The Path of Exile Crucible expansion has been revealed in detail, and the next big update to the hardcore loot-based RPG asks you how far you’re willing to go to build the perfect weapon. Path of Exile patch 3.21 is all about forging the power of “an ancient race of titans that once shaped the primordial surface of Wraeclast” into passive weapon skill trees, which we encourage you to push all the way to the limits to the search for the ultimate weapon.

The centerpiece of Path of Exile Crucible are the new “Crucible Passive Skill Trees” that can be placed into your weapons using Crucible Forges. These small branching trees can grant you up to five passive abilities, which can include everything from simple damage bonuses to equivalents, notable passives from the main ability tree, or even support gem-like effects, like a bow that grants lesser multiple projectiles. to all gems set.

To craft them, you will need to place the weapon (or shield) of your choice in the Crucible Forge and charge it. As you do, you’ll see molten lines slip into shapes that will spawn enemies; the longer you charge, the more experience you’ll gain to level up the skill tree, but you’ll need to be able to defeat the entire wave of enemies to claim your reward.

Crucible forges can also be used in group matches, with multiple players able to load up the forge for their own benefit, though GGG manager Chris Wilson tells us that “crucible encounters get really tough: max ( charge) would basically be instant death.” So, in classic Path of Exile fashion, you’ll need to balance the risk of the encounter against its potential reward.

Keep on rolling, rolling, rolling

Making a single Passive Crucible tree is only the beginning, however; by finding a rare resource called Fiery Geode, you can create a new Forge that can combine the passive trees of two separate weapons of the same type. One of the weapons is destroyed during this process and the trees crash “unpredictably”, meaning you’re potentially at great risk as to what you’ll actually end up with.

Wilson comments that even though the skill tree can only go five deep, you can still fuse weapons if you want to risk your current build for something potentially even better (he goes so far as to reference PoE ethics classic way of encouraging players to bet a little more than perhaps they should when crafting). He also notes that chosen ability nodes are more likely to be included in the merge, so you get a bit of control over potential RNG.

However, you can’t just merge an object easily: using the Fiery Geode will require you to fight enemies with particularly difficult mods equivalent to those seen on late-game maps. If you have a Forge of the Titans encounter and aren’t sure you’ll survive, you can trade the Primal Geode Vestige to someone better equipped to deal with it.

Something a little more unique

These rewards can also go beyond traditional passives: some may have bonuses that make a weapon more explicitly valuable, such as selling it for an extra Chaos Orb, if you decide you don’t feel like keeping it. On top of that, a special crystal geode will allow you to combine trees into unique items, which cannot be done with the standard forge.

Speaking of uniques, there are also over ten new ones coming with the expansion. These include the Face of El’Abin, a helmet that is the only piece of armor capable of having its own passive Crucible skill tree, allowing you to further duplicate the concept. Blood Price is a helmet that reduces your maximum health, but also reduces enemy health by 8%, which helps clear faster.

The Tainted Pact amulet deals chaos damage over time to heal you as you consume life, allowing you to turn one of Path of Exile’s most dangerous sources of damage into a welcome boon. Finally, for now, we’re taking a look at Widowhail, a bow that looks rather unimpressive at first glance, but instead receives a massive boost that massively increases the bonuses gained from your equipped quiver. .

Path of Exile 3.21 Crucible: The face of El'Abin, a unique swordsman helm that can take its own passive skill tree Crucible, the only piece of armor to do so

renew the past

There’s also more to the Crucible mechanic in PoE 3.21. Wilson says the team has been working hard updating some older systems to try and bring them up to modern standards. New Atlas Tree walkways have been added, giving you three pairs of connected points through the tree that allow you to jump from side to side, which could completely rearrange your builds and cut down on many moves.

Breakstones are raised to a much higher base level: 81 for elemental, 82 for physical, and 83 for chaos. Thus, pure, enriched, and charged breccia stones are being removed and will simply become regular stones. You’ll still be able to get Flawless Stones, though, and a new skill in the Atlas tree gives you a more consistent way to get your hands on them.

Abyssal Depths will now always contain an Abyssal Lich, avoiding the temptation to bail out if there isn’t one. You’re still guaranteed to get a four-hole chasm, making sure you make the most of it, and there’s also a chance that a Stygian Spire could spawn instead of the standard loot chest, granting all your bonuses usual.

Path of Exile 3.21 Crucible – A new gateway in the Atlas tree, allowing you to come and go instantly

Mastery and Ancestry Overhaul

The GGG team has also been busy revising masteries. “As we went through the areas, we realized a lot of the options were pretty bland and could be a lot more exciting,” says Wilson. As such, they’ve increased as much as possible up to six options, with roughly half of the masteries in the tree undergoing some form of overhaul.

Regarding Ascendancy classes, several improvements have been made to multiple entries. Wilson notes that the spoiler previously struggled to move away from just focusing on traps and mines. As such, you’ll now have more options at your disposal, including a new focus on triggers. This includes a passive that slows the cooldown of enemies, making them less able to spam their abilities, and a pair of sliding robotic triggers that will activate ability triggers in their respective slots.

Meanwhile, the Pathfinder gains several tools to mitigate Chaos damage, with a focus on Wither meant to benefit more generalized abilities than just Chaos-based attacks. He also gets several passives meant to improve his flasks, such as granting the lasting effect to his life flasks, increasing the charge gain and effect of his flasks, and even giving flasks the potential to remove ailments and no not consume any charges when used.

There are also several new Vaal abilities to look forward to, including Absolution, Arctic Armor, Lightning Arrow, and Reap, with even more to discover. Perhaps the most exciting of these are Vaal’s arctic armor, which instantly encases you in ice and impedes movement, but offers great damage reduction and regenerates your energy shield and mana (a bit like Mei from Overwatch), and Vaal’s lightning arrow, causing a large discharge. which can be changed to focus on a narrow area and deal high damage or take out a larger number of enemies.

Path of Exile 3.21 Crucible – Multiple mastery nodes in passive skill tree, revamped for new expansion

A blessing for the ruthless

For those of you who enjoyed Path of Exile’s ultra-punishing Ruthless mode, Wilson adds that the long-absent Eternal Orbs are back in Ruthless. The item, which creates an ‘impression’ of an item that can be returned later, was retired a long time ago for being too powerful, but given the greatly reduced crafting options in Ruthless, the team decided it was right to go back.

If you fancy a taste of Path of Exile in its toughest form, there’s a boss removal event taking place at the start of the Crucible Challenge League. This requires you to be in Ruthless Hardcore Solo Self-Found, and you’ll need to defeat both the Uber Searing Exarch and the Uber Eater of Worlds, which Wilson describes as “by far the toughest event we’ve ever had. do”.

Successfully complete the challenge first, and you’ll get a ticket to ExileCon, where the team will reveal plenty of details about Path of Exile 2 as well as the upcoming expansion, Path of Exile 3.22, and the chance to create your own. item with the equipment you It will be added to the game in the future. Until then, there’s more than enough to keep fans entertained in Path of Exile Crucible.

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Path of Exile Crucible will be released on April 7and you can play the game and its latest expansion for free on Steam or directly on the Path of Exile website.

If you’re desperate for the Diablo 4 release date, PoE Crucible might be the perfect way to pass your time in the meantime; It certainly seems like Blizzard has come full circle in taking inspiration from Diablo 2’s spiritual successor. Otherwise, check out the best games like Diablo, along with other free PC games, to keep you busy.

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