Path of Exile: War for the Atlas – An Entirely New Game

The War for the Atlas has arrived in Path of Exile! The seventh expansion in this award-winning ARPG comes in hard after five full years of success by the “ethical” free-to-play game. War for the Atlas introduces many new changes including the conflict between two Lovecraftian entities, the Shaper and the Elder, new gems, the Abyss League, and much, much more.

Continuing off from the Fall of Oriath, the Shaper, who has given players endless headaches, is now challenged by a new entity. The Elder,  supposedly more powerful, encroaches upon the Shaper’s territory with reckless abandon. The Abyss League, the newest league added to PoE, will showcase the Elder’s intruding influence in Wraeclast via fissures on the ground that spawn multiple creatures of the deep. Players can then challenge those creatures. Finishing off all the creatures by following the very end of these fissures will yield many rewards suitable to your character’s level. One can think of this as akin to the rifts in RIFT or FATEs in FFXIV, albeit in an infinitely respawning private-instanced map. This gives players another layer of depth in their game as they traverse through PoE’s original chapters, keeping it fresh for veterans and exciting for newcomers.

Ten new gems have also been included in the game, and these add more skills to the game. The biggest draw of these new gems is the new necromancy-type skills that players can gain. From the simple skill, raise the undead, to quickly teleporting to corpses and making them explode, you will certainly feel the true necromancy theme. Although only ten gems have been added, there are plenty of combinations to choose from to give your newly acquired skills different effects that will surely shape the flow of combat.

An expansion is not complete in Path of Exile without new places to explore, and War for the Atlas provides thirty-two brand new maps with increased challenges, new bosses, and a plethora of new end-game PoE items! Elder and Shaper items are those that you especially want here in War for the Atlas as they provide plenty of meta-changing abilities and attributes to keep that competitive leaderboard cutthroat.

There are also the new-fangled Elder Guardians that serve as bosses in pre-existing maps. They consume what the boss would be on a map, and get stronger in accordance with the consumed boss. They will then serve as the new gatekeeper of the map before you can actually finish. They offer so many more challenges than the bosses players have already come to know and memorize.

All in all, War for the Atlas adds scads of new content for existing players to try their hand at on the leaderboards. Newcomers can frolic in the new features too as they rush to join the ranks of the vets. If you have been having doubts about trying out Path of Exile, now is the best time to give Wraeclast a shot. Available for both PC and Xbox One, the flexibility and strength of this title is readily apparent as it stands the test of time. Head into this Dark Souls-inspired thematic game and experience, arguably, the best isometric ARPG out right now.