Sacrifice of the Vaal

"The narcissistic Queen Atziri plunged the Vaal civilisation into a dark age of sacrifice and terror almost two thousand years ago. Millions died due to her obsessive pursuit of eternal youth, a pursuit that brought about a cataclysm that ended the Vaal civilisation overnight. But Atziri herself still lingers in a nightmare realm that is starting to leak back into the land of Wraeclast. Now, as the queen rises again, her corruption spreads throughout Wraeclast. Queen Atziri must be defeated."

Path of Exile: Sacrifice of the Vaal (colloquially known as SotV) is the first mini-expansion for Path of Exile. It was announced on February 14, 2014 and released on March 5, 2014. The majority of the new content is based around the return of Atziri, Queen of the Vaal.

Features

 * Queen Atziri, a new lategame boss
 * Vaal side areas
 * Vaal skill gems
 * The Vaal Orb and corruption
 * Challenge leagues: Ambush and Invasion
 * New PvP options: Cut-throat and the Sarn Arena

Queen Atziri
The final encounter with Queen Atziri and her minions is designed for high-level characters and requires a lot of skill to complete. In order to gain access to Atziri's lair, the player must collect Vaal fragments from Vaal side areas throughout Wraeclast. When combined in the Map Device, six portals to the Apex of Sacrifice (a level 70 area) are created. A harder version of Atziri, called Uber Atziri, was also added to the game and is located in the Alluring Abyss (a level 80 area).

Vaal side areas
A number of optional side-areas, called "Vaal side areas" were added. They have a chance to spawn in any story area of the game and are indicated by a glowing, beating heart and swirling ribbons of blood. The areas have a prefix and a suffix, like maps. At the end of the area is a unique monster guarding a Vaal Vessel which has a chance to drop a Vaal skill gem or a Sacrifice Vaal fragment.

Vaal gems
Vaal Skill Gems are generally more powerful versions of regular skill gems that need to be charged by the souls of slain monsters before they can be used. These gems are corrupted.

Vaal Orb
Vaal Orbs are a new currency item that corrupts another item when used on it. While corrupting an item can yield unpredictable and powerful results, it prevents later modification to the item (corrupted items cannot have further currency applied to them).

For more information, see Corrupted. For a list of possible Vaal Orb outcomes, see Vaal Orb.

Items
Thirteen unique items were added:
 * Atziri's Splendour
 * Doryani's Invitation
 * Atziri's Splendour
 * Doryani's Invitation
 * Doryani's Invitation
 * Doryani's Invitation
 * Doryani's Invitation

New quiver base types and a new ring type were added as well.

PvP
Players can now fight each other in the Sarn Arena, a free-for-all PvP area in act 3.

Challenge leagues
A new pair of challenge leagues was introduced along with the expansion, Ambush and Invasion league. They introduced Strongboxes and Invasion Bosses respectively.