Path Of Exile's Chris Wilson Talks About Balance, Flasks, And More

Topics include harder endgame and possible "hard mode"

Jason Winter
By Jason Winter, News Editor
Share:

Path of Exile Flasks

Grinding Gear Games made a lot of changes to core gameplay elements of Path of Exile with the launch of the Expedition expansion/league, and all the massive, sweeping changes worked perfectly!

No, wait, that never happens. Instead, it's been a bit of a mixed bag -- or perhaps mixed flask. That led GGG's Chris Wilson to have some discussions on fan podcasts last week, and the major talking points have been helpfully transcribed on the PoE forums.

The dev team doesn't have plans for sweeping nerfs like the ones that were implemented with Expedition. The next update, 3.16, will tone down Fortify a bit, and the team will strive to announced future balance changes sooner so it can receive feedback from players before those changes are locked in.

The way flasks work were changed significantly in the last update, and there's work to be done to make them fall more in line with the developers' vision. There are plans to revisit all mods on flasks and possibly new crafting mods or unique items that affect flasks, with the goal of providing a separation between reactive (such as healing) or proactive (such as mitigation) flasks.

There are several topics under the "Items" section of the blog post, as you might expect. These include decluttering labels for items on the ground, crafting improvements, a review of "chase" items that drop from specific bosses, improvements to the trade site, and a tease of a possible "Hard Mode" with greater item scarcity. There are a lot of "aspirational" content ideas, like a harder endgame, as well as changes to the Atlas of Worlds coming over the next two updates.

And if you're looking forward to Path of Exile 2 coming this year ... or next year ... well, you might have a bit of a wait. Wilson was asked if Grinding Gear expects the game to come out before 2024, and he responded in the affirmative. We'll revisit this post on December 31, 2023 to see if he's kept his word.

Share:
Got a news tip? Contact us directly here!


About the Author

Jason Winter
Jason Winter, News Editor
Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.

Discussion (0)


Read Next

Indie MMO TitanReach's "Funds Have Dried Up"

Indie MMO TitanReach's "Funds Have Dried Up"

Follows unsuccessful fundraising efforts

By Jason Winter - 1 year ago

You May Enjoy

NCSOFT Has A New Massive RTS Game, "Project G", And Here There Be Dragons

NCSOFT Has A New Massive RTS Game, "Project G", And Here There Be Dragons

It's a reveal trailer kind of day for NCSOFT and Project G

By Troy Blackburn - 1 week ago
Open World Sandbox Creation Game "Airland World" Says It's Roblox For Adults

Open World Sandbox Creation Game "Airland World" Says It's Roblox For Adults

Explore, create, and play in an Unreal 5 sandbox world.

By Troy Blackburn - 4 days ago
Co-Op Space Adventure, Void Crew, Announced For Release Later This Year

Co-Op Space Adventure, Void Crew, Announced For Release Later This Year

Team up with friends and fight the Hollow.

By QuintLyn Bowers - 5 days ago
Top 10 MMORPGs To Play With Friends In 2023

💣 Feature | Top 10 MMORPGs To Play With Friends In 2023

Bring your friends along and have fun in these MMORPGs.

By Troy Blackburn - 3 days ago
FTC Wants More Details On Microsoft's 10-Year Deals With Nintendo And Nvidia

FTC Wants More Details On Microsoft's 10-Year Deals With Nintendo And Nvidia

There are concerns about the potential anti-competitive effects, though the company says otherwise.

By Matthew D'Onofrio - 5 days ago
Roblox Corp. Could Have Lost $150 Million In SVB Crash, They'll Be Getting It Back Though

Roblox Corp. Could Have Lost $150 Million In SVB Crash, They'll Be Getting It Back Though

But the government took care of it.

By QuintLyn Bowers - 1 week ago