Version 3.12.0

Version History
← 3.11.2 September 10, 2020	3.12.0 September 18, 2020

Patch notes

These are the patch notes for version 3.12.0.

The Heist 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!

• With 3.12.0, there are Standard, Hardcore and Solo Self-Found variations of the Heist 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 leagues include a set of 40 new challenges. When you complete 12 challenges, you will receive three Heist Helmets. When you reach 24 challenges, you will receive the Heist Sir Cat. At 36 challenges completed, you'll receive the Heist Portal. These microtransactions are only obtainable in this league.
• From the 19th challenge onwards and for every third challenge after that, you will receive pieces of the Heist Totem Pole decoration to display in your hideout. The Totem Pole permanently showcases how many of the Heist challenges you completed during the league.

Major New Content and Features

• Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem - Blazing Salvo: Fires projectiles that impact around a targeted location. The impact areas can overlap, hitting a target multiple times. The further away you target, the wider the area across which these projectiles can land.
• Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem - Void Sphere: Creates a sphere at the targeted location which deals physical and chaos damage at regular intervals, while pulling enemies towards the centre. Enemies at the centre of the sphere have less movement speed.
• Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem - Crackling Lance: Deals lightning damage to enemies in an area in front of the caster. Repeated casts intensify the damage dealt and narrow the range of enemies it hits.
• Added a new Intelligence/Dexterity Skill Gem - Frost Shield: Creates a Frost Shield in an area which can consume Energy Shield over a short period, gaining stages which make it more powerful. This Shield absorbs a portion of incoming damage and increases your chance to deal critical strikes while you are within it.
• Added a new Strength/Dexterity Skill Gem - Splitting Steel: Consumes a Steel Shard to fire a single projectile that deals damage in an area when it splits on impact, or at the end of its flight.
• Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem - Sigil of Power: Creates an area which causes your skills to consume more mana but deal added lightning damage while you stand within it. Enemies within the area deal reduced damage. The Sigil grows more powerful based on mana spent while you are in it.
• Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem - Flame Wall: Creates a wall of fire which deals burning damage to enemies within its area and applies a secondary debuff that burns for a short duration after they leave. Projectiles you fire through the wall deal added fire damage and apply this secondary debuff to enemies they hit.
• Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem - Hex Blast: Deals chaos damage to a targeted enemy. If the enemy is hexed, it will remove the hex, dealing more damage based on the amount of doom on the removed hex, and dealing damage in an area around the enemy (also removing the hexes from enemies hit by the area and dealing more damage where applicable).
• Added a new Intelligence Support Gem - Impending Doom Support: Causes supported Hex skills to trigger Doom Blast when they are removed or expire. Doom Blast deals chaos damage in an area based on the amount of Doom the Hex had when it was removed or expired. Cannot support Triggered or Aura hexes.
• Added a new Intelligence/Dexterity Support Gem - Pinpoint Support: Supported projectile skills deal more damage and fire fewer projectiles per intensity. Repeatedly using the supported skill adds Intensity. Cannot support triggered, Vaal, instant, or channelling skills, skills which reserve mana, or skills used by traps, totems or mines.
• Added 28 new Unique items, including one designed by a supporter.
• Added 11 new Divination Cards, designed by our supporters.
• Added 90 new Replica Unique Items, which are twists on existing Unique items. These can only be obtained through Heists.
• Added more than 800 Alternate-Quality variants of existing and new Support and Skill Gems.
• Added a Vendor Recipe for a special Support Gem. Good luck!

Minor New Content and Features

• The following skills have received visual updates: Lightning Strike, Fire Storm, Ice Storm (from The Whispering Ice), Caustic Arrow, Smoke Mine, Discharge and all Curses,
• Permanent minions such as Golems, Zombies and Animated Guardians are now saved when you log out, and are automatically resummoned when you log in.
• Divination Cards that award an item with an Elderslayer's Influence now have special background effects.
• A few torches will now light your way to Lioneye's Watch.
• Improved the Atlas Influence visuals.
• Significantly improved performance when viewing and using crafting benches.
• Made a multitude of visual adjustments to the brightness (and bloom effect) of skills and effects throughout the game.
• Improved effects culling across many skills and effects for performance.
• Continued to incrementally improve the sound, art, effects and environments.

Character Balance

• Projectiles have been reworked to allow for more player-friendly behaviour. Previously, if a projectile could not perform a step in its behaviour sequence, it would skip that behaviour, attempt the next, and never attempt to perform the skipped behaviour again. Now, it will skip that behaviour, attempt the next, and if it reaches another enemy, attempt to perform the skipped behaviours again. For example, a projectile that can both Chain and Return will now hit a target and, if there are no enemies for it to Chain to, it will Return. If it then hits another group of enemies, it will attempt to Chain again (though it will not Return again after Chaining).
• The sequence of behaviours a projectile will attempt, in order, is now: Splitting, Piercing, Forking, Chaining then Returning.
• Many modifiers to the effects and durations of Chill and Shock (such as 'increased effect of Shock') now also affect Brittle and Sap. The descriptions of such modifiers have been updated to reflect this.
• Intensity now has a maximum of 3 stacks (from 4).
• Removed the concept 'Reduced Visibility to Enemies' and replaced it with 'Stealth'. Increasing your Stealth reduces the radius at which enemies will notice you. 100% increased Stealth cuts that radius in half, and 200% increased Stealth cuts that radius by two thirds. You can, therefore, no longer become entirely invisible to enemies.

Skill Reworks

Curse Skills All curse skills have been reworked and are now divided into two categories: Hexes and Marks.

• Hexes apply a curse in an area and, when manually cast, apply an amount of Doom per second to cursed enemies up to a maximum. Doom increases the effect of the afflicted curse and stacks additively with modifiers to increased Curse effect.
• Marks apply to a single targeted enemy, and only one enemy can be marked by you at a given time. The current Mark skills are Poacher's Mark, Warlord's Mark, Assassin's Mark, and Sniper's Mark (previously named Projectile Weakness). Monster rarity no longer affects the efficacy of Marks. Monsters deep in the Azurite Mine (Delve) also no longer reduce the efficacy of Marks on them.
• Additions to the number of curses you can inflict on enemies apply cumulatively to both Hexes and Marks, but do not modify the number of enemies you can have Marked at any given time. Thus, you can have an enemy that is affected by both a Mark and a Hex, but you can't Mark an enemy with two Marks, nor can you Mark two different enemies.
• Items and enemies which previously reflected Curses will now only reflect Hexes.

Steel Skills

• Lancing Steel, Shattering Steel and Splitting Steel can now consume Steel Shards to cause bonus effects. Steel Shards are gained through the Call of Steel skill, which causes all nearby Impaled enemies to release their Impale spikes and deals damage around them. If there are no Impaled enemies nearby, Call of Steel will create Steel Shards over time. Every Steel skill grants Call of Steel as well. You can have up to 12 Steel Shards at a time.

Assassin's Mark Enemies afflicted with Assassin's Mark will always grant a power charge and significant amount of life and mana when slain.

• No longer causes cursed enemies to take increased extra damage from critical strikes.
• Cursed enemies now have a 100% chance to grant a power charge when slain.
• Hits against cursed enemies now have +1.5% to critical strike chance at all gem levels.
• Hits against cursed enemies now have +30% to critical strike multiplier at gem level 1, up to +49% at gem level 20.
• Cursed enemies now grant 65 life when killed at gem level 1, up to 600 at gem level 20.
• Cursed enemies now grant 25 mana when killed at gem level 1, up to 80 at gem level 20.
• Now causes cursed enemies to have a 1% chance to grant a power charge when hit per 4% gem quality (from 1% chance to grant a power charge when slain per 2% gem quality).

Poacher's Mark Enemies afflicted with Poacher's Mark will always grant a frenzy charge when slain, and are more susceptible to physical damage. They always grant a small amount of life and mana when hit.

• No longer causes cursed enemies to grant increased flask charges.
• No longer causes cursed enemies to have less evasion.
• Cursed enemies now have a 100% chance to grant a frenzy charge when slain.
• Cursed enemies now grant 15 life when hit by attacks at gem level 1, up to 50 at gem level 20.
• Cursed enemies now grant 8 mana when hit by attacks at gem level 1, up to 25 at gem level 20.
• Now adds 6 to 9 physical damage to hits against cursed enemies at gem level 1, up to 30 to 45 at gem level 20.
• Cursed enemies now have -20% to physical damage reduction at all gem levels.
• Now causes cursed enemies to have a 1% chance to grant a frenzy charge when hit per 4% gem quality (from 1% chance to grant a frenzy charge when slain per 2% gem quality).

Sniper's Mark - Previously named Projectile Weakness Enemies afflicted by Sniper's Mark grant charges to Life and Mana flasks when hit, and cause projectiles that hit them to split towards other enemies.

• No longer causes projectiles to pierce or knock back cursed enemies.
• Cursed enemies now take 16% increased damage from projectile hits at gem level 1, up to 35% at gem level 20.
• Cursed enemies now grant a Life Flask charge and a Mana Flask charge when you hit them, no more than once every 0.5 seconds at all gem levels. Note that this only applies to hits from the source of the mark (and not, for example, your minions).
• Projectiles which hit cursed enemies now split towards 3 additional targets at gem level 1, up to 4 additional targets at gem level 20.
• Cursed enemies now take 1% increased damage from projectile hits per 4% gem quality (from 1% increased damage from projectile hits per 2% gem quality).

Skill Balance

• still open

New Skills

• still open

Vaal Skill Balance

• still open

Support Gem Balance

• still open

Passive Tree Balance

• still open

Item Balance

• still open

Cluster Jewel Balance

• still open

Unique Item Balance

• still open

User Interface Improvements

• still open

Bug Fixes

• still open

Ascendancy Balance

• still open

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