Grinding Gear Games have announced a brand new free expansion to their spectacular ARPG, Path of Exile. Dubbed as “The Awakening”, the new expansion will contain a huge chunk of content: a new story and act for players to conquer, new items and skills for them to conquer it with, and finally a new addition to their impressive skill tree system.
What’s more, the beta for The Awakening for those too eager to wait, will begin next week, on April 20th.
Warning: this contains some spoilers of the original story. If that is something important to you, then skip the next paragraph to get onto the non-spoilery stuff.
The new story is vague at best, but according to Grinding Gear Games, it’ll be just as deadly as the original acts. “Dominus is dead, but the source of his fearsome power remains.” explained Grinding Gear Games. “Travel north from Sarn to Highgate and delve into the darkness that lurks beneath the mountains there. Explore all-new areas and face the legends of Wraeclast as you seek to put an end to the Nightmare.”
So apart from the new story, what else makes the meat of the expansion? Thirteen new gems, enabling brand new skills will make an appearance. The only example that was given, was the ability to summon powerful elemental Golems to fight for you. If that isn’t impressive enough, then the 70 new Unique items might do better at whetting your appetite. Maraketh Weapons are an entirely new equipment set altogether.
Probably the most exciting addition however comes to the games oversized skill tree system. Jewels are a new item that can be slotted into spaces within the skill tree itself. Depending on the jewel, it will perform different effects. One example is the Intuitive Leap jewel, which allows you to activate passives within a certain radius, that aren’t even connected to your other nodes. Another one does a more simple effect: Fluid Motion will turn all strength passives into dexterity, again within the jewels radius of influence.
To find out more about the expansion, and to sign up to the incoming beta next week, check out the official announcement page.