A Path of Exile live stream was recently announced, which will then present the latest add-on “The Forbidden Sanctum” in detail. This has now taken place and provides concrete details about the new add-on for the action RPG.
Grinding Gear Games has kept its word and presented the next expansion to the successful action role-playing game Path of Exile in detail via live stream. This is known to be called “The Forbidden Sanctum” and should be available from December 9th for the PC and then from December 14th for PlayStation and Xbox.
While this was already known, the developers in the person of co-founder Chris Wilson have now revealed more information about the exact content of the add-on. Accordingly, “The Forbidden Sanctum” will include a new Challenge League as well as improvements to the endgame. There are also two new Skill Gems, seven new Vaal Skill Gems, more than 15 new items, jewel balancing change, curses, monster modifiers, weapons and more. Last but not least, the add-on also introduces Ruthless, a new option to gamble Path of Exile with extreme item shortages.
The official feature list of the new add-on reads as follows:
- New three-month Challenge League – The Forbidden Sanctum is a roguelike set in Path of Exile. Players will explore an ancient sanctuary hidden beneath the Fellshrine Ruins. Abandoned long ago, a malevolent presence has made its home here. In each region of Wraeclast that players roam, they have the opportunity to explore a sanctum room and search for treasure there.
- New Skills and Vaal Gems – Two new Skill Gems for melee characters have been introduced: Volcanic Fissure, a fiery slam, and Frozen Legion, a spell that summons a ring of icy melee statues. A number of new Vaal Gems have also been introduced. Vaal Gems are alternate versions of existing Skill Gems that come with a recurring and massive power boost.
- Ruthless-Modus – An optional game mode that can be selected during character creation. Ruthless is all about extreme item scarcity that creates new challenges to play Path of Exile.
- New unique items – The expansion introduces more than fifteen new unique items scattered across Sanctum and Wraeclast. These items open up new opportunities to create specialized characters.
- Monster modifiers – The nemesis monster modifier system has been replaced with an evolved set of modifiers. These only have one effect and do exactly what they are supposed to do. Rewards have been adjusted accordingly and are no longer tied to specific modifiers. In general, combat with magic and rare monsters is less complex but can still produce a combination of modifiers as a result that get the player’s heart racing.
- Endgame improvements – The Atlas Passive Tree has been improved to allow players to invest even more in content they enjoy. Two new Atlas memories are also now available, telling the story of the Dominion and the Bestiary.
- Buffed endgame unique weapons – Ten unique endgame weapons have been upgraded with massive buffs to match some of Path of Exile’s most iconic weapons. Of course, they are now all extremely rare.
- balancing changes – Many balancing changes have been introduced in various areas such as Jewels, Curses and Eldritch Altars.
