Path of Exile, the action RPG from Grinding Gear Games, has released its latest expansion, The Awakening. This expansion has added a great deal of new content, and the full patch notes can be found on Path of Exile’s forums.
The biggest news is the addition of the game’s fourth act. This new act will take players to Highgate, containing 14 new areas, 9 new bosses, and 6 more quests. The story continues after the defeat of Dominus, challenging players to face an entity known only as the Beast to prevent it from recreating the world in Nightmare. The addition of this fourth act to Path of Exile has been supplemented with a streamlined experience through the first three acts, with many areas in the original acts being revamped.
Additionally, the passive skill tree has been revamped to make room for a new feature: jewels. Jewels are a new magic item that can be socketed into parts of the passive skill tree to provide your character with bonuses, with some altering the nodes found around the socketed jewel.
Divination cards have been added as a more consistent way of acquiring certain powerful items, giving players a method of finding build-defining items without relying quite so heavily on random drops.
And perhaps the most notable news for long-time Path of Exile players are the netcode improvements. These improvements include several options for reducing the dreaded desync. This update has also added new servers to London, Frankfurt, Italy, California, and Washington D.C.
20 new skill gems, several changes to existing skill gems, over 100 unique items, 12 new end game maps, several new microtranscation cosmetics, and two new challenge leagues, Warbands for standard and Tempest for hardcore, have also been added.
Many other changes dealing with game balance, item balance, and character progression have also been implemented. Again, the full list of changes can be found on the Path of Exile forums.
What are your thoughts on Path of Exile? Is a big update like this likely to make you try it or reopen it? Share your thoughts below!
