Can Roguelike Make POE 3.20 Expasion Great Again?
Dec 07, 2022 Source: POECURRENCY
Path Of Exile's been kicking about for nearly a decade, but it's still receiving hefty chunks of fresh stuff every three months. The latest, roguelike expansion Forbidden Sanctum, was revealed fully during a livestream by devs Grinding Gear Games.
The Forbidden Sanctum throws your character into the foreboding depths of its titular dungeons, challenging them to survive runs as best they can across four floors. Each floor has a boss to tackle, but they are the least of your problems. You'll also stumble into rooms that Grinding Gear's CEO Chris Wilson calls "afflicted". Your character can succumb to minor and major afflictions by entering these rooms, but they can be balanced out or counteracted by finding boons of varying strengths. Afflictions will build up throughout a run, though, making things harder the more you press on further, with better POE Currency loots.
GGG said they've been influenced by a whole batch of different roguelikes while designing The Forbidden Sanctum, from The Binding Of Isaac all the way back to Rogue itself. Every run through the Sanctum will be different. You'll have to keep an eye on your character's resolve level, lowered by enemy attacks and environmental hazards, to prevent them from dropping out. Some rooms present your character with a resolve-refilling fountain, but others have afflicted fountains that offer more than the usual top-up of resolve. As you might expect, these can cause more trouble than they're worth.
Onto the spoils, or why else would you be playing a roguelike? You'll also be presented with choices throughout your run to either accept rewards on the spot or wait to receive better ones after you've taken on a floor's boss and won. To preserve the roguelike experience for players, the devs insist that the powerful relics you come across during runs will be account-linked and not tradeable. Your character will also come across a special altar during their Sanctum exploration, letting you place a relic on it to ensure it won't disappear if you crash out of a run. As with all scary final bosses, the one at the end of Sanctum has some unique items to pick up, that is, if you can best it.
Another expansion isn't all that's coming up for Path Of Exile. There'll be some endgame rebalances, including a rework of the Atlas passive skill tree, and the Ruthless mode intended for endgame players will release when the expansion launches.
Path Of Exile is a free to play download from Steam and the Epic Games Store. You can nab it on PS4 and Xbox One, too. The 3.20 Forbidden Sanctum expansion arrives in-game on December 9th.
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What Game Mode Is Suitable For You In The Upcoming Path Of Exile 2 Early Access? - Mode Detailed Explanation
Finally! The highly anticipated Path of Exile 2 will officially meet players in a few weeks on December 6. I believe that after this long wait, GGG will bring us a nearly perfect POE 2. But in the meantime, besides waiting foolishly, what you can do is to learn as much as possible about the detailed information of this new game.
And this guide will introduce you to the various game modes in Path of Exile 2 today. If you are a player who has just come into contact with POE series of games, you are likely to be confused by these more complex game modes. But don’t worry, this guide will solve these doubts for you and help you make the most suitable choice for you.
What Is League?
Similar to the seasons (also called ladders and stages) in other action role-playing games, there is a permanent league called Standard League and a limited-time league that usually lasts for three months in Path of Exile 2, usually called Challenge League. For example, Settlers of Kalguur in POE are currently an active Challenge League. Let’s introduce them one by one.
Challenge League
In Path of Exile 2, a new temporary Challenge League is launched every 3-4 months, during which all players will use a character starting from level 1 to start exploring this league again, without pre-existing items and advantages. During this Challenge League, the developers will occasionally introduce a lot of new content and new patches, which will achieve balance in the game by enhancing or weakening items, classes, skills or enemies.
These new changes will not only bring more opportunities for many players to try new builds and new combat strategies, but also keep players in a strong sense of freshness in the game. This is also the main reason why most players choose to explore the temporary Challenge League in POE.
When this Challenge League ends, you will not lose all the characters and items you have spent a lot of POE 2 Currency to obtain. They will be transferred to Standard League that has always existed.
Standard League
As I just said, Standard League is a permanent league in POE 2, which means that you will never be forced to restart your progress in this league, and you can always access all the characters and items you have obtained in Challenge League. This is the most stable choice for some players who don’t have much time to explore the game or those who don’t like to reset their progress frequently.
But this does not mean that Standard League is perfect. Its disadvantage is that you can’t try some new league mechanisms and many new contents in Challenge League. You may only be able to explore continuously in one game mechanism. Fortunately, Standard League will also make some real-time adjustments like the temporary league to achieve the balance within the game.
Here you need to be reminded that some objects in Standard League may change and produce some variants with the start of a new Challenge League. But please rest assured that the builds applicable to these original items will not change as a result, so for the builds in Standard League, you may not need to spend too much time and energy to make frequent changes to it.
To summarize, if you are a player who loves novelty and the thrill of exploration, then Challenge League will be more suitable for you. If you are a player with limited time or a player who likes an unchanging way of exploration, Standard League may be more suitable for you, and most importantly, you will not feel the pressure to complete the objectives before the end of the league.
Game Modes
In addition to the two most important leagues, POE 2 also offers players several game modes. Here is a detailed explanation of these game modes. You can choose the corresponding one according to your game style.
Softcore (also known as SC)
Softcore is the default game mode in the game and is the most suitable for novice players. In this game mode, once you die in combat or exploration, you can choose to respawn in the town or choose to respawn at the last checkpoint you just experienced.
Softcore game mode is available in both Standard League and Challenge League, but you can only explore and trade with players in the same league as you. Like the previous characters and items, all progress in this mode will be reset to zero after Challenge League ends and return to Standard League.
Hardcore (also known as HC)
Unlike Softcore, characters that die in Hardcore mode will not be able to explore in this league. They are not permanently deleted, but sent back to Standard League to explore. This game mode is very suitable for players who are experienced in the game, very confident in their builds and operations, and have a lot of free time, because they don’t mind losing everything they have when they make mistakes.
But from another perspective, Hardcore mode provides players with a way to train their build and exploration abilities with a focus on strengthening defense capabilities. Of course, players in this mode can also choose to explore in Standard League or Challenge League.
The above is the detailed information of several game leagues and modes in POE 2 that will be available to players this time. In any case, after such a long wait, we will definitely see an extraordinary Path of Exile 2. I hope you can choose the game mode that suits you best with the help of this guide. I wish you a happy game!
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How To Make Your Monk Stand Out From The Crowd In The Early Access Of Path Of Exile 2 Next Month? - Class Guide
As the final date of the early access of Path of Exile 2 promised by GGG is getting closer, players are more and more interested in this game that has been polished. But in this anxious waiting process, you can’t just wait foolishly, but you should learn more about some new information or new gameplay in this brand new game during this period, and the most important one is Class.
There will be 12 Classes for players to choose in POE 2, 6 of which are retained in the original game, and the other 6 are newly added. Among these newly added new Classes, the most likely to attract players is Monk, because this Class has appeared in Diablo 3, a game that has long been compared with POE series of games.
Many players have always wanted to understand what the difference is between Monk in POE 2 and in Diablo 3. Don’t worry, this guide will introduce it to you and teach you how to make it more powerful. If you are familiar with this Class knowledge, you will create a very outstanding Monk in the early access of the game at the fastest speed!
Monk Overview
First of all, we need to understand that Monk is a Class with both Intelligence and Dexterity attributes, which makes it located in the upper right part of the passive skill tree, similar to Shadow class in the original game. If your game style is to explore with a flexible combat state, then Monk will be your best choice.
For Monk’s weapons, the most commonly used are Quarterstave and Quarterstaff. Quarterstaff is a spell-casting weapon with modifiers such as Spell Damage; while Quarterstave is a weapon with a modifier of attack damage. In some necessary situations, Unarmed is also one of Monk’s main combat methods.
From this, it can be concluded that Monk will be more suitable for melee use and will rely more on mobility rather than brute force. So you can use more skill points to add more Cold Damage nodes in Dex area of this Class’s passive skill tree and don’t forget Lightning Damage nodes in Int areas. These will make your Monk more powerful in combat.
But this does not mean that you don’t need to invest in some defensive capabilities. Defensive layers such as Energy Shield, Evasion, and Spell Suppression are also worth your effort to use POE 2 Currency to obtain, so that Monk will have both strong offensive capabilities and survivability.
Some Changes To Monk’s Mechanics
In the leaked Monk gameplay trailer and test videos, we can see that GGG has made some changes to Monk’s Crowd Control and Freeze mechanisms - in POE, the effect of Crowd Control is a single thing: either it happens or it doesn’t happen.
So in the original game, many bosses are immune to Crowd Control and Freeze mechanisms, which is also one of the most unsatisfactory shortcomings of many players in POE. But in POE 2, the Crowd Control mechanic has an internal meter, so when you Freeze or other Crowd Control abilities on a boss, the meter will continue to build until the boss is hit by your crowd control ability.
But if you have already Freezed a boss in the meantime, the threshold will increase, so you need to Freeze them more before Freezing them again to achieve the crowd control effect. But don’t worry, this threshold increase will slowly decay as your character levels up.
Monk’s Skills
Similarly, based on the trailers and test videos that are currently available, we have summarized some skills of Monk Class and their effects. However, it should be noted that these are our summaries and do not represent the eventual results. Everything is subject to the final pre-release.
- Falling Thunder: Monk will use Lightning to damage all enemies on the ground, and this skill will consume Power Charges to increase its range and damage.
- Culling Palm (also known as Killing Palm): It can be used to kill some enemies with low health and increase Power Charges for yourself.
- Wind Blast: This skill will cause your character to generate a gust of wind and knock back all enemies, with the purpose of distance between yourself and the enemy, and put yourself in a safe range.
- Ice Strike: It can continuously attack the enemy multiple times and eventually freeze it.
- Glacial Cascade: Much like Ice Strike, you will cast an ice waterfall and send spikes at the last location. These spikes will cause greater damage to those enemies who have been frozen.
- Wave of Frost: You roll backwards a distance, and a wave of ice spikes appears in front of you, causing damage to enemies.
- Whirling Assault: You spin very fast and cause damage to enemies as you move.
- Shattering Palm: This skill allows you to place an ice bomb on the target enemy. When the target dies or causes enough damage to it, the bomb will explode.
The above is some information about the new Monk Class in POE 2. This new game has undergone a lot of revisions, but please believe that you will see a very perfect Path of Exile 2 next month, and it will make all your waits worthwhile. I wish you a happy game!
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How To Use Energy Shield In Path Of Exile 2 To Enhance Your Survivability? - Mechanics Explained & Potential Changes
As we all know, the much-anticipated POE 2 Early Access has been postponed to December 6, which has whetted everyone’s appetite. Many players are now a little impatient and want to experience the content of Path Of Exile 2 in person.
But while waiting, you can also learn about some of the mechanics in Path Of Exile 2 in advance, and how these differ from those in POE 1. For example, this article will introduce Energy Shield in detail. Without further ado, let’s take a look.
How Does Energy Shield Work?
Energy Shield is a form of defense that can be used as an additional hit point pool in the life pool. In addition to armor and evasion, it is also one of the defense types that can appear implicitly on equipment.
Energy Shield Recharge
Energy Shield Recharge is a mechanic that restores Energy Shield over time at a base rate of 33.3% per second. It only starts after Energy Shield or resource has not taken damage, and the duration of Energy Shield protection lasts for 2 seconds. Energy Shield recharge is interrupted if Energy Shield or the resource it is protecting takes any damage.
However, Energy Shield recharge does not stop when full Energy Shield is not reached or if resource loss comes from non-damage sources, such as using Lifetap Support to consume life.
Application Of Energy Shield
In addition, each class has no Energy Shield in its initial form. But after that, for every 10 intelligence increase, the maximum Energy Shield will increase by 2%. Of course, Energy Shield also reduces the amount of damage the class takes. As long as the character has Energy Shield when it takes damage, even damage from Labyrinth traps, that damage will be applied to Energy Shield first.
It’s worth noting that physical damage reductions and elemental resistances also apply to damage before being deducted from Energy Shield. Damage only starts to be applied to life or mana when all Energy Shield is depleted.
The exception is chaos damage, which bypasses Energy Shield. Of course, Energy Shield can also be mixed and matched with some other items. For example, Corrupted Energy, which makes 50% of chaos damage unable to bypass Energy Shield, but on the downside, it causes 50% of physical damage to bypass Energy Shield.
Additionally, Eldritch Battery Keystone can cause Energy Shield to conserve mana instead of life, causing the character to consume Energy Shield before spending skill charges. Mind Over Matter can be used in conjunction with Eldritch Battery, with damage dealt being redirected to mana and deducted from ES.
If the class does not take damage for a certain period of time, Energy Shield will begin to recharge. Also, when using Blood Magic or Sacrifice mechanic, consuming Energy Shield does not count as taking damage.
By default, Energy Shield starts charging after a delay of 2 seconds. Players can also reduce this delay by using passive skills and equipment to activate Energy Shield Recharge modifiers more quickly.
In general, as a form of recovery, Energy Shield Recharge Rate can reach 20% per second. If you want to speed up your recovery efficiency, it is essential to invest some POE 2 Currency to re-roll stats, which will give you more generation opportunities in some critical endgame situations.
Avoiding Stun
Energy Shield also has an inherent stun prevention mechanic. When a character takes hit damage while having Energy Shield, they will have a 50% chance to ignore being stunned by that hit unless they also have Eldritch Battery Keystone in use. This stun prevention mechanic is completely independent of other sources of stun avoidance, and is rolled separately.
Chaos Inoculation keystone can also be used to render a character immune to damage, but at the cost of losing only one life. All these changes make Energy Shield a primary resource for absorbing damage.
Potential Changes
Now, POE 2 is making some major changes to the core Energy Shield mechanic, mainly regarding which damage types bypass Energy Shield. For example, chaos damage will no longer bypass Energy Shield by default, unless it is chaos damage from poison ailment.
Any non-poison type of chaos damage will remove twice Energy Shield after mitigation calculations. Therefore, please be aware of the damage type and equip the appropriate POE 2 items in advance to avoid unnecessary consumption of your Energy Shield.
Although physical damage from bleeding ailment bypasses Energy Shield, bleeding only causes damage from direct hits, so GGG is currently planning to provide players with immunity of bleeding in the same way as Chaos Inoculation keystone did in POE 1, so that when attacked, no life damage is dealt and ailment is applied.
Of course, since Path of Exile 2 Early Access hasn’t officially launched yet, some of the new mechanics and changes we’ve learned about so far haven’t been fully confirmed. However, for some players who can’t wait, you can also read this guide in advance to make a full understanding before officially playing POE 2. I hope it can help you get a better gaming experience!
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How Will The Damaging Ailments Mechanic Work In Path Of Exile 2?
Before Path of Exile 2 Early Access officially arrives on December 6, let’s take a look at some of the changes that may happen in this sequel so that you can quickly adapt to everything when you enter the game and dominate the entire continent of Wraeclast.
Here, we will mainly explore Damaging Ailments mechanism in POE 2. We will talk about how it works and how it differs from the same mechanism in POE 1. If you are also interested in this, then don’t miss this guide!
Composition Of Damaging Ailments
Damaging Ailments mechanism in Path of Exile is composed of three ailments. Each ailment will cause continuous damage during its effect. These three are Poison, Bleed and Ignite.
Bleed is caused by physical attack damage and will cause physical damage over time. Its magnitude is 70% of the base physical strike damage of the ailment per second. It lasts for 5 seconds and does not stack. However, the damage dealt by Bleed triples to 210% per second while the target is moving.
Ignite is caused by fire strike damage and deals fire damage over time with a magnitude of 90% of the base fire strike damage that causes the ailment per second for 4 seconds, and does not stack. Ignite is always dealt with five points of damage, and the last one is also a critical hit.
Poison is caused by physical and chaos strike damage and deals chaos damage over time with a magnitude of 30% of the base physical and chaos strike damage that causes the ailment per second for two seconds, and stacks infinitely.
Modifiers
There are a number of modifiers on Passive Skill Tree, including Ascendancy notable and Unique items, that are directly related to these ailments. The more common modifiers increase the duration of the ailment or increase the character’s chance of causing these ailments, but some modifiers can directly change the default behavior of the ailment.
For example, Crimson Dance keystone does this, allowing you to stack Bleed effect up to 8 times on a single target, but at the cost of halving the damage dealt and losing the inherent property of Bleed not dealing extra damage when the enemy is moving.
What Are The Changes To Ailment Mechanics?
Now, Path of Exile 2 is making some very significant changes to Ailments.
Ailment Application
First, let’s discuss the broad changes to ailment application and damage dealt by ailments. In POE 2, you won’t be able to trigger ailments by investing POE 2 Currency like you did in the original game, as these modifiers grant you a percentage-based chance to cause specific ailments. Meanwhile, critical hits in POE 2 will no longer guarantee the application of Elemental Ailments.
So how do you cause ailments? Now, in Path of Exile 2, the chance to cause an ailment and the damage dealt will be based on the damage the defender has taken before the mitigation phase. This differs from the calculation of ailment damage in POE 1. In PoE 1, damage was calculated from the base damage of a hit on the attacker’s side.
Now, this change is important for a few reasons. First, since the chance of inflicting an ailment is based on the hit damage, you now care about adjusting the hit damage to help ensure that you can inflict that ailment. This wasn’t important in PoE 1 originally, for example, Deadly Ailments Support was a regular addition to an ailment-based build, since reducing the hit damage by 80% wouldn’t affect the damage inflicted by the ailment.
Second, since the damage inflicted by an ailment in PoE 2 is based on and scaled by the damage hit rate, the damage modifier will no longer be directly applied to the ailment before mitigation, as it was in PoE 1. This means that in PoE 2, you are actively incentivized to scale the hit damage, not only to improve the chance of inflicting an ailment but also to inflict more damage on it.
Ailment Damage Scaling
Now, even though hit damage before mitigation determines the chance to cause an ailment, you can still invest in modifiers that help you cause an ailment, but they work slightly differently.
A good example of this is Ignition Support, which gives supported skills a 50% chance to cause Ignite. This can be thought of as somewhat similar to Implicit, which exists on modifiers that allow you to cause an ailment. This is because hit damage first determines the chance to cause an ailment and the modifiers of Ignition Support.
And then, as a multiplier of that number, besides being able to increase the chance to cause an ailment, you can also use a new type of modifier to directly scale ailment damage. This modifier originally only existed on certain non-damaging ailments in POE 1 Ailment effects. But in POE 2, you will be able to directly scale damaging ailments with ailment effect modifiers as well. For example, this Frostfire Support, which makes Ignite caused by supported skills 100% more effective against frozen enemies.
In addition to the hit damage modifier naturally scaling ailment damage in POE 2, this modifier essentially increases the base effect of Ignite from dealing 90% of hit damage per second to 180%.
Critical Strikes & Detonate Dead
There are two other important mechanics that also affect Damaging Ailments in POE 2, namely Critical Strikes and Detonate Dead. These mechanics are calculated before mitigation damage and directly affect hit damage. Therefore, they will increase the chance of inflicting a bleed and the damage dealt by that ailment.
Keep in mind that the 50% multiplier provided by critical hits for bleeds in POE 1 will no longer exist in POE 2, and as mentioned before, critical hits will no longer guarantee the application of Elemental Ailments in Path of Exile 2.
Default Behavior Of Specific Ailments Changes
Finally, the default behavior of specific ailments will also change, and now only hits that damage life can cause bleeding, and hits that are completely absorbed by energy shields or other resources will not cause bleeding.
In addition, damage caused by bleeding will completely bypass energy shields, which is very interesting. This means that Chaos Inoculation Keystone will make characters immune to bleeding in POE 2. Because non-poison chaos damage will no longer bypass energy shields, but will remove twice as much energy from this resource.
By default, poisons will not stack, but you will be able to invest in additional poisons, such as this Multiple Poison Support. However, non-poison chaos damage will no longer bypass energy shields, but will remove twice as much energy from this resource.
This is all we know about Damaging Ailments mechanic in POE 2. However, we have to make a disclaimer that nothing is set in stone before Early Access is launched, so please stay tuned!
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How To Choose The Best Build For The Latest POE 3.25 Settlers Of Kalguur Event? - Cold Tornado Occultist Build Guide
Exiles, I’m back with my Cold Tornado Occultist build! As a low-life crit build, it performs particularly well in boss damage and map clearing. With the official launch of POE 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur Event, if you like to experience super-fast mapping and dominate the battlefield with clever tactics and exciting damage output, then don’t miss this powerful build!
Here, we will talk in detail about the pros and cons of this Cold Tornado Occultist and the equipment settings, so that you can better master it in the latest Settlers Event and win more loot.
Pros & Cons
In POE 3.25, Tornado has become one of the favorite skills of many players in this game, especially for some avid fans of Totem mechanism. The reason why they like Tornado so much is that it works a bit like Totem. You don’t even need to aim, stand still, or get close to the monster. Just run away after casting it, and it will cause damage and kill the monster. So, with this build, you can greatly improve the efficiency of farming Divine Lantern in Settlers of Kalguur Event.
Speaking of its advantages, it must be mentioned that this build has amazing damage. For regular Tornado builds, having solid defense is often the core competitiveness, but their DPS of only 12 million makes many offensive players give up it as the first choice. Therefore, here, we want to try to improve the disadvantages of this build, that is, to increase its DPS and make a crit build that can easily complete Tier 17 maps and Uber bosses.
Of course, there is no doubt that this has prime requirements for your budget, and you need to invest in at least 40 Divine Orbs. This will bring your DPS to 24 million, and your level 29 Tornado will easily make your crit multiplier exceed 500%.
So why do we choose to use a low-life build? This is mainly because it is also very easy to get started, and you are able to easily deal high damage by stacking multiple attack auras. Of course, the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, there is no spell suppression, because it is difficult to integrate it into this build, and it requires several mandatory POE items.
In addition to this, except for Energy Shield Mastery “10% Less Physical Damage Taken while on Full Energy Shield”, you do not have any physical damage mitigation or reduction, which means that this build is extremely easy to die from physical damage. It cannot withstand huge physical blows. Although blocking helps a lot, you still have to dodge these blows manually in the end.
Offense
This build uses 3 curses: Elemental Weakness, Frostbite and Assassin’s Mark. Previously, some players said that Herald of Purity and Herald of Ice were also good choices, but later after many trials, Summon Skitterbots were clearly more advantageous because it caused more damage.
In addition, this build has 9 Power Charges all the time, so allocating Inner Conviction keystone is a breeze. It has been very easy to deal with areas like Abomination Map. Facing 3 bosses spawning at the same time is not a problem. Like said before, it doesn’t matter where you cast the skills, because the skills will move, and the boss will die, anyway.
Defense
Of course, this does not mean that this build has no defense. For example, damage avoidance is okay for this build. It has about 40% attack block and 60% spell block. Chill and Freeze will also come in handy when surrounded by monsters.
Thanks to having such high spell block, you can have the easiest Uber Elder killing experience. You can run around without worrying about these elusive purple balls. And having high Energy Shield and fast recovery through leech and Energy Shield recharge is also crucial to survival. If your resistance is also capped, including chaos resistance, and immunity to all Elemental Ailments.
Gear Choice
For gear choices for this build, Void Battery must be mentioned first, which is one of the best unique wands in POE 3.25. Trust me, this is a wise choice, because for a Power Charge Stacking build, there is nothing better than it.
Prism Guardian and Shavronne’s Wrappings are a must for this low-life build to work. If you are trying to squeeze as much attack blocking as possible out of your gear setup, Crown of the Inward Eye may be essential for you, but it is also a high demand for your budget. Because a good roll with this implicit requires at least 20 Divine Orbs. Of course, you can also choose to corrupt some helmets yourself, and if you are lucky, you will get the result you want after a few attempts.
Presence of Chayula is very useful for Stun Immunity, don’t sacrifice this position for anything else. In addition, +3 to the gem level is too good to miss. It not only increases your damage but also increases the movement speed of Tornado build.
Passive Skill Tree
You can easily get Stun Immunity through Occultist’s Vile Bastion, but to get this, you have to sacrifice one of the passive skills, which I don’t think is worth it.
There is also Immutable Force here, which seems to be quite good, and the stun is almost unnoticeable. Combat Focus needs to be placed correctly to get the effect. Please note that “With 40 total Dexterity and Strength” here does not mean that all stats need to get 40 points. For example, here, having 40 points of Strength meets the requirement.
As for other passive skill choices, it is recommended that you prioritize those that provide Energy Shield, Reservation Efficiency, Power Charge and Critical Hit.
The above is all about this Cold Tornado Occultist build. To be honest, the arrival of the new Settlers of Kalguur Event is unexpected, but I hope this build can bring you a pleasant experience in this new event! Although this new event is a bit boring with only Divine Lantern, it is understandable considering that GGG had to transfer most of its resources to POE 2. Anyway, good luck to you!
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Predictions On POE 3.26 Release Date And The Upcoming Settlers Of Kalguur Event
Hello Exiles, we are in the season of spoilers for Path of Exile 2 recently, and a lot of content about this new sequel has been revealed, but our topic today is related to POE 1, namely the possible release date of patch 3.26, the end time of the current POE 3.25 Settlers of Kalguur expansion, the recently announced new Settlers of Kalguur Event, and how we can prepare for it.
To be honest, this event may not bring any exciting new content, but with POE 3.25 league cycle already more than halfway through, it may be an interesting new event to attract many players to return. Here, let’s take a closer look.
Why POE 3.26 May Be Released Next Year?
Let’s first take a look at the possible update time of POE 3.26. Before Grinding Gear Games pushed back the release date of Path of Exile 2 Early Access from November 15th to December 6th, many players had been speculating that patch 3.26 would not be released this year.
The reason for this is simply because of its commercial reality. Because GGG wants to launch their biggest release ever in POE 2 Early Access, they don’t want to release a minor 4 weeks later to steal their limelight. With this factor in mind, it will be difficult for you to see the news that POE 3.26 will be released on December 13th if it follows the previous update cycle.
And because of Christmas holiday, you will also most likely not see them release it around December 20th or 27th. So it is also expected by many people that Path of Exile 3.26 will be released next year. And GGG’s recent post has proved that this speculation is correct, but not just next year.
But honestly, next year is late enough that even a decline in player interest in POE 3.26 is unlikely to be a factor in delaying it to next year. So we’re going to hazard a guess that they never planned to launch Path of Exile 3.26 this year.
We think the developers originally planned to launch it in the 1st or 2nd week of January, but now it will be the 4th or 5th week of January instead. It’s worth noting that they haven’t locked in specific numbers yet. They hope to achieve it in late January, but this is by no means a firm promise. This means that POE 3.26 may also be delayed until February. And depending on the progress of Path of Exile 2 Early Access, maybe it will be brought forward to mid-January. We just know that it won’t be this year.
New Settlers Of Kalguur Event
In any case, this means that Settlers of Kalguur League will be extended until 2025. But one thing GGG knows is that once players get everything they want in this league, these people tend to stop playing, which is part of the reason why Standard League is not as popular as Temporary leagues. Of course, although not everyone who plays Settlers of Kalguur league gets everything they want, many people do.
In Temporary leagues, it is more realistic for players to get the next upgrade, while in Standard, few people reach that point in Settlers of Kalguur, which makes them feel that the next upgrade is out of reach and they are just waiting for something new to do. So, in order to bridge the gap and give players a brand new experience, the developers also took the opportunity to launch the new Settlers of Kalguur Event.
This is a fresh start with a twist, and it will bring some content that differs slightly from the base game. This Settlers of Kalguur Event will start soon. If you are in a similar time zone in United States, it will start on November 7th, but if you are in Australian time zone, it will start on November 8th.
What Are The Features Of The New Event?
This new-look event offers a brand new economy and ladder reset that functions very similarly to the base version of Settlers of Kalguur. On top of that, it also includes enemy modifiers for each zone, which was a key feature of the previous Necropolis league. However, unlike Necropolis, these modifiers only grant rewards, including bonuses to aspects such as POE Currency or item drop chance and enemy pack size.
The addition of this Necropolis mechanic will be a positive change, and their main impact will be for more casual players, as they will make gear drops faster. Especially if you’re the type of player who still wants to get a lot of Chaos Orbs while advancing Atlas, running this event will definitely make you earn a lot of money.
This new league event will run in parallel with the existing Settlers of Kalguur league, so you can continue to play with your current character if you wish. However, if you choose to participate in the new event league and reach level 50 on any character, you will receive a mandatory Settlers Mystery Box, which includes a random cosmetic selected from the new additions in POE 3.25. If you already own all of them, you will receive two Polaris Mystery Boxes instead.
As for the available game modes for this event, when it was originally announced, there were only two versions, namely Softcore Trade and Solo Self-Found Hardcore modes. But later, GGG changed the announcement and added Hardcore and Solo Self-Found versions.
It is worth noting that it does not look like there will be any support for Ruthless mode. Of course, there will not be much demand from the player community for this, so this is unlikely to change, and it looks like there will only be four different versions running.
How To Prepare For The New Event?
If you plan to participate in Softcore Trade version of the event, then here are some tips that may help you.
You can try to play with your partners as a cooperative group, use the guild warehouse to trade resources between each other, and try to prepare each other to pass milestone encounters to obtain a large amount of wealth. At the end of a period after the group has run a few times, maybe 10 days, or maybe the end of the second weekend, you can go your separate ways and split the loot at that time. However, you have a lot of things to do to make this happen, because making it as fair as possible is key.
Anyway, that’s all we know about the possible release date of POE 3.26 and the upcoming Settlers of Kalguur Event. If you’re interested in being a part of the event, then grab your chance and prepare early!