User:Magnanimous2/Sacrifice of the Vaal

Sacrifice of the Vaal is the first "mini expansion" to Path of Exile, released on March 5th 2014. For the full patch notes, see Version 1.1.0.

''Queen Atziri. The most beautiful woman the Vaal civilisation had ever seen. A monarch who ruled from a throne room of mirrors, holding court as naked as the day she was born. Hers was a sovereignty of seduction. Of Grace.''

''The Grace of skin and flesh, of poise and dance, of attraction and manipulation. And when Atziri dreamed, she dreamed of Grace made eternal. She wished to paint her people in shades of immortal beauty. Instead, she drowned them in blood.''

''Now Atziri rises once more. A warped reflection from a mirror cracked two thousand years ago. She wants her beauty back and Wraeclast will give it to her. ''

''Fueled by the sacrifice of her people, Atziri's power is spreading throughout Wraeclast. The Vaal influence has corrupted equipment, skill gems, maps and even areas of Wraeclast itself. Power-hungry exiles must risk everything to harness the Vaal corruption for their own gain. The new climactic final encounter poses one question: How much will you sacrifice to defeat Atziri?''

Teaser screenshots: Corrupted item Unset Ring Corrupted area and item Ambush Strongbox Invading monsters

Queen Atziri and the Vaal
The Vaal civilisation is the oldest in Wraeclast, existing until about two thousand years before the game setting. They were the first to use skill gems, known as "Tears of Maji", and the power of these gems was central to Vaal culture.

Atziri was the last queen of the Vaal and was defined by her vanity. Atziri sought immortality and eternal youth, inspired by the Vaalish noble and serial killer Zerphi who lived 168 years. To accomplish this, she sent large number of human sacrifices to her thaumaturgist Doryani to be "processed".

The Vaal were destroyed by some event called the Cataclysm, implied to have been caused by a communion led by Doryani. Three thousand refugees fled to the Azmeri civilisation, which would become the Eternal Empire 400 years later.

Atziri's Corruption
Normal areas will sometimes contain entrances to secret Corrupted Areas, which can have modifiers to increase difficulty like maps. A boss monster inside guards a chest that is guaranteed to drop a Vaal Skill Gem or Vaal Fragment. End-game maps do not contain secret corrupted areas.

Vaal Fragments are used to access the Apex of Sacrifice and fight Queen Atziri. Some new Vaal-themed unique items can only drop from Atziri.

The is a new currency item. It "corrupts" equipment, currency, and skill gems, which modifies them unpredictably but means currency will no longer affect them. s cannot uncorrupt items.

Major Gameplay Changes
See Version 1.1.0 for other changes.
 * A new type of ring can drop in the challenge leagues: . It has no implicit bonuses but can socket a skill gem.
 * Eight new quivers can drop in the challenge leagues, replacing the previous quivers.
 * Shrines and Nemesis modifiers from the previous two challenge leagues (Domination and Nemesis) now appear in all leagues, with some changes made for balance.
 * Added a new monster to Act One and Act Three: Soulless Watcher. It uses a charged up attack that blinds you if you're facing it.
 * Free-for all pvp is now available in the Sarn Arena, accessed from the Sarn Encampment.
 * Free-for all pvp is now available in the Sarn Arena, accessed from the Sarn Encampment.

Passive Skill Tree
There are significant changes to the structure of the skill tree. The Marauder starting area has been reworked, along with the area between Duelist and Marauder. The wheels of primary defenses (life, energy shield, evasion) around the Scion were also changed to allow faster lateral progress across the tree. See poe:passive for the updated tree.

Due to substantial balance changes, every existing character has been granted an optional full passive reset. To use this, click the "Reset all Passives" button on the passive skill screen. Note that you must use this before allocating or refunding any other points otherwise the option will go away.

The effects of a number of passives were also rebalanced:

Vaal Gems
17 skill gems now have a powerful Vaal Skill Gem version with radically different effects. Vaal gems charge by killing monsters, similar to flasks. More vaal gems will be added later.

60 New Bosses
There are over 60 new boss monsters for secret corrupted areas and the Invasion league. They use complex combinations of skills and can be very dangerous. Higher difficulty versions often use more skills and supports.

Ambush and Invasion Leagues
The newest four-month challenge leagues began when the expansion was released and will end on July 5th 2014.
 * Ambush: Various new types of chests called Strongboxes can be found throughout Wraeclast. These chests are guarded by monsters that ambush the player when they are opened. The ambushing monsters must be slain before the contents of the Strongbox can be claimed. Sometimes you'll encounter magic, rare or unique Strongboxes which have mods like items do. Prefixes affect the difficulty of the ambush by adding more monsters, springing traps or affecting your character. Suffixes improve your rewards from the Strongbox. You can use currency items to reroll these mods. One of the new challenges is to open Strongboxes with each mod.


 * Invasion: Invasion is a Hardcore league (characters who die are converted to Standard characters). In the Invasion league, areas of Wraeclast have substantially more monster variety, so players will run into unexpected and dangerous invading monsters from other levels or acts. A unique boss monster from an invading monster type is also lurking in each level. Higher difficulty levels contain expanded monster variety and the invading bosses with more abilities. One of the new challenges is to kill each invading Unique monster.