Path of Exile

Developer(s)	Grinding Gear Games
Publisher(s)	Grinding Gear Games
Engine	in-house engine
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	2013
Genre(s)	Action RPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Path of Exile is an upcoming online Action RPG set in a fantasy world. It is developed by New Zealand based independent developer Grinding Gear Games and will be marketed as a downloadable free-to-play game supported by "ethical microtransactions".

Gameplay

The player controls a single character from an overhead perspective and explores large outdoor areas and underground caves or dungeons, battling monsters and fulfilling quests from NPCs to gain experience points and equipment. All areas aside from the central encampments are randomly generated for increased re-playability. While all players play on (currently) one server world the game play outside of encampments is highly instanced providing every player or party with an isolated map to explore.

As is customary with this type of game, the items are also randomly generated from a wide variety of basic types and endowed with special properties and gem sockets. They come in different rarities with increasingly more and/or more powerful properties. Thus a large part of game play is dedicated to finding well balanced and synergetic equipment.

Character Classes

Players can choose from six available classes to play as. Each class is aligned with one or two attributes.

• Marauder (Strength)
• Ranger (Dexterity)
• Witch (Intelligence)
• Duelist (Strength / Dexterity)
• Templar (Strength / Intelligence)
• Shadow (Dexterity / Intelligence)

The different classes are not precluded from investing into skills not aligned with their core attributes but will simply gain higher benefits or have easier access to the ones that are aligned with their core attributes.

Core Attributes

Path of Exile’s three core attributes are Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence. Core attributes allows characters to meet requirements of items and skills. In addition, they also contribute to various aspects of character’s damage output and survivability. Strength grants bonuses to melee physical damage and life. Dexterity grants bonuses to accuracy and evasion. Intelligence grants bonuses mana and energy shield.

• Strength : 2 strength = 1 life. 5 strength = +1% melee physical damage.
• Dexterity : 1 dexterity = 2 accuracy. 5 dexterity = +1% evasion.
• Intelligence : 2 intelligence = 1 mana. 5 intelligence = +1% energy shield.

Active Skills

Unlike most other games of this nature Path of Exile does not impose a fixed skill tree on each class. Instead skills are itemized into skill gems, which have to be earned or found in game. These gems can be socketed into weapons and armor and will only then grant their skill to the character. As the character advances and levels up the equipped skill gems also gain experience and automatically change into more potent versions.

When using equipment with linked sockets, support gems can be linked to skill gems to augment the skills effect. You can link multiple support gems to a given skill to create interesting and powerful combinations.

Skills are also aligned with one of the three core attributes (Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence). In theory every skill can be used by any class but will be more difficult to use if it isn't aligned with the character's core attribute(s).

Strength skills gems :

• Anger - Casts an aura that adds fire damage to the attacks of you and your allies.
• Cleave - The character swings their weapon (or both weapons if dual wielding) in an arc towards the target. Also does damage to other nearby monsters. Only works with Axes and Swords.
• Decoy totem - Summons a totem that taunts nearby monsters to attack it.
• Determination - Casts an aura that grants armour to you and your allies.
• Dominating blow - Attacks the enemy with a melee strike. If an enemy is killed shortly after being hit by Dominating Blow, that enemy is revived as a minion until the skill duration ends.
• Enduring cry - Performs a warcry, adding endurance charges proportional to the number of surrounding enemies. Taunts all nearby enemies to attack the caster.
• Glacial hammer - Hits the enemy, converting some of your physical damage to cold damage. If the enemy is frozen and is on less than one third life, they will shatter when hit by Glacial Hammer. Requires a Mace or Staff.
• Ground slam - The character slams the ground in front of them with their weapon, creating a wave that travels forward and damages enemies with an increased chance to stun. Only works with Staves or Maces.
• Heavy Strike - Attacks the enemy with a forceful blow, knocking them back. Requires a Mace, Axe, Sword or Two-Handed Weapon.
• Immortal Call - Discharges Endurance Charges, making the character invulnerable to physical damage for a short time, proportional to how many endurance charges were expended.
• Infernal Blow - Hits the enemy, converting some of your physical damage to fire damage. If the enemy dies soon after being hit, they will explode, dealing fire damage to nearby enemies. Requires a Sword, Axe, Mace or Staff.
• Leap Slam - Jump into the air, damaging enemies (and knocking back some) where you land. Requires an axe, mace, sword or staff.
• Lightning Strike - Infuses your melee weapon with electrical energies as you swing. In addition to converting some of your physical damage to lightning damage, the stored energy is released from the weapon as projectiles as you strike, flying out behind your target to hit farther-away enemies.
• Molten Shell - Summons fiery elemental shields providing additional armour for a short duration. If cumulative damage prevented by your blocking or armour reaches a threshold, the shields explode outwards, dealing fire damage to surrounding enemies.
• Rejuvenation totem - Summons a totem that has an aura which regenerates life for you and your nearby allies.
• Shield Charge - Charges at an enemy, bashing it with the character’s shield while striking with a melee weapon. This knocks it back and stuns it. Enemies in the way are pushed to the side. This attack cannot miss. Damage and stun are proportional to distance travelled.
• Shockwave totem - Summons a totem that shakes the earth around it, knocking back and damaging nearby enemies
• Sweep - Swings a staff or a two-handed axe or mace in a partial circle, knocking back some monsters around the character.
• Vitality - Casts an aura that grants life regeneration to you and your allies.
• Warlord's Mark - Curses all targets in an area. Attacks on the cursed targets will leech life and mana, and killing them will result in more flask charges and a chance to gain an endurance charge.

Dexterity skills gems :

• Bear trap - Throws a trap that damages and immobilises a single enemy.
• Bloodrage - Adds a buff that deals Chaos Damage over time, while increasing Attack Speed and Life Leech. Killing an enemy while this buff is active refreshes the buff duration, and grants a Frenzy Charge.
• Burning arrow - Fires an arrow that deals fire damage to its target and has an increased chance of setting it on fire.
• Detonate dead - Explodes an unused corpse, dealing fire and physical damage to nearby enemies.
• Double Strike - Performs two fast attacks on target enemy with a melee weapon.
• Dual Strike - Attacks with both weapons, dealing the damage of both in one strike. Dual wield only. Does not work with wands.
• Elemental hit - A standard attack (with any weapon) that adds damage of a random element.
• Ethereal Knives - Fires an arc of knives in front of the caster which deal physical damage.
• Explosive arrows - Fires an arrow which inflicts a short duration fuse charge on the enemy. Applying additional charges extends the duration. When the target dies or the fuses expire, the charges explode, dealing fire splash damage to nearby enemies. The splash distance is proportional to the number of charges upon death.
• Fire Trap - Throws a trap that explodes when triggered, leaving an area of burning ground that damages enemies who walk through it.
• Flicker Strike - Teleports the character to a nearby monster and attacks it with a melee weapon. If no specific monster is chosen, one is picked at random. The cooldown can be bypassed by expending a Frenzy Charge.
• Freeze mine - Lays a remote mine that you can detonate to freeze all enemies in the area.
• Frenzy - Performs an attack that gives the character a frenzy charge if it hits. Frenzy charges increase your attack speed.
• Grace - Casts an aura that grants evasion to you and your allies.
• Haste - Casts an aura that increases the attack speed and cast speed of you and your allies.
• Hatred - Casts an aura that increases the cold damage of you and your allies.
• Lightning arrow - Fires a charged arrow at the target, causing them to be struck by a bolt of lightning which damages nearby enemies.
• Phase run - Makes you hard to see, and increases your movement speed. Lasts for a short duration or until you make an attack or cast a spell. If that attack is with a melee weapon, it deals extra damage.
• Poison arrow - Fires an arrow which explodes in a cloud of poison. Enemies who enter the cloud are poisoned for a short time, taking chaos damage. Your arrows themselves also add additional chaos damage.
• Projectile weakness - Curses all targets in an area, making them easier for projectiles to pierce and easier to knock back, while reducing their evasion against projectiles.
• Puncture - Punctures the target, causing them to bleed. While bleeding, they take damage over time based on how much damage was dealt in the initial hit. The bleeding deals more damage while they move. Puncture works with bows, daggers, claws or one-handed swords.
• Rain of Arrows - Fires a large number of arrows into the air, to land at the target after a short delay.
• Split Arrow - Fires multiple arrows at different targets.
• Temporal chain - Curses all targets in an area, making time pass more slowly for them. They will move, attack and cast at a reduced speed, and effects on them will expire more slowly.
• Viper Strike - Poisons the foe, which can stack up to four times. Each time they are re-poisoned, the duration is extended. Requires a claw, dagger or sword.
• Whirling Blade - Dive through enemies, dealing weapon damage. Only works with daggers, claws and one handed swords.

Intelligence skills gems :

• Cold snap - Ice crystals protrude from the ground at target location. Monsters in this area take damage and become frozen. The cooldown can be bypassed by expending a Power Charge.
• Conversion trap - Throws a trap that, when triggered by an enemy, converts that enemy to your side for a short duration.
• Critical weakness - Curses all targets in an area, making them more vulnerable to critical strikes.
• Discharge - Discharge all the character’s charges to deal elemental damage to all nearby monsters. The composition of the blast varies depending on the type of charges consumed, dealing cold with Frenzy, fire from Endurance, and lightning from Power.
• Discipline - Casts an aura that grants energy shield to you and your allies.
• Elemental weakness - Curses all targets in an area, making them less resistant to elemental damage and giving elemental damage a chance to burn, freeze, or shock.
• Enfeeble - Curses all targets in an area, making their attacks less effective.
• Fireball - Unleashes a burning ball of fire towards a target which explodes, damaging nearby foes.
• Firestorm - Flaming bolts rain down over the targeted area. They explode when landing, dealing damage to nearby enemies.
• Freezing pulse - An icy projectile which has a chance to freeze enemies it passes through. The projectile fades quickly, reducing damage and freezing chance until it runs out of time and dissipates completely.
• Frost wall - Creates a wall of ice which holds back enemies. Targets under the wall are damaged and pushed back.
• Ice nova - A chilling circle of ice expands from the caster.
• Ice spear - Launches a shard of ice that pierces close enemies, before exploding on a distant enemy with a much higher critical strike chance.
• Lightning warp - Casts a delayed teleport to a target destination. When the teleport occurs, lightning damage is dealt to the area around both where the player was and where they teleported to.
• Power Siphon - Fires your wand at a target, dealing increased damage and granting a power charge if the target is killed by, or soon after, the hit.
• Purity - Casts an aura that grants elemental resistances to you and your allies.
• Raise spectre - Raises a spectral version of a defeated foe as a minion to fight for you in battle
• Raise zombie - Raises a zombie minion from a corpse. Zombies have high health and powerful attacks, but have slow attack and movement speed.
• Righteous fire - Ignites you with magical fire that rapidly burns you and nearby enemies. Your spell damage is substantially increased while under this effect. The effect ends when you have 1 life remaining.
• Shock Nova - Casts a shocking ring of lightning which deals damage to monsters it touches. Monsters in the centre of the ring receive no damage.
• Spark - Launches unpredictable sparks that move randomly until they hit an enemy.
• Summon Skeleton - Summons slow moving skeletal minions that decay over time. Does not require a corpse to be consumed.
• Tempest shield - Enchants your shield with the power of storms, which lashes out to deal lightning damage to attackers when you block their attacks.
• Vulnerability - Curses all targets in an area, making them take increased damage from physical attacks and degeneration, and easier to stun. The target's energy shield will regenerate more slowly.
• Wrath - Casts an aura that adds lightning damage to the attacks of you and your allies.

Passive Skills

All classes share the same selection of 1350 passive skills, from which the player can choose 1 each time his/her character levels up. These passive skills improve the core attributes and grant further enhancements such as increased Mana, Health or Damage dealing capacity. They are arranged in a complex network starting in one trunk aligned with each of the three core attributes.

Path of Exile passive skills tree

Currency Items

The game's economy is not based on coined currency such as Gold, Credits or similar. Selling and buying is instead accomplished by bartering for rare currency items. Unlike traditional game currencies these items have their own inherent uses and thus provide their own money sinks to prevent inflation.

Here are the main currency items :

Scrolls :

• Scroll of Wisdom - Identifies unknown properties of magic and rare items.
• Portal Scroll - Creates a portal to town.

Orbs related to magic items :

• Orb of Transmutation - Upgrades a normal item into a magic item.
• Orb of Alteration - Reforge a magic item with new random properties.
• Orb of Augmentation - Enchant a magic item with a new random properties.

Orbs related to rare items :

• Orb of Alchemy - Upgrade a normal item to a rare item.
• Chaos Orb - Reforge a rare item with new random properties.
• Exalted Orb - Enchant a rare item with a new random properties.

Orbs related to sockets :

• Chromatic Orb - Reforge the colour of sockets on an item.
• Jeweler's Orb - Reforge the number of sockets on an item.
• Fusing Orb - Reforge the link between sockets on an item.

Other currencies

• Gemcutter's Prism - Improves the quality of a gem.
• Blessed Orb - Randomizes the numeric values of the implicit properties of an item.
• Divine Orb - Randomizes the numeric values of the random properties on an item.
• Orb of Scouring - Removes all properties from an item.
• Orb of Regret - Grants a passive skill refund point.

Leagues

Grinding Gear Games aims to offer several alternate play modes for Path of Exile:

• Hardcore - Characters cannot be resurrected but instead respawn back in the default league.
• Ironman - No NPC vendors and no inherent Mana regeneration for increased difficulty to foster group play.
• Cut-throat - Characters can enter other characters' instances to try to kill them in order to steal their items.
• Attrition - A short-lived league where the lowest ranking players are eliminated at regular intervals.
• Paid League - For a small fee the players may have a private league created, for which they may choose their own rule modifiers.

Plot

The game is set in a dark fantasy world. The player starts the game waking up on the shores of Wraeclast, a remote continent that serves as a colony for criminals and other unwanted individuals. Regardless of the reasons for his exile the player must now face the unforgiving wilderness with its dangerous inhabitants and band together with other outcasts to survive.

Development

Path of Exile began when a small group of Action RPG enthusiasts became frustrated by the lack of new releases in the genre and decided to develop their own game. It was developed under the radar for three years before publicly announcing the game on 1. September 2010. In the time since then Grinding Gear Games has published a number of development posts on their website ranging from screen shots of new classes, monsters and skills to presentations of game play or technical aspects. The designers are also heavily involved with the community, taking suggestions from the attached forum or directly asking for input on specific issues.

Beta

As of August 10, 2011 the game is in closed beta which is expected to progress into open beta sometime in 2012. New beta players are being selected at periodic intervals through a countdown on the game's website. Open beta weekends were announced from 30 March - 1 April 2012, from 12 May - 14 May, 28 July - 30 July and 14 September - 16 September 2012.

Business Model

The developers of Path of Exile stress that one of their core goals is to provide a genuinely free to play game financed only by "ethical micro-transactions". Most other games require either some initial or recurring payment or are financed by micro-transactions which are often hard to avoid because they provide significant game play advantages. Path of Exile is planned to offer only cosmetic changes or vanity items in its item shop. Players will also be able to pay to create private, invite-only leagues, each secluded in its own economy.

External links

• Path of Exile official website