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We're in the third month of the Necropolis League and you may be wondering about the timeline for our next expansion. In today's news post we'd like to give a short update on that matter.

We're currently looking at a late July release for the 3.25 expansion. Like the Necropolis expansion, we expect the 3.25 launch to happen simultaneously on PC and Consoles. This means that you have plenty of time to complete your challenges in the ongoing Necropolis League if you were planning on doing so.

We'll reveal all the details live during the GGG Live event around the middle of July. Stay tuned!

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During Playstation's State of Play Showcase, we announced our console plans for Path of Exile 2. Check out the trailer below!

Video: Path of Exile 2: Console Trailer

Path of Exile 2 introduces an exciting new feature: couch co-op. It is something we have wanted to do for a long time. Action RPGs are a genre that are way more fun with friends, and it’s even better when you can play in the same room together!

Path of Exile 2 is also introducing full cross-play and cross-progression on all supported platforms. Play with your friends on other platforms, or move from console to PC without losing any progress!

Watch the deep-dive video below to learn more about Path of Exile 2 on consoles as well as improvements we're making to new users' experience.

Video: Developer Diary: Redefining the Console Experience in Path of Exile 2

While the new Early Access date for Path of Exile 2 is still to be announced, you can expect it to start simultaneously on multiple platforms by the end of this year. Stay tuned!

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As you collect corpses for the mysterious Undertaker Arimor in Path of Exile: Necropolis, the mood is set perfectly by the accompanying soundtrack. Check out the tracks composed and produced by Michael James Collier and directed by Kamil Orman-Janowski in the videos below!

Path of Exile - Necropolis (Trailer Audio)

Path of Exile (Original Game Soundtrack) - Arimor

These tracks, along with the rest of the Path of Exile Extended Digital Soundtrack, are available for download with the purchase of any Supporter Pack here.

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Our Senior Narrative Designer, Matt, has taken a moment to reflect on writing for Necropolis League. Here are his thoughts.

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Many have noticed that the lore of Necropolis league is a bit different. I always try to do something different or experimental with each new addition, and this time, when faced with the art for an old undertaker, I asked the question, "What if this guy doesn't want to tell you what he's up to?"

Almost immediately, his personality came into focus. Compared to the last few leagues, where the Karui or the Maji had a spotlight and it was a rare opportunity to deep dive into those cultures, here we encounter a man who is intentionally very cagey and evasive. He even catches himself when he starts to monologue, and cuts himself off. At other times, if he realizes he's accidentally said a little too much, he rambles and diverts. 'Zoomy' players are his best friends. He actually prefers you just keep killing and don't ask questions.

And yet, if you're really perceptive or dedicated, you can start to piece together some idea of what he's doing, who he is loyal to, and where he might fit in the world of Wraeclast. This kind of subversion was quite fun to write—especially the easter eggs—but I'll take a cue from Arimor and remain cryptic on this one. I do have to give a shoutout to our amazing voice actor, Cameron Rhodes, who brought Undertaker Arimor to life—no pun intended. Arimor's voice and mannerisms feel right out of classic horror films, perfect for a man who hangs around in a graveyard doing nefarious things. Just like the Undertaker himself, I'll leave the rest up to your imagination.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/18179822

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Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the feedback and bingo cards.

To get straight to the point of the improvements to the league, here's what we're currently doing today in the studio. Our hope is to get each change out as soon as it is ready.

Area to Area or Map to Map gameplay:

• We will be allowing you to itemise corpses as they drop, so you can choose to collect the corpse or itemise it for free. As a result itemising corpses in all contexts will now be free, as opposed to the 1 Chaos Orb it currently costs.
• Each of the downsides from area to area will now display the increase to the amount of Collectable Corpses and Allflame Embers they cause.
• We will be increasing the amount of Collectable Corpses and Allflame Embers dropping relative to difficult mods substantially.
• We will be further increasing the amount of Allflame Embers dropping additionally to the above.
• We will be adding new Allflame Ember packs that are more rewarding.
• We will be revising the rewards and pack sizes from existing Allflame Ember packs in Endgame to make them substantially more rewarding also.
• We will be making the Devoted Modifiers more rewarding, notably the ones that are granting Currency Items.
• We are lowering the danger of the more dangerous modifiers especially at Endgame.

Grave-Crafting:

• You will now be able to select the Base Type of the item you want to craft.
• As such, we are removing some of the Crafts that allow you to influence Strength, Dexterity or Intelligence armour types, as they will no longer be necessary since you can just freely select the base type. Note that special base types will still need to be obtained through certain corpses, such as Atlas Base Types, and League Base types like Stygian Vise.
• We are increasing the chances of many of the rarer crafts like Fractured Modifiers and Mirrored outcomes significantly.
• We've removed the "Tiers" from most of the crafts. They'll now have the values of the existing highest tiers always. For example, instead of being able to get 200% or 500% increased chance for Lightning Modifiers, it will now always be 500%.
• We have taken all the crafts that affect the Modifier Rating and compressed it into a single craft that affects all modifiers, instead of being type specific. This will not affect existing crafts you have, those will stop dropping and the new one will start dropping once it's deployed.
• You will be able to directly use Coffins on your List of corpses in your Morgue panel instead of trying to find them within the Morgue. Ctrl+F will go to the Search (Currently must be clicked).
• We will be sorting crafts by their type, instead of by level, making it much easier to find crafts that affect a specific type of modifier, like Fire Modifiers.
• The grave-crafts that reroll Sockets and Links have been significantly buffed.

There is a lot more happening in between the cracks but instead of me getting into all of that I am focusing my attention towards getting the fixes ready faster as that's what is more important! I will update more as we are making more changes.

This is just what we're immediately working on and will do more as soon as it's needed and we have resources available. The long weekend here unfortunately cost us the capability to respond to larger changes as fast as we'd like and a huge lesson going forward is to make sure we don't deploy expansions on public holiday weekends as we don't have the personnel available to make changes as fast as we want.

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Path of Exile: Necropolis will simultaneously launch on PC and Console soon! In this news post, we've gathered all the information you need to know about what happens on launch day and how to start downloading early.

The PC and Console realms will go down and patching begins at: Mar 29, 2024 4:00 PM (GMT) The servers go live for PC and Console at: Mar 29, 2024 7:00 PM (GMT)

The above times are displayed in your local time zone. You'll need to be logged into your account to see these. To change your local time, go to "My Account", "Manage Account" and "Edit Preferences".

If the timezone is displaying incorrectly for you, please disregard the above timer and refer to the countdown on the front page. Three hours before the end of the countdown, the realm will go down and patching will begin shortly after. When the countdown ends, the servers will be live and you'll be able to join the Necropolis League!

The patch size for the update will be around 5.8GB on the standalone client and 5.8GB on Steam. The estimated size of the patch for Playstation and Xbox One S/Series S is 8GB and the estimated size of the patch for Xbox One X/Series X is 12GB. We've also made a torrent available for this update which is around 39GB. The torrent is only available for PC. Please keep in mind that this method, while available earlier, makes it a larger update as it includes all the existing client content. When patching begins for Path of Exile: Necropolis you'll also have a few remaining files that you'll need to update as well.

[!](https://web.poecdn.com/public/tmp/NecroPreload.torrent)

This torrent only includes the GGPK file, so you'll need to copy it into your actual install folder once the patching server is up, no earlier than three hours before Path of Exile: Necropolis launches. Please note that you can't use this GGPK file with the Steam client, Epic client and macOS.

his is also your last chance to get Affliction Mystery Box! It will leave the store when our next Mystery Box becomes available! Keep in mind that if you haven't taken advantage of it yet, it's still possible to get one free Affliction Mystery Box when you spend any amount of points in the store. NOTE: this is only possible once per account. Additional purchases do not grant additional mystery boxes. If you need some extra points, we recommend checking out the new Necropolis Supporter Packs.

In case you still haven't decided which build to play with, check out the Class subsections on the forum for suggestions from the community. Many of our community streamers are also providing build guides on YouTube!

If you want a new look to match your build, check out the Nexus stores of your favourite creators for their curated selection of Armour Sets to support them as well as the development of Path of Exile!

We can't wait to see your latest adventures through Wraeclast. We'll see you at launch!

[!](http://www.twitch.tv/pathofexile)

We're excited to bring you the announcements from GGG Live! In this news post we've put together links to everything that is being announced during the livestream. We'll be updating this news post for your reference as the livestream progresses.

[!](http://www.twitch.tv/pathofexile) [!](https://youtu.be/iw870QM1V5k) [!](https://youtu.be/w7duRMlQ0jI) [!](https://youtu.be/QLFeErq1vEI) [!](https://www.pathofexile.com/necropolis) [!](https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3496784) [!](https://www.pathofexile.com/purchase)

Check out some of the media coverage of GGG Live below:

• PCGamesN - Article 1 - Article 2
• Destructoid
• Pro Game Guide
• Wccftech
• TechRaptor
• Hardcore Gamer
• Gaming Trend
• RPG Gamer
• CG Magazine
• Gamepro (DE)
• Everyeye (IT)
• Multiplayer (IT)
• Jeux Video (FR)
• Gamesvillage (IT)
• CdAction (PL)
• Tomshw (IT) - Article 1 - Article 2
• Gameblog (FR)
• The Games Machine (IT)
• Vandal (ES)
• Gamestar (DE)
• Terra Game On (BR)

I was thinking about doing an ice trap of hollowness for league start but I wonder if sunblast will be too expensive to buy early

Tips to calculate DMG? What nodes are important for traps?

• Ranger trailer
• Ranger gameplay

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Next week we'll be heading over to Boston to show off Path of Exile 2 at PAX East from March 21st. We will be there throughout the event from March 21 to the 24th.

If you're planning to visit the expo, it's a great opportunity to check out the latest Path of Exile 2 demo!

See you there!

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We're in the final month of the Affliction League and you may be wondering what will happen when the league ends.

Currently we don't have plans on making the Affliction mechanic a part of the core game. Here's what you can expect when the league ends on PC at Mar 26, 2024 09:00 PM (GMT). :

• All of your progress will migrate to the respective parent league of your characters, Affliction League will migrate to Standard League for example.
• All of your Tinctures and Charms will be deleted.
• Existing Itemised Corpses in Standard will not be deleted, nor are any Spectres from these corpses. However, those Itemised Corpses won't be obtainable in the next league.
• Your Wildwood Ascendancies will no longer exist.
• Existing Wildwood Rucksacks will become 'remove only' inventories with items in them only removable in towns and hideouts.
• All Affliction exclusive uniques will be added to the core drop pool, except for That Which Was Taken (this change will happen in 3.24).

If you have any Affliction challenges to complete, you still have a couple of weeks to do so.

Send Dudes

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In this news post we'd like to give you a small update regarding the timeline for our next expansion for Path of Exile.

We're currently planning to launch the 3.24 expansion in late March. This means that the ongoing Affliction challenge league will last longer than usual, so if you were planning on completing the Affliction challenges, you have plenty of time to do so. It's also worth mentioning that this time we're not planning to run end-of-league events.

The next expansion's release date as well as new information about Path of Exile 2 will be revealed during the update livestream around the middle of March. Stay tuned!

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The Misery Gauntlet starts at 1pm on February 2nd (PST), or Feb 02, 2023 09:00 PM (GMT). The event will last for 10 days. A countdown is available here or on our event calendar.

If you'd like to take this opportunity to test yourself against some of the toughest encounters ever to be seen in Wraeclast and get a chance to win some prizes, check out this announcement for more information.

You can catch exciting moments from the event by checking out Zizaran’s Youtube Channel where Skryah and OMGitsJousis are teaming up to deliver some epic highlights! There will also be live casting on Zizaran’s Twitch Channel.

Good luck to all those participating!

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Community streamer Zizaran is back with another 10-day Class Gauntlet Event which starts on February 2nd PST. Racers will level characters and kill challenging bosses and to earn points and compete to find out how each of the classes fare against some of Path of Exile's most difficult encounters. The event will take place in a Hardcore Solo Self-Found Affliction Event League provided by us with a range of dynamic damage and life mods! The prize pool is funded by the community and Zizaran's event partners.

Video: The Gauntlet is back! ...DEADLIER THAN EVER!!

Information, Start Time and How to Join

The following mods active for the event apply to monsters:

Area Level 1-67

• Monsters take 30% less Damage
• Monsters have 30% Increased Damage
• Monsters have 30% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed
• Monsters fire 2 Additional Projectiles
• Monsters have 20% Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage
• Monsters penetrate 15% of Elemental Resistances

Area Level 68-72 (White Maps)

• Monsters take 30% less Damage
• Monsters have 30% Increased Damage
• Monsters fire 2 Additional Projectiles

Area Level 73-77 (Yellow Maps)

• Monsters take 40% less Damage
• Monsters have 30% Increased Damage
• Monsters have 60% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed
• Monsters fire 2 Additional Projectiles

Area Level 78-84 (Red Maps)

• Monsters take 50% less Damage
• Monsters have 40% Increased Damage
• Monsters have 20% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed
• Monsters fire 4 Additional Projectiles
• Monsters have 30% Increased Area of Effect
• Monsters have 20% Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage

Area Level 85-100 (Uber Bosses)

• Monsters take 40% Less Damage
• Monsters have 80% Increased Damage
• Monsters have 30% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed
• Monsters fire 2 Additional Projectiles
• Monsters have 30% Increased Area of Effect
• Players are assaulted by Apparitions of Atziri, Queen of the Vaal
• Consume an additional portal on Entry

The Gauntlet will be held as an Event League on PC that is available to all players during the event by clicking "Join" in the bottom right corner of the character select screen.

Players will receive points once per character based on their level, specific boss kills and select Maven's Invitations. Don't forget, to get boss kill points you must submit your kills in the Path of Exile Community Racing Discord which you can join by clicking here.

Start time: Feb 02, 2023 09:00 PM (GMT). The event will last for 10 days. A countdown is available here.

Banned Skills

Similar to the last Gauntlet, this Gauntlet event will have “Banned Skill Gems”. These skills include the use of Arc of Surging, Penance Brand of Dissipation or any Detonate Dead gem (Including Vaal and Transfigured versions) in any way. The use of any of these skills on any character will forfeit your right to claim any part of the prize pool including bounties, flash bounties and the main prize pool. Do not equip the skill gems!

Players that do not wish to compete for the prize pool can play any skill they want. You will still be eligible for raffles.

Portal Limitation Rule

In order to receive Boss Kill Points you must only USE THREE OR LESS PORTALS in order to receive them. Entering a fourth portal will make your submission null. Uber bosses have this tech by default, the rest will be manually done.

Transfigured Gem Rule

In order to receive Boss Kill Points you must use a Transfigured Gem as your primary damage source WHILE completing Boss Kill Point objectives. You may use a regular gem at any other point in time in the game if you so wish.

Prize Pool

The prize pool is crowdfunded by Zizaran's event partners and community streamers! In addition, streamers and their communities will be able to create a bounty with the money they fundraise for the event. Bounties are a custom prize that can be awarded to players for achieving a specified goal in the event. This Gauntlet will also have Flash bounties, which are bounties that will pop up in the Racing Discord during the event! Keep an eye out on their social media for announcements regarding when their fundraisers are taking place and what they will be!

Zizaran's event partners will match donations to the prize pool (up to $25,000).

• The total prize pool minus bounties will be awarded as follows:

  • Rank 1 Overall: 12% Bonus

  • Rank 2 Overall: 4% Bonus

    Witches

    • Top Witch: 8%
    • Second Witch: 4%
    • Third Witch: Dreadspire Character Effect + Divine Stygian Portal Effect

    Shadows

    • Top Shadow: 8%
    • Second Shadow: 4%
    • Third Shadow: Dreadspire Character Effect + Divine Stygian Portal Effect

    Rangers

    • Top Ranger: 8%
    • Second Ranger: 4%
    • Third Ranger: Dreadspire Character Effect + Divine Stygian Portal Effect

    Duelists

    • Top Duelist: 8%
    • Second Duelist: 4%
    • Third Duelist: Dreadspire Character Effect + Divine Stygian Portal Effect

    Marauders

    • Top Marauder: 8%
    • Second Marauder: 4%
    • Third Marauder: Dreadspire Character Effect + Divine Stygian Portal Effect

    Templars

    • Top Templar: 8%
    • Second Templar: 4%
    • Third Templar: Dreadspire Character Effect + Divine Stygian Portal Effect

    Scions

    • Top Scion: 8%
    • Second Scion: 4%
    • Third Scion: Dreadspire Character Effect + Divine Stygian Portal Effect

Random Draw

Leveling your characters to certain thresholds will also make you eligible for the randomly-drawn prizes made up of both merchandise and microtransactions provided by Zizaran's event partners and Grinding Gear Games! The general prizes listed below will be randomly drawn from all appropriately leveled characters except for the Level 90+ Armour Pack prizes, which will be drawn per class. You can gain more than 1 ticket per account for the microtransaction/physical prizes, however you cannot win more than one prize per category below:

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Where to Watch

You can catch exciting moments from the event by checking out Zizaran’s Youtube Channel where Skryah and OMGitsJousis are teaming up to deliver some epic highlights!

There will also be live casting on Zizaran’s Twitch Channel. More info on who will be casting to come!

Click here to learn more about joining the event, the rules in place, the point system, prizes, or to contribute to the event.

Special thanks to community members Faderon, MrMadakey, Ultimativ, Bigsil, Skryah, OMGItsJousis and Viyro for their contributions to this event.

Good luck to all those participating!

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Last week, game directors Jonathan Rogers and Mark Roberts sat down with Ghazzy and DarthMicrotransaction to discuss Path of Exile 2 on the Tavern Talk podcast. If you missed seeing it live, check it out in the video below!

Video: Play Video PoE 2 & The Future of PoE 1 - Podcast with Mark & Jonathan ft. @DarthMicrotransaction

Jonathan also did an interview with Kripparrian recently, which you can check out here.

If you have questions about Path of Exile 2, head on over to the Path of Exile 2 Subreddit. Jonathan is keeping a close eye on it and has answered a lot of questions there already, so be sure to check it out!

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Tomorrow, Game Director Jonathan Rogers will join Kripparrian live on stream to talk about Path of Exile 2!

The Interview will be on Kripparrian's Twitch Channel, and the show will start on the 27th of December at 2:30PM PST, or Dec 28, 2023 0:30 AM (GMT) in your local time.

Kripparrian will be asking some questions from Twitch Chat, so we hope you join in if you've got a burning question about Path of Exile 2!

Don't forget, Jonathan's quite active in the Path of Exile 2 Subreddit and he's answered a lot of questions there already. Be sure to check it out!

If you're interested in finding out more about Path of Exile 2 and what we've been cooking since the Mercenary reveal, make sure you tune in! See you there!

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Our Senior Narrative Designer, Matt, has taken a moment to reflect on writing for Affliction League. Here are his thoughts.

Designing the narrative for Affliction League was an exciting task, in that it was an opportunity to finally delve into multiple mysteries from other leagues. Mechanically, we don't do 'sequel leagues,' so it's always been tough to revisit previous league lore. This time, however, the placement and concept of the dark forest was perfect for touching upon other things we've set up in the past.

The first and most obvious connection is to Harvest league's Lifeforce colors. The initial mechanical concept for the dark forest involved collecting three different types of unknown resources—probably some sort of dust—for three different NPCs. As soon as I heard that, I knew it had to be the three colors we've already established as having to do with plants, growth, and nature on Wraeclast. Luckily, that suggestion stuck, and the artists took it from there. We also included Sacred energy as the color of the wisps helping you, and everything else started to come together from there.

It was pretty clear to me who made the Wildwood, given that it's underground and is heavily forest-themed. The league gained the internal name 'Azmeri' very early on. We also considered an Ezomyte direction, and I know many people are excited to see more of them, but this one wasn't a good fit for that culture. We are definitely eager to find a way to explore the Ezomytes more at some point.

Knowing that this was an Azmeri-themed concept gave clear cues for who the three NPCs might be, and several of the uniques and ascendancy passives flowed from that characterization. Notably, I was excited to delve into Maji lore, given that we briefly mentioned them in other places, but never expanded it in ways players could see. In terms of flavor, we decided on a Celtic theme pretty early on, too. There's a mix of Irish and Scottish inspired language and concepts with consistent alterations, and a few other cultures as well. It was definitely a treat digging into styles of mythos that we don't normally work with.

The King in the Mists was a surprisingly well-formed concept right from the start. Normally, it takes some time to figure out who an antagonist is, and what he might be like. This time, though, much of the league's dark eerieness stemmed from his unique look. We also knew he would be doing rituals and creating creepy totems right from the start. The voice actor, Josh Cramond, absolutely went all out in the recording session, mimicking the King in the Mists' memorable animations and giving the most energetic performance I've ever seen. That was an absolute blast to behold.

Many of the monsters also shared visual aspects with Gruthkul, so there was definitely an intentional connection there. That gave me an opportunity to flesh out more of her story beyond the handful of glyphs that appear in Act 7. Players may have noticed she was far less malevolent than the other gods, and now we get to see a bit more of that tragedy and how it played out.

Ultimately, I'm very happy with how we've integrated the Viridian Wildwood into Wraeclast as we know it. I've had to be very careful in this writeup to not give spoilers, but if anything you see or hear in Affliction League inspires you to wonder, you can bet we thought about it. This content is the most explicitly connected to other leagues we've ever done, as far as I can tell, and it's really exciting to make the overall picture more cohesive. I'm hoping we get to do more like this in the future. Stay tuned!

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UPDATE: MYSTERY BOX REDEMPTION MIGHT TAKE AROUND 20 MINUTES.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays, Exiles! As is tradition, we're offering everyone a free Affliction Mystery Box!

To redeem your free Affliction Mystery Box all you need to do is to open the in-game shop! The Mystery Box will be automatically added to your account and you'll find it in your Microtransaction Stash. Please note that visiting the shop on the website does not trigger the free box - it must be accessed from inside the game client.

To receive a free Affliction Mystery Box, your account has to have been created prior to today. It's only possible to get one box per account. The offer is available for PC, PlayStation and Xbox!

If you already own all items from the Affliction Mystery Box, you will get two Midnight Pact Mystery Boxes instead.

The free mystery box will stop being available at Jan 08, 2024 10:59 PM (GMT) i.e. 3am on January 8th (PST). Check out the contents of the Affliction Mystery Box in the trailer below.

Video: What's in the Affliction Mystery Box?