Path of Exile News

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.

It's been four weeks since the Blight League launched and today we want to take a look at how / which Blight Oils are being used. What are the most popular Notables and Ring Enchantments? Let's take a look at statistics from the past week.

Top 20 Notable Anointments

• Alacrity
  
• Ravenous Horde
  
• Diamond Skin
  
• Beef
  
• Thief's Craft
  
• Freedom of Movement
  
• Expertise
  
• Utmost Might
  
• Aligned Spirits
  
• Death Attunement
  
• Grave Intentions
  
• Wisdom of the Glade
  
• Agility
  
• Weathered Hunter
  
• Path of the Savant
  
• Gravepact
  
• Spirit Void
  
• Depth Perception
  
• Divine Judgement
  
• Prodigal Perfection

First, let's look at what the most popular Notables are, based on what has been anointed. Among the top 20, we can see that +30 Stat Notables are chosen quite often. Since we're not accounting for the rarity of Oils, this is fairly expected. It's quite common to stick on a cheap Notable while leveling characters.

Ravenous Horde takes the number two slot. This Notable is a powerhouse for Minion builds, giving Minion Movement Speed and giving your Minions the ability to gain Onslaught on Kill, something not acquirable ordinarily.

Unsurprisingly, Diamond Skin makes a showing at the number 3 spot. This gives a good chunk of resists while leveling and only requires common oils, so this makes sense.

Continuing down the list, we can see some Movement Speed options being taken (Freedom of Movement), more Minion-related Notables (Aligned Spirits, Death Attunement, Grave Intentions) and some other Resistance options (Weathered Hunter).

This mostly falls in line with what one would expect in a league dominated by Necromancers: quite a few Minion Notables, things that smooth out stat requirements while leveling, and for those that aren't having stat problems, things to increase either their movement speed or resistances.

Top 20 Notable Anointments Normalised by Oil Rarity

• Ravenous Horde
  
• Death Attunement
  
• Whispers of Doom
  
• Gravepact
  
• Corruption
  
• Vengeant Cascade
  
• Tribal Fury
  
• Fatal Blade
  
• Heart of Ice
  
• Utmost Might
  
• Constitution
  
• Ambidexterity
  
• Tranquility
  
• Arcane Potency
  
• Discipline and Training
  
• Divine Judgement
  
• Disciple of the Unyielding
  
• Piercing Shots
  
• Grave Intentions
  
• Righteous Army

Next up, let's factor in the rarity of oils. The following notables are still based on the number of times they've been anointed, but are also then multiplied by a factor of their rarity. The most rare oils have a higher rarity factor. One would expect that, assuming all notables had perfect balance and demand, they would be anointed at the same rate as one another. Obviously, that isn't the case, but it serves to give a guideline on how to interpret this information.

Topping out the charts is Ravenous Horde. You'll note this notable is almost topping the chart when we don't account for "cost" as well. It means that this notable is very powerful, players generally are willing to pay the cost, and it could suggest that we've undercosted the notable (in terms of what oils are required to anoint it).

Following that up, Death Attunement makes a leap up to the top. This notable was near the #10 spot based on Count, but when you factor in the cost, you're looking at some expensive Oils to anoint this notable. Even still, players are willing to pay the price!

Taking a sidestep from Minion notables, we see Whispers of Doom in the number 3 spot. Interestingly, this is one of the most expensive notables to anoint, requiring two Golden Oils and a Black Oil. Even with the high cost, many players were interested, which makes sense given how powerful an additional curse is.

As we go down this list further, we see more Minion notables, some Chaos Damage notables (perhaps taken by Poison builds) and Life notables (Constitution as well as Discipline and Training).

We can also see a few of the notables that aren't naturally able to be allocated on the passive tree in Vengeant Cascade and Tribal Fury.

Finally, let's take a look at the breakdown of Oils consumed to anoint Notables.



As expected, since this data set isn't normalised, Clear Oils are seeing the most use. Most oil use follows the natural rarity scale. Where we start to see a divergence from this is when we get to Crimson, Opalescent and Black Oils. Given that by count they aren't following their rarity scale, this suggests that players are largely anointing notables that require either larger amounts of these oils, that many of the notables anointed require these oils, or some combination of both.

Let's now take a look at Ring Enchantments. Which Towers do people generally care most about? Do people prefer Damage, Range, Utility, or something else?

Top 10 Ring Enchantments

• Chilling Tower Damage
  
• Meteor Tower Damage
  
• Fireball Tower Damage
  
• Scout Tower Damage
  
• Summoning Tower Damage
  
• Freezebolt Tower Damage
  
• Flamethrower Tower Damage
  
• Glacial Cage Tower Duration
  
• Scout Tower Range
  
• Meteor Tower Additional Meteor

Again, we'll start by looking at the sheer quantity of enchantments. This does not account for Oil rarity at all, so we should expect to see the cheaper enchantments at the top here.

In general, we see Damage enchantments for the basic towers, though there are some exceptions here. Scout Tower Range takes the #9 position. This is likely related to recent buffs to the Scout Tower. Interesting to see!

In the #10 position, we can see Meteor Tower Additional Meteor. This is one of the more expensive enchantments, so it's nice to see it make a showing in the top 10 list. This speaks to its enormous popularity, as it is especially useful for taking down tough bosses!

Next, we'll again look at ring enchantments, but normalised by oil rarity. As above, we've factored in how rare each oil is to this list, meaning that enchantments that require rarer oils will have that rarity reflected here.

Top 10 Ring Enchantments Normalised by Oil Rarity

• Meteor Tower Additional Meteor
  
• Meteor Tower Stun
  
• Scout Tower Range
  
• Meteor Tower Damage
  
• Scout Tower Damage
  
• Summoning Tower Damage
  
• Freezebolt Tower Additional Projectile
  
• Chilling Tower Special
  
• Chilling Tower Range
  
• Flamethrower Tower Full Damage

Topping out the charts, we see Meteor Tower Additional Meteor. This was the 10th most common enchantment by count, but when you factor in the rarity of oils required for this, it's the most common enchantment by a factor of 3 when compared to the second closest enchantment (Meteor Tower Stun). This demonstrates how much players value a small area of effect but high damage tower, relying on their other towers and their own damage to deal with regular packs of monsters.

Looking at the full list, we see 4 Fire-based enchantments, 3 Minion-based enchantments and 3 Cold-based enchantments. It seems we have some clear crowd favourites, with Lightning, Physical and Buff Towers being notably absent.



Again, we'll look at how many oils have been used on Ring enchantments in the past week. Clear Oils are once again leading the "most-consumed" category relative to anything else. We can actually see that more Clear Oils (by percentage) are being used on Ring Enchantments than Notables. Speculating on why this may be, perhaps ring enchantments aren't seen as being as absolutely necessary for success, and therefore players opt to use whatever is cheapest?

We see that Sepia Oil, though it is the second most common oil, is actually the 4th most used. This suggests that players are looking for a comfortable middle-ground between the value of the oils used for their ring enchantments and the power those enchantments provide. Most players, understandably, want to use their oils for Amulet anointments.

The four most common oils are being used on more than 80% of all Ring enchantments.. This is a large increase from the 57% that the top four make up when looking at Notable anointments.

Notably, Golden Oil makes up only 0.13% of all Oils used on Ring enchantments, but makes up 1.67% of all Oils used for Notable enchantments.

That's it for today! Next week we'll talk more about Oil statistics, including the overall breakdown of Oil use on Blighted Maps.

In Path of Exile: Blight we introduced a new NPC, Sister Cassia, whose hummings and divine power have quickly found their admirers among our community. Our narrative designer Nick has written an article about the process behind creating Cassia, which we'd like to share with you today. We hope you enjoy reading it!
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Whenever we introduce a new NPC alongside a league, I am filled with a confusing blend of excitement and dread. Sister Cassia, the NPC introduced alongside Blight, was no exception.

NPCs like Cassia have to do a lot of heavy lifting. They are often your first point of contact with the league, and are thus responsible for helping teach the league's mechanics and intricacies. But on top of that, they also have to provide a lot of context for the mechanic. It's one thing to add tower defence into Path of Exile. It's another to make it fit within the world, and to give the player a purpose to interact with it beyond the juicy rewards.

A personal goal of mine, however, is to ensure that even if you don't enjoy the specific mechanics of a league, you'll still enjoy the presence of the NPC. That means each new NPC needs to feel distinct from those already present -- not just the masters in your hideout, but the dozens of other characters you interact with throughout the campaign.

Cassia was an interesting character to work on. Quite early on we decided she'd be a nun, as Elreon's betrayal meant we didn't have much of a Templar presence anymore, and given the society all the Exiles hail from, having a technical background meant likely having a close relationship with the Templar (the group, not the player class). Internally, she was referred to as "Technonun" for a while as her final name was nailed down. Fun Fact: Cassia is another name for Cinnamon, a plant with natural fungicidal properties!

Knowing she was a Templar with technical prowess, it wasn't a huge leap in logic to assume she probably knew Dominus and Piety. It's hard to make someone with those close associations 'good', which is fine, because few people in Wraeclast are truly good. I loved the idea of her being morally ambiguous, but broadly doing something healthy for Wraeclast (killing the blight). Her previously high-status among the Templar allowed her to be believably snobby and condescending, as a counterpoint to the broadly-helpful pool of Masters we currently have.

Often I'll sketch out a character's backstory (Templar engineer, exiled for misappropriating Templar resources, still somewhat brainwashed) and as I'm working on the script, the more important personality traits will emerge. Her habit of over-explaining, her hymn-singing and her strong disdain for Piety all developed across the first draft or two of her script.

Once we were happy with the script, we cast the wonderfully talented Jodie Rimmer to play her. I'd written out three goofy lines to be sung as hymns, and wanted her to also hum the league's theme. During recording, I suggested one tune be sung as if it were for a marching army (hence the upbeat tune about burning the unrighteous). I love that, on its surface, those songs are amusing and tell you a lot about Cassia, and on further reflection, tell you even more about the Templar themselves, and the story of Sin and Innocence.

Originally I'd planned for her to sing a lyric once and then go quiet -- essentially Cassia's equivalent of "Still sane, Exile?" -- but once it was implemented, it felt too weird for her singing to suddenly stop. We put the longer-form lines in and trimmed the "oh!" off of her greetings on a whim, and it just totally worked.

I was very pleased with how well she was received, though like many of you, I wish we'd recorded more lines for her. There's always a balance to be struck between good signalling, where you know she's telling you there's a new minion lane or that monsters are too close, and enough variety that you don't get sick of hearing those signals. In this case, I think we probably erred too much on the signalling side and not enough on the variety. Hopefully we'll get a chance in the future to expand her character a little more! I'd love for her to tell us what she thinks of all the masters.