Dear exiles, hot news! As the end of 2022 draws near, I want to take a moment to let you know what to expect over the coming months and year-end holidays.
3.20 Expansion Timeline
The 3.20 expansion's release date will be pushed back from late November to early December.
This date is more suitable for holidays. Previous games released in December showed that those released in the two weeks or so before Christmas gave players the freest time to play during the holiday season.
GGG have a busy release schedule ahead of Path of Exile 2, so they'll be using this extra time to get a head start on 3.21.
End-of-League Events
Because of the delay in the 3.20 expansion, the Kalandra League has been extended by a few weeks, and a series of short events are being planned before the league ends! There are more details will be announced later, but what can be shared is that the first event series will kick off on November 4th (PDT). There will be about 2-4 events, with various variations on the regular Path of Exile gameplay, with plenty of prizes for top racers and regular players. Each event may last a week or less. These events are similar to the ones in the past, with some tweaks and updates. Please stay tuned on MmoGah for more information.
Balance Manifestos
Ahead of the 3.20 expansion, I'll share a series of balance manifestos. Typically, I share a statement that covers as many balance changes as possible without disrupting the live broadcast of the announcement. This time, I'll be sharing more topics earlier than ever, even if some of them will expose parts of the Livestream to provide better communication and transparency.
GGG also plan to break these questions into separate threads and share them one at a time to facilitate feedback and discussion better. For clarity, their early signaling does not imply that there will be many and/or serious balance changes. It simply means this information will come early and be shared across multiple posts.
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DID YOU KNOW? |
"Hard Mode" News
Last year, GGG stated that they were working on an additional optional game mode for Path of Exile, codenamed "Hard Mode". Its official name is Ruthless.
Ruthless is an additional character-creation hallmark in addition to Hardcore and SSF, allowing you to choose from extreme item scarcity and various other variations. At the beginning of November, they plan to announce all the information about Ruthless and will start the Alpha testing phase. They hope to release the mode to all players at the same time as the 3.20 expansion. For clarity, this mode is purely a complement to the 3.20 expansion and does not affect the scope of the new leagues and features they will announce on the stream.
As the name suggests, Ruthless is a very different experience from the regular Path of Exile and is designed for a specific type of player. It will not appeal to everyone, but if you're interested, you can sign up for the November alpha test, which may be invited before the official release of the wave of players whose GGG is seeking feedback. Note that the Ruthless Alpha test will be the current version of 3.19, not the upcoming 3.20, which has its own alpha test on regular alpha servers. Please do not directly request access to alpha testing, as they cannot add people this way.
Core Supporter Packs
In mid-December, a new set of core supporter packs can be released with new physical merchandise in the top tier of the collection. This means that the current core support package will soon be leaving the store forever.
Final Thought
There are a lot of things to look forward to at the end of 2022, like new expansions and various events. I hope GGG won't let us down, and I hope you can be very strong in every league.
