Ultimatum Returns

As part of the Affliction League reveal, GGG confirmed that Ultimatum is back by popular demand! Ultimatum is going core replacing Metamorph. The Vaal Trials now last 10 Rounds, with increasing risk and reward for each stage. There's been a full rebalance including new rewards and affixes to hinder your progress. This includes new and reworked Unique items.

Metamorph has been removed from the game, but the Metamorph Uniques were added to the core drop pool, and Catalysts have been moved to Ultimatum. Additionally, there's a brand new Tainted Catalyst, which applies a random quality type and amount of quality to a corrupted Jewelry item.

The Metamorph Stash Tab is being replaced with an Ultimatum Tab which stores Catalysts and Inscribed Ultimatums. Metamorph Scarabs no longer drop and are being replaced with Ultimatum Scarabs. The same is happening for Crafting options and Sextants. Ultimatum used to be packed with Rare monsters, this has been toned down a bit in the returned version. However, you should expect the League Mechanic to be just as challenging as it used to be, if not more difficult thanks to Atlas Passives.

New Ultimatum Uniques

When Trialmaster returned, he brought all of his boss drop Ultimatum Uniques with him, so exiles have been using Uniques like the Mahuxotl's Machination for several leagues now. But with the complete Ultimatum mechanic making a triumphant return, we're getting some brand new toys to play with.

Ixchel's Temptation

A Unique Gold Ring with an extremely random assortment of stats, so that the item benefits from every Catalyst Quality type. The Tainted Catalyst gives a random percentage of a random quality when used on a corrupted item. If you use this on Ixchel's Temptation it results in 1-200% of a random quality instead of the normal 1-20% thanks to the line; "Maximum Quality is 200%".

For example, if the Tainted Catalyst rolls the Fertile Catalyst effect it enhances the Maximum Life and Mana. In short, this item is a huge gamble but a tempting one.

Gamblesprint

On the other hand, Gamblesprint lets you gamble with your movement speed instead of your currency. The item's stats are extremely poor and losing all your movement speed when hit could lead to disaster. It averages out to 30% movement speed which is worse than the Tier 1 Hellion's modifier on boots so this item adds a lot of risk for very little payoff.

Ultimatum Atlas Passives

Here are the other Ultimatum Atlas Passives as revealed in the Patch Notes:

• Added a new Ultimatum Cluster which contains the Prove Yourself Worthy and Stand Your Ground Notable Passives.
  • The 7 small Passives in this cluster either cause Ultimatum Encounters in your Maps to spawn 8% increased number of Monsters, your Maps to have +5% chance to contain an Ultimatum Encounter, or Ultimatum Monsters in your Maps to grant 10% increased Experience.
• The Prove Yourself Worthy Notable Passive causes Ultimatum Modifiers in your Maps to start a Tier higher if possible, and causes Ultimatum Rewards in your Maps to have a 25% chance to be duplicated.
• The Stand Your Ground Notable Passive causes Ultimatum Encounters in your Maps to get 3% reduced Radius each Round, and also causes them to grant rewards as though you completed an additional Round.
• Added a new Ultimatum Cluster which contains the Ruinous Wager Keystone as well as the Conquer The Stones, Survive The Assault, Slaughter Them All, and Protect The Altar Notable Passives.
  • The entry small Passive provides your maps with a +5% chance to contain an Ultimatum Encounter.
• The new Ruinous Wager Keystone Passive causes Ultimatum Monsters in your Maps to apply Ruin with their special abilities, Ultimatum Monsters and Modifiers in your Maps to deal 50% less Damage, and causes Ultimatum Encounters to Fail on reaching 7 Ruin.
• The Conquer The Stones Notable Passive causes Ultimatum Encounters in your Map to have 100% increased chance to require you to Stand in the Stone Circles, with these types of encounters having 25% increased radius.
  • The small Passive prior causes Ultimatum Stone Circles in your Maps to have 15% increased radius.
• The Survive The Assault Notable Passive causes Ultimatum Encounters in your Maps to have 100% increased chance to only require you to Survive, with these types of encounters having 20% reduced duration.
  • The small Passive prior causes Ultimatum Encounters in your Maps only requiring you to Survive to have 10% reduced duration.
• The Slaughter Them All Notable Passive causes Ultimatum Encounters in your Maps to have 100% increased chance to require you to defeat waves of Enemies, with these types of encounters requiring killing 20% reduced number of Enemies.
  • The small Passive prior causes Ultimatum Encounters in your Maps requiring you to defeat waves of Enemies to require killing 10% reduced number of Enemies.
• The Protect The Altar Notable Passive causes Ultimatum Encounters in your Maps to have 100% increased chance to require you to protect the Altar, and Ultimatum Altars in your Maps to have 50% increased Life.
  • The small Passive prior causes Ultimatum Altars in your Maps to have 25% increased Life.
• Added a new Ultimatum Cluster that contains the Gruelling Gauntlet Keystone, as well as the Worthy of the Past, Worthy of the Present, and Worthy of the Future Notable Passives.
  • The 6 small Passives in this cluster each cause Ultimatum Rewards in your Maps to have a 10% increased chance to be Inscribed Ultimatums.
• The new Gruelling Gauntlet Keystone Passive causes Ultimatum Encounters in your Maps to last 3 additional Rounds, but makes it so you cannot choose which Ultimatum Modifier is applied each Round, and cannot have a Boss in the final Round.
• The Worthy of the Past Notable Passive causes Inscribed Ultimatums found in your Maps to have 50% increased chance to reward Unique Items, and Ultimatum Rewards in your Maps to have 50% increased chance to be Unique Items.
• The Worthy of the Present Notable Passive causes Inscribed Ultimatums found in your Maps to have 50% increased chance to reward Currency Items, and Ultimatum Rewards in your Maps to have 50% increased chance to be Currency Items.
• The Worthy of the Future Notable Passive causes Inscribed Ultimatums found in your Maps to have 50% increased chance to reward Divination Cards, and Ultimatum Rewards in your Maps to have 50% increased chance to be Divination Cards.
• Added a new Ultimatum Cluster which contains the Brave The Tower Notable Passive.
  • This Notable causes the Ultimatum Boss to drop a full stack of random Catalysts, and Ultimatum Encounters in your Maps to have 30% increased chance for the final Round to include a Boss.
  • The 4 small Passives in this cluster each cause Ultimatum Encounters in your Maps to have 10% increased chance for the final Round to include a Boss.
• The Ethics Review Notable Atlas Passive has been replaced with a new Notable, Servant of Order. It causes your Maps to have no chance to contain Ultimatum Encounters, and a +2% chance to contain other Extra Content.

Stay Up to Date

That's everything we know so far about Path of Exile's 3.23 Affliction League and Path of Exile 2's Mercenary Class. 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: Dredscythe