Necropolis League Reveal & PoE 2 Update

Today Grinding Gear Games dropped their absolutely massive reveal of the Necropolis League, reworked endgame systems and Path of Exile 2 news. For more information on all the changes you'll want to stay awhile and listen, or you can check out the full Path of Exile 3.24 Necropolis League Patch Notes.

The Necropolis League reveal stream began with massive Path of Exile 2 news showcasing the ranger class. The ranger was featured in a teaser during the league announcement. But now we have more juicy details on her playstyle and some of the skill synergies available.

The Path of Exile 2 Ranger is an extremely mobile class, being able to use most of her skills while moving (incurring a movement speed penalty). Many of the skills showcased have Mobility built in, allowing you to leap away from danger or slow/freeze your enemies.

The gameplay demo began by showcasing several of the Lightning Skills available in Path of Exile 2.

The Path of Exile 2 skills are designed with mechanical synergy in mind. For example, you can use Lightning Rod to place a bunch of arrows in an area then spam Lightning Arrow to trigger additional explosions.

In addition, we got a look at the noxious world Poison Bow Skills for Path of Exile 2 adding in the "plant archetype". These skills focus on Poison damage and applying Poison to your plants to Poison affected enemies.

During the Showcase, Jonathan also discussed a few other bow skills in addition to detailing how Path of Exile 2's support gems change various skill interactions.

Mounted Combat is a thing in Path of Exile 2! The Ranger is able to mount her trusty Rhoa and even fire arrows while mounted. You're able to freely mount and dismount making for dynamic combat. But beware a heavy stun dismounts you and knocks you to the ground making it difficult to recover. When you aren't mounted the Rhoa assists in attacking your foes.

The Path of Exile 2 Beta was originally scheduled for June 7th, 2024. As part of the Necropolis reveal stream, Jonathan Rogers announced that the Beta is being delayed. There's no new date (yet), but he said not to expect it anytime before late 2024.

Path of Exile's 3.24 expansion is Necropolis League, the reveal included a new soul-powered crafting system, control over monster packs in your maps and new Unique items.

Upon entering a new zone you'll be prompted to interact with the Lantern of Arimor. This governs the powerful malevolent spirits which haunt the zone's monsters (and their rewards)! Interacting with monsters in the zone will influence the modifiers in your next zone. But if you don't like the choices offered in your map you can always run another one.

While fighting Haunted monsters, you'll notice a few aren't quite like the others. These special foes yield a valuable corpse when slain. Undertaker Arimor collects these corpses, even in death their souls remain useful.

You place monsters in graves, then Arimor absorbs their soul energy to create a powerful item. Each monster influences the outcome, making modifiers more likely, increasing their tier or possibly creating a Necropolis League unique. There's quite a lot of player agency here. You can place several corpses together for a tightly focused craft, or fill your entire graveyard. Each adjacent plot is counted when the item is created.

These exorcisms have a chance to add special modifiers like the following:

The method to obtain Necropolis League Uniques is a bit unconventional, instead of finding them or defeating a boss you need to track down the souls of important Noble families from the Eternal Empire.

For example the Perandus Pact Prismatic Jewel is a new gamble item. It rolls a wide variety of random modifiers and is obtained by laying members of the Perandus family to rest. By burying Corpses along side the family, you can attempt to influence the outcome.

Last but not least, use Embers of the Allflame to further influence the danger within your maps! These rare drops transform a pack of monsters of your choosing. For example, a dangerous monster like Tentacled Miscreations can be replaced with Tawhoa Warriors who have a chance to drop Passive Skill Tattoos!

Another piece of big news from the Necropolis League reveal is that Necropolis is launching with its own atlas passives! These include small passives to enhance Necropolis effects, Notables to change how you farm and keystones to redefine the mechanics.

Here's what we've seen so far:

The Necropolis League Reveal brings significant changes to Path of Exile's endgame including a rework of the Uber Boss system, tier 17 maps, full scarab rework and massive Atlas Passive Tree changes.

Currently the Uber Bosses are accessed via keystones. This means the same key is used for both the regular and Uber version of these boss fights. As part of the Necropolis league reveal, there's a huge change to how Uber bosses are farmed. Each Uber boss now has their own key which is completely separate from the regular way to access the fight. You earn these keys by completing the new Tier 17 maps.

Necropolis League solves another problem with the existing Uber Boss system by separating the drop pools. Right now when someone farms an Uber boss they get a lot of regular drops while trying to chase the rarest Uber exclusives like Sublime Vision and Progenesis. This leads to the regular drops being devalued making it difficult for players trying to break into bossing. In Necropolis league Uber bosses have a completely separate loot table from regular bosses, with their own exclusive Unique items!

To obtain these new Uber boss keys you need to complete Tier 17 maps. There's 5 available layouts with special modifiers, exclusive enemies and Unique endgame boss encounters. One of the special monsters teased was based on the "Butcher" style boss Brutus. Unlucky Exiles may find themselves in a map full of Bruti.

Each of the tier 17 Map bosses have the ability to drop an empowered Unique item allowing for new target farming avenues in addition to the Uber boss keys. They take the familiar bosses we know like Unbreakable, Uhtred, Catarina and Lycia then amp them up to 11 to provide a true challenge.

As part of the Necropolis League reveal, GGG discussed endgame balance. The biggest change is the removal of Sextants and Master Missions as part of the accompanying Scarab rework. Many of the effects from existing Sextants have been moved to Scarabs instead.

Previously, Scarabs had a baseline effect and offered increased value at higher rarities. But in Necropolis league Scarabs provide unique effects. For example, an Ultimatum Scarab causes an Ultimatum Encounter to appear in your map. Then the Ultimatum Scarab of Catalyzing causes it to only offer Catalysts. You could then use the Ultimatum Scarab of Inscription to convert those Catalysts into Inscribed Ultimatums. This not only makes the Scarab mechanics more interactive, but allows you to quadruple down on farming one mechanic.

To go along with the endgame revitalization, sweeping atlas passive changes were previewed for Necropolis League. The most significant change is the addition of Atlas Passive Tree Loadouts. You can now have up to 3 separate profiles and swap between them at your leisure.

This has been the biggest farming change we've had since the Atlas Passive Tree was reworked during Siege of the Atlas. The new system allows for much more precise target farming for the mechanics you enjoy. This is coupled with significant reworks for league mechanics including Essence fundamentally changing how we farm for currency.

Here's a quick overview of the quality of life changes from the Necropolis League reveal.

We've covered a lot of information from the Necropolis League reveal, but there's a few quick topics to wrap up before we lay this topic to rest. Let's go over the new Transfigured skills, Campaign improvements and the Q&A with ZiggyD, Jonathan Rogers and Mark Roberts.

As part of improving the Path of Exile Campaign experience, GGG has added several events which you'll encounter as you progress. This could be a Ritual, Legion or the mysterious Corruption Altar. The goal is to add fun surprises but beware some of these could prove too challenging for your build. If you encounter the Dweller in the Deep frozen in Essences, would you free him?

Jonathan Rogers, (game director for Path of Exile 2) and Mark Roberts, (game director for Path of Exile) sat down with ZiggyD to discuss the reveal. The discussion goes into detail on the design philosophy behind the changes, including some based takes from Mark.

That's everything we know so far about Path of Exile's 3.24 Necropolis League reveal and the Path of Exile 2 teasers. Are you looking for more news on Path of Exile builds, events, and upcoming patches? Then head over to our Discord and select the Path of Exile role in #roles to stay up to date with our content development. Stay sane, Exile!