Path of Exile Version 2.0.0: The Awakening Patch Notes
PROLOGUE
Important 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. Many inactive character names have been made available. If you take the name of an existing character, then that user will be prompted to rename their character when they later try to log in to it. If you have logged onto any character on your account in the last year, then their names cannot be taken. Characters whose names are taken are not lost - their progress and items are still intact. They just need to pick a new name when they log in. We recommend you create your first new character in the Warbands (or Tempest) challenge league to experience The Awakening. The entire game experience has changed from the first level onwards.
CHAPTER ONE: EXPANSION CONTENT
Act Four - Highgate: The betrayer strives to awaken an ancient and terrible being. Should he succeed, the Cataclysm will see the whole world remade... in the image of Nightmare. The time has finally come to venture into the kingdom of Corruption itself and drive a blade through its black heart.
The Awakening introduces Path of Exile's fourth act, which is set in and around the mining town of Highgate, north of Sarn. Act Four contains 14 new areas to explore, 40 new monster varieties to fight, 6 new quests to complete and 9 new bosses to defeat! Highgate contains a cast of new NPCs that have full voice acting.
Jewel System: Path of Exile: The Awakening introduces an entirely new type of item to collect and craft: Jewels. These socket into the Passive Skill Tree to grant special bonuses to your character or influence areas of the tree itself. The Passive Skill Tree has been updated with 21 sockets for Jewels. You must allocate a socket like a regular passive skill before you can put a Jewel into it. Jewels can drop as Magic, Rare or Unique. Like other Unique items in Path of Exile, Unique Jewels are powerful and build-defining. They offer ways to diversify your areas of specialisation, or to double down on a strategy that is working well for your build. Some Unique Jewels interact with passive skills in a radius around them - either changing their properties, triggering when certain thresholds are met or altering the rules of the tree itself. A quest in Act Two offers you a different selection of Unique Jewels to choose from in each difficulty level. Magic and rare Jewels can be crafted using the same set of Orbs that affect other items in Path of Exile. By rerolling and modifying your Jewels, you're able to essentially create your own Notable Passives, some of which can be substantially more powerful than those offered by the tree itself.
Netcode Improvements: Added an option for Deterministic Lockstep as a networking mode. This mode doesn't desync, but there's a short delay (your latency to the server) before you see your actions execute. This mode should be used if you have low latency to the nearest server. Lockstep is automatically enabled if you're close enough to one of our servers. You can toggle this in the Options panel. We've added new servers in London, Frankfurt, Italy, California and Washington D.C. The latency to each server is shown on the login screen to help you select the closest one. We have substantially improved the regular Predictive sync mode.
Introducing Divination Cards: Divination Cards are a new type of item that drop throughout Wraeclast. Each type of card is specific to different areas. They allow players to systematically work their way to the acquisition of desirable items, without having to rely on random chance alone. A full stack of one type of Divination Card can be traded to the Tasuni NPC in Highgate for the specific item referenced on the card. All Divination Cards introduced in The Awakening have been designed by Highgate Supporters. There are 49 initial cards in the first release. More will be added over time.
Maraketh Weapons: We've introduced 13 new Maraketh Weapon types in three tiers (39 total base types). Act Four isn't set in the Maraketh lands, but the Maraketh people were involved in many historical battles that occurred there. Maraketh Weapons have different implicit mods than most of the items in Path of Exile. The implicit mod is the same for the first two tiers, and slightly larger in the third tier. While Maraketh Weapons are some of the rarest and most desirable weapons in the game, they don't deal substantially more damage than the highest current base types. However, their new implicit mods make them more appropriate for certain builds. All of the Maraketh Weapons have new 3d art and look quite different from existing weapons in Path of Exile. At this stage, we do not plan to introduce Unique versions of Maraketh Weapons.
New Unique Items: We've added 119 Uniques to Path of Exile: 4 Unique Items for the Tempest league. 9 Unique Items for the Warbands league. 58 Unique Jewels. 31 Unique Items created by our designers. 16 Unique Items designed by Supporters. 1 Unique Strongbox designed by a Supporter.
New Skill Gems: Added a new Strength Skill Gem - Abyssal Cry: Performs a warcry, slowing nearby enemies and causing them to explode when killed. The slowing effect is increased by surrounding enemies. Taunts all nearby enemies to attack the user. Shares a cooldown with other Warcry skills. Added a new Strength Skill Gem - Rallying Cry: Performs a warcry, granting increased damage and mana regeneration to you and your allies if there are nearby enemies. The damage increase is scaled by surrounding enemies. Taunts all nearby enemies to attack the user. Shares a cooldown with other Warcry skills. Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem - Summon Chaos Golem: Summons a Chaos Golem that grants you Physical Damage Reduction while active. The Chaos Golem can use a damage over time Chaos aura and a cascade of Chaos spikes in addition to its melee attack. Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem - Summon Flame Golem: Summons a Flame Golem that grants you increased Damage while active. The Flame Golem can use a fire spray, a wave of fire damage, and an explosive projectile. Added a new Dexterity/Intelligence Skill Gem - Summon Ice Golem: Summons an Ice Golem that grants you increased Critical Strike Chance and Accuracy while active. The Ice Golem can use an icy barrage spell and a chilling spinning dash in addition to its melee attack. Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem - Vigilant Strike: Attacks the enemy with a powerful melee strike. You gain the Fortify buff, granting damage reduction. The cooldown can be bypassed by expending an Endurance Charge. Requires a Melee Weapon. Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem - Ice Crash: Slam the ground with your main hand weapon, damaging enemies in an area around the impact in three stages. Enemies take slightly less damage on the second and third stage. Works with Swords, Maces, Axes, Staves and Unarmed. Cannot be used with Multistrike. Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem - Fire Nova Mine: Lay a remote mine that you can detonate to create a series of fire novas. Each sequential nova from the same mine will do higher damage than the previous. Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem - Flame Dash: Teleport to a location, damaging enemies and leaving a trail of burning ground in your wake. Added a new Dexterity Skill Gem - Phase Run: Gain a buff that makes you faster, harder to detect, and able to pass through enemies. Performing any skill replaces this buff with one that boosts melee attack damage. Consumes Frenzy Charges to increase duration. Added a new Dexterity Skill Gem - Frost Blades: Attack with increased range, releasing icy blades from the struck enemy that fly at other enemies. Requires a Melee Weapon. Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem - Magma Orb: Lob a fiery orb that explodes as it strikes the ground. The skill chains, releasing another fiery orb that repeats this effect. Added a new Dexterity/Strength Skill Gem - Wild Strike: Your melee weapon strikes an enemy, converting some of the damage to a random element. Then, depending on the element chosen, it releases an explosion, an arcing bolt of lightning, or an icy wave. Added a new Generic Skill Gem - Detonate Mines: Detonates all the Remote Mines you have placed. This Gem can be triggered.
New Support Gems: Added a new Strength Support Gem - Fortify: Supported skills deal additional damage and grant you the defensive Fortify buff when they hit. Added a new Strength Support Gem - Bloodlust: Supported skills deal substantially more damage against bleeding enemies, but they can't cause bleeding themselves. Added a new Dexterity/Intelligence Support Gem - Trap and Mine Damage: Supported trap and mine skills are slower to use and deal more damage. Added a new Dexterity Support Gem - Ice Bite: Supported skills are more likely to freeze enemies and have a large chance to grant a Frenzy Charge when killing a frozen enemy. Added a new Dexterity Support Gem - Hypothermia: Supported skills deal additional damage against chilled enemies and are more likely to freeze chilled enemies. Added a new Intelligence Support Gem - Innervate: Supported skills have additional chance to shock and grant Onslaught when you kill a shocked enemy.