Our Talent competition is now in its final week and will end very soon on March 8th (NZT). Entries will need to be submitted by this date. We’ll announce the winners of the competition sometime next week. For more information about the rules and how to enter the competition, read this announcement. For now, take a look at some of the wonderful submissions so far!








































Good luck to all the participants! We’re very excited to see what else you have in store in the last few days!

We're back with our third and final installment in our Ritual Statistics series. Today, we're going to take a look at which Atlas Passives players are picking in each Region.


It's important to note that the following statistics are pulled from a dataset which includes all accounts that have at least 1 Atlas Passive allocated and are presented on an atlas-wide basis. For the sake of sorting and ordering, we're using the Standard Ritual league as the... standard.




We can see that Harvest is the clear favourite in Lex Proxima across all leagues. Some marked differences include Heart of the Grove being noticeably more popular in Standard leagues than Hardcore leagues, while Rich Veins is more popular in Solo Self-Found leagues than in trade-enabled leagues. Players in Hardcore generally veer away from Torment given the potential high danger it can pose.




Legion reigns supreme in Glennach Cairns. We once again see lower representation in Hardcore leagues, as Legion is notoriously dangerous. Resource Reallocation sees notably more use in Standard SSF than Standard, though there is less of a difference between Hardcore and Hardcore SSF. An interesting observation is how frequently Protracted Battle is taken; this passive doesn't offer any additional rewards, but does offer additional time and ease in obtaining all of the rewards from a Legion encounter.




Delirium and Bestiary take up the top spots in Tirn's End, while Abyss and Invasion bring up the rear. That said, Delirium does see less use in Hardcore leagues, particularly Greater Forces, as it presents significant danger. Great Migration and Big Game are more common in SSF leagues than in trade leagues, especially in Standard, likely thanks to players wanting specific beasts but being unable to trade for them.




As with Lex Proxima, Harvest rules the roost in Haewark Hamlet. There are some differences between Standard and Hardcore here; both Beyond notables see significantly less representation in Hardcore. Essence sees higher use in both Hardcore and SSF, as it serves as a useful tool to craft gear with.




Once again, Legion is the leader across the board, though Hardcore leagues continue to make less use of it than Standard leagues. Anarchy and Delve passives generally see the least use here, though the generic Delve Atlas Mission passive, Mad Devotion, is a popular choice across all leagues.




Lira Arthain presents the most balanced distribution across the different league types of all of the regions. The most popular choices include both Blight and Bestiary passives, though Heist sees fairly high representation as well. Secret Stash and Inside Job see higher use in SSF leagues than in trade leagues, as trading for the powerful Heist-specific rewards such as Alternate Quality Gems is not an option.




Unsurprisingly, Harbinger passives are seeing the most use in Valdo's Rest, thanks to the swarm of Harbingers provided by Diplomatic Escort. One very notable difference between Standard and Hardcore is how infrequently Metamorph passives are taken in Hardcore; this isn't overly surprising given the danger of Metamorphs, but interesting nonetheless.




As with Tirn's End, Delirium leads the way in Lex Ejoris and follows the same trend of seeing less use in Hardcore compared to Standard. Perandus sees relatively high use in SSF leagues, being on par or slightly above its use in trade leagues. Once again, we see Metamorph being more popular in Standard leagues than in Hardcore leagues. Finally, Incursion sees very little use here, but that's understandable when it is up against such stiff competition.




Finally, we're looking at the Uncharted Realms stats. Immediately, we can see that many more players in Standard league are allocating points in this atlas passive tree, particularly due to the difficulty of unlocking passives here; This is echoed by the scarcity of SSF players, who have far fewer points allocated in this tree than the trade league players. Popular passive picks include Adept Tracker, Master of the Atlas and Paths Not Taken, being passives that increase conqueror progress as well as offering additional Zana Missions with additional map options. The more niche, not-always-beneficial options, such as Vivid Memories and Synthetic Source see very little use.


It's been enjoyable looking at which passives were most popular and how things differed between Standard and Hardcore, and trade leagues and SSF. In general, we see dangerous content, such as Delirium or Legion, be much less popular in Hardcore leagues, while things that offer exclusive rewards or useful crafting options to help gear up be much more popular in SSF leagues. All in all, we hope you've enjoyed this closer look into player behaviour. Let us know what you have and haven't liked about Atlas Trees, what you'd like to see more of and your general feeling towards Atlas Trees. We'll be reading and looking forward to the continued evolution of this system.

We recently launched a series of polls to design a Divination Card with our community, courtesy of community member lowkeyripper. The first poll determined that the card should be redeemed for a Watchstone which means the next step is to decide which type of Watchstone! If you’d like to contribute to the Path of Exile legacy, be sure to vote here.

This poll will be open for one week. Over the coming weeks, we’ll open up additional polls where your choices will determine all aspects of the card including the Atlas region or type of Watchstone, the modifiers it will have, the name, the art and the flavour theme!

We can’t wait to see what you'll design this card to be!

Following up on the Suffering and Misery concept art we've published recently, today we'd like to share the concept art of the combined Despair cosmetics from the Warlord Mystery Box. Check them out below:

If you prefer golden and shiny cosmetic effects for your Exiles, don't miss out on the new Sphinx Wings! Made out of gold, these glorious wings are the perfect final touch to many armour sets from the store, from the matching Sphinx Armour Set to the Angelic Armour Set. Watch the video below or get your wings here.



This weekend we're running a sale on a huge selection of Weapon and Shield Microtransactions with almost 200 cosmetic effects available at a discount! Please note that this sale excludes some of the weapon and shield microtransactions introduced since the launch of the Echoes of the Atlas expansion.

The sale will run from the time of this post until 7PM March 1st. Check out the full list of specials here.

For the duration of the sale we've also brought back a selection of past mystery boxes, which gives you another chance to get some of the most popular Path of Exile microtransactions for only 30 points! These have the same odds and values as when they were originally released. None of these mystery boxes are ones that contained any completely exclusive microtransactions. If you're interested to find out more, check out their original posts or click here to purchase some.

• Chaos and Order Mystery Box - Original Post - Trailer
  
• Fire and Ice Mystery Box - Original Post - Trailer
  
• Sin and Innocence Mystery Box - Original Post - Trailer
  
• Apocalypse Mystery Box - Original Post - Trailer
  
• Oriath Mystery Box - Original Post - Trailer
  
• Fairgraves Mystery Box - Original Post - Trailer
  
• Glimmerwood Mystery Box - Original Post - Trailer
  
• Frontier Mystery Box - Original Post - Trailer
  
• Carnival Mystery Box - Original Post - Trailer
  
• Polaris Mystery Box - Original Post - Trailer
  
• Thaumaturgy Mystery Box - Original Post - Trailer
  
• Angels and Demons Mystery Box - Original Post - Trailer
  
• Twilight Mystery Box - Original Post - Trailer

By the way, the Havoc616's Team Blast community event starts in less than a day, on February 27th! Players will compete in teams of 2-6 to earn points for specific objectives in a Private Ritual League. The winners will share a prize pool supplied by the community. We hope everyone who wanted to join managed to apply in time. Good luck! If you'd like to tune into the action, you can watch the event live on Havoc’s Twitch channel.

Thank you for your continued support! Have a great weekend everyone!

Next week we're planning to deploy the 3.13.1e update with a fair amount of improvements and bug fixes. Today we're prepared a preview of its patch notes to give you an idea of what to expect. Check them out below!

Please note that the patch notes listed below might be changed prior to the release of the 3.13.1e patch.

General Improvements

• Sirus, Awakener of Worlds and The Shaper can no longer appear in The Sacred Grove, Temporal Incursions, Syndicate Laboratories and Conqueror arenas.
  
• Added a Void Ground Hideout Decoration. This can be purchased from Zana at Decoration Level 2, for 330 Favour.
  
• Added an Expand/Collapse All button to the Hideout Decorations tab.
  
• Guild microtransactions can now be added to your Watchlist.
  
• The Additional Modifiers sidebar on the Map Device has been visually updated to make it easier to see how many Sextant uses remain.
  
• Clarified that Hexes applied as Auras with Blasphemy Support do not gain Doom.
  
• Clarified that players must be Petrified by The Gorgon in Sulphur Vents Map for the Complete Encounters III challenge.
  
• Fixed a bug where certain map bosses could sometimes fail to transition to their next phase if they were frozen.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Maven: Uncharted Realms quest could be shown earlier than intended.
  
• Fixed a bug where certain monsters could be immune to damage during Ritual encounters.
  
• Fixed a bug where certain monsters could re-emerge after being revived during a Ritual encounter.
  
• Fixed a bug where the portal to the Map could disappear while inside The Sacred Grove in certain maps.
  
• Fixed a bug where Talismans could drop without an anointment in the Distant Memories unique maps.
  
• Fixed a bug where the "Strongbox Monsters have 600% increased Item Quantity" Elevated Sextant modifier was only applying 500% increased Item Quantity.
  
• Fixed a bug where the "Trigger level x Warlord's Mark when you Hit a Rare or Unique Enemy" modifier was granting less Rage than intended.
  
• Fixed a bug with Righteous Fire where swapping socketed Support gems during the grace period could cause the skill to deal no damage.
  
• Fixed a bug where Hydrospheres couldn't be Shocked or Frozen when using Elemental Hit as a Ranged skill.
  
• Fixed a bug with Orb skills where damage would be reflected to the player if these skills were supported with Traps or Mines.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Alternate Quality effect on the Anomalous Mana Leech Support gem wasn't working correctly.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Alternate Quality effect on the Divergent Decoy Totem skill was incorrectly regenerating 20% of life per minute instead of per second.
  
• Fixed a bug where Desecrate could fail to summon corpses against certain bosses when triggered by Arcanist Brand.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Demonic Herald Effect microtransaction could cause Sentinels summoned by Herald of Purity to not use their Crusade Slam skill.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Do Not Disturb mode wouldn't display announcements such as the Realm restarting.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Silo map where items could drop in an inaccessible area.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Oba's Cursed Trove unique map wasn't playing the gong sound effect upon reaching certain map thresholds.
  
• Fixed a bug where the camera zoom speed was much slower during the Sirus, Awakener of Worlds encounter.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Skill Bar User Interface Panel could sometimes fail to visually update.
  
• Fixed a visual bug where the "Socketed Skills apply Fire, Cold and Lightning Exposure on Hit" modifier was only displaying the Cold Exposure modifier on the skill description.
  
• Fixed a visual bug where the Alternate Quality effects on the Phantasmal Spark and Anomalous Crackling Lance gems were missing description text.
  
• Fixed a visual bug where the Metamorph Stash Tab could display the incorrect number of stored organs.
  
• Fixed a visual bug where the random variation portal options could temporarily disappear after equipping certain microtransactions.

Mac Improvements

• Fixed a bug where you couldn't rotate while using Channelling skills if the skill was assigned to the right or middle mouse button.
  
• Fixed a bug where Hideouts couldn't be imported or exported.
  
• Fixed a bug where the client window buttons would no longer function after attempting to import or export a Hideout.
  
• Fixed a client crash that could occur when resizing the client window.

PvP Improvements

• Scorching Ray now has an attack time override of 3 seconds.
  
• Fixed a bug where premade Templar characters wouldn't be able to equip the Firestorm gem.
  
• Fixed a bug where premade Duelist characters wouldn't have a fully allocated Passive Tree.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Duelist's premade character build was incorrectly named "Whirling Blade" (now Double Strike).

Crash Fixes

• Fixed a client crash that could occur during Legion encounters.
  
• Fixed two instance crashes.

Our Talent Competition is in a full swing! If you haven't submitted your entry already, you have until March 8th (NZT) to do so. For more information about the rules and how to enter the competition, read this announcement. In the meantime, have a look at some of the submissions we've received so far:

We're back for part two of Ritual Statistics! Today, we're going to look at Ritual Vessels, Blood-filled Vessels, Tribute Gains and more.

First, let's take a look at the total Tribute gained from Ritual encounters, remembering from part one that 624,332,098 Rituals were started (and thus Tribute could be earned). In total, 1,313,156,248,242 Tribute has been earned by players running Rituals. This comes out to just over 2,100 Tribute per Ritual, giving an average area a total of 6,300 Tribute when completing 3 Rituals.

With all of that Tribute, Ritual Splinters have been purchased 26,184,083 times. This is the total number of purchases made, rather than the total count of Ritual Splinters purchased. An average area has ~3 Rituals, giving us 208,110,699 areas run. With this, we can see that players purchased Ritual Splinters every ~8 areas. Of the Ritual Vessels created from these splinters, 1,658,608 were used on Ritual Altars. That means that, on average, a Ritual Vessel was used on a Ritual Altar once for every 125 areas run. Furthermore, 926,764 Blood-filled Vessels were used in the Map Device, or once for every 224 areas run. This is fairly infrequent and may be something that we would want to revisit in the future should Ritual make its way into the core game.

Finally, we'll wrap up with a few miscellaneous Ritual statistics.

• In total, 3,051,171,137 Ritual Splinters were offered as rewards (an average of 14.66 every area).
  
• In total, Ritual Splinters were offered as rewards 198,587,563 times (an average of 1 every 1.05 areas).
  
• In total, 29,547,874 Ritual Base Types were offered as rewards (an average of 1 every 7.04 areas).
  
• In total, 1,636,846 Ritual Unique Items were offered as rewards (an average of 1 every 127.14 areas).

We hope you've enjoyed taking a closer look at these Ritual statistics with us. We've got another stats news post coming next week where we'll be taking a close look at which Atlas Passives players are taking in each Atlas Region (including The Uncharted Realms), so stay tuned!

We've prepared pieces of concept art from the Ethercraft and Rapture microtransaction series to share with the community. If you're interested in taking a sneak peek into our microtransaction development process or if you've liked our recent cosmetic effects releases, then check them out below!

On February 27th and 28th, veteran community member, streamer and racer, Havoc616, will be hosting the first ever group-found race in this style! Players will compete in teams of 2-6 to earn points for specific objectives in a Private Ritual League.

This event will take place over four six hour sessions to give teams time to rest and strategise. If you’ve always wanted to try racing, then this is the perfect opportunity for you. The winners will share in a crowdfunded cash prize pool as well as microtransactions provided by us.



Schedule
Day 1 Start: February 27th at 8AM EST (1 PM GMT)
Day 2 Start: February 28th at 8AM EST (1 PM GMT)

Prize Pool:

• 1st: 35%
  
• 2nd: 20%
  
• 3rd: 10%
  
• 4th: 8%
  
• 5th: 7%
  
• 6th: 6% + Innocence Armour Pack, Footprints & Weapon Effect
  
• 7th: 5% + Innocence Armour Pack, Footprints & Weapon Effect
  
• 8th: 4% + Innocence Armour Pack, Footprints & Weapon Effect
  
• 9th: 3% + Innocence Armour Pack, Footprints & Weapon Effect
  
• 10th: 2% + Innocence Armour Pack, Footprints & Weapon Effect
  
• 11th - 15th: Chaos Orb Helmet & Radiant Sword Skin

If you want to tune into the action, you can watch live on Havoc’s Twitch channel where a full cast and crew will be working together to provide maximum coverage and entertainment.

Click here to learn more about the event, how to join the event, the rules in place, point system, prizes, or to contribute to the event's prize pool. You can also join the POE Racing Discord here.

Shout out to community members Faderon, Brittleknee, SK_Gunoo, Somayd, Muqve and DadBodGamingGod for their work behind the scenes to help make this event a reality.

Good luck to everyone who’s participating!