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.

Path of Exile: Incursion – A Time Travel Temple Excursion

It hasn’t been so long since The War for the Atlas was released, and now we’re already looking at a new expansion for Path of Exile, Incursion. Much like previous expansions, Wraeclast is once again going to get bigger, will have new mechanics that players will have to figure out to stay on top of their game, and expanded lore that will help us further understand the Vaal.

Short and Sweet Time

Half expansion and half challenger league, Path of Exile: Incursion gives players a peek of the past. Literally, in a sense that players who are up to the task will randomly find portals that would take them to temporal incursions (thus the name of the expansion) set when the Temple of Atzoatl, a massive Vaal temple and the new location – and therefore the centerpiece – of the expansion.

And once again, literally, in a sense that players only have a short window (pun intended) of time in the locations in question. Ten seconds, to be exact. But don’t panic, because you can make your stay last longer by killing the Vaal in these time-space anomalies. The more kills you make, the longer you’ll remain in the room. And don’t worry about missing the loot because you’re too busy killing, as you’ll be given an opportunity to grab the PoE Currency once the clock has hit zero.

Past Affects Future

There are over 11 of these temporal incursions, and it’s essential that you enter all of them, as doing so will enable Alva Valai to pinpoint the Temple of Atzoatl’s location in the present time. And with the new expansion being all about time travel, your actions in the “past” determines not only the temple rooms’ aesthetics and function, but also the level of difficulty of its monsters, the type of monsters you’re going deal with, and the reward they’re going to yield.

For example, there’s an architect in the past that grows poisonous plants. Killing him means you’ll no longer have to deal with anything that is related to lethal flora, making your run much easier. On the other hand, if you choose to spare his life, or even make him more powerful by killing his rival architects, then you’ll have to deal with a humongous noxious plant. Now, why would you want to deal with that?

Because if your build relies on poison, then you’ll want to slay this difficult boss, as it will yield a one-of-a-kind item that will be vital to you.

Aside from the looks and kind of enemies you’ll have to slay, what you do in the temporal inclusions will create doorways and passages. Make the right ones, and you’ll have the chance to enter the boss’s room.

A Shift in Skills

Last but not least, skills are going to have a revamp, especially Vaal Skills, the active skill that was corrupted by Vaal Orbs and have altered effects for better or worse. The latter, despite many of them being unique and useful, have been largely ignored because they need to be charged first before they can be used. To make them more palatable to the players, Grinding Gear Games has decided to lessen the needed charges to use the skill. Also, when Vaal skill gems don’t have enough charges, players will be able to use the non-Vaal version of the skill it provides.

As for non-Vaal skills, Incinerate, Rain of Arrows, Infernal Blow, Cold Snap, Charged Dash, Double Strike, Lacerate, Ground Slam, and Power Siphon will be reworked. And finally, there will be five new trap skills and six new Vaal skills. Talk about a wider skill library.

With Incursion, Path of Exile’s future is going to be a blast from and because of the past. So, don’t leave Wraeclast now, and come back if you already have, because this time you’re going to have a good time.   

Path of Exile: The Journey Continues - A Few Things That Beginners Would Find Useful

Hey guys, this is Ryan from Games with Coffee! How’s everybody doing? The fine people from Playerauctions.com have asked me to guest post on their blog and I thought, “Why not?”

About a month ago, I started my journey through the foreboding world of Wraeclast, the setting for the highly popular, free-to-play Action-MMORPG, Path of Exile.

As a mature, distinguished gamer, I try my best to balance my many adult responsibilities with playing games, but Path of Exile has tested me on that balance. With the multitude of skills and equipment available, the interesting trading and currency system, tough enemies, map modifications and the HUGE passive skill tree, this game has me trying to find any time at all in my busy schedule to play it! You can find my first impressions, as well as my advice for beginners of the game here.

On that note, I thought I’d continue to share what quests, items, and currencies I think beginners should continue to look for on their way through the game. Today’s post covers my journey up to the Prison.

Masters Quests

Along the way, I met an interesting NPC named Haku, who gave me a quest to bring a spirit to him under some Haunted Grounds. I accepted the quest, beat down the baddies, got the strange red apparition and returned to the entrance to give to him. I received little in reward but noticed my reputation with him increased. I checked the forums and lo and behold I learned about Masters – important NPC’s who, after gaining several reputation levels, will allow the use of a personal hideout and unlock the ability to craft ultra-useful items that you can either use for yourself or trade with others to get even better gear! These kinds of quests should be on the radar for both beginners and veterans of the game alike, especially if you have items and orbs available to craft their unique wares.

Items and Currencies to Look Out For

As I continued towards the Prison, I’ve been on the lookout for any valuable orbs or items I can trade with vendors or with other players to get stronger and further my game. However, a few of these orbs have uses that beginners should definitely take advantage of. For instance:

Orbs of Alchemy upgrade normal items into rare items. They are perfect for those who have normal weapons or armour whose quality has been improved through the use of Blacksmith’s Whetstones or Armourer’s Scraps. Beginners should use these in conjunction with Whetstones or Scraps on their normal items to create more powerful gear. These are pretty uncommon to find on the field, so if you get one, save it for when you’ve upgraded the quality on your normal items before applying it. Or you could also trade it with vendors to get new skill gems or rare, unidentified items.

Now, these orbs are cool! Applying an Orb of Chance to an item upgrades it to a random rarity. So you can end up with a Magic, a Rare or even a Unique item, just by applying it to a normal item! This is a commonly found currency, so it shouldn’t take very long to find one. I used one on my witch’s Goat’s Horn that I picked up and it transformed into a Rare item! Orbs of Chance can be used on just about any item, regardless of the rarity, but you run the risk of getting an item of lesser rarity. Sometimes, though, the rewards outweigh the risks, especially if you have several orbs on hand. 

If you’re itching to get more of these or other orbs, try looking on the Path of Exile items store on Playerauctions.com. They have a large selection of items and currency available to purchase at a reasonable cost, and all transactions are safe and secure.

Additional Tips 

Here are some extra tips that will help make your journey an easier one:

In the Submerged Passage, take a Sapphire Ring with you. The extra Cold resistance will keep you from getting iced from the Cold-elemental enemies in the area.

Upgrade your flasks as soon as you are able to. I made the mistake of sticking with the initial flasks. I didn’t last very long in further areas.

There’s also a quest in town in which a Quicksilver flask is rewarded. This increases your movement speed for a limited time when used and refills the same way as life and mana flasks. Get it ASAP.

And thus ends my little quest update. If you like what you see here, I invite you to check out my blog. I talk about the games that changed my life, the video game music scene and dispense advice on how to fit gaming into all of life’s major responsibilities, all over a cup of coffee.

So, with that, I bid you all adieu! This has been Ryan from Games with Coffee, reminding you to Keep Gaming and Keep Brewing. See you in Wraeclast!

Disclaimer: This article is written by Ryan Cheddi is a Mechanical Engineer, Freelance Writer and the author of the blog "Games with Coffee"