Path of Exile
Huge Helmet Sale This WeekendMay 28, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsWe're holding a huge sale on helmet skins and helmet effects with almost 200 microtransactions available at discounted prices! Check out the full list of specials by pressing M in game The sale will run until Jun 01, 2020 9:00 PM (PDT). If you're looking for some points to spend on this weekend's sale we recommend checking out the Delirium Supporter Packs, before they leave the store forever! Thank you so much for your support! We can't wait to show you what we've been working on. See you next week!3.10.2b Patch Notes PreviewMay 28, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsAlongside the development of our next expansion, the team has recently been working on a small patch with a number of fixes to the ongoing Delirium League. We're planning to deploy the 3.10.2b update by the end of this working day or early next week. In the meantime, check out its patch notes below: You can now filter for items without being required to use special alphanumeric characters, such as "Maelstrom Staff" rather than "Maelström Staff". Updated the description text for the Surveyor's Study and Office of Cartography Incursion Temple rooms to accurately reflect that they do not cause Architects to drop Map-related Currency. Fixed a rare bug where Sirus' rotating beam skill could be invisible. Fixed a rare bug where Visceris in the Overgrown Ruin map could become immune to damage. Fixed a bug where the Arcane Barrage microtransaction created effects that would linger indefinitely, and would reduce performance when long periods of time were spent in the same location. Fixed an instance crash that could occur when using Raise Zombie. Fixed an instance crash that could occur when using Summon Phantasm Support. Fixed a client crash that could occur during the Nightmare Manifest encounter in Malformation Map. 3.10.2 Patch with Beta of Vulkan RendererMay 27, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsWe have just deployed the 3.10.2 Patch, which includes a Beta version of our Vulkan renderer. This alternate renderer provides much more consistent performance than the DirectX 11 one, especially when under high CPU load. Over the last few years, we have increased the amount of multithreading that the Path of Exile engine uses, which lets us take more advantage of modern CPUs with many threads (logical cores). Because of the dynamic shader system we use, shader uploads occur frequently throughout gameplay and currently may stall the entire game when they occur. In our DirectX11 backend, shader uploads happen on the background threads, but the graphics driver (the AMD/Nvidia/Intel layer) processes them before the GPU can use them. It does so in its own threads that can be starved when the CPU usage is high. In that case, driver processing appears to happen in the main thread, causing stalls. Somewhat ironically, the additional multithreading we have been adding over the years actually makes this problem worse, as it increases overall CPU usage (in order to get faster frame rates). Thankfully, this is where Vulkan comes in. Among many other improvements, this rendering API lets you do everything in function calls we have full control over, letting us completely avoid these uncontrollable DirectX11 graphics driver stalls. Because there's no server component to the new renderer, the patch has been released without a full realm restart (so just restart your client to download it, whenever you're ready). Due to new shaders, the patch isn't tiny. To access the new Vulkan renderer, launch the game and go to the Graphics Options screen. Then change the Renderer option to "Vulkan (Beta)". It should take effect without you having to relaunch Path of Exile. The Vulkan renderer will not magically make your graphics card perform better than it previously did, but it will make performance a lot more consistent. This means that your peak frame rate will not increase, but you won't have anywhere near as many unpredictable spikes that were making the game feel stuttery and reducing average frame rate. Basically, this new renderer gives us complete control over how resources are managed, so we can tune it for Path of Exile's exact requirements. On many systems, this renderer is actually marginally slower than the DirectX11 one at the moment. This is something we can easily improve over the coming weeks (and aim to by the release of 3.11). Basically, Vulkan gives you a much better framework for making optimisations, and we have barely begun to scratch the surface of this. You may find that even in its marginally-slower state, the significant frame rate stability difference makes it worth using. But the main goal at the moment is stability testing while we work on getting the frame rate as fast as possible through optimisation. In addition, our Vulkan renderer will force texture detail to "Medium" on systems with less than 3gb of graphics memory. This means we can av...Delirium Uniques and Areas StatisticsMay 26, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsWe're currently in the 11th week of Delirium league and thought that now would be a great time to take a look at some statistics. We'll start by examining unique item usage. First, let's look at all character levels. Top 10 Uniques (All levels) Tabula Rasa Survival Instincts Perandus Blazon Atziri's Promise Watcher's Eye Lion's Roar Rumi's Concoction Fevered Mind Voices Goldrim As you can see, Tabula Rasa is the most-used unique when we look at all character levels. If we compare back to Legion league (which was the last time we publicly showed similar stats), we can see that this was the case then as well. Many of the uniques in this list are leveling uniques, though we do see some endgame uniques in here, primarily Watcher's Eye and Voices. Notably, Watcher's Eye didn't make it into the top ten in Legion league. Now let's take a look at unique usage for characters under level 70. Top 10 Uniques - Level The Press Tour Has Begun!May 25, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsThe press tour has begun which means that for the next week we'll be showing our upcoming expansion content to scores of journalists. This also means that our announcement is just around the corner - in fact, you'll be able to check out the announcement details in all their glory at 2pm June 2 (PDT). While we are on track to announce the expansion as scheduled, it's still too early to provide a firm confirmation of the expansion's launch date. As we mentioned last week, there is a possibility that it may be further delayed. The launch date will be confirmed alongside the announcement. In terms of the size of the expansion, it's in-line with most of our others like Delve, Incursion, Blight, etc., but smaller than our recent December expansions like Conquerors of the Atlas and Betrayal. You can expect all the hallmarks of a Path of Exile expansion like a new challenge league, improvements to existing content, new unique items, skill gems, support gems, rebalanced gameplay and more! This also means that you only have one more week to purchase the Delirium supporter packs before they're replaced by the upcoming 3.11 Supporter Packs. If you'd like more time to get yours, you can arrange a payment plan! You can find out more information about these supporter packs and payment plans here. As we mentioned last week, be sure to tune into ZiggyD's stream live when the announcement hits. He'll be streaming the new trailer, his insights into the expansion and then hosting a live expansion Q&A with Chris Wilson! While we can't reveal the details just yet, we know many of you are looking for any morsel of information. In honour of those of you, we're happy to reveal that the colour of the expansion logo is bright blue, yet this league definitely has many other colours. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled and your ear to the ground for other teasers that may crop up.Development Stories - The Conquerors of the AtlasMay 24, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsLaunched in December 2019, Conquerors of the Atlas introduced a new endgame storyline for Path of Exile. Nick, one of our narrative designers, describes the process of creating lore for the Conquerors in today's news post. Conquerors of the Atlas was the third major endgame update to Path of Exile's complex endgame, following War for the Atlas (which introduced the Elder) and Atlas of Worlds (which introduced the Shaper) before that. However, unlike those two updates, we were not simply adding a story or augmenting an existing story, but progressing it, and examining the consequences of those events from an outsider's perspective. How did it come about? Well I'm glad you asked me! We knew we were doing some endgame changes about 6 months ahead of the launch of Conquerors. What we didn't know was the scale of those changes, or what would happen to the existing Atlas and its associated storylines. And ExileCon was coming up quick, where we would be announcing not only this expansion, but the Metamorph league and the sequel to Path of Exile, which was also actively being worked on. We looked at our array of story elements, and at the current Atlas storyline. We considered replacements and changes to campaign elements, but ultimately, what appealed most was this idea that the community often echoes anyway: The Exiles have finally gone mad farming the Atlas. Now, it's one thing to have a cool hook like that. It's very different to turn that into a cohesive narrative. For one, which Exiles? It can't be the player's character, because the player's character is the one who has to go fix this mess. So it's a different set of Exiles, but they have to have access to the map device (and Zana). We spent a while working out the exact timeline of events. There were going to have to be changes (after all, for a lot of players, they WERE the Elderslayers!), but we wanted to keep them to an absolute minimum. If you read my post about integrating a league's story into the campaign, you might remember that we often bump up against the cyclical timeline of each league's launch. In short, it makes it difficult to 'progress' the narrative past the end of the campaign or maps. But with Conquerors, we were doing exactly that. We established characters fairly quickly. As is often the case, we knew what they would look like before anything else. Art tends to be months ahead of everything else in the pipeline. I wanted each character to stumble into a different type of madness, though early versions had them far more mad at the time the player found them than they ended up being. It was important that each character have a reason for their exile, even if it wasn't always spelled out, that set them at odds with Dominus and the Templar. It took a little while before the exact Atlas mechanics were nailed down, which meant that what those characters were doing, why the player wanted to pursue them, and how exactly the story developed was in flux for a while. When designing a na...Super Stash Sale - Community Organized Race EventsMay 21, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsWe're finishing preparation for the 3.11 press tour which starts next week while continuing to work on the expansion and its announcement which is currently planned for the 2nd of June (PDT). In other news - we're discounting every type of Stash Tab, including the Delve Tab, Unique Collection Tab, Fragment Tab, Map Tab, Premium Stash Tab Bundles, Premium Quad Stash Tab, Essence Tab, Divination Tab, Currency Tab and Guild Stash Tabs (PC only)! Press M in game to view the full selection of discounted stash tabs. The sale runs all weekend and ends at May 25, 2020 9:00 PM (PDT) (this is displayed in your local time). If you need some extra points, we recommend checking out the Delirium supporter packs, before they leave the store forever! In addition, community racing organizers Brittleknee and Rex are teaming up to host a series of events over the next two weekends! There's a race day planned this Saturday (May 23rd PDT) which includes a variety of events from Boss Rushes to an XP Race and should be quite exciting to watch! If you'd like to participate this Saturday, you can find additional information in this forum thread. Casting will be done live by ZiggyD and Octavian on www.twitch.tv/ziggydlive. Next Saturday (May 30th PDT), they are hosting a HC SSF Delirium Class Race to level to 80! Supporter Packs and Point Packs are on the line for not only the first overall, but the first three finishers in each class! In addition to these prizes, there will be a league-wide raffle for an additional twenty 200 Points Packs for anyone hitting level 80 prior before the time cutoff of 12 hours. This allows a wider range of participants the ability to potentially bring home a prize even if you’re not a top racer, or maybe can’t start right away due to time zones. More information about the class race including signup information can be found here. Thank you so much for your support! Have a lovely weekend everyone!Development Stories - Creating Synthesis LoreMay 20, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsOne of the most-enjoyed aspects of the Synthesis league was the lore the league explored. At the time, we didn't get a chance to talk much about it, so we're doing so now! (written by Nick, one of our narrative designers). Like most of our leagues, Synthesis started first as a few interconnected mechanics -- namely, the dissolving landscape and the tile-placement metagame. We decided early on in discussions that 'memory fragments', which had previously been established by the Atlas lore, would be a great representation for these dissolving landscapes. Immediately, I knew I wanted narration throughout these areas. We'd just come off the back of Betrayal, however, in which we'd run into issues with overlapping dialogue. As soon as we had playable prototypes for the dissolving areas, I tried to figure out approximately how much dialogue we could reliably fit into a run of one of these areas without running into overlapping or early-cutting off. Turns out, about a sentence or two. With our limits in place, writer Matt Dymerski and I set about establishing the central protagonist (Cavas) and the antagonist (Venarius) who, it would be revealed, were one and the same. We wanted a twist in the story, which was to be handled in a special memory early in the Atlas, but we didn't want it to come out of nowhere. A big consequence of the decision to have Cavas also be the league's villain was that we had to then have another character replace him as the narrator. Thus, Zana got to do double-duty that league, as both the Master Cartographer and the main point of contact for Synthesis after the twist. That you were interacting with Memory Fragments was the first clue to Cavas' true identity. Matt and I developed some 'key' memories which filled out Cavas' backstory, hinting at a particularly disturbing youth. One described his mother approaching the Templar for charity, and likely being abused by them. Another explored Cavas joining a group of people parading into Oriath Square to watch a young Karui slave being hanged. A third looked at Cavas' rise to power in the Templar, an organisation he initially felt he could help change, but which instead changed him. Our intention was to flesh out this otherwise-minor lore character while painting a more vivid picture of life in Oriath before Dominus. Prior to Synthesis, Venarius was just a name in a few paragraphs of lore. But those were not the only memories players got to experience! Once we had a list of the tilesets players would find during Synthesis, Matt and I took the opportunity to bring a lot more colour to the world. Players got to experience memories from famous lore figures (such as Raulo/Fidelitas and Brutus), as well as nameless residents of Wraeclast from throughout history. Some described the early days of the Elder's predation of Wraeclast's earliest inhabitants, some at the time immediately before, during, and after Malachai's cataclysm, and others explored the more mundane daily lives of people (in...The Delirium Supporter Packs Are Ending SoonMay 19, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsIn a few weeks we'll be announcing our next expansion and its challenge league. As you know, with the announcement we usually release a new set of league supporter packs, which means the current Delirium Supporter Packs will be removed from the store forever. There are two pairs of Delirium Supporter Packs available in the store, the Fateweaver and the Darkseer. Each of the two pairs is designed in its own style and has different contents, so you can choose whichever one you prefer (or both). You can upgrade from the smaller one in a pair to the larger one. All of the microtransactions from the Supporter Packs are exclusive and will not appear in the store again. If you're interested in getting one of the Delirium Supporter Packs but you're not sure you'll be able to do so in time, we'd recommend setting up a payment plan which can reserve a pack for you for up to three months after the commencement of your plan. Just email us in advance at [email protected], we'll be happy to help you! Additionally, if you have purchased any plain points packs since February 25th (PDT), you can use this in an upgrade to one of the Delirium Supporter Packs! You can credit up to 80% of the value of your desired supporter pack towards an upgrade. For example, if you purchased a $10 point pack you could then upgrade to the Fateweaver or Darkseer Supporter Pack for $20. You'd then receive the remainder of the contents of the pack, excluding the points you already purchased before the upgrade. The Delirium Supporter Packs on consoles will be replaced with the new ones alongside the launch of our next expansion. Thank you so much for your support!Tentative Announcement of the AnnouncementMay 18, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsWe know many of you are eagerly waiting for an update about when to expect our next expansion announcement and launch. This news post will let you know the timeline that we're currently working to but also explain the tricky nature of predicting when the expansion will launch. As many of you are already aware, we have completed 8 of the 13 weeks of this development cycle from home which is a significant amount of lost time in terms of face-to-face and group collaboration. Our team worked hard to quickly adjust to the new work paradigm but there have definitely been some difficulties in working this way that have made development a little slower. Due to this, we have already internally delayed the expansion's launch by one week from its originally-expected launch date. It is very important to us that we release a high-quality expansion in June, and we will take the time to do this if we feel that we need an additional week or two. While we tried hard to achieve this within our regular 13 week schedule, development certainly has not been business-as-usual over the last few months. We are currently planning to announce the 3.11 expansion on June 2 at 2pm (PDT), roughly two weeks from now. This means that we're working toward a launch date of June 19 for PC and June 24 for console. However, it's extremely important to note that more so than any past expansion, it's very possible this launch will be further delayed. The pandemic has made safely predicting the release date of this league very difficult. There's currently a reasonable possibility that the expansion will be delayed by an additional week and a low chance that it will be delayed further beyond that. We usually prefer to only make these kind of timelines posts when we're more sure of a date but feel that as more time passes, the more people would become frustrated with not knowing what to expect, so it feels important to at least make you aware of the tentative nature of these things. In good news, for this announcement you can expect our usual trailer, development commentary, journalist coverage and announcement page. However, we're spicing things up just a little bit! When our announcement goes live, ZiggyD will be streaming our trailer, his inside coverage of the expansion and then hosting a live Q&A with Chris Wilson about the upcoming content. This is an hour-long event that you'll be able to view live on Twitch! More details to come.Developer Interview - Skyler - Gameplay ProgrammerMay 17, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsContinuing with our developer interviews, we took a moment to talk with Skyler, one of our gameplay programmers who joined the team last year. Check it out below. Hi Skyler! Thanks for taking part in the interview. Please introduce yourself. Hi! My name is Skyler and I'm a gameplay programmer at Grinding Gear Games since about October of last year. I was born in Alaska where I grew up, attended college at the University of Utah, and now I'm here in NZ learning how to be a proper kiwi. Could you tell us a bit about your current role at GGG? As a gameplay programmer I pretty much do anything and everything programming related that has to do with gameplay: implementing unique items, hooking up new stats, making skills, and more. When did you find out about Path of Exile? I started playing Path of Exile about 7 years ago when I was in highschool and 1.0 came out. I had a good friend who told me about it and I had fond memories of D2 as a kid so I gave it a go. Been playing almost every league since. What was the moment that got you hooked on the game? I think for me it was a combination of two things. First was definitely the theorycrafting. I've probably spent as much or more time using offline skill tree planners and the wiki as I have actually playing the game. Before Path of Building (thanks OpenARL!) I would be in class writing down numbers from the wiki and the offline skill tree and doing manual arithmetic on paper to estimate the total DPS of some build idea. I'd spend hours on this stuff, sometimes being unable to go to sleep until I planned out a build idea floating around in my head. Second was probably the community. I've been checking the Path of Exile reddit multiple times daily for about the last seven years. I just absolutely love the builds people come up with and learning more about the game through others. Plus those few weeks leading up to a league launch are always pretty magical. The hype train is infectious. You knew Chris prior to joining us. How did you meet? I was actually extremely lucky in meeting Chris. I was just finishing up my senior year at University of Utah in 2019 and was attending the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. A friend let me borrow their VIP pass and encouraged me to go to a talk. I noticed Chris was one of the speakers and this piqued my interest. After the talk I asked him about job opportunities and he gave me his email and discord. I was shocked to say the least. I'm also a bit ashamed to admit, but I definitely got a selfie with him to show the friend who introduced me to the game all those years ago hahaha. When did you know that you wanted to work in the video game industry? I had decided I wanted to make games since about my junior year of high school, so it was definitely a long term plan for me. I was always very keen on the old adage "work a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life". Of course every job will feel like work sometimes, but I generally feel very privileged ...Screenshots of Path of Exile Bosses - Huge Sale on Weapon and ShieldsMay 14, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsWe're continuing to share screenshots of Path of Exile bosses from Act One. Have a look at them below. If you're interested in seeing more screenshots, check them out here and here. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/9d945ecdfaec616ed0039a3670a62de36c36191e.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/be7576253004e3e12d8e6865dc47e9e1170005a0.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/80a55a17cc59ef65a4a3ffa17dc18d08a74eb825.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/01e49bfdc981098150d5729e2da77b852eac4b9d.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/f7c7c7201e0ca205666c74477058c70ad39f4ae5.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/0da8151540374e70251684ad6b340bef0b7facd5.jpg This weekend we're running a sale on a huge selection of weapon skins, weapon effects and shields with more than 150 cosmetic effects available at discounted prices, including the Darkprism Weapon Effect, Celestial Shield, Heartseeker Weapon and more. Please note that this sale excludes some of the weapon and shield microtransactions introduced since the launch of the Delirium expansion. The sale will run from the time of this post until May 19, 2020 4:00 PM (PDT). Check out the full list of specials by pressing M in game. Thanks for your support! Have a great weekend everyone!Most Popular Microtransactions of All TimeMay 13, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsIn today's news post, we're taking a look at all microtransactions from Path of Exile's beginning to see which microtransactions in each category have sold the most and discussing the various factors that contribute to this. Before we begin, it's worth noting that all microtransactions featured below are ordered by quantity purchased rather than how much they contribute to overall sales. Let's start with Armour Sets. Released in 2015, the Infernal Armour Set became an absolute hit amongst the community, holding the top position even five years later. Interestingly enough, while only two out of the ten armour packs in this list can be considered as relatively new, both represent the most popular microtransaction themes, Celestial and Stygian. It's also worth noting that these stats skew towards older microtransactions simply because there's been a longer amount of time to purchase them. More recently released microtransactions are at a disadvantage for appearing in these lists as there has been less time to purchase them. Armour Sets Infernal Armour Demon King Armour Seraph Armour Celestial Armour Arcane Armour Stygian Armour Elite Pack Arctic Armour Ghostflame Armour Vampiric Armour Looking at back attachments, we can see that the majority of players who purchase cosmetic effects prefer actual wings and wing-like attachments (the bigger the better!). The Exile's Essentials Back Attachment is in third place which is most likely a result of it being the very first back attachment we've released alongside its low price. Another microtransaction from the early days of Path of Exile, the Seraph Wings, remains popular even now, which is quite interesting as most of the old cosmetic effects tend to taper off in sales over time. Back Attachments Gloom Wings Seraph Wings Exile's Essentials Back Attachment Tentacle Wings Dragon Hunter Wings Celestial Wings Ultimate Chaos Wings Phoenix Wings Seraph Spirit Wings Celestial Hooded Cloak Now onto Character Effects. With the Celestial theme being so popular, it's not a surprise that Celestial microtransactions made it to the top in almost every category. However, many people also enjoy bloody and dark character effects for their Exiles (Bat Swarm and Ultimate Chaos effect in the top three). Character Effects Celestial Character Effect Bat Swarm Effect Ultimate Chaos Character Effect Sin Character Effect Fire Character Effect Arcane Character Effect Seraph Character Effect Innocence Character Effect Arctic Character Effect Bone Aura Character Effect Just like with Armour Sets, the Infernal theme prevails in the Footprints category. Yet again, the majority of microtransactions in this list have been released a long time ago which is the most likely cause of them being so high in the list. Footprints Infernal Footprints Ultimate Chaos Footprints Lightning Footprints Ebony Footprints Necrotic Footprints Celestial Footprints Ghostflame Footprints Radiant Footprints Sin Footprints Fire Footprints {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/51...Integrating League Stories into Existing LoreMay 12, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsWhen working on a new league, finding a way to integrate its story into Path of Exile's existing lore is always a challenge. Nick, one of our narrative designers, has written an article to give you a behind the scenes look at the "Day Zero" rule they keep in mind when introducing a new story into the current lore. Who remembers Talisman League? While not one of the most popular leagues, Talisman was a turning point in Path of Exile's league design philosophy. Prior to Talisman, Standard and Hardcore each got a separate league mechanic, with the mechanic designed to be a layer that sits on top of Path of Exile's core gameplay. There was a time when a league could just be some new monster mods! But Talisman changed that. It introduced a new set of items, a progression, an endgame boss, and a story. After Talisman, every league was to feature these things. When we're working on a new league, finding a way to integrate it into Path of Exile's expansive lore is always a challenge. Here's why: Unlike your typical MMORPG, Path of Exile features regular 'resets'. When you create a character in an MMO, you're stepping into a living world that could have years of real-time events already built into it. But in Path of Exile, when you create a character, you are entering a very specific moment in time; Dominus rules Oriath with an iron (or golden?) fist, and you have been exiled to the shores of the forsaken continent of Wraeclast. Kitava has not risen. The Elder and Shaper are at war, yet to be conquered. Past leagues may exist, but their big bad bosses haven't been bested by the Exile yet because, well, the Exile is currently face-down in the sand. Every league's story must begin from the player's Day of Exile. I call this the "Day Zero" rule. We often bump up against this rule during league design. People are eager to build upon previous league lore, or have characters reference the events of a past league, but in almost all cases, doing so would cause chronology issues. I'm always the most adamant proponent of the rule. It may sound nitpicky (and it probably is!) but, to me, it serves some very important purposes. For starters, it ensures there's no weirdness with characters acknowledging things that the player has not yet done or encountered. An NPC discussing the purging of the Blight before the player discovers Cassia is bound to cause some confusion. It also forces us to be friendlier to new players. With every league, we have some number of players who have never before tried Path of Exile. In addition to all the complex mechanics they have to learn just to enjoy the main story, they typically have a B-story to follow (the current league). Throwing references to past leagues into the mix muddies the waters. The most recent example of us encountering the Day Zero rule is Delirium. The Strange Voice begins talking at a certain point during the Campaign because the events immediately preceding allow it to do so. The cost of adhering to this rule was th...Community ShowcaseMay 11, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsWe're always happy to show off the talents of our players to the wider community. For today's news post we gathered several pieces of recently submitted Path of Exile fan art. Check them below! Young Golemancer by KungFuPanda2 {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/3ed20e601f46d5ce8914011deddda9cbf17613c7.jpg Nine-Tailed Fox Pet Air Brush by Cocaneman {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/829143bfd5ef45f87f7261b3ebb6c11e988d4a49.jpg Strange Voice and Voices Fanart by HoldimProvae {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/d47783c7e1a932e6ce87b4816238338bf7975f49.png Solaris by yellowsubmarinedude {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/43148f4e7101355e138cf77b113f357446d19ac1.jpg Strange Voice Fanart by Doranex {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/8ff20bd040053aa29f78b87b12d8440dcf0ee3a1.jpg The Twilight Strand Painting by recoilwhenyouwake's Mum {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/1b11009d5f19d75f0411879883bbaf90504933c7.jpg Developer Interview - James - Game DesignerMay 10, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsAs you know, sometimes we hire talented people straight from the community. James (aka viperesque), a subreddit moderator and long-time community member you may be familiar with, joined our team a few months ago. We recently asked him to share some insight about his background and time with us. We hope you enjoy this interview. Hi James! Thanks for taking part in the interview! Please introduce yourself. Hi! I’m James, but in Path of Exile circles more people will know me as viperesque from the forums, reddit or Discord. I’ve been working at GGG as a game designer since January this year. Tell us a bit about your current role at GGG. Before I started working to get this job, I didn’t really appreciate how many different tasks were involved in game design in Path of Exile! Turns out there are a lot of hats to wear. The roles which I expect people associate most with it are coming up with ideas and doing balance adjustments for items, skill and support gems, crafting systems, and so on. That’s definitely a big part of it, but for example, setup and scripting for monsters and encounters are also designer roles and end up being a significant portion of the job (though I’m only just starting to graduate from simple monsters myself). There are also things like bug catching, visual effects implementation, level design and preparing materials for announcements. It’s also an extremely collaborative role — whether the initial idea for a feature or change comes from a designer or someone else, it almost always needs to go to another person (a programmer, animator, artist, level designer, sound designer, or anyone else) to be created, and then sent back to the designer to be implemented into the game. That’s been one of my unexpected favourite things about the position so far, because you get to work with so many people throughout the company and learn little bits about how they do their jobs. How and when did you find out about Path of Exile? A friend of mine had been a closed beta supporter, and told our whole group of gamer friends about Path of Exile when it went into open beta. So I first found out about it in February 2013, and have been playing regularly ever since. What was the moment that got you hooked on the game? It wasn’t a single moment. Even in 2013, Path of Exile was such a complicated game that it took months to fully appreciate it. That said, I can pick out a few exciting events. I remember I’d been wishing for years for more RPGs that took character customisation seriously without having turn-based or terrible gameplay, so that first time seeing the passive tree was definitely more of a “Hell yes!” for me than the “What the hell?” that I know many people experience. Getting my first real build (Marohi Ground Slam, already going out of style in early 2013 if we’re being honest) to endgame after two or three false starts made me feel like I was starting to understand the game, though I was so wrong. About 100 hours into Docks farming with Sp...Winners of the Screenshot CompetitionMay 7, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsEarlier this week we concluded our Screenshot Competition where our players were encouraged to take screenshots of any in-game content they want. Having looked through hundreds of submissions, we managed to select winners and are ready to announce them today! In addition, we're offering a special prize (Demon Parasite Armour Set, Demon Parasite Back Attachment, Blood Guard Character Effect, 2 x Thaumaturgy Mystery Boxes) to the most popular submission amongst our community. We uploaded all the screenshots listed below to this album in our Facebook group. To vote for your favourite screenshot, just hit the 'Like' button on it! The screenshot with the most amount of 'Likes' wins. We'll announce the fan-favourite submission next Monday (May 11th) at 1pm NZT in our Twitter. Top Five Winners {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/7e8429d9e74f8323db7787c4917c51b6f39811fb.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/b684e28324c9b1fad67073ce2c85d5c35e8dc9cb.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/82f80a0845a0e89f9563a40a05059beb0c6f9aa1.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/e4f51515a7497bb1cd4af634eb58cc901e85c81b.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/d769f25a15df812188a1468ac61b65c9222d4100.jpg Check out the rest of the winners here! Screenshots of Path of Exile BossesMay 6, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsLast week we started a series of news with screenshots of Path of Exile bosses and unique monsters you encounter throughout the game. The first set of screenshots was received well by our community, so we're happy to keep releasing such images from time to time. Check out more screenshots of Act One bosses below. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/29a2fa4d6590d4e107ed4f8c05d0b3d6cca78bf2.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/0b5ecebaf4250f83d573f4611d42c98f79ece402.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/ff8c7e310544b88d19669da7c98a11a868ad21ce.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/12e3048f658344e2e22ba7b478953c1a98a57639.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/fd0e18111424444b86e53f225c501a9dc5767eee.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/3b8cccfa6392443e10845fc24cadb69ed8a27765.jpgHideout ShowcaseMay 5, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsIt's been a while since we've shown off hideouts created by our players. For today's news post we've selected several interesting hideouts submitted to our Hideout Showcase forum section since the start of the Delirium League. Watch the video below! Here is a list of hideouts featured in this video: The Graveyard by Arthur_von_Schreyer Volcanic Road by ZakkPerish New York, New York by FallMakesHideouts Venice by TallBird Ghost Ship by Susihukka5 Blood of Corruption by Path_of_Derrok MONT OLYMPE by LeShor Tree of Life by LeShor Celestial Gate by Noooberino The Pirate Bay by Synopsis In case any of these hideouts inspired you to decorate your own, check out our big hideout sale that just started! A huge selection of decorations are available at discounted prices for a week, including various building supplies, environment effects and hideout templates! Please note that this sale excludes new hideout decorations which were introduced since the release of the Delirium expansion. The sale runs all week alongside other daily deals, and ends at May 12, 2020 9:00 PM (PDT). Press M in game to view the full selection of discounts. Thank you for your support!Screenshot Competition HighlightsMay 4, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsYesterday we concluded our Screenshot Competition! While we're looking through your entries in order to select the winners, we'd like to showcase some cool submissions one more time before announcing the results. Check them out below! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/9a79815e7a1fbc8f36afd49b7efd19c79a7a8e92.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/e4f51515a7497bb1cd4af634eb58cc901e85c81b.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/06e2c7bb87f3a99d477a13c42c8fdc0c6ffbb89e.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/6d81360435b5622d02223110b73b01ed2d19127a.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/2cbefe5ca4ddfe5f1b2690612f2cd51d9a5d5654.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/58bfdf6794bec58fbe9becbaa0a01888a636e22b.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/ad875363e70e7d9c5100c562f56486777af54836.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/2861aa3bed6f1da9c00473dbc8c599a0d25c00cb.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/c730d52a946726000241c38e1382555ca62e1e5b.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/d769f25a15df812188a1468ac61b65c9222d4100.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/06f2ebb1a653c2a56451ef7501bed07c69782dab.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/f18b4172ec1d8c73eaceba40e971c18e374ff384.png {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/f84345d198075371441de7082397fa04485ff498.jpg {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/5193306/7a3b685a133f6a555244baaaac3b82dac040c380.jpg Path of Exile Proves Once Again It Has One of the Most Loyal Fan Bases on SteamJun 4, 2018 - GitHypLast August, Path of Exile came just two thousand players short of hitting 100k for the first time ever. A bittersweet moment for the developers at Grinding Gear Games who certainly would have liked to finally break six figures, but who had also more than doubled the player base of their four-year-old game in a year's time.
Now, after its usual seasonal player base slump, Path of Exile has once again come just shy of breaking six figures with the free-to-play game’s new 'Incursion' update. The latest time-traveling expansion saw an impressive peak of 96k players on Steam over the weekend with recent reviews from players remaining Very Positive.
[caption id="attachment_351571" align="aligncenter" width="770"]
Path of Exile Peak Concurrent Players on Steam via GitHyp[/caption]
By doubling May’s peak of only 42k players, Grinding Gear Games have again proved they have one of the most loyal followings on Steam. Since 2013, Path of Exile has seen its share of highs and lows, but continued updates and improvements from the developers have always managed to keep players coming back for more.
At the moment, Path of Exile is back to being the #4 most played game on Steam and it's just a matter of time before one of these big updates finally puts PoE over the 100,000 mark.Path of Exile Hits New Milestone at #4 on Steam Just Short of 100k PlayersAug 12, 2017 - GitHypBack in December, we reported that Path of Exile had reached its highest player count ever on Steam with 46k concurrent players. Now, eight months later, the popular action role-playing game has already doubled that prior record bringing in a new all-time high of 98k players and reaching #4 on Steam.
When looking at PoE’s player counts over the past few months, you might think the game was in trouble seeing a 73% drop in its playerbase. Yet, the recent spike comes as no surprise. PoE has one of the most unique and loyal playerbases on Steam and the developers at Grinding Gear Games know how to keep fans always coming back for more.
The most recent spike in players comes after the release of "The Fall of Oriath" expansion on August 4th. The first big update since March, which adds new acts, leagues, divine powers, and of course a whole lot more highly-anticipated loot.
[caption id="attachment_283819" align="aligncenter" width="795"]
Path of Exile's Peak Concurrent Players on Steam via GitHyp[/caption]
Aside from constant waves of new content released by the devs every few months, PoE’s success has also come from its free-to-play business model which has been embraced by the community. The latest microtransaction reveal currently sits at a 99% approval rating on YouTube and the game has maintained very positive reviews on Steam.
Another big factor contributing to PoE’s success has been Twitch. Some of the most popular streamers such a LIRIK, DansGaming, and itmeJP have all helped boost the game to a new all-time high of 76k peak viewers. Again, more than double the previous record of 34k viewers back in March on Twitch.
As expected, Path of Exile’s playerbase is already on the decline since the release of the latest expansion. Dropping 24% one week after its record-setting weekend. Still, even with another potential 70%+ dropoff in players in the coming months, ARPG fans are sure to come back and help Path of Exile break 100k players in the coming months when the next big update hits.Path of Exile Reaches Its Highest Concurrent Player Count Ever on SteamDec 12, 2016 - GitHypReleased a little over three years ago back in 2013, Path of Exile’s playerbase continues to grow with each new content update that developer, Grinding Gear Games, releases on Steam. Most recently, the playerbase for PoE reached a new all-time high just two days after the December 2 release of Content Update 2.5.0: Breach.
The Diablo-inspired action RPG has been one of Steam’s most played games for years, but on December 4, Path of Exile broke its previous all-time peak player record by bringing in an impressive 46,733 concurrent players in a single hour. And in doing so, the Breach update also helped PoE reach its highest ranking ever on Steam coming in at #5.
[caption id="attachment_224765" align="aligncenter" width="770"]
Path of Exile's Peak Player Count Per Hour Data via GitHyp[/caption]
The previous highest peak for PoE was back in March 2016 when the game’s fourth major expansion, Ascendancy, brought in 36,913 players during its launch week. So when comparing the two record-setting peaks, Breach’s launch has crushed Ascendancy with a 21% increase in players -- an impressive number, especially considering the age of the game.
As expected, Breach's second weekend had a slight dip, but still managed to pull in 40k+ peak player days. The player counts for PoE always dip back down over the months following a big new update or season, but the developers at GGG seem to always find a way to bring players right back with enticing new features. Their latest launch has proven this once again becoming their most successful update yet which has grown the game’s playerbase significantly.
With the current player counts higher than ever and recent user feedback on Steam being overwhelmingly positive, the future looks bright for both new and returning players venturing into Path of Exile’s dark fantasy world of Wraeclast.
Path of Exile Peak Concurrent Players on Steam via GitHyp[/caption]
By doubling May’s peak of only 42k players, Grinding Gear Games have again proved they have one of the most loyal followings on Steam. Since 2013, Path of Exile has seen its share of highs and lows, but continued updates and improvements from the developers have always managed to keep players coming back for more.
At the moment, Path of Exile is back to being the #4 most played game on Steam and it's just a matter of time before one of these big updates finally puts PoE over the 100,000 mark.Path of Exile Hits New Milestone at #4 on Steam Just Short of 100k PlayersAug 12, 2017 - GitHypBack in December, we reported that Path of Exile had reached its highest player count ever on Steam with 46k concurrent players. Now, eight months later, the popular action role-playing game has already doubled that prior record bringing in a new all-time high of 98k players and reaching #4 on Steam.
When looking at PoE’s player counts over the past few months, you might think the game was in trouble seeing a 73% drop in its playerbase. Yet, the recent spike comes as no surprise. PoE has one of the most unique and loyal playerbases on Steam and the developers at Grinding Gear Games know how to keep fans always coming back for more.
The most recent spike in players comes after the release of "The Fall of Oriath" expansion on August 4th. The first big update since March, which adds new acts, leagues, divine powers, and of course a whole lot more highly-anticipated loot.
[caption id="attachment_283819" align="aligncenter" width="795"]
Path of Exile's Peak Concurrent Players on Steam via GitHyp[/caption]
Aside from constant waves of new content released by the devs every few months, PoE’s success has also come from its free-to-play business model which has been embraced by the community. The latest microtransaction reveal currently sits at a 99% approval rating on YouTube and the game has maintained very positive reviews on Steam.
Another big factor contributing to PoE’s success has been Twitch. Some of the most popular streamers such a LIRIK, DansGaming, and itmeJP have all helped boost the game to a new all-time high of 76k peak viewers. Again, more than double the previous record of 34k viewers back in March on Twitch.
As expected, Path of Exile’s playerbase is already on the decline since the release of the latest expansion. Dropping 24% one week after its record-setting weekend. Still, even with another potential 70%+ dropoff in players in the coming months, ARPG fans are sure to come back and help Path of Exile break 100k players in the coming months when the next big update hits.Path of Exile Reaches Its Highest Concurrent Player Count Ever on SteamDec 12, 2016 - GitHypReleased a little over three years ago back in 2013, Path of Exile’s playerbase continues to grow with each new content update that developer, Grinding Gear Games, releases on Steam. Most recently, the playerbase for PoE reached a new all-time high just two days after the December 2 release of Content Update 2.5.0: Breach.
The Diablo-inspired action RPG has been one of Steam’s most played games for years, but on December 4, Path of Exile broke its previous all-time peak player record by bringing in an impressive 46,733 concurrent players in a single hour. And in doing so, the Breach update also helped PoE reach its highest ranking ever on Steam coming in at #5.
[caption id="attachment_224765" align="aligncenter" width="770"]
Path of Exile's Peak Player Count Per Hour Data via GitHyp[/caption]
The previous highest peak for PoE was back in March 2016 when the game’s fourth major expansion, Ascendancy, brought in 36,913 players during its launch week. So when comparing the two record-setting peaks, Breach’s launch has crushed Ascendancy with a 21% increase in players -- an impressive number, especially considering the age of the game.
As expected, Breach's second weekend had a slight dip, but still managed to pull in 40k+ peak player days. The player counts for PoE always dip back down over the months following a big new update or season, but the developers at GGG seem to always find a way to bring players right back with enticing new features. Their latest launch has proven this once again becoming their most successful update yet which has grown the game’s playerbase significantly.
With the current player counts higher than ever and recent user feedback on Steam being overwhelmingly positive, the future looks bright for both new and returning players venturing into Path of Exile’s dark fantasy world of Wraeclast.
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