Dec 29, 2022

Path of Exile - CommunityTeam_GGG

Today's streamer interview is with none other than Palsteron! Outside of streaming on Twitch, he also produces a lot of educational content on his Youtube channel! Check out the interview below!

Hi Palsteron, thank you for taking part in the interview! Please introduce yourself:

Hey I’m Daniel aka Palsteron. I make content on Youtube and stream on Twitch! I’ve played Path of Exile for almost a decade and I’m mostly passionate about making fun builds and in-depth guides about them. I also try to give an honest and actionable approach to farming strategies and educational content.

When did you first get into Path of Exile?

It was at a Friday Night Magic (MTG), when a friend introduced me to this “complex and insane game”. He needed a few tries initially to get me hooked, but when Perandus League came out, I was basically playing non-stop during university.

What one thing caught your attention in the beginning and what one thing kept you coming back?

The sheer depth that Path of Exile had was stunning at the time and still is. No attack or movement speed caps, no dailies and definitely no end to build exploration. What makes me come back is the awesome community and frequent updates that keep me on my toes.

Are there any highlights from your time playing Path of Exile that stand out in your memory?

So in Legacy League (2.6), I wasn’t able to play for the first few days of the league. When I finally had time, my friends already had geared characters, leaving me a few days behind in progress which felt really bad. Then I dropped a Mirror of Kalandra at Level 68 in Dried Lake while leveling my first character… So yeah, kinda memorable.

Do you have a favourite build?

I love Cyclone. It’s a skill that has fallen out of favour recently, but it’s just so comfortable to play and I try to make it work whenever possible. Otherwise everything with fast clearspeed that doesn’t have to aim or press a lot of buttons while exploding screens!

Which expansion has been your favourite so far?

Sentinel League (3.18) replaced Legacy League as my favorite league of all time recently. It was a subtle but clever mapping mechanic coupled with great crafting options through Recombinators!

What's one thing every Path of Exile player should hear?

You don’t need fancy items or a lot of currency to have fun. Not everyone has time to farm a Mageblood, and that is ok. Adjust your goals to the time you have at your disposal, instead of comparing yourself to streamers who do this for a living and maybe even have traders or guild support. Most players I know that get to those items quickly burn out in a week or two, I’d know because I was exactly the same way before becoming a content creator.

Adjust your gaming experience to be fun WHILE chasing those items and find fun in the small things or you’ll be disappointed afterwards.

When did you first start streaming? How did you get into it?

I started in May 2021, it was a pretty bad time creatively for me in my life. I tried to find more meaning in my job and couldn’t, especially during COVID, which frustrated me but gave me enough courage to try out new things.

A friend of mine egged me on to try and make a Youtube video since I “talk so much” and I took his dare and learned how to edit. A few days later, I released my first video, which did really well. I then made a business plan, moved to a region where I could be more flexible and started streaming. Best decision ever.

What can people expect from your stream and schedule?

I want my stream to be a place to just hang out and listen to music together, while sharing our gaming passion. I don’t want it to be a permanent Q&A but I do help out where I can and try to give my input on things that people care about! Mostly though, I’m trying to build something that’s not just about me or a game but about the community itself.

On my Youtube I try to be professional, although I can’t help my directness sometimes. That being said, I’m trying to combine educational content for newer players with flavour of the month stuff and more complicated topics for the veteran players, with educated input wherever I can.

I stream 5-6 times a week on http://twitch.tv/palsteron, usually around 13:30 CET. On my Youtube I don’t have much of a schedule, I upload around 2-4 times a week, but if I have nothing to say I won’t force out a video haha.

What were you doing before you started streaming?

After I studied econ, I fell into a year-long battle with “finding a job I actually like”. This ranged from a banking job to selling MTG cards to helping out relatives with businesses. In hindsight, everything I produced was mostly uninspired nonsense, so I’m happy where I am now!

What hobbies or interests do you have outside of streaming?

I like sports, mostly tennis, hiking or going for a run. Other than that, it’s less about activities and more about the people I do them with. If we get a good set of friends together, it’ll be fun regardless of what we do!

That being said, if you want a perfectly healthy work/life balance, definitely don’t become a streamer lol.

Is there anything you'd like to see more of in the streaming community?

Overall, I think Path of Exile has one of the strongest communities in the gaming industry and there’s not much to add to that. We have HC racers, new-player friendly streamers and everything in between.

A bit more civilized discourse maybe, it can feel like highschool in some parts of the community, which can be off-putting at the start.

Do you have any advice for people who are looking to make their own career out of streaming?

Don’t go into this without savings. This is a marathon and it will take time to “pop off”. It won’t be rewarding monetarily anytime soon, so you need to have savings to keep you afloat while trying to find your muse. Being desperate for money will also lead to you taking bad short-term sponsorships that will hurt you in the long-term or destroy the relationship with your viewers.

Also, if you’re somebody who needs outside validation, expect to get absolutely destroyed in the short-term. You need confidence in what you do and that can only come from playing this game for a long time already.

Path of Exile is not a momentum-driven “hype” game, it’s about forging long term relationships with other creators and your viewers. Path of Exile has one of the best gaming communities, but they’ll spit you right out if you just try to go for bullshit or “quick money”.

Are there any up and coming streamers that you'd like to shine a spotlight on?

There’s way too many great new streamers to name them all. Also, am I implying some of these people aren’t already established by putting them on the list? Wait, is it good that they are on the list or am I insulting them indirectly?

Oh boy, well here are some off the top of my head:

Crouching_Tuna - Great vibes and music on stream. Very knowledgeable about the game. NEEDS TO MAKE MORE YOUTUBE STUFF!

Captainlance - A super creative build-maker who’s always on the lookout for the next weird interaction to try out. Usually makes bait builds, but has a good heart. (jk)

Subtractem - Cozy and wholesome streamer with great energy and anti-elitism vibes. Also one of the first people to promote my content on stream when I had no following.

MilkyBK_ - Criminally underrated SC mapper that comes up with some big-brain currency strats and is super fun to hang out with.

Tripolarbear - Goofy Memester who’s a brand risk, in the best way possible. He also likes to make Youtube videos of builds originally made by a cat.

Aer0 - Very creative dude who will try to make builds work that other people deem “unplayable”.

Spicysushi - Bigbrain crafter that everyone can learn a lot from. Also CAM WHEN?

Also shout out to Mbxtreme, he’s not exactly “up and coming” but he was one of the first big streamers to teach me things about content creation and hosted me several times when I was new to streaming!

In general though, the Path of Exile community is incredibly friendly and welcoming, which goes for both creators and viewers alike!

Do you have any projects on the horizon you'd like to talk about?

Me and some other creators, notably Grimro, Tytykiller, Crouching_Tuna, Tripolarbear, Spicysushi, Fyregrass and MbXtreme are currently revamping the way high-quality, written content is presented.

Maxroll.gg allows us to have great online-tools to provide in-depth build guides, farming strategies, crafting tech, bossing guides and a new player section that is less intimidating! We started this project in 3.19 and want this to become the golden standard of written guides, especially with Path of Exile 2 on the horizon.

So if that sounds interesting to you, check it out here: http://maxroll.gg/poe

Thank you so much for participating in the interview! If you'd like to follow Palsteron, you can do so on Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch. Also, don't forget that you can support both Palsteron and the development of Path of Exile by buying microtransactions from his Nexus page!

Dec 22, 2022

Core Supporter Packs FAQ

Path of Exile - CommunityTeam_GGG

Yesterday we released the 2023 set of annual Core Supporter Packs. Since then we've received a lot of questions regarding their contents, in particular, the community was curious how the Voidborn Reliquary submission process works. In this news post we'll answer the most popular questions about Core Supporter Packs.

When will the Voidborn Reliquary Keys start dropping?
The Voidborn Reliquary Keys will likely start dropping in the first half of January 2023.

How does the submission process work?
After purchasing a Voidborn Supporter Pack, you can use a special page to submit your choice of an existing unique item, your preferred foiling treatment, and a custom message that will be displayed when the item is awarded to a player. We'll then review the custom message you have provided, which will either be accepted or rejected with feedback on what to change.

If I pick a unique, the colour and add a little text, but others choose that unique as well, does that mean only one version will be added? That would mean that some would get nothing? Or are all versions going to be added which means you can get different version of the same unique from the new keys?
Multiple people can specify the same item (even with the same foiling treatment) and all of them will be added to the pool. Each one can drop separately with its own message and hence increases the chances that the specified item can be found.

How do the rarities of the unique items selected affect the drop rate of the Voidborn Reliquary Key?
Each item is weighted based on its rarity. We balance the drop rate of the overall key around what people select. Let's look at two examples:

a) All the supporters only select Mageblood or Headhunter. In this case, the key always yields something incredibly valuable, and drops quite infrequently.

b) In addition to those valuable uniques, a few supporters select common uniques. In this case, the common uniques are the likely outcome from a Voidborn Reliquary, so we make the key drop more frequently to compensate. Players can still infrequently get the Mageblood or Headhunter outcomes just like in the first example, but more keys are dropping and often yield the more common foiled uniques.

Are there any restrictions to the custom message?
You can write whatever you want in your custom message, but we reserve the right to reject it for any reason. Please don't refer to other players or any content that might be considered inflammatory, hateful, or offensive. Basically if you can't say it in global chat, you're probably not going to be able to use it here.

Will the message be displayed on the item?
The message doesn’t appear on the item, it's displayed in-game when the chest is opened.

Will there be a way to search for specific variants of the foil uniques on the trade site?
Foil variations are already searchable on the trade site.

Will the Voidborn Reliquary Key be in the core drop pool?
Yes.

Will the chessboard hideout decoration ever become available outside of the supporter pack?
While the Primordial and Oriathian Chess Pieces are exclusive to the Chronomancer Supporter Pack, the chessboard decoration is not. We may release future board games for hideouts that include the chessboard.

Will the Atlas Hideout layout be updated as the Atlas changes over time?
Yes.

Which size are the art prints?
All five are 20cm by 30cm. Four are portrait and one is landscape.

Dec 20, 2022

3.20.1 Patch Notes Preview

Path of Exile - CommunityTeam_GGG

By the end of this week, we're planning to deploy the 3.20.1 patch which introduces the new set of Core Supporter Packs, new Sanctum content and various improvements and bug fixes. While we're working on getting it onto your screens, check out the patch notes!

We're trying our best to release this patch on consoles as soon as possible after its release on PC. Please note that due to the nature of the certification process and upcoming holidays the Core Supporter Packs will not be released on PlayStation this year.

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

Sanctum Updates and Improvements

Introduced 7 new Unique Relics that drop from the final form of the Sanctum Boss. These Relics challenge you to complete an entire run of The Forbidden Sanctum at area level 80+ under special rules. If you're able to complete such a run, you'll be rewarded in new and special ways. However, the Unique Relic will be destroyed regardless of the outcome of your run, so if you fail to complete it, you'll forfeit your potential rewards.
Some of these Unique Relics cause the Herald of the Scourge to drop additional or specific items, while others causes Aureus Coins to be converted to certain outcomes upon defeating the Herald of the Scourge.
We've also introduced a new Unique Ring that can be earned by defeating the Herald of the Scourge with one of the new Unique Relics active.
Introduced 41 new "Lycia's Invocation" currency items. These can be applied to non-Corrupted Sanctified Relics to add their respective Keystone to the Relic.
Boons and Afflictions that provide increases and reductions to the effect of your Relics now specify that they do not affect Unique Relics.
Characters that are up close to their target now take even less damage to their Resolve.
Sanctum Quests are no longer hidden with the "Enable Quest Tracking" option disabled. We've also made improvements to these Quests to reduce the chance they are missed when first entering the relevant town area.
Party Members are now able to view the Map of the area owner's Sanctum, if they currently have a run active.
Party members can now store a Sanctum room for later when the map owner runs their Sanctum room for the area.
The Resolve bar now flashes when you heal or damage your Resolve.
Added a display to show which Affliction was removed when you cleansed an Affliction.
The Sanctified Relic Slot has been moved from the Sanctum Map and is now located in the Inventory panel.
Sanctified Relics can now be compared with your equipped one by using the Compare Item Descriptions keybind (Ctrl, by default).
The wave skill used by the final form of the Sanctum Boss now spawns far fewer lightning bolts with each wave, though the lightning bolts are slightly larger. The delay between each wave has also been slightly increased.
You can no longer gain a new multi-stage Boon or Affliction, such as Lilting Melody, if you already have a later stage of that same Boon or Affliction.
The Hungry Fangs Affliction and Wooden Effigy Boon now impact Resolve multiplicatively, instead of being additive with stats that impact resolve on Relics.
Tweaked the position of the skulls that fire tracking beams in the third floor of the Sanctum.
Updated the Prayer Beads Boon to clarify Resolve is able to be lost after the next room has been completed.

Other Improvements

Added support for the new Core Supporter Packs.
Added five more microtransactions to Kirac's Vault Pass in the form of these additional mystery boxes from Path of Exile's past: Warlord, Polaris, Twilight, Harmony and Sin/Innocence.
Huck now brings along his Rogue Equipment when accompanying you in Maps.
Significantly increased the experience gained from killing Metamorph Monsters.
You can no longer animation-cancel Vaal Venom Gyre, Vaal Volcanic Fissure, Vaal Blade Flurry, Vaal Caustic Arrow and Vaal Molten Strike before the point in the animation that damage is dealt.
The Balance of Terror Unique Jewel no longer has a level requirement.
Completing the Mastermind's Lair now awards credit towards the Suspicious Syndicate challenge.
Updated one component of the Complete Harbinger Encounters challenge to "Use any Harbinger, Ancient or Fracturing Orb", instead of just Fracturing Orb.
Updated various descriptions of conditional modifiers, such as the increased Damage against Ignited Enemies modifier on Gang's Momentum, to clarify the kinds of damage they can apply to.
Updated the "Cycling Resistances" monster modifier text to "Cycling Damage Reduction" as it is more accurate.
The Cartographer Divination Card has received new flavour text.

Blight Atlas Passive Changes

The Blight Atlas Passives that provided your Maps with Blight Encounters a chance to contain an additional Blight Encounter have irreconcilable issues that result in areas with two Blight Encounters failing to generate reliably, so we have replaced these stats.
The small Atlas Passives now provide "5% chance on Completing your Maps to gain a free use of the Blight Map Crafting Option."
The Mycelial Swarm Notable Atlas Passive now provides "Blight Map Crafting Option is always available" and "50% reduced cost of the Blight Map Crafting Option."

Blighted Map Changes

The values for modifiers anointed on Blighted Maps have been buffed:
Clear Oil: 12% reduced Monster Movement Speed (previously 6%).
Sepia Oil: Towers deal 25% more Damage (previously 20%).
Amber Oil: 25% reduced Cost of Building and Upgrading Towers (previously 20%).
Verdant Oil: 45% increased Experience gain (previously 35%).
Teal Oil: Blight Monsters spawn 30% faster (previously 25%), Encounter duration is 50 seconds shorter (previously 40).
Azure Oil: Varieties of Items contained in 5 Blight Chests are Lucky (previously 4).
Violet Oil: Lanes of Blight Encounters have 25% chance for an additional Reward Chest (previously 20%).
Crimson Oil: Varieties of Items contained in 12 Blight Chests are Lucky (previously 10).
Black Oil: 7% chance for Blight Chests to contain an additional Reward (previously 6%).
Opalescent Oil: Varieties of Items contained in 18 Blight Chests are Lucky (previously 15).
Silver Oil: +80% to Item Quantity (previously +65%).
Golden Oil: 30% chance for Blight Chests to contain an additional Reward (previously 25%).
Oils also now provide +6% to Monster Pack Size (previously +5%).
Blighted Map's Item Quantity Modifiers now affect Blight Chest count at 25% value (previously 20%), with a value of 50% for Blight-ravaged Maps (previously 40%). This also now applies to Blighted and Blight-ravaged Maps in Ruthless.

Ruthless-specific Changes

The Mycelial Swarm Notable Atlas Passive now provides "Lanes of Blight Encounters in your Maps have 20% chance for an additional Reward Chest" in Ruthless.
The two small Atlas Passives prior now provide "Blight Encounters in your Maps spawn 3% more Non-Unique Monsters" in Ruthless, instead of "Lanes of Blight Encounters in your Maps have 5% chance for an additional Reward Chest."
The following Oils have been changed in Ruthless:
Clear Oil: 12% reduced Monster Movement Speed (previously 6%).
Sepia Oil: Towers deal 25% more Damage (previously 20%).
Amber Oil: 25% reduced Cost of Building and Upgrading Towers (previously 20%).
Verdant Oil: 15% increased Experience Gain (previously 10%).
Teal Oil: Blight Monsters spawn 30% faster (previously 25%), Encounter duration is 50 seconds shorter (previously 40).

Sanctum Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where Boons or Afflictions that increase or reduce your maximum Resolve or Inspiration did not undo their effect when they were removed.
Fixed a bug where healing to your Resolve received by gaining increases to your Maximum Resolve did not persist through area transitions.
Fixed a bug where Guards were not Twinned after taking the "Doubling Pact" Accursed Pact.
Fixed a bug where the Azure Assassin Sanctum Guard's Vortex skill could linger after they died.
Fixed a bug where various abilities used by monsters in The Forbidden Sanctum ignored taunts. Special abilities used by Sanctum Guards are unaffected by this change.
Fixed a bug where some beam skills, such as the one used by the final form of the Sanctum Boss, could pass through walls.
Fixed a bug where dying to the final form of the Sanctum Boss would not bring up the Sanctum Run Failed interface.

Other Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug where Labyrinth Trials were not spawning in Maps.
Fixed a bug where Vaal Side Areas created by placing individual Vaal Fragments in the Map Device did not have any modifiers applied to them.
Fixed an issue where the terrain generator for the client could desync, causing disconnections when trying to load into an area.
Fixed a bug where entering another player's hideout would sometimes open the hideout in the wrong gateway.
Fixed terrain errors that could sometimes stop players from entering areas until they retried again.
Fixed a bug where upgradeable Incursion Unique Flasks and Jewels could not be sacrificed at the Altar of Sacrifice.
Fixed a bug where sources that reduced the Duration of Elemental Ailments on you, such as the Anointed Flesh Passive Skill, were not applying to Ignites.
Fixed a bug where elemental ailments that have an added effect to things while your ailment is on them, such as through the Combustion or Bonechill Supports, were discarded when a stronger Ignite/Chill was applied without these added effects.
Fixed an issue that caused currency from your stash to not be used if, while your stash was open, you used all of a specific currency from your inventory while holding shift.
Fixed a bug where Volcanic Fissure would not shatter spikes created by Earthshatter.
Fixed a bug where the Steeped in the Profane Notable Passive Skill was missing an Anointment cost.
Fixed a bug where The Balance of Terror Unique Jewel modifier that caused you to gain a percentage of Physical Damage as a Random Element if you've cast Elemental Weakness in the past 10 seconds was causing you to gain 100% of Physical Damage as a Random Element.
Fixed a bug where The Balance of Terror Unique Jewel modifier that caused you to be immune to Reflected Damage if you've cast Punishment in the past 10 seconds was not functioning correctly.
Fixed a bug where Volcanic Fissure Earthbreaker totems could incorrectly be supported by Focused Ballista.
Fixed a bug where shattering spikes created by Earthshatter whilst in Blood Stance did not visually shatter the spikes.
Fixed a visual bug where some deferred Ritual rewards could display vendor purchase prices.
Fixed a bug where removing Curses, such as through Flasks with the Warding modifier, did not remove Curse Auras from Enemies. These are now briefly removed.
Fixed a bug where the additional Elemental Damage Reduction gained from the Eternal Damnation Unique Amulet was not applying to the self-inflicted damage from Righteous Fire.
Fixed a bug where shorter-duration Lifetap Buffs would replace longer-duration ones.
Fixed a bug where the Scent of Blood Atlas Passive Skill was not functioning correctly.
Fixed an issue introduced in 3.20.0b that caused the descriptions on the Growing Hordes Atlas Passive to display incorrect values.
Fixed a bug where a crafting recipe unlock interactable could appear in the Crimson Township Map when no crafting recipe is currently unlocked there.
Fixed a bug where you could fail to obtain credit towards the Complete Ritual Encounters challenge when completing the final Opulent Ritual in a Map.
Fixed a bug where the /recheck_achievements chat command was not working for the Complete Cartography challenge.
Fixed a bug where multiple waypoint icons could appear on the minimap in Hideouts.
Fixed a bug where Blueprints were not dropping in Ruthless.
Fixing Gwennen and Tujen sometimes having incorrect prices in Ruthless.
Fixed a bug where some Forgekeeper Supporters lost access to their Delirious Hideout Decoration. These will be restored shortly after this patch is deployed.
Fixed a bug where Ancestral Warchief Totems using the Void Ancestral Warchief microtransaction took more damage than intended.
Fix a bug where you could be morphed into the wrong pet if you had two different types of morphing pets equipped.
Fixed a client crash related to using the Shaper Scorching Ray Effect microtransaction.
Fixed a client crash that could occur in Controller Input mode when editing your Hideout.
Fixed an instance crash.