmaster's Tether and without any player being hit by the Trialmaster's Heart" challenge didn't always complete when the conditions were met.
  
• Fixed a bug where the small "Additional Sample Rewards" nodes in the Valdo's Rest atlas passive tree could sometimes provide fewer additional samples with rewards than intended.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Squandered Prosperity divination card wasn't counting towards the "Unique Map" reward criteria in the "Turn in Divination Cards" challenge.
  
• Fixed a bug where Tormented Spirits could possess Alva in the Temple of Atzoatl.
  
• Fixed a bug where Tormented Spirits could possess Conquerors during their portal animation in Conqueror-influenced maps.
  
• Fixed a flickering issue with some of Sirus, Awakener of Worlds' skills.
  
• Fixed a bug where items with quality in your stash couldn't be filtered using the '+' character.
  
• Fixed a visual bug where an incorrect amount of Voltaxic Sulphite could be shown as a reward upon completing a map if you had the Sulphite Infusion atlas passive skill allocated.
  
• Fixed a visual bug where minion life bars were slightly misaligned.
  
• Fixed a visual bug where Delirium mist wasn't covering water areas in The Syndrome Encampment.
  
• Fixed an instance crash.
  

Microtransaction Fixes and Improvements

• Fixed a bug where the Bleached Skull Helmet microtransaction was producing an unintended glowing eyes effect.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Ethercraft Weapon Effect microtransactions weren't correctly applying to the Steam-powered Weapon microtransaction.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Innocence Character Effect microtransaction could sometimes produce an unintended trail.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Invisible Buff Effect microtransaction wasn't working correctly with Petrified Blood.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Lightbringer Weapon Effect microtransaction wasn't applying correctly to two handed axes and maces.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Nightfall Weapon Effect microtransaction could lose its effect temporarily when used alongside the Nightfall Flame Dash microtransaction.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Vanguard Apparition Effect microtransaction was producing an unintended distortion effect.
  
• Fixed a visual bug that could occur if you gained Fanaticism while wearing the Black Body Armour microtransaction.
  
• Fixed a visual bug that could occur when using Crackling Lance with the Stormcaller Gloves microtransaction.
  
• Fixed a clipping problem with the Merchant Cloak microtransaction.
  

Mac Improvements

• Increased the size of the in-game cursor.
  

The Apollyon Mystery Box features distinct designs that bring a mystical glimmer to Wraeclast. In today's news post, we've gathered some concept art to share a look at the magic that goes into creating these ethereal cosmetic effects.



































You can check out the full Apollyon Mystery Box sets or buy yours here.

It's been some time since we last hosted a Q&A on Path of Exile's most complex game mechanics and we are keen to answer your questions and help you understand some of the less-well-understood corners of the game! We'll collect your questions and present the answers sometime next week.

The intention of this Q&A is to be exclusively about game mechanics rather than game design or other Path of Exile topics - for example, how specific passives interact with particular unique items, etc. It's unlikely that we'll be able to get to every question due to time constraints but we aim to answer as many as we can.

We look forward to seeing your questions! You can post your questions on our forum thread here.

In Path of Exile, some days you play out of your mind and defeat the Maven without dying. Other days, you slip up and die to the Shaper. Regardless of what happens, we wanted to share and highlight a few Twitch clips from our awesome community. Check them out in today's news post here!

Whether it's a simple voice line from Zana or the chime of an Exalted Orb drop, the iconic sounds of Path of Exile bring the gritty world of Wraeclast to life. Today, our sound design team shares some of their thoughts and inspirations behind the audio of recently added skills, mechanics and NPCs.

Please Note: If you would like to hear examples of the audio described below, please check out the full news post for video samples.

[hr][/hr]

Hello Exiles!

I'm Kane and I'm the Audio Lead on Path of Exile. The audio department at GGG is now 5 sound designers strong (including myself), and ‘the maestro' Kamil handling everything to do with music. I feel privileged to have sound designers on my team that are all very talented and it's great to be able to show off some of the work that we've been doing in recent times. We love hearing feedback from players and regularly check the forums and reddit for your thoughts. So here's a chance for us to give you some insight into our thought process while designing sounds and audio experiences for Path of Exile.

[h3]Dominic - Sound Designer [/h3]

Gritty, dark, and disturbing. Those have always been common themes in my design process and I feel as if my sound design finds its place nicely in the world of Wraeclast. With that in mind, when I saw the visuals for Exsanguinate I was excited to get to work. I used a mixture of slime, liquids, some earthy cracks, and crunches paired with some duct tape recordings of rips, twists, and tears mixed together with all kinds of audio processing and added synthesis to create the sounds you hear in-game. I went through a similar process when making the audio for Corrupting Fever which is a skill that pairs nicely with Exsanguinate and together they sound horrifically satisfying.

Another skill I loved working on was Splitting Steel. This skill could be the closest we will get to guns in Wraeclast so I made the most of the opportunity and designed the audio to be as impactful and threatening as possible. This involved using recordings of real guns layered with huge metallic impacts and explosions to exaggerate it as much as I could. Throughout my everyday life, I often hear sounds that catch my attention and excite me. If I can experience those same feelings through my work for Path of Exile then that is when I know those sounds are game-ready.

[h3]Patricia - Sound Designer [/h3]

Over the two and a half years of designing sounds at GGG, I've learned to imagine sounds in my head quickly when I first see the visuals of a given asset. To me, the thought process behind the sound of a player skill is about creating a distinct and immediately recognisable sound. When I saw the animation and effects for Reap, I wanted to blend together metallic swinging sounds with gore to match the bloody visuals. There are wooden spears being thrown, airy whooshes, and two handed swords swinging to create a base layer for the scythe. Then I subtly added the sound of squashed tomatoes and yoghurt with a plunger to create a gory layer to it. For the buff sound, I used a reverse reverb on a heavy metal door closing sound and then layered that with some pitched down watery splashes to suit the aesthetic.

I used a simpler approach when designing sounds for the Maven Astrolabe Map Device. I gathered some audio which I had previously designed for the Maven boss encounter as a starting point. Then I blended it with mechanical sounds of rotating gears and metal, and a subtle boom as the celestial animation expands.

[h3]Javier - Sound Designer[/h3]

Stepping out of the Ultimatum ring puts you in a situation where you are risking losing it all.
Trying to give the player a sense of “danger” and to signal they are doing something wrong, I made the first sound like a cinematic impact blended with screams. On the countdown I used a heartbeat, and a sound of knocking on wood that would increase in volume and pitch on each second to add a sense of pressure, urging you to return to the ring.

With the Vaal being so thematically tied to sacrifice and death, I wanted the player to feel that they were using a Vaal skill that had those components infused in it. To express that I used a blend of screams and incoherent mumbling as core sounds, that later I shaped, processed and synthesized to generate the vacuum, shockwaves and details from it.

[h3]Michael - Sound Designer[/h3]

The explosions for Blood Sacrament (Relic of the Pact) change in size depending on how much life you've reserved channeling the skill, so we needed a small, medium and large explosion. In the example video, you can hear that the small explosion is a bit squishier, while the larger explosion has some low end crunch.

Most of the high end gore here consists of things like, squished chicken, sloshing water and slime going through tubes. The low end is a little bit of live explosives, and dropped stones to add the crunch and movement.

I spent a bit more time on the channeling sound (which is funny because from what I've seen, the optimal way to play the skill involves next to no channeling time). I thought it would be cool to blend together a heart beat, the sound of moving water (similar to what you might hear when you put your hands over your ears and listen to your own blood moving), and some quiet creature noises to add to the unsettling nature of the Vaal atmosphere.

[h3]Kane - Audio Lead[/h3]

For Ultimatum, we needed key gameplay audio cues for the core league mechanics. One of the first elements I worked on was the time stop mechanics. Making it feel like you are being sucked out of combat for a moment, then you make your decision before being thrown back into the fray. I blended ghostly voices and drones to use as ambience during the selection menu sequence, then reduced and filtered gameplay sounds during this time to add to the impact of it all coming back in after your choice is made. It's important that we make the most of these unique gameplay mechanics with audio, to help make encounters feel satisfying and cohesive.

Another example of this is from the Maven fight in Echoes of the Atlas. These larger scale boss fights really need clear audio cues to signal certain things to the player, and to help provide context to different effects. The memory game effects here are a good example of this. Also, Patricia's audio on the nuke beam is very satisfying and telegraphs “certain death” quite nicely!

Lastly, I wanted to mention Heist. That release really showed how much passion our team has for what we do. On the dialogue side alone, I worked on around 3,800 files of dialogue that were used as final in-game assets, this includes the various NPCs and the monsters. I really wanted to make these encounters feel unique and give monsters a bit more personality with audio. Of course, spamming dialogue isn't fun, so I used a bunch of cooldowns and limitations on monster dialogue during implementation. I was very proud of what we accomplished there and it showed us how we can look at pushing things further for monster uniqueness going forward.