Path of Exile is known for being complex. Especially casuals quickly lose track. On March 29, the new league “Necropolis” starts with a feature that helps beginners understand the game. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus spoke with the director about it.
What kind of league is this?
- Leagues in Path of Exile are the equivalent of Seasons. You start a new character and then get new, special mechanics that are available for the duration of the league.
- The next league is “Necropolis.” Here you help a quirky grave digger clean a haunted house.
- Necropolis starts on March 29, for the first time simultaneously on PC, Mac, Xbox, and PlayStation.
This is what makes the Necropolis league special: The league’s season mechanic is a lantern that the grave digger hands to you. This lantern has several functions when you play the league content:
- You see what enemies await you in the next map
- You can assign “Hauntings,” which strengthen enemies, to one of the enemy types
- You can assign “Devotions,” which improve enemy loot, to an enemy type
The Hauntings and Devotions are interesting for all players. You can use them to determine how difficult the content will be. Particularly useful for newcomers is that all information about the enemies is stored in the lantern.
You can directly see how many enemies of a type will appear, what kind of damage they do, whether they appear alone or in groups, and whether they have special abilities. This way, you won’t be surprised when unknown enemies suddenly charge at you.
In addition to this, there is a new crafting system. Bosses leave corpses that the grave digger collects. In about 100 graves, you can then bury these corpses and create a new item. Each corpse gives a bonus in crafting, such as increased stats or guaranteed properties.
Necropolis is “not an overly complicated league”
Mark Roberts, the Game Director of Path of Exile, answered a few questions about the new league. As I have repeatedly struggled to navigate the complexity of the game myself, he suggested about Necropolis:
If you want to compete with someone who has 10 years more experience than you, you will have a hard time. If you just want to jump in and have a good time, then just do that […] Necropolis introduces a few things that make it easier for you to learn what monsters do. It’s not an overly complicated league.
Mark Roberts, Game Director of Path of Exile
Especially the ability to adjust the difficulty yourself is a good point. Even if you get stuck, you can simply reset the area, advises Roberts.
The best way to start is simply to begin: “Choose the character that sounds the coolest, take a few skills with you, and play [how you want] or follow a build.” If you don’t like an aspect of the game, you can simply ignore it and focus on other things.
In addition to the new aspects of the league, Path of Exile is getting some updates to existing systems that will partially streamline the complex skill trees. While many new aspects are being added, the existing ones are intended to become clearer and existing content more accessible. So if you want to familiarize yourself with Path of Exile before the second part is released, now is the best time to do so – especially since the beta has been postponed anyway: Path of Exile 2 postpones the beta, but is promised to be in “release quality,” says the director
