Path of Exile: Blight Announced
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Launching on September 6, 2019, Blight is the latest challenge league expansion for Grinding Gear Games' free to play action-RPG Path of Exile. Themed around tower defense mechanics, the new expansion will offer plenty of new challenges, skills and rewards alongside a number of revamped class archetypes. Here's the official trailer that showcases the expansion:
And here's what you can expect from it:
Path fo Exile: Blight
In Path of Exile: Blight, you must stop the spread of the deadly Blight by building towers to defend against monsters held in its thrall.
Our September expansion contains the Blight challenge league, three revamped balance archetypes with new skills and support gems, plenty of new items, two old leagues being integrated into the core game, and a focus on giving you more freedom to choose which aspects of Path of Exile's content you play and when.
The Spreading Blight
Sister Cassia is trying to stop the spread of the mind-controlling Blight by destroying Fungal Growths. When attacked, the Blight commands infected monsters to defend it. The monsters mindlessly follow the Blight's tendrils, only attacking foes directly in their path. The infected are unusually tough, so you'll need to build defensive towers to exploit each monster's specific weaknesses. For each tendril lane you defend, a chest will appear with your rewards.
Build Your Defense
Sister Cassia's arsenal contains towers that Chill, Shock, Stun, Burn, Summon, Empower, Petrify and Debilitate. Choose, place and upgrade these towers carefully to take advantage of both the terrain and the weaknesses of the infected monsters. These fast, bite-sized Tower Defense encounters combine Path of Exile's intense action combat with the tactical fun of this popular genre.
Cleanse Blighted Maps
Path of Exile's end-game is not safe from the effects of the Blight either. Find Blighted Maps which contain gigantic Blight encounters with dozens of lanes and some of the league's most valuable rewards.
Enchant Your Items
Among other treasures, the Blight yields Oils which Sister Cassia can use to anoint your jewellery. Combine two Oils to enchant a Ring with a potent tower modifier. Combine three Oils to enchant your Amulet with any Notable Passive Skill from the Skill Tree. The twelve Oils vary considerably in rarity, with each combination of them granting a different result.
Anointable Unique Items
Four of the Unique Items exclusive to the Blight league form an armour set that can also be anointed with Notable Passives. Combined with an anointed Amulet, the wearer of this set can have up to five bonus Notable Passives active at once, unlocking countless new build possibilities.
Manage Your Master Missions
You're no longer forced to run every Master Mission as soon as you encounter it, or required to run arbitrary maps to complete your dailies. Significantly more of your Missions are now earned through map completion and they can be run later by talking to the Master in your hideout. Missions accumulate indefinitely, and you can run them whenever you have time, on whatever maps you choose.
We have also improved Betrayal's rewards, made deeper depths easier to access in Delve, and integrated Legion and the boss fights from Synthesis into the core game.
The Necromancer Archetype
Summoners are one of the most popular playstyles in Action RPGs. In Path of Exile: Blight we have significantly revamped many Summoner mechanics and the Witch's Necromancer Ascendancy Class. We have buffed the per-gem-level progression of many minion types, added new support gems that allow you to fine-tune minion behaviour, revamped the Necromancer Ascendancy, introduced the Carrion Golem, added a high-level wand base type that can roll powerful minion mods and have made many other changes.
To support all the new skills that are available, we have added an additional bar of skill bindings.
The Poison Assassin Archetype
The Poison Assassin, once the most dominant play style in Path of Exile, is returning (almost) to its glory days! Blight adds a new poison themed Support Gem and a suite of five potent new poison-themed Skill Gems, including Cobra Lash, which chains a poisoned projectile between your foes. The new Elusive mechanic, supported by a new Ascendancy notable, provides powerful defensive opportunities and a means of escape, while changes to the Perfect Agony Keystone Passive and multipliers for ailments from Critical Hits ensure the Poison Assassin gets his mark.
The Mine Saboteur Archetype
We often received feedback that Mines, though strong, felt clunky to use. In Blight, we have completely reworked Mine mechanics from the ground up. Thrown to a location rather than placed at your feet, Mines now deploy more quickly and detonate in sequence. Mine skills now also reward you for detonating long sequences. New and reworked Mine Support Gems, as well as the mobile Skitterbots, provide new avenues for explosive power. All these additions are further enhanced by changes to the Passive Skill Tree and the Saboteur Ascendancy Class.
Powerful New Items
Alongside the Oils, Blighted Maps and new Jewellery Enchantments, Path of Exile: Blight contains 18 new Divination Cards, 16 new Skill and Support Gems, and 16 new Unique Items for you to discover. In addition, we have rebalanced 24 existing Unique Items, of which six have received substantial overhauls.
Blight Supporter Packs
We're also launching two sets of Supporter Packs alongside Blight - the Lich and Sentinel Packs. There are two price points available for each and they feature masses of points alongside new Armour Sets and other exclusive cosmetic microtransactions! You'll be able to purchase these from Thursday August 22 (PDT) onwards.
Path of Exile: Blight will launch on September 6th (PDT) on PC, and September 9 on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Additionally, this announcement on the game's website shares a number of links to the expansion's media coverage.
