Summary
- Build Viability: The popular “Plant Daddy” build remains viable and mostly untouched by major nerfs.
- New Mechanics: Introduction of Fluxes (resistance swapping) and the ability to destroy Uniques to create socketable Runes.
- Endgame Overhaul: A new Fortress system replaces the previous method of acquiring Atlas passive points. 30 new maps and “Atlas Ascendancies” for Masters have been added.
- League Mechanics: Breach and Ritual have been reworked for better clarity and rewards, while Delirium now features a fog that directs players toward the boss.
- Crafting & Economy: Divine Orbs are more common; the Genesis tree is now the sole source of Catalysts.
- Quality of Life: Separate keybindings for Sprint and Dodge, a 250-character search box limit for vendor Regex, and a Shift + Alt-click shortcut for trade searches.
New Crafting and Skill Systems
- Fluxes: A new currency type that allows players to “harvest reforge” resistances, enabling the swapping of one resistance type for another on an item.
- Unique Runes: Players can now destroy any of the 60 different Uniques to extract a specific power as a Rune. This Rune can then be socketed into other gear, allowing builds to retain powerful Unique effects while using better base items.
- Expanded Options: 21 new craftable skills and eight new craftable support gems have been added to the game.
- Expedition: New underground areas have been added to Expedition encounters.
Progression and Passive Tree
- Challenges: A new seasonal challenge system (similar to a “Season Journey”) has been introduced, allowing players to earn cosmetic rewards.
- Passive Tree Reset: Due to massive changes to the passive skill tree, all existing characters will receive a free full refund of their passive points.
- Atlas Passive Points: The method for acquiring Atlas points has changed. Upon completing the first Tower, a Fortress will rise. Clearing maps within these Fortresses grants Atlas passive points and introduces over 40 new monster modifiers.
- Atlas Ascendancies: Each Master now has an “Ascendancy” tree featuring 12 nodes; players can select four at a time. These are unlocked by completing missions for the respective Masters.
Maps and Bosses
- New Content: 30 new maps have been added to the endgame.
- Pinnacle Bosses: New bosses include the Arbiter of Ash and the Arbiter of Divinity (the final new pinnacle boss).
- Difficulty Scaling: Players first encounter pinnacle bosses through a quest chain; subsequent fights are significantly more difficult.
- Atlas Tree: The tree now features 300 nodes. All nodes can eventually be allocated, and choices can be swapped freely or for a very low cost.
League Mechanic Reworks
Delirium
- Navigation: The movement of the Delirium fog now indicates the direction of the map boss.
- Balance: Monster life and damage have been lowered, but five new Delirium elites have been added.
- Loathsome Mire: A new area that drops unique amulet bases. these can have two “instilled notables” (passive tree nodes) at the cost of one prefix or suffix.
- Simulacrum: The encounter has been shortened from 15 waves to 7 waves.
- Jewel Crafting: 10 new “Ancient Emotions” allow for the crafting of Time Lost jewels, which affect passive nodes in a radius.
Breach and Ritual
- Breach: Now features “Stabilized Breaches” and the Genesis Tree. The Genesis Tree is used to craft jewelry and is the only source of Catalysts.
- Ritual: Reward screens are simplified; all items offered are now either Uniques or Omens.
- Rite of the Nameless: A new 5-map gauntlet where rituals carry over monsters and bosses from previous maps.
The Temple (Incursion)
- Core Integration: Vaal Temple mechanics are now core.
- Room Changes: Rooms can no longer be “prevented” from being deleted; instead, they turn into paths to maintain connectivity. Rooms can now reach Tier 4.
- Leveling: Temple monster levels are now determined by the level of the area where the crystals were obtained, preventing players from speed-farming low-level zones to spawn high-level temples.
Combat and Balance
- Defensive Buffs: Armor and Evasion have received a 15% buff on level 80+ items. Deflection now scales linearly with investment.
- Nerfs:
- Energy Shield recharge has been reduced.
- Leech is limited to one source at a time with a 40,000 total damage cap for calculations.
- Moving no longer increases bleed damage.
- The Vertex helmet now grants +5 to Curse Skills instead of +4 to All Skills.
- Weapon level bonuses for melee/projectile skills on two-handers were reduced from +7 to +5 (+5 to +4 for one-handers). Spell levels remain unchanged.
Quality of Life and UI
- Build Guides: An in-game build guide system allows players to follow community guides directly.
- Trade Improvements:
- Shift + Alt-click an item to auto-search it on the trade market.
- Players can now “favorite” specific trades on the currency exchange.
- Input Changes: Sprint and Dodge Roll can now be bound to separate keys. Dialogue can be skipped using the Escape key.
- Regex Expansion: The search box character limit is increased from 50 to 250, allowing for complex vendor search strings.
Key References