Content Update 3.4.0 - Path of Exile: Delve
The Delve Challenge League
- Challenge leagues are a great opportunity for a fresh start in a new economy. All of your old characters and items are still present in the Standard and Hardcore leagues, but you're encouraged to join the new leagues, complete challenges and demonstrate your mastery of Path of Exile!
- With 3.4.0, there are Standard and Hardcore, and Solo Self-Found Standard and Hardcore, variations of the Delve challenge league available. They have the same core mechanics and items.
- In the Delve Challenge League you will delve into the Azurite Mine's infinite depths to extract treasure and discover its subterranean secrets.
- Help inventor Niko the Mad harvest Voltaxic Sulphite to power his potent lights. You'll need those lights if you are to survive in the mine, for stepping deep into the darkness is a sure way to die. Niko's mechanical explorer, the Crawler, will guide you to valuable pockets within the mine but deadly monsters and great treasures are waiting in the darkness.
- Bring flares to light your way when you explore away from the path the Crawler has laid for you. Carry dynamite to harm dangerous enemies and tear down fragile barriers, revealing treasures untouched for centuries.
- The deeper you go, the more dangerous and fierce both the darkness, and the monsters that inhabit it, become. How deep can you go?
- Ladders for each league (including both Solo and Party ladders for non-SSF leagues) track your maximum depth. Prove once and for all you have the best build!
- The new challenge leagues include a set of 40 new challenges. When you complete 12 challenges, you will receive the Canary pet. When you reach 24 challenges, you will receive the Azurite Back Attachment. At 36 challenge completed you'll receive the Delve Portal Effect. These microtransactions are only obtainable in this league.
- From the 19th challenge onwards and for every third challenge after that, you will receive pieces of the Delve Totem Pole decoration to display in your hideout. The Totem Pole permanently showcases how many of the Delve challenges you completed during the league.
Major New Content and Features
- Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem - Smite: Perform a melee attack, and in doing so, cause lightning to strike a targeted location or nearby enemy, dealing damage in an area. Enemies can't be hit by both the melee attack and the lightning. Gain a temporary aura which grants added lightning damage when you hit an enemy with this skill. Requires a Sword, Axe, Mace, Staff or Unarmed.
- Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem - Consecrated Path: Slam the ground with your weapon at the targeted location. If an enemy is near where you target, you'll teleport to it from a short distance away, slam, and create an area of consecrated ground. Can't be supported by Multistrike, and requires a Sword, Axe, Mace, Staff or Unarmed.
- Added a new Intelligence/Strength Skill Gem - Summon Holy Relic: Summon a Holy Relic that stays near you. When you hit an enemy with an attack, the Holy Relic triggers a nova spell, with a very short cooldown, that deals physical damage to enemies and grants life regeneration to allies. This life regeneration is more effective to your minions.
- Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem - Herald of Purity: Grants a buff, adding physical damage to your spells and attacks. When you kill an enemy while you have this buff, you'll summon a Sentinel of Purity, or refresh the duration and life of an existing one instead if you have the maximum number of Sentinels of Purity. The Sentinels of Purity have a single-target melee attack and an area melee attack.
- Added a new Dexterity Skill Gem - Scourge Arrow: Channel the attack to infuse an arrow with chaos, gaining stages while channelling. Release to fire a single piercing arrow which leaves spore pods in its wake for each stage gained. The spore pods bloom, then fire a nova of thorn arrows.
- Added a new Dexterity Skill Gem - Toxic Rain: Fire arrows into the air that rain down around the targeted area, dealing damage to enemies they hit and creating spore pods where they land. Each spore pod deals chaos damage over time to nearby enemies and slows their movement speed. After a delay, the pods burst, dealing area damage.
- Added a new Dexterity Skill Gem - Herald of Agony: Grants a buff giving more poison damage and a chance to inflict poison. When you poison an enemy while you have this buff, you gain Virulence, and summon a minion that uses projectile and area attacks. You will lose Virulence over time, at a rate which increases the more Virulence you have. The minion will die when you have no Virulence.
- Added a new Vaal Skill Gem - Vaal Ancestral Warchief: Summons an Ancestor Totem that attacks enemies with a powerful cascading slam while you're near it. If the enemies are far away, it will leap as it slams, bringing it closer. Being near it grants you more melee damage.
- Added a new Dexterity Support Gem - Withering Touch: Supported skills gain a portion of their Physical damage as extra Chaos damage, have a chance to inflict Withered on hit. Withered lasts 2 seconds, and is the same as the debuff applied by the skill "Wither".
- Added a new Atlas of Worlds feature: Shaper's Strongholds. These will appear once you have met the Shaper. They have multiple Shaper Influence mods active. Bosses of these maps can drop extra sextants, cartographer's chisels, Shaper-influenced items, and unique items.
- Added 26(ish) new Unique items, 3 of which were designed by supporters.
- Added 8 new Divination Cards designed by supporters.
- Added a new system to handle high-level players playing with lower-level party members in lower-level areas. High-level players are downscaled, making the area more challenging, and allowing the lower-level players to get an appropriate amount of experience and currency. Previously, the lower-level players would have had their experience gains and currency finds penalised if the level gap was significant. This scaling applies only in areas at or below level 67, and is an optional feature for party play.
- Added new Shadowed Point Light, Global Illumination and Ambient Occlusion graphics tech.
- Significantly updated the water simulation used by Path of Exile. It now flows correctly around corners, at realistic speeds based on the shape of nearby terrain, synthesising foam where appropriate.
- Added a new tooltip which, when hovering over a support gem, shows which currently-equipped skills can and cannot be supported by it. This includes skills built into items and skills whose functionality has been changed by another support (such as a spell supported by the Trap Support gem).
Minor New Content and Features
- You can now right-click on a stash tab in the dropdown list to send it to the far left of your tab list.
- Added a new vendor recipe.
- Added 3 new Fated Unique Prophecies.
- Added 22 new Labyrinth enchantments, including 2 for existing skills.
- Updated several older monster models, including Goatmen, Beasts, Blood Apes and Blood Chieftains.
- Added 3D art for the following unique items: Chains of Command, Speaker's Wreath, Tinkerskin, The Coming Calamity, Cloak of Defiance and Garukhan's Flight.
- Updated the visuals for several older skills. Namely: Ice Nova, Cleave, Frenzy, Heavy Strike, Caustic Arrow, and Double Strike. The default attack and wand attack both also have new effects.
- Added a League Information panel which you can view during character creation.
- Items filters are now capable of displaying minimap icons and lightbeams for specific categories of items, making them much harder to miss.
- Added the capacity to use custom local sound files in your item filter.
- Important dialogue options (like quests) are now highlighted in the NPC dialogue window.
- Enabled 2v2 PvP queues.
- You can now filter the Passive Skill Tree by the terms "Keystone" and "Notable".
- Added a new story glyph to the Ashen Fields.
- You may hear the slaves in the Slave Pens talking to you now.
- Fleeing Oriath citizens now say things that will make you feel even worse for accidentally killing them!
- That guy who opens the gate to Lioneye's Watch now also says something!
- There are now children hanging out in Oriath Square (the nice version). Go say hi!
- Added a section to the mapping panel in the Help Panel about the Shaper and the Elder.
- Updated the art on the divination card The World Eater to display the Shaper effect, and updated the art of The Samurai's Eye to display the Elder effect.
- Fire Trap and Explosive Trap now ignite the vegetation.
- Improved the physics simulation at low framerates.
- Added a new buff icon for Arcane Surge.
- Continued to incrementally improve the sound, art, effects and environments.
Character Balance
- Chance to Block and Chance to Block Spells have been reworked. Previously there were several different modifiers that applied in different ways but achieved the same thing. For example, Stone of Lazhwar allows a portion of your block chance to apply to spells, while Great Old One's Ward has a discreet chance to block spells. Some sources provided block chance that did not require that you have a shield equipped, while others required that you have some form of block chance for them to apply.
- Now, there is simply Chance to Block Attack Damage and Chance to Block Spell Damage. Sources that previously caused some portion of your block chance to apply to spells now grant Chance to Block Spell Damage at a specific value (check the Item Balance section below) and do not require other sources of block. The exception to this is the Gladiator Ascendancy passive Versatile Combatant, which still sets your Chance to Block Spell Damage to be the same as your Chance to Block Attack Damage.
- Instant skills can now be used while moving. This includes Warcries which have been made instant via Ascendancies or passive skills, and curses that are supported by Blasphemy. Note that a skill which is ordinarily instant (such as an aura) will not be instant, and therefore unusable while moving, if it has its cast speed changed by a support (such as Spell Totem).
- Please note that there is a known issue right now where instant skills with cosmetics applied that would ordinarily change their on-cast effect instead use the default on-cast effect. This will be fixed in the near future.
- Secondary damage (such as the explosive part of Explosive Arrow) can now be blocked, dodged, evaded, and spellblocked depending on its source.
- Sources of "Avoid Interruption from Stuns while Casting" no longer affect actions that are not considered casting, such as throwing a trap, laying a mine, or placing a totem.
- Repeatedly weapon-swapping is now limited to once every 250ms.
- Base Trap Throwing Time has been raised to 0.6 seconds (from 0.5).
Skill Balance
- The auto-targeting done by single-target melee attacks such as Heavy Strike or Molten Strike (ie. any attack that requires "namelocking") now targets enemies within a wider area, based on the total range of your attack. The width of this targeting area grows by 1 unit per 3 units of melee range. This should make it much easier to target enemies with these skills.
- The following melee skills now gain additional melee weapon range every 7 levels, up to +2 at level 20 (and +3 at level 21): Dual Strike, Elemental Hit, Frenzy, Glacial Hammer, Heavy Strike, Molten Strike, Puncture, Riposte, Static Strike, Viper Strike, Wild Strike, Vigilant Strike, Ancestral Protector, Dominating Blow.
- The following skills are now instant by default and can therefore be used while moving: Blood Rage, Righteous Fire, Molten Shell, Haste, Vitality, Discipline, Grace, Determination, Anger, Hatred, Wrath, Clarity, Envy, Arctic Armour, Purity of Fire, Purity of Ice, Purity of Lightning, Purity of Elements, Convocation, Herald of Ash, Herald of Ice, Herald of Thunder, Phase Run, Aspect of the Cat, Aspect of the Avian, Aspect of the Spider and Aspect of the Crab.
- All instant skills now have some sort of cooldown (typically 1 second or less).
- Instant skills cannot be supported by Spell Echo and will not be cast a second time by similar effects (such as from the Echoing Shrine).
- Vaal Soul Gain Prevention time is now modified by modifiers to skill duration and buff duration if those modifiers in some way affect the associated skill. For example, reducing the duration of Vaal Earthquake will also reduce the Vaal Soul Gain Prevention time, while increasing the duration of Vaal Haste will increase the Vaal Soul Gain Prevention time.
- Minions no longer wander around as much as they used to while you're idle.
Skill Reworks
In this expansion, we reworked three existing skills: Dominating Blow, Static Strike, and Caustic Arrow.
Dominating Blow
- Now when you hit an enemy with Dominating Blow, you will apply a debuff for a short duration. If a non-unique enemy dies while affected by the debuff, its corpse will be consumed, and a Sentinel of Dominance minion with the same rarity and mods will be summoned.
- You may have up to 9 Normal-rarity, 3 Magic-rarity, and 1 Rare-rarity Sentinels of Dominance.
- Attacks against Unique enemies have a 10% chance to summon a Normal-rarity Sentinel of Dominance.
- Deals 140% of base damage at gem level 1, up to 172% at gem level 20.
- Base debuff duration is 1 second and base minion duration is 20 seconds at all gem levels.
Static Strike
- Now when you hit an enemy with Static Strike, you will gain a buff which causes you to frequently hit nearby enemies with beams, dealing attack damage. The beams deal more damage while you are moving than while you are stationary. The buff can stack up to three times, increasing the frequency with which the beams strike.
- Deals 100% of base damage at gem level 1, up to 146% at gem level 20.
- Beams deal 60% less damage while stationary, and 40% less while moving. This penalty drops slightly as the gem levels.
- Beams can hit up to 4 targets at gem level 1, and up to 6 at gem level 20.
- The base buff duration is 4 seconds, and each stack increases the beam's striking frequency (which is every 0.4 seconds) by 10%.
Caustic Arrow
- Now deals damage in an area around the targeted location, before leaving a lingering patch of Caustic Ground which deals Chaos damage over time. As Caustic Ground is a ground type (akin to Burning Ground) it will not affect flying monsters such as Raging Spirits.
- Now has a base duration of 2 seconds at all levels.
- 60% of Physical Damage is now converted to Chaos Damage (previously, Caustic Arrow added extra Chaos damage based on Physical damage).
- Now deals 7 base Chaos damage per second at gem level 1, up to 1714.8 base Chaos damage per second at gem level 20.
Other Skills
Fire Nova Mine
- Base damage increased by 25% at all gem levels.
Fire Trap
- Base damage from the initial explosion increased by 40%, and the base damage over time increased by 20% at all gem levels.
Lightning Trap
- Base damage increased by 40% at all gem levels.
Ice Trap
- Base damage increased by 40% at all gem levels.
Explosive Trap
- Base damage increased by 40% at gem levels 4 and up. At gem levels 1 to 4, the damage has been increased, slightly more at each level up to level 4.
Frost Bomb
- Now reduces Energy Shield Regeneration Rate and Recovery Rate, not just Life Regeneration Rate.
Shield Charge
- Now has three distinct sections -- the start of the charge, the movement part of the charge, and the attack at the end of the charge. Your weapon's base attack time now affects the start and end, and movement speed and increases to global attack speed now affect the middle. Local attack speed modifiers no longer affect the middle movement part of the charge, whereas previously they would.
- In other words, while using Brightbeak will cause the start and end of the charge to be quicker, it will not cause you to move from point A to point B any more quickly. For that, you need to invest in global attack speed and movement speed.
- To help compensate for this loss in movement speed for most characters, Shield Charge now gains 1% increased movement speed as the gem levels up.
Flame Dash
- Base cast time lowered to 0.7 seconds (from 0.75 seconds).
- Range increased by 20%, bringing it in line with Leap Slam and Charged Dash.
- Now gains 4% increased cooldown recovery speed per gem level, up to 76% at gem level 20.
- Quality bonus now grants 1% increased cooldown recovery speed per 1% quality (was previously 1% cast speed per 2% quality).
Lightning Warp
- Base cast time lowered to 0.85 seconds (from 1 second).
- Now has 20% reduced duration at gem level 1 (from 0%), up to 39% reduced duration at gem level 20 (up from 38%).
Rain of Arrows
- Now includes the "Projectile" tag on the skill gem.
Sunder
- Base range reduced by 20% at all levels.
- Base explosion radius reduced to 15 (from 16) at all levels. Radius now grows more slowly, gaining +1 to radius 1 gem level later than previously.
Kinetic Blast
- Now deals 35% less Area Damage (down from 25% less).
- Explosion placement has been reworked. They are now divided across 4 equal arcs (like pizza slices). In cases where there is no space in an arc that it could place an explosion, that explosion is not placed. Explosion spacing is also now more regular. The net result is that in open spaces, the area coverage will, on average, be more even, but single-target damage in tight spaces is now lower.
Orb of Storms
- Can now be cast by mines, traps, totems, and can be triggered.
Molten Shell
- Mana cost increased to 12 at gem level 1 (up from 8) up to 28 at gem level 20 (same as previously).
Earthquake and Vaal Earthquake
- The aftershock now deals 70% (up from 50%) more damage with hits and ailments (as opposed to every form of damage) at all gem levels.
Vaal Righteous Fire
- Now sacrifices the amount of Life and Energy Shield from Energy Shield before Life. In other words, low-life builds should not have the skill disable on use as long as they have enough Energy Shield to cover both the Life and Energy Shield costs.
Vaal Molten Shell
- Now has a Soul Gain Prevention duration of 7 seconds (up from 5).
Vaal Clarity
- Now has a Soul Gain Prevention duration of 14 seconds (up from 12).
Support Gem Balance
Multiple Traps
- Now causes supported skills to deal 50% less damage at gem level 1 (from 40%) up to 31% less damage at gem level 20 (from 21%).
Cluster Traps
- Now causes supported skills to throw up to 2 additional traps at all levels (down from 3).
Physical Projectile Attack/Vicious Projectiles
- Physical Projectile Attack has been renamed Vicious Projectiles.
- In addition to 30% more Physical projectile attack damage and 10% less Projectile attack speed, It now causes supported skills to deal 30% more Chaos damage over time and 30% more Physical damage over time (as opposed to more damage with Bleeding and Poison specifically) at gem level 1.
Minefield
- Now causes supported skills to deal 55% less Mine damage at gem level 1 (down from 40% less), up to 36% less Mine damage at gem level 20 (down from 21%).
Passive Tree Balance
With the introduction of several new holy-themed minion skills, we've reworked the early Templar and Witch passive trees. These changes allow minion players to put power into their minions much earlier than previously and provide more interesting pathing choices later.
We've also taken this opportunity to improve the pathing through the Templar tree, unifying many of the attack, spell and elemental passive skills.
- The Templar start's upper path has been reworked. The two first passive skills now provide increased Damage (rather than increased Elemental Damage). The Melee Damage passive skills on the lower arc of the upper cluster have been replaced by 6% increased Attack Damage and 6% increased Minion Damage passives.
- The Retribution notable now grants 14% increased Damage (as opposed to 14% increased Spell Damage and 14% increased Melee Damage). This notable now also causes Minions to deal 10% increased Damage.
- The small passives in the Amplify Cluster now grant 10% increased Area Damage (up from 8%). There is a new passive connected to the Amplify notable that grants 10% increased Area of Effect damage and allows players to exit north towards the Galvanic Hammer cluster.
- There is a new passive connected to the Righteous Decree notable that grants 5% increased Maximum Mana and 3% reduced Mana Cost of Skills, and allows players to exit south towards the Sanctuary cluster.
- The Elementalist, Catalyse and Light of Divinity clusters have been merged into one
unholy cluster. Small Spell Damage and Weapon Elemental Damage passives have been replaced with Elemental Damage passives.
- Catalyse has been renamed Divine Fervour. In addition to the 24% increased Elemental Damage and +10 to Strength and Intelligence, it now grants 25% increased Melee Critical Strike Chance and causes Damage with Weapons to penetrate 3% of Elemental Resistance.
- Elementalist has been renamed Holy Dominion. In addition to +12% to all Elemental Resistances, 5% chance to Freeze, Shock and Ignite, and 12% increased Elemental Damage (up from 10%), it now grants 12% increased Global Physical Damage.
- The small passives leading to Holy Dominion now grant 10% increased Elemental Damage (up from 8%).
- Light of Divinity now grants 10% increased Light Radius (down from 20%), and 20% increased Critical Strike Chance for Spells in addition to the 15% increased Spell Damage, 4% increased Cast Speed, and +10 to Strength and Intelligence it previously granted.
- The Elemental Damage passives in the Celestial Judgement/Celestial Punishment cluster now grant 8% increased Elemental Damage (up from 6%). The first passive in this cluster now grants 10% increased Elemental Damage (up from 8%).
- There is a new cluster just north of the Celestial Judgement/Celestial Punishment cluster which grants Minion benefits. In particular, the farthest node causes Increases and Reductions to Minion Damage to also affect you.
- The Puppet Master and Herd the Flock minion clusters immediately north of the Templar start have been renamed to Sacrifice and Spiritual Command.
- The Sacrifice cluster now grants a total of 30% increased Minion Maximum Life (down from 36%), +15% to Minion's Elemental Resistances, Minions Regenerate 3% Life per second, and 0.5% of Life Regenerated per Second, split across 3 small passives and the notable. The additional Zombie and Skeleton from this notable has been moved to the Death Attunement notable north of the Witch.
- The Spiritual Command cluster now grants a total of 43% increased Minion Damage, 7% increased Attack Speed for minions, 7% increased Cast Speed for Minions, and 40% increased Minion Accuracy Rating. The notable also causes increases and reductions to Minion Attack Speed to also affect you. These benefits are split across 3 small passives and a notable. The additional Zombie from this notable has been moved to Grave Intentions.
- The second passive on the right path of the Witch's start now grants 8% increased maximum Minion life in addition to 12% increased Maximum Energy Shield.
- The righthand arc of the Witch's leftmost starting cluster now grants 4% increased Cast Speed per passive (up from 3%).
- The Mana and Mana Regeneration passives on the righthand arc of the Witch's rightmost starting cluster have been replaced by Minion Damage, Minion Attack Speed and Minion Cast Speed passives.
- The Occultist's Dominion notable has been renamed to Arcanist's Dominion and now grants 5% increased Cast Speed (up from 4%).
- The Lord of the Dead notable now also grants 30% increased Minion Accuracy Rating.
- There is a new Mana cluster just above the Deep Wisdom notable which grants 31% increased Maximum Mana, 20% increased Mana Regeneration Rate, 20% increased Mana Recovery from Flasks, and 2 Mana Regenerated per second split across 2 small passives and the Arcane Will notable.
- The northmost small passive of the Arcane Focus cluster now also grants 5% increased Mana Regeneration Rate.
- Fire Walker, Lightning Walker and Frost Walker now each grant 20% increased damage of their respective elements (up from 18%). The passives immediately above them each now grant 12% increased damage of their respective elements (up from 10%). The Elemental Damage passives at either end of this wheel now grant 10% increased Elemental Damage (up from 8%).
- Grave Intentions, near the Pain Attunement keystone, now grants +2 to Maximum number of Zombies (up from +1).
- Death Attunement, near the Minion Instability keystone, now also grants +1 to Maximum number of Skeletons and +1 to Maximum number of Zombies.
- The small Area of Effect passives in the Blast Radius cluster now each grant 10% increased Area of Effect (up from 8%).
- We have added new clusters to the passive tree focusing on expanding the effect and utility of Warcries.
- A new cluster, Words of Glory, has been added between the Marauder and the Templar. It grants increases to Warcry Duration, Warcry Cooldown Recovery Speed, and Warcry Buff Effect. The notable also causes your Warcries to cost no mana, and grants you and nearby allies 6% increased Attack, Cast and Movement speed if you've Warcried recently.
- Another cluster, Battle Cry, has been added near the Unwavering Stance keystone. It offers increased Warcry Duration, increased Warcry Cooldown Recovery Speed, and increased Warcry Buff Effect. The notable also makes using Warcries Instant.
To coincide with the new Chaos Damage bow skills, we've reviewed and adjusted some of the Poison and Bow passives around the Ranger.
- The Fatal Toxins cluster between the Shadow and the Ranger now grants a total of 65% increased Damage with Poison (down from 115%), but now also grants a total of 55% increased Chaos Damage with Attack Skills.
- Master Fletcher and the passive skill leading to it now grant increased Damage Over Time with Bow Skills, rather than increased Damage with Ailments from Attack Skills while Wielding a Bow.
- Dirty Techniques now grants 25% increased Damage with Poison (down from 50%) but now also grants 25% increased Chaos Damage with Attack Skills. The passives leading to the notable now grant increased Chaos Damage with Attack Skills instead of Increased Damage with Poison.
- Toxic Strikes now grants 30% increased Chaos Damage with Attack Skills rather than increased Damage with Poison. The small passive leading to it now grants 10% increased Damage with Poison (down from 20%) and 10% increased Chaos Damage with Attack Skills.
- Deadly Draw and the passives leading to it now grant increased Damage over Time with Bow Skills, rather than increased Damage with Ailments from Attack Skills while wielding a Bow.
- Aspect of the Eagle, and the passive skills around it, now also grant increased Damage over Time with Bow Skills, rather than increased Damage with Ailments from Attack Skills while wielding a Bow.
- Lethality and the passives leading to it have had the same treatment.
- So have the passives leading to King of the Hill.
- ... and Avatar of the Hunt.
Alongside our broader changes to Block Chance and Spell Block Chance, we've reviewed the block passive skills and made some adjustements.
- The top two passives of the Sanctuary cluster (near the Templar) now grant 2% chance to block Spell Damage along with their previous +6% to Elemental Resistances while holding a Shield. They no longer provide chance to block Attack Damage (see below).
- The bottom two passives of the Sanctuary cluster now each grant +1% chance to block Attack Damage. So that's where it went.
- The first passive in the Mind Barrier cluster (near the Witch) now grants 40% increased Block Recovery, while the second now grants +2% Chance to block Spell Damage. The notable now grants +8% chance to block Spell Damage (up from 5%).
- The first passive of the Deflect cluster (near the Shadow) now also grants 1% chance to block Attack Damage, the second passive now grants +2% chance to block Spell Damage, and the notable now also grants +4% chance to block Spell Damage.
- The Whirling Barrier cluster (near the Templar) now also grants chance to block Spell Damage while holding a staff at the same values as the chance to block Attack Damage while holding a staff it previously granted (so, a total of +12% chance to block Spell Damage and +12% chance to block Attack Damage while holding a staff).
Ascendancy Balance
Pathfinder
- Master Herbalist has been replaced by a new notable -- Nature's Reprisal: 30% increased Chaos Damage, Chaos Skills have 50% increased Area of Effect, and on Killing a Poisoned Enemy, nearby Enemies are Poisoned. The passive leading to this notable grants 15% increased Chaos Damage and 5% increased effect of Flasks on you.
- Added a new notable which requires Nature's Reprisal -- Master Toxicist: Gain 10% of Physical Damage as Extra Chaos Damage, 10% of Physical Damage Converted to Chaos Damage, 10% more Chaos Damage with Attack Skills, you lose Virulence (from Herald of Agony) 50% slower, and Poisons you inflict during any Flask Effect have 40% chance to deal 100% more damage. The passive leading to this notable grants 15% increased Chaos Damage and 5% increased effect of Flasks on you.
Guardian
- Prayer of Glory has been replaced by a new notable -- Radiant Crusade: You and Allies affected by your Aura Skills deal 20% increased Damage, 10% increased Area of Effect for each Summoned Sentinel of Purity, 10% more Damage while you have at least 1 nearby Ally, Herald of Purity has 40% increased Buff Effect, and Summoned Sentinels of Purity have 50% increased Area of Effect. The passive leading to this notable grants 14% increased Armour, 6% increased Maximum Energy Shield, and Minions deal 10% increased Damage.
- Added a new notable which requires Radiant Crusade -- Unwavering Crusade: Summoned Sentinels use Crusade Slam, 100% increased Minion Accuracy Rating, Minions Intimidate Enemies for 4 seconds on Hit, and if you've Hit an Enemy Recently, you and nearby Allies Regenerate 3% of Life per second. The passive leading to this notable grants 14% increased Armour, 6% increased Maximum Energy Shield, and Minions deal 10% increased Damage.
Item Balance
- Items which previously applied your block chance to spells have all been updated to the new "chance to Block Spell Damage". Existing versions of these uniques will have different values to new versions and cannot be updated with a Divine Orb.
- Existing Shaper amulets with the lower-tier spellblock mod now have +8-11% chance to Block Spell Damage. New versions have +4-5%.
- Existing Shaper amulets with the higher-tier spellblock mod now have +11-12% chance to Block Spell Damage. New versions have +6-7%.
- Existing Shaper shields with the lower-tier spellblock mod now have +9-12% chance to Block Spell Damage. New versions have +7-9%.
- Existing Shaper shields with the higher-tier spellblock mod now have +12-15% chance to Block Spell Damage. New versions have +10-12%.
- Existing Elder staves with the spellblock mod now have +12-18% chance to Block Spell Damage. New versions have +12-18% as well.
- Existing items with the spellblock corrupted implicit now have +6-8% chance to Block Spell Damage. New versions have +4-5%.
- The "of the Barrier" shield suffix can now grant +7-9% chance to Block Spell Damage (up from +1-3%). Existing items with this mod can be updated to new values with a Divine Orb.
- The "of the Bulwark" shield suffix can now grant +10-12% chance to Block Spell Damage (up from +4-6%). Existing items with this mod can be updated to new values with a Divine Orb.
- Continued the ongoing process of improving and fixing ambiguous or incorrect mod descriptions.
Unique Item Balance
- The Anima Stone no longer specifies that the Primordial items you must have to summon an additional golem are jewels.
- Shimmeron now deals 200 Lightning damage per second per Power charge (down from 400). Using a Divine Orb on an existing copy of this item will update that item to new these values. Shimmeron will also deal that damage to you if your skills have dealt a critical strike recently, rather than just you. That means you will take the damage if any skill (including a trap, totem, or mine) deals a critical strike.
- Hopeshredder now deals 200 Cold damage per second per Frenzy charge (down from 400). It now also has 15-25% increased Attack Speed. Using a Divine Orb on an existing copy of this item will update that item with both of these changes.
- Nebuloch now deals 200 Fire damage per second per Endurance charge (down from 400). Using a Divine Orb on an existing copy of this item will update that item to these new values
- Combat Focus now causes Elemental Hit to deal 50% less damage of the prevented element, including damage that gets converted from the prevented element to a new element. This affects all existing versions of the jewel.
- Blood of Corruption's Gluttony of Elements skill now has a Soul Gain Prevention duration of 14 seconds (down from 16). This affects all existing versions of this item.
- Items which previously applied your block chance to spells have all been updated to the new "chance to Block Spell Damage". Existing versions of these uniques will have different values to new versions and cannot be updated with a Divine Orb.
- Stone of Lazhwar: Existing versions now have +15% chance to Block Spell Damage. New versions have +12-15%.
- Reckless Defense: Existing versions now have +6% chance to Block Spell Damage. New versions have +2-4%.
- Craiceann's Chitin: Existing versions now have +7-9% chance to Block Spell Damage. New versions have +4-6%.
- Rathpith Globe: Existing versions now have +12-18% chance to Block Spell Damage. New versions have +10-15%.
- Saffell's Frame: Existing versions now have +21-24% chance to Block Spell Damage. New versions have +15-20%.
- Rainbowstride: Existing versions now have +6-7% chance to Block Spell Damage. New versions have +4-6%.
- Wings of Entropy: Existing versions now have +7% chance to Block Spell Damage. New versions have... the same +7%.
- Sentari's Answer: Existing versions now have +7% chance to Block Spell Damage. New versions have +10%.
- Daresso's Courage: Existing versions now have +36% chance to Block Spell Damage while on Low Life. New versions have +30%.
Monster Balance
We have lowered some of the sources of damage in early Act 6, where we often see a spike in deaths due to Kitava's resistance penalty.
- The Lava Ground from the Karui Rebels in Act 6 now deals 40% less damage.
- Tukohama's Vanguard now deal 35% less damage with their Scorching Ray totems. They also appear less frequently. Note that this damage reduction does not affect player spectres - they will still deal the same damage.
- Updated the trap models used by many older monsters.
- Cases of Shield Throw used by monsters (Dawn and Justicar Casticus and their variants) will now explode into secondary projectiles whether they hit a target or not.
Map Changes
- Zana's missions have been updated. Now when you encounter her, she will offer a selection of different maps and mission types for you to choose from. The maps she offers are always the same tier of the map you are currently in or one higher. This selection can include Shaped maps. The maximum Tier of maps she can now offer as part of a mission is Tier 16.
- Additionally, we've added a bunch of new mission types that work previous league mechanics (such as Breach) into her missions.
- Shortened the random Shaper Time-Freeze events quite a lot.
- Malformation now has more even monster density across the map in most cases.
- So does Alleyways.
- Improved the layout of the Lair map, and reduced the total number of monsters to compensate.
- The unique map Caer Blaidd can no longer generate certain layouts that allow you to bypass one of the minibosses.
- Liantra from the Tower map no longer speaks at the start of the fight.
- Bazur from the Tower map has a dirty new trick up his weird fleshy sleeve.
- You can now see maps which have been taken over by the Elder or its Guardians even if that map is not yet revealed on your Atlas.
- Once you have met the Shaper as part of the Hidden Architect questline, the Shaper will influence maps connected to a map you have already completed, and that influence will not shift between maps.
Zana League Mods Available During 3.4.0
- Level 2: Onslaught (costs 2 Chaos Orbs): Monsters have 20% increased movement, attack, and cast speed, 20% increased quantity of items found.
- Level 3: Bloodlines (costs 3 Chaos Orbs): Magic monster packs each have a Bloodlines mod, area contains more Magic monsters.
- Level 4: Ambush (costs 3 Chaos Orbs): Areas contain 3 extra Strongboxes.
- Level 4: Fortune Favours the Brave: (costs 3 Chaos Orbs) One of these options will be applied at random, including those you have not yet unlocked.
- Level 4: Alternate of Same Tier (Costs 1 Chaos Orb): Requires a Rare map. Opens a random Rare map of the same tier, excluding the map you placed in the device.
- Level 5: Beyond (costs 4 Chaos Orbs): Slaying enemies close together can attract monsters from Beyond, 20% increased quantity of items found.
- Level 6: Essence (costs 4 Chaos Orbs): Areas contain 2 additional Essences.
- Level 6, requires 5 Memory Fragments found: Shaped Tier 1-5 (Costs 2 Chaos Orbs): Requires a Rare map. Opens a version of your map at 5 tiers higher, randomly rolled as a Rare.
- Level 7: Nemesis (costs 5 Chaos Orbs): Rare monsters each have a Nemesis mod, area contains more Rare monsters.
- Level 7, requires 10 Memory Fragments found: Shaped Tier 1-10 (Costs 6 Chaos Orbs): Requires a Rare map. Opens a version of your map at 5 tiers higher, randomly rolled as a Rare, with a chance to be Corrupted.
- Level 8: Harbinger (costs 6 Chaos Orbs): Areas contain 3 extra Harbingers.
- Level 8, requires an Elder Orb to have been obtained: Elder Tier 1-15 (Costs 15 Chaos Orbs): Requires a Rare map. Opens a version of your map at Tier 16, randomly rolled as a Rare, with a chance to be Corrupted.
World Changes
- Moved the player spawn location in The Feeding Troughs farther away from the area transition.
- Improved walkability in and around Oak's Camp.
- Made improvements to the sequence at the end of the final battle of Act 10.
- Weylam Roth's dialogue option to sail to Act 7 now says where you're headed.
- The Deep Dweller is now called the Dweller of the Deep, to be consistent with what the quest calls him. The other option was "Granddaddy Crab".
- Improved the instructions for the Queen of the Sands questline.
Quest Rewards
- Zana now rewards the player with a selection of maps upon advancing the state of the early Shaper questline.
- Clarified in the Quest Tracker what is required to obtain the Shaper's 15th memory fragment.
PvP Balance
These changes aim to work towards a few goals, namely: To bring the PvP scaling formula up to date, tackle "unfun" or particularly suppressive styles of play, and begin addressing the dominance of flasks. These are not the only planned changes for PvP -- we have more on the horizon -- and we welcome player feedback as we make continued improvements to the PvP experience.
Please note that these changes also affect the Hall of Grandmasters.
- Enemy players are now hidden from the minimap.
PvP Scaling
- The player vs. player damage-scaling algorithm has been updated.
- These changes aim to bring physical and elemental damage more closely in line with each other at higher player levels, where there are ways around player resistances, while accounting for those resistances at player levels where there are not.
- For Physical and Chaos damage, the algorithm is: (((Damage ? Time) ? 100) ^ 0.6) x 100 x Time
- For Elemental damage, the algorithm is: (((Damage ? Time) ? 180) ^ 0.58) x 180 x Time
- You can no longer gain flask charges during a PvP round. This includes both active sources of flask charge gain (such as the Surgeon's prefix), and passive sources (such as the Ryslatha Pantheon power). You will still gain a number of flask charges between rounds.
PvP Skill Balance
- Trigger supports, triggered skills (including Labyrinth Enchantments), and skills triggered by an item effect (such as Poet's Pen) all now deal 80% less damage against players.
- Skills supported by Mirage Archer now deal 35% less damage against players.
- Skills supported by Cluster Trap, Multiple Traps, Minefield, or Greater Multiple Projectiles now deal 15% less damage against players.
- Explosive Arrow now deals 50% less damage against players (down from 25% less).
- Kinetic Blast now deals 50% less damage against players.
- Bear Trap now deals 30% less damage against players.
- Glacial Cascade now deals 25% less damage against players (down from 15% more).
- Cremation now deals 40% less damage against players.
- Volatile Dead now deals 80% less damage against players.
- Blight's Time-override has been lowered to 0.5 seconds (from 1.5 seconds).
- Scorching Ray's Time-override has been lowered to 0.5 seconds (from 1.5 seconds).
- Herald of Ice now has a T-override of 1 second.
- Herald of Thunder now has a T-override of 1 second.
- Molten Shell now has a T-override of 1 second.
- You can no longer target another player's Mirage Archer.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug where Cold Snap did not correctly trigger the Trickster Ascendancy's Patient Reaper.
- Fixed a bug where modifiers which increase projectile damage taken was applying to all non-melee attack damage, even if not from a projectile.
- Fixed a bug where Glitterdisc's "You always Ignite while Burning" did not work in some cases.
- Fixed a bug where skills with cooldowns and cooldown overrides (such as Cold Snap) that were supported by transformative supports with cooldowns (such as Trap) would not correctly override the cooldown, even if you had the necessary resource.
- Fixed a bug where fire orbs from Volatile Dead were splitting their targets more than usual.
- Fixed a bug which prevented the Inferno Bolt nemesis mod from correctly dealing more damage after taking multiple hits in quick succession.
- Fixed a bug where Blade Vortex stacks carried across areas could deal damage during a player's grace period. This also fixed cases of minions dealing or taking damage during grace period (including through Minion Instability or Invoker).
- Fixed a bug where casting Scorching Ray into very nearby terrain would cause all of the grass in the entire instance to burn. Cool, but not intended.
- Fixed a bug where Siege Ballista's tooltip would not take into account the number of pierces the skill was capable of by default.
- Fixed a bug where players with the Watcher's Eye mod that blinds enemies when they hit you while you have Grace would blind you if you hit yourself.
- Fixed a bug which caused some terrain in the Coral Ruins map to be inaccessible.
- Fixed a bug where you could become stuck and incapable of advancing in the Labyrinth with the use of Lightning Warp.
- Fixed a bug which caused some monsters to spawn outside of the walkable area in the Ashen Fields.
- Made significant improvements to many cosmetic pets which were "snapping" between two animation states.
- Fixed some issues in the Burial Chambers map where things (such as Breaches) could spawn in inaccessible terrain.
- Fixed several issues where the Vaal Oversoul (and variants) would appear to behave strangely for players who entered the area while the fight was ongoing.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Icestorm skill tooltip from displaying its duration.
- Fixed a bug where you could bypass the Undying Blockage using Charged Dash (though you could still not enter the Ebony Barracks).
- Fixed a bug where the location names above party members' portals would not update as they opened new portals in other locations.
- Fixed a bug where, due to some unlucky timing, you could get into a state where you could not start, abandon or complete any new daily quests.
- Fixed a bug where you could cause the Oak encounter to get into a bad state.
- Fixed a bug where hits against chilled enemies that weren't from you but were from entities created by your skills (such as from a Double or a Totem) were not dealing the double-damage they should have been with Frostbreath.
- Fixed a bug where the "Close All Panels" key was not functioning correctly if remapped.
- Fixed a bug where, due to rounding errors, level 23 Purity auras were granting 1% less maximum resistance than they should have been at high values of increased aura effectiveness.
- Fixed a bug where players wearing Omeyocan were losing mana while they were in town.
- Fixed a bug where the returning Power Siphon effect would behave strangely for monsters slain with Power Siphon at great distances.
- Fixed a bug where the Hierophant's Arcane Blessing could give traps, totems and mines Arcane Surge instead of the player.
- Fixed weird Labyrinth quest states a dead hardcore character could find themselves in after transferring to Standard.
- Fixed a bug where Yeena's "Fireflies" dialogue option never went away.
- Fixed a literal bug -- one of Yeena's fireflies -- which had the incorrect flavour text.
- Fixed a bug which caused the Plaguemaw's Offering strongbox (part of the Plaguemaw's prophecy chain) to not be a strongbox.
- Fixed a bug which allowed totems to be supported by Curse on Hit, despite Curse on Hit saying it couldn't and it not doing anything for them anyway.
- Fixed a bug which allowed multiple separate on-item support gem effects to appear as though combined, resulting in items which claimed to support socketed gems with "Level 38 Increased Critical Strikes". Note that this was purely a display issue, and in actuality gems were supported by a normal-levelled support effect.
- Fixed a bunch of typos and improve the symmetry of written vs. spoken dialogue.
- Fixed an instance crash caused by a Sextant barrel mod behaving badly.
We're looking forward to playing Delve with you this weekend.
Thank you so much for your support!
Recently added
Support Gem Balance
Minefield
- Now causes supported skills to deal 55% less Mine damage at gem level 1 (down from 40% less), up to 36% less Mine damage at gem level 20 (down from 21%).
- Cyclone's additional attack range per level has been lowered, and now matches the same progression as the other attack skills, gaining additional melee weapon range every 7 levels, up to +2 at level 20 (and +3 at level 21).
Last edited by NickK_GGG on Sep 9, 2018, 9:13:02 PM Last bumped on Dec 4, 2018, 6:51:41 PM
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Posted byBex_GGGon Aug 28, 2018, 8:59:09 PMGrinding Gear Games
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