Cluster Jewels are a relatively new addition to the mess that is Path of Exile. For the longest time, the passive tree in Path of Exile was static in each league. players could only modify it slightly by unlocking Jewel Slots and slotting modifiers into those via Jewels. In previous patches though, that all changed. The new Cluster Jewels offered a new layer of complexity.
Cluster Jewels allow a player to unlock new and powerful nodes, often targeted to their specific builds or skills. These were a powerful new addition and became highly prized items very quickly. Players were able to throw a wrench into GGG’s plans in 3.10, the last league though. Because GGG had adjusted the accessibility of Cluster Jewels in the loot table, these were much more common in the last league.
GGG then toned the drop rate this patch, leading to the item being less common, and rolls for the perfect one being harder. Because if you can’t get the Jewels to drop, how are you going to get the one tuned to your chosen build?
This change is primarily being made to make Cluster Jewels more common in terms of their useful modifiers, to enable them to better interact with the new league mechanics. The deep crafting system in Harvest league has a lot of chances to roll for better modifiers on these Jewels, so the developer wants players to be able to do that.
The biggest change is that the Jewel Socket modifier will now be an implicit element, making other modifiers slightly more common.
Here’s the words of GGG on their plans:
To improve this situation, we’re making a significant change to Medium and Large Cluster Jewels. The plan is that any new Medium and Large Cluster Jewels will come with an additional enchantment that states they have one Jewel socket and two Jewel sockets respectively. The Jewel socket modifiers will no longer be rollable suffixes. As a result of this, the chance for rolling notables will be slightly increased. This change also means that although having three notables is the optimal outcome, having two notables will always be useful as you’ll be pathing through them to get to the sockets.
This week has been pretty exciting for POE fans. Grinding Gear Games also announced a few other changes to the game, although some were not as well-received by the players. The announcement of three new Stash Tabs for League items went pretty poorly. GGG was immediately hit with backlash over the clutter in Stashes, and announced plans to implement new organization techniques.
Source: POE Site
