Version 1.2.0

Version 1.2.0 introduces the Forsaken Masters expansion, which adds new content and features to the core game.

Patch notes
These are the official patch notes for version 1.2.0 released by Grinding Gear Games.

New Three-Month Challenge Leagues

 * Challenge leagues are a great opportunity for a fresh start. All your old characters and items are still present in the Standard and Hardcore leagues, but you're encouraged to join the new economies, complete challenges and climb the ladder!
 * This pair of challenge leagues will run for three months - from August 20 to November 20, US time.
 * The new challenge leagues include a set of eight new challenges! Players who complete five or eight of the challenges receive an exclusive microtransaction helmet skin. The first 50 players to complete all eight challenges will receive an exclusive Rampage/Beyond challenge shirt.
 * Rampage: Rampage is a standard league where kill streaks cause devastating effects to occur. Each kill causes you to become slightly faster and deal more damage. The kill streak wears off after five seconds of no kills.
 * Beyond: Beyond is a Hardcore league (characters who die are converted to Standard characters). In the Beyond league, demons from another realm are attempting to invade Wraeclast. Monster kills have a chance to cause small portals to appear. If enough portals spawn close together, a larger portal opens and demons flow forth. Several of those larger portals close together can open a third tier that results in one of several truly terrifying entities to emerge.
 * Out of the 15 total Unique items added in this update, there are three new Unique items that can only drop in in the Rampage challenge league, and three that can only drop in the Beyond challenge league.

Core Forsaken Masters Features

 * Seven men and women, masters in their fields, stood against Dominus' tyranny. Some with words, others with steel. Seven masters forsaken, sent to die in a corrupted land. Seven masters who lived, learned, and now thrive in Wraeclast. Seven Forsaken Masters who can train you... if you choose to help them.


 * The seven Masters each have their own style of mission and each of these missions has many variations. As you explore deeper into Wraeclast, the pool of available variations increases to challenge you in new ways. All of the missions and their variations can occur anywhere in the game, including within end-game Maps. Once you've helped a master with their mission once, they appear in regular towns to talk to.
 * Completing missions earns you reputation (which contributes to the level of that master) and favour (used for purchasing decorations for your hideout).
 * Each master acts as a vendor for items. The range of items increases with each master level (up to a chance at being offered a Unique item at level 8). Their inventory refreshes after you start each daily mission with them.
 * Each master has one special build-enabling crafting mod that is only available on a magic item sold by them. It's up to you whether you use it as-is, augment it to add one more mod or use / to try to create an amazing rare.
 * You can claim a personalised hideout for free from any level 3 or higher master. Once you have a hideout, you can travel there using the waypoint panel. Hideouts are shared among all your characters in that league. Each master has their own distinctive hideout tileset on offer.
 * You can allow access to friends, party members and guild members from within your hideout (on the Hideout Stash screen). Hideouts can hold up to 32 players at once.
 * Once masters are at level 2, they can be invited to your hideout. While in your hideout, they offer you daily missions which provide 250% reputation and favour. If your friends help you with a daily mission, they receive normal reputation and favour.
 * The size of your hideout affects how many masters it can hold. It starts with a capacity of two, but can be upgraded to three or four when your master reaches levels six and eight respectively. This also modifies the amount of space in your hideout.
 * Dismissing a master from your hideout removes any reputation they have on their current level.
 * Talking to a master in your hideout allows you to receive a Crafting Bench that can be placed in your hideout. The bench levels up with the master and has more options with each level. You can still use a crafting bench even after you've dismissed that master from your hideout. Visitors can't use your crafting benches.
 * Vorici allows you to modify an item's sockets and links with his crafting bench.
 * Zana allows you to open end-game Maps at a personal Map Device in your hideout. Mods can be purchased that affect the Map as it is opened.
 * The other five masters allow you to craft an mod onto an item. To craft an item, click on the bench, place an item in the window and select a mod. Mods purchased in this way appear in a slightly different colour than normal. They can be removed by level 8 crafting benches.
 * Note that these mods obey normal rules. You can't have more than three prefixes, three suffixes or six mods in total. You can't craft a mod onto a magic item that has both a prefix and a suffix. It must be upgraded to a rare item with a Regal Orb first.
 * Hideout decorations can be purchased from masters in exchange for favour. Each master has a separate favour total. These decorations appear in your Hideout Stash. You can place them in the world by right clicking on them and clicking somewhere in your hideout. They can then be dragged around, rotated (use the radial slider or R/Shift+R keys) or reclaimed (Delete key). The arrow keys can also be used to move the selected decoration. The mousewheel (or PageUp/PageDown keys) cycles between different variations of the decoration.
 * Forsaken Masters supporter packs include hideout banners. These appear in your microtransaction stash and can also be placed in the world as decorations. When reclaimed, these will go to your microtransaction stash. We will later sell some other cosmetic hideout decorations/environments/tilesets in our microtransaction shop.
 * When the new challenge leagues end, your hideout stashes will be merged with the destination leagues (Rampage with Standard, Beyond with Hardcore). Your favour totals will be added together. The highest reputation value with each master will be used.

Major Features/Content

 * We've added an optional Quest Tracker, which displays your current quest objectives on the right side of the screen. This is also used to display the current objective of the Master Mission you're in at the time.
 * We've added various Tutorials to the start of the game. They're designed to be non-intrusive and can be disabled or reset in the options.
 * Added a new Dexterity skill: : Fire a piercing shot that travels until it reaches the targeted location. It will then fire projectiles out in all directions from that point.
 * Added a new Strength/Intelligence skill: : Channel fire through your hands, adding fire to your physical damage. If you kill an enemy with an attack, other enemies near them will be ignited for the overkill damage.
 * Added a new Dexterity/Intelligence skill: : Channel ice through your hands, adding cold damage to spells and attacks. If you shatter an enemy, they explode and deal cold damage to enemies near them.
 * Added a new Dexterity skill: : A curse that reduces enemy evasion, grants you life and mana when you hit them, increases your flask charge gain and has a chance to grant you a Frenzy Charge when you kill them.
 * Added a new Strength/Intelligence support gem: : Auras linked to Generosity have increased Aura effect for your allies, but do not affect you.
 * Many boss fights (including Brutus and Merveil) have been improved. See the notes below for specific changes.
 * Added 15 new Unique items. Seven of these were designed by supporters.

Minor Features/Content

 * We've added a new Duelist Rogue Exile called Zacharie Desmarais. This exile uses and.
 * We've added a new Marauder Rogue Exile called Vickas Giantbone. This exile uses totems and  as well as  curse and  on Damage Taken.
 * We've added a new Shadow Rogue Exile called Wilorin Demontamer. He uses, and specialises in Critical Strikes.
 * Added PvP Spectator mode. Use the new /spectate (character name) command or right-click someone on your friends list and choose the Spectate option. The specified character must be a mutual friend currently in a PvP area. You must also meet the quest and level requirements for that area yourself. You can use /town to return to your most recent town. You can use the arrow keys to change the perspective of which character you're spectating.
 * We've substantially improved the detail of error messages for various activities. For example, when a currency item fails to apply to another item, it now gives a detailed error message explaining why.
 * We've improved the user interface and moved many commonly used elements to a menu to make feature discovery easier for new players.
 * When respecialising bandit quests, if the use of the book would fail, you now receive an error message explaining why. If it would succeed, you now see a confirmation prompt that explains what will change.
 * Flasks now refill when entering a PvP area, unless you're in a Famine league.
 * The mouseover tooltip for skills now has comma delimitation for thousands of DPS.
 * Chickens have been added to the Forest Encampment.
 * Added an effect for long-duration stuns.
 * Added a new Frenzy effect.
 * 3D art has been added for the following items:, , Alternate Art and.
 * Continued to incrementally improve the sound, art, effects and environments.

Content from the Ambush/Invasion Leagues

 * After the last two challenge leagues ended, we've folded their content into the core Path of Exile experience in the following ways:
 * Strongboxes can now spawn in all leagues, starting from the Submerged Passage in Normal difficulty. The weightings of each Strongbox type has been adjusted with ordinary Strongboxes being much more common than other variants. Mods for these Strongboxes have been adjusted. Cartographer's Boxes now have lower values of some Strongbox mods.
 * The new quiver progression added in Ambush and Invasion has now been introduced to all leagues. The old Standard and Hardcore quivers will no longer drop. The unique will drop on the Fire Arrow Quiver basetype. The unique  will no longer drop.
 * The and  Unique items will no longer drop, as they are homed to the Ambush and Invasion leagues.
 * The Invasion monster pack and guest-monster system has been made standard for the entire game. Early areas have some new monster varieties as a result, and there's more monster diversity in later difficulties.
 * Some Invasion bosses have been reintroduced as regular unique monsters:
 * The Guardian of the Mound has been rebalanced and added to The Prisoner's Gate.
 * Spinesnap has been rebalanced and added to the Slums Sewers.
 * The Revenant has been rebalanced and added to The Docks.
 * Tailsinger has been rebalanced and added to The Riverways.
 * Kall Foxfly has been rebalanced and added to The Blackwood.

General Balance Changes
Corrupted secret areas can no longer spawn in the first area of an act (the one before the town of the act).
 * Player life per level has been increased from 8 to 12.
 * Monster elemental resistances have been reworked. Many of the more common monsters types no longer have resistances in Normal difficulty. Some more challenging monster types will have resistances and Unique monsters will have a large amount of an appropriate resistance. All main questline, Map and corrupted area bosses have elemental and chaos resistance, though at a lower value.
 * All cases of "snapshotting" have been fixed. If you change your items or support gems, then any persistent effects of skills (for example, minions or auras) will update to reflect the changes. You no longer gain benefit from items or gems that are not currently equipped.
 * Shock and Shocked Ground have been changed so that they cause 50% increased damage taken (rather than 30%) but no longer stack. They do not stack with each other either. "Cannot Be Shocked" now prevents players being affected by either Shocked Ground or Shock itself.
 * Higher level maps are now slightly harder than before.
 * Corrupted secret areas offer greater a chance of fragments in later difficulties. The chance of corrupted secret areas spawning has been adjusted.
 * now reduces hit chance by 50% rather than by 75%.
 * Both physical and elemental damage reflection from monster auras have been reduced from 15% to 14% reflection.
 * In 1v1 duels and 3v3 PvP, no longer affects players.
 * The Trap and Mine support gems now have multiplicative damage bonuses that are specific to traps and mines respectively. This means that you can't cast a skill through a trap and a mine for double bonuses. In addition, Trap and Mine damage bonuses now do not benefit minions cast through traps or mines.
 * The support gem is now available for all classes as a quest reward.
 * Totem life increases have been increased to compensate for the fixing of a bug where they applied twice.

General Skill Balance

 * Early quest rewards have been reworked. The Shadow now gets as their first gem, while the Duelist gets . Several other early rewards have been changed and adjusted.
 * The mana cost of all skills has been revised. In general most skills have had their mana costs reduced. Much of the mana cost reduction is focused on skill levels that fall between player levels 20 and 40.
 * Vaal skills can no longer be supported by Trigger Gems.

Skill Reworks

 * : Cast time has been reduced from 1000ms to 800ms. The mana cost has been reduced further than other skills to account for the change in cast time. Its damage has been reduced by 20%. The same change was applied to monster versions of this skill, though to a lesser or no extent if they had a cooldown or mana cost.
 * : This skill now deals 130% of base damage, has 50% converted to fire, and has a fixed ignite chance. It gains increased burning damage and physical damage per level.
 * : We changed the freeze chance to 30% at all levels. We increased the damage of Cold Snap by 50% at all levels.
 * : Life and mana on kill have been added. There's now a chance to gain a power charge when you kill an enemy. This curse has also been renamed to Assassin's Mark.
 * : This skill can no longer be supported by the support gem.
 * : This now deals entirely fire damage. It deals 8% of corpse life as well as flat damage. The damage increase per level has been significantly increased. The base cast time has been decreased from 850ms to 800ms. Quality on this skill now offers substantially less cast speed, from 60% cast speed at 20 quality to 20% cast speed at 20 quality.
 * : The skill's base area has been increased by 17%. The area increase per stack has been reduced from 20% per stack to 15% per stack.
 * : This skill now adds 10% of physical damage as Chaos Damage and has a 50% chance to deal 175% of the attack's damage as chaos damage over seven seconds. The effect duration won't be refreshed by new attacks, but there is no limit to how many Viper Strike debuffs an enemy can have.
 * : This skill now counts as Spell Damage. Damage has been increased by 15%. Its duration has been reduced.
 * : This curse now has Increased Chance to be Stunned and Reduced Enemy Stun Recovery. The life and mana leech are now not specific to physical damage. It now has a lower chance to grant Endurance Charges on enemy death.

Skill Buffs

 * We have increased the critical strike chance of most lightning spells.
 * : Damage has been increased by 30% at all levels.
 * : This skill no longer has a damage effectiveness penalty. When dual wielding it now deals 65% of weapon damage.
 * : We have increased the width of the Flame Surge area of effect.
 * : We have increased its projectile speed. Damage is increased by 50% at level 1 (to 40% at level 20).
 * : The area of effect of each ice section has been increased. This also increases the area of overlaps of sections.
 * : We have increased its damage effectiveness from 125% to 130%.
 * : We have increased the high-level damage of this skill (up to 15% by level 20).
 * : The area and arc size has been increased. Additionally we have added damage effectiveness of 120%.
 * : We have increased the damage by 33% at level one, to +87% at level 20.
 * : This skill now deals more base damage (up from 120% to 130%).
 * s: The penalties this gives to monster life, damage and Energy Shield have been reduced by a flat 10% at all levels.
 * : Raised zombies now have 13% more life.
 * : Spark does 20% more damage at all levels. It now bounces off Frost Walls, regardless of whether they are cast by players or monsters.
 * : Damage effectiveness increased from 75% to 85%.
 * : Summoned Skeletons deal 50% more base damage than they did previously.

Skill Nerfs

 * All curse skills have had their power reduced so that available bonuses for them could be moved into the passive tree. Elemental resistance reduction curses have been further reduced to compensate for reduced monster resistances.
 * : The damage this aura provides has been reduced at higher levels (from no change at level one, to an 18% reduction in damage at level 20).
 * : We have reduced the damage by 15% at all levels.
 * : The cast time of Clarity has been increased to 1.2 seconds to line up with other auras. The mana reservation of clarity has been increased and the mana regeneration rates adjusted.
 * now gains -8% Enemy Resistances at 20% quality, instead of -10% at 20% quality.
 * : In addition to the general curse reduction, the duration of Enfeeble has been reduced.
 * : We have reduced the critical strike chance from 6% to 5%. We have reduced the damage by 15% at all levels.
 * : This skill now has constant attack speed per frenzy charge of 5%, rather than increasing as the gem levels. Its quality bonus has been reduced from 7% attack speed to 4% attack speed per frenzy charge at 20 quality.
 * : No longer reduces the enemy's chance to evade projectile attacks.
 * : Damage at all levels has been reduced by 18%.
 * : We have reduced the damage effectiveness of this skill by a flat 8% at all levels.
 * : The damage done by the summoned Raging Spirits has been reduced at higher levels, up to a 20% reduction in damage at level 20.
 * : In addition to the general curse reduction, Vulnerability no longer affects Energy Shield. The Energy Shield Recharge Delay Increase and Energy Shield Recharge Rate Reduction stats have been removed. In addition, the Increased Chance to be Stunned and Reduced Enemy Stun Recovery stats have been removed as well. Vulnerability now only increases physical damage and degeneration damage.
 * : We have reduced its damage at higher levels, from no change at level one to a 24% reduction in damage at level 20.

Support Gem Balance

 * : The mana multiplier has been reduced from 150% to 140%.
 * : The mana multiplier has been reduced from 140% to 130%.
 * : The mana multiplier has been reduced from 130% to 120%.
 * : The mana multiplier has been reduced from 140% to 130%.
 * : The amount of penetration has been reduced by a flat 10% at all levels.
 * : This gem now converts 50% for cold damage to fire damage at all levels, and also adds a percentage of cold damage as fire damage, starting at 10% at level one.
 * : This trigger gem now has a 100% chance to cast socketed curses. It has 10% reduced curse effect at level 1, up to 9% increased curse effect at level 20 of the gem. The quality bonus has remained the same.
 * : The chance to cast has been reduced by a flat 20% at all levels.
 * : The mana multiplier has been reduced from 200% to 175%.
 * : The mana multiplier has been reduced from 125% to 115%.
 * : The mana multiplier has been reduced from 150% to 140%.
 * : The mana multiplier has been reduced from 200% to 165%

Passive Skill Tree Balance

 * The Witch and Shadow passive tree starting area has been redesigned. The area surrounding the Witch, Shadow and Ranger has been redesigned. Many clusters throughout the tree now have new notables. Many values have been adjusted.
 * There are now large Fire, Cold, Lightning, Wand, Dagger, Trap/Mine, Claw, Bow, Sword and Dual Wield clusters that have higher values than found in the rest of the tree.
 * Percentage-based life increases have been reduced slightly and redistributed more evenly through the tree. Players receive more life per level now to compensate.
 * There are now two Life and Energy Shield clusters.
 * Increased Maximum Elemental Resistances have been removed and element specific bonuses are now available in smaller values on three specific defensive notables.
 * Mortal Conviction has been changed to 60% less mana reservation (from 40% less).
 * Curse Effect, Cast Speed, Curse Duration and Curse Area of Effect are now available in the tree. The Whispers of Doom keystone has been changed into a notable. Hex Master has changed to be 100% increased Curse Duration and is now a notable. There is a new Curse Effect notable called Skittering Runes.
 * Aura Reservation Costs and Aura Effect bonuses have been reduced across the tree. A new Aura notable called Champion of the Cause has been added.
 * Some special stats have been added to a few select notables. More similar stats will be coming in future patches.

Item Balance

 * All bows have had their base damage increased by 11%. This affects ones that already existed including Unique items.
 * The first two tiers of weapons (with bows it's the first and third tiers) now have higher attack speeds and lower damage to compensate.
 * The second tier of bows has a lower attack speed and increased damage to compensate.
 * The and  have been given the same Increased Critical Strike Chance implicit mod as the.
 * The and  have been given the same Weapon Elemental Damage implicit mod as the.
 * New tiers of life and mana flasks (Divine and Eternal) have been added at levels 65 and 70.
 * Mid to higher tiers of life flasks have been buffed substantially.
 * The life portion of hybrid flasks has been buffed.
 * The mod on flasks now only increases life recovered by 40% (down from 60%).

Unique Item Balance

 * The rarity tiers of many uniques have been changed. Notably, two of the experience gain items have been made much more rare. The two "additional curse" items have been made rarer.
 * The rarities of uniques dropped by the uber version of Atziri has changed. is now the rarest drop from her.
 * has had its Increased Physical Damage increased from 75-100% to 150-180% and its attack speed increased to 10-14%, from 5%. Rerolling values using a Divine Orb on this item will also update your item.
 * now only applies increased and reduced spell damage to attack damage. Multiplicative damage bonuses are not converted. This affects existing version of the item.
 * now grants 60-80 flat energy shield. Existing versions of the item will change to a value in the new range if a Divine Orb is used on it.
 * now has Additional Physical Damage of 6-10 to 10-14 damage. This mod cannot be caused to spawn on past versions of the item.
 * now grants 18% increased Aura Effect, instead of 18% increased damage taken. Old copies of the item have been automatically updated.
 * now has Additional Physical Damage of 25-35 to 36-45 damage. This mod cannot be caused to spawn on past versions of the item.
 * now grants 2000 life to Zombies, up from 500. Rerolling values using a Divine Orb on this item will update your item.
 * now gives "You cannot be Shocked for 3 seconds after being Shocked", up from 1 second. Old versions of the item can be rolled to the new value with a Divine Orb.
 * : Energy Shield Regeneration has been reduced from 4% to 3% per second. Existing versions of the ring will only be updated if a Divine Orb is used on them.
 * now has +50% totem life. This has been increased as the result of fixing a bug with totem life - the change won't affect the power of the item. Existing versions of the item will have the smaller value, which will have less impact on totem life than it previously did. Older versions can be updated with a Divine Orb.

Specific Monster Balance

 * Gneiss has been reworked. He now has a new skill where he slams the ground, dealing area of effect damage and summoning miniature minions out of the rubble to assist him.
 * The Deep Dweller has been reworked. He now has two new skills - in his first form he can disturb the ground, calling Sand Spitters to emerge and assist him. He also has an additional skill in his second form where he will fire a spray of projectiles at enemies. He no longer has the slowing aura.
 * Fairgraves has been reworked. He now has his own version of and.
 * The Brutus and Merveil boss fights have been redesigned. These changes also affect their end-game Map equivalents. One of the Merveil encounters now only includes the first stage of the fight. All Map versions of these fights have enhanced versions of some of their skills.
 * Brutus' hook now only pulls the target that he was aiming at.
 * General Gravicius in Descent: Champions and the corrupted side area boss The Sunburst Queen have been given a new skill to replace their Incinerate Novas. This skill will repeatedly pulse out fire damage waves that increase in damage with every additional cast.
 * Hatebeat in The Crematorium now uses.
 * The water elementals summoned by The Goddess of Purity in Solaris Temple Level 2 or by Asphyxia in the Reef and Waste Pool Maps now cast when they are killed.
 * The Vessel of the Vaal's skill now ticks much more frequently and does slightly less damage. This brings it in line with other Ball Lightning skills.
 * The Weaver's life has been increased, following changes to her resistances.
 * Chatters in the Lower Prison will now trigger a cold version of when he hits you. His  can no longer freeze you on Normal Difficulty.

Bug Fixes

 * Improved preloading of game assets to remove some small stutters during gameplay.
 * Fixed a bug where players could not be selected in towns until they move for the first time.
 * Fixed a bug where holding an amulet from one bandit leader would prevent you from doing other bandit quests.
 * Improved the mana reservation system so that multiple percentage reservations don't round separately. This means that a 60% aura can now never prevent a 40% aura from being reserved.
 * Fixed a bug related to trade where the user interface could become unresponsive.
 * Fixed a bug where prevented  supporting a spell.
 * Fixed a bug where totem life bonuses counted twice.
 * If an is unsummoned and resummoned when not on full life, it will now return with the same amount of life it had before.
 * Fixed a rare bug that could cause the game server to freeze when corrupting an item.
 * Fixed a bug where the three attribute totals on the Passive Skill Screen would not scale correctly when zooming in or out.
 * Discharge now only deals damage if you had charges.
 * Fixed a bug where you couldn't log into another account after clicking Cancel on the unlock code window.
 * Fixed a bug where players could exceed their maximum Zombie counts with.
 * Fixed a bug where auras could affect hidden monsters.
 * Fixed a bug where did not benefit from Increased Item Rarity or Increased Item Quantity.
 * Fixed a bug where would not transition between areas if you didn't have enough mana to cast the skill again at the time you transitioned.
 * Fixed a bug where life and energy shield bars rounded to the nearest whole percentage.
 * Fixed bugs with positioning of small life bars.
 * Fixed a bug where buff counts over 99 did not display correctly.
 * Fixed problems that could lead to monsters spawning too close to waypoints in the Docks, Barracks and Gardens.
 * Fixed a bug with and mitigated physical damage reflection.
 * Fixed the Barracks tents that didn't cast shadows.
 * Fixed a bug where Rogue Exiles and Invaders could spawn in inaccessible rooms.
 * Fixed a bug where all of a minion's skills were treated as having been trapped if the minion came from a trap.
 * Fixed a bug where Unique monsters in a pack would not spawn when the pack contained a rare monster.
 * Fixed a bug where Goatman Shamans with auras didn't cast Molten Shell.
 * Made webcam streaming (from in the client) more efficient.

It looks like the following note was missed in the preparation of the patch notes:
 * Quality on armour is now additive with other bonuses. Previously armour quality was multiplicative with final values. This is now consistent with how weapons work.

These are the official patch notes for a server-side hotfix released following the launch of version 1.2.0.

Launch Day Serverside Hotfix
The following changes will apply automatically to new areas you enter. You don't need to restart your client.
 * Improved Merveil’s AI.
 * Fixed a crash related to Vagan in hideouts.
 * Fixed a crash related to Elreon missions.
 * Fixed the ability to craft an invalid item.
 * Fixed numerous small problems with masters and their missions.