In Path of Exile: Siege of the Atlas, we're making a number of balance changes and have prepared this information for you to preview ahead of our official announcement livestream at the end of this week. The full details of these changes will be available in the patch notes and are still subject to change but this post should outline our perceived problems with current balance and our intentions for their solutions.
In general, we're focusing on two particular archetypes that we feel were the least competitive with other builds during Scourge. These are handcast spell builds and hit-focused bow builds.
Hit based Spellcasting
Problem:
Most hit-based Spellcasting builds deal too little damage and have too few defensive and mobility options when compared with alternatives like Traps, Totems, Mines, Triggered Skills or Damage over Time.
Solutions:
Adjust the hit damage growth of most spells. The majority of spells gained around 45% more damage at gem level 20, resulting in up to 60% more damage by gem level 25. Some spells have received smaller adjustments or no adjustment. These less affected spells are generally those that provide more mobility or supplemental damage through duration mechanics.
Allow casters to obtain more cast speed through the Runic Dagger mod pool, increase some cast speed values and give rings and amulets additional tiers of cast speed modifiers.
Improve many skills that rely heavily on unique Threshold Jewels to enhance their damage and remove or change these jewels. For many such skills, this means granting more damage in exchange for efficient sources of extra projectiles. This includes skills like Freezing Pulse, Frostbolt, Heavy Strike and Cleave. For damage-focused spells, the result of these changes means that their damage has increased on top of the damage multiplier noted above.
Lower the power of the Unleash Support. Because it is the single most impactful support for the kind of build that benefits from the aforementioned buffs, it creates limited options for these builds by feeling like the only option. With these builds otherwise being buffed, there should be more build options available than before.
我们砍了一刀“释出”辅助技能，因为它太强了。（后面一段话都是解释这个技能怎么强）
Lower the damage from Totem, Trap, Mine and Trigger effects to balance out the buff to these spells. The intention is that in general, these builds should deal the same damage at high levels as they did previously. While at face value these changes will look like nerfs, for the most part they shouldn't be due to the buffs to spells. However, we do acknowledge there will be a small number of builds that will be negatively affected by these changes. Additionally, because we've adjusted some support gems that multiply the number of traps thrown, we've provided some compensation for this on non-cooldown trap skills like Fire Trap and Lightning Trap.
Lower the damage of player Ignite by 28% to partially offset the damage increase that many Ignite-applying spells have received. For the majority of high level spell gems, this is a slight damage buff when combined with the above changes. Burning Arrow, Armageddon Brand, Explosive Arrow and several other skills have received changes to compensate for the lower damage of Ignite. Attack skills and a small number of spells that are not typically aligned with Ignites will have weaker Ignites as a result of this change. We plan to introduce a mechanic for Ignite damage with melee attack skills to give some unconventional Ignite builds a new option for enhancing Ignites. Details about this will be included in the patch notes.
Hit-based Bow Attacks
Problem:
Hit-based bow attacks require an unreasonable amount of investment to reach competitive levels of damage. Builds that want to achieve this must utilise critical strikes and many skills can't sufficiently invest in this mechanic without sacrificing defensive options.
Solutions:
Give bows the same local added elemental damage modifiers as two handed melee weapons do, which are much stronger than the bow-specific modifiers used previously.
Improve the damage of bows in general, with some base types getting up to 50% more base damage than before.
Improve the Mastery options on Bow Passive clusters.
Make a number of improvements to quivers so that bows can receive much more damage from rare quivers:
We have reworked the quiver progression with new quiver types that provide a diverse set of useful implicits.
We have greatly improve Added Physical Damage modifiers on quivers.
We have replaced "Elemental Damage with Attack Skills" modifiers on quivers with "Increased Damage with Bow Skills" to allow quivers to roll another way to improve skills dealing Physical or Chaos damage.
We have taken the +1 Arrow prefix off influenced quiver modifiers and added it to the core modifier pool of quivers as a suffix.
We have added an extra tier to the Attack Speed and Accuracy modifiers on quivers.
Sources of Added Damage
Problem:
Added Cold, Lightning and Chaos Damage Support Gems provide significant unconditional added damage that outclasses many damage options available to some builds, most notably bow builds. By comparison, many other sources of added damage are relatively weak.
Solution:
Lower the strength of unconditional "Added Damage" Support Gems, and raise the strength of "Local Added Damage" and "Added Damage to Spells" on weapons.
我们砍了上述辅助技能一刀，提升了武器点伤词缀的数值。
Skill interactions with Hydrosphere
Problem:
Certain skills that have a chaining or shockwave effect can multiply their damage against single targets by also hitting Hydrosphere. These skills should not be balanced around using an off-class or off-theme skill like this. Maintaining the ability to use this interaction would prevent us from improving certain bow skills and hit damage spells without their maximum damage output being too high.
Solution:
Change Hydrosphere to have a one second cooldown before it can be hit again. This maintains the ailment mechanic on Hydrosphere to still allow for some special skill interactions but is no longer such a significant single target damage multiplier for so many skills.
水源法球现在有1秒的触发间隔，现在水源法球仍然具有易伤效果，但是你们别想用它打出成倍伤害了。
Triggering Marks
Problem:
When applied through Mark-on-hit skills or unique items that trigger them, Marks are far more efficient for clearing and easier to sustain on boss fights. Builds that don't have access to these high-end items are disadvantaged in comparison.
Solution:
Make Marks permanent so they only require a single cast for boss encounters. Add a new support gem that lets attacks trigger marks on hitting Rare and Unique targets.
因此我们将咒印改成了永久的，并且添加了一个新的“击中时触发咒印”的辅助技能（充钱玩家：那我走？）
Fortification and Damage Reduction
Problem:
Fortification gain being scaled by the damage dealt by a fortifying hit means that hitting monsters with very high amounts of damage reduction (such as in the Azurite Mine, the Simulacrum or against monsters that have just been spawned by certain league mechanics) can grant little to no fortification, even for builds with very high damage.
Solution:
Fortification generation now ignores the target's damage reduction.
现在，造成护体的伤害无视怪物伤害减免，
Skill Balance
Problem:
Detonate Dead builds can gain significantly more damage by diluting the pool of Desecratable monsters with high-life Spectres. Because of how Desecrate selected monsters, the fewer monsters occurring in the area, the more damage Detonate Dead dealt.
Solution:
Change Desecrate to have a fixed chance to spawn a Spectre corpse. This means Detonate Dead's damage should be more consistent based on which area in the game you are in. This also means there is no incentive to bring multiple different high-life spectre varieties, although you still benefit from bringing one high-life spectre into areas.
亵渎目前召唤灵柩的概率是固定的，这意味着你将不可能召唤一坨高血量灵柩给BOSS炸死。
Problem:
Seismic Trap has very high damage scaling as its damage scales with increases to Area of Effect. Increasing the area of Seismic Trap impacts greatly increases the chance of multiple large bursts hitting a target, as area increases don't affect the area where the impacts can occur. Though this mechanic is interesting, it provides far too much damage for the investment cost and the damage of the skill would have to be lowered to by so much to offset this that the skill would be very weak without the overlapping mechanic.
Solution:
Make modifiers to Area of Effect apply to the area Seismic Trap's bursts can target at a ratio. This will slightly improve the area coverage of the skill while lowering the damage growth from increases to Area of Effect without removing their damage benefit entirely.
Problem:
Toxic Rain has very strong damage over time and a low build cost compared to other bow builds. It also benefits from some of the quiver and Mastery changes made to improve hit-based bow skills.
Solution:
Reduce the high-level damage of Toxic Rain in order to partially negate the improvements to quivers and bring it more in line with other skills.
我们直接砍了毒雨的伤害，惊不惊喜？
Unique Item Balance
Problem:
March of the Legion is a very low-cost method to gain four extra auras on some builds due to the change where Mana is not being required in order to cast an aura. It also took full advantage of the Supreme Ego keystone in a way that goes against the intent of the mechanic and gained a significant amount of power in the process.
Solution:
Rework the Blessing mechanic of March of the Legion to limit the number of Blessings you can have to one. Change the skill to cost mana instead of temporarily reserving mana. The process of making this change also highlighted a number of problems with other mechanics which has led to a ripple effect of other changes being required.
Release Blessing as a Support gem, to make the mechanic available to builds that are not using the unique item. This is intended to be useful for high-mana-use characters who wish to leave their mana unreserved and for characters using the Blood Magic keystone.
Improve the aura level granted by March of the Legion so the item excels at using a Blessing aura.
提升了军团进击提供光环的等级。
Remove Mortal Conviction and the life passives from behind the Blood Magic keystone and make a Mortal Conviction-style support gem that makes an aura free, and prevents you reserving mana. It will be mutually exclusive with Blessing skills, so you won't be able to use both simultaneously. This support gem provides slightly less aura effect to the skill than the Blessing Support but has no cost or upkeep involved.
Change Blood Magic to also grant 10% more life to compensate for the removal of the efficient life passives behind the keystone.
血魔法天赋现在附赠10%最大生命提升。
Change Supreme Ego to not limit you to one aura and instead give more aura effect based on how much mana an aura reserves.
无上自我现在不再限制你只能拥有一个光环效果，而是根据你魔力保留的多少，提升你身上的光环效果。
Problem:
The Shade Form skill (granted by the Shroud of the Lightless and Replica Eternity Shroud unique items) could, with heavy investment, have its duration extended to be longer than its cooldown, granting permanent immunity to physical damage.
问题：暗影姿态技能（可以从一些装备上获得），如果充了钱的话，可以导致长时间无敌效果。
Solution:
Change Shade Form's cooldown to pause while the skill is active. Reduce the cooldown from 45 seconds to 40 seconds.
现在，暗影姿态技能在激活时冷却时间不会减少，同时我们将其冷却时间缩短为40秒。
Problem:
The damage reduction granted by the Strength of Blood keystone (from the Lethal Pride unique jewel) incorrectly scaled with modifiers to life recovery rate, allowing it to reach 100% and for characters to be immune to damage.
问题：天赋鲜血之力（你收到的伤害根据你最近获得的生命偷取而减少）可能给予100%伤害免疫。
Solution:
Strength of Blood's damage reduction no longer scales with modifiers to life recovery rate.
鲜血之力现在提供固定数额的伤害减免。
Problem:
The Dancing Dervish unique item has no accessible way to sustain its mechanic on Boss fights, mostly due to Rampage stacks being difficult to activate in these fights and the summoned minion's behaviour feeling sluggish while clearing.
幻化之刃德尔维西在BOSS战中无法持续，因为你再BOSS战中无法触发暴走效果。
Solution:
Change The Dancing Dervish to cause you to gain rampage on melee hits and improve its minion behaviour.
幻化之刃德尔维西现在赋予你“近战击中时触发暴走”，同时改善了这玩意的AI。
Siege of the Atlas
After defeating Kitava, you will meet Commander Kirac in the Karui Shores and join his militia to safeguard the Atlas of Worlds. The Envoy will inform you that two Eldritch Horrors, The Searing Exarch and The Eater of Worlds, are approaching and will consume everything.
By completing maps affected by their influence, you can hunt down their sub-bosses, The Black Star and The Infinite Hunger, before finally facing The Searing Exarch and The Eater of Worlds themselves. Defeating these formidable foes yields valuable rewards including exclusive new unique items.
The Atlas of Worlds has been revised, and regions have been removed. The regional Atlas Passive Trees have been replaced with one gigantic Atlas-wide Passive Tree that affects all maps you run. You can earn points by completing bonus objectives of maps and finishing certain Atlas quests.
The Watchstone system has also been removed, and replaced with Voidstones which are obtained by defeating The Uber Elder, The Maven, The Searing Exarch and The Eater of Worlds. These Voidstones raise the tiers of maps on your Atlas and can be augmented by Sextants.
The Archnemesis Challenge League
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!
Archnemesis is a challenge league that reinvigorates fights with rare monsters. It introduces around 60 new monster mods and allows you to customise your rare boss fights to control your level of risk and reward. These mods can be combined in over 35 recipes to create new, more powerful and rewarding mods. As you play through the league, you'll discover more recipes and learn how to best utilise them to get the most valuable rewards.
When you slay regular Rare and Magic monsters in the Archnemesis League, they sometimes drop an itemised version of a new Archnemesis monster modifier. You store these in a dedicated inventory panel so that they don't clutter your regular inventory.
Over the course of each area you play, you'll encounter four monsters that are frozen in place, petrified and bound to the Archnemesis statue. When you find such a monster, you can free it by empowering it with an Archnemesis mod. If you're able to successfully defeat the empowered monster, then you will receive the fixed reward that corresponds to that modifier.
The mods you apply will accumulate as you play through the area. When you empower your second monster, it also has the mod you applied to the first monster. This results in a fight that has twice as many dangerous mods, and twice as many rewards. By the time you have empowered and slain four petrified monsters in an area, you will have received the first reward four times.
More than half of the available mods are created by combining other mods together on the same monster. These recipe mods yield substantially more dangerous encounters and have more valuable rewards.
To prevent you having to backtrack, there are more than four possible locations where you may encounter petrified monsters in each area, but only the first four you encounter can be empowered and fought.
Archnemesis mods cannot be traded with other players. Your progress is your own.
With 3.17.0, there are Standard, Hardcore and Solo Self-Found variations of the Archnemesis challenge league available. They have the same core mechanics and items. You can create private league versions of these leagues, with mods that make the game harder.
The new challenge league includes a set of 40 new challenges. There are microtransaction rewards when you complete 12, 24, and 36 challenges. The challenge rewards are only obtainable in this league, and will be revealed in an upcoming news post.
From the 19th challenge onwards and for every third challenge after that, you will receive pieces of the Archnemesis Totem Pole decoration to display in your hideout. The Totem Pole permanently showcases how many of the Archnemesis challenges you completed during the league.
Major New Content and Features
Added 13 new Divination Cards, designed by our supporters.
Added 14 new Unique Items.
Introduced Lesser, Greater, Grand, and Exceptional Eldritch Ichor, currency items that add an Eater of Worlds implicit modifier to a Body Armour, Boots, Gloves, or Helmet. This replaces any existing implicit modifiers other than Searing Exarch implicit modifiers.
Introduced Lesser, Greater, Grand, and Exceptional Eldritch Ember, currency items that add a Searing Exarch implicit modifier to a Body Armour, Boots, Gloves, or Helmet. This replaces any existing implicit modifiers other than Eater of Worlds implicit modifiers.
Introduced the Orb of Conflict, a currency item that unpredictably raises the strength of one Searing Exarch or Eater of Worlds modifier on an item and lowers the strength of another. Lesser modifiers that have their strength lowered will be removed.
Introduced the Eldritch Chaos Orb, a currency item that rerolls prefix modifiers on an item if The Searing Exarch is dominant, or rerolls suffix modifiers if The Eater of Worlds is dominant. Dominance is determined by which Eldritch Horror has a higher Eldritch Implicit on the item.
Introduced the Eldritch Exalted Orb, a currency item that adds a prefix modifier to an item if The Searing Exarch is dominant, or adds a suffix modifier is The Eater of Worlds is dominant. Dominance is determined by which Eldritch Horror has a higher Eldritch Implicit on the item.
Introduced the Eldritch Orb of Annulment, a currency item that removes a prefix modifier from an item if The Searing Exarch is dominant, or removes a suffix modifier if The Eater of Worlds is dominant. Dominance is determined by which Eldritch Horror has a higher Eldritch Implicit on the item.
Introduced the Oil Extractor, a currency item that destroys an Anointed Ring, Amulet or Map to gain one of the oils used to create its Anointment, chosen at random. This item can be obtained with a specialisation on the Atlas Passive Tree.
Introduced a new type of currency, Scouting Reports, which can be used to reroll the missions offered by Kirac, guaranteeing at least one mission of a certain type.
Introduced the Surveyor's Compass, a currency item that allows you to store a Sextant Modifier.
Added a new Dexterity Support gem - Mark on Hit: Trigger Supported Skill when you Hit a Rare or Unique Enemy with an Attack. Supports mark curse skills.
Added a new Strength/Intelligence Support gem - Divine Blessing: Converts supported Aura Skills into temporary Blessings with increased effect, changing their Reservation to a one-time cost. You will only be able to benefit from one Blessing at a time. This gem cannot convert Banner Skills.
Added a new Strength Support gem - Eternal Blessing: Supported Aura Skills lose their reservations and become Blessings. You will only be able to benefit from one Blessing at a time and while under the effect of a Supported Skill, all Non-Blessing Skills which reserve mana are disabled.
Minor New Content and Features
It is now possible to have multiple Blight Encounters in a single Area.
The Duelist has received audio dialogue for Part Two (acts 6-10) of Path of Exile.
Flasks now refill upon entering or leaving the Azurite Mine Encampment.
Raise Spectre's most recent monster types are now saved to your character and may be Desecrated. The size of this list is capped by your Spectre limit.
Delve monsters that glow now fade their glow on death.
Continued to incrementally improve the sound, art, effects and environments.
Atlas and Map changes
The following Maps have been added back to the Atlas: Bazaar, Beach, Belfry, Bramble Valley, Burial Chambers, Cage, Channel, City Square, Cold River, Coral Ruins, Coves, Desert Spring, Frozen Cabins, Graveyard, Iceberg, Infested Valley, Ivory Temple, Jungle Valley, Lava Chamber, Marshes, Mesa, Peninsula, Phantasmagoria, Precinct, Primordial Pool, Shipyard, Shrine, and Volcano.
The following Maps have been removed from the Atlas: Alleyways, Barrows, Bog, Chateau, Core, Desert, Foundry, Fungal Hollow, Lava Lake, Leyline, Lighthouse, Mud Geyser, Park, Pit, Plateau, Primordial Blocks, Racecourse, Reef, Relic Chambers, Sepulchre, Siege, Spider Lair, Sulphur Vents, Sunken City, Terrace, Tropical Island, Waterways, and Wharf.
Vaal Temple is no longer on the Atlas, and is now obtained from corrupting tier 16 Maps.
Introduced a new "Synthesised Map" Base Type, which all 5 Unique Synthesis Maps now use. This Map is not found on the Atlas.
Some of the Map Bosses you are required to defeat to upgrade your Pantheon have changed as a result of these Atlas changes.
Crafting Recipes that were previously unlocked in Maps that have been removed are now found within other Maps currently on the Atlas.
Favoured Map slots (formerly known as Favourite Map slots) are now unlocked upon completing specific content or defeating specific bosses.
The Conqueror and Awakener encounters can still be accessed. If you're lucky, Kirac may offer a Conqueror's Map!
Kirac can now offer missions involving Expedition, Ritual, Heist, and Ambush mechanics.
Introduced new modifiers that can roll on Maps, Expedition Logbooks, Heist Contracts, Blueprints and Delve areas.
Introduced new modifiers that can be obtained from Sextants.
Maps, Heist Contracts and Blueprints can no longer roll "Players have Point Blank".
The Maven Orb is now called the Orb of Dominance, and no longer drops from Maven.
The Orb of Unmaking no longer drops from Maven.
The Hook Divination Card has been temporarily disabled, and existing cards cannot be turned in currently.
Added a new Harvest craft that allows you to change a Conqueror Fragment into another random Conqueror Fragment of that type.
Added a new Harvest craft that allows you to sacrifice a Tier 14 Map or higher to create a random Conqueror-occupied Map.
Existing Scourged Maps no longer mention any Scourge gameplay mechanics on the item, as they will now have no effect.
异界地图大修：
添加了一系列新地图：Bazaar, Beach, Belfry, Bramble Valley, Burial Chambers, Cage, Channel, City Square, Cold River, Coral Ruins, Coves, Desert Spring, Frozen Cabins, Graveyard, Iceberg, Infested Valley, Ivory Temple, Jungle Valley, Lava Chamber, Marshes, Mesa, Peninsula, Phantasmagoria, Precinct, Primordial Pool, Shipyard, Shrine, and Volcano.
删除了一系列地图：Alleyways, Barrows, Bog, Chateau, Core, Desert, Foundry, Fungal Hollow, Lava Lake, Leyline, Lighthouse, Mud Geyser, Park, Pit, Plateau, Primordial Blocks, Racecourse, Reef, Relic Chambers, Sepulchre, Siege, Spider Lair, Sulphur Vents, Sunken City, Terrace, Tropical Island, Waterways, and Wharf.
瓦尔密殿不再是一个异界地图（应该就是地图仪上没有它了），但是你可以通过腐化t16地图来获得它。
引入一种新的【合成地图】，主要指忆境那些地图，现在它们将区别于普通地图，成为新的【合成地图】。
由于我们改了地图，万神殿的任务也随之发生了变化，还有工艺配方之类的一些机制也发生了变化。
【最喜爱的地图】现在将在你击杀了特定BOSS或完成特定内容后解锁。
征服者和觉醒者的遭遇战仍然会出现（应该就是指你打着打着BOSS，突然出现个希鲁斯，大喊一声“毫无意义”，一个大激光炸死你这种情况依然会发生）。
齐拉克现在会提供【夺宝任务】、【祭坛任务】、【探索任务】、【伏击任务】，就是之前一些赛季的机制。
有个叫【Players have Point Blank】的词缀被删除了，虽然我并不知道它是什么。
【贤主之石】现在被称为【统治之石】，而且现在贤主不掉这个玩意了。
【粉碎石】贤主也不掉了。
【钩子】命运卡没了，现有物品暂时作废。
添加了一种新的花园工艺，可以让你转换【征服者碎片】
添加了一种新的花园工艺，可以让你献祭一张红图，换取一个【受征服者影响的地图】
现存的所有【二次元地图】（就那个按V可以进去刷怪的地图），熔炉词缀不再生效，熔炉词缀将被直接移除。
Content and Rewards
Rewards from Conquerors
Problem:
Awakened Gems are a significant damage boost for many builds. With Sirus and the Conquerors being moved to optional, less consistent late game content, Awakened Gems will not have a reasonable method of acquisition.
Solution:
Move awakened gems to a different drop location.
The Aura radius for "Allies Move and Attack Faster" has been increased to be the same as other Monster Auras.
Caster Monsters are now able to have Extra Damage as a modifier.
The Plated modifier now provides 30% additional Physical Damage Reduction instead of Armour. It still only appears on Monsters that have Armour.
Added new Magic and Rare Monster modifiers for Chaos Resistance for all Monsters.
Added new Magic and Rare Monster modifiers for Extra Lightning Damage for attack Monsters.
Added new Magic and Rare Monster modifiers for Cast Speed and Spell Damage for caster Monsters.
The "Allies Deal Substantial Extra Physical Damage" modifier no longer has the word "Substantial" in it, though the values of the modifier have not changed.
The Evasion Rating modifier for Monsters is now a prefix modifier instead of a suffix, to match the Armour and Energy Shield modifiers.
Mausoleum Map Boss
Problem:
The Mausoleum Map Boss' Detonate Dead is not very well-telegraphed, making an avoidable source of damage hard to identify.
Solution:
Reduce the number of corpses Tolman, The Exhumer, is able to explode at once and add a visual effect wind-up to the skill.
【挖坟】的BOSS有个炸尸体的技能，好像不太强，我们加强了。
Player Balance
角色平衡性修改：大部分内容已经列在了1月24号的修改当中，这里只翻译额外的内容，之前的修改可以查阅本文对1月24日的翻译。
1. 攻击角色只有有限的手段去维持狂怒球充能，这使得他们必须降低狂怒球的消耗。为此我们在【咒印专精】上添加了一种新的专精：当你击中被咒印诅咒的敌人时有10%的几率获得狂怒球。
2. 不再有【箭矢飞行速度】的词缀，全部统一为【投射物速度】词缀。
3. 玩家可以通过赤练熔炉达到极低的抗性，现在最低抗性为-100%。
