Path of Exile News

In our upcoming 3.20 expansion, Archnemesis will be replaced with a system that is more similar to the way monster mods worked in the past.

The issues that players often had with Archnemesis were:

• The keyworded mod names were not fully descriptive of what they did
  
• The mods often had multiple effects bundled which made them harder to understand
  
• Due to how many effects were included in a single mod, it made too many encounters too complex
  
• The way Archnemesis rewards were set up meant that many players felt like they couldn't just kill a monster, they had to consider if they wanted to bring a magic find character in to maximise rewards
  

The goals of the new system are:

• Mods do one specific thing
  
• Mods say what they do rather than having a thematic name you must learn and remember
  
• Encounters are simplified on average while retaining interesting fights
  
• Players are no longer required to do annoying actions to maximise rewards
  

Let's examine those goals individually:

[h3]Mods do one specific thing[/h3]
Here's an example: The Magma Barrier Archnemesis mod did a whole lot of stuff. It started by putting a magma barrier around the monster, but it didn't stop there. It converted some of the monster's physical damage to fire damage, it added some extra fire damage on top, it granted fire resistance to the monster and it gave some physical damage reduction for good measure. It also spawned volatile flamebloods to follow you. The new equivalent modifier just puts a magma barrier around the monster and does nothing else.

[h3]Mods say what they do rather than having a thematic name you must learn and remember[/h3]
For example, rather than "Incendiary", which broke down into six properties, you'd now see monsters with either "Ignites" or "Fire and Ignite Resistant". Instead of "Deadeye", which did five separate things, you'd now see "Applies Random Mark", "Extra Crits" or "Accurate" as separate unrelated mods.

[h3]Encounters are simplified on average while retaining interesting fights[/h3]
The pool of mods that involve complex interaction (like spawning volatiles or ground effects on death) have been heavily diluted by the presence of the simpler mods. This means that you encounter more complex fights less frequently. But interesting and challenging emergent behaviour from overlapping mods can still happen, just less often.

[h3]Players are no longer required to do annoying actions to maximise rewards[/h3]
In Archnemesis, rewards were associated with individual mods. This meant that you could tell what kind of rewards you would get in advance. In some cases, you were then effectively required to fetch a magic-find culling character to make sure that you maximised the value of the monster mod that you had found. In other cases, you would ignore a monster completely if you knew that it would only drop rewards that were of no value to you. In the new system, we have added a significant pool of new rewards to rares, but the reward that is on the monster is hidden (and not associated with a specific mod), so you don't know what kind of rewards you will get until you kill the monster. Rare monsters with more mods are more likely to have these special hidden reward mods. This new reward system smooths out the spikiness that the Archnemesis reward system had.

[h3]Conclusion[/h3]
The original motivation for developing Archnemesis was that the previous monster mod system was very out of date. Many of the mods didn't have any appreciable effect under modern balance and there wasn't a lot of interesting gameplay possible. In our opinion, Archnemesis did succeed at adding a lot of interesting new mechanics to rares, but introduced the problems described above. While creating the new monster mods described in this article, we were careful to retain most of the interesting mechanics that Archnemesis introduced, but in a way that doesn't include a grab-bag of other effects and is diluted by many other simpler mods.

The result is a system that is very similar to what monster mods used to be like, but with much more up-to-date content and balance. Mods are simpler and say exactly what they do. While you can certainly still rarely encounter scary combinations of mods that really wake you up, it's a lot rarer than it was under the Archnemesis system. We feel that the new system is more modern and interesting than the old monster mod/nemesis system and is clearer and easier to understand in the heat of combat than Archnemesis was.

Yesterday, we shared our plans regarding upcoming changes to Jewels which prompted some questions. In today's post, we've collected some of these questions and their answers.

[h3]Can you give us some examples of the numbers on the ailment mitigation modifiers on Jewels?[/h3]
Regular Jewels can roll up to 35% Reduced Duration or Reduced Effect. Abyss Jewels can roll up to 50% Ailment Avoidance.

[h3]Will the new Jewel modifiers or existing Jewel modifiers have modifier tiers?[/h3]
No, regular Jewel modifiers do not have tiers. Abyss Jewel modifiers already had tiers, we've just buffed the modifier values on them that benefit ailment mitigation.

[h3]Are you removing any corrupted implicit modifiers on Jewels?[/h3]
No

[h3]Is the corrupted mod pool getting a weighting change?[/h3]
No

[h3]Which unique jewels are being removed?[/h3]
We aren't ready to share the full list of unique Jewels being removed as we are still discussing some of them. A few examples of unique Jewels that are definitely being removed are Malicious Intent, Brittle Barrier and Unstable Payload. Two examples of jewels that aren't being removed are Lioneye's Fall and Inspired Learning. We'll share the full list of removed Jewels in the patch notes.

[h3]Isn't diluting the mod pool a nerf?[/h3]
If you're looking for a very specific outcome on your Jewel and have no use for ailment mitigation modifiers, it may be marginally more difficult to roll your Jewels. However, the average outcome for Jewels should be better.

[h3]Which of the removed unique Jewels from quest rewards are going into the global drop pool?[/h3]
Some specific stats from some of these Jewels are being added to the regular Jewel mod pool, such as mana reservation efficiency.

[h3]Are the Divination Cards that grant unique Jewels changing? [/h3]
The drop rates for Divination Cards that grant unique Jewels that are now rarer will be adjusted to align with the unique Jewel's rarity.

[h3]Are unique Jewels that are already rare, like Unnatural Instinct, going to be even rarer?[/h3]
We haven't changed the rarity of Jewels like this.

[h3]Will Jewels that are being removed still have Replica versions from Heist?[/h3]
No, if the base Jewel has been removed, its Replica version will also be removed.

[h3]What's happening to these Jewels?[/h3]

• Conqueror's Efficiency: its mana reservation stat has been moved to the regular Jewel mod pool.
  
• Survival Secrets: its stats may show up in a different form like a unique item but we can't confirm this yet.
  
• Poacher's Aim: this has been removed entirely.
  
• Golem Jewels: These are more deterministically available and aren't relying on random drops anymore. The intention is that they should be relatively accessible.
  
• To Dust: this will be available as a corruption-only Jewel.
  

[h3]Are Primordial Jewels changing?[/h3]
We have no plans to change Primordial Jewels.

[h3]Are other forms of ailment mitigation being nerfed to offset the buff to Jewels?[/h3]
No

It's worth noting that things may change before launch after further testing and feedback.

In our upcoming 3.20 expansion, we're making a number of balance changes that we'll present over several balance manifestos that each cover an individual topic. In today's manifesto, we're discussing changes to Jewels, most notably increasing their potential for ailment mitigation.

Problem:
Jewels have modifiers that provide various forms of ailment avoidance or protection. However, because their current values are moderately low, you often need to stack several Jewels in order to have adequate levels of protection. We feel that this is an excessive amount of investment for how necessary ailment mitigation is to a character's build. This issue has been exacerbated by some of these mods being gated behind corruption, making them more expensive and difficult to acquire.

Solution:
We're expanding the pool of mods available on magic and rare Jewels and are making their modifier values more generous so that players have better access to sources of ailment mitigation, with less investment.

Regular Jewels (i.e. Jewels that are not Abyss or Cluster Jewels) now have mods that provide Reduced Duration or Reduced Effect for a wider variety of ailments than before. Abyss Jewels now have mods that provide avoidance of various ailments.

Summary:
This means that Jewels should be a more reliable and less expensive source of ailment mitigation through their higher mod values and better variety of mods.

Problem:
Many unique Jewels are not exciting to find. There are a few reasons for this. In most cases they are simply underpowered, or apply to a too-narrow window of usage, or both. There are also many corruption-only Jewels that don't fulfill a good purpose.

Previously, we were hesitant to revisit unique Jewels and improve them beyond their initial designs because many of their themes are somewhat rigid in nature, meaning there is little room to improve them without completely remaking them.

An example of this is the Fireborn Crimson Jewel. It has no values that we could increase to make it more useful; it simply changes the damage type within a radius which has very limited opportunities for use. Any improvements we could make to this Jewel would have to fundamentally change its identity and would therefore essentially remove the Jewel in its current form from Path of Exile.

Solution:
We're making it so that every unique jewel that drops is very rare and highly desirable. This means that many existing unique Jewels have been removed from the drop pool. The intention is that now when you find a unique Jewel, it should almost always be a very positive experience.

To help make jewel drops special, we've designed a new set of unique Jewels that are powerful chase items. These can drop from the core pool. You can learn more about these Jewels in our upcoming announcement livestream for the 3.20 expansion.

With that said, there were some unique Jewels that were still useful for a subset of players because they had build-enabling modifiers or other very niche uses (like the Brute Force Solution or other attribute-transformation Jewels). Instead of getting rid of these, we've made them corruption-only unique Jewels. We feel this has benefits for both players who want them and players who don't, as generally players who don't want them won't come across them as core drops and players who do want them can still actively pursue them.

Some build-enabling unique Jewels can now be found from more deterministic sources throughout Path of Exile. One example is Combat Focus which can now be obtained through a vendor recipe.

Some other build-enabling Jewels that affect Golems can no longer drop but can be found from another more deterministic source. While we want you to discover this new source on your own during gameplay, we will say for clarity that these Jewels do not come from vendor recipes.

Summary:
Our goal is that finding a unique Jewel is an exciting experience. The unique Jewels that drop naturally should be those that are very valuable with broad appeal to the average player, either to use in your own build or trade to someone else. We've worked towards this goal by removing uninteresting unique Jewels, adding more chase unique Jewels, and moving Jewels that do appeal to a smaller subset of players to other places so that they can be pursued by choice.

Problem:
Many of the unique Jewels that are currently granted through quest rewards are not very desirable. Additionally, because they're offered to all players who make their way through the campaign, they're extremely common, which inhibits them from having value or being meaningful items to find. We have also come to feel that it's thematically incorrect to offer unique items as quest rewards, as it undermines their feeling of uniqueness and prestige.

Solution:
Unique Jewels will no longer be offered as quest rewards. Most of the Jewels that were previously offered have been removed entirely, though some important ones have had their effects preserved in the form of new unique items or by being added to the pool of rollable Jewel modifiers.

These quest rewards now offer a random Rare Jewel. Because the rewards are not static like the unique Jewels were, they may have a better chance of being useful to the receiver or something that may be valuable to trade to others. At the very least, they should be less predictable.

Summary:
Players should no longer be burdened with predictable unique Jewel quest rewards but will not entirely miss out on some of the valuable aspects they did have.

Conclusion:
Jewels should be more exciting than before and provide a better source of ailment mitigation than they were in 3.19. Jewels with effects that are useful only to a subset of players should still be attainable while moving them out of the way of players who aren't interested in them. You can find out more information in the patch notes for the 3.20 expansion and in our announcement livestream.

As we mentioned, we have several other balance manifestos coming out. These will cover topics such as Curses, Archnemesis and Eldritch Altars, among other things.

Get your flares and dynamite ready, it's almost time to go down into the darkness in our upcoming Endless Delve event! In Endless Delve, you will begin the event in the Mine Encampment and cannot leave the Mine. All you can do is Delve. All sulphite costs have been removed, and the Mine scales from level 1 instead of its usual scaling.

Endless Delve starts on all platforms at 12pm November 14th (PST). It will end at 12pm November 21st (PST).

In this iteration of the Endless Delve event, winners will be based on players that reach depth 600 first, rather than the deepest depth at the end of the event. Tons of prizes are up for grabs, including a guaranteed Kalandra Mystery Box for reaching level 50!
Please note: You are limited to two guaranteed Kalandra Mystery Boxes across all events, i.e. if you've already gotten your Mystery Box in Mayhem, you can only get one more Mystery Box between Endless Delve or Delirium Everywhere. Also, if this is your second Kalandra Mystery Box, it will be added to your account after the end of the event. If this is your first Kalandra Mystery Box it will be added to your account automatically.

[h3]Endless Delve FAQ[/h3]
In the Endless Delve event, you'll play exclusively in the Azurite Mine and won't need sulphite for progress. You'll begin the plunge with access to some starter gear to help you take on perilous darkness. To check out the starting uniques, you'll need to go to our forum post here.

To help you prepare for the event and to give you a further idea of what to expect from the Endless Delve, we've answered the most common questions from our community.

Do we start from level 1?
Yes.

What exactly do we start with?
40 wisdom scrolls, the skill and support gem your class normally gets on the Twilight Strand, two small life flasks and a small mana flask, and five starter unique items (all with 3 linked white sockets except for the quiver).

Which classes will get which starting unique items? Marauder: Rust of Winter, Ashes of the Sun, Blood of Summer, Thunder of the Dawn, Remnant of Empires.

Templar: Splinter of the Moon, Remnant of Empires, Ashes of the Sun, Vestige of Divinity, Rust of Winter.

Witch: Splinter of the Moon, Fragment of Eternity, Vestige of Divinity, Scar of Fate, Remnant of Empires.

Shadow: Scar of Fate, Remnant of Empires, Splinter of the Moon, Fragment of Eternity, Blood of Summer.

Ranger: Relic of the Cycle, Slivers of Providence, Fragment of Eternity, Blood of Summer, Scar of Fate.

Duelist: Blood of Summer, Thunder of the Dawn, Relic of the Cycle, Slivers of Providence, Remnant of Empires.

Scion: Splinter of the Moon, Blood of Summer, Remnant of Empires, Scar of Fate, Ashes of the Sun, Relic of the Cycle and Slivers of Providence.

Can you make a new character to get multiple copies of the same item?
Yes.

Could you specify exact thresholds for skill points and Ascendancies? Passives: 3 each at levels 1, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70. Total of 24, same as normally gained from quest rewards assuming you kill all bandits.

Ascendancies: levels 33, 55, 68, 75.

How do I choose my Ascendancy?
The Altar of Ascendancy is available in the Mine Encampment.

How does depth scaling work compared to normal Delving?
The levels of monsters at lower depths have been decreased to make Delving from level 1 possible. Monster level is simply equal to depth up to depth 77, where it syncs back up with normal Delve scaling. Level, biome mod and damage/life scaling with depth are the same as normal Delve from depth 77 onwards. Other depth-scaling mechanics like darkness resistance, light radius, Azurite, and rewards will be the same as normal Delving at any depth.

How will respec points work?
2 points at level 10, then 3 at levels 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70. Total of 20 free ones, same as gained from quests normally

Which vendors are available? Will there be currency vendors?
You’ll have access to Niko’s normal shop, and Lilly Roth’s gem shop with some modifications. Lilly’s gems all cost 1 wisdom scroll each, and she also has an extra tab containing all the normal currency trades offered by vendors (except for portal scrolls).

Are gems restricted to class or will they be accessible to all classes?
Lilly Roth sells all purchasable gems from level 1, no matter which class you pick. She has the same gem selection as her normal shop.

How does Niko's inventory reset?
Every time you complete a new Delve encounter (i.e. move the Crawler to an unexplored node on the map).

Will there be a crafting bench in the Mine Encampment?
No.

Will Divination Cards be available?
Yes. You can turn them in to Lily Roth.

Will drops be disabled on maps, chisels, etc. because they will have no use?
No. Doing this would require an enormous amount of work which would have inhibited us from being able to run the event at all.

Will the on-death experience penalty be present? If so, when?
Yes. Levels 40 and 70 grant Kitava’s curses, with the usual experience loss, resistance penalty, and Vaal skill soul cost increase.

Is the Delve progression per character or per account?
Normally it’s shared between characters in the same league, but in this event it’s per character. This stops people getting very deep on one character, then quickly making other characters and completing a single encounter to collect multiple copies of Demigod’s Authority. Delve upgrades purchased with azurite are also not shared between characters. Your stash is shared as normal.

Can you choose your bandit reward?
The free skill points you’re granted for levelling up include 2 points to match killing all the bandits. You’re unable to help a bandit, or change the skill points to another reward via the vendor recipe.

Why is Endless Delve Solo Self-Found?
To party with other players, you would need access to towns or your Hideout which are not available due to the nature of the event.

How do I join the event?
At the character selection screen, there's a panel below your characters which will list the events available. You can join the event by clicking 'join'. This option becomes available 30 minutes before the event is set to begin. Your character won't be able to move until the event starts.


For more information about Endless Delve or our other Events for November, check out this thread. To join the event, log into the game and in the bottom right of the character select screen, click "Join" next to the version of the event you want to participate in.

Want to keep track of who's on top? The ladders for each version of the Endless Delve event can be found below:

• Endless Delve Solo Self-Found
  
• Endless Delve Hardcore Solo Self-Found
  

Best of luck to everyone participating in the event!

Continuing on with our streamer interview series, we took a moment to get to know more about Subtractem! His streams are insightful and entertaining and he also creates great Path of Exile content on his YouTube channel. Check out the interview in today's post!

[h3]Hi Subtractem, thank you for taking part in the interview! Please introduce yourself.[/h3]
Hi, I'm Adam and I primarily stream Path of Exile at http://twitch.tv/subtractem. I worked in the game industry for over two decades and have competed in different genres of games across the spectrum. I had an offer to go pro in Warcraft 3 many years ago but got a real job instead, regrettably.

I do lots of educational focused content and grind ranked in some games once in a while when the competitive bug bites...until I remember why I stopped grinding ranked.

[h3]When did you first get into Path of Exile?[/h3]
I started back in Perandus League, not an OG player by any means but early enough that I remember farming Dried Lake and taking 20+ deaths every time I fought Merciless Malachai.

[h3]What one thing caught your attention in the beginning and what one thing kept you coming back?[/h3]
I think pretty much everyone's first big memory of PoE is opening up the passive tree. I love passive/skill trees in all games and the more complex the happier I am.

What really kept me coming back, however, was the support gem system. Players always having multiple choices to customize to their tastes without an objective "bigger number is always better" allows for unique build expression, even within the same build template. This level of customization is very special to me in RPGs and I feel has been largely lost in the modern era of Power/Item Level.

[h3]Are there any highlights from your time playing Path of Exile that stand out in your memory?[/h3]
There are so many in the past two years of streaming especially but two memories really stick in my head:

Rolling up the hardest maps that we could in Breach league and watching my friend pop Vaal Cyclone with Ngamahu's Flame in the middle of a Breach. It was a coin flip as to whether he would live and the first time I ever saw high mob density at play.

Slamming T1 Elemental Damage with Attacks on my Elemental Hit bow for the final mod for a perfect item. This was my first "big" craft on stream and everything just lined up perfectly. It's my personal "undisputable" craft.

[h3]Do you have a favourite build?[/h3]
Bane Occ...kidding, kidding.

While there were some very special builds that are core memories (Vaal Fireball, Tri-Herald BV, Low Life Slave Driver Spectres), the top spot has to go to Elemental Hit Raider in Ultimatum League.

The fluidity of movement enabled by Dash + Blink Arrow on a Raider is reminiscent of old Smoke Mine + Flame Dash shenanigans and a 75 million DPS EleHit chaining the entire screen is the most satisfying build I've ever played.

[h3]Which expansion has been your favourite so far?[/h3]
Ultimatum for sure. The item crafting nerfs allowed for more item diversity while retaining high power fantasy and the league mechanic itself was amazing. The theme, the snarky Trialmaster, the boss fight itself, and the incredibly challenging risk/reward in the high end Inscribed Ultimatums really checked all the boxes for me.

It's probably the only league mechanic I was doing until the very last day of the league, it is missed dearly.

[h3]What's one thing every Path of Exile player should hear?[/h3]
Path of Exile is a hard game, no one (except Mark_GGG) knows everything and that's ok. Learning is a marathon and not a sprint, enjoy the journey and don't focus on the destination.

The only constant is change, the beauty of PoE is that no two leagues are the same and you will be happier by looking to the future than fixating on the past. Even as I'm reminiscing about some of my old builds my nostalgia brain wants to recapture those glory days but that's just not how this game (and life!) works. Look forward to the new things to come, make today the best day you can, and cherish the memories of the past.

[h3]When did you first start streaming? How did you get into it?[/h3]
I first started streaming seriously roughly April 2020. I had made a Cast on Crit Golemancer build in Ritual League and my friends told me to put it on Youtube to share it with more people. I posted the guide on r/pathofexilebuilds and I was blown away by the support from the community there. I had people asking me to stream and for help with the build and that kicked it all off.

[h3]What can people expect from your stream and schedule?[/h3]
I have a very generalist approach when it comes to Path of Exile content because I like so much of what it has to offer. You might find me doing HCSSF racing, crafting items for profit, opening stacked decks zoomed in during an Uber fight, or even showcasing a hideout design competition.

I am quite a bit older than most in the streaming world so the most important thing that I want to express on stream is that, with the limited time that we have on this planet, games can and should be played for that horrible F word that seems to get lost these days: Fun. It can sound trite but it's really important to remember why we started playing games in the first place.

I generally stream Sunday through Friday afternoons in the EST timezone at twitch.tv/subtractem, though it's pretty flexible. I consider Youtube my primary content channel and streaming as a way to more directly connect with the community.

[h3]What were you doing before you started streaming?[/h3]
I've been in and around the software and game industry for over two decades. Primarily as a programmer but also as a co-founder and designer. I've worked on quite a few games varying from Farmville to Spellbreak.

[h3]What hobbies or interests do you have outside of streaming?[/h3]
Prior to streaming and COVID I was an avid rock climber and traveled frequently, hopefully again soon! I read a lot of Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels and occasionally pick up my guitar.

[h3]How has your life changed from before you were streaming until now? What role has streaming played in that transition?[/h3]
The whole content creation thing happened right alongside COVID so I felt like I was changing along with the whole world. It's a pretty intense discipline that's all-encompassing, on the level of game dev crunch with no end in sight. It's SO rewarding to connect with folks and build a community and help them have a better day but it takes a lot out of you. I could easily write an essay to answer this question.

[h3]Is there anything you'd like to see more of in the streaming community?[/h3]
More collaboration! I'm saying this just as much to myself as to everyone else. Events and content that folks like Zizaran and Badger have done over the past couple years have been so good for highlighting other creators and bringing the community together and we need more of this.

PoE is very often a solitary experience and all of us have the instinct to go full degen goblin mode and grind for that next big drop. It's important for us to poke our heads out of the basement and reach out to each other. I truly believe we have one of the best communities in all of gaming, both as players and content creators and the more we all work together and elevate each other the better.

[h3]Do you have any advice for people who are looking to make their own career out of streaming?[/h3]
Do it as a hobby first but take it seriously. Day9 has a canned response for anyone asking him for help getting into streaming: "Do it every day for at least 4-6 hours for 30 days in a row and then we'll talk." At the time I saw him telling this story only one person had ever succeeded in that task.

Other very functional advice: streaming only just isn't a thing anymore in 2022. The bar has been raised where general content creation across many platforms is the only way to even get noticed in the first place. You cannot "just stream" and grow an audience that way. Look to a mixed platform presence and focus on community first.

[h3]Are there any up and coming streamers that you'd like to shine a spotlight on?[/h3]
There are so many great folks in the PoE space that it'd be impossible not to miss someone. I really can't think of another gaming community this welcoming and helpful across the board, you can click on any streamer and learn something new.

If I had to pick just one full time up and coming streamer though it'd be Palsteron. His builds are second to none in creativity and thoroughness and between him and crouching_tuna they're carrying the music taste scene in PoE on their backs.

Ok I can't just name one: Velyna (snark and laughs), Denipon (cosplay and chill vibes), Pillebrille (german HCSSF player), Kroximatuz (spanish positive vibes), Jungroan (sexy hair), Snoobae85 (MF King)

Absolutely amazing group of folks and there's so many more I'm sure I missed them. I'm so proud to be a part of this community.

[h3]Do you have any projects on the horizon you'd like to talk about?[/h3]
The biggest project that I'm undertaking at the moment is slowly building up a library of educational material on my Youtube.com/subtractem channel under the "Path of Learning" playlist. About once a week we do a session on stream about a specific topic (Energy Shield, Armour, Damage Conversion, etc) and walk through the topic as a presentation cross-referencing the wiki and every Mark_GGG post we can find.

Learning PoE can be a daunting task but achieving deep understanding of a difficult topic is one of the most satisfying things intellectually. Achieving a level of mastery over a game like PoE is incredibly rewarding.

I have a very long backlog of topics to fill out (still stalling on leech/recovery) but happy to take suggestions!

-

Thank you so much for participating in the interview! If you'd like to follow Subtractem, you can do so on Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch. Also, don't forget that you can support both Subtractem and the development of Path of Exile by buying microtransactions from his Nexus page!