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.

Path of Exile 2 News

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 Ranger Class

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.

Lightning Skills

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

• Lightning Arrow strikes an enemy, then arcs electrical energy to nearby foes.
• With Lightning Rod you fire into the air raining charged Arrows upon your foes which release a burst of electrical energy.
  • The arrows stick into the ground generating an explosion when they're struck by other electrical skills.
• Stormcaller Arrow sticks to an enemy, after a short delay they're struck by Lightning.
  • The bolt Shocks enemies causing them to take 30% increased damage from all sources.

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.

Poison Skills

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.

• Poison Burst Arrow creates a Burst of Poison when striking enemies.
• Vine Arrow, this skill fires an arrow into the air creating a plant where it lands. The plant slows nearby enemies and poisons them using its grasping vines.
  • Poison the plant to transfer those poisons directly to the monsters it attaches to.
• Poison Bloom Arrow creates multiple poison pustules which explode on nearby enemies.
  • Poison the pustules to increase their damage and cause them to explode faster.
• Gas Cloud Arrow is a ground-targeted skill which creates a cloud that continually poisons things inside of it.
  • If you want some explosive fun, try igniting your Gas Cloud with a bit of fire damage!
• Plague Bearer works similarly to Path of Exile 1, charging up as you poison enemies.
  • Once fully charged, unleash the plague for a massive burst of damage!

Other Skills

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.

• Frost Escape fires an arrow while you leap backwards, this generates a freezing effect for extra safety.
• Snipe is a charged shot which is guaranteed to deal a critical strike. Aim carefully and consider immobilizing your target first.
• Rain of Arrows causes arrows to rain down from the sky over a short duration, damaging all foes caught within the area.
  • The Rain of Arrows duration is extended through the use of Frenzy Charges.
• Sniper's Mark grants you a Frenzy Charge when you critically strike the marked enemy.

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.

Path of Exile 2 Beta Delayed

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.

Necropolis League

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.

The Lantern of Arimor

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.

The Lantern of Arimor provides information about the monster packs within your map, mouse over the monster to learn more about its abilities.

You can rearrange the Lantern modifiers to choose which enemies are affected. The potency scales with tier, so a tier I modifier is less impactful than a tier VI. Place these carefully, you might want a tier I modifier on a rare and dangerous enemy or a tier VI on a common foe to increase your rewards!

Rare Devoted modifiers spawn on the Lantern of Arimor, they're denoted in gold and enhance the loot of the affected monster packs.

The Lantern of Arimor gives players more control over the danger they encounter while controlling a zone. Mousing over a monster further provides information on what it does and how frequently it appears within the zone.

Special Enemies

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.

A Garden of Corpses

Collect these corpses to participate in the new Necropolis League crafting system. Alternatively, itemize them with Coffins (purchased from Arimor for 1 Chaos Orb) to sell any unwanted bodies to other eager Exiles. Combine the effects of various corpse to influence your outcomes when creating items in the graveyard.

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:

• Gems can be Socketed in this item ignoring Socket Colour (Body)
• +1 to Maximum Power Charges (Helmet)
• Attacks have 24% chance to Maim on Hit (Gloves)
• Movement Speed Cannot be modified to below base Value (Boots)

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.

Embers of the Allflame

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!

Necropolis Atlas Passives

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:

• Prospero's Wager (Keystone)
  • All Corpses with Unresolved Anguish in your Maps have 'Reveals a Random Craft when Buried.
• Fear of the Light (Keystone)
  • Haunted Modifiers are applied randomly to Packs in your Maps.
  • Monster Packs in your Maps have a 25% chance to have an additional Haunted Modifier.
  • Embers of the Allflame cannot be found in your Maps.

Endgame Improvements

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.

Uber Boss Rework

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!

Tier 17 Maps

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.

• Fortress Map
  • A trap filled gauntlet infested with Heist enemies.
  • Battle your way to the end to challenge the Uber Unbreakable, will he break? Or will you?
• Citadel Map
  • You explore an ancient Kalguuran Citadel full of monsters.
  • At the end you fight Uber Uhtred who even summons other Expedition bosses to his side.

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.

Scarab Rework

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.

Atlas Passive Tree Changes

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.

• First up, passives which grant extra content are far more prevalent and % Chance offered has been improved. This makes it easier to see a wide variety of content in your map.
• Seventh Gate has been removed but all crafts are available and unlocked by progressing your Atlas.
• Certain keystones like Wandering Path offered so much power they felt mandatory. This restricts player freedom when it comes to farming, so the keystone (and several others) have been removed.
  • Growing Hordes and Grand Design were also removed.

• New keystones have taken their place.
  • Unwavering Vision grants 20 Atlas Passive Skill points in exchange for locking Scarabs and Fragments (you can still use Divine Vessels).
  • Back to Basics randomly gives your maps 0 to 80% more Modifier Effect, but extra content cannot appear in your maps and you cannot Influence them.
  • Thorough Exploration empowers the Final Map Bosses with Affliction Wisps when there are fewer than 50 monsters remaining.

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.

QoL Changes

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

• Pantheon Powers are account wide unlocks.
  • You can toggle upgrades on and off.
• Quick move currency with Ctrl + Shift + Click.
• Ctrl + Left click to reapply socket/quality currency.
• Breach hands open automatically.
• Veiled Chaos Orbs have been reworked and have the effect from Aisling's bench.
  • They now drop from Catarina.
  • Many other Betrayal effects were itemized.
• Multiple masters can appear in the same map.
• Corrupted maps no longer go unidentified.
  • Instead they gain special implicit modifiers.
• The Horticrafting Station displays your item's stats while crafting.
• Stacked Decks no longer give cards for Boss Uniques.
  • In general Stacked Decks are rarer.
  • The drop rate of Mageblood and Headhunter are increased by roughly 2.5x to compensate for this change.
• Automate support triggers instant Spells off cooldown.
• Call to Arms support triggers Warcry Skills off cooldown.
• You can exchange Uber Elder fragments at the Horticrafting Station.
• Maven Invitations no longer drop, instead Kirac offers them when you kill the requisite bosses.
• Monster corpse skills have improved visual clarity.
• Strongbox Icons now appear on your minimap.
• Corrupted and Mirrored items are now identified with a Scroll of Wisdom.

Additional News

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.

Transfigured Skills

• Tornado of Elemental Turbulence
  • Automatically converts Tornado's damage to Fire, Cold, or Lightning.
  • Lower effectiveness of added damage.
• Ice Shot of Penetration
  • Modifiers to numbers of projectiles do not apply to this skill.
  • Projectiles pierce 3 additional targets.
  • Damaging enemies creates two perpendicular cones of Cold damage.
• Artillery Ballista of Focus Fire
  • Higher effectiveness of added damage.
  • Fires up to 5 arrows at different targets.

Campaign Improvement

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?

Q&A With ZiggyD

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.

3.24 On the Horizon!

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!

Written by: Tenkiei

Reviewed by: Crouching_Tuna, Dredscythe