Path of Exile - Ascendancy Available Today

Path of Exile's latest chapter, Ascendancy, will become available today. In addition the Perandus Challenge Leagues also become available.

Grinding Gear Games Announces Path of Exile: Ascendancy and the Perandus Challenge League

Are You Ready to Face the Lord's Labyrinth? Find out on March 4th, 2016

Auckland, New Zealand - March 3, 2016 - Grinding Gear Games announced today that it is ready to unleash the latest chapter for their hit online ARPG, Path of Exile. On March 4th, Path of Exile: Ascendancy and the Perandus Challenge League will be launched simultaneously at noon US Pacific time.

Path of Exile was released in October 2013 to critical acclaim including winning GameSpot's PC Game of the Year award. Since its launch, Path of Exile has become a world community of over 13 million players including localized versions in Traditional Chinese, Russian, Thai and Brazilian Portuguese.

Path of Exile: Ascendancy, like every major expansion of PoE, will be completely free-to-play (and of course, never Pay to Win - This means that your success in the game is dependent on the depth of your skill, not your wallet). More information about Path of Exile: Ascendancy can be found at www.pathofexile.com/ascendancy

The Perandus Challenge Leagues
Launching alongside Path of Exile: Ascendancy is the Perandus Challenge Leagues. These brand new leagues offer players the wealth of the Eternal Empire. Discover caches of Perandus family treasure, slay their guardians and claim the coins contained within. Anyone lucky enough to uncover one of the lost caches will discover something remarkable: fistfuls of glittering coins that can be exchanged with Cadiro Perandus himself for vital equipment and ancient artifacts.

Path of Exile: Ascendancy Features:

• The Trials of Ascendancy: Seeking a worthy successor, Emperor Izaro constructed deadly trials throughout Wraeclast to find candidates. Six types of lethal traps have been crafted by Izaro into elaborate puzzle rooms - an entirely new gameplay type for Path of Exile.
• The Lord's Labyrinth: Having proved your mettle in the Trials of Ascendancy, you earn the right to enter Izaro's Labyrinth. Years have passed, but its traps are as dangerous as the day its doors were first opened. With an entirely new system for generating sequences of random areas, the overall layout of the Labyrinth shifts every day, uncovering new puzzles and secrets.
• Emperor Izaro: Entombed forever in his own creation, Emperor Izaro lives on. You will face Izaro multiple times during the Labyrinth and the fight will evolve depending on your actions in previous encounters.
• Ascendancy Classes: Long ago, nineteen competitors entered The Lord's Labyrinth, each representing a different style of combat. Their powers can be claimed by those who prove themselves worthy by defeating Emperor Izaro. There are 19 new Ascendancy classes, each with its own additional Ascendancy Skill Tree to master.
• Enchantments: Izaro's power can also be used to infuse items with powerful properties. These enchantments trigger specific skills and effects to occur on certain conditions. Each time the Labyrinth is completed, you maybe add one of these enchantments to an item.
• Powerful New Gems: Ascendancy introduces a set of devastating new skills and support gems to customize your character with.
• Exotic New Items: Featuring dozens of Unique Items and Divination Cards designed by Path of Exile's community, Ascendancy adds tantalizing power for players to discover.
• Challenge Leagues: The launch of Ascendancy also marks the start of our latest challenge leagues. These leagues provide an ideal opportunity for a fresh start for returning players.

More information.

Absolutely awesome stuff! It's so great to see an ethical free-to-play game be a huge success, and one that is actually more deep and interesting than most $60 AAA titles!

I actually envy anyone who has never played before and jumps in right now. The game has never been in a stronger position. It is the most balanced, rewarding, content-rich, and optimized it has ever been.

PoE truly is the worthy successor of Diablo 2. It's my most-played game because it's just that interesting!

Go play it! Feel free to add me as a friend on Steam (Brumbek) if you want to chat/Skype for help as a new player.

PS: this patch gives some HUGE changes to make the game much less tedious and grindy. They made it massively easier to 5-Link and 6-Link gear now, which will let average players have a chance at the best-of-the-best end-game builds.

Maybe i would give it a second try when there would be no Grim Dawn.
Played it 2 or 3 years ago and stopped becauswe the act endbosses were really hard with my summoner build and totally not in balance with the other enemies i´ve encountered.

Originally Posted by Kylex
Maybe i would give it a second try when there would be no Grim Dawn.
Played it 2 or 3 years ago and stopped becauswe the act endbosses were really hard with my summoner build and totally not in balance with the other enemies i´ve encountered.

The game you played 2-3 years ago is long gone.
They've made several massive changes each year.

Originally Posted by Wisdom
The game you played 2-3 years ago is long gone.
They've made several massive changes each year.

Maybe but the disbalance Kylex talks about is still very much there. Maybe expansion will change that but I really dislike the way boss encounters are handled. You are locked in a small area with no place for subtlety or tactics.

Originally Posted by zahratustra
Maybe but the disbalance Kylex talks about is still very much there. Maybe expansion will change that but I really dislike the way boss encounters are handled. You are locked in a small area with no place for subtlety or tactics.

True, especially in not long ago added act 4.Most bosses there are pain if you are playing ranged class that rely on mobility and tactics.

One thing that also annoys me is stash is not transferable through leagues.Since there is new leage every content patch I practically never have access to shared stash on new characters.

Originally Posted by Brumbek
PS: this patch gives some HUGE changes to make the game much less tedious and grindy. They made it massively easier to 5-Link and 6-Link gear now, which will let average players have a chance at the best-of-the-best end-game builds.

Hmm, that is indeed appealing. So much character build potential is locked behind incredibly rare/expensive 6-slot items.

PoE vs Full Pillars/Eternity playthrough vs finishing my Wasteland 2 playthrough vs finishing a FO:New Vegas mod, ugh!!!!!!

Originally Posted by Brumbek
Absolutely awesome stuff! It's so great to see an ethical free-to-play game be a huge success, and one that is actually more deep and interesting than most $60 AAA titles!

You couldn't have said it better, Brumbek!

Originally Posted by Nameless one
One thing that also annoys me is stash is not transferable through leagues.Since there is new leage every content patch I practically never have access to shared stash on new characters.

Yes, I was thinking about that while playing in the morning with new character. Running AGAIN through all that even with few bells and whistles added? I just might have to do that once but that's it! Most likely I will run through one or two chars and that will be that for the Path of Exile.

I loved the atmosphere and especially that Dominus guy - the voice acting was done superb for him, but…
This kind of games are all about loot, unfortunately here all coolest stuff is only cash shop items, i mean cool looking armor and weapons. In game your high level character will run in same ugly rags as when he just started back at lvl 1, only higher stats.
I know I must support devs and buy some items, but what's the fun then to go after the shiny loot when I already bought it. And grinding just for stats turned to boredom very fast for me.

Originally Posted by Zogar Sag
here all coolest stuff is only cash shop items, i mean cool looking armor and weapons.

Lol, what? Everything from the cash shop is cosmetic and has no bearing on gameplay. The cash shop in PoE is one of its strongpoints.

Originally Posted by Zogar Sag
This kind of games are all about loot, unfortunately here all coolest stuff is only cash shop items, i mean cool looking armor and weapons. In game your high level character will run in same ugly rags as when he just started back at lvl 1, only higher stats.

This is EXACTLY what a cash shop should be if you have to have one.

No stats, no buffs, no pay to win, no unobtainable godly items.

If people want to pay $10 for a shiny suit glamor that has the same stats as my rags… YAY!

Originally Posted by Drithius
Lol, what? Everything from the cash shop is cosmetic and has no bearing on gameplay. The cash shop in PoE is one of its strongpoints.

What lol? I'm not talking about shop items having some stats or not, I'm talking about cool looking armor and weapons, which in this game are only in cash shop, while those you can obtain by plain playing looks like crap in comparison.
For me finding cool looking stuff is one of the main things why I play such type of games, hope now you get my point.

Originally Posted by Zogar Sag
What lol? I'm not talking about shop items having some stats or not, I'm talking about cool looking armor and weapons, which in this game are only in cash shop, while those you can obtain by plain playing looks like crap in comparison.

Well…here is my level 91 Witch. I used a couple Skin Transfer Microtransactions to give her a pretty decent "Lightning" look. The Skin Transfers let you grab any other piece of gear's look and apply it, and they only cost something like $0.60 per use.

I personally strongly dislike all that blinged out non-lore flaming/shining/demon armor MTX stuff. It makes no sense in the world of Wraeclast where you're supposed to be searching for items to survive.

But yeah, if you want to look like a Christmas tree, it will cost you anywhere from $20 to $100 for a full set.

It brings up an interesting question: would I rather PoE be buy to play? If the base game was $40 and each expansion was $20, I'd have paid $120 so far. That's almost exactly what I've paid so far, spending on Stash Tabs mostly.

But since PoE is free, their artists have to spend tons of time making these MTX armor/weapons, which I'll never get. If the game was buy to play, then perhaps they would spend more time making more of the Unique in-game pieces of gear have a unique 3D look.

Clearly Diablo 3 crushes PoE as far as appearance goes. Diablo 3 lets you change any piece of gear to look like anything else for free, and Diablo 3 has way cooler looking stuff…

It's an interesting discussion…but since PoE is lesser known, they probably would have never gotten as big and successful if they charged $40 at the gate. Being free to play helps many players overlook the games…issues.

Personally, I don't care one iota about my character's appearance in an A-RPG (or most games for that matter). Graphically-speaking, what I do care about is the spell effects and PoE has these in spades.

Originally Posted by Brumbek
Clearly Diablo 3 crushes PoE as far as appearance goes. Diablo 3 lets you change any piece of gear to look like anything else for free, and Diablo 3 has way cooler looking stuff…

This is exactly what I am talkig about! In loot driven game you want to see your character progressing through the levels not only stat wise but also getting new cool gear and get that look of battlehardened veteran.

"But yeah, if you want to look like a Christmas tree, it will cost you anywhere from $20 to $100 for a full set." - you know that you exaraggate here as a long time player. Look at some armors like Gore or Arcane, they look cool and nowhere near Christmas tree and times better that epics you could find with your long grind.

"I personally strongly dislike all that blinged out non-lore flaming/shining/demon armor MTX stuff. It makes no sense in the world of Wraeclast where you're supposed to be searching for items to survive."
I understand that, but the irony is GGG thinks it fits their lore, all those wings and glowing horns, it's their creation not fan mods.

Funny you should bring this topic up in a Path of Exile thread Zogar Zag… Check out the post at the top of this page from a thread from the Path of Exile forums:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/vi…/485358/page/3

It's by someone called 'Deleted'. Hmmm, now, I wonder who that could have been. And whoa, old thread too

That golden armour from NWN was exactly what you're talking about, that sense of 'getting there' and seeing the avatar change to complement this.

Originally Posted by Zogar Sag
Look at some armors like Gore or Arcane, they look cool and nowhere near Christmas tree and times better that epics you could find with your long grind.

True, some are more tasteful and make more sense in the lore. But then again, you can also buy this abomination. If I ever see a character wearing that rubbish, I shall scold them ever so severely.

Originally Posted by Zogar Sag
I understand that, but the irony is GGG thinks it fits their lore, all those wings and glowing horns, it's their creation not fan mods.

Do you have proof on this? I don't think GGG has ever addressed this. They know all this crazy angel/demon armor doesn't fit their lore. They're just making what players like from all sorts of fantasy games. PoE has no angels or vampires or whatnot.

Again, it's just done to make money, not because it fits the lore. Hence, us lore-freaks who really adore the excellent backstory and lore, don't like this stuff.

But paying $40 for an Angel armor set gives GGG more money to finance the game…so I begrudgingly accept it…sort of like how I have to rob banks to finance my crack habit…it's just how life goes. [Some of this last paragraph may not be true…maybe.]

Some weird stuff is going on… I have lost 2 Tabula Rasas in the reset and, yesterday, I have seen in Sarn a 21st level witch armed with 2 Lifesprigs. How?

Originally Posted by Brumbek
Do you have proof on this? I don't think GGG has ever addressed this. They know all this crazy angel/demon armor doesn't fit their lore. They're just making what players like from all sorts of fantasy games. PoE has no angels or vampires or whatnot.

Again, it's just done to make money, not because it fits the lore. Hence, us lore-freaks who really adore the excellent backstory and lore, don't like this stuff.

But paying $40 for an Angel armor set gives GGG more money to finance the game…so I begrudgingly accept it…sort of like how I have to rob banks to finance my crack habit…it's just how life goes. [Some of this last paragraph may not be true…maybe.]

Isn't it a bit weird or stupid to make rich lore and then add absolutely out of lore stuff in your own game only because some players like it. Players would like chainmail bikini or sexy lingerie 10 times more than some demon armor, believe me.
Anyway if what you say is true, then where is grantee that next time they will completely not broke their lore, because players would like it and will buy!
Don't get me wrong, I don't like all that wings/horns stuff myself, it also gave me salty feeling about game direction and how serious devs are about their lore.
Why not add some cool armor in game along with those from cash shop, but more lore friendly, no? Maybe because at some point cash shop becomes priority?