Awaken, awaken

MustaKrakish, MustaKrakish....

Well, hello there! I thought that today I'd write a little bit about the forthcoming expansion for Path of Exile that is due out this week. I'm pretty excited. In the past I've spent quite a bit of time playing Path of Exile with great enjoyment, but had stopped in the past few months due to stagnation. However, the new expansion promises things to make the game fresh again, so I'm sure that I'll be hooked again for a month (or three).

If this was a real tree, it would just be the top, folks.

Path of Exile is an action role playing game with a strong multiplayer component published by New Zealand company Grinding Gear Games. It's 100% free to play. There is nothing to buy and no hidden cost. You simply create an account and download the client. The game makes money through what GGG calls "ethical micro-transactions." Most of these micro transactions are cosmetic effects for your character, your character's items, or the skills your character uses. They are also transferable between characters, so you don't have to continually re-buy effects that you really enjoy. As far as gameplay goes, it's very comparable to the Diablo series. I like Diablo, but I prefer Path of Exile due to the greater depth of character customization and how skills work. Skills are allocated through points you get from leveling mostly, but also from some quests. You allocate them into "nodes" on a massive skill tree that is very similar to the sphere grid from Final Fantasy 10. The abilities that your character can use are not locked based on the class you choose. Instead, you loot gems from drops and quests that you then socket into your weapons and armor. Sound familiar?  Anyways, the game really ticks many of the boxes for someone who is both a fan of Diablo and the Final Fantasy series.

Sure is dark in here

The new expansion, "Awakening", is the second major expansion for Path of Exile since its original release date of October 23rd, 2013. In this expansion, players will be introduced to act IV, set to the north in Highgate, with the accompanying new quests and monster types. The new story line centers around the awakening of a beast that has been laying dormant under the earth. Apparently, as part of act IV, adventurers will be going inside of the beast to destroy it from within. Sounds like equal parts Chrono Trigger and Contra, I'm sold! Of course, with this major content release, there will be a slew of new skills, new items, and tweaks to the aforementioned skill tree.

However, something I'm personally looking forward to the most is the new "deterministic lockstep" system they are introducing to combat desync. Desync is when, because of lag, there is a discrepancy between where your computer shows your character and where the actual game server registers your character at. This is what causes "rubber banding". It's annoying in non-hardcore leagues, but it's extremely dangerous when playing hardcore leagues. You rubber band, you die. Have fun re-rolling! So here's to hoping that this new system gets that sorted. They've also said that they are adding more international servers, which should help the sizable crowd of players from around the world.

I'm also really looking forward to seeing how the new unique jewels interplay with the skill tree. You will be able to socket these gems into certain areas of the tree to change the modifiers the tree gives you. For example, certain parts of the tree are very heavy on a certain ability score, like strength. If you were wanting to play a caster character, you'd much rather those "nodes" become intelligence. So, using one of these unique gems, you will effectively be able to change the bonus to something much more useful to your character's build than strength. It looks as if the gems will have different rarity levels, akin to other items in the game, so that more powerful gems will be much harder to get.

And of course, there're the leagues. The place where all new players should get their start. Fresh economies, bootstrapping, 'Murica! The two leagues that will start on the 10th are "Warbands" and "Tempest." As usual, one will be a standard league (re:no permadeath) and one will be hardcore (re: you die, bye bye). The Warbands league is defined by warring clans that have spread across the map. Apparently, when you engage a group, they will use complimentary skills and work together to take you down. At higher levels, they might even have a leader with them to guide them and failing that, kill you. In "Tempest", there are magical whirlwinds located across the land with various powers that can help you, hurt you, or do the same to your enemies. At first blush, it sounds quite a bit like the shrines that already exist in the game, but I have faith that GGG has crafted something fresh and engaging. Both leagues will have unique items specific to only their league, so if you want to collect them all, you'll have to play both leagues. Also, there will be a new set of challenges for these leagues. Completing these challenges will grant you a totem pole decoration for your hideout that will grow in height with each one you muscle through. Having completed some of the challenges for leagues before, a few will be simple, but most will be time consuming or hard. Good luck!

Path of Exile: Awakening will release Friday the 10th of July at 1 PM PDT/3 PM CST. If you are playing, feel free to add me to your friends list. My id is....."Nerdstalgic." Ta-daaaaaa!  See you in game, hopefully!


Path of Exile website

Awakening release trailer