Version 1.1.0: Sacrifice of the Vaal

Notes:

Due to substantial balance changes, every existing character has been granted an optional full passive reset. To use this, click the "Reset all Passives" button on the passive skill screen. Note that you must use this before allocating or refunding any other points otherwise the option will go away.



New Four-Month Challenge Leagues:

Four month challenge leagues are a great opportunity for a fresh start. All your old characters and items are still present in the Standard and Hardcore leagues, but you're encouraged to join the new economies, complete challenges and climb the ladder!

The new challenge leagues include a set of eight new challenges! If you complete all of them, you'll receive an exclusive Ambush/Invasion challenge shirt. 23 players completed all the challenges in the last pair of four-month leagues.

Ambush : Various new types of chests called Strongboxes can be found throughout Wraeclast. These chests are guarded by monsters that ambush the player when they are opened. The ambushing monsters must be slain before the contents of the Strongbox can be claimed. Sometimes you'll encounter magic, rare or unique Strongboxes which have mods like items do. Prefixes affect the difficulty of the ambush by adding more monsters, springing traps or affecting your character. Suffixes improve your rewards from the Strongbox. You can use currency items to reroll these mods. One of the new challenges is to open Strongboxes with each mod.

: Various new types of chests called Strongboxes can be found throughout Wraeclast. These chests are guarded by monsters that ambush the player when they are opened. The ambushing monsters must be slain before the contents of the Strongbox can be claimed. Sometimes you'll encounter magic, rare or unique Strongboxes which have mods like items do. Prefixes affect the difficulty of the ambush by adding more monsters, springing traps or affecting your character. Suffixes improve your rewards from the Strongbox. You can use currency items to reroll these mods. One of the new challenges is to open Strongboxes with each mod. Invasion : Invasion is a Hardcore league (characters who die are converted to Standard characters). In the Invasion league, areas of Wraeclast have substantially more monster variety, so players will run into unexpected and dangerous invading monsters from other levels or acts. A unique boss monster from an invading monster type is also lurking in each level. Higher difficulty levels contain expanded monster variety and the invading bosses with more abilities. One of the new challenges is to kill each invading Unique monster.

: Invasion is a Hardcore league (characters who die are converted to Standard characters). In the Invasion league, areas of Wraeclast have substantially more monster variety, so players will run into unexpected and dangerous invading monsters from other levels or acts. A unique boss monster from an invading monster type is also lurking in each level. Higher difficulty levels contain expanded monster variety and the invading bosses with more abilities. One of the new challenges is to kill each invading Unique monster. A new item type has been added to the challenge leagues: Unset Ring. It's a ring with a socket as its implicit property.

Eight new types of quivers have been added to the challenge leagues. The old quiver types do not exist in the challenge leagues.

Out of the 13 total Unique items added in this update, there are two new Unique items that can only drop in either challenge league, plus one that can only drop in Ambush and one that can only drop in Invasion.



Major Features/Content:

Added a final encounter with Queen Atziri and her guardians in the Apex of Sacrifice. To access it, cleanse areas of Vaal corruption and look for fragments of their ancient civilisation. There's a competition where the first 50 players to kill Atziri and her guardians in each of the new challenge leagues will receive an exclusive Vaal-themed character effect. More information will be announced in the news.

As you explore Wraeclast, you'll occasionally find Vaal-influenced secret corrupted areas that are indicated by a glowing, beating heart and swirling ribbons of blood. These corrupted areas have magical properties, similar to end-game maps, which substantially increase their difficulty. At the heart of each corrupted area is a new boss monster, guarding a chest that is guaranteed to drop a Vaal Skill Gem or Vaal Fragment. End-game maps do not contain secret corrupted areas.

The Vaal civilization may have existed thousands of years ago, but it had its own form of Skill Gems. Brutally powerful and fueled by the sacrifice of foes, these gems are the ultimate version of many contemporary Path of Exile skills. Vaal Skill Gems charge up as you kill enemies and can be unleashed for a devastating effect. Where applicable, cosmetic microtransaction effects do work on the equivalent Vaal skills. There are 17 Vaal Skills Gems in this patch and more will be added in later updates.

Added a new currency item: Vaal Orb . It corrupts a target item, modifying it unpredictably. Once an item is corrupted, further currency cannot be applied to it. This includes restoring imprints. There are many possible outcomes of corruption, some of which may be undesirable. Consider its use carefully!

. It corrupts a target item, modifying it unpredictably. Once an item is corrupted, further currency cannot be applied to it. This includes restoring imprints. There are many possible outcomes of corruption, some of which may be undesirable. Consider its use carefully! Added over 60 new boss monsters for secret corrupted areas and the Invasion league. They use complex combinations of skills and can be very dangerous. Higher difficulty versions often use more skills and supports.

Added a new monster to Act One and Act Three: Soulless Watcher . It uses a charged up attack that blinds you if you're facing it.

. It uses a charged up attack that blinds you if you're facing it. Free-for-all PvP is available in the Sarn Arena (at the top of the steps in the Sarn Encampment). Normal and Cruel difficulty Arenas have level caps of 40 and 60 respectively.

Added 13 new Unique Items, some of which are Vaal themed and can only be dropped by Atziri herself.

We've added some new cosmetic microtransaction skins: Seraph Body Armour, Seraph Helmet, Seraph Boots and Seraph Gloves. There's also a bundle that contains all four.

Information on cut-throat events will be announced soon!



Minor Features/Content:

Added a new armour base type which only drops from Queen Atziri: Sacrificial Garb.

Dozens of Unique items have been updated with their own 3d art.

Many monsters throughout Wraeclast have been updated with improved death animations. This includes zombie dismemberment.

Waypoints now have effects that indicate whether they are activated or not.

You are now able to select between multiple OpenAL audio devices in the audio options.

If you don't have a full bar of Stash Tabs, a button is now shown next to your last tab that allows you to purchase more.

Vaal items can now also be found in the Vaults of Atziri.

World objects that drop quest items now have green text.

Golden Chests have been removed from most areas due to Corrupted Secret Areas taking over some of their role. They still exist in the Vaults of Atziri for the achievement.

Several new shrine icons have been added so that the shrines can be more easily distinguished.

Continued to incrementally improve the sound, art, effects and environments.



General Balance:

Shrines can now spawn in all leagues. The Thorned shrine no longer spawns.

All rare monsters have a chance to spawn with a Nemesis mod, in all leagues. The Camouflaged Predator Nemesis mod no longer spawns. The Blessing of Elements Nemesis mod now does considerably more damage. The Shroud Walker Nemesis mod now gives the monster a smoke effect with a larger radius. The Storm Herald Nemesis mod will not appear until level 60.

The way leech applies to the player has changed. If you leech additional life while currently leeching, it no longer queues after the current leech. Technically, where multiple leeches are stacked, the largest one is used.

The Vaal Oversoul's Smash is now fully considered an attack. It can now be evaded or blocked, but cannot be spell blocked.

Monster Unrighteous Fire now deals a controlled value of fire damage, rather than being based on maximum life.



Skill and Support Gem Balance:

Spell Totem and Ranged Attack totem now have multiplicative cast and attack speed penalties.

Barrage: the attack speed penalty has been removed.

Desecrate: the maximum level of a created corpse has been changed to being higher than the required level of the skill. This scales up to a monster level cap of 100 by level 20 of the gem. Desecrate also now enforces a limit of 15 corpses at a time.

Spectral Throw: this now deals 46% of weapon damage at level 1, but increases as it levels. By level 15 of the gem, you will dealing 60% of weapon damage.

Burning Arrow: the ignite chance on levels over 20 continues to progress linearly, rather than slowing the progression as it previously did.

All Support Gems now support values up to level 30.

Increased the damage of Fireball at low and high levels.

Increased the damage of the following skills at low levels: Spark, Cold Snap, Ice Spear and to a lesser extent, Freezing Pulse and Storm Call.

Adjusted the PVP scaling of Righteous Fire and Searing Bond. These have only been conservatively adjusted. A more thorough adjustment to PVP scaling of skills will be ongoing throughout 1.1.x.



Passive Skill Balance:

The Marauder starting area has been reworked substantially.

The area between the Duelist and Marauder has been reworked substantially.

The wheels of primary defenses around the Scion opening area have been changed to allow fast lateral progress. The values of the life wheel have been reduced. The Elusiveness notable has been removed.

The effectiveness of early Scion passives have been reduced.

Several Energy Shield passives have been improved.

Most spell damage, elemental damage and specific elemental damage passives have been improved.

Vaal Pact no longer suppresses life recovery from flasks. It still prevents life regeneration and now also reduces your leech by 60%.

The Beserking notable passive now only offers 12% attack speed.

Elemental Adaptation has been moved to between the Witch and Templar.

Larger groups of critical strike multiplier have had some minor nodes removed.

Improvements have been made to early cast speed passives in the Witch and Shadow sections and to early attack speed and life passives in the Shadow section. We're investigating more detailed revamps of the caster classes (Witch, Templar and Shadow) in the future.



Item Balance:

Two-Stone Rings can now drop in all leagues.

Sanctified Life Flasks and Sanctified Mana flasks can now drop in all leagues.

Jade Flasks and Quartz Flasks can now drop in all leagues.

Prismatic Rings will no longer drop, but can still be crafted. The Taming can also be crafted.

Unique items that were exclusive to Domination and Nemesis can no longer drop.

The Increased Item Quantity Support Gem can no longer drop.

Increased Item Quantity mods can no longer spawn on magic or rare items.

Increased Item Quantity mods on Unique items have been reduced by around 30%.

Reduced the implicit resistance values on hybrid strength/intelligence shields.

Quivers are no longer awarded as quest rewards.

Mods that provide critical multiplier have been reduced.

A Fracturing mod has been added to the map affix pool.



Unique Item Balance:

Deshret's Vise has been renamed Meginord's Vise and the Attack Speed penalty has been removed from it. Old versions will not change.

The following Unique items have been changed (using a Divine Orb on an existing version will roll new mods in the new ranges):

Aegis Aurora: the Replenishes Energy Shield based on your Armour when you Block mod has been reduced from 4% to 2%.

Rainbowstride: Elemental Resist has been increased from 8% to 20%. Maximum Mana has been reduced from 80-100 to 40-60. Increased Energy Shield has been reduced from 150-200 to 140 to 180.

Saffell's Frame: Block Chance Applied to Spells has been reduced from 100-120 to 70-80. All Maximum Resistance has been reduced from 5% to 4%.

Bringer of Rain: Maximum Life has been reduced from 200-220 to 120-160. The supporting Blind is now level 6 and the supporting Faster Attacks is now level 12. On a legacy Bringer of Rain item, a Divine will reroll the Maximum Life, but not the level of the supports.

Maligaro's Virtuosity: Critical Multiplier has been reduced from 40-50 to 28-36.

Romira's Banquet: Critical Multiplier has been reduced from 10-20 to 10-15.



Bug Fixes:

Fixed a bug in the race prize awarding where multiple characters on the same account could receive points prizes for the same race. Now, the highest level (alive) character that participated counts for points. Multiple characters can receive points in Descent, Descent: Champions and Endless Ledge races.

Fixed various graphical glitches related to totems with arrows stuck in them.

Fixed a bug where secondary hits from Lightning Arrow would not check evasion.

Fixed a bug where the gore projectiles fired by Dominus, Ascendant would check spell evasion instead of attack evasion for their area of effect.

Fixed a problem that could cause crashes on certain Creative sound hardware.

Fixed some bugs with the 40% quality vendor recipe so that it better accounts for certain groups of items.

Gem experience is now displayed with correct thousands separators.

Fixed a bug where the the Ice Nova graphical effect wouldn't scale correctly.

Fixed a bug where Offering skills would affect some shrine effects on you.

Various bugs were fixed related to the display of skill tooltips.

Fixed bugs with font keming.



Update (March 4) - added the following notes:

Increased the damage of Fireball at low and high levels.

Increased the damage of the following skills at low levels: Spark, Cold Snap, Ice Spear and to a lesser extent, Freezing Pulse and Storm Call.

Monster Unrighteous Fire now deals a controlled value of fire damage, rather than being based on maximum life.

Improvements have been made to early cast speed passives in the Witch and Shadow sections and to early attack speed and life passives in the Shadow section. We're investigating more detailed revamps of the caster classes (Witch, Templar and Shadow) in the future.

Adjusted the PVP scaling of Righteous Fire and Searing Bond. These have only been conservatively adjusted. A more thorough adjustment to PVP scaling of skills will be ongoing throughout 1.1.x.



We're incredibly excited about Sacrifice of the Vaal and are really looking forward to you playing it later this week. Thanks for your We're incredibly excited about Sacrifice of the Vaal and are really looking forward to you playing it later this week. Thanks for your continued support YouTube |

Lead Developer. Follow us on: Twitter Facebook | Contact Support if you need help! Last edited by Chris on Mar 5, 2014, 5:26:34 AM

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