Path of Exile is currently preparing for the launch of its biggest expansion yet- The Fall of Oriath. Once the expansion arrives it will bring with it six new acts, thus completely removing the need for multiple difficulty levels and constant replaying of the same few zones, as well as a whole bunch of new enemies, spells, bosses, mechanics, and items to play around with.
It was obvious from the outset that The Fall of Oriath would bring with it many changes and adjustments to Path of Exile, but now that the patch notes have been fully revealed I can only say that my predictions were woefully inadequate. If you have a bit of free time, and a nice cup of coffee to keep you going, you can find the absolutely massive patch notes over at the official forums. Since its basically impossible to summarize all of this, allow me to at least show you some of the new abilities and support gems you'll get to mess around with:
New Skill Gems:
• Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem - Dark Pact: Sacrifice a portion of your skeleton minion's life to deal chaos damage in an area around it. This effect will chain to your other nearby skeletons. If you control no skeletons in the targeted area, you will sacrifice a portion of your own life and deal greater chaos damage in a larger area.
• Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem - Storm Burst: Channel to unleash a stream of projectiles that deal lightning damage and always pierce through enemies. When you stop channeling, the projectiles explode, dealing significant damage in an area around them. Additional projectiles are added in sequence.
• Added a new Dexterity Skill Gem - Charged Dash: Channel to project a mirage forward in the direction you're facing. Release to teleport towards the mirage and deal area of effect damage multiple times along the way. The area of effect grows based on the distance you travel, and the number of effects increase with faster attack time.
New Support Gems:
• Added a new Strength/Intelligence Support Gem - Ignite Proliferation Support: Causes Ignites from supported skills to also affect other nearby enemies.
• Added a new Strength Support Gem - Chance to Bleed Support: Gives your skills a chance to inflict Bleeding.
• Added a new Dexterity Support Gem - Lesser Poison Support: Gives your skills a chance to inflict Poison.
• Added a new Dexterity/Intelligence Support Gem - Deadly Ailments Support: Causes ailments from supported skills to deal more damage, but causes the skills themselves to deal less.
• Added a new Dexterity/Intelligence Support Gem - Decay Support: Causes supported skills to also deal chaos damage over time.
• Added a new Intelligence Support Gem - Efficacy Support: Causes supported spells to deal more damage and last longer.
• Added a new Dexterity Support Gem - Vile Toxins Support: Causes you to deal more damage to poisoned enemies, and more damage with your poison.
• Added a new Strength Support Gem - Maim Support: Gives your attacks a chance to Maim on hit, slowing the enemy's movement.
• Added a new Strength/Intelligence Support Gem - Immolate Support: Grants added fire damage against enemies that are burning.
• Added a new Dexterity/Intelligence Support Gem - Unbound Ailments Support: Amplifies the effect and duration of ailments from supported skills.
• Added a new Strength Support Gem - Brutality Support: Causes you to deal significantly more physical damage, but no other types of damage.
• Added a new Strength Support Gem - Ruthless Support: Makes every third skill deal significantly more damage, and stun for longer.
• Added a new Strength/Dexterity Support Gem - Onslaught Support: Gives a chance to gain Onslaught on kill, causing you to have increased movement, attack and cast speed.
• Added a new Intelligence Support Gem - Arcane Surge Support: Supported spells have a chance to grant a buff which gives you more spell damage, cast speed, and grants some mana regeneration.
Path of Exile 3.0.0: The Fall of Oriath will be coming tomorrow, August 4th! Besides all of the above mentioned changes it will also bring with it the Harbinger Challenge League full of new enemies to fight and items to collect, as well a new form of currency to help with end-game mapping. If you would like to learn a little bit more about the general features of the expansion and its accompanying league I would suggest heading over to the PoE website.