With the major changes to the Atlas of Worlds in the 3.9 patch, Path of Exile saw a huge shift in how players approach the endgame of POE. Conquerors of the Atlas introduced a new tier of bosses and a much more expansive Atlas with a lot more moving parts. Players had some feelings about this, though it was generally positively received due to the massive increase in variety compared to Shaper and Elder farming, there are some issues. With the newly planned Path of Exile 3.10 Atlas changes, GGG is looking to make players a little less miffed about the new Atlas.
Grinding Gear Games is addressing many of these concerns in Path of Exile 3.10, Delirium League. Path of Exile 3.10 Atlas changes are brining about a ton of alterations to the Atlas, mostly focusing on making it easier for players to be more deterministic with their progression. As GGG put it “Previously, you would randomly spawn Shaper and Elder influence on your Atlas and then were able to deterministically push the influence around to spawn the Elder Guardians and the Elder itself. We want to bring some of that determinism back into the Atlas.”
The new Influence spawning system will have a more determined outcome, with staggered progression. Influence has a higher chance of spawning, but getting its impact in maps is a bit more controlled now. The developer clearly wants to make achieving influence on the new Atlas more of a challenge in the next patch, but not too much so. Players will now notice a staggered bar spawning next to the Watchstone storage area on the Atlas, here’s how GGG envisions this bar, functioning as a representation of the influence progress in a given region of the Atlas.
- Map 1: You’ll be met with the usual packs of monsters that you’ve become accustomed to.
- Map 2: Will not contain any influence monsters, but will progress the bar.
- Map 3: Will once again contain influence monsters and outcomes.
- Map 4: Will not contain any influence monsters, but will progress the bar.
- Map 5: Will once again contain influence monsters and outcomes.
Awakening Level is another area of fan feedback that GGG has focused on heading into the next expansion. Watchstone socketing in each region now raises Awakening Level by 1 when you have all four of the Watchstones in place for a given region. This should help spread out Atlas progression over the course of entire league rather than having a big glut of it towards the end of the grind.
Awakening Level bonuses for completing maps are also changing in Delirium League, Awakening Bonus Objectives will now give:
- x% increased effect of Modifiers on non-unique Maps (up to the 24% previously available)
- x% increased chance of receiving an Atlas Mission (10% total in addition to the base chance of 35%)
Other more minor changes include the return of the Sextant vendor recipe to Path of Exile 3.10, which will allow players to trade 3 Sextants for one of a higher tier. Three Simple Sextants will yield a Prime Sextant. Three Prime Sextants will yield an Awakened Sextant. This is being done to make decisions about Sextant usage easier, eliminating the need to hold onto Watchstone modifiers with only a single use left on them.
What do you think of the Path of Exile 3.10 Atlas changes? Let us know in the comments.
Source: GGG
