Path of Exile: The Awakening Closed Beta Begins

Michael Byrne
By Michael Byrne, Editor in Chief Posted:
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Path of Exile, the free to play ARPG from Grinding Gear Games, has officially kicked off the closed beta for its upcoming patch, The Awakening. You can still sign up for the closed beta on the game's website and if you're really bored you can watch the timer on the home page that gives away closed beta access every 5 minutes.

So you may be asking yourself, "Why are they holding a closed beta just for a new patch?" Fair question. Not only is The Awakening adding a ton of new story content, skills, items, and all of the other usual fare one would expect to find in a game patch, but some of the main gameplay mechanics are receiving an overhaul from the very beginning levels.

User Interface updates, a fully re-balanced game, and even a new jewel system to supplement your passive skill tree are all examples of such large scale changes being made that warrant some beta love before being implemented in full.

Take a peek through the game's forums for even more information on the massive amount of changes coming and why a lot of them are welcome additions for players.

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About the Author

Michael Byrne
Michael Byrne, Editor in Chief

Mike “Magicman” Byrne has been a part of the MMOBomb family for years and serves as the site’s current Editor-in-Chief. His love for MMOs and gaming in general has led him to covering games for numerous gaming websites including Gamebreaker TV and XIV Nation where he proudly displays his fanboy flag for FFXIV:ARR.

More Stories by Michael Byrne

Discussion (8)

Lagwin1980 9 years ago
So, since the initial post more has surfaced about divination cards...it seems to be a way to farm specific unique gear.

ToxicGamer 9 years ago
POE has been the best F2P Game, 100% F2P unlike most Games of today which are heavily cash shop based and favor Cash shoppers. Now that they announced New Act + More Customization + No Desync (Chars don't re-position themselves while moving sometimes), POE becomes the best Game of it's Genre, Surpassing even Diablo III !!!

Everyone should give Path of Exile a try, It also has a great Community !

Randyblythe 9 years ago
I don't really have a comment other than I love this friggin game to death.

I have a lot of harsh comments about other F2Ps, but this one... this one... this is like the end all be all of ARPGs, the perfect ARPG that will never be outdone. And to top it all off, it's not pay2win AT ALL.

Lagwin1980 9 years ago
The bigest change is not mentioned....DESYNC, they will be adding a detramistic lockstep mode(what they use in moba's) which will run alongside the current mode of sync...dev testing so far says it elimintates desync.

They are adding some new servers though there isn't a list yet they have mentioned having america split into 2 servers, adding a london server...there will be a server for brazil and probably some more.

Going by some of the comments so far lower end PC's will see a boost to performance as well

They are adding a loot filter which allows you to show/hide items based on rarity, item level, links, sockets and base type...even the individual weapon/armour....you can change the text colour, text size, add borders and alter the sounds.

The jewel system has the potential to be game breaking if it's not done right, infact the passive tree has already been altered at least once since the videos shown last week.

Some changes to keystones and the mechanics for them need tested properly

Something that popped up today was divination cards, but other than it's name we have no idea what they'll be used for.

And more to come

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