Path of Exile News

Last week we talked about the Blight Oils and their use for Notables and Ring Enchantments. Today we have more Blight-specific statistics to look at, including Oil use on Blighted Maps.

Oils used on Blighted Maps in the last week (from most popular to least popular)

• Teal Oil
  
• Clear Oil
  
• Amber Oil
  
• Sepia Oil
  
• Violet Oil
  
• Verdant Oil
  
• Crimson Oil
  
• Azure Oil
  
• Black Oil
  
• Opalescent Oil
  
• Golden Oil
  
• Silver Oil
  

Let's look at Oils used on Blighted Maps. Since maps are consumed on use and amulets and rings are not, this is, as expected, the highest consumer of Oils. Basically the Hummer of Wraeclast. The reason Blighted Maps are the highest consumer of Oils is almost certainly because they are consumable, and thus players will end up applying modifiers many times over.

We can see that Teal Oils are the most commonly used Oil on Blighted Maps. This Oil makes 2 Blight Chests be Lucky. What this does is up to you to figure out, but the keyword isn't new, so that would be a good place to start! This has quickly become a community-favourite, with multiple videos popping up from content creators discussing how they think this oil modifier works and why they think it's a great choice to use on Blighted Maps.

Following Teal, we see some of the more common oils that follow. Things that reduce the difficulty of Blighted Maps (as well as adding Pack Size) are seeing active use, perhaps because of the relatively low rarity of the Oils they require.

Violet Oil is seeing fairly high use. This oil increases item quantity by 30%. This is a hefty increase and is especially useful when used on Maps that have high value divination cards.

Crimson Oil, which does the same thing as Teal Oil but at a slightly higher value, isn't seeing quite as much use relative to Teal Oils. Perhaps because it is being used elsewhere and the increased cost isn't worth the benefit.

Oils used on Blighted Maps in the last week (normalised by weight

• Teal Oil
  
• Crimson Oil
  
• Violet Oil
  
• Black Oil
  
• Golden Oil
  
• Amber Oil
  
• Azure Oil
  
• Silver Oil
  
• Verdant Oil
  
• Opalescent Oil
  
• Sepia Oil
  
• Clear Oil
  

If we normalise the oils based on their weights, we can get a better look at which oils are seeing use for their actual benefit, rather than just because of how common they are. We see that Teal Oil is once again the top oil used on Blighted Maps.



Crimson Oil follows closely behind Teal Oil, which makes sense given it does the same thing that Teal Oil does, but at a slightly higher value.

Let's again look at the breakdown of oil use over the past week, this time on Blighted Maps.

By count, the number of oils used is substantially higher on Blighted Maps than on Notables or Ring Enchantments. This makes sense, as Blighted Maps are consumable and thus demand frequent use of oils on them whereas the other options are more permanent. We still see the top 4 oils used taking up about 75% of the total oils used. Amongst the top 4, only one of the oils increases rewards. The other three (Clear, Amber and Sepia) all reduce the difficulty of the encounter (while slightly increasing Pack Size).

To conclude, let's look at where players are consuming most of their oils. We'll look at the frequency of each oil being consumed on Blighted Maps, Notables and Ring Enchantments.

Overall Oil Use broken down by where each is used



First of all, we're looking at count again (not normalised by rarity). We can see that almost 60% of all oils consumed are done so on Blighted Maps, whereas 26% are consumed for Notables, and only 14% on Ring Enchantments. The low percentage consumed on Ring Enchantments is unexpected, but can suggest something to us. Given that a Notable requires 3 Oils, and 2 Ring enchantments requires 4, one would expect that Ring Enchantments would be 1.33x higher than Notable Enchantments, but this isn't the case. This suggests that ring enchantments aren't deemed powerful enough or are too specialised to warrant caring too much about. One could interpret this as suggesting that players overwrite the notable on their amulet frequently or are willing to anoint an amulet that they know they'll eventually replace.

We can also look at the individual oils to see where each is being used and try to understand why. Golden Oils are primarily used on Notables, likely because the popular Notables frequently require them and because their use is permanent. The same holds true for Silver and Opalescent Oils, two of the rarer oils.

Unsurprisingly, we see that Teal and Crimson Oils are seeing the majority of their use on Blighted Maps, thanks to the Lucky Chests modifier that many players are using.

Overall Oil Use broken down by where each is used (normalised by weight)



When we normalise all oils by rarity, we see that anointing Amulets consumes a higher proportion of total oil rarity than Blighted Maps, though over time we expect this to swing towards Blighted Maps taking up a greater proportion as more players get a Notable on their amulet that they do not ever replace.

We're concluding the oils overview here, but we have more statistics to share with you! Next week we'll talk about Blight challenges and look at a breakdown of Ascendancy classes chosen by our players in this league.

During the livestreamed keynote announcement presentation at ExileCon on the morning of November 16th, we'll unveil December's 3.9.0 expansion. While it's too early to reveal the full details of this release, we wanted to give you an idea of what to expect from the upcoming expansion.

We settled on the term expansions for recent releases like Legion and Blight, because they add new content like skills and items to Path of Exile as well as containing full challenge leagues. 3.9.0 not only contains the usual content you'd expect from a regular Path of Exile release, but also some game-wide expansion content that isn't tied to the league itself. It's a bit larger in size than any other Path of Exile release in 2019.

We have been really excited about a league idea that we wanted to do for a while but didn't have the technology or resources to pull off. While we can't share more information about the league just yet, we can tell you that it contains a good balance of risk vs reward, compelling endgame content and is a whole lot less server-melty.

Alongside the league and expansion content mentioned above, 3.9.0 contains some new item rewards that should provide interesting new character build options and a fresh metagame. We're also focusing some balance attention on bows, though this revamp isn't of the same scale as our spellcasting and melee changes earlier this year. The expansion also includes all the usual divination cards, unique items, new skills and so on that you're used to from Path of Exile releases.

We currently expect to release the PC version of 3.9.0 on Saturday December 7th, NZ time (with console versions the following week). We'll announce the final firm date at ExileCon alongside other information about the expansion. In addition, ExileCon attendees will be able to play a 3.9.0 demo at the convention.

As usual, 3.9.0 has its own set of league supporter packs, which will replace the Blight ones when released. We expect these to come out in the week following ExileCon. Last December's Core Supporter Packs (with physical goods) were really successful, so we plan to release another set this December also, which will of course contain new physical goods. This means that the current Core Supporter Packs will leave the store in a couple of months. We'll announce the exact date of their end in the following weeks, so you can plan your purchases appropriately.

We're really looking forward to next month, where we can show you what we have been working on!

On the morning of Saturday November 16th (New Zealand time), we're kicking off our ExileCon convention with a livestreamed keynote presentation that will announce several large expansions such as 3.9.0 (December 2019) and 4.0.0 (approximately December 2020). This livestream will be a must-watch event for Path of Exile fans, regardless of whether they're attending the convention or not. We'll update this news post with additional information as it becomes available.

When is the Livestream?
The presentation officially starts at 10am New Zealand time on Saturday November 16th. This is early afternoon in America on Friday November 15th, and late in the evening in Europe that day. We're likely to start a pre-show with streamer speculation around an hour before the presentation officially begins.

How long will it run for?
The main keynote presentation is around an hour in length, and will be followed with other content throughout the two days (see below).

How can I watch it?
We'll be streaming it on our official Twitch channel www.twitch.tv/pathofexile and are investigating other streaming platforms also.

What will be announced?
During the keynote presentation, we plan to announce several in-development projects such as the 3.9.0 expansion and 4.0.0 mega-expansion, with gameplay footage. We'll dive into the new content and systems being introduced by these two large expansions.

What else is being streamed from ExileCon?
Aside from the keynote announcement presentation, we have a busy streaming schedule across two days and are planning to stream content like:

• Dedicated talks that dive deeply into the contents of both 3.9.0 and 4.0.0, in more detail than the keynote.
  
• A live gameplay demo of some 4.0.0 content.
  
• Prominent community streamers hosting panels and interviewing developers (schedule to be announced in the coming weeks)
  
• The ExileCon racing finale, where four top racers from our community compete for prizes.

Will you be running Twitch Drops during the livestream?
We would like to and are working on setting this up. Once we have worked out the details, we will update this post. We expect it will work with PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 Path of Exile accounts.

What if I can't watch the livestream as it happens? Will a video of it be posted afterwards?
Yes. We'll post information about where to find it closer to the event.

Will announcement pages for the new expansions be released as usual?
Yes, as soon as they are announced on the stream.

Can I still get tickets to attend ExileCon in person?
Absolutely. There are still tickets available for purchase on www.pathofexile.com/exilecon if you want to fly to New Zealand to attend the convention.

Please note that New Zealand has just introduced a system where you must apply for an "NZeTA" online before arriving in the country. As far as we can see, almost all ExileCon visitors from overseas must apply for one. We recommend doing this as soon as possible. Thankfully, the process does not look difficult. Full details and the application form are on this page.

So, regardless of whether you're attending in person or watching from home, we look forward to showing you what we've been working on in just over five weeks!

Last week we started a competition that is open to Path of Exile themed artwork, and have already seen several excellent submissions. As usual, we'll be showcasing the highlights of every week of the competition until its end. We're starting today by showing off some of the submissions we've received over the first competition week.



We're only at the beginning of the competition, so you have three more weeks left to submit your artwork. Good luck!

Since the launch of the Blight expansion we've introduced three new microtransaction themes to the store: Miracle, Havenwood and Void Emperor. Each of these themes were created by different artists, and today we'd like to share their work on these cosmetic effects by showcasing several pieces of concept art.