Grinding Gear Games released Path of Exile: The Forbidden Sanctum expansion on PC. The new update introduces a new roguelike challenge league, offering players plenty of challenges and rewards. As explained in a recent game preview, this content is intended for multiple playthroughs. Players will not be able to complete the run in one or two attempts. But they learn from it and make greater progress every time.

The update also introduces "Ruthless," a more hardcore mode that allows players to play on extreme scarcity. This means they have to rely on their skill above anything else to pass. For full details on the update, visit the Path of Exile website.

Path Of Exile Status

Forbidden Sanctum is the latest expansion to Path of Exile, and it brings the usual issues: a new challenge league, an overhaul of existing systems and builds, and new ways to play. For many players, this is an update that can't come soon enough. The last league featuring the mysterious Kalandra was so bad that many players wanted to throw it back into the lake it came from.

The frustrating lack of loot, the mediocre league mechanics, and the frustrating persistence of Archnemesis monsters kept players quitting. Things have gotten so bad that even full-time PoE streamers feel the need to stop charting and get out of the house, which is disturbing. Despite multiple updates and patches, Lake of Kalandra ended up being one of the worst leagues in living memory.

All is not lost. Initial impressions of The Forbidden Sanctum are promising. It has roguelike mechanics that promise big rewards if you can clear its procedurally-generated levels, a completely overhauled rare monster system that replaces Archnemesis, and loot drops as expected.

How is Path of Exile now?
better one. As with any league start, 3.20 is not without its problems. A disconnection bug put players back in the queue, while a bug with a boss in the Temple squashed Zizaran(opens in a new tab). The live update thread (opens in a new tab) details all the fixes and updates, which seem mostly minor in nature.

With the general state of the game largely back to normal, a lot of attention has been focused on The Forbidden Sanctum itself. It's billed as a rogue-like game, and features a four-story dungeon filled with bosses, traps, and new mechanics. It introduces a new health pool called determination, which you lose when you get hit by attacks or traps. If you run out of resolve (or just die normally), your run is over. Each floor has eight rooms, and each map you run on the atlas gives you access to a room.

As league mechanics go, this one is definitely interesting. Due to the way determination works, it's a huge incentive for players to learn boss mode and dodge skill shots - even if you can hit a Sirus beam in the face, you'll still lose resolve if you get hit in the sanctuary. However, for those willing to commit, the payoff is sure to be there.

It can be frustrating at first. Many players go through several rooms, get hit by some mini-bosses, and end up with nothing. The gold coins you pick up in the dungeon are meaningless if you can't find the merchant, which isn't guaranteed given the randomness of the room. Also some build times will be much easier than others, the totem and follower builds seem to be a head above the rest. But Grinding Gear's mechanics often get a little over-tuned and then repeated over the course of the league, so I hope this one ends up being pretty fun.

Ruthless
This year, the Sanctum league put another present under our Christmas tree. The relentless difficulty is a new way to play PoE and is not for the faint of heart.

Ruthless ramps up the difficulty in a number of ways. Generally speaking, loot and skill gems are almost non-existent, almost everything is normal, and rare items are ecstatic. Movement skills are disabled, compound XP penalties start when you reach the map, crafting tables have been removed, and health will regenerate if a boss kills you. In short, the name applies.

I think ruthless is great. It's the exact opposite of how most people like to play PoE - no zooming the map, blowing up the screen of monsters before you see them, or digging out loot fountains. It's a tough ride, extremely difficult and totally addictive. You can't even buy skill gems from merchants, so there's really a makeshift feel to them everywhere. Every step of progress feels deserved, and every monster feels dangerous.

Are the players happy?
Mostly there have been posts and tweets about Sanctum's balance issues, but this time Reddit has significantly fewer clamoring horns. Everyone seems generally satisfied and having fun, with the league peaking at 213,480 concurrent players.

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