Community streamer Zizaran is back with another 10-day Class Gauntlet Event which starts on February 10th PST. Racers will level characters and kill challenging bosses and to earn points and compete to find out how each of the classes fare against some of Path of Exile's most difficult encounters. The event will take place in a Hardcore Solo Self-Found Sanctum Event League provided by us with a range of dynamic damage and life mods! The prize pool is funded by the community and Zizaran's event partners.



The following mods active for the event apply to monsters:
Acts 1-5

• 20% less Damage Taken
  
• 20% Increased Damage
  
• 10% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed
  
• 1 Additional Projectile

Acts 6-10

• 20% less Damage Taken
  
• 25% Increased Damage
  
• 15% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed
  
• 1 Additional Projectile
  
• Monsters have 10% Increased Area of Effect

White Maps: (Area Level 68+)

• 30% less Damage Taken
  
• 30% Increased Damage
  
• 20% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed
  
• 2 Additional Projectile
  
• Monsters have 20% Increased Area of Effect

Yellow Maps: (Area Level 73+)

• 30% less Damage Taken
  
• 35% Increased Damage
  
• 20% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed
  
• 2 Additional Projectile
  
• Monsters have 30% Increased Area of Effect

Red Maps: (Area Level 78+)

• 30% less Damage Taken
  
• 40% Increased Damage
  
• 20% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed
  
• 2 Additional Projectiles
  
• Monsters have 30% Increased Area of Effect

Area Level 85+ (Uber Bosses)

• 35% less Damage Taken
  
• 50% Increased Damage
  
• 30% Increased Attack, Cast and Movement Speed
  
• 2 Additional Projectile
  
• Monsters have 30% Increased Area of Effect

The Gauntlet will be held as an Event League that is available to all players during the event by clicking "Join" in the bottom right corner of the character select screen.

Players will receive points once per character based on their level, specific boss kills and select Maven's Invitations. Don't forget, to get boss kill points you must submit your kills in the Path of Exile Community Racing Discord which you can join by clicking here.

Start time: 12pm February 10th PST. The event will last for 10 days. A countdown is available here.


For the first time ever Gauntlet will officially have “Banned Skill Gems”. These skills include the use of Seismic Trap, Vortex, Creeping Frost, and Detonate Dead (Including the Vaal version) in any way. The use of any of these skills on any character will forfeit your right to claim any part of the prize pool including bounties, flash bounties and the main prize pool. Do not equip the skill gems!

Players that do not wish to compete for the prize pool can play any skill they want. You will still be eligible for raffles.


The prize pool is crowdfunded by Zizaran's event partners and community streamers! In addition, streamers and their communities will be able to create a bounty with the money they fundraise for the event. Bounties are a custom prize that can be awarded to players for achieving a specified goal in the event. This Gauntlet will also have Flash bounties, which are bounties that will pop up in the Racing Discord during the event! Keep an eye out on their social media for announcements regarding when their fundraisers are taking place and what they will be!

Zizaran's event partners will match donations to the prize pool (up to $25,000).

• The total prize pool minus bounties will be awarded as follows:

• Rank 1 Overall: 12% Bonus
  
• Rank 2 Overall: 4% Bonus

Witches

• Top Witch: 8%
  
• Second Witch: 4%
  
• Third Witch: Zenith Character Effect + Sentinel Portal Effect

Shadows

• Top Shadow: 8%
  
• Second Shadow: 4%
  
• Third Shadow: Zenith Character Effect + Sentinel Portal Effect

Rangers

• Top Ranger: 8%
  
• Second Ranger: 4%
  
• Third Ranger: Zenith Character Effect + Sentinel Portal Effect

Duelists

• Top Duelist: 8%
  
• Second Duelist: 4%
  
• Third Duelist: Zenith Character Effect + Sentinel Portal Effect

Marauders

• Top Marauder: 8%
  
• Second Marauder: 4%
  
• Third Marauder: Zenith Character Effect + Sentinel Portal Effect

Templars

• Top Templar: 8%
  
• Second Templar: 4%
  
• Third Templar: Zenith Character Effect + Sentinel Portal Effect

Scions

• Top Scion: 8%
  
• Second Scion: 4%
  
• Third Scion: Zenith Character Effect + Sentinel Portal Effect

Leveling your characters to certain thresholds will also make you eligible for the randomly-drawn prizes made up of both merchandise and microtransactions provided by Zizaran's event partners and Grinding Gear Games! The general prizes listed below will be randomly drawn from all appropriately leveled characters except for the Level 90+ Armour Pack prizes, which will be drawn per class. You can gain more than 1 ticket per account for the microtransaction/physical prizes, however you cannot win more than one prize per category below:



You can catch exciting moments from the event by checking out Zizaran’s Youtube Channel where Skryah and OMGitsJousis are teaming up to deliver some epic highlights!

There will also be live casting on Zizaran’s Twitch Channel. More info on who will be casting to come!


Special thanks to community members Faderon, MrMadakey, Ultimativ, Bigsil, Skryah, OMGItsJousis and Viyro for their contributions to this event.

Good luck to all those participating!

In an upcoming patch, we'll be adding support for party members to go offline while staying in the party. Check out what we've got cooking up below:

When you log out, you can now stay in your party, though you can still be kicked from the party while offline.



After you've been offline for 2 minutes, you will be automatically kicked from the party. The amount of time is subject to change.

Offline party members will show the last known character that was online, and once logged back in, they will still be in the party as expected unless they switched character. If you had any pending invites before you went offline, they will still be present once you log back into the game.



As a reminder, we've also made the following changes in 3.20 that are already live:

• We've fixed the party invite notification to always show the player that sent the invite, rather than showing the party leader.
  
• We've updated the notifications to display more accurate information, such as if you were kicked from the party or if the party was disbanded.
  
• The context menu (the menu that pops up when you right click a player) has also been slightly cleaned up so that buttons shown are dependent on the player's location, online/offline status and from where you accessed the context menu.

Continuing on with sharing concept art pieces for the recently released Core Supporter Packs, this week we wanted to showcase the Chronomancer Supporter Pack! If you're looking for more concept art from the Core series, be sure to check out the Tormentor, Hellfire and Bloodthirsty posts.

In today's Build of the Week, we learned from Conner Converse to stack lots of mana for huge damage bursts thanks to Manabond! Check out the showcase below!



For more information about Conner's build, check out their recent video guide here as well as their update video [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbUNS5Ls-ps
]here[/url].

If you're keen to get your build featured in Build of the Week, make sure you post your build in our Classes/Builds sub-forum, which you can find on our forum homepage, or post a video build guide on Youtube!

Continuing on with our Streamer Interviews, today we had a chat with multi-talented mbXtreme! Between his awesome attitude and massive muscles, he's a good go-to guy for your Path of Exile Twitch fix! Check out the interview below!

Hello everyone! First of all, thank you very much for the opportunity to share my Story. :)
My name is Mario, I’m level 33 and live in Austria. Nope, we don’t have kangaroos, we have Kuhli Muhs (cows). I've been a passionate gamer since basically forever and growing up hasn’t changed anything and I hope this will never change!

Funny story: as a dedicated Diablo 3 player, we (friends and I) were always looking for new game experiences since Diablo 3 developed in a way we didn’t like. After a night out, coming home at 5 am, completely wasted, did fire up my PC and downloaded Path of Exile as a friend recommended it to me while out. I can barely remember how I was able to kill Hillock but the first thing I did after I woke up was playing Path of Exile. Since then, I’m fire and flames for the game and have gathered over 12,000 Hours in the past 5 years playing it.That was back in 2017, Patch 3.0 Harbinger League.

Honestly, there was never a coming back. As I started Path of Exile in 2017, I played it as my main game ever since. But the sheer amount of options and possibilities is the one thing that made me enjoy the game that much. If I wanted to, I could play a beefy Berserker, casting Frostbolts that ignite thanks to conversion, built around Energy Shield. Almost every build idea can be brought into the game with the almost endless options we have. Thank you so much btw, for developing such an amazing game.

Any Highlights? I cannot deny that I have a risky in-game life and obviously there have been a lot of amazing moments as well as terrible ones that almost made me quit the League. In Betrayal League for example, my first 6-Link of the League did take roughly ~9500 Fusings and after I finally linked it (with the help of viewers) we double corrupted it and it poofed. But my undisputed biggest highlight in all of the years is the amazing community that we have, especially the ones that I can count as friends that one day randomly joined my stream and are with me ever since.

I’m not entirely sure if I switch my builds more often than my underwear but as of right now, my favourite build is Ethereal Knives Ignite Elementalist. My all-time favourite top 3 would be: Cyclone Slayer, Essence Drain / Contagion Occultist and EK Ignite. But since I’m nowhere close to leaving Wraeclast anytime soon, we will see what the future brings!

This is a very hard question to answer. I assume expansion as actual expansion, rather than leagues? Since the game is getting better every league (at least for the vast majority since I play it) I definitely feel that I have the power as a player to choose what direction I want to go, without limitations. I remember playing Shaper / Elder ping pong on the Atlas, being super unlucky to spawn conquerors in different regions as well as hunting down bosses for the Maven Invitations. Every expansion has its pros and cons so instead of picking my favourite one so far, I pick the one that’s coming next.

After 1,000 hours of Path of Exile, you can say that you have successfully completed the tutorial. Knowledge is key and getting a master's degree in Path of Exile takes many years. Don’t give up!

Being a YouTuber since 2009, I always wanted to get into streaming but thanks to bad internet connection as well as having a terrible PC, I couldn’t do so. In 2017, I started playing Path of Exile and randomly fired up the stream and asked people on social media to help me get into that game. This basically marked the start of an awesome journey.

I am very bad at promoting myself. I would say that I’m the average Gamer that just plays too much. But while gaming Path of Exile, I do all sorts of Content: from trying out fancy Build ideas, Crafting, YOLO Moments, Farming Projects, Challenge grinding and much more. Outside of that, I do also stream World of Warcraft as my 2nd Game and occasionally variety from time to time.

I am a former military guy, serving several years before deciding to make my hobby into my job. Before the mIlitary, I did go over a multitude of jobs since I am the kind of person that tries out things if he thinks it might be fun. I was a web developer, graphic designer, taxi driver, event security, barkeeper and did medic education in my spare time.

I was always into fitness & bodybuilding and as of right now, I workout 6 days a week. I was in quite good shape until 2017, was also attending the Ninja Warrior Austria Show in a pink unicorn outfit, but did have a workout break lasting 4 years - the time of trying to make content creation my job. It was pure lack of discipline and lower priority after leaving the military but I’m back at it and oh boy, did I miss it.

My life hasn’t changed at all. I know people would love to read an amazing story but this time around, I cannot provide that. When I didn’t have a job, I was playing video games all day long. That is pretty much what I do now as well and sometimes, I also feel like a jobless person, despite the fact that I have been self-employed for 4 years. I am grateful for how everything turned out and I hope it will stay that way for the upcoming years!

More streamers! The feeling I have streaming Path of Exile is being part of a big family. I never felt that I had to compete with anyone, it’s a very friendly and wholesome community compared to other games. The amount of genius community members we have is insane and I would love it if more gamers would share their screens and stories!

After streaming for a couple of years and seeing many other streamers fail and others succeed I can only suggest the following: Do it from the right motivation. I personally think that sharing your passion has a lot more value in streaming than those who started streaming because of money. If money is your goal, be prepared to live in darkness. If you start streaming, it won’t be like any regular job. You will have to sacrifice a lot and will get paid almost nothing in return until you are able to make a living out of it. Streaming isn’t for everyone and it requires dedication and luck in order to be successful. I would still recommend to everyone to give it a shot. Just don’t quit your job in the first place if you don’t have savings. Start it as a hobby and see where the journey goes… and that’s what I did. :)

I think this is the question that will get me into hell’s kitchen? But anyways, no risk, no fun! I’d like to shine a spotlight on an upcoming, also Austrian, streamer: Palsteron.

Honestly, this guy is an amazing Path of Exile player, great mentality, very dedicated and also fun to watch. It wouldn’t surprise me if he would become Wraeclast’s next top creator. Go, fellow exiles, check him out!

I am an everyday gamer. The projects come as I play… so if you guys keep on making good expansions and leagues, I’m happy to make many projects on the way!


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

Our community's hideout makers continue to impress, so in today's news post we decided to highlight some hideouts from our Hideout Showcase forum! If you're looking for a new Hideout or need some inspiration for your next one, check them out in the video below!



Here's a list of the hideouts featured in the video (.hideout files are available for download in corresponding forum threads):

• White Wolf Hollow by Revan_Bane
  
• Palmyra Oasis by MikoMiranda
  
• Graveholm Cathedral by Nekrofancy
  
• Imperial Tomb by Arthur_von_Schreyer
  
• Dragon Ruins by Morinmeth

Our Forbidden Sanctum Talent Competition is ongoing and there have been more awesome submissions that we wanted to share! Check them out below!



























There's still plenty of time to show off your talent in this competition! If you'd like to submit an entry, you can do so by posting in this thread.

Continuing on with sharing concept art pieces for the recently released Core Supporter Packs, this week we wanted to showcase the Bloodthirsty Supporter Pack! If you're looking for more concept art from the Core series, be sure to check out the Tormentor and Hellfire posts.

This weekend, we're having a sale on Hideouts and Pets! You can view the full selection of discounted items by pressing M to open the store in-game. The sale ends at 4pm on Monday 23rd January (PST).

If you need some hideout inspiration, be sure to stop by the Hideout Showcase forum here, or check out our last few Hideout Highlights videos below!







Thanks for your support!

Today's episode of Build of the Week will satiate your senses with a storm of arrows! CheapBunny's build brings the rain with their fleet of Artillery Ballistas by taking advantage of the new Wilma's Requital Unique helmet! Check out the showcase below!



For more information about CheapBunny's build, you can find their forum guide here.

If you're keen to get your build featured in Build of the Week, make sure you post your build in our Classes/Builds sub-forum, which you can find on our forum homepage, or post a video build guide on Youtube!