We took a moment to chat with Nick from our community team about his work with Grinding Gear Games. Check it out below!

Hey Nick, thanks for taking part in the interview! Please introduce yourself.

Hi! I'm Nick and I've been with the Community Team for a little over a year now. I joined the team just after the launch of the Ritual League. I've been playing Path of Exile on and off since Anarchy League (softcore Andy reporting in!)

Could you please tell us about your current role at Grinding Gear Games and what an average work day is like for you?

My current role covers a huge range of things from looking for feedback or issues with the game, preparing and posting the daily news posts and sometimes helping out with filming gameplay for microtransactions. If you see a Community_Team post on Reddit, that most likely would've been me! Almost every day is different, which is awesome for variety!

How and when did you find out about Path of Exile?

I found out about the game when I was still in high school in 2011. I think Closed Beta sign-ups had opened then, but I didn't actually play the game until Open Beta in 2013. Like many others, I'd have to say Kripparrian's coverage of the game is what really put it on my radar.

What was the moment that got you hooked on the game?

I think it'd have to be the different ways you can build your character and play the game. Modifying Fireball to be able to Fork or fire multiple projectiles felt like the coolest thing ever to me. Learning all the mechanics and having them "click" also felt really satisfying!

What are your favourite builds from your time in Path of Exile?

My memory might be failing me on this one, but one of my favourite builds I remember playing was I think when Mirror Arrow worked with Minion Instability, and you'd reserve your life so that your Mirror Arrow clone would instantly explode once it landed for juicy proliferating ignites. Something about it was bugged though, because I remember it being fixed shortly after!

Otherwise, I really enjoy CoC (YEP) builds, and fondly remember playing Shatterchuck back in the day, and Cospri's Malice Ice Nova more recently!

How did you end up working at Grinding Gear Games?

I actually applied for a community role in 2019 but didn't make the cut. In 2020, there was another call for applications so I thought why not try again? I was lowkey hoping Bex didn't remember I had already applied the year before, but she did :')

What are the highlights from your time with the community team?

Everyone in the community team is awesome to work with. Bex especially. For real though, she's awesome and the banter we have going between everyone in the community team is a lot of fun!

Are there any unexpected challenges in this job?

I think the most unexpected challenge was getting used to putting everything together for our livestream announcements. There's a loooooot of moving parts for these, and we wouldn't be able to cope without other departments like our awesome QA team and our UI Artists!

What hobbies or interests do you have?

I like playing a lot of video games (who didn't see that coming?). At the moment, I'm playing a lot of Path of Exile, Dota 2 and Street Fighter 5 but am excitedly waiting for Monster Hunter: Sunbreak and Street Fighter 6! I also like watching and lurking in Path of Exile streams, especially during events like our Boss Kill events or Zizaran's Gauntlet. Outside of video games, I enjoy playing badminton from time to time. I also like watching Anime and Marvel films. My favourite Marvel film would probably be Morbius, specifically the scene where he says "It's Morbin' time."

Anything you want to tell to all PoE players?

If you have any questions, feel free to drop a post in the thread here and I'll shoot you a reply if I can answer it!

This weekend we are running a Stash Tab Sale! You can view the full selection of discounted tabs by pressing 'M' in-game to access the store. The Stash Tab sale ends on July 4th, 6:00PM PDT.

If you're missing points for the sale, be sure to check out our supporter packs!

Strike down your foes with holy bolts from the heavens with the new Divine Lightning Arrow Effect! Check it out in the video below, or get yours in the 'New Items' category by pressing 'M' in-game to access the store.


The Divine Lightning Arrow Effect goes great with other Divine and Holy themed effects. Check it out in the screenshot below, paired with the Celestial Emperor Wings, Divine Stygian Armour Set, Divine Skull Helmet and Harmonious Weapon Skin!



Thanks for your support!

Later today, we're planning to deploy 3.18.1c which includes a few improvements and bug fixes. In this news post we've prepared a preview of its patch notes.

The following patch notes are still subject to change prior to the patch's deployment.

3.18.1c Patch Notes

This patch contains futher improvements to Path of Exile's texture system, alongside a number of general improvements and bug fixes.

General Improvements and Changes

• Improved the texture system's memory usage and performance.
  
• Heist Contracts and Blueprints now display which job level requirements are unmet in red.
  
• You can now change the keybind for opening the Atlas Skill Tree in the Options menu.
  
• The radius of Ground Effects from Map modifiers are no longer affected by increases and reductions to Map modifier effect.
  
• Added audio for Burning, Chilled and Shocked Ground Effects.
  
• Improved the audio of Shocked Ground trail left by Monsters with the Storm Strider modifier.
  
• Updated the description on the Map modifier that causes Monsters to have a chance to remove Power, Frenzy and Endurance Charges on Hit, as it can also remove any type of Charge on Hit (such as Inspiration or Void Charges).
  
• Updated the description on the Supreme Ego Keystone Passive Skill to clarify the "more Mana Reservation" only applies to Aura Skills, rather than all Skills.

Controller Support Improvements and Fixes

• Improved the targeting range of Animate Weapon in Controller input mode.
  
• Fixed a bug where it was possible to open the Harvest Crafting interface when in combat in Controller input mode.
  
• Fixed a client crash that could occur when using Controller input mode.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where Power, Frenzy and Endurance Charges sometimes did not update their visuals when equipping an Item or Microtransaction that provided an Alternate Charges Skin.
  
• Fixed a bug where in the Uber Shaper and Uber-Uber Elder Boss Fights, The Shaper's Ultimate Chaos (bullet hell) skill could have more projectiles than expected.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused character dialogue to be played at incorrect times (such as when first logging in), and dialogue from unique items such as Oni-Goroshi and Jack, The Axe to not play.
  
• Fixed a bug where Hexproof Enemies could sometimes be unaffected by Curses that affect Hexproof Enemies.
  
• Fixed a few cases where some sounds could be unaffected by the volume slider.

We're in the final week of the Well-dressed Exile Competition before entries close on July 4th (PDT)! Here's our last set of highlights where we replicated your outfits to take our own screenshots. Feel free to use them as wallpapers! Check them out below!































Don't forget, we're closing entries from July 4th, 4:59AM (PDT), so make sure you get your entry in before then! For more information about the competition, be sure to check out the original thread here! We'll announce the winners a few weeks after the competition ends. Best of luck to all participants!

We recently asked Dominic, one of our Sound Designers, to share some insights into the process of designing audio for the Sentinel League. Check out the article on our website here if you're looking for a sneak peek into our development process.

Our community is filled with heaps of talent, so for today's news post we wanted to share works that we've found from our Community Showcase forum and on Reddit! Check them out in today's news post!














We always love seeing your creations, so if you have any you'd like to share with the community, be sure to submit them to our Community Showcase Forum or our subreddit!

We've gathered up some pieces of concept art for a range of items and microtransactions. If you enjoy seeing the awesome artwork from our team, make sure you check them out!

Kirac's Vault Pass features a plethora of awesome microtransactions for specific unique items. Today, we wanted to feature a build by community member Esoro that focuses on using The Devouring Diadem. Check it out below!


For more information on the Vault Pass, be sure to check out https://www.pathofexile.com/vault. If you're interested in trying out Esoro's build, check out their extremely detailed video guide here.

There's still a lot of time left to enter our Well-dressed Exile Competition! We've gone through a few more entries and wanted to show off more of the community's creativity by replicating their outfits and taking our own screenshots. Feel free to use them as wallpapers! Check them all out below!































We hope these highlights have given you some inspiration! If you need more, check out the last highlights post here! For more information about the competition, be sure to check out the original thread here!

After a weekend of collaborative mayhem, BPL 8 - Cosmic Contest has now concluded! Congratulations to the winning team, the Maven's Memories! Today, we're sharing a few highlights on the event from Twitch. Check them out on our forum here!