Version 2.4.0

Version History
← 2.3.4c August 28, 2016	2.4.0 September 2, 2016	2.4.0b → September 5, 2016

Version 2.4.0 introduces the Atlas of Worlds expansion, which adds new content and features as well as vast changes to the existing game.

Patch notes

These are the official patch notes for version 2.4.0 released by Grinding Gear Games.

The Atlas of Worlds

• The Atlas of Worlds lets you track your progression through Path of Exile's map endgame. You can also use it to upgrade maps and add mods to the Atlas. It indicates which maps are connected to each other.
• The map drop rules have been changed so that connected maps and maps you've previously completed can drop from the area you're playing. As you progress towards the center of the Atlas from the four corners, the tier of maps increases.
• There are four tier 16 maps that contain the Guardians of the Void. As you defeat them, you'll earn fragments of a key that allows you to challenge the Shaper himself.
• As you complete more types of maps, you unlock a cumulative map tier bonus that is displayed on the Atlas.
• You can upgrade white or yellow maps by five tiers using a Shaper's Orb, which can be earned by completing bonus objectives on specific maps.
• You can add temporary mods to the Atlas itself using Cartographer's Sextants.
• Your progress, upgrades and mods on the Atlas of Worlds are shared between all characters on your account in that league.
• We've added thirty new maps and dozens of new map bosses.
• There are thirteen new base item types that can be only be found in specific areas of the Atlas.
• Most existing maps have been revamped to have more balanced monster composition, layouts, boss fights and rewards.
• You can trade 20 and 5 to a vendor for an item that allows you to respec the Shaping of a map.
• You can trade 5 Cartographer's Sextants (of a specific colour) to a vendor for an item that allows you to respec the completion of a map of that colour.
• You can find out more detailed information about how the Atlas works here: poeforum:1714099

The Essence Challenge Leagues

Challenge leagues are a great opportunity for a fresh start in a new economy. All of your old characters and items are still present in the Standard and Hardcore leagues, but you're encouraged to join the new leagues, complete challenges and demonstrate your mastery of Path of Exile!

• With 2.4.0, there are Standard and Hardcore variations of the Essence challenge league available. They have the same core mechanics and items.
• In the Essence league, you'll occasionally encounter groups of monsters trapped by mysterious essences. Each type of essence imbues the monsters with different powers, which you'll have to face upon freeing the monsters from their prison. If you are strong enough to defeat these foes, you can claim an essence for yourself.
• These items aren't just a trophy - their effect is similar to that of the . Using one on a normal item will upgrade it to a rare item but with one predecided property. Each of the 25 essences types guarantees a different power, some of which have never been possible on items before.
• The top two essences of each type also act like a .
• While it's tempting to use your essences to craft items, you can also upgrade your spare essences to their next power level by combining a group of three identical ones at the vendor. The 25 types of essences have between three and seven tiers of power level depending on when they occur in the game.
• One special type of essence called the isn't used on items, but on the trapped monsters themselves. Its Vaal influence can create many possible outcomes, including special types of essences that can't be created any other way.
• Each additional player in your party adds a chance for an additional random essence to drop when the monster is killed.
• Essences ignore master metamods when crafting items.
• The new challenge leagues include a set of 40 new challenges. When you complete 12 challenges, you receive the Essence Footprints Effect. At 24, you receive the Essence Back Attachment. When you complete your 36th challenge, you receive the Essence Portal Effect. These microtransactions are only obtainable in this league.
• From the 19th challenge onwards and for every third challenge after that, you receive pieces of the Essence Totem Pole decoration to display in your hideout. The Totem Pole permanently showcases how many of the Essence challenges you completed during the league.

Engine Multithreading

• This patch introduces the new multithreaded engine features that should significantly improve game performance for most users. They were previously an opt-in beta test.
• To disable this feature, change "Engine Multithreading" in the Graphics Options to "Disabled". It is automatically disabled if your CPU has less than four hardware cores.
• Frame rate increases are most significant when there are a lot of entities in the scene. This means situations with large amounts of combat should have much more stable frame rates. Do not expect significant increases in frame rate in non-combat situations.
• If you are GPU-bound, you shouldn't expect significant increases in frame rate.

Other Technical Improvements

• The particle effects system has been optimised, especially for CPUs with AVX capabilities. Particle simulation is now up to four times faster if you're using a modern CPU. This can translate to double frame rate in high-particle situations such as Burning Ground.
• We've added new texture compression which will improve loading speed and download size.
• More assets have been added to the preloading system to prevent micro-stutters.
• Reduced memory usage (and hence background loading times) by a further 300mb.

Major New Features/Content

• Added 22 new Unique items, including nine designed by supporters of Path of Exile. Eight of these new uniques can only drop from the Guardians of the Void, and four can only drop from the Shaper himself.
• Added four new Divination Cards, including one designed by our Russian Path of Exile community.
• Added a new type of Strongbox: Diviner's Strongbox.
• Updated the with about a dozen additional Grandmasters and some replacements.

Minor New Features/Content

• Friends and guild members now display the last time they were online, so that you can more easily manage your friends list and guild roster.
• Medium-size hideouts can now hold four Forsaken Masters rather than three. Large-size hideouts can now hold seven Forsaken Masters rather than four. Navali and Leo both bypass these limits.
• The party user interface now shows what area your party members are in if they're not in the current area. Players who have recently disconnected are shown greyed out for a few seconds so that you can see that it occurred.
• Added 3d art for , , and the Alternate Art .
• The "Create" button is now disabled on the character selection screen if you have no available character slots. This prevents the situation where you only find out after attempting to name a character.
• Currency Stash Tabs now have dedicated slots for and Cartographer's Sextants.
• Flask buff icons have been remade in a consistent way.
• The spirit standing next to Haku now flies upwards when you complete the mission and get your reward.
• The "Intruders in Black" quest in Cruel now also offers a as a reward. "Mercy Mission" in Cruel now also offers and as rewards. "Mercy Mission" in Merciless now also offers , and as rewards.
• The now sometimes rolls when it moves.
• Zana, Master Cartographer has a new voice actor.
• Forsaken Masters that point to their objective now also have an arrow on the ground in that direction.
• You now automatically receive the next waypoint when you kill the Vaal Oversoul (like other act bosses).
• Significantly improved the Alien Grass in the Belly of the Beast.
• no longer causes you to drop Haku's spirit.
• Added some additional dialogue to Maramoa.
• Renamed the Labyrinth item "Orb of Elemental Essence" to "" to avoid confusion.
• Cut-throat leagues now have their own league flag art.
• Descriptions of damage ranges have been changed from "x-y" to "x to y" so that it's more clear when examining the ranges of mods that an Essence can add.
• Emerging spiders now emerge more quickly.
• Continued to incrementally improve the sound, art, effects and environments.

Channelled Skill System

• Added a channelled skill system. , and are now channelled skills.
• Unlike other skills, which are used once and quickly finish, when you use a channelled skill, it doesn't finish until you release the relevant button/key. You continue performing the same skill.
• You need to pay mana repeatedly to keep the skill going. The channelled skill's mana cost must be paid again to maintain it with a frequency determined by the cast time. If you can't pay, the skill will end, just as if you'd lifted the button.
• Dying, being stunned, and other game mechanics that interrupt the use of skills will cause channelling to end as well.
• Effects which trigger when you use a skill will only trigger when you initially start channelling - regardless of how long you maintain a channelled skill, it's still the same use of the skill. You need to stop channelling if you want to use it again.

Prophecy Changes

• The Prophecy system (previously a challenge league) has been added to the core game. You can now find and rescue Navali in The Climb.
• Navali can now be invited to your hideout and she doesn't consume a slot that would be used by a Forsaken Master.
• When seeking Prophecies from Navali in your hideout, the difficulty used is now the latest difficulty in which your character has ever accessed the Twilight Strand.
• now drop less often than before, as Prophecy is not the main league mechanic now.
• The sealing cost for most Prophecies has been slightly reduced.
• The highest level that some Prophecies can spawn at has been reduced.
• The Normal difficulty version of prophecy has been made easier.
• Reduced the maximum level for some Prophecies that require you to hunt for certain rare monsters.

Immunity Improvements

• Immunity to debuffs has been reworked to be consistent. In all cases where a player gains immunity to a debuff, they now also have that debuff removed (as opposed to just not allowing further application).
• "Cannot be" stats do not work as immunity. For example, prevents you being shocked, but does not remove shock.
• In most cases, this change will not change how existing game elements behave. However some game elements have been reworded to clarify how they work.

Triggered Skill Improvements

Since we introduced trigger gems, players have been able to trigger their skills faster and faster with each update. The performance and gameplay consequences of this extreme skill spam have finally justified a redesign of how some trigger gems work.

• For , , and , only one skill can be triggered per trigger event. The damage of Cast on Critical Strike and Cast on Melee Kill has been increased, as described in "Active Skill Gem Balance" below.
• The spell that is triggered is determined based on the order in which it is socketed, and will cast supported spells in sequence, even across multiple attacks. These items and skills also have cooldowns which limit how often a skill is cast.
• These cooldowns apply per-triggered-skill, rather than applying to the trigger gem itself.
• All unique items that trigger skills, now and going forward, follow the rule that if a skill is triggered, it can only be used by that trigger and cannot be directly cast by the player as well.
• Previously, only the trigger support gems limited the use of the triggered skills this way, while skills triggered by unique item properties could be self-cast.
• will not be affected by the Cast on Crit changes and will still trigger all minion spells on kill.

Active Skill Gem Balance

• created by you or your allies are now no longer considered enemies for the purposes of projectile collision detection (your projectiles will not collide with your own Frost Wall). This intentionally fixes the exploit case where a player stacks many Frost Walls around a boss and uses a skill like Piercing to trigger an excessive amount of hits.
• now has a 500ms cooldown, and will now only trigger one spell per frame when you critically strike. It now has 100% chance to trigger casts when you critically strike. It now has 20% more spell damage at level 1, tapered up to 39% at level 20 (1% per level). Note that the changes described above in "Triggered Skill Improvements" affect Cast on Critical Strike - spells are chosen in the order of their sockets.
• now has a 250ms cooldown. Cast on Melee Kill's increases to spell damage have been replaced with 20% more spell damage at level 1, up to 39% at level 20 (1% per level).
• Many skills have had their damage increased. The increases start out low at lower levels and taper upwards. Here are the increases at gem level 20:
  • : 50% more damage.
  • : 70% more damage.
  • : 35% more damage.
  • : 19% more damage.
  • : 15% more damage.
  • : 15% more damage.
  • : 9% more damage.
  • : 11% more damage.
  • : 13% more damage.
  • : 5% more damage.
  • : 6% more damage.
  • : 6% more attack damage (not minion damage).
  • : 15% more damage.
  • : 9% more damage.
  • : 19% more damage. It now also gains 1% increased area of effect per level.
  • : 16% more damage.
  • : 12% more damage. Reave's base area of effect has been increased by 21%. Its per-stage area of effect has been reduced from 30% to 20%. It still has the same area of effect at the fourth stage.
• 's area of effect has been updated to match changes to Reave.
• 's 30% Less Attack Speed drawback has been reduced to 25% Less Attack Speed. This is a buff.
• 's attack speed penalty is now 20% less (down from 25% less). Its secondary stage damage penalty is now 15% less (down from 20% less). Its third stage damage penalty is now 30% less (down from 40% less). This is a buff.
• now gains 1% increased area of effect per level.
• 's aftershock damage has been reduced from 60% more (at level 1, tapered upwards) to 50% more at all Levels. Its mana cost has been increased from 6 to 10. Its aftershock area of effect has been reduced by 12%. With the wide-ranging melee buffs and adjustment to Earthquake, we expect to see a much more balanced use of melee skills.
• now has a stack limit of 20 (down from 50). It now deals 63% more damage at level 20. The number of hits per second causes substantial performance problems. The skill was also deemed too strong against bosses.
• can now be affected by projectile speed modifications.
• now deals 35% less damage when triggered.
• now causes an explosion when it prevents any physical damage, rather than when it takes any hit.
• The trap/mine behaviour of has been made more consistent with other traps/mines. The blades fall from the mine itself, not targeting the location where the monster is. (They will fall in the direction of the monster though).
• PvP T-values have been set for , and .

Support Gem Balance

• now only has 35% Less Damage to Other Targets at level 1 (down from 50% Less). It now has 26% less at level 20 (from 31%). This is a buff.
• The damage bonus of the support gem has been reduced. At level 1, it has been reduced from 20% to 10%. At level 20, it has been reduced from 29% to 19%. Given the strong utility of this gem, it doesn't need a damage bonus that high.
• 's mana multiplier has been increased from 110% to 130%. Its damage at high levels only has been reduced. Its damage at level 20 has been reduced from +29% to +19%. Given the strong utility of this gem, it doesn't need a damage bonus that high.
• now also triggers when blocking a hit that would stun.
• 's damage modifier no longer affects damage over time.
• 's damage modifier no longer affects damage over time.

Unique Item Balance

• : The damage of the spectral summoned wolves has been increased by 50%. Their life has been increased by 66%. You know you want to.
• The following changes do not affect existing versions of these items, unless you use a to reroll them.
• : Its added damage has been lowered from (25-40 to 100-115) to (15-30 to 70-95). Its local increased physical damage has been reduced from (50%-70%) to (40%-50%). Given the large number of additional projectiles this bow provides, it doesn't need the incredibly large damage bonus. It essentially has a built-in GMP which you could use a damage support in place of.
• : Its Chance on Melee Hit to Bleed has been lowered from 100% to (30% to 50%). Its Chance to Poison on Melee Hit has been lowered from 100% to (20% to 40%). We feel that this ring provided too much of a damage bonus for one non-weapon item slot.
• : Its chance to cast socketed lightning skills on hit has been increased from 30% to 100%. Use a if you want your legacy one to change.

Ascendancy Skill Balance Changes

• Unrelenting now has a 25% chance to gain maximum charges on generating an endurance charge (rather than 100%). While we do want the Juggernaut to be effective at generating endurance charges, this made it far too easy and low-effort. It's still very good.
• Headsman now grants 15% increased area of effect if you have killed an enemy recently (down from 20%).
• Impact now grants 10% increased area of effect (down from 15%). These two skills are still the best way to get area of effect for Duelists.
• Shaper of Desolation now grants different Confluxes over a fourteen-second cycle: Chilling Conflux for four seconds, Shocking Conflux for four seconds, Igniting Conflux for four seconds and then all three together for two second. Each Conflux means that any damage causes that Status Ailment. Elemental Conflux was too powerful. The new version requires more strategy (and doesn't need a kill to get started).
• Inevitable Judgement no longer works against other players.

Monster Balance Changes

• Monster life has been increased in tier 4-12 maps.
• The Life Regeneration mod (and aura) for rare monsters can no longer appear until level 8, to prevent unkillable monsters early where you don't have the tools to deal with their high life regeneration
• The Allies Cannot Die aura and the Allies Deal Substantial Extra Physical Damage auras now first appear at level 12 and 8 respectively.
• The Allies have Energy Shield aura now first appears at level 12.
• Bosses that had a reduced effect of curses on them now have a multiplier rather than a reduction. Over time, more and more curse effect has been made available to players. With the boss curse effect reduction being additive, the increased curse effect available to players overwhelmed it. and arguably still trivialise most bosses.

Other Balance Changes

• Players at very high levels (95 and higher) now incur an additional experience penalty equal to 1 - ( 1 / ( 1 + 0.1 * ( level - 94 ) ) ). For example, a level 96 player receives 16.67% less experience than before.
• Tier 1 maps now drop from level 58 onwards in Merciless.
• Poison now deals 8% of Physical and Chaos damage as Chaos Damage for 2 seconds (down from 10%). While we have future plans to fix Poison (addressing double dipping), this nerf brings it slightly more in line until we can make those changes.
• Labyrinth Item Enchantments for Duration have been weakened. In Merciless, the duration is 20% lower (rather than 30%). In the Endgame Labyrinth, the duration is 30% lower (rather than 45%). Nearly-instant Storm Calls were a problem. It has its delay for a reason. There are still legacy versions of this Enchantment.
• The extra map drop chance that occurs at the map boss is now on the final map boss you kill, rather than the first one.
• The cost for Vorici to guarantee three specific colours of sockets has been reduced to 120 .
• The chance of finding a Unique Strongbox has been doubled again.
• Tormented Spirits can now only touch up to 50 monsters each. The technical issues caused by "vacuum farming" are causing too many problems for us and we have unfortunately had to disable this playstyle. This will improve server performance for everyone.
• Tormented Spirits can no longer possess Vagan, because sometimes he cannot die.

Zana League Mods Available During 2.4.0

• There's now explanatory hover text on the map mods that Zana offers, so that you can see this data in the game client.
• Level 2: Invasion (Cost: 2 Chaos Orbs, +20% IIQ, adds one Invasion Boss/Pack)
• Level 3: Beyond (Cost: 3 Chaos Orbs, +20% IIQ, Beyond)
• Level 4: Anarchy (Cost: 3 Chaos Orbs, +20% IIQ, adds three Rogue Exiles)
• Level 5: Torment (Cost: 3 Chaos Orbs, +20% IIQ, adds three Tormented Spirits)
• Level 6: Perandus (Cost: 4 Chaos Orbs, adds three Perandus Chests, chance for Cadiro to spawn)
• Level 7: Domination (Cost: 4 Chaos Orbs, adds three Shrines)
• Level 8: Ambush (Cost: 4 Chaos Orbs, adds three Strongboxes)

One-time Passive Skill Reset

• Due to balance changes, every existing character has been granted an optional full passive skill reset.
• This process will also reset your allocated Ascendancy points.
• To perform this operation, 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.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where the Headsman Ascendancy skill prevented from awarding players with the correct number of charges.
• Fixed a bug that could occur if players managed to get -100% increased cast speed.
• Fixed a bug related to returning projectiles. They can now hit on the way out and on the way back but can't shotgun (where more than one hit the same target) in either direction.
• Fixed a bug related to how visually fades away.
• Strongboxes that explode corpses now do so in a wave that emanates outwards from the Strongbox, rather than using . This prevents some negative situations that would previously occur.
• Fixed various problems accessing the Sarn Arena.
• Fixed a bug where the Tora mission that involves the Infested Beast would complete too early.
• Fixed a bug where Izaro couldn't be cursed by the same types of curses that his pylons could apply to him as an aura.
• Fixed a bug where Zana's Tempest mod would sometimes not actually generate a Tempest.
• Fixed a bug where having "Local Life Leech is Instant" on a weapon would also make mana leech instant with that weapon.
• Fixed a bug where the Pathfinder's "Flasks gain a Charge every 3 seconds" skill would cancel your attempt to reclaim a microtransaction every 3 seconds.
• Fixed a bug where the player light sometimes wouldn't be shown (in favour of a much dimmer arbitrary environmental light).
• Fixed a problem where Elreon's missions could fail to spawn in some areas.
• Fixed a problem that would cause the ocean water to stutter on AMD graphics cards.
• Fixed the attack speed calculation for when dual wielding.
• Fixed a bug where you couldn't swap Sealed Prophecies around by clicking one onto the other.
• Fixed a bug where would do nothing if the target location was obstructed.
• Fixed a bug where the spinning active aura indicator would either stand still or only spin slowly when at extremely high frame rates.
• Fixed a bug where a would sometimes not disappear when its owner dies.
• Fixed a case where players with slow load times could fail Zana's limited portals mission during the load screen while in a party.
• The storms summoned by the Bloodlines mod Herald of the Obelisk now visually resume playing correctly if you go away and come back.
• Fixed an issue where some traps (specifically Rigwald's ones) would always spawn on top of each other.
• Fixed a client crash that could occur in predictive mode related to Molten Shell.
• Fixed a bug where would persist even after the Spell Totem support gem was removed.
• Fixed a bug where Lacerate could hit with invalid weapon types if they're equipped in the off-hand.
• Fixed two instance crashes.
• Fixed a bug where multiple Offering Wards could be present at once.
• Fixed a bug where Tormented Spirits could still drop items when they expire or when they possess monsters (without being directly killed).
• Fixed a client crash that could occur when rapidly socketing/unsocketing a triggered skill at the moment it is being triggered.
• Fixed a bug where swapping out certain support gems would not update 's visual effects.
• Fixed a bug where completing multiple instances of the same cumulative challenge very close together would not count them correctly.
• Fixed a bug where you could gain permanent Blade Vortex stacks if you had superhuman timing. Or a macro.
• Fixed a client crash that could occur with Dominus' chilling bond totems.
• Fixed a bug where the "" Prophecy triggered on chests when it states that it only triggers on monsters.
• Fixed a bug where you could only have one Frenzy Charge generated from at a time.
• Fixed a bug where minimap quest icons would reappear when they shouldn't.
• Fixed a bug where the Dweller of the Deep would leave a phantom glow effect behind after its first form died.
• Fixed a bug where Tora could spawn blocked away from the player in the Crematorium.
• Fixed a bug where Voll would drop a while still having one visually attached to his body. Now his copy is hidden. The illusion is complete.
• Fixed a bug where some Grandmasters did not use correctly.
• Fixed a bug where 's global critical strike mod applied like a local one (effectively granting an 80% multiplicative crit increase).
• Fixed a bug where the effect of Blade Vortex would not play correctly if you didn't see it being cast.
• Fixed a bug where the Bone Roil effect from would be invisible if you returned to the area after it was cast.
• Fixed a bug where the tracking of several internal states (mostly related to Ascendancies) were incorrectly counted as additional buffs on the player for effects which count or increase buffs.

The following hotfixes were deployed after the 2.4.0 patch:

• Fixed a client crash when unusable skills were used on left click.
• Fixed a bug where the "Kill these Cruel Rares" challenge could be completed in normal difficulty.
• Fixed a bug where older versions of the Plateau map (pre 2.4) had the wrong boss. This was causing a problem where the exit wouldn't enable after the boss was killed.
• Fixed a bug where minions created by some triggers would not do anything on the client.
• Fixed a bug where Blackguard Soldiers could move out of Essence crystals when Blackguard Mages ordered them to.

• Fixed a bug where the recipe would give you an old version of the map.
• Fixed an issue where the Endgame Labyrinth entrance portal was consumed.
• Fixed a crash in the Minotaur arena.
• Fixed an occasional crash in The Belly of the Beast.
• Fixed a crash when old unique maps were completed.
• Fixed an issue where some uniques with "Cannot gain bleeding" would not prevent corrupting blood.
• Fixed a crash with old versions of the Pier map (pre 2.4).