Path of Exile News

The Blight expansion will come alongside major changes to the Mine system, as well as three new Mines, a new reservation skill for trappers and miners, three new supports and reworks to existing mine supports and unique items.

Mine Mechanic Changes

• Mines are now thrown, letting you deploy them at long range.
  
• Mines take less of your time to place now, taking 0.25 seconds for each throw.
  
• Mine Detonation is now always Instant.
  
• Mines detonate in sequence. Each mine detonation starts a detonation timer on one or more mines in an area around it, with the detonation time getting faster each time. This also means that you can continue to throw mines while a detonation sequence is occurring, and they'll be detonated by the sequence. This works particularly well for mines which have additional effects for each detonation in sequence.
  
• Mine skills each have unique, stacking auras that affect enemies. The more mines you deploy, the more auras affecting enemies around them. These mines are considered aura skills, allowing many Aura stats from passives and items to apply to them.
  
• Mines reserve mana while they're active, but have much lower mana costs.
  
• Mines can be detonated much earlier when deployed, including detonating in the air.
  
• The base mine limit is now 15, up from 5. You can get up to 23 mines at once by combining passives and the Minefield Support.
  
• The base mine duration is now 5 seconds, except for Smoke Mine which has an 8 second duration.
  

Stormblast Mine
Stormblast Mine is a new skill available at level 1. When placed, it has a stacking aura that increases the damage nearby enemies take by 3%. This means that it provides 45% increased damage taken when you've got a full set of mines placed, even more if you have additional mines from passives and items.

When you detonate Stormblast Mines, they release a lightning nova around them, with a high chance to shock and increased shock effect.

Icicle Mine
Icicle Mine is a new skill available at level 12. When placed, it has a stacking aura that increases critical chance for hits against enemies around it by 10%. When you detonate Icicle Mine, it releases a nova of projectiles, firing five projectiles from the first mine, then an additional projectile for each two mines in the detonation sequence.

Icicle Mine replaces existing copies of Freeze Mine.

Pyroclast Mine
Pyroclast Mine is the level 28 Mine skill. When placed, it has a stacking aura that adds fire damage to hits against enemies near it, which grows as the gem levels. When detonated, the mine releases a fire nova and a salvo of mortar projectiles that fly up before raining down on enemies around the mine. As with Icicle Mine, for each two detonations in the sequence, an additional mortar is fired.

Pyroclast Mine replaces existing copies of Fire Nova Mine.

Summon Skitterbots
Summon Skitterbots is a reservation skill that summons two fast moving, invulnerable minions. One has a shock aura while the other has a chilling aura. While they're active, they'll grant you more Trap and Mine damage. They'll each also look for and activate traps and mines near enemies. On Mines, they'll activate and then re-arm the mine, which won't set off a detonation sequence. On Traps, they'll trigger a number of traps at once.

Blastchain Mine Support & High-Impact Mine Support
Existing Remote Mine Supports have been changed into the Blastchain Mine Support, a level 8 gem that turns supported spells, bow attacks or wand attacks into mines. It now grants less damage as a result of the much shorter mine throw time, and 5% more damage for each mine detonated in sequence.

We've also added a new support at level 31, the High-Impact Mine Support that also turns supported spells, bow attacks or wand attacks into mines. The supported skills deal less damage, but have an aura that gives hits against nearby enemies a chance to deal Double Damage.

These two supports let you choose to specialize in creating long cascades or creating powerful auras when turning a skill into a mine.

Swift Assembly Support
Swift Assembly Support is a new level 4 Support Gem for traps and mines. It grants a chance on throwing a trap or mine to throw an additional trap or mine, a smaller chance to throw two additional, and a very small chance to throw 3 additional. This is particularly useful for Mines, letting you get higher stacks of auras and longer detonation sequences without greatly extending your throw time.

Charged Mines Support
Similar to the Charged Traps Support, the new Charged Mines Support allows you to generate Power and Frenzy charges when detonating supported mines near enemies, with additional mine throwing speed per frenzy charge and critical chance per power charge.

Changes to Existing Gems and Items

• Minefield Support now places 4 mines rapidly, but with a slower total throw time. It allows 4 additional mines to be placed. It is now a level 38 gem.
  
• Smoke Mine doesn't start a sequence when detonated, grants more movement speed than before, and modifiers to mine duration will apply to the speed buff's duration.
  
• We've made changes to the Curtain Call and Tremor Rod unique items.
  
• The +1 Mine Placed shaper helmet mod will no longer appear on items, but existing modifiers will still remain. This is because placing additional mines is now more powerful as a result of various mine changes and Minefield changes.
  

We're going to be showing all of the mine passive changes, the Saboteur Ascendancy and more new Poison skills in the coming days. In the meantime, check out the video of the new Mine gems below:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

In Path of Exile: Blight we're introducing 18 new Divination Cards, created by our supporters. You may have already seen some of those in our teasers and on the announcement page. Today we're revealing 10 more.

Alongside the Blight expansion, we're making some improvements to the Assassin Ascendancy and introducing a new set of Poison attacks. This also includes two new gems utilising a new buff type called 'Elusive'.

Cobra Lash
Cobra Lash is a new low-level attack skill for Daggers and Claws. You fling out a copy of your weapon, creating a projectile that chains multiple times. The skill chains between more enemies at higher levels. The skill grants additional added chaos damage and some chaos conversion, with a chance to poison.

Any critical strikes will have +50% to Poison Damage Multiplier, making the skill quite powerful later in the game if you specialise in critical hits. This is one of many sources of Damage over Time Multiplier for Poison. We've also added Poison Damage over Time Multiplier to many passives, and changed many sources of Chaos Damage over Time Multiplier so they aren't restricted to non-ailments.

Pestilent Strike
This high level Dagger and Claw skill applies poison on hit, as well as a debuff that lasts a short duration. If the target dies while this debuff is active, they explode, releasing a nova that applies a damage over time effect to all enemies in range. The damage of this debuff is based on the total poison damage remaining on the enemy, and this damage is dealt over a short duration.

The Poisons you spread don't have to be from Pestilent Strike, so you can use it alongside Viper Strike or other poisonous skills. This lets you turn a long duration stack of poisons on a single enemy into a fast acting wave of death over a large area. The damage over time effect applied by the nova isn't modified by any of your damage bonuses, as it was already based on a modified poison, but any of your modifiers to skill effect duration will change how long it lasts without influencing its damage per second.

Elusive
The new Elusive buff grants 40% increased movement speed as well as 20% attack and spell dodge. Unlike other buffs, Elusive doesn't have a duration, but instead loses buff over time, until it is removed on reaching 0% effect. This means that increasing your buff effect also increases how long the effect on you lasts. Most sources of Elusive won't overwrite an existing Elusive buff on you.

A new notable on the Assassin Ascendancy will have a chance to grant Elusive, and the buff can also be gained from the following two gems:

Withering Step
Withering Step is an instant spell that removes any existing Elusive effects on you, and grants a new full strength Elusive buff. Withering Step applies multiple stacks of Withered to any enemy when they first enter an area around you, but only once per skill use. Withered increases damage taken from Chaos, which includes Poison effects. While the Elusive from Withering Step is active, you'll be granted Phasing and the cooldown will be paused. Any skills you perform will remove Elusive, which will start the cooldown. At higher levels, the skill has increased Elusive effect.

You can use the skill as an instant way to apply Wither to enemies around you, as a way to quickly avoid attacks with a sudden burst of speed and dodge chance or as a sustained speed increase that also lets you apply Wither to large paths of enemies as you move.

Nightblade Support
The Nightblade Support is exclusive to Daggers and Claws, just as Close Combat and Shockwave Supports are exclusive to other melee weapon types. Nightblade grants base critical strike chance, and supported skills will also grant Elusive on Critical Hit. Elusive granted by attacks supported by Nightblade also grants Critical Multiplier to Nightblade supported skills, and because the multiplier is part of Elusive, it scales with Elusive Effect, granting over +100% to Critical Strike Multiplier at level 20 when first applied.

This means the supported skill will give you sudden bursts of speed and critical multiplier when you first critically hit, and any Elusive effect gained from other sources like the Assassin ascendancy will further enhance the power of the buff.

Check out all the new gems in action in the video below:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We still have the reworked Mine system and skills to talk about later this week, and more Poison skills next week, so stay tuned!

As with every Path of Exile update, Blight will bring with it a number of quality-of-life improvements. Today we're talking about one of the biggest ones -- changes to how your Master missions are handled in the Atlas.

If you've ever felt like you were missing out by taking a day off from mapping, this change is for you. Currently, Master missions are handed out daily on your Atlas, appearing as a symbol over certain maps. Opening a map with a symbol over it guarantees you'll encounter the associated Master. By running maps, you also have a chance to generate more Master missions in this style, in addition to each map having a small chance to randomly generate with a Master inside of it. Unfortunately, if you aren't actively pursuing those Master missions on your Atlas, or if you didn't log in for a day or more, you were missing out on Master mission opportunities.

In the Blight update, we're solving this issue by allowing your Master missions to accumulate. On the right-hand side of your Atlas, each Master has a little counter that tracks how many of their missions you've accumulated, and on which Map tiers they can be used (e.g. white/yellow/red). Each day you'll automatically earn a number of Master missions, but if you don't use them, they don't go anywhere -- they're still there on your tracker. Likewise, any missions earned while you're mapping are tracked and accumulated on your Atlas.

If you decide you want to run a bunch of maps with Einhar in them, all you need to do is talk to him in your Hideout and select 'Mission'. This brings up the map device UI, and you can simply add and run whichever map you want, including the opportunity to select a Zana mod to use. Some stupid beasts will be waiting for you to within the map!

Because we want to make sure players have the opportunity to play what they want when they want, we're moving about half of the random chance for a Master to appear in a map into this Mission accumulation system. In other words, you'll see fewer masters by chance, but will have more opportunities to run missions earned through mapping, and you'll be able to choose when and how you use those missions.

For Master fanatics who were actively pursuing missions at every possible opportunity, you may see a very small reduction to the overall number of Master missions you encounter. For everyone else, it's very likely you'll see more.

These Master missions are account-wide for any characters in the same League. You'll accumulate missions on Standard if you have any valid characters there, as well as in whichever Blight league you decide to play when it launches on September 6 PDT on PC.

To celebrate the announcement of our upcoming expansion, we've just released two pairs of Blight Supporter Packs! By purchasing these you will receive cosmetic effects, such as an Armour Set, Weapon Effect, Aura Effect, a Pet and more! Press M in game to check them out!

There are two pairs of packs available with many exclusive microtransactions. Each of the two pairs has different contents, so you can choose whichever one (or both) you prefer. You can upgrade from the cheaper one in a pair to the more expensive later.


The Sentinel Supporter Pack contains a Weapon Effect, a Pet, a Portrait Frame, a Supporter Forum Title and 250 points. The Sentinel Overlord Supporter Pack contains everything from the Sentinel pack as well as an Armour Set, 550 points, a Portrait Frame and a Forum Title. Check out the preview of the Sentinel Overlord Supporter Pack below!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The Lich Supporter Pack contains a Weapon Effect, an Aura Effect, a Portrait Frame, a Supporter Forum Title and 250 points. The Bane Lich has the same contents as the Lich pack, plus an Armour Set, an alternative Helmet Skin, a Portrait Frame, a Forum Title and 550 points. Check it out below:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
You can upgrade from one of these Supporter Packs to another in the same series by clicking "Upgrade" on the desired pack. The process will include any pure points packs purchased since the release of Blight. The maximum amount that upgrades can contribute is 80% of the value of a pack.

Note that the Core and Blight packs are in different series, so you can't upgrade from one of those to the other type. If you have any questions about this process, please contact [email protected]!

We hope you really enjoy these Supporter Packs! Thank you so much for your generous support!